OCT 1 1 1988 ^^Ol-OGiCfi SEW'-' >"i^. BX 9315 .A3 1861 v. 3 Adams, Thomas, fl. 1612- 1653. The works of Thomas Adams NICHOL'S SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES. PUEITAN PERIOD. X\i\ ^^n^ral ^nface By JOHN C. MILLER, D.D., LINCOLK COLIEQE; nONOHART CANON OF WORCBSTEB; KECTOR OF ST MARTIN's, BIRMINGHAM. THE WORKS OF THOMAS ADAMS. VOL. III. TO WHICH IS APPENDED SERMONS AND TREATISES BY SAMUEL WARD, WITH MEMOIR BY THE REV. J. 0. RTLE. COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDER, D.D., Professor of Theology, Congregational Union, Edinburgh. JAMES BEGG, D.D., Minister of Newington Free Church, Edinburgh. THOMAS J. CRAWFORD. D.D.. S.T.P.. Professor of Divinity, University, Edinburgh. D. T. K. DRUMMOND, M.A., Minister of St Thomas' Episcopal Church, Edinburgh. WILLIAM H. GOOLD, D.D., Professor of Biblical Literature and Church History, Reformed Presbyterian Church, Edinburgh. ANDREW THOMSON, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- terian Church, Edinburgh. General CDt'tor. REV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinbukgh. THE WORKS THOMAS ADAMS: THE SUM OF HIS SEKMONS, MEDITATIONS, AND OTHEE DIYINE AND MOEAL DISCOUESES. tWiih BTcmair By JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D.. PRINCIPAL OF THE BXITIST COLI.KGK, RKGl NT'S PAHK, 1.0M>OK. VOL. III. CONTAINING SERMONS FROM TEXTS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, AND MEDITATIONS ON THE CREED. EDINBURGH: JAMES NICHOL. LONDON : JAMES NISBET AND CO. DUBLIN : W. KOBERTSON. M.DCCO.IiXn. BDINBDRaB FBIKTBD BT JOHN QREIO AND SOU, OLD FHT3I0 OABDENS. CONTENTS. PAGE ADVERTISElvrENT, ..... vii Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Adams, . . ix SERMONS. LVIII. Semper Idem ; or, The Immutable Mercy OF Jesus Christ Heb. XIII. 8, . J LIX. The Taming OF the Tongue James III. 8, . 10 LX. The Soul's Refuge 1 Pet. lY. 19, . 23 LXI. The Spiritual Navigator bound for the Holy Land Rev. IV. 6, . . 88 LXII. Presumption RUNNING into Despair Rev. VI. 16, . 63 LXin. Hea\^n-Gate ; or, The Passage to Para- dise Rev. XXII. 14, 74 Meditations upon some part of the Creed, 85 LXIV. God's Anger Ps. LXXX. 4, . 266 LXV. Man's Comfort Ps. XCIV. 19, . 280 Index, by the General Editor, ..... 801 ADVERTISEMENT. In issuing the last volume of Adams's Practical Works, the Pub- lisher takes leave to point out the special advantages which he believes characterise this edition. Apart from the convenience of the octavo volume over the foUo, and the adaptation of the spelling to modern usage, it has been the aim of the conductors to give to this edition, the following features : — 1. The numerous typographical errors in the origina] edition, wliich frequently destroy the sense, have been corrected. 2. The references to Scripture, &c., have been carefully verified. 3. Complete Indices are given, so as to afford perfect facility for reference. The Index of the original folio is well known to bo almost worthless. As one main value of this series, when com- pleted, will consist in the different works being readily available for consultation, complete and carefully prepared Indices are re- garded as indispensable to confer on the editions a permanent value. 4. Two Sermons are added, the existence of which was known to a very few. 5. The Prefaces and Dedications prefixed to the different works, as originally printed, are reproduced. 6. A Memoir containing all the information obtainable logardinjc^ Adams is supplied. The Publisher desires to point to these particulars, as affording an earnest of what the other works will be when completed ; as an evidence of his desire to redeem his pledge, and a proof that, irrespective of the great difference in the price of the editions in this series, compared with the market value of the originals, they will be more complete and more valuable for all piactical purposes. ADVERTISEMENT In appending Ward's Sermons to the last volume of Adams, he does not anticipate any objections on the part of his Subscribers. As a general rule, it is not desirable to mix up in the same volume, one author with another ; but, as the only alternative was to pro- duce Adams in three thin volumes, it appeared to him that this course was open to many more objections than adding, separately paged, another author, whose writings are in many respects remark- able, who lived at the same period, and whose mode of dealing with his subject is so much akin to that of Adams. Where any irregularity in the delivery of the volumes, as pub- lished, takes place, or any change of residence occurs, the Publisher begs he may be made acquainted with the circumstance, that he may be enabled to arrange for the punctual supply of the volumes as they are issued. Frineurgh, March 1882. ■\ It MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Literature has on its roll many eminent authors, from Homer downwards, whose personal history is not known. The shadow of a great name rests upon their title-pages ; the men themselves, cr\- as we may, we cannot see. To this class Thomas Adams belongs. That he was, in 1612, a • preacher of the gospel at Willington,' in Bedfordshire ; that, in 1614, he was at Wingrave, in Buckinghamshire, probably as vicar ; that, in 1618, he held the preachership at St Gregory's, under St Paul's Cathedral, and was ' observant chaplain' to Sir Henrie Mon- tague, the Lord Chief- Justice of England ; that, in 1630, he published a folio volume of his collected works, dedicating them 'to his parishioners of St Bennet's, Paul's Wharf,' to * Wm. Earle of Pem- broke/ and ' Henrie Earle of Manchester,' the first a nobleman of Puritan tendencies, and the second the Montague just named, and the representative of a family known to favour liberty ; that, in 1633, he published a Commentary on the Second Epistle of the apostle Peter, dedicating it to ' Sir Henrie Marten, Kt., Judge of the Admiralty, and Deane of the Arches Court of Canterbury,' and promising in his Dedication ' some maturer thoughts,' never des- tined apparently to see the light ; that, in 1653, he was passing 'a necessitous and decrepit old age' in London, having been seques- tered, if Newcourt is to be trusted,* from his living ; and that he died before the 'Restoration,' we know; gathering our information chiefly from his own writings.-f* That he was in request for visita- tion sermons ; that he was a frequent preacher at St Paul's Cross, in services soon to be abolished, and occasional preacher at White- hall ; that he was friend and ' homager ' of John Donne, prebendary of St Paul's, and an admirer of Jewell, and Latimer, and Fox, and * Repertorium, vol. i. 302. t See page xxix., i,c MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Joseph Hall ; that he loved and preached the great truths of the gospel ; that he was a man of extensive learning ; that he was a laborious pastor ; that his writings were quoted in the common- place books of the day,* and were apt to 'creep out' before they were pubUshed ; that there is much in them to justify the opinion of Southey, who deemed Adams scarcely inferior to Thomas Fuller in wit, and to Jeremy Taylor in fancy, we also know ; but again are we indebted for our information chiefly to his own works.*f His too is as yet the shadow of a name. The man we cannot see nor have we found a mtness that has seen him. The singular silence of all the authorities who might have been expected to speak of Adams, compels us to gather up the fragments of information we have on the districts in which he laboured, and on the great men with whose names his own is associated. They give side-glimpses, at least, of his character and Hfe. Willington, where Adams is first heard of, is a rural parish, in the neighbourhood of Bedford. It lies on the road between Bedford and St Neots. Here Adams laboured from 1612 to 1614, at least ; and to the new lord of the manor, recently created a baronet — Sir Will. Gost"vvicke — and to Lady Jane Gostwicke, one of Adams' sermons is dedicated. Sir William came to the baronetcy in 1612, and died in IGlo.X Adams is next found at Wingrave, whence he dates two of his sermons. In Lipscomb's History of Buckinghamshire, he is spoken of as vicar of Wingrave, from Dec. 2. 1614, when he was instituted, till he became incumbent of St Bennet rink§ (Lipscomb says), when he resijmed Wingrave in favour of the Rev. R Hitchcock, S.T.B. Hitchcock was inducted May 4. ] 636. The vicarage seems to have been in the gift of the Egerton family ; and to Sir Thos. Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, some of Adams' sermons are dedicated. ' St Bennet Fink, is no doubt a mistake for St Bennet's, Paul's Wharf The * Spencer's Things New and Old. London, 1658. f See A sermon preached at the triennial visitation of the R. R. Father in God, the Ld. -Bishop of London, in Christ Church, Actes xv. 36, London, 1625 ; and the Holy Choice, preached at the Chappell bj Guildhall, at the solemnities of the election of the Lord ^Maior of London, Actes i. 24. Lond. 1625. The Gallant's Burden, a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, Mar. 29. (fifth Sunday in Lent), 1612, by Thomas Adams. Published by authoritie. London. 1614. The Temple, a sermon preached at Paul's Cross, Aug. 5. 1624, by Thos. Adams. X Lyson's Ilagtia Britannia ; sub roce Willington. From the preface of the White Devil, we learn that, in March 1614, he was still at Willington ; early in 1615, he was at Wingrave. § History, vol. iii. MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAM3. XI former was only a curacy, and was lilled at this time, and till 1642, as Newcomb tells us, by a Mr Warefield.* In each of these fields of labour, Adams must have had much leisure. Nor is it surprising to find him a frequent visitor in London ; first at St Paul's Cross, and then regularly, from 1618 to 1623, at least, as preacher at St Gregory's, an ofiice lie probably shared with some of the canons of St Paul's. The church of St Gregory, where he was preacher, was one of the oldest in London. It dates from the seventh century ; and after an eventful history (in Adams' own age) hereafter to be noticed, was destroyed by the great fire. The parish was then united with that of St Mary Magdalene, Old Fish Street ; and so it still remains. The building adjoined the Lollards Tower of the old Cathedral of St Paul's. It stood at the south-west corner, near the top of St Paul's Chain ; as St Bennet's stood at the bottom of the Chain, near the Thames. Its site is now occupied by the Clock Tower of the modern Cathedral.t The parish contained in Adams' time a popu- lation of three thousand, many of whom were ' woollen drapers,' and most ' of good quaUty.' J The living was originally a rectory in the gift of the crown ; but in the eighteenth year of Richard II., A.D. 1446, the minor canons having obtained letters patent making them a body poHtic, the king appropriated this church to them for their better support. § It was a poor living, as Adams found it, and was generally held with some other prefennent.il In 1631-2, the church was repaired and beautified at 'the sole cost and proper charges' of the parishioners. The historians say that a sum of .£'2000 was spent on this work.^ Of the man whose labours in the parish make these facts interesting, they say nothing ! This beautifying of the church soon raised serious questions. * Repertorium, i. 299. f The building may be seen in Dugdale's south-west view of St Paul's ; or in Allen's History and Antiquities of London, Westminster, and Southwark, vol. i. p. 365. Lond. 1828. See also Malcolm's Londinium redivivum, vol. iv. p. 483. J Journals of House of Commons, 1641. § Dugdale says the rectory vras given to the minor canons by Henry VI. (cap. 24). This is probably the accurate account. That given in the text is supported by most of the authorities. — See Dugdale's History of St Paul's, p. 18. London, 1818. y Perhaps Adams hints at this fact, vrhen. in dedicating one ol his books to l)r Donne, he speaks of the work as ' the poor fruit of that tree which grows on your ground, and hath not from the world any other sustenance.' The Barren Fig Tree, preached at !St PauVs Cross, Oct. 26. 1623. ■p Stow's Survey, Lon. 1033 ; Maitland's History ; Seymour's Survey, 1734 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. The dean and chapter deemed it more fitting that the communion table shovild be removed to the upper end of the chancel, and ordered accordingly. The parishioners protested ; and the case was carried, on the special recommendation of Archbishop Laud, to the king in council. Laud had just succeeded* the Puritan Archbishop Abbot, and thought that the principle of this case was likely to decide many other cases ; ultimately the order of the dean and chapter was confirmed. Pending this controversy, Sir Henry Martin, Adams' friend, and Dean of the Ai'ches Court, spoke somewhat irreverently, as Laud thought; treating the whole question as one of 'cupboards' only. The speech cost Sir Henry his place ; and years after, when Laud was tried for his life, the history of the communion table at St Gregory's formed one of the charges against him.*f- He pleaded that the order of the dean and chapter, not he, had placed the table there ; and that though in the council he had spoken in favour of the order, he had therein only used his undoubted liberty ; and, moreover, was but carrying out the injunction of Queen Elizabeth, who had directed that all communion tables should be placed where the altars formerly stood. J When charged with calling Sir Henry a 'stigmatical or schismatical Puritan,' he suggested that 'schismatical Puritan' was the likelier term.§ The description he seems to have deemed sufficiently just not to need defence. But the troubles of the church were not yet to end. Early in 1637, the Star Chamber directed, at Laud's instigation, that the church, so recently beautified, should be pulled down and rebuilt, at the expense of the parishioners, elsewhere. This change was intended for the improvement of the cathedral. The parish pro- tested that they could not meet the expense. || A further order was issued ; and the congregation were instructed to find seats, ' moveable seats,' not pews, at Christ Church. This second order re- maining unexecuted, the Archbishop, or the Lord Treasurer himself, seems to have given directions in the matter, and a large portion of the church was removed.^ This also was remembered ; for, in 1641, there is the foUo\\dng entry in the Journal of the House of Commons : — ' Same day re- ported to the committee, that the church of St Gregory's was an ancient church. ' . . ' Four years since,' — rather seven, as it seems, * Rushworth Collections, vol. ii. Year 1G33. t Prynne's Cant. Doom, p 88. % Wilkin's Co^tc. torn iv. p. 188. § Laud's History of his Troubles and Trials. Works iv. p. 225. Library ;,f Anglo Cath. Theology. || Rushvrorth, vol. ii., a.d. 1637. f See a full account in Nelson's Collection, vol. ii. p. 729 Lond. 1683 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADASI3. XUi — 'i?1500 was spent in beautifying the church. Shortly after the Lord Treasurer and Loixl ColHngton caused a great part of it to be pulled down, by command from the king and the council, as they pretend :' — no pretence, however ; for the order may be still seen in Rushworth. ' They (' the parishioners,' ' five of them,' Laud says) petitioned tl^e Lords of the Council, but could have no redress. Voted by the Committee to be a great grievance, and to be added to the others which they meant to be addressed to the Lords. They were ordered by the House to send for Inigo Jones,* . . . and to find means of redress for the parishioners.' Nor have the disasters of the parish yet ceased. In 1C58, Dr John Hewit is preacher. He conspires prematurely for the Restoration of Charles II., and pays the penalty with his life. In 1666, the church was burnt and buried under the ruins of St Paul's. During the latdr years of this period, 1630-1640, it is probable that Adams had little connection with St Gregory's. His friend Dr Donne died in 1630. In 1633, the Puritan Archbishop Abbott follorred him to his rest, and was succeeded by Laud, who had been Bishop of London from 1628. To the new archbishop, the doc- trines and strong anti-popish feelings of Adams must have been highly distasteful. Lectureships the Archbishop dishked. They only gratified, he thought, ' itching ears,' and tempted men to dis- cuss affairs of State. On these questions the dean and chapter seem to have sided on the whole with the archbishop. Nor was the building at St Gregory's in a favourable condition for preaching. Mr Inigo Jones had sawn through the pillars of the gallery, and had removed a large part of the roof. All through there is reason to believe that Adams' sympathies were with the parish. At all events, he is from 1630 to 1636 rector of St Bennet's, and here he remains, it seems, till his death. When, or under what cii'cumstances, this took place we are not told. It is stated, indeed, by Newcourt, and repeated by Walker, that Adams of St Bennet's was sequestered in the days of the Common- wealth. But this statement is not in itself probable, nor does it rest on any satisfactory evidence. Let the following, as matters of fact, be noted. Adams' name appears in no official return of silenced ministers, while both Newcourt and Walker have unduly enlarged their lists.-f" Out of the eight thousand whom Walker mentions as * Malcolm's Londinium redivivum, iv. p. 493. Inigo Jones was the king's sur- veyor (Aitken's Coicrt of James II., p. 403), and seems to be held personally responsible for all that was done. See Rushworth, under date of 19th July 1641, f See White's Century of Scandalous Ministers. MKMOIP. 01' THOMAS ADAMS. sequestered, Calamy states, that not more than seventeen hundred are undoubted. Further, it is well known, that many eminent and useful preachers in the city were left untouched by the Govern- ment, though they were unfriendly to the new constitution in Church and State. Dr Hall, Dr Wilde, Dr Harding, and many more, continued to preach in their churches without hindrance. To the Presbyterian Triers, Adams' doctrines must have commended him ; while those whom Cromwell appointed in 1653, ' the acknow- ledged flower of English Puritanism,' were instructed to act upon the principle of rejecting no good and competent minister, ' whether Presbyterian, Independent, Prelatist, or Baptist,' unless his avowed opinions were dangerous to the ruling powers. It deserves also to be noted, that among Adams' patrons were Manchester and Pembroke. To both he has dedicated sermons, and of both he speaks in terms of affectionate intimacy. Both were leading members of the Government, and both were more or less concerned in the very sequestrations of which Adams is said to have been the victim. Once more, the parish of St Bennet's, which was exceedingly small, was united, after the great fire, with that of St Peter's ; and as early as 1636, there is a return of the united income of the two parishes, a return that seems to imply that they were even then under one minister. At all events, the fact is recorded, that in that parish church ' many noblemen and gentlemen worshipped ' during the Commonwealth, ' the rector and churchwarden continuing to have the liturgy constantly used, and the sacraments properly adminis- tered.'* That Adams should have been sequestered, the popular preacher, the earnest devoted, pastor, the sound Calvinist, the strenuous opponent of the Papacy, the personal friend of the family of Pembroke, who lived in the parish, and had his children baptized at the parish church is highly improbable. It is true, he did not be- lieve in Presbytery and Synod ; but neither did many others who were never molested. It is likely he wished for the Restoration, but not more earnestly than Manchester and Pembroke, his patrons, nor sooner than moderate men of all parties. In short, if Adams were sequestered, it must have been for some fault of which his works give no trace, through strange forgetfulness on the part of his friends, or through gross injustice on the part of the Government. And yet, in 1653, he was passing, as he tells us, a ' necessitous and decrepit old age.' Nor is this surprising. His preachership at St Gregory's was in the gift of the minor canons, and was very scantily paid. In 1639, all cathedral property was declared forfeit, and was ordered to be appropriated to the increase of small livings * Malcolm ii. 472 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS, XV or to other purposes. In 1642 at latest, this order was carried out in the case of St Paul's. The rectories of St Bonnet's and St Peter's were in the gift of the dean and chapter, and were largely depend- ent on cathedral funds. The two yielded at most .^128 a-year; and at the Restoration, it was reckoned that a hundred of this sum had disappeared. From 1636, therefore, till the time of his death, Adams must have been supported, in part at least, by the bounty of his frieuds. The distinction is perhaps practically of small moment. Wlie- ther Adams were himself sequestered, or the income of his Kviug transferred, on general grounds, to other purposes, or withheld by those who availed themselves of the troubles of the times ' to cheat the parson,' he was in any case equally deprived of his support. But it is some comfort to believe that he suffered through no per- sonal hostility, and on no personal grounds, but through the work- ing of a system which affected multitudes besides, and which is to be defended, not by proving the immorality or the deficiencies of the sufferers, but on general policy. The distinction is as just to Adams's opponents as to Adams himself. A word or two on the friends to whom Adams has dedicated his sermons. The tendencies of Sir Henry Martin, Laud has indicated, ".nd Clarendon notes incidentally, that he was counsel against the canons adopted by convocation, and not likely 'to oversee any ad- vantages' that could be urged on the side of bis clients.* The very year in which Sir H. Martin was 'speaking irreverently' of the communion table, Adams was dedicating to him, with many expressions of esteem, his Commentary on St Peter. Sir Henry Montague, who was Adams' ' first patron,' had been Recorder of Lon- don, and was Lord Chief-Justice of England in 1618. His character has been sketched by Lord Chancellor Clarendon,t and at greater length, though less favourably, by Lord Campbell.^ He was held in esteem by all parties, as a man of high principle, and of fair ability. He presided at the final trial of Sir Walter Raleigh, and is said to have conducted that painful business with more pro- priety and good feeling than were usual in those times. He died before * the conflict of great principles,' the Rebellion ; but his ten- dencies may be learned from the character of his son. Edward Montague, as Lord Kimbolton, was the only member of the House of Peers whom Charles L included in his indictment of the 'five members' of the House of Commons. In the civil wars he took an active part, as Earl of Manchester, on the side of the * History, i. 317. t History, i. J Lives of the Uhiif-Jiistices, i. 361. XVI MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Parliament, and was commander at Marston Moor ; but after tlic battle of Newbury he was suspected of favouring the king's inte- rest. He was a decided friend of the Restoration, and immediately after it was appointed chamberlain. During the Commonwealth he was at the head of the Commission of Sequestrators for the University of Cambridge, and appointed one of his chaplains, Ashe, a friend of Fuller's, one of the sequestrators.* He was through- out the protector of the Nonconformists, and is said to have been a special friend of Richard Baxter's.-j- William, Earl of Pembroke, Clarendon tells us, ' was most vmi- versally beloved and esteemed of any man of his age ; and having a great office in the court, he made the court itself better esteemed, and more reverenced in the country.' J He was 'the Pembroke' of Ben. Jonson's well known epitaph, and was nephew of Sir Philip Sydney ; being himself also a poet. In 161G, he was elected Chan cellor of the University of Oxford. He greatly offended the king by voting for the execution of the Earl of Strafford, and was after- wards intimately connected with the Duke of Northumberland, and other members of the liberal party. He died suddenly in 1630. His brother Philip, who succeeded to the title, was one of the lay members of the Westminster Assembly,§ and afterwards a friend of the Restoration. Both brothers resided in Baynard's Castle, and both were attendants at St Bennet's. There are entries in the parish records, between 1650 and 1655, of the ' christening' of five of Philip's children. The Earl of Kent and the Viscount Rochfort, to whom others of Adams' volumes are dedicated, be- longed to the same party, and their names appear again and again, with those of Pembroke and Essex, in the records of the civil war. If men are known by their friends, it is not difficult to gather from these facts the leanings and temper of our author. No supporter could he be of the tyranny or of the Popish tendencies of the court ; but neither was he prepared for the Presbyterianism or the Inde- pendency, for the autocratic Protectorate, or the Republicanism that seemed to threaten on either hand. Like Baxter, he was sure of the gospel ; while as for parties, he found that in the end, as they grew and developed, he could side wholly with none. Judging from the general tenor of Adams's writings, it is not easy at first to explain his retaining the living at Wingrave while he was lecturer at St Gregory's, and afterwards while he was rector at St Bennet's. Still less can we account for the apparent fact that * Keal, iii. 96. t Baxter's Life, ii. p. 289. % History, 88. § Fuller's History, book xi., sec. 5. See also Collins's Memorials, ii. 359. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XVU he was at once vicar of Wingrave, rector of St Bonnet's in 1630, and, if we may trust the title-page of his Commentary on St Peter, rector of St Gregory's in 1G33. Perhaps the true explanation is to be found, in part, in the fact that St Bennet's Church was really in St Gregory's Parish, and that when St Gregory's Church was given to the minor canons of St Paul's, St Gregory's Parish was often served by one pastor, who was called indiscriminately by the name of either of the churches. This s\ipposition will appear the more probable when it is remembered that the sermon on the ' Happiness of the Church ' is dedicated, in the original edition, to his parishioners of St Gregory's, and his collected works, to his parishioners of St Bennet's, in both cases in nearly the same words. This second dedication could have been no compliment, except in the supposition that the parishioners were the same. Still he was vicar of Wingrave and rector of St Gregory's, i.e., of St Bennet's. Is this consistent with his recorded sentiments ? ' We have, every one,' says he, ' our own cures ; let us attend them. Let us not take and keep livings of a hundred or two hundred a year, and allow a poor curate (to supply the voluntary negligence of our non- residence) eight or (perhaps somewhat bountifully) ten pounds yearly, scarce enough to maintain his body, not a doit for his study. He spoke sharply (not untruly) that called this usury, and terrible usury. Others take but ten in the hundred ; these take u hundred for ten. What say you to those that undertake two, three, or four great cures, and physic them all by attorneys ? These physi- cians love not their patients, nor Christ himself.'* So he writes; and yet he seems in the same context to meet what was probably his own case, — * Not but that preaching to our own charge, may yield to a more weighty dispensation. When the vaunts of some heretical Goliah shall draw us forth to encounter him with weapons, against whom we cannot draw the sword of our tongues, when the greater business of God's church shall warrant our non-residence to an inferior, then, and upon these grounds, we may be tolerated by another Physician to serve our cures (for so I find our charges, nnt ■without allusions to this metaphor, called) ; a physician, I say, that is a skilful divine, not an illiterate apothecary, an insufficient reader.' The lawfulness of such an arrangement was certainly not lessened by its always ending in plethoric wealth. Adams' writings shew very clearly that the holder of two pieces of preferment might still bt- poor. 'The minister of the parish,' says he, ' shall hardly get from lii.i patron the milk of the vicarage ; but if he looks for the Heece of * Phjsic from Heaven. ■NOl ill l> -^>eglect this to do that), Quo liceat libris, non licet ire mihi. My books may be admitted where I cannot come. If you say there are books too many, I answer, Restrain them to this quality ; and abundana caidela non nocet. Farewell. Be satisfied, be blessed. Tho. Adams. WiNGBAVE, July 7. Lucanthkopy; or. The Wolf Worbying the Lambs, By Thomas Adams. Mat. vii. 15. Tertull. — Qufenam sunt istae pelles ovium, nisi nominis Christiani extrinsecus superficies ? Hie dolus est magnus : Lupus est qui creditur agmis. London : Printed by William Jaggard. 1615. To Uie truly ivorthy Gentleman, M. Henry Fortescue, Esquire, a favourer of virtue and good learning. Sir, — I have put up the wolf, though not hunted him, as judging myself too weak for that sport-earnest. It is no desertless office to discover that subtle and insatiate beast ; to pull the sheep- skin of hypocrisy over his ears ; and to expose his fonning malice and sanguineus craelty to men's censure and detestation. Let those hands strike him that have darts of authority put into their quivers. Our land is no forest, hterally or metaphorically understood ; but whether for church or commonwealth, profession or soil, an orchard of God's own planting : fruitful in goods and good works. Wolves we have none, but some mystical ones ; whoso ferocity is yet hidden under the habits and cases of those lambs they have devoured. These I have set in view, or at least meant my best to do it. I have seldom pretended that commonpoise that (by theii' own report) sets so many mad pens like wheels a running, importunacy of friends. I have willingly pubhshed what I had hope would do good pubHshed. Only tliis I feared to keep fi-om the press, lest it should steal thither another way. Being there, I could not wiLh better confidence fasten upon a known patron MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADA:.13. xliii than yourself, who can both understand it and will read it ; not only the epistle, but the whole book. Though that fashion with many patrons, of perusing more than their owti titles, be now as a suit of the old make, I know you spend some hours of all days in such good exercises ; abandon- ing those idle and excessive customs wherein too many will please them- selves, and none else. It is an unthrifty spending of time, and a sorry success will conclude it, when we are cui'ious in plotting a method for our inferior delights, and leave our salvation unwrought up. We strive to settle om* lands, to secure our monies, to confirm our estates ; but to conform our Uves, or to make sure our election, is vilipended. And yet when aU is done, brains have plotted, means have seconded, bonds and laws have established, nothing can be made sure, but only our salvation. But go you forward to adorn your eternal mind, and to plant your soul full of those flowers which give already a pleasant odour on earth, and shall one day be stuck hke glories in heaven. So shall your memoiy be sweet in the mouths and hearts of future generations ; whiles the vicious, even alive, do not escape the satyr. Thus with true thankful love I behight you in my prayers, a happy pro- gress in grace, till you come to your standing-house in glory. Your worship's in very best services, Tho. Adams. The Spiritual Navigator bound for the Holy Land. Preached at St Giles Without, Cripplegate, on Trinity Sunday last. 1615. By Thomas Adams. Rev. XV. 2, 3. London : Printed by William Jaggard. 1615. To the truly Religious M. Crashaw, M. Milward, M. Davies, M. Heling, tvith other worthy Citizens, my very good Friends. Gentlemen, — Because you have just occasion in your callings to deal often with merchandise, I have been bold to call you a httle from your temporal to a spiritual trafiic, and have sent you a Christian Navigator, bound for the Holy Land, who, without question, will give you some relations of his travels, worthy two hours' perusing. You shall find a whole sea sailed through in a short time, and that a large sea, not a foot less than the world. You will say, the description Hes in a httle volume : why, you have seen the whole world narrowed up into a smaU map. They that have been said, after many years, at last to compass it, have not described all coasts and comers of it. Even their silence hath given succeeding generations hope to find out new lands ; and you know they have found them. You cannot expect more of two houi's' discoveiy, than of seven years'. I leave many things to be descried by others, yet dai-e promise this, that I have given you some necessarj' directions for your happiest voyage. Over this glassy sea you must sail, you are now sailing. Truth be your chart, and the Holy Ghost youi' pilot. Your course being weU directed, you cannot possibly make a happier journey. The haven is before your eyes, where yom* Saviour sits with the hand of mercy wafting you to him. You cannot be sea-sick, but he wiU comfort and restore you. If the tempest comes, call on him, with Peter, Lord, save us ! and he wUl rebuke the winds and the seas ; they shall not hurt you. Storm and tempest, winds and waters Xliv MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. obey his voice. What rocks, gulfs, swallows, and the danger (worse than that is called the terror of the exchange, the pirate : one plague which the devil hath added to the sea, more than nature gave it) of that great levia- than Satan, and other perils that may endanger you, are marked out ! Decline them so well as you may, and consider what providence guides your course ; this sea is before God's throne. Keep you the Cape of Good Hope in your eye ; and whatever becomes of this weak vessel your body, make sure to save the passenger, your soul, in the day of the Lord Jesus. What is here directed you shall be faithfully prayed for, by him that un- feignedly desires your salvation, Tho. Adams. The last of these sermons was preached in the parish church, Cripplegate. Milton's father now attended there, and Milton him- self may have heard the sermon, then a fair-haired, angel-faced boy of seven. Both father and son lie buried in the church. England's Sickness compaeatively conferred with Israel's : Di- vided into Two Sermons. By Thomas Adams. Bern. — Possessio bona, mens sana in corpore sano. Non est in medico (semper), relevetur ut seger. London : Imprinted by E. G., for John Budge and Ralph Mab. 1615. To the Pdf/ht Worshipful Sir John Claypoole, Knight, saving health. Worthy Sir, — I have venturously trafficked with my poor talent in pubhc, whiles I behold richer graces buried in silence : judging it better to husband a little to the common good, than to hoard much wealth in a sullen niggardise. I censure none ; if all were writers, who should be readers ? if no idle pamphlets would present themselves to the general eye, and be entertained for defect of more sober matter. If the grain be good, it doth better in the market than in the garner. All I can say for myself is, I desire to do good ; whereof if I fail, yet my endeavours leave not my conscience with- out some joyful content. To your patronage this flies, to whom the author is greatly bounden, and shall yet be indebted further for your acceptance. Your love to general learning, singular encouragement to students (opposed to the common disheartenings which poverty, contempt, ignorance assaults us with) ; your actual beneficence to many, especially to Katharine Hall in Cambridge, worthy of deathless memory ; lastly, your real kindness to myself, have prompted me to seal this book with the signet of your name, and send it to the world, which in humble submission I commend to your kind acceptation, and yourself with it, to the blessing of our gracious God. Your Worship's in all duty devoted, Thomas Adams. Mystical Bedlam ; or, The World of Madmen. By Thomas Aiums. 2 Tim. iii. 9. Augustin. de Trinit. Lib. 4, cap. 6. — Contra rationem nemo sobVius. London: Printed by George Pui'slowe, for Clement Knight, -and are to be sold at his shop, in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1615. MEMOIR OF TUOMAS ADAMS. xlv Tc (he Right Honourable Sir Thomas Egerton, Knight, Baron of EUesmere, Lord High Chancellor of England, one of His Majesty's Right Hon. Privy Council, the true Pattern of virtue and 1 'atrou of good learning. Right Honourable, — It is a labour that hath neither recompence nor thanks, to tell them theii" madness that fain would think themselves sober. Having therefore presumed (not to trouble the peace, but) to disquiet the security of our Israel, I durst not but aspire to some noble patronage, that might shield both myself and labours from the blows of all malevolent censurers. In which thought I was bold to centre myself in your honour ; as the individual point of my refuge, wherein I have been taught the way by more worthy precedents ; your honourable name having stood as a communis tenninus or sanctuary of protection to the labours and persons of many students. The unerring hand of God hath placed your lordship in the seat of justice and chair of honom- (especially if it be true what St Hiero- nymus says, that summa apud Deurn nobilitas, clarum esse virtutihus), whereby you have power and opportunity to whet the edge of virtue with encourage- ments, and to give vice the just retribution of deserved punishments. Happy influences have been derived from you, sitting as a star in the star- chamber : conscionable mitigations of the law's rigour in the Court of Chancery. To punish where you see cause, is not more justice than mercy : justice against the offender, mercy to the commonwealth. Those punishments are no other than actual physic ministered to the inheritance, liberty ; body to the bettering of the conscience, and saving of the soul in the day of the Lord Jesus (1 Cor. v. 5, marg.). Behold, my pen hath but written after the original copy of your honour's actions : desiring rather to learn by your doings how to say, than to teach you by my saying how to do. I have spoken (God knows with what success) to these mad times, and he that would bind the frantic, though he loves him, angers him. The detector of men's much-loved sins need a protector that is both good and great. I am sure my election is happy, if it shall please your honour to cast the eye of acceptance on my weak labours. A young plant may thrive if the sun shall warm it with his beams. That Sun of righteousness, that hath saving health under his wings, shine for ever on your lordship ; who hath been so hberal a favourer to his church, and among the rest to his unworthiest servant, and Your honour's in all duty and thankful observance bounden, Tho. Adams. Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord EUesmere, was the patron of the parish of Wingrave, where Adams seems now to be living. The Sacrifice of Thankfulness : A Sermon preached at Paul's Cross, the 3d of December, being the first Adventual Sunday. Anno 1615. By Thomas Adams. Bern., in Cant., Serm. 35. — Gratiarum cessat decursus, ubi recursus non fuerit. Whereunto are annexed, five other of his Sermons preached in London and elsewhere ; never before printed. The Titles whereof follow in the next page. London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616. xl^'i MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. On the next page, the Titles of the Five Sennons are — 1. Christ, his Star; or, the Wise Man's Oblation, Matt. ii. 11 ; 2. Politic Hunting, Gen. xxv. 27 ; 3. Plain Dealing ; or a Precedent of Honesty, Gen. xxv. 27 ; 4. The Three Divine Sisters, 1 Cor. xiii. 13; 5. The Taming of the Tongue, James iii. 8. Three of these have separate titles. To the Right Worshipful Sir Henry Montague, Knight, the King's Majesty's Servant for the Law, and Recorder of the Honourable City of London. Worthy Sir, — Where there is a diversity of helps leading to one inten- tion of good, the variety may well be tolerated. Who finds fault with a garden for the multitude of flowers ? You shall perceive here different kinds, whereof (if some to some seem bitter) there is none unwholesome. It takes fire at the altar of God, and begins with the Christian's sacrifice, the flame w^hereof (by the operation of the blessed Spirit) may both en- lighten the understanding and wann the affections of good men, and in others consumingly waste the dross and rust of sin, which must either be purged by the fire of grace here, or sent to the everlasting fire to be burned. The wise man's oblation seconds it : what is formerly commanded in pre- cept is here commended in practice. PoUtic hunters of the world are dis- covered, and plain dealing encouraged. One (almost forgotten) virtue, charity, is praised, and a busy vice is taxed. In all is intended lux scieiitice, pax conscienticB ; piscati mind, adificatio sertitice. Your noble endeavours are observed by all eyes to be distinguished into this method : fi'om your virtues there is a resultance of shining light to in- formation, from your ofiice to reformation of others. Go forward so still to manage your place in that honourable city ; and let the fii-e of correction eat out the rust of con-uption. You may punish even whiles you pity. The good magistrate, like a good chu'urgion, doth with a shaking hand search ulcers, more earnestly desiricc' von invenire quod quarit, quam inve- nire quod jnmiat. The God of mercy and salvation wrap up your soul in the bundle of Ufe, and (when the lust of the earth shall to the dust of the earth) fix you in the blessed orb of gloiy. Your worshipful's in all faithful observance, Tho. Adams. Of the Five Discourses published along with the Sacrifice of Tha.nkfuliiess, ' Christ the Star ' and ' Politic Hunting ' have no separate title-page, and are transposed in the Museum copy ; ' Politic Hunting' coming first, though ' Christ his Star' is first in the table of contents. The pagination vindicates the binder. The other three Sermons are paged separately, and have separate titles as follows : — Plain Dealing ; or A Precedent ojf Honesty. Ps. xxxiii. 37. August, in Joh. Horn. ii. — Simplex ens, si te mundo non implicaveris, sed exphcaveris. Explicando enim te a mundo, simplex ; imphcando, duplex ens. London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616. The Three Divine Sxstebs. John xxxiv. 34. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. xlvii August. — Domus Dei fundatur credendo, sperando erigitur, diiigendo perficitur. London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and are to bo sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616. The Taming of the Tongue. Matt. xii. 37. Bern. — Lingua, quae facile volat, facUe violat. London : Piinted by Thomas Puribot, for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paiil's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616. Diseases of the Soul, [The Soul's Sickness] : A Discourse Divine, Moral, and Physical. By Thomas Adajis. Sen. — Desinit esse remedio locus, ubi qufe fuerunt vitia, mores sunt. London : Printed by George Purslowe, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1616. To the Holy, Judicious, and woi-thily Eminent in his Profession, Mr Wtt.t.tam Randolph, Doctor of Physic. Worthy Sir, — It will seem strange to those that better know my un- worthiness than your merits, that I should administer physic to a physician. But my apology is just, convincing rather than of ignorance than myself of presumption. It is not a potion I send, but a prescript in paper, which the foolish patient did eat up when he read in it written, Take this. Neither do I send it to direct you, but that you should rectify it. So the poor painter sent Apelles a pictui-e, to mend it, not to commend it. That which tastes of philosophy in it is but so much of those axioms and nadiments, as I gathered in the university in a short time, and have had much opportunity to lose since. Somewhat is chimed out of esperience, wherein I may say necessitas was in- genii Jargitor ; as Pliny writes of the raven, who labouiing of thirst, and spying a vessel -svith some Uttle water in it, but so deep as she could not reach, filled the vessel with stones, till the heavier matter sinking down- wai'ds, raised up the lighter to her easy apprehension. My own ill health forced me to look into that poor cistern of knowledge, which I had ; and finding it almost diy, I essayed by some new contemplations, to raise it up to experience, which now, behold, runs over, and -ft-ithout diminution to itself, is communicatively dispersed to others. Only do you use it, as I desne you should myself : if it be in health, conserve it ; if foul, purge it. For my own part, I am content that no happy meditation of mine should be Id Curia ISLartis Athenis ; or, hke some precious mystery which a prac- titioner will get money by while he lives, but suffer none else to use when he is dead ; for he resolves it shall die with him. It is more moral than physical, and yet the greater part theological : wherein I have most satis- fied my own conscience, in arguing at that punctual centre, and blessed scope, whither all endeavours should look — the sti-aitening our wai-ped afiections, and directing the soul to heaven. And in this passage (you must pardon me) I fear not to say, your memory at least, if not your understanding, may hereby be helped. My medicines are not very bitter, but nothing at aU sweet to a sensual palate : learning from Salvian that QiKB petulantium auribus placent, agrotantium animis non prosunt. For my soul, I prescribe to others that which I desire ever to take myself, such Xlviii MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. saving recipes as God's Holy Writ hath directed me. For my body, though I would not have it lamed by my own neglect, that it might lean upon the stafl' of physic, having not so much health to spare as might allow some unthrifty expense of it on surfeits ; yet when it is sick, I desire no other physician than yourself. Perhaps a great number of men are of my mind, and frequent are the knocks at your study-door ; but I am sm-e that all those desires are not inflamed with that hght of knowledge which I have of your sufficiency, through much private conference. Rudeness or prolixity do ill iu an epistle, and worse when both together; and may perhaps please a man's self, and none else. I have done when I have (yet once again) challenged your promised Judicial of urines ; which, if you make pubUc, you shall have the like addition to m}' singular thanks. Till a good gale of opportunity waft myself over to your Sudbury, I have sent you this messenger of that love and service, shall ever be ready to attend you ; de- su-ing that, as it hath found the way to you, you would give it your pass to the world ; and (if it gi'ow poor with contempt), your legacy of approbation. Wingrave in Buck., May ult. Your worship's ia all jugt references of love, Thos. Adams. To THE Reader. The title of this book requires some apology. There is a book lately conceived in Scotland, and bom in England, which both promiseth in the frontispiece, and demonstrates in the model, the method and matter here proposed. Whereof I cannot speak, having only cui'sorily perused some page or two of it, but not of the worthiness. Because that hath the priority of the time, and transcendency in quantity of mine, I have reason to fear that this wiU be thought but the spawn of that, or an epitome, or at best, that it is begot out of imitation. Herein I must seriously propose, and engage my credit to the truth thereof, that this was committed to the stationer's hands, perused, and allowed by authority ; yea, and with full time to have been printed, and, perhaps, an impression sold, before that of Ml' John Abernethy's came out. What dilemmas were in the bookseller's head, or what reasons for such slackness and reservation, are to me as mystical as his profession. Neither do I plead thus out of any affected singularity, as if I were too good to imitate so worthy a man ; but only to have punc- tually and plainly delivered the truth hereof, leaving it to thy censm-e, and us all to the grace of God. T. A. The allusion in the epistle to the reader is to a work just then published by John Abernethy, minister at Jedburgh, and afterwards Bishop of Caithness. It is entitled, ' A Christian and Heavenly Treatise, containing Physic for the Soul.' An enlarged edition was published in 1622, and in the following year it was translated and published in Dutch. The volume is admirable in spirit, and may easily have excited the active mind of our author. The reader will note, however, the care with which Adams guards against the im- pression that he had taken his thoughts from Abernethy. In the epistle to Dr Randolph, there is evidence that Adams was no stranger to bodily suffering. A similar aUusion will be found in the address prefixed to the Ha2>piness of the Church, (see p. U). MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. xUx A Divine Herbal together with a Forest of Thorns. In Five Ser- mons : — 1. The Garden of Graces; 2. The Praise of Fertihty ; 3. The Contemplation of the Herbs ; 4. The Forest of Thorns ; 5. The End of Thorns. By Thomas Adams. Isa. Iv. 11. August, do benedict. Jaco. et Esau. — Simul pluitDominus super segetos, et super spinas ; sed segeti pluit ad horreum, spiuis ad igncm : et tamen una est pluvia. London : Printed by George Purslowe, for John Budge, and are to be sold at his shop, at the great south door of Paul's and at Britain's Burse. 1616. To the Right Honourable William, Earl of Vemhrolce, Lord Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household, and one of his Majesty's most honourable Privy Council, and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, the most noble Embracer and Encourager of goodness. Right Honourable, — I am bold to present to your honour a short con- templation of those herbs (cut in rough pieces), which grow really and plentifully in yoiu* own garden, and give so good nourishment to your virtues, delightful taste to the church, and odoriferous savour to all ; that, like the vine in Jotham's parable, they cheer the heart of both God and man. Your honour, I laiow, cannot dislike that in sight, which you so preserve in sense, and (for a happy reward) doth and shall preserve you. You are zealously honoured of all those that know goodness, and have daily as many prayers as the earth saints. Into this number, I have ( hopefully presuming) thrust myself, as loth to be hindmost in that acknowledgment, which is so nobly deserved, and so joyfully rendered of all tongues, dedicating to your honour some public devotions, that can never forget you in my private. I will not think of adding one herb to your store : I only desire to remember your honour what hand planted them, what dew waters them, what influ- ence conserves, and enspheres a sweet provident air about them, and when gay weeds, that shoot up like Jonah's gourd in a night, shall wither in an hour (for moriuntur quomodo onuntur). Your herb of grace shall flourish and be praised, both ob eminentiam and perm an entiam, and at last be trans- ported into that heavenly paradise, whence it receives the original root and being. Your honour will excuse me for coupling to a divine herbal, a forest of thorns, by a true observation in both material and mystical gardens, though a poet records it : Terra salutiferas herbas, eademque nocentes Nutrit, et urticse proxima saBpe rosa est. Your honour will love the light better, because the dark night follows so near it. That your sun may never set, your noble garden never wither ; that your honours may be still multiplied with our most royal and religious king on earth, and with the Eang of kings in heaven, is faithfully prayed for by Your honour's humbly devoted Tho. Adams. The Soldiers's Honour : Wherein, by divers Inferences and grada- tions it is evinced that the profession is just, necessary, and honourable ; to be practised of some men, praised of all men. Together with a short VOL. in d I MEMOIK OF THOMAS AD.UIS. admonition concerning munition to this honoured city. Preached to the worthy Company of Gentlemen that exercise in the Artillery Garden ; and now, on their second request, puhlished to fui'ther use. By Thomas Adams. Exodus XV. 3. London : Printed by Adam Islip and Edward Blount, and are to be sold in Paul's Chuixhyard, at the sign of the Black Bear. 1G17. This dedication will be found in vol. i., p. 31, as Adams himself printed it in the foho edition. The Happiness of the Chuech ; or, A Description of those Spiritual Prerogatives wherewith Christ hath endowed her : Considered in some Con- templations upon part of the 12th Chapter to the Hebrews. Together with certain other Meditations and Discourses upon other portions of Holy Scriptm-e, the titles whereof immediately precede the book, being the sum of divers Sermons preached in S. Gregory's, London. By Thomas Adams, Preacher there. 2 Cor. xii. 15. London: Printed by G. P., for John Grismand, and ai'e to be sold at his shop, near unto the little north door of Saint Paul's, at the sign of the Gun. 1618. To the Right Honourahh Sir Henry Montague, the Lord Chief-Justice of England, my very good Lord. Right Honourable,- — My allegiance to the Almighty King necessitates my endeavours to glorify his great name ; my profession hath imposed on me all ministerial services ; my filial duty to our blessed mother the church, hath taught me to help fonvard her cause, both with tongue and pen ; my thankfulness to your lordship ties me to seek your honom-able authorising of all these labours. They run to you first, as if they waited yom- manu- mission of them to the world. If books be our children, and the masculine issue of our brains, then it is fit that your lordship, who have the patronage of the father, should also vouchsafe a blessing to the children. Nor is this all : there is yet a weightier reason why they should refuge themselves under your lordship's protection. The world is quickly offended, if it be told of the offences. Men study courses, and practise them ; and if the clerg}- f.nd fault, yea, if we do not justify and make good what they magnify, and make conmion, they -svill be angiy. It is the most thankless service to tell men of their misdeeds. Now, a business so distasteful requires a worthy patron ; and whose patronage should I desire but your lordship's, whose I am, and to whom I owe all duty and sendee ? whose but your lordship's, who are in place to reform vice, and to encom-age goodness ? to make that practical and exemplary, which is here only theorical and preceptory. God hath entrusted to your hands his sword of justice ; di-aw it in his defence against the enemies of his gi-ace and gospel. You sit at the common stern, and, therefore, are not so much your own as your country's. Help us with your hands ; we will help you with our prayers. The Lord of majesty and mercy sanctify your heart, rectify your hand, justify yom- soul, and, lastly, crown your head with eternal glory ! Your lordship's observant chaplain, Tho. Adams. MEMOIR OF THOMAf? ADAMS. U The volume is dedicated thus: — 'To the Worthy Citizens of Saint Gregory's Parish, sincere Lovers of the Gospel, present Hap- piness and everlasting Peace.' Then follows an address the same as is prefixed to the folio edition of his works, see vol. i., xvii. The following sentences, however, are inserted before * I very well know,' and the whole is signed, ' Your unworthy preacher, Thomas Adams' : — It is not unknown to you, that an infinnity did put me to silence many weeks ; whilst my tongue was so suspended from preaching, my hand took opportimity of writing. To vindicate my life from the least suspicion of idleness, or any such aspersions of uncharitable tongues, I have set forth this real witness, which shall give just confatation to such slanders. If it be now condemned, I am sure it is only for doing well. This volume, ' The Happiness of the Church,' is a 4to of the ordinary size of that period. It is divided into two parts. The first, exclusive of title, dedication, epistle, and contents, extends to 44;3 pages. The second, which is nowhere called part second, and which has no separate title-page nor dedication, extends to 375 pages. The contents prefixed to first part are the contents of both parts. The following are the discourses included in the volume : — Paet I. — The Happiness of the Church, Heb. xii. 22 ; The Rage of Oppression — The Victory of Patience, Ps. Ixvi. 12 ; God's House, Ps. Ixvi. 13 ; Man's Seed Time and Harvest, Gal. xi. 7 ; Heaven Gate, Rev. xxii. 14 ; The Spiritual Eye Salve, Eph. i. 18 ; The Cosmopohte, Luke xii. 20; The Bad Leaven, Gal. v. 9 ; Faith's Encouragement, Luke xvii. 19. Pabt II. — The Saint's Meeting, Eph. iv. 13; Presumption Running into Despair, Rev. vi. 16 ; Majesty in Misery, Mat. xxvii. 51 ; The Fool and his Sport, Prov. xiv. 9 ; The Fhe of Contention, Luke xii. 49 ; The Ciiris- tian's Walk — Love's Copy — A Crucifix, Eph. v. 2 ; The Good Politician directed, Mat. x. 16 ; The Way Home, Mat. ii. 12 ; Semper Idem, Heb. xiu. 8; God's Bounty, Prov. iii. 16 ; The Lost One Found, Luke xix. 10 ; A Generation of Sei-pents, Ps. Ivui. 4 ; Heaven made Sure, Ps. xxxv. 3 ; The Soul's Refuge, 1 Pet. iv. 19. There is now an unwonted interval between the last-named of Adams's writings and the following. Whether sickness laid him aside, or whether he now began to prepare those Meditations on the Creed which King James was soon to direct all clergymen to indulge in on Sunday afternoons, is not known. The fact is un- doubted. EiEENOPOLis : The City of Peace. By Thomas Adams. 8vo. Lon- don, 1622. Dedication, see Vol. ii., p. 310. lii MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. The Barren Tree. A Sermon preached at St Paul's Cross, October 26. 1623. By Thomas Adams. London : Printed by Aug. Mathewes, for John Grismand, and are to be sold at his shop, in Paul's Alley, at the sign of the Gun. 1623. To the Reverend and learned Dr Donne, Dean of St Paid's, together with the Prebend Residentiaries of the same Church, my very good j)atrons. KiGHT Worshipful, — Not out of any opinion of this sennon's worth, to which I dare not invite yom* judicious eyes ; nor any ambition to merit of my patrons, whom I read styled petty creators ; but in humble acknow- ledgment of yom* favours, I present this small rent of thankfulness, the poor fruit of that tree which gi-ows on your own gi'ound, and hath not from the world any other sustenance. Vouchsafe, I beseech you, your patronage to the child, who have made the father of it Your worship's devoted homager, Tho. Adams. To THE Eeader. I neither affect those rheumatic pens that are still dropping upon the press, nor those phlegmatic spirits that will scarce be conjm-ed into the orb of employment. But if modest forwardness be a feult, I cannot excuse myself. It pleased God Almighty to make a fearful comment on this his own text, the very same day it was preached by his unworthiest servant. The argument was but audible in the moiTiing, before night it was iisible. His holy pen had long since written it with ink, now his hand of justice expounded in the characters of blood. There, was only a conditional menace : so it shall be. Here a terrible remonstrance : so it is. Sure ! he did not mean it for a nine days' wonder. Theii- sudden departure out of the world, must not so suddenly depart from the memoiy of tho world. Woe to that soul that shall take so slight a notice of so extraordinary a judgment. We do not say. They perished ; charity forbid it. But this we say. It is a sign of God's favom-, when he gives a man law. We pass no sentence upon them, yet let us take warning by them. The remarkableness would not be neglected, for the time, the place, the persons, the number, the manner. Yet still we conclude not, this was for the transgression of the dead ; but this we are sure of, it is meant for the admonition of the living. Such is our blessed Saviom-'s conclusion upon a parallel instance : Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. There is no place safe enough for offenders ; but when the Lord is once up in arms, happy man that can make his own peace ! Otherwise, in vain we hope to run from the plague while we carry the sin along with us. Yet will not our wiKul and bewitched recusants, from these legible characters, speU God'a plain meaning. No impression can be made in those hearts, that are ordained to perish. For their malicious, causeless, and unchristian censures of us, God forgive them ; our requital be only pity and prayers for them. Howsoever they give out (and I will not here examine) that their piety is more than ours : impudence itself cannot deny, but our charity is greater than theirs. Now the holy fear of God keep us in the ways of faith and obedi- ence, that the preparation of death may never prevent our preparation to die. And yet stiU, after our best endeavour, from sudden death, good Lord, deliver us all. Amen. T. A. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. This sermon was preaclied on October 26. 1623, the morning of what is known as ' The fatal Vespers at Blackfriars.' Out of three hundred persons present, ninety-five were killed, and many more seriously injured. Particulars may be seen in many histories of that age (see Fuller's Church Hist, bk. x., cent, xvii., and Coun of- James I., vol. ii, pp. 428-433). The charity with which Adams speaks of this awful visitation (see Works, vol. ii., p, 185) is note- worthy. The Temple : A Sermon nreached at Paul's Cross, the 5th of August 1624. By Thomas Adajis. London : Printed by A. Mathewes, for John Grismand, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Alley, at the sign of the Gun. 1624. To the Right Honourable Sir Henry Carey, Lord Honsdon, Viscount RochJ'ord. My Lord, — ^Among the many absurdities which give us just cause to abhor the religion of the present Roman Chm-ch, this seemeth to me none of the least, that they have filled all the temples under the command of their politic hierarchy with idols, and changed the glory of the invisible God into the worship of visible images. They invocate the saints by them, yea, they dare not sei^e the Lord without them. As if God had repealed his unchangeable law ; and instead of condemning aU worship by an image, woiild now receive no worship without an image. 1 have observed this one, among the other famous ma)'ks of that synagogue, that they strive to con- demn that which God hath justified, and to justify what he hath condenmed. For the former, he hath precisely directed our justification only by faith ui the merits of Christ ; this they vehemently dispute against. For the other, he hath (not without mention of his jealousy) forbidden all worship that hath the least tang of idolatry ; this they eagerly maintain. What large volumes have they written against the ' Second Commandment ! as if they were not content to expunge it out of their catechisms, unless they did also dogmatise, contradict it to the whole world. They first set the people upon a plaia rebeUion, and then make show to fetch them off^gaia with a neat distinction. Thus do they pump their wits to legitimate that by a distinction which God hath pronounced a bastard by his definite sentence ; as if the papal decrees were that law whereby the world should be judged at the last day. But who wiU regard a house of magnificent stracture, of honom-- able and ancient memoiy, when the plague hath mfected it, or thieves possess it ? and who, in then- right senses, will join themselves to that temple, which after pretence of long standing, stately bmlding, and of many such prerogatives and royalties, is found to be besmeared with super- stitions, and profaned with innumerable idols ? WTiy should we dehght to dweU there, where God hath refused to dwell with us. I pubhsh this argument as no new thing to your lordship, but whereia your weU-experienced knowledge is able to infonn me. Only I have been bold, thi-ough your thrice honoured name, to transmit this small discourse to the world ; emboldened by the long proof I have had of your constant love to the truth, and the gracious piety of your most noble mother, the liv MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. best encouragement of my poor labours on earth. The best blessings of God be still multiplied upon her, yourself, your religious lady, and your honourable family, which is continually implored by Your lordship's humble servant, Thomas Adams. The Holy Choice. A Sermon preached at the Chapel of Guildhall, at the solemnities of the election of the Lord Mayor of London. Acts i. 24. By Thomas Adams. London. 1625. A Sermon at the Triennial Visitation of the R. R. Father in God, the Lord Bishop of London, in Christ Chm-ch. Acts xv. 36. By Thomas Adams. London. 1625. The Bishop of London, at this time, was Dr Moimtaigne. He had succeeded Dr King in 1621, and was translated to Durham in 1627. His successors were Laud in 1628, and Dr Juxon in 1633. It is worth marking under whose episcopate Adams spent the latter years of his life. Meditations upon some parts of the Creed. 1629. (Vol. iil. page 85.) Appended to the folio edition of the works, and probably pub- Ushed then for the first time. These * Meditations ' have all the vigour, and even more than the usual learning, of Adams, and they will well repay perusal. As the sheets of the 'Meditations' and of Ward's Sermons were passing through the press, the Editor was struck with the sameness of thought, and even of expression, in several instances. The reader may compare for himself, and certainly the coincidence cannot be accidental. It is possible that Ward and Adams were personal friends, and compared thoughts, each contributing his share ; though their political and ecclesiastical tendencies were widely different. The more probable solution is, that the one must have read or heard the other. Ward's book was first published in 1622, and bears on the last page the name of Grismand. who was one of Adams's pubhshers. So far as is known, the Meditations were not published till seven years later, though probably written some time before their publication. Adams, therefore, seems the copyist. Perhaps he read the small volume of Ward as it was pub- lished, and when he was preaching his own Meditations. Without much intentional wrong, he may have adopted illustrations which struck him as suited for the day, and then have put them in print unacknowledged, having meanwhile forgotten their origin. His MEMOm OF TUOIIAS ADAJIS, Iv general richness of tliouglit, and the extensive writing he had now in hand — for his foho Commentary on Peter must have been begun some time before — make this explanation probable. It may be added that he has in a variety of instances, through what must have been a similar oversight, repeated himself, inserting in his Commen- tary, for example, what had already been published in his Sermons.* A Commentary or Exposition upon the Divine Second Epistle General written by the blessed Apostle St Peter. By Thomas Adams. London : Printed by Ri. Badger, for Jacob Bloom. 1633. To the Trull/ Noble and Worthily Honoured Sir Henry Marten, Knight, Judge of His Majesty's High Court of the xidiniralty, and Dean of the Arches' Court of Canterbury. Noble Sir, — The merchant that hath once put to sea and made a pros- perous voyage, is hardly withheld from a second adventure. It hath been my forwardness, not without the instinct of our heavenly Pilot, the most blessed Spirit of God, to make one adventure before, for he that publisheth his meditations may be well called an adventurer. God knows what retm-n hath been made to his own glory ; if but Httle (and I can hope no less, though I have ever prayed for more), yet that hath been to me no little comfort. I am now put forth again, upon the same voyage, in hope of better success. For my commission I sue to you, who have no small power both in the deciding of civil differences, and in the disposing of naval affairs, and matters of such commerce, being known weU worthy of that authority in both these ecclesiastical and civil courts of judicature, that you would be pleased to bless my spiritual traffic with your auspicious approbation. I dare not commend my owti merchandise ; yet if I had not conceived some- what better of it than of my former, I durst not have been so ambitious as to present it unto you, of whose clear understanding, deep judgment, and sincere integrity, all good men among us have so full and confessed an experience. Yet besides your own candid disposition, and many real encoiiragements to me your poor servant, this may a little qualify my bold- ness, and vindicate me from an over-daring presumption ; that my aim is your patronage, not your instruction — not to inform your wisdom, which were to hold a taper to the sun — but to gain your acceptation and fair allowance, that, under your honoured name, it may find the more free entertainment wheresoever it arrives, which (I am humbly persuaded) your goodness will not deny. That noble favour of youi's, shining upon these my weak endeavours, will encom-age me to publish some matuier thoughts, which otherwise have resolved never to see the light. The sole gloiy of our most gracious God, the edification and comfort of his church, with the tiue felici^ of yourself and yours, shall be always prayed for by Your ever honoured virtue's humble and thankful servant, Thomas Adams. * A large number of thoughts, in Jenkyn's Exposition of Jude (London, 1652) have been taken from Adams's Commentary on the 2d Peter. The curious in such questions may see them in A Vindication of the Conforming Clergy, dc, in a letter to a friend. Loudon, 1G76. Ivi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Thus far in these volumes the text is reprinted from the folio volume published by Adams himself The two following sermons are reprinted from a small volume in the British Museum. They bear the name of Thos. Adams on the title ; and are clearly, from internal evidence, the production of the same man. They were published in 1653, the year in which Cromwell became Lord Pro- jector. The author was then passing ' a necessitous and decrepit old age ;' but his spirit is as bold and as unbroken as ever. We should be recreant to our principles as admirers of all conscientious servants of our Lord, if we withheld from Adams amid these dis- tresses the tribute of our sympathy and love. God's Anger and Man's Comfort : Two Sermons Preached and Pub- lished by Thomas Adams. London : Printed by Thomas Maxey for Samuel Main, at the sign of the Swan in St Paul's Churchyard. 1653. To the most honourable and charitable benefactors, whom God hath honoured for his ahnoners and sanctified to be his dispensers of the finiits of charity and mercy to me, in this my necessitous and decrepit old age, I humbly present this testimony of my thankfulness, with my incessant ap- precations to the Father of all mercies, to reward them for it iu this life, and to crown their souls wdth everlasting joy and glory ia the life to come, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Thomas Adams. The Publisher is indebted to the Rev. A. B. Grosart of Kinross for bringing these sermons under his notice ; and to the same loving inquirer into all that Adams has done and taught, the writer of this brief memoii begs to express his obligations. J. A. SEMPER IDEM; OB, THE IMMUTABLE MEKCY OF JESUS CHEIST. *Jesm Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'' — Heb. XHI. 8. By the name of Jehovah was God kBown to Israel, from the time of the first mission of Moses to them, and their manumission out of Egypt, and not before. For, saith God to Moses, * I appeared unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Ahnighty ; but by my name Jehovah was I not known to them,' Exod. vi. 3. This I am is an eternal word, comprehending three times : * that was, that is, and is to come.' Now, to testify the equaKty of the Son to the Father, the Scripture gives the same eternity to Jesus that it doth to Jehovah. He is called Alpha and Omega, primus et novissimiis, ' the First and the Last : which is, which was, and which is to come,' Rev. i. ; and here, ' the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Therefore he was not only Christiis Dei, the anointed of God, but Christus Deus, God himself anointed ; seeing that eternity, which hath neither beginning nor ending, is only peculiar and proper to God. The words may be distinguished into a centre, a circumference, and a mediate line, referring the one to the other. The immovable centre is Jesus Christ. The circumference, that runs round about him here, is eternity: 'Yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' The mediate line referring them is, 6 aurog, the same : ' Jesus Chiist, the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' I. The centre is Jesus Christ. Jesus was his proper name, Christ his appellative. Jesus a name of his nature, Christ of his office and dignity ; as divines speak. Jesus, a name of all sweetness. Mel in ore, mdos in aure, jubilus in corde.* A reconciler, a Redeemer, a Saviour. When the conscience wi'estles with law, sin, death, there is nothing but horror and despair without Jesus. He is ' the way, the truth, and the hfe ; ' without him, error, mendacium, mors. Si scribas, non placet, nisi legam ihi, Jesum, saith Bernard : If thou writest to me, thy letter doth not please me, unless I read there Jesus. If thou conferrest, tiiy discourse is not sweet, without the name of Jesus. The * Ber. in Can. A 2 SEMPEE IDEM. [SeRMON LVIII. blessed restorer of all, of more than all that Adam lost ; for we have gotten more by his regenerating grace than we lost by Adam's degenerating sin. Christ is the name of his office ; being appointed and anointed of God a king, a priest, a prophet. This Jesus Christ is our Saviour : of whose names I forbear farther dis- course, being unable, though I had the tongue of angels, to speak aught worthy tanto nomine, tanto numine. All that can be said is but a httle ; but I must say but a little in all. But of all names given to our Redeemer, £till Jesiis is the sweetest. Other, saith Bernard, are names of majesty ; Jesus is a name of mercy. The Word of God, the Son of God, the Christ of God, are titles of glory ; Jesus, a Saviom*, is a title of gi'ace, mercy, re- demption. This Jesus Christ is the centre of this text ; and not only of this, but of the whole Scripture. The sum of divinity is the Scripture ; the sum of the Scripture is the gospel ; the sum of the gospel is Jesus Christ ; in a word, nihil continet verbum Domini, nisi verhum Dominum. There is nothing con- tained in the word of God, but God the word. Nor is he the centre only of his word, but of our rest and peace. ' I de- termined not to know any thing among you, save Jesus Christ, and him crucified,' 1 Cor. ii. 2. Thou hast made us for thee, 0 Christ; and our heart is unquiet till it rest in thee. It is natural to everything appetere centrum, to desire the centre. But ' our hfe is hid with Christ in God,' Col. iii. 3. We must needs amare, where we must animare. Our mind is where our pleasure is, our heart is where our treasure is, our love is where our life is ; but all these, our pleasure, treasure, Ufe, are reposed in Jesus Chiist. ' Thou art my portion, 0 Lord,' saith David. Take the world that please, let our portion be in Christ. ' We have left all,' saith Peter, 'and followed thee,' Matt. xix. 27; you have lost nothing by it, saith Christ, for you have gotten me. Nimis avarus est, cut non sufficit Christiis. He is too covetous, whom Jesus Christ cannot satisfy. Let us seek this centre, saith Agustine : Quaramus inveniendum, quaramus inventum. Ut inveniendus qucsratur, paratus est: ut inventus qucBratnr, immensus est:^ Let us seek him till we have found him ; and still seek him when we have foimd him. That seeking, we may find him, he is ready; that finding, we may seek him, he is infinite. You see the centre. n. The referring line, proper to this centre, is Semper idem, * The same.* There is no mutabiUty in Christ; ' no variableness, nor shadow of turning,' Jam. i. 17. All lower Ughts have their inconstancy; but in the ' Father of lights' there is no changeableness. The sun hath his shadow; the ' Sun of righteousness ' is without shadow, Mai. iv, 2 ; that turns upon the dial, but Christ hath no turning. ' Whom he loves, he loves to the end,' John xiii. 1. He loves us to the end; of his love there is no end. Tempus erit cojisummandi, nullum consumendi misericordiam. His mercy shall be per- fected in us, never ended. ' In a Uttle wi-ath I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but ^rith everlasting kindness will I have mercy upon thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer,' Isa. liv. 8. His wrath is short, his goodness is everlasting. ' The mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed ; but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed, saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee,' ver. 10. The mountains are stable things, the hills stedfast; yet hills, mountains, yea the whole earth, shall totter on its foundations ; yea the very ' heavens shall pass away with a noise, and the elements shall melt with heat,' 2 Pet. iii. * In Joan. Heb. Xin. 8. J SEMPER IDEM. 8 10 ; but the covenant of God shall not be broken. ' I will betroth thee unto me for ever,' saith God, Hos. ii. 19. This mamage-bond shall never be cancelled; nor sin, nor death, nor hell, shall be able to divorce us. Six-and-twenty times in one psalm that sweet singer chaunts it ; ' His mercy eudureth for ever,' Ps. cxxxvi. * Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' As this meditation distils into our beheving hearts much comfort, so let it give us some instnictions. Two things it readily teacheth us : a dissuasive caution, and a persuasive lesson. 1. It dissuades our confidence in worldly things, because they are incon- stant. How poor a space do they remain, Ta avra, ' the same.' To prove this, you have in Jud. i. 7, a jury of threescore and ten kings to take their oaths upon it. Every one had his throne, yet there they hck up crumbs under another king's table ; and shortly even this king, that made them all so miserable, is made himself most miserable. Solomon compares wealth to a wild fowl. ' Riches make themselves wings, they fly away as an eagle toward heaven,' Prov. xxiii. 5. Not some tame house-bird, or a hawk that may be fetched down with a Im'e, or found again by her bells; but an eagle, that violently cuts the air, and is gone past recaUing. Wealth is like a bird; it hops all day from man to man, as that doth from tree to tree ; and none can say where it will roost or rest at night. It is Uke a vagrant fellow, which because he is big-boned, and able to work, a man takes in a-doors, and cherisheth; and perhaps for a while he takes pains; but when he spies opportunity, the fugitive servant is gone, and takes away more with him than aU his service came to. The world may seem to stand thee in some stead for a season, but at last it irrevocably runs away, and cai-ries with it thy joys; thy goods, as Rachel stole Laban's idols ; thy peace and content of heart goes with it, and thou art left des- perate. You see how quickly riches cease to be ' the same : ' and can any other earthly thing boast more stabihty ? Honour must put off its robes when the play is done ; make it never so glorious a show on this world's stage, it hath but a short part to act. A great name of worldly glory is but like a peal rung on the beUs ; the common people are the clappers ; the rope that moves them is popularity ; if you once let go your hold and leave pulling, the clapper lies stiU, and farewell honour. Strength, though, like Jero- boam, it put forth the ann of oppression, shall soon fall down withered, 1 Kings xiii. 4. Beauty is like an almanack : if it last a year it is well. Pleasure like Hghtning : ontur, rftoritur ; sweet, but short; a flash and away. All vanities are but butterflies, which wanton children greedily catch for* ; and sometimes they fly beside them, sometimes before them, sometimes behind them, sometimes close by them ; yea, through their fingers, and yet they miss them ; and when they have them, they are but butterflies ; they have painted wings, but are crude and squalid worms. Such are the things of this world, vanities, buttei-flies. Vel sequendo lahbnur, vcl assequendo latdi- mur. The world itself is not unlike an artichoke ; nine parts of it are unpro- fitable leaves, scarce the tithe is good : about it there is a little picking meat, nothing so wholesome as dainty : in the midst of it there is a core, which is enough to choke them that devour it. 0 then set not your hearts upon these things : calcanda sunt, as Jerome observes on Acts iv. * They that sold their possessions, brought the prices, and laid them down at the Apostles' feet," Acts iv. 35. At their feet, not at * Anselm, Medit. 4 SEMPER IDEM. [SeRMON L'ViLl. theii* hearts ; they are fitter to be trodden under feet, than to be waited on vrith hearts. I conckide this with Augustine. Ecce turbat mimdm, etamatur: quid si tranquiUus esset / Formoso quomodo hareres, qui sic ampJ extern fadum ? Flores ejus quam colligeres,qui si<: a spinis non revocas manum ? Quam confideres cBtemo, qui sic adhceres caduco ? Behold, the world is turbulent and full of vexation, yet it is loved ; how would it be embraced if it were cahn and quiet ? If it were a beauteous damsel, how would they dote on it, that so kiss it being a deformed stigmatic ? How greedily would they gather the flower?, who would not forbear the thorns ? They that so admire it being transient and temporal, how would they be enamonred on it if it were eternal ? But ' the world passeth,' 1 John ii. 17, and God abideth. ' They shall perish, but thou remainest : they all shall wax old as doth a garment : and as a vesture shalt thou fold them up, and they shall be changed : but thou art the same, and thy years shall not fail,' Heb. i. 11, 12. Therefore, * trust not in imcertain riches, but in the living God,' 1 Tim. vi. 17. And then, * they that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Sion, which cannot be re- moved, but abideth for ever,' Psa. cxxv. 1. ' Jesus Chiist, the same yes- terday, and to-day, and for ever.' 2. This persuades us to an imitation of Chiist's constancy. Let the stableness of his mercy to us work a stableness of our love to him. And howsoever, like the lower orbs, we have a natm'al motion of om' own from good to evil, yet let us suffer the higher power to move us supematurally from evil to good. There is in us indeed a reluctant flesh, ' a law in our members warring against the law of our mind,' Rom. vii. 23. So Augustine confesseth : Nee pi^ane noleham, )iec plane volebam. And, Ego eram qui vole- bam, ego qui nolebam.-'- I neither fully granted, nor plainly denied ; and it was I myself that both would and would not. But our ripeness of Chris- tianity must overgi'ow fluctuant thoughts. IiTesolution and unsteadiness is hateful, and unlike to our master Christ, who is ever the same. ' A double-minded man is unstable in all his ways,' James i. 8. The inconstant man is a stranger in his own house : all his purposes are but guests, his heart is the inn.' If they lodge there for a night, it is all ; they are gone in the morning. Many motions come crowd- ing together upon him ; and like a gi-eat press at a naiTow door, whiles all strive, none enter. The epigi'ammatist wittily, Omnia ciim facias, miraris cur facias nil ? Posthume, rem solam qui facit, ille facit.f He that will have an oar for every man's boat, shall have none left to row his own. They, saith Melancthon, that will know aliqiiid in omnibus, shall indeed know nihil in toto. Their admiration or dotage of a thing is extreme for the time, but it is a wonder if it outlive the age of a wonder, which is allowed but nine days. They are angiy with time, and say the times are dead, because they produce no more innovations. Then inquiry of all things is not quam bonum, but quam novum. They are almost weary of the sun for continual shining. Continuance is a sufiicient quaiTel against the best things ; and the manna of heaven is loathed because it is common. This is not to be always the same, but never the same ; and whiles they would be every thing, they are nothing : but like the worm PHny writes of, multipoda, that hath many feet, yet is of slow pace. Awhile you shall have him in England, loving the simple trath ; anon in Rome, groveUing before an image. Soon after he leaps to Amsterdam ; and yet must he still be * Confess, lib. viii. cap. 10. f Martial, Epig. lib. 3. HeB. XIII. 8.J SEMPEE roEM. 5 turning, till there be nothing left but to turn Turk. To winter an opinion is too tedious ; he hath been many things. What he will be, you shall scarce know till he is nothing. But the God of constancy would have his to be constant. Stedfast in your faith to him. ' Continue in the faith, grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel,' Col. i. 23. Stedfast in your faithfulness to man, promising and not disappointing. Psalm xv. 4. Do not aliud stantes, aUiid sedentes, lest your changing with God teach God to change with you. Nemo potest tihi Christum auferre, nisi te illi auferas.* No man can turn Christ from thee, unless thou tiuTi thyself from Christ. For ' Jesus Christ the same yesterday,' &c. m. We now come to the cii'cumference, wherein is a distinction of three times; past, present, fature. Tempora miitantur: the times change, the circimiference wheels about, but the centre is ' the same for ever,' We must resolve this triplicity into a triplicity. Christ is the same ac- cording to these three distinct terms, three distinct ways : — 1. Objective, in his word ; 2, subjective, in his power ; 3, elective, in his gracious operation. 1. Objectively. — Jesus Christ is the same'in his word ; and that (1) Yesterday in pre -ordination ; (2) To-day in incarnation ; (3) For ever in appHcation. (1.) Yesterday in pre-ordination. — So St Peter, in his sermon, tells the Jews, that ' he was dehvered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God,' Acts ii. 23. And in his epistle, that ' he was verily preordained before the foundation of the world,' 1 Pet. i. 20. He is called the ' Lamb slain fr'om the foundation of the world,' Eev. xiii. 8. Prius profuit, quam fuit. His prophets did foretell him, the types did prefigure him, God him- self did promise him. llatus ordo Dei: the decree of God is constant. Much comfort I must here leave to your meditation. If God preordained a Saviour for man, before he had either made man, or man marred himself, — as Paul to Timothy, ' He hath saved us according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,' 2 Tim. i. 9 ; — then sm-ely he meant that nothing should separate us from his eter- nal love in that Saviour, Rom. viii. 39. Quos elegit increatos, redemit per- ditos, non deseret redemptos. WTiom he chose before they were created, and when they were lost redeemed, he will not forsake being sanctified. (2.) To-day in incarnation. — ' "UTien the ftdness of time was come, God sent forth his Son made of a woman,' Gal. iv. 4. ' The Word was made flesh,' John i. 14 ; which was, saith Emissenus,f Non deposita, sed seposita majestate. Thus he became younger than his mother, that is as eternal as his Father. He was yesterday God before all worlds, he is now made man in the world. Sanguinem, quern jjro matre obtulit, antea de sanguine matris accqjit.\ The blood that he shed for his mother, he had from his mother. The same Eusebius, on the ninth of Isaiah, acutely, ' Unto us a child is bom, unto us a son is given,' Isa. ix. 6. He was Batus ex Divinitate, natus ex virgine. Datus est qui erat ; natus est qui non erat. He was given of the Deity, bom of the Virgin. He that was given, was before ; he, as bom, was not before. Donum dedit Deus cequale sibi : God gave a gift equal to himself. So he is the same yesterday and to-day, objectively in his word. Idem qui velatus in veteri, revelatus in novo. In illo pradictus, in isto prcedicatus. Yesterday prefigured in the law, to-day the same manifested in the gospel. (3.) For ever in operation. § — He doth continually by his Spirit apply to our consciences the virtue of his death and passion. * As many as receive * Ambr. in Luc. lib. 5. J Euseb. Emiss. ubi supra. t Horn. 2, de Nat. Christ. § Application. — Ed. ^ SEMPEK IDEM. [SeRMON LVIIl. him, to them gives he power to become the sons of God, even to them that beheve on his name,' John i. 12. ' By one oflfering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,' Heb. x. 14. This is sui'e comfort to us ; though he died ahnost 1629 years ago, his blood is not yet dry. His wounds are as fresh to do us good, as they were to those saints that beheld them bleeding on the cross. The virtue of his merits is not abated, though many hands of faith have taken large portions out of his treasury. Thr river of his gi'ace, ' which makes glad the city of God,' runs over its bank?, though infinite souls have drank hearty di'aughts, and satisfied their thirst. But because we cannot apprehend this for oui'selves of om-selves, therefore he hath promised to send us the ' Spirit of truth, who will dwell with us,' John xiv. 17, and apply this to us for ever. Thus you have seen the first triplicity, how he is the same objectively in his word. Now he is 2. Subjectively, in his power the same ; and that (1) Yesterday, for he made the world ; (2) To-day, for he governs the world ; (3) For ever, for he shall judge the world. (1.) Yesterday in the creation. ' All things were made by him, and with- out him was not anything made that was made,' John i. 3. ' By him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in eai'th, visible and invi- sible, whether they be thi-ones or dominions, or principahties, or powers ; all things were created by him, and for him,' Col. i. 16. All things, even the gi-eat and fair book of the world, of three so large leaves, ccelum, solum, salum ; heaven, earth, and sea. The prophet calls him * the everlasting Father,' Isa. ix. 6 ; Daniel, the ' Ancient of days,' Dan. vii. 9. Solomon says, that ' the Lord possessed him in the beginning of his way, before his works of old,' Prov. viii. 22. So himself told the unbelieving Jews, ' Be- fore Abraham was, I am,' John viii. 58. We owe, then, ourselves to Chiist for our creation ; but how much more for our redemption ? Si totum me deheo pro me facto, quid addam jam pro ms refecto? In jyrimo ojyere me mihi dedit: in secundo se mihi dedit.-i- If I owe him my whole self for making me, what have I left to pay him for re- deeming me ? In the fii'st work, he gave myself to me ; in the second, he gave himself to me. By a double right, we owe him oui'selves; we are worthy of a double punishment, if we give him not his own. (2.) To-day in the governing. ' He upholdeth all things by the word of his power,' Heb. i. 3. He is pater famiUas, and disposeth all things in this universe with gi-eater care and providence than any householder can manage the business of his private family. He leaves it not, as the car- penter having built the frame of an house, to others to perfect it, but looks to it himself. His creation and providence are like the mother and the nurse, the one produceth, the other presei-veth. His creation was a short providence ; his providence a perpetual creation. The one sets up the frame of the house, the other keeps it in reparation. Neither is this a disparagement to the majesty of God, as the vain Epicm'es imagined, curare vnnima, to regard the least things, but rather an honour, curare injinita, to regard all things. Neither doth this extend only to natural things, chained together by a regular order of succession, but even to casual and contingent things. Oftentimes, cum aliud volmnus, aliud ofiimus, the event crosseth our purpose ; which must content us, though it fall out othei-wise than we pm^wsed, because God purposed as it is fallen out. It is enough that the thing attain its own end, though it miss ours ; that God's wiU be done, though oui-s be crossed. * Bern, de dili";. Deo HeB. XIII. 8. J SEMPEB IDEM. 7 But let me say, Hath God care of fowls and flowers, and will he not care for you, his own image ? Matt. vi. 2G-30. Yea, let me go further ; hath God care of the wicked ? Doth he pour down the happy influences of heaven on the ' unjust man's ground ?' Matt. v. 45. And shall the faith- ful want his blessing ? Doth he provide for the sons of Behal, and shall his own children lack ? He may give meat and raiment to the rest, but his bounty to Benjamin shall exceed. If Moab, his wash-pot, taste of his benefits, then Judah, the signet on his finger, cannot be forgotten. The king governs all the subjects in his dominions, but his servants that wait in his court partake of his most princely favours. God heals the sores of the very wicked ; but if it be told him, * Lord, he whom thou lovest is sick,' (John xi. 3), it is enough, he shall be healed. The wicked may have out- ward blessings without inward, and that is Esau's pottage without his birth- right ; but the elect have inward blessings, though they want outward, and that is Jacob's inheritance without his pottage. (3.) For ever : because he shall judge the world. ' God hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained,' Acts xvii. 31. 'In the day that God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,' Eom. ii. 16. Let the wicked flatter them- selves that all is but talk of any coming to judgment ; non aliud videre patres, aliudve nepotes aspicient ; all is but terriculamenta niitricum, mere scare-babes. Scribarum penruB mendaces ; they have written hes, there ia no such matter. But when they shall see that Lamb * whom they have pierced' and scorned (Rev. i. 7), 'they shall cry to the mountains and rocks. Fall upon us, and cover us,' Rev. vi. 16. Now they flatter them- selves with his death ; JSLoi-tuns est, he is dead and gone ; and Mortuum Cccsarem quis metuit ? Who fears even a Caesar when he is dead ? But ' He that was dead, hveth ; behold, I am alive for evermore. Amen,' Rev. i. 18. * Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Qiussitor scelerum veniet, vindexque reorum. Here is matter of infallible comfort to us : ' Lift up your heads, fof your redemption draweth nigh,' Luke xxi. 28. Here we are imprisoned, mar- tyred, tortured ; but when that great assize and general jail-deLivery comes, mors non ent ultra, ' There shall be no more death nor sorrow, but all tearg shall be wiped from our eyes,' Rev. xxi. 4. ' For it is a righteous thing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you. And to you who are troubled, rest with us, when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven, with his mighty angels,' 2 Thess. i. 6, 7. We shall then find him the same ; — the same Lamb that bought us shall give us a Venite beati, ' Come, ye blessed, receive your kingdom.' ' Surely I come quickly. Amen. Even so, come. Lord Jesus,' Rev. xxii. 20. 3. Effectually in his grace and mercy. So he is the same, (1) Yesterday to our fathers ; (2) To-day to ourselves ; (3) For ever to our children. (1.) Yesterday to our fathers. — All our fathers, whose souls are now in heaven, those ' spirits of just men made perfect,' Heb. xii. 23, were, as the next words intimate, saved ' by Jesus, the Mediator of the new covenant, and by the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.' Whether they Uved under nature, or under the law, Christ was their expectation ; and they were justified credendo in venturum Christum, by beUeving in the Messiah to come. So Luke ii. 25, Simeon is said to ' wait for the consolation of Israel.' (2.) To-day to ourselves. — His mercy is everlasting; his truth endureth from generation to generation. The same gracious Saviour that he was 8 SEMPER IDEM. [SeRMON LVIII, yesterday to our fathers, is he to-day to us, if we be to-day faithful to him. All catch at this comfort, but in vain without the hand of faith. There is no deficiency in him ; but is there none in thee ? Whatsoever Christ is, what art thou ? He forgave Mary Magdalene many grievous sins ; so he will forgive thee, if thou canst shed Mary Magdalene's tears. He took the malefactor from the cross to Paradise ; thither he will receive thee if thou have the same faith. He was merciful to a denying apostle ; challenge the the like mercy, if thou have the like repentance. If we will be like thesi" Christ, assuredly, will be ever like himself. "When any man shall prove l, be such a sinner, he will not fail to be such a Saviour. To-day he is thine, if to-day thou wilt be his : thine to-morrow, if yet to-morrow thou wilt be his. But how if dark death prevent the morrow's light ? He was yesterday, so wert thou : he is to-day, so art thou : he is to-morrow, so perhaps mayest thou not be. Time may change thee, though it cannot change him. He is not (but thou art) subject to mutation. This I dare boldly say : he that repents but one day before he dies, shall find Christ the same in mercy and forgiveness. Wickedness itself is glad to hear this ; but let the sinner be faithful on his part, as God is merciful on his part : let him be sure that he repent one day before he dies, whereof he cannot be sm-e, except he repent every day ; for no man knows his last day. Latet ultimus dies, lit ohservetw otnnis dies. Therefore (saith Augustine) we know not oui* last day, that we might obser^^e eveiy day. ' To-day, therefore, hear his voice,' Psa. xcv. 7. Thou hast lost yesterday negligently, thou losest to-day wilfoUy; and therefore mayest lose for ever inevitably. It is just with God to punish two days' neglect with the loss of the third. The hand of faith may be withered, the spring of repentance diied up, the eye of hope blind, the foot of charity lame. To-day, then, hear his voice, and make him thine. Yesterday is lost, to-day may be gotten ; but that once gone, and thou with it, when thou art dead and judged, it will do thee small comfort that * Jesus Christ is the same for ever.' (3.) For ever to our children. — He that was yesterday the God of Abraham, is to-day ours, and will be for ever our children's. As well now ' the light of the Gentiles,' as before ' the glory of Israel,' Luke ii. 82. I will be the God of thy seed, saith the Lord to Abraham. ' His mercy is on them that fear him, from generation to generation,' Luke i. 50. Many persons are solicitously perplexed, how their children shall do when they are dead ; yet they consider not how God provided for them when they were children. Is the 'Lord's arm shortened?' Did he take thee from thy mother's breasts; and 'when thy parents forsook thee,' (as the Psahnist saith), became thy Father ? And cannot this experienced mercy to thee, persuade thee that he will not forsake thine? Is not ' Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever ? ' 'I have been young,' saith David, ' and am now old; yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken' — that is granted, nay — 'nor his seed begging bread,' Ps. xxxvii. 25. Many distrustful fathers are so carking for their posterity, that while they live they starve their bodies, and hazard their souls, to leave them rich. To such a father it is said justly: Dives es haredi, pauper inopsque tibi. Like an over-kind hen, he feeds his chickens, and famisheth himself. If usury, circumvention, oppression, extortion, can make them rich, they shall not be poor. Their folly is ridiculous ; they fear lest their children should be miserable, yet take the only course to make them miserable; for HeB. Xin. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 9 they leave them not eo much heu's to their goods as to their evils. Tliey do as certainly inherit their father's sins as their lands : ' God layeth up his iniquity for his childi-eu ; and his ofl'spring shall want a morsel of bread,' Job xxi. 19. On the contraiy, ' the good man is merciful, and lendeth ; and his seed is blessed,' Ps. xxxvii. 2G. That the worldling thinks shall make his posterity poor, God saith shall make the good man's rich. The precept gives a promise of mercy to obedience, not only confined to the obedient man's self, but extended to his seed, and that even to a thousand genera- tions, Exod. XX. 6. Tmst, then, Chi-ist with thy childi-en ; when thy friends shall fail, usurj' bear no date, oppression be condemned to hell, thyself rotten to the dust, the world itself turned and burned into cinders, still ' Jesus Clmst is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Now then, as * grace and peace are from him which is, and which was, and which is to come;' so glory and honour be to him, which is, and which was, and which is to come; even to ' Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever,' Rev. i. 4. THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. Bid the tongue can no man tame ; it is an unrmy evil, full of deadly poison.'' — James III, 8. Here is a single position, guarded with a double reason. The position is, ' No man can tame the tongue.' The reasons; 1. It is 'unruly.' 2. 'Full of deadly poison.' Here is busy dealing with a wild member; a more difficult task, and intractable nature have met. Tongue is the subject (I mean in the discourse), and can you ever think of subjecting it to modest reason, or taming it to religion ? Go lead a lion in a single hair, send up an eagle to the sky to peck out a star, coop up the thunder, and quench a flaming city with one widow's tears ; if thou couldst do these, yet nescit modo lingua domari. As the proposition is backed with two rea- sons ; so each reason hath a terrible second. The evil hath for its second un- ruliness ; the poisonfulness hath deadly. It is evil, yea, unruly evil ; it is poison, yea, deadly poison. The fort is so barricaded, that it is hard scaling it ; the refractory rebel so guarded with evil and poison, so warded with un- ruly and deadly, as if it were with giants in an enchanted tower, as they fabulate, that no man can tame it. Yet let us examine the matter, and find a stratagem to subdue it. I. In the Proposition we will observe, 1. The natui-e of the thing to be tamed. 2. The difficulty of accomplishing it. 1. The insubjectable subject is the tongue, which is (1), a member; and (2), an excellent, necessary, little, singular member. (1.) It is a member. — He that made all made the tongue; he that craves all, must have the tongue. Qui creavit necessariam, postulat creatam. It is an instniment ; let it give music to him that made it. AU creatures in their kind bless God, Ps. cxlviii. They that want tongues, as the heavens, sun, stars, meteors, orbs, elements, praise him witla such obedient testi- monies as their insensible natm-es can afford. They that have tongues, though they want reason, praise him with those natui'al organs. The birds of the air sing, the beasts of the earth make a noise ; not so much as the hissing serpents, the very ' dragons in the deep,' but sound out his praise. Man, then, that hath a tongue, and a reason to guide it, and more, a reU- gion to direct his reason, should much much more bless him. Therefore, says the Psalmographer, that for the well tuning of his tongue is called the * Sweet Singer of Israel,' ' I will praise the Lord with the best instrument I have,' which was his tongue. James III. 8.] the taming of the tongue. 11 Not that praise can add to God's glory, nor blasphemies detract from it. The blessing tongue cannot make him better, nor the cursing, worse. Nee melior si laudaveris, nee deterior si I'itnpemveris.* As the sun is neither bettered by birds singing, nor battered by dogs barking. He is so infinitely great, and constantly good, that his glory admits neither addition nor di- minution. Yet we that cannot make his name greater, can make it seem greater ; and though we cannot enlarge his glory, we may enlarge the manifestation of his glory. This both in words praising and in works practising. We know it is impossible to make a new Christ, as the papists boast the al- mightiness of their priests ; yet our holy Uves and happy lips (if I may so speak) may make a little Christ a gi'eat Christ. They that before little re- garded him, may thus be brought to esteem him greatly ; giving him the honour due to his name, and glorifying him, after our example. This is the tongue's office. Every member, without arrogating any merit, or boasting the beholdenness of the rest unto it, is to do that duty which is assigned to it. The eye is to see for all, the ear to hear for all, the hand to work for all, the feet to walk for all, the knees to bow for all, the tongue to praise God for all. This is the tongue's office, not unlike the town-clerk's, which, if it perform not well, the corporation is better without it. The tongue is man's clapper, and is given him that he may sound out the praise of his Maker. Infinite causes draw deservingly from man's Ups, a devout acknowledgment of God's praise ; Quia Creator ad esse; Conservator in esse; Recreator in bene esse; Glorijicator in optimo esse. He gave us being that had none ; preserved us in that being ; restored ns, voluntarily fallen, unto a better being; and will glorify us with the best at the day of the Lord Jesus. Then let the tongue know. Si non reddet Deo faciendo quce debet, reddet eipatiendo qum debet. \ If it will not pay God the debt it owes him in an active thankfulness, it shall pay him in a passive painfuLness. Let the meditation hereof put our tongues into tune. * A word fitly spoken, is Uke apples of gold in pictures of silver,' Prov. xxv. 11. (2.) It is a member you hear ; we must take it with all its properties ; excellent, necessary, little, singular. [1 .] Excellent. Abstractively and simply understood, it is an exceeding excellent member, both quoad majestatem, et quoad jiicunditatem. First ; For the majesty of it, it carries an imperious speech ; wherein it hath the pre-eminence of all mortal creatures. It was man's tongue to which the Lord gave hcence to call all the living creatures, and to give them names, Gen. ii. 19. And it is a strong motive to induce and to beget in other terrene natures a reverence and admii'ation of man. Therefore it is observed, that God did punish the ingratitude of Balaam, when he gave away some of the dignity proper to man, which is use of speech, and im- parted it to the ass. Man alone speaks. I know that spiiits can frame ar aerial voice, as the devil when he spake in the sei-pent that fatal temptation, as in a trunk ; but man only hath the habitual faculty of speaking. Secondly; For the pleasantness of the tongue, the general consent of all gives it the truest melos, and restrains all musical organs from the worth and praise of it. ' The pipe and the psaltery make sweet melody ; but a pleasant tongue is above them both,' Ecclus. xl. 21. No instruments are so ravishing, or prevail over man's heart with so powerful complacency, as the tongue and voice of man. If the tongue be so excellent, how then doth this text censure it for so * Aug. in Ps. cxxxiv. f Angnst. 1"2 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeBMON TJX. evil ? I take the pliilosliplier's old and trite answer, Lingua nihil est vel bona melius, vel mala pejus : Than a good tongue, there is nothing better ; than an e\il, nothing worse. Nihil hahet medium , aut (jrande bonumest, aut grande malum ;-' It hath no mean ; it is either exceedingly good or ex- cessively evil. It knows nothing but extremes ; and is or good, best of all ; or bad, worst of all. If it be good, it is a walking garden, that scatters in every place a sweet flower, an herb of grace to the hearers. If it be evil, it is a wild bedlam, full of goading and madding mischiefs. So the tongue is every man's be-st or worst moveable. Hereupon that philosophical servant, when he was commanded to provide the best meat for his master's table, the worst for the family, bought and brought to either, neats' tongues. His moral was, that this was both the best and worst service, according to the goodness or badness of the tongue. A good tongue is a special dish for God's public service. Pars optima hominis, dignaqua sit hostia:\ The best part of a man, and most worthy the honour of sacrifice. This only when it is well seasoned. Seasoned, I say, ' mth salt,' as the apostle admonisheth ; not with fire. Col. iv. 6. Let it not be so salt as fire (as that proverb speaks), which no man living hath tasted. There is ' a city of salt, 'mentioned Josh. xv. 62. Let no man be an inhabitant of this salt city. Yet better a salt tongue than an oily. Kather * let the righteous reprove me,' than the precious balms of flatterers break my head, whilst they most sensibly soothe and supple it. We allow the tongue salt, not pepper ; let it be well seasoned, but not too hot. Thus a good tongue is God's dish, and he will accept it at his own table. But an evil tongue is meat for the devil, according to the Itahan proverb : The devil makes his Chiistmas pie of lewd tongues. It is his daintiest dish, and he makes much of it ; whether on earth, to serve his turn as an instra- ment of mischief, or in hell, to answer his fury in torments. Thus saith Solomon of the good tongue : ' The tongue of the just is as choice silver, and the Hps of the righteous feed many,' Prov, x. 20, 21. But Saint James of the bad one : ' It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.' [2.] It is necessary ; so necessary, that without a tongue I could not de- clare the necessity of it. It converseth with man, convejing to others by this organ that experimental knowledge which must else live and die in himself. It imparts secrets, communicates joys, which would be less happy suppressed than they are expressed ; nm-th without a partner is hilaris cum pondere feli- citas. But to disburden griefs, and pour forth sorrows in the bosom of a fiiend, 0 necessary tongue ! How many hearts would have burst if thou hadst not given them vent ! How many souls fallen grovelling under their load, if thou hadst not called for some supportance ! How many a panting spirit hath said, I wiU speak yet ere I die ; and by speaking received com- fort ! Lastly, it speaks our devotions to heaven, and hath the honour to confer with God. It is that instrument which the Holy Ghost useth ia us to cry, ' Abba, Father.' It is our spokesman ; and he that can hear the heart without a tongue, regardeth the devotions of the heart better, when they are sent up by a dihgent messenger, a faithful tongue. [3.] It is httle. As man is a httle world in the great, so is his tongue a gi-eat world in the little. It is a ' little member,' saith the apostle, ver. 5, yet it is a world ; yea, pravitatis universitas, ' a world of iniquity,' ver. 6. It is parvum, but pravum ; httle in quantity, but great in iniquity. What it hath lost in the thickness, it hath gotten in the quickness ; and the defect of magnitude is recompensed in the agihty. An arm may be longer, but the * Hieroa. t Prudentius. James HI. 8.] the TAirixo of the tongue. 13 toncrue is stronger; and a leg hath more flesh than it hath, besides bones, which it hath not ; yet the tongue still rung quicker and faster : and if the wager lie for holding out, without doubt the tongue shall win it. If it be a talking tongue, it is mundus garmUtatis, a world of prating. If it be a WTangling tongue, it is mundus Utu/ationis, a world of babbling. If it be a learned tongue, it is, as Erasmus said of Bishop Tonstal, mundus eruditionis, a world of learning, If it be a petulant tongue, it is mundus scurriUtatis, a world of wantonness. If it be a poisonous tongue, it is mun- dus infectionis ; saith our apostle, ' it defileth the whole body,' ver. 6. It is * little.' So Uttle, that it will scarce give a kite her breakfast, yet it can discourse of the sun and stars, of orbs and elements, of angels and devils, of nature and arts ; and hath no straiter limits than the whole world to walk through. Homuncio est, gigantea jactat : It is a ' httle member,' yet ' boasteth great things,' ver. 5. Though it be Uttle, yet if good, it is of great use. A little bit guideth a great horse, ad equitis libitum, to the rider's pleasure. A little helm ruleth a^eat vessel ; though the winds blow, and the floods oppose, yet the hehn steers the ship. Though Uttle, yet if evil, it is of great mischief. ' A Uttle leaven sours the whole lump,' 1 Cor. v. 6. A Uttle remora dangers a great vessel. A Uttle sickness distempereth the whole body. A Uttle fire setteth a whole city on combustion. ' Behold how great a matter a Uttle fixe kindleth,' ver. 5. It is Uttle in substance, yet great ad affectum, to provoke passion ; ad effectum, to produce action. A Seminary's tongue is able to set instruments on work to blow up a parUament. So God hath disposed it among the members, that it governs or misgoverns aU ; and is either a good king, or a cruel tvrant. It either prevails to good, or perverts to evil ; purifieth or putrefieth the whole carcase, the whole conscience. It betrayeth the heart, when the heai-t would betray God ; and the Lord lets it double treason on itself, when it prevaricates with him. It is a Uttle leak that drowneth a ship, a Uttle breach that loseth an army, a little spring that pours foiih an ocean. Little ; yet the Uon is more troubled with the little wasp, than with the great elephant. And it is ob- seiTable, that the Egyptian sorcerers failed in minimis, that appeared skilful and powerful in majoribus. Doth Moses turn the waters into blood ? ' The magicians did so with their enchantments,' Exod. vu. 22. Doth Aaron stretch out his hand over the waters, and cover the land with frogs ? ' The magi- cians did so with their enchantments,' Exod. viii. 7. But when Aaron smote the dust of the land, and turned it into Uce (ver. 17), the magicians could not effect the Uke ; nor in the ashes of the furnace turned into boils and blains, chap. is. 10. In frogs and waters they held a semblance, not in the dust and ashes turned into Uce and sores. Many have dealt better with the greater members of the body than with this Uttle one. Defecerunt in minimis: Virtus non minima est, minimam compescere linguam. [4.] It is a singular member. God hath given man two ears ; one to hear instructions of human knowledge, the other to hearken to his divine precepts ; the former to conserve his body, the latter to save his soul. Two eyes, that with the one he might see to his own way, with the other pity and commiserate his distressed brethren. Two hands, that with the one he might work for his own Uving, with the other give and reUeve his brother's wants. Two feet, one to walk on common days to his ordinary labour. 14 THE T.V^nNO OF THE TONGUE. [SeRMON LIX. * Man goes forth in the morning to his labour, and continues till the even- ing,' Ps. civ. 23 : the other, on sacred days to visit and frequent the temple and the congregation of saints. But among all, he hath given him but one tongue ; which may instruct him to hear twice so much as he speaks ; to work and walk twice so much as he speaks. ' I will praise thee, 0 Lord, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made : marvellous are thy works ; and that my soul knoweth right well,' Ps. cxxxix. 14. Stay, and wonder at the wonderful wisdom of God ! First, To create so little a piece of flesh, and to put such vigour into it : to give it neither bones nor nerves, yet to make it stronger than arms and legs, and those most able and serviceable parts of the body. So that as Paul saith, ' On those members of the body, which we think less honour- able, we bestow more abundant honour : and our uncomely parts have more abundant comeliness,' 1 Cor. xii. 23. So on this little weak member hath the Lord conferred the greatest strength ; and as feeble as it is, we find it both more necessary and more honourable. Secondly, Because it is so forcible, therefore hath the most wise God ordained that it shall be but little, that it shall be but one. That so the parvity and singularity may abate the vigour of it. If it were paired, as the arms, legs, hands, feet, it would be much more unruly. For he that cannot tame one tongue, how would he be troubled with twain ! But so hath the Ordinator provided, that things of the fiercest and firiest nature should be little, that the malice of them might be somewhat restrained. Thirdly, Because it is so unruly, the Lord hath hedged it in, as a man wiU not trust a wild horse in an open pasture, but prison him in a close pound. A double fence hath the Creator given to confine it, the lips and the teeth ; that through these mounds it might not break. And hence a threefold instruction for the use of the tongue is insinuated to us. First; Let us not dare to pull up God's mounds; nor, Uke wild beasts, break through the circular limits wherein he hath cooped us. ' Look that thou hedge thy possession about with thorns, and bind up thy silver and gold,' Ecclus. xxviii. 24. What, doth the wise man intend to give us some thrifty counsel, and spend his ink in the rule of good husbandry, which every worldling can teach himself? No. Yes; he exhorteth us to the best husbandly, how to guide and guard our tongues, and to thrive in the good use of speech. Therefore declares himself : ' Weigh thy words in a balance, and make a door and bar for thy mouth.' Let this be the posses- sion thou so hedgest in, and thy precious gold thou so bindest up. ' Be- ware thou slide not by it, lest thou fall before him that lieth in wait.' Commit not burglary, by breaking the doors, and pulhng down the bars of thy mouth. Much more, when the Lord hath hung a lock on it, do not pick it with a false key. Rather pray with David, ' 0 Lord, open thou my hps, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise,' Ps. U. 15. It is absurd in building, to make the porch bigger than the house ; it is as monstrous in nature, when a man's words are too many, too mighty. Every man mocks such a gaping boaster with Quid feret hie difjnvm tanto promissor hiatu? Saint Bernard gives us excellent counsel. Sint tiia verba vara, contra midtiloquium ; vera, contra falsiloquium ; ponderosa, contra vaniloquium. Let thy words be few, true, weighty, that thou mayest not speak much, not falsely, not vainly. Ee- member the boimds, and keep the non ultra. Secondly ; Since God hath made the tongue one, have not thou * a tongue and a tongue.' Some are double-tongued, as they are d'vbl«-hearted. James HI. 8. J the taming of the tongue. 15 But God hath given one tongue, one heart, that they might be one indeed, as they are in number. It is made simple ; let it not be double. God hath made us men ; we make ourselves monsters. He hath given us two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet. Of all these we vnW have, or at least use, but one. We have one eye to prj- into others' faults, not another to Bee our own. We have one ear to hear the plaintifl", not the other for the defendant. We have a foot swift to enter forbidden paths, not another to lead us to God's holy place. We have one hand to extort, and scrape, and wound, and not another to relieve, give alms, heal the wounded. But now whereas God hath given us but one tongue and one heart, and bidden us be content with their singularity, we will have two tongues, two hearts. Thus cross are we to God, to nature, to gi-ace ; monstrous men ; monoculi, monopodes: bicordes,hilingues: one-eyed, one-footed ; double-tongued, double- hearted. The slanderer, the flatterer, the swearer, the tale-bearer, are mon- strous (I dare scarce add) men : as misshapen stigmatics as if they had two tongues and but one eye ; two heads and but one foot. Thirdly ; This convinceth them of preposterous folly, that put all their malice into theii* tongue, as the sei-pent all her poison in her tail; and, as it were by a chemical power, attract all vigour thither, to the weakening and enervation of the other parts. Their hands have chiragram ; they cannot stretch them forth to the poor, nor give relief to the needy. Their feet podagram ; they cannot go to the church. Their eyes opththalmiam ; they cannot behold the miserable and pity-needing. Their ears surditatem ; they cannot hear the gospel preached. Oh how defective and sick all these members are! But their tongues are in health; there is blitheness and volubility in them. K they see a distressed man, they can give him talkative comfort enough; ' Be warmed, be filled, be satisfied,' Jam. ii. 16. They can fill him with Scripture sentences, but they send him away with a hungry stomach; whereas the good man's hand is as ready to give, as his tongue to speak. But the fool's lips babbleth foolishness; volat irrevocabile verbum. Words run like Asahel; but good works, like the cripple, come lagging after. 2. We see the nature of the thing to be tamed, the tongue ; let us consider the difficulty of this enterprise. No man can do it. Which we shall best find, if we compare it (1.) with other members of the body; (2.) with other creatures of the world. (1.) With other members of the body, which are various in their faculties and offices; none of them idle. [l.J The eye sees far, and beholdeth the creatures in ccelo, solo, salo: in the heavens, sun, and stars ; on the earth, birds, beasts, plants, and minerals; in the sea, fishes and serpents. That it is an um-uly member, let our grandmother speak, whose roving eye lost us aU. Let Dinah speak; her wandering eye lost her virginity, caused the efiusion of much blood. Let the Jews speak concerning the daughters of Midian; what a fearful apostasy the eye procui-ed ! Yea, let David acknowledge, whose petulant eye robbed Uriah of his wife and life, the land of a good soldier, his own heart of much peace. Yet this eye, as unruly as it is, hath been tamed. Did not Job * make a covenant with his eyes, that he would not look upon a maid?' Job xxxi. 1. The eye hath been tamed; 'but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil.' [2.] The ear yet hears more than ever the eye saw; and by reason of its patulous admission, derives that to the understanding whereof the sight 16 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeKMON LIX. never had a glance. It can listen to the whisperings of a Doeg, to the su- surrations of a devil, to the noise of a Siren, to the voice of a Delilah, The parasite through this window creeps into the great man's favour; he tunes his warbling notes to an enlarged ear. It is a wild member, an instrument that Satan delights to play upon. As unruly as it is, yet it hath been tamed. Maiy sat at the feet of Christ, and heard him preach with glad attention. The ear hath been tamed; * but the tongue can no man tame,' &c. [3.] The foot is an unhappy member, and carries a man to much wicked- ness. It is often swift to the shedding of blood ; and runneth away from God, Jonah's pace; flying to Tarshish, when it is bound for Nineveh. There is ' a foot of pride,' Ps. xxxvi. 11, a saucy foot, that dares presump- tuously enter upon God's freehold. There is a foot of rebellion, that with an apostate malice kicks at God. There is a dancing foot, that paceth the measures of circular wickedness. Yet, as unnily as this foot is, it hath been tamed. David got the victory over it. * I considered my ways, and turned my foot unto thy testimonies,' Ps. cxix. 59. The foot hath been tamed; ' but the tongue can no man tame,' &c. [4.] The hand rageth and rangeth with violence, to take the bread it never sweat for, to enclose fields, to depopulate towns, to lay waste whole countries. ' They covet fields, and houses, and vineyards, and take them, because their hand hath power,' Mic. ii. 2. There is a hand of extortion, as Allah's was to Naboth; the greedy landlord's to the poor tenant. There is a hand of fraud and of legerdemain, as the usurer's to the distressed borrower. There is a hand of bribery, as Judas, with his quantum dahitis, what will you give me to betray the Lord of Ufe ? There is a hand of lust, as Amnon's to an incestuous rape. There is a hand of murder, as Joab's to Abner, or Absalom's to Amnon. Oh, how unruly hath this member been ! Yet it hath been tamed ; not by washing it in Pilate's basin, but in David's holy water, innocence. ' I will wash my hands in innocency, and then, 0 Lord, will I compass thine altar.' Hereupon he is bold to say, * Lord, look if there be any iniquity in my hands,' Ps. vii. 3. God did repudiate all the Jews' sacrifices, because their hands were full of blood, Isa. i. 15. David's hands had been besmeared with the aspersions of lust and blood, but he had penitently bathed them in his own tears ; and because that could not get out the stains, he faithfully rinseth and cleanseth them in his Son's and Saviour's fountain, the all-meritorious blood of Christ. This made them look white, whiter than lihes in God's sight. ' Therefore hath the Lord recompensed me according to my righteousness ; according to the cleanness of my hands in his eyesight,' Ps. xviii. 24. Thus the eye, the ear, the foot, the hand, though wild and unruly enough, have been tamed ; ' but the tongue can no man tame ; it is an unruly evil,' &c. (2.) With other creatm'es of the world, whether we find them in the earth, air, or water. [1.] On the earth there is the man-hating tiger, yet man hath subdued him ; and (they write) a little boy hath led him in a string. There is the flock- devouring wolf, that stands at grinning defiance with the shepherd; mad to have his prey, or lose himself; yet he hath been tamed. The roaring lion, whose voice is a terror to man, by man hath been subdued. Yea serpents, that have to their strength two shrewd additions, subtlety and malice ; that carry venom in their mouths, or a sting in their tails, or James III. 8.j the taming of the tongue. 17 are all over poisonous ; the vgit basilisk, that kills with his eyes (as they write) three fui'longs otf. Yea, all these savage, furious, malicious natures have been tamed; ' but the tongue can no man tame; it is an unruly evil,' &c. [2.] In the sea there be great wonders. * They that go down to the Bea in ships, that do business in g^*eat waters ; these see the works of the Lord, and his wonders in the deep,' Ps. cvii. 23, 24. Yet those natural wonders have been tamed by om* artificial wonders, ships. Even the levi- athan himself, ' out of whose mouth go bui-ning lamps and sparks of fire. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a boiling caldron,' Job xli. 19, 20. Squama squamce conjangitur: 'the flakes of his flesh are joined together; they are finn in themselves, and cannot be moved.' Yet we know that this huge creature hath been tamed ; ' but the tongue can no man tame,' &c. [3.] In the air, the birds fly high above our reach, yet we have gins to fetch them down. A Im'e stops the highest- soaring hawk; nay, art makes one fowl catch another, for man's delight and benefit; incredible things, if they were not ordinary. Snares, lime-twigs, nets, tame them all; even the pelican in the desert, and the eagle amongst the cedars. Thus saith our apostle, verses 7, 8 : * Eveiy kind' (not eveiy one of every kind, but every kind of natm-e of all), ' of beasts, of birds, of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of the natui-e of man ; * but the tongue can no man tame,' &c. Thus far, then, St James's proposition passeth without opposition. • The tongue can no man tame;' the tongue is too wild for any man's taming. It would be a foolish exception (and yet there are such profane tongues to speak it), that woman stands without this compass and latitude ; and to infer, that though no man can tame the tongue, yet a woman may. It is most tmwoi*thy of answer. Woman, for the most part, hath the glibbest tongue ; and if ever this impossibility preclude men, it shall much more annihilate the power of the weaker sex. ' She is loud,' saith Solomon, Prov. vii. 11 ; ' a fooUsh woman is ever clamorous,' ix. 13. She calls her tongue her defensive weapon ; she means oftensive : a firebrand in a frantic hand doth less mischief. The proverb came not from nothing, when we say of a brawling man, He hath a woman's tongue in his head. ' The tongue can no man tame.' Let us listen to some weightier excep- tions. The prophets spake the oracles of Ufe, and the apostles the words of salvation; and many men's speech ministers grace to the hearers. Yield it; yet this general rule will have no exceptions: ' no man can tame it:' man hath no stem* for this ship, no bridle for this colt. How then? God tamed it. We by nature stammer as Moses, till God open a door of utterance. ' I am of unclean lips,' saith the prophet, ' and dwell with a people of unclean hps,' Isa. vi. 5. God must lay a coal of his own altar upon our tongues, or they cannot be tamed. And when they are tamed, yet thej often have an unruly trick. Abraham hes ; Moses murmurs ; EUas, for fear of a queen and a quean, wisheth to die. Jonah frets for the gourd ; David cries in his heart,f ' All men are liars ;' which speech rebounded even on God himself, as if the Lord by Samuel had deceived him. Peter forswears his Master, his Saviour. If the tongues of the just have thus tripped, how should the profane go upright ? ' The tongue can no man tame.' The instniction hence riseth in full strength ; that God only can tame * Qu, ' helm ?'— i:d. t Qii ' h.<<*t« ?' or • heat ?'— Ed. VOL. Ill B 18 THE TAMING OF THl; TONGUE. [SeEMON LIX. man's tongue. Now the principal actions hereof are, first, to open the mouth, when it should not be shut ; secondly, to shut it, when it should not be open. First, To open our lips when they should speak is the sole work of God. ' 0 Lord, open thou my lips, and then my mouth shall be able to shew forth thy praise,' Ps. h. 15. God must open with his golden key of grace, or else our tongues will arrogate a hcentious passage. We had better hold our peace, and let our tongues lie still, than set them a-running till God bids them go. God commands every sinner to confess his iniquities ; this charge, David knew, concerned himself; yet was David silent, and then his 'bones waxed old' with anguish, Ps. xxxii. 8. His adultery cried, his murder cried, his ingratitude cried for revenge ; but still David was mute ; and so long, ' day and night, the hand of the Lord was heavy upon him.' But at last God stopped the mouth of his clamorous adversaries, and gave him leave to speak. * I acknowledged my sin unto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgi'essions mito the Lord, and thou forgavest the iniquity of my sin.' It is Christ that must cast out this devil. The Lord is the best opener. He did open Lydia's heart, to conceive. Acts xvi. 14. He did open Elisha's sei-vant's eyes to see, 2 Kings vi. 17. He did open the prophet's ears to hear, Isa. 1. 5. He did open Paul's mouth to speak, Col. iv. 8. Secondhj, To shut our lips when they should not speak, is only the Lord's work also. It is Christ that casts out the talking devil ; he shuts the wicket of our mouth against unsavomy speeches. We may think it a high office (and worthy even Da^dd's ambition) to be a ' door-keeper in God's house' Ps. Ixxxiv. 10, when God vouchsafes to be a door-keeper in our house. Thus all is from God. Man is but a lock ; God's Spirit the key * that openeth, and no man shutteth ; that shutteth, and no man openeth,' Rev. iii. 7. He opens, and no man shuts. I must speak though I die, saith Jeremiah ; ' his word is like fire in my bones,' Jer. xx. 9 ; and will make me weary of forbearing. He shuts, and no man opens ; so Zacharias goes dumb from the altar, and could not speak, Luke i. 22. Away, then, with arrogation of works, if not of words. When a man hath a good thought, it is gratia infiisa ; when a good work, it is gratia dif- fusa. If then man cannot produce words to praise God, much less can he procure his works to please God. If he cannot tune his tongue, he can never tm-n his heart. Two useful benefits may be made hereof. First, It is taught us, whither we have recourse to tame our tongues. He that gave man a tongue, can tame the tongue. He that gave man a tongue to speak, can give him a tongue to speak well. He that placed that unruly member in his mouth, can give him a mouth to rale it. He can give psalms for carols ; the songs of Zion for the ballads of hell. Man hath no bridle, no cage of brass, nor bars of u'on to tame it ; God can. Let us move our tongues to entreat help for our tongues ; and, according to their office, let us set them on work to speak for themselves. Secondly, We must not be idle ourselves ; the difficulty must spur us to more earnest contention. As thou wouldst keep thy house from thieves, thy garments from moths, thy gold from rust, so carefully preserve thy tongue from imruliness. As 'the Lord doth set a watch before thy mouth, and keep the door of thy Ups,' Ps. cxH. 3 ; so thou must also be vigilant thyself, and not tm-n over thy own heart to secm-ity. * How can ye, being evil, speak good things ? for out of the abundance of the heart James III. 8. J the taming of the tongue. 19 the mouth speaketh,' Matt. xii. 3i. Look how far the heart is good, so far the tongue. If the heart believe, the tongi;e will confess ; if the heart be meek, the tongue ■will be gentle ; if the heart be angry, the tongue will be bitter. The tongue is but the hand without, to shew how the clock "oes within. A vain tongi;e discovers a vain heart. But some have words oft as butter, when their hearts are keen swords ; be they never so well traded in the art of dissembling, some time or other the tongue, Judas-like, will betray its master ; it will mistake the heart's en-and, and, with stum- bling forgetfulness, trip at the door of truth. ' The heart of fools is in their mouth : but the mouth of the wise is in their heart,' Eccles. xxi. 26. To avoid ill communication, hate iU cogitation : a polluted heart makes a foul mouth ; therefore one day, ex ore tuo, ' out of thine own mouth, will God condemn thee.' n. 1. It is ' an unruly evil.' — The difficulty of taming the tongue, one would think, were sufficiently expressed in the evil of it ; but the apostle seconds it with another obstacle, signifying the wild nature of it, unnily. It is not only an evil, but an umnily evil. I -will set the champion and his second together in this fight, and then shew the hardness of the combat. Bernard saith. Lingua facile volat, et ideo facile violat: The tongue runs quickly, therefore wrongs quickly. Speedy is the pace it goes, and there- fore speedy is the mischief it does. "When all other members are dull with age, the tongue alone is quick and nimble. It is an unruly evil to ourselves, to our neighbours, to the whole world.* (1.) To ourselves ; verse 6, ' it is so placed among the members, that it defile th all.' Though it were evil as the plague, and unruly as the possessed Gergesene (Matth. viii.), yet if set ofi" ■with distance, the evil rests ■within itself. A leper shut up in a pesthouse rankleth to himself, infects not others. A ■svild cannibal in a prison may only exercise his savage cruelty upon the stone walls or iron grates. But the tongue is so placed, that being e'vil and unruly, it hmis all the members. (2.) To our neighbours. There are some sins that hurt not the doer only, but many sufierers. These are distrietly the sins of the tongue and the hand. There are other sins, private and domestical, the sting and smart whereof dies in the O'wn soul ; and "without farther extent, plagues only the o^wn soul ; and ■without farther extent, plagues only the person of the com- mitter. So the la^vish is called no man's foe but his o^wn ; the proud is guilty of his o^wn vanity ; the slothful bears his o^wn reproach ; and the malicious wasteth the marrow of his own bones, whiles his envied object shines in happiness. Though perhaps these sins insensibly ■wrong the commonwealth, yet the principal and immediate blow Ughts on themselves. But some iniquities are swords to the country, as oppression, rapine, cir- cumvention ; some incendiaries to the whole land, as evil and unruly tongues. (3.) To the whole world. If the vastate ruins of ancient monuments, if the depopulation of countries, if the consuming fixes of contention, if the land manured -with blood, had a tongue to speak, they would all accuse the tongue for the original cause of their woe. Slaughter is a lamp, and blood the oil ; and this is set on fire by the tongue. You see the latitude and extension of this unruly e'vil, more unruly than the hand. Slaughters, massacres, oppressions, axe done by the hand ; the tongue doth more. Parcit maniis absenti, lingua nemini: The hand spares to hurt the absent, the tongue hurts all. One may avoid the sword by • Erasm. 20 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeRMON LIX. running from it ; not the tongue, though he nin to the Indies. The hand reacheth but a small compass ; the tongue goes thi-ough the world, If a man wore coat of ai-mom% or mail of brass, jet pen£trabu7it spicida linguce: the darts of the tongue wiU pierce it. It is evil, and doth much hann ; it is unruly, and doth sudden harm. You will say. Many wicked men have often veiy silent tongues. True ; they know their times and places, when and where to seem mute. But Jeremiah compounds the wisdom and folly of the Jews : that ' they were wise to do evil, but to do good they had no understanding,' Jer. iv. 22, So I may say of these, they have tongue enough to speak evil, but are dumb when they should speak weU. Our Saviom", in the days of his flesh on earth, was often troubled with dumb devils (Luke xi. 14) ; but now he is as much troubled with roaring devils. "With the fawning sycophant, a prattUng devil ; with the malicious slanderer, a brawhng devil ; with the unquiet peace-hater, a scolding devil ; with the avarous and ill-conscious lawyer, a wrangling devil ; with the fac- tious schismatic, a gaping devil ; with the swaggering niffian, a roaring devil. All whom Christ by his ministers doth conjui'e, as he once did that crying devil, ' Hold thy peace and come out.' These are silent enough to praise God, but loud as the cataracts of Nilus to applaud vanity. David said of himself, that ' when he held his peace, yet he roared all the day long,' Psa. xxxii. 3. Strange ! be silent, and yet roar too, at once ! Gre- gory ansv/ers : He that daily commits new sins, and doth not penitently confess his old, roars much, yet holds his tongue. The father pricked the pleui-isy-vein of om' times. For we have many roarers, but dumb roarers. Though they can make a hellish noise in a tavern, and swear down the devil himself ; yet to praise God, they are as mute as fishes. Saint James here caUs it fii'e. Now you know fire is an ill master ; but this is unruly fire. Nay, he calls it ' the fii-e of hell,' blown with the bellows of malice, kindled with the breath of the devil. Nay, Stella hath a conceit, that it is worse than the fii'e of hell ; for that tonnents only the wicked ; this all, both good and bad. For it is Jlabellum iuvidi, ajidjiagellum justi. Swearers, railers, scolds, have hell-fire in their tongues. This would seem incredible ; but that God saith it is true. Such are hellish people, that spit abroad the flames of the devil. It is a cursed mouth that spits fire ; how should we avoid those, as men of hell ! Many are afraid of hell-fire, yet nourish it in their own tongues. By this kind of language, a man may know who is of hell. There are thi-ee sorts of lan- guages obsei-ved : celestial, terrestrial, and infernal. The heavenly language is spoken by the saints. ' Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be stiU praising thee,' Psa. Ixxxiv. 4. Their discoiu-se is habituated, like their com-se or conversation, which Paul saith is heavenly, Phil. iii. 20. The earthly tongue is spoken of worldlings : ' He that is of the eai-th is earthly ; and speaketh of the earth,' John iii. 81. Worldly talk is for worldly men. The infernal language is spoken by men of hell ; such as have been taught by the devil : they speak like men of BeUal. Now, as the countiyman is known by his language, and as the damsel told Peter, ' Sm-e thou art of Gahlee, for thy speech bewraj^eth thee ;' so by this rule you may know heavenly men by thefr gracious conference ; earthly men by their worldly talk ; and helUsh, by the language of the low countries — swearing, cursing, blasphemy. WeU therefore did the apostle call this tongue a fire ; and such a fire as sets the whole world in combustion. Let these unruly tongues take heed James III. 8.] the taming of the tongue. 21 lest by their roarings they shake the battlements of heaven, and so waken an incensed God to judgment. There is a ' curse that gocth forth, and it shall enter into the house of the swearer,' and not only cut him off, but ' consume his house, with the timber and the stones of it,' Zech. v. 4. It was the prophet Jeremiah's complaint, that ' for oaths the land mourned,' Jer. xxiii. 10. No mar\-el if God curse us for our cursings ; and if the plague light upon our bodies, that have so liotly trolled it in our tongues ; no wonder if we have blistered carcases, that have so blistered consciences ; and the stench of contagion punish us for our stinking breaths. Our tongues must walk, tiU the hand of God walk against us. 2. 'Full of deadly poison.' — Poison is hominiinimicum ; loathsomely- contrary to man's natm-e ; but there is a poison not mortal, the venom whereof may be expelled ; that is ' deadly poison.' Yet if there was but a little of this resident in the wicked tongue, the danger were less ; nay, it is ftdl of it, ' full of deadly poison.' Tell a blasphemer this, that he vomits hell fii-e, and carries deadly poison in his mouth ; and he will laugh at thee. Beloved, we preach not this of our own heads ; we have our infallible waiTant. God speaks it. ' The poison of asps is under their lips,' saith the psalmist, Psa. cxl. 3. It is a loathsome thing to carry poison in one's mouth ; we would fly that sei*pent, yet yield to converse with that man. A strangely hated thing in a beast, yet customable in many men's tongues. Whom poison they? First, Them- selves ; they have speckled souls. Secondly, They sputter their venom abroad, and bespui-tle others ; no beast can cast his poison so far. Thirdly, Yea they would (and no thanks to them that they cannot) poison God's most sacred and feared name. Let us judge of these things, not as flesh and blood imagineth, but as God pronounceth. It is observable that which way soever a wicked man useth his tongue, he canoQot use it well. Mordet detrahendo, lingit adulando : He bites by de- traction, licks by flatteiy ; and either of these touches rankle ; he doth no less hui-t by licking than by biting. Ail the parts of his mouth are instru- ments of wickedness. Logicians, in the difference betwixt vocem and sonum, say that a voice is made by the lips, teeth, throat, tongue. The psahnographer on every one of these hath set a brand of wickedness. 1. The Lips are labia dolosa; 'lying lips,' Psa. cxx. 2. 2. The teeth are frementes, frendentes ; ' gnashing teeth.' 3. The tongue lingua mendax, lingua mordax : ' "WTiat shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue ?' ver. 3. 4. The throat patens sepulchrum : ' Their throat is an open sepulchre,' Rom. iii. 13. This is a monstrous and fearful mouth ; where the porter, the porch, the entertainer, the receiver, are all vicious. The lips are the porter, and that is fraud ; the porch, the teeth, and there is malice ; the entertainer, the tongue, and there is lying ; the receiver, the thi-oat, and there is devouring. I cannot omit the moral of that old fable. Three children call one man father, who brought them up. Dj'ing, he bequeaths aU his estate only to one of them, as his time natural son ; but which that one was, left uncer- tain. Hereupon every one claims it. The wise magistrate, for speedy decision of so gi'eat an ambiguity, causeth the dead father to be set up as a mark, promising the challengers, that which of them coidd shoot next his heart, should enjoy the patrimony. The elder shoots, so doth the second ; both hit. But when it came to the younger's turn, he utterly refused to shoot ; good nature would not let him wound that man dead, that bred and fed him living. Therefore the judge gave all to this son, reputing the for- 22 THE TAjyiING OF THE TONGUE. [SeEMON LIX. mer bastards. The scope of it is plain, but sigBificant. God will never give them the legacy of glory, given by his Son's will to children, that like bastards shoot through, and wound his blessed name. Think of this, ye swearing and cm-sing tongues ! To conclude, God shall punish such tongues in their own kind ; they were full of poison, and the poison of another stench shall swell them. They have been inflamed, and shall be tormented, with the fire of hell. Burning shall be added to burning ; save that the first was active, this passive. The rich glutton, that when his belly was full could loose his tongue to blasphemy, wanted water to cool his tongue. His tongue sinned, his tongue smarted. Though his tomient was universal, yet he complains of his tongue. That panted, that smoked, that reeked with sulphur and brimstone : that bums with the flame of hell dead, that bm'ned with it living. For a former tune of sin, it hath a present tone of woe. It scalded, and is scalded ; as it cast abroad the flames of hell in this world, so all the flames of hell shall be cast on it in the world to come. It hath fired, and shall be fired with such fire as is not to be quenched. But blessed is the sanctified tongue. God doth now choose it as an instrument of music to sing his praise ; he doth water it with the saving dews of his mercy, and will at last advance it to glory. THE SOUL'S EEFUGE. * Let them that suffer according to the xvill of God commit the keeping of their souls to him in well doing, as unto a faithful Creator.' — 1 Pet, IV. 19. A TRUE Christian's life is one day of tkree meals, and every meal hath in it two courses. His fii'st meal is, Nasci et renasci ; to be born a sinner, and to be new bom a saint. ' I was bom in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me ; ' there is one course. * Except a man be bom again, he cannot see the kingdom of God;' there is the other com'se. His second meal is, Bene agere, et male pati ; to do well, and to suffer ill. ' Do good imto all, but especially unto those that are of the household of faith ; ' there is one course of doing. * AU that hve godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ; ' there is the other coui'se of suffering. His third meal is, Mori et vivere; to die a temporal death, to Hve an eternal hfe. The first is his breakfast, and herein he is naturally natus et damnatus, born in sin and condemned for sin; spiritually renatiis et justificatm, bom again in righteousness and justified from sin. The last is his supper, wherein there is one bitter dish, death. Statutum est omnibus semel mori, * It is appointed to all men to die once ; ' omnibus semel, plerisque bis, to all once, to many twice; for there is a 'second death.' And that is truly a death, because it is mors vitce, the death of life : the other rather a hfe, for it is mors mortis, the death of death; after which mors non erit idtra, 'there shall be no more death.' Therefore rise, that you may not fall; rise now by a righteous hfe, lest you fall into an everlasting death. If the soul will not now rise, the body shall on-e day be raised, and go with the soul to judgment. The second course is incomparably sweet; vive7-e post mortem, to hve after death. I say after death, for a man must die that he may live. So that a good supper brings a good sleep ; he that hves well shall sleep well. He that now apprehends mercy, mercy shall hereafter comprehend him. Mercy is the ultimus terminus, no hope beyond it ; and this is the time for it, the next is of justice. The middle meal between both these is our dinner ; and that consists ^:)«fie«(?o malum and faciendo honum, in doing good and suffering evil. And on these two courses my text spends itself. First, ' they that suffer according to the will of God ; ' there is the passion. Secondly, they may ' tmst God with their souls in well doing ; ' there is the action. 24 THE SOULS REFUGE. [SeRMON LX More particularly, in the words we may consider five gradual circum- Btances. 1. The sufierance of the saints, * They that sufier.* 2. The integi'ity of this sufierance, ' According to the will of God.' ' 3. The comfort of this integritj', ' May commit their souls to God.' 4. The boldness of this comfort, ' As unto a faithful Creator.' 5. The caution of this boldness, ' In well doing.' 1. The sufierance of the saints, ' They that sufier.' All men sufier: ' Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward,' Job v. 7. This hfe is well compared to a thi-ong in a narrow passage : he that is first out finds ease, he that is in the midst is in the worst place and case, for he is hemmed in with troubles ; the hindmost di'ives out both the former, and if he have not the gi'eatest part in suffering evil, hghtly he hath the gi'eatest share in doing it. Outward things happen alike to good and bad. ' There is one event to the clean and to the imclean; to him that saciificeth, and to him that sacrificeth not; to him that sweareth, and to him that feareth an oath,' Eccles. ix. 2. They are both travellers in the thoroughfare of this world, both lodge in one inn, both have the same provision ; perhaps the wickefJ have the better cheer, but in the morning their ways part. There are common e'^ils, as there are common goods. Poverty, sickness, death spares not the greatest ; health, wealth, prosperity is not denied to the meanest. All have three mansions: — (1.) This earth; there (as in Noah's ark) are the clean and vmclean, righteous and wicked, promiscuously confused. (2.) The grave; this is a common house, a veiy pesthouse, where all lie together under the sm-gery of death. It is a cheap and universal house ; we pay no rent for it. (3.) But after all are come to this place, there is then a way of parting. ' Est locus hie partes ubi se via findit in ambas.' Some go to hell, others to heaven. ' They shall come forth, they that have done good, unto the resuiTection of life ; and they that have done evil, unto the resun-ection of damnation,' John v. 29; some to immortal honour, others to immortal hon-or. God gives not all outward prosperity to the wicked, lest they should ascribe it to their own wits or worths, lest they should ' sacrifice to their net, and hwra. incense to their drag,' Hab. i. 16; nor aU afiliction to the good, lest they should fall to some sinister and unwarrantable courses: ' The rod of the wicked shall not rest upon the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put forth their hands to iniquity,' Ps. cxxv. 3. There is a mix- ture of good and evil; prosperity and adversity have their vicissitudes. Prcesentis vitoe nee prosperitas innocentiam testatur, nee acerbitas miseram animam indicat.-^ Neither do the crosses of this world witness a man's guiltiness, nor the blessings of the world his innocence. But the good have a larger shaie in suflerings than the reprobates. Impius non per- cutitur nisi a domino, nos ah impiis. None strikes the wicked but God, but aU the wicked strike and vex us. This world, hke the earth, is a mere Btepdame to good herbs, an own mother to weeds. No marvel if she starves us; all is too httle for her own childi'en. Omnes jMtiuntiir plurima, quidam fere omnia. AU suffer many kinds of miseries ; many sufier all kinds of miseries. Christianum est pati ; it is the part of a Christian to suffer. "Whereso- ever he is let him expect it. Adam was set upon in Paradise, Job in the • Greg. 1 Pet. IV. 19.] the soul's refuge. 25 dunghill: Job fortior in stercore, qudm Adam in Parofliso. Job was more strong to resist temptations in the miserable dust than was Adam in that glorious garden. The Jews were commanded to eat sour herbs with their sweet passover. Bitterness ever treads on the heels of pleasure. Jacob hath a son and loseth his wife; Benjamin is bom, Rachel dies. Our Lady, coming from that great feast, lost her son Jesus three days, Luke ii. 45. Seven days she had eaten ' sweet bread;' here followed three days' Bour bread for it. Good things are to be taken with much thankfulness, evil with much patience. Let this teach us two duties. First, to prepare for evUs before they come ; next, to make them welcome when they are come. So they shall neither meet us with fear, nor leave us with sorrow. (1.) Preparation to suffer is specially necessary. Sudden crosses find weak souls secure, leave them miserable, make them desperate. Ex- pectation malum levins morclet. A looked-for evil smarts more gently. Repentina bona sunt suaviora; sed repentina viala sunt graviora. Unex- pected joys are more gracious, but unexpected evils are more grievous. Mischiefs come most commonly without warning. They do not allow, as Jonas did to Nineveh, forty days' respite; not so much as an hac node, 'this night,' which was allowed to the worldling: * This night shall they fetch away thy soul from thee,' Luke xii. 20. Happy man that gives himself warning : he that conceits what may be, arms himself against what must be. Thou art in health, eatest, digestest, sleepest — ' Quid si morboso jaceant tua membra cnbili ? ' "What if sickness shall cast thee down on thy weary couch? Though riches allow thee meat for thy stomach, what if sickness allow thee not stomach to thy meat? How if the very smell, if the very thought, of thy best dishes shoidd offend thee? How if, after many tossed sides and shifted places, nuUo poteris requiescere lecto ? thou couldst find no comer to give thee ease? How couldst thou take this distemper? Thou art rich; thy throat tastes it, thy belly feels it, thy back wears it: how if, from no fear of want, thou shouldst come to deep poverty, to care for to-morrow's provision, with exti'eme sweat of brows not to earn bread enough to keep life and soul together, nakedness exposing thy body to the violence of heaven, scorching heat of the sun, cold storms of the air? How couldst thou brook the difference between that abundant opulency and this destitute penury ? Thou art at home in peace, singing in thine own vineyards ; thou sittest in a shock secure, whilst thy reapers fell down the humble com at thy foot and fill thy bams. "UTiat if for rehgion thou shouldst be sent to exile, where thou mayest weep with Israel to thy de- riding enemies, demanding a song of Zion? * How shall I sing the song of joy in a strange land?' Ps. cxxxvii. 4. How canst thou digest the injuries and brook the contempt of strangers ? These be good thoughts to pre-arm our souls ; nothing shall make them miserable that have this preparation. Agabus told Paul, having first bound his hands and feet with his girdle, ' Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shall the Jews at Jerusalem bind the man that owneth this girdle,' Acts xxi. 11. Hereupon the rest of the saints besought him with t^ars not to go up to Jerusalem. But observe that blessed apostle's resolved answer, Paratus sum, ' 1 am ready.' * What mean ye to weep, and to break mine heart? for I am ready, not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus,' ver. 13. The account is past, I am prepared. 26 THE soul's eefuge. [Sermon LX. Men that want this fore -resolution are like a secure city, that spends all her wealth in famishing her chambers and foi'bishing her streets, but lets her bulwarks fall to the ground. Here is provision for peace, none for war; something for content of friends, nothing for defence against enemies. It is usual for young men with wooden wasters to learn how to play at the sharp ; they are taught with foils how to deal with points. He is desperate that ventui-es on a single combat in the field, and was never lessoned at the fence-school. We shall be unable to fight with evils themselves, if we cannot well encounter their shadows. ' Mischiefs are like the cockatrice's eye, If they see first they kill, foreseen they die.' What our foresight takes fi-om their power it adds to our own ; it ener- vates their strength and con-oborates ours. For by this both they are made less able to hurt us, and we are more strong to resist them. Since, therefore, we must pass through this fiery trial, let us first prove our strength in a gentle meditation, as that martyr tried his finger in the candle before his body came to the fii'e. (2.) They must be made welcome when they are come. Non ut hostes, sed ut liosjntes admittendi. They must not be entertained as enemies, but as guests. Their ' feet are beautiful that bring good tidings,' Kom. x. 15., But crosses bring good news. They assure us that we are no bastards. ' If you endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons ; but if you be without correction, then are ye bastards,' Heb. xii. 8. Non timecui fiariellari, sed exhcBredari* Fear not to be scourged, but to be disinherited. There is so much comfort in sorrow as makes all afiiiction to the elect carmen in nocte,f ' a song in the night.' Adversity sends us to Christ, as the leprosy sent those ten, Luke xvii. Prosperity makes us tm-n our backs upon Christ and leave him, as health did those nine. David's sweetest songs were his lacnjmtB. In miseiy he spared Saul, his great adversary; in peace he killed Uriah, his dear fiiend. The wicked sing with grass- hoppers in fair weather ; but the faithful (in this like sirens) can sing in a storm. It is a question whether the sim or the wind will fii'st make a man throw ofi" his cloak ; but by all consent the sun will first uncloak him. Imagine by the sun the warm heat of prosperity ; by the wind, the blustering cold of calamity ; by the cloak, Christ's hveiy, a sincere profession. Now which of these will uncase thee of thy zeal ? The boisterous wind makes a man gather his cloak closer about him ; the hot, silent sun makes him weary ol so heavy a burden ; he soon does it ofi". Secure plenty is the warm sun. which causeth many to discloak themselves, and cast ofi' their zeal, as it did Demas, who left Christ, to ' embrace this present world.' But the cold wind of affliction gathers it up closer to him, and teacheth him to be more zealous. Wlien a man cannot find peace upon earth, he quickly runs to heaven to seek it. Plutarch writes, that Antigonus had in his aimy a valiant soldier, but o; a sickly body. Antigonus, observing his valour, procm-ed his physicians to take him in hand ; and he was healed. Now being sound, he began to fight in some fear, to keep himself a good distance fi"om danger, no mon venturing into the van or forlorn place of the battle. Antigonus, notin;. and wondering at this alteration, asked him the cause of this new cowardice. He answers, ' 0 Antigonus, thou art the cause ! Before, I ventured nothing * Aug. t Greg. 1 Pet. IV. 19. 1 the soul's refuge. 27 but a diseased corpse, and then I chose rather to die quickly than to live sickly; I invited death to do me a kindness. Now it is otherwise with me, for I have somewhat to lose.' A poor and afflicted life makes a man bold in his religion. It is nothing to part with hunger, thirst, cold, contempt ; but when prosperous fortimes flow upon him, he dares not stick so con- stantly to Cln-ist. Would you have the rich merchant find fault with idolatiy, and stand to justify God's truth ? No, he hath somewhat to take to ; and although he ventures much, he would be loath to be a venturer in this. Yet this somewhat is nothing in regard to what he loseth, because he will not lose his riches. Affliction sometimes makes an evil man good, always a good man better. Crosses therefore do not only challenge our patience, but even our thanks. Thy soul is sick, these are thy physic. InteUi{jat homo Deum esse viedicum : sub medicamento positus ureris, secaris, clamas. Non audit medicus ad voluntatem, sed audit ad sanitatem.^- Understand God thy physician, he ministers to thee a bitter but wholesome potion. Thy stomach abhors it. Thou liest bound under his hand, whiles he works upon thee. Thou criest to be deUvered ; he hears thee not ac- cording to thy will, but according to thy weal. ' We are chastened of the Lord, that we should not be condemned with the world,' 1 Cor ii. 32. Thou payest the physician of thy body though he cannot heal thee ; wilt thou not thank the Physician of thy soul that hath healed thee ? The Bhild cries for the knife, the parent knows it can but hurt him ; though he weep for it, he shall not have it. Such childi-en are we, to think God doth not use us kindly unless he give us every vanity we affect. Instead of these toys that would make us wanton, God lays on us the rod of cor- rection to make us sober. Our flesh is displeased, our soul is saved; we have no cause to complain. I come now from the sufferance of the saints, to 2. The integrity of that sufferance. — * According to the will of God.* We have suffered enough, except it be according to his will. The manner commends the matter. To go no further, this point is sufficiently directed by our apostle, ver. 14, ' If ye be reproached for the name of Christ, happy are you ; for the Spirit of glory resteth upon you. But let none of you suffer as an evil-doer.' For, chap. ii. 19, ' This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wrongfolly.' This our Saviour taught us : ' Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteous- ness' sake' {non qui patiuntur, sed qui patiuntur propter justitiam), ' for theu's is the kingdom of heaven.' Noji mortes, sed mores faciunt martyres. It is not the death, but the cause, that gives the honour of martyrdom. Indeed, there is no man that suffers contrary to the will of God, but many suffer not secundum, not ' according to the will of God.' In his con- cealed will he allows the sufferings of the reprobates : this is his just judg- ment. They are smitten, but for their faults. Moerent et merentur : they lament, and deserve to lament. When the adulterer is wounded for his lust, he cannot think himself a patient secundum benepladtum Dei, according to the will of God. When the usurer is fetched over for his extortion, the depopulator for his inclosing, the slanderer for his libelling, all these suffer, but not for conscience toward God, not ' according to his will.' They only are said to suffer according to his will, that suffer first innocently, then patiently. (1.) Innocently ; for the wicked suffer, Mali mala, sed merito. Evil men bear evil things, but after their deserts. The pope hath made many • Aug. 28 THE soul's refuge. [Seemon LX. Baints from this kind of suffering. Straw- saints, such as Garnet was. If they be fii'st drenched at Tiber, and after hanged at Tyburn, martyres sunt, they can be no less than martyrs. Not seldom their names are put into the Rubric ; but they stand there in those red letters for nothing else but to remember their red and bloody actions. They may pretend some show of religion, as if for cause thereof they suffered ; but it is not a mere, but a mixed, cause ; not for faith, but for faction ; not for truth, but for treason. It is observed, that as the physicians say, none die of an ague, nor with- out an ague ; so none of them suffer from the Romish religion, nor without the Romish religion. Therefore as Aristides, djdng of the bite of a weasel, exceedingly lamented that it was not a lion ; so these Seminaries may greatly lament that they die not for the Lion of Judah, but for the weasel of Rome. Not secundum voluntatem Dei, but secundum voluptatem Antichristi: not according to the will of Christ, but according to the lust of Antichrist. But he can make them amends with sainting them ; men shall kneel to them, pray to them, climb to heaven by the ladder of their merits. Alas ! poor saints ! the pope sends them to heaven, but how if they were in hell before ? May we not say of them, as Augustine did of Aristotle, Woe unto them, they are praised and prayed unto where they are not, and condemned where they are. Unless, as the vision was to Ormus, that among the apostles and martyrs there was a vacant place left in heaven, which, saith he, was reserved for a priest in England called Thomas Becket ; and this revelation was full twelve years before Becket died.* So except the pope can make them saints before they die, I fear his authority can do little afterwards. Yet indeed the pope is a great saint-maker, and hath helped abundance of men to heaven. For he sent them thither through the fii'e, for the cause of Christ ; he condemned, cursed, burnt them to ashes ; and thus, spite of his teeth, he hath helped to make them martyrs and saints. For ourselves, if we suffer any wrong of men, let us be sm'e we have not deserved it. Our innocence commends our suffering ; for this is ' accord- ing to the good will ' and pleasure of God. (2.) Patiently ; a murmuring mind evacuates the virtue of thy sufferings. * For what glory is it, if when ye be buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently ? but if when ye do well, and suffer for it, ye then take it patiently, this is acceptable to God,' 1 Pet. ii. 20. Let me therefore help your patience by two considerations. First, What Christ our Head suffered for us ; bitter words, and more bitter wounds. Observe him ; ' Look to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith ; who, for the joy that was set before him, endured the cross, and despised the shame,' Heb. xii. 2. So let us ran with patience the race that is set before us. If we cannot endure an angry word from our brother's mouth, how would we suffer boihng lead, and broiling coals, as the martjTS did ? How to be crucified as our Lord Jesus was ? What would we do then ? Shew me now one dram of this patience. Among gallants a word and a blow ; among civil men a word and a writ. The back of patience can bear no load. But ' ought not Christ first to suffer these things, and then to enter into his gloiy ? ' Luke xxiv. 24. First he was crowned with thorns, and then crowned with honours. Cajnit spinositm in terris, si sit gloriosum in ccelis: That head must first wear a wreath of sorrow on earth, that shall wear a wreath of joy in heaven. ' Hereimto are we called : because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps,' 1 Pet. ii. 21. * MartjTol. 1 Pet. rV'. 19.] the sohl's refuge. 29 Secondhj, That all this is ' according to the will of God.' Our blows come, at least mediately, from the hand of God. And this hand is guided with providence, and tempered with love. Distressed worldlings cry out, It was my own folly that ran me into this danger, or the malice of mine enemy undid me, or sm-feit on such meat made me sick. So the cur bites the stone, which could never have hurt him but from the hand that tlu-ew it. Look up to the lirst mover, 0 madman, and discharge the means. The instrument may be unjust in thy wrongs, but the cause is just from him that inflicted it. What rod soever beats thee, consider it ' according to the will of God,' and be patient. His hand sets theirs on work : I hope thou wilt not dispute with thy Maker. The medicine of thy passion is composed by God himself; no evils nor devils shall put in one dram more than his allowance ; no man or angel can abate one scruple. The impatient man wants either wisdom or obedience. Wisdom, if he be ignorant fi'om whom his crosses come ; obedience, if he knows it, and is not patient. This is the integrity of the suffering ; now follows 3. The comfort of this integi-ity. — ' Let him commit the keeping of his soul to God.' Eveiy man cannot with this confidence ; but qui j)cititur propter Denm, recurrit ad Deum. He that suffers for Christ's testimony, is confident of God's mercy. ' Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need,* Heb. iv. 16. Here let us observe three circumstances, Quis, Quid, Cui : who, what, to whom. (1.) AMio ? — ' They that sufier according to the vpill of God.' Felicity tL'.nks it hath no need of God. But God is more dainty of spiritual com- forts than to give them to such as are confident in worldly comforts. The balm of the Spirit shall not be sophisticated or mixed veneno mundi, with the poison of the world. ' Give strong drink to the heavy,' saith Solomon. vS-od will not give his consolations to those that are drunk with prosperity, mad-meiTy with this world ; but his wine to the heavy heart. He will ' comfort them that mourn,' Isa. Ixi. 2. ' Let them that sufier commit,' &c. (2.) What ? — The soul, and the keeping thereof. The soul is a very precious thing ; it had need of a good keeper. ' For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul ? ' Matt. xvi. 26. We trust the lawyer to keep our inheritance, the physician to keep our body, the cofter to keep our money, shepherds to keep our flocks ; but the soul hath need of a better keeper. Howsoever it goes with thy liberty, with thy love, with thy land, with thy Hfe ; be sm'e to look well to thy soul. 'That lost, all is lost. The body is not safe where the soul is in hazard. Non anima pro cor- pore, sed corpus 2^ro anima factum est.* The soul is not made for the body, but the body for the soul. He that neglects the better, let him look never so weU to the worse, shall lose both. He that looks well to the keeping of the better, though he somewhat neglect the worse, shall save both. The body is the instrument of the soul, it acts what the other directs ; so it is the external, actual, and instrumental ofiender : Satan wiU come with a Habeas corpus for it. But I am persuaded, if he take the body, he will not leave the soul behind him. (3.) To whom ? — To God ; he is the best keeper. Adam had his salva- tion in his own hands, he could not keep it. Esau had his birthright in his own hands, he could not keep it. The prodigal had his patrimony in his own hands, he could not keep it. If our soul were left in our own • Chrys. de recuperat. laps. 80 THE soul's refuge. [Sermon LX. hands, we could not keep it. The world is a false keeper ; let the soul run to riot, he wiU go with it. The devil is a chui-lish keeper ; he labours to keep the soul from salvation. The body is a brittle and inconstant keeper ; every sickness opens the door, and lets it out. God only is the sure keeper. 'Your life is hid with Christ in God,' Col. iii. 3. This was David's confidence : ' Thou art my hiding-place ; thou shalt keep me,' Ps. xxxii. 7. The jewels given to thy little children, thou wilt not trust them with, but keep them thyself. 0 Lord, keep thou our only one ; do thou ' rescue our soul from destnictions, our darling from the lions,' Ps. XXXV. 17. Trust us not with our own souls : we shall pass them away for an apple, as Adam did ; for a morsel of meat, as Esau did ; for the love of an harlot, as that prodigal did. Lord, do thou keep our souls ! Now, the Christian patient must commit the keeping of his soul to God, both in life and in death. First, Living. The soul hath three places of being : in the body from the Lord ; in the Lord from the body ; in the body with the Lord. The two last are referred to our salvation in heaven : either in part, when the soul is glorified alone ; or totally, when both are crowned together. Now, the soul must be even here in the Lord's keeping, or else it is lost. If God let go his hold, it sinks. It came fr-om God ; it returns to God ; it cannot be well one moment without God. It is not in the right ubi, except the Lord be with it. It is sine sua domo, if sine suo Domino. Here be four sorts of men reprovable. They that trast not God with their souls, nor themselves, but rely it only upon other men. They that wiU not trust God with their souls, nor others, but only keep it themselves. They that will trust neither God with their souls, nor others, nor keep it them- selves. They that will neither tnist others with their souls, nor themselves, but only God, yet without his waiTant that he will keep it. First, They that tnist their souls simply to the care of others : they are either papists or profane protestants. The papist trasts Antichrist with his soul ; he's like to have it well kept. If masses and asses can keep it (for so the Jesuits term their secular priests), it shall not be lost. The devil fights against the soul, the pope intei-poseth an annoury of Agmis Dei's, sprinklings, crossings, amulets, prayers to saints. But surely if this armour were of proof, St Paul forgot himself in both these places (Eph. vi. 13 ; 1 Thess. V. 6), where he describes that panoply, or whole armom- of God. He speaks of a plate of righteousness for the breast, shoes of 2mtience for the feet, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit. To the Thessalonians indeed he somewhat varies the pieces of armour ; but in neither place doth he mention crosses, cracifixes, asper- sions, unctions, &c. Or they will trust the saints in heaven with their souls — ' Sancta virgo Dorothea, Tua nos virtute bea, Cor in nobis novum crea.' What that prophet (Ps. li. 10) desfred of God, they — as if they were loath to trouble the Lord about it, and could have it nearer hand — beg of their St Dorothy : to ' create a new heart within them.' Such a rhyme have they to the Virgin Mary — • Virgo Mater, maris stella, Fons hortorum ; Verbi cella, Ne nos pestis aut procella, Pectatores obruat.' 1 Pet. IV. 19.J the soul s kefuge. 81 But the saints are deaf, non mulmnt. They would pray them to forbear such prayers ; they abhor such superstitious worship. They that were so jealous of God's honour on earth, would be loath to rob him of it in heaven. So our cai'nal professors only trust the minister with their soul, as if God had imposed on him that charge, which the prophet gave to Aliab, ' Keep this man : if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his life,' 1 Kings xx. 39. But indeed if he do his duty in ad- monishing : ' If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn fi'om it ; if he do not tm-n from his way, he shall die in his iniquity ; but thou hast delivered thy soul,' Ezek. xxxiii. 9. Secondly, They that will not tnist others with their soul, but keep it themselves. They 'mrap it waim in the nest of their ovna. presumptuous merits, as if good works should hatch it up to heaven. But the soul that is thus kept will be lost. He that will go to heaven by his ovm righteous- ness, and climbs by no other ladder than his own just works, shall never come there. The best saints, that have had the most good works, durst not trust their souls with them. * I know nothing by myself, yet am I not hereby justified,' 1 Cor. iv. 4. * In many things we sin all,' Jam. iii. 2. AE in many things, many in all things; and the most learned papists, whatsoever they have said in theii- disputations, reserve this truth in their hearts, otherwise speaking in their deaths than they did in their Uves. Kow non merita viea, sed misericordia tua, not my merits, but thy mercies, 0 Lord. All our hfe is either unprofitable or damnable; there- fore, 0 man, what remains ? Nisi ut in tota vita tua deplores totam vitam tuam* but that dm-ing all thy hfe thou shouldest lament all thy hfe? Works cannot keep us, but grace. Let them boast of perfection, we cry for pardon; they for merits, we for mercies; they for justifying works of their own, we only for our sweet Saviour, Jesus Christ. Thirdly, They that will neither trust others with their soul nor keep it themselves, but either do sell it for ready money, as Esau sold his birth- right, and Judas sold Jesus, or pawn it for a good bribe, some large tempta- tion of profit, or pleasure, or honour. They will not sell it outright, but mortgage it for a while, with a purpose (that seldom speeds) to redeem it; or lose it, walking neghgently through the streets of this great city, the world, their soul is gone, and they are not aware of it ; or give away their soul, as do the envious and desperate, and have nothing in lieu of it but terrors without and horrors within. They serve the devil's turn for nothing. Fourthly, They that will trust God with their soul, but have no warrant that God will keep it. They lay all the bm-den upon the shoulders of Christ, and meddle no more with the matter ; as if God would bring them to heaven even whilst they pursue the way to hell, or keep that soul from the body when the body had quite given away the soul. He never pro- mised to save a man against his will. As he doth save us by his Son, so he commands us ' to work up our salvation with fear and trembling,' PhU. ii. 12. He that hes still in the miry pit of his sin, and trusts to heaven for help out, without his own concurring endeavom-, may hap to lie there still. Secondly, Dying ; there is no comfort but to trast the soul with God. So David, ' Lord, into thy hands I commit my spirit,' Ps. xxxi. 5. So Stephen, * Lord Jesus, receive my spirit,' Acts vii. 59. With these words our Lord Jesus himself gave up the ghost. It is justice to restore whence we receive. It is not presumption, but faith, to trast God with thy * Anselm. 82 THE soul's refuge. [Sekmon LX. Bpirit. The soul of tlie king, the soul of the beggar, all one to him. David, a king; Lazarus, a beggar: God receives both their souls. From giving up the ghost the highest is not exempted ; from giving it into the hands of God the poorest is not excepted. There is no comfort like this. When riches bring aut nequam, aut nequicquam, either no comfort or dis- comfort; when thy wardi'obe, fumitm-e, jmikets, wine offend thee; when thy money cannot defend thee ; when thy doctors feed themselves at thy cost, cannot feed thee; when w'ife, childi'en, friends stand weeping about thee ; where is thy help, thy hope ? All the world hath not a di-am of comfort for thee. This sweetens aU, ' Lord, into thy hand I commend my soul; thou hast redeemed me, 0 thou God of tnith.' Our spirit is our deai'est jewel. Howl and lament if thou think thy soul is lost. But let thy faith know that is never lost which is committed to God's keeping. Sjnritum emittis, non amittis. Durius seponitur, sed melius reponitur. That soul must needs pass quietly through the gates of death which is in the keeping of God. Woe were us if the Lord did not keep it for us whiles we have it, much more when we restore it. "VSTule our soul dwells in our breast it is subject to manifold miseries, to manifest sins; temptations, passions, misdeeds distemper us. In heaven it is free from all these. Let the soul be once in the hands of God, it is neither dis- quieted with sorrow for sin, nor with sin which is beyond aU sorrow. There may be trouble in the wilderness ; in the land of promise there is aU peace. Then may we sing, ' Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped,' Ps. cxxiv. 7. Invadit Satanas, evadit Christianus. It is there above the reach of the devil. There is no evil admitted into the city of heaven to wrestle with the citizens thereof. Death is ready at hand about us, we carry deaths enow "within us. We know we shall die, we know not how soon; it can never prevent us, or come too early, if our souls be in the keeping of God. Man was not so happy when God gave his soul to him as he is when he returns it to God. Give it cheerfolly ; and then, hke a faithful Creator, that thou givest to him in short pain he wiU give thee back with endless joy. And so we come fitly fr'om the comfort of our integi'ity, to 4. The boldness of this comfort. — ' As unto a faithftd Creator ; ' wherein our confidence is heartened by a double argument, the one drawn a maje- state, the other a misericordia : from majesty, from mercy. His greatness, a ' Creator;' his goodness, a * faithful Creator.' (1.) Creator; not a stranger to thee, but he that made thee. It is natural to man to love the work of his own hands. Pygmalion dotes upon the stone which himself had cai-ved. But much more natm-al to love his own images, his children, the walking pictures of himself, the divided pieces of his own body. God loves us as our Creator, because his own hands have fashioned us. But creavit et vermicidos, he also created the worms. Yield it, and, therefore, 7ion odit vermicidos, he hates not the very worms. Creavit et diabolum, he made the devU. No ; God made him an angel, he made himself a devU. God loves him ut 7iaturam, as he is a natm'e ; hates him ut diabolum, as he is a comipted nature, an evil, a devil. But we are not only his creatm*es, the workmanship of his hands, but his children. So Adam is called * The son of God,' Luke iii. 38, his own image. Fecit hominem in similitudinem sicam, ' he made man after his likeness, in his image,' Gen. i. 26. We are more than opus Dei, the mere work of God; for ima{fo Dei, the very image and simihtude of God. We may, therefore, be bold to commend our souls to God, as ' a faithful Creator.' 1 Pet. IV. 19.] the soul's refuge. 88 Divers men have that for theii- God which never was their Creator. The proud man makes his honoui- his god, the covetous man makes his gold his god, the vohiptuous makes his belly his god. Now, whereas God not only charged in the fii'st precept, ' Thou shalt have no other gods before me,' but added further in the next, ' Thou shalt not make to thee any image or similitude of any thing, whether in heaven above, or earth be- neath, or water under the earth,' &c. These three sins seem to cross God in these three interdicted places ; for the proud man hath his idol, as it were, in the air ; the covetous man hath his idol in the earth ; the drunken epicui-e hath his idol in the water.* Let them take their gods to them- selves ; let no Rachel that hath mamed Jacob steal away Laban's idols. Our Creator is in heaven; boldly give thy soul to him. 'WTio should better have it than he that made it ? (2.) The other argument of our comfort is, that he is Jidelis, a faithful Creator, He is faithful to thee, how unfaithful soever thou hast been to him. He made thee good, thou madest thyself naught ; he doth not there yet leave thee, as man his friend in misery, but sent his Son to redeem thee. Here was gi-eat faithfulness. He sends his Holy Spuit into thy heart, to apply this redemption of Chi-ist : here is great faithfulness. Thou often tm-nest th}' back upon him, and following sin, leavest him ; he leaves not thee. ' I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee,' Heb. xiii. 5 : here is great faithfulness. He hath promised /)CB»i7^«fj veniam, credenti vitam ; to him that repenteth, pardon ; to him that believeth, salvation : here is faith- fulness. Now, hath he promised? he is faithful to perfoim it. 'S\Tiat man or devil dares stand up to challenge God of imfaithfulness ? This infallibihty Christ knew, when to his Father's faithful hands he gave up the ghost. You ■^ill say, "VMio might better do it ? The Son might well be confident of the Father. Not he alone : the servants have been faithfal also in this emission, and found God as faithful in acception. So David, Stephen, &c. God is faithful, there is no distrust in him ; aU the fear is in thyself. How canst thou trust thy jewel with a stranger ? God is thy Creator, and a faithful Creator. But how if thou be an unfaith- ful creatm-e ? Thou wilt fi-equent the doors of thy patron, present gifts to thy landlord, visit thy friend ; but how if to him that made thee, thou makest thyself a stranger ? How often hath God passed by thee, without thy salutation ! In the temple he hath called to thee, thy heart hath not echoed, and sent out thy voice to caU upon him. There hath he charged thee, * Seek my face ;' thou hast not answered, ' Thy face, 0 Lord, I will seek.' By his Spiiit he hath knocked at thy door, thou hast not opened to him. Now upon some exigent thou bequeathest thy soul to him ; upon what acquaintance ? "Will this sudden familiarity be accepted ? It is our own ignorance, or strangeness, or tmfaithfuhiess that hinders us. The reprobates think Christ a stranger to them ; ' "VMien did we see thee hungry?' &c.. Matt. xxv. 44. But indeed they are strangers to Christ, and he may weU say, 'WTien did I see you visit me ? 'I was sick and in prison, and ye came not at me.' "Would you have God cleave to them that leave him ? Doth a man aU his life run fi-om God, and shall God on his deathbed run to him ? No, you would not know me ; and therefore now, non novi vos, I know not you. But the faithful creature knows God a faithful Creator : * I know whom I have beheved.' Thou mayest say with that good father, Egredere anima mea, quid times 1 Go forth, my soul, go forth with joy, what shouldst thou fear ? Yea it wiU go without bidding, * Joann. de Combis Compend, lib. 5. can. 60. VCL. III. c 34 THE SOULS REFUGE. [SeRMON LX, and fly cheerfully into the arms of God, whom it trusted as a faithful Creator. I have served thee, believed on thee, now I come unto thee, saith Luther. ' I desii'e to be dissolved, and to be ■with Chi'ist, says Paul. These are not the voices of worldlings, but of saints. God wiU be a faith- ful Creator to receive and preserve their souls. I have served thee, saith man ; I have presers-ed thee, saith God. In me creclis, ad me venis : thou beUevest on me, thou comest to me. Here is now the boldness of our com- fort ; there is yet 5. A caution of this boldness. — ' In well doing.' The wicked man may commit his soul to God's keeping, but how is he sui'e God will take the chai-ge of it ? "What should God do with a foul and polluted soul ? The soul must at last be committed to some ; now he only is the receiver of it in death, that was the keeper of it in Life. If Satan have always ruled it, God will not embrace it. As Jephtha said to the elders of Gilead, ' Did ye not hate me, and expel me out of my father's house ? and why are ye come unto me now, when ye are in distress T Jud. xi. 7. Did you thrust God out of your hearts, out of your houses, out of your bams, out of your closets ; and shall God open heaven to your souls ? They that thus commit their souls to God, God will commit their souls to Satan. It must be delivered up in jjatiendo malum, but in faciendo honum ; in suffer- ing that is evil, but in doing that is good. Othenvise if we thrast God from us, God will thrust us from him. Thus is God even with man. They say now to the Holy One of Israel, ' Depart from us, we desire not the knowledge of thy ways,' Job. xxi. 14. Hereafter God shall say to them, ' Depart from me, I know you not,' Matt, vii. 23. Man's soul is but an inmate to the bosom, sent to lodge there for a time ; but must not take it up for a dwelling ; God is the Lord of the tenui'e, to him it must be suiTendered. We have a soul within us, but it is not oui-s (and yet what is ours if our soul be not ?) ; it must be com- mitted to God, either in evil-doing, as to a judge, or in well-doing, as to a faithful Creator. Some live as if they had no souls ; more belluino, like human beasts. The vicissitudes of drunkenness, whoredom, sleep, share all their time. Others live as if they should never part with their soul. Therefore reponunt in midtos anno^, they lay up for many years ; this was the cosmopohte's self-flattery. ' Soul be merry, thou hast much goods laid up for many years,' Luke xii. Yet others hve as if their soul was not their own, but given them to spend at their pleasure, without ever being accountable for it. But the good live as if their soul was God's ; to him they commend it in a sweet conversation with him. Their bodies move on earth, their souls live in heaven. To him they may boldly commend their spirits ; for they that fit their souls for God in health, shall never find the offer of their deathbed refused. If a man had no soul, if a mortal one, if his o^n, if never to be required, he might without wonder be induced to Hve sensually ; he that knows the contrary -ndll hve well, that he may die well, and com- mit his soul to God ' in well-doing.' Here fui'ther observe : A man may do good, yet come short of this comfort ; it is given bene facientihus, to them that do well. It is not doing good, but doing well, that gets God to keep the soul. You have served me, says God to Israel, but after your own. lusts. To serve God is doing good, but after their own lusts, is not doing well. To build a church is a good work ; yet if the founda- tions of it be laid in the ruins of the poor, their children come not to pray for, but curse the builder. Great and good were the works of the Pharisees, 1 Pet. IV. 19.] thk soul's refuge. 35 yet all spoiled for want of a bene. ' Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisccs, you cannot enter into the king- dom of heaven,' Matt. v. 20. Therefore St Paul's counsel directs us, ' So (not only run, but so) run that you may obtain,' 1 Cor. ix. 24. Schismatics run, but they run out of the church ; they love the trath, but not in peace. Secui'e people run, but they run beside the church ; they love peace, but not in truth. Others follow the truth in peace, but not for the tmth; duiii quarunt earn, non quarunt ipsam.-'- They fail in their sic, they miss this same * well.' Frosunt aliis, slbi neiUiquam. They do good to others, but not well to themselves. But we have almost lost both honum and bene, good and well. It is an ill disjunction, that our fathers had so good works, and wanted our faith ; and we have the true faith, but want theii' works. This 'well' is the very form of a good work; nndfo)-ma dat esse rei, it cannot be good without it. Let me here take just cause to reprove two sorts of people. (1.) Some there are that trust God with their souls, and destroy their own bodies. But God will take no charge of the soul, but in well-doing. Those vii'gins that would kill themselves to prevent ravishments, are re- proved by just censiire. Satins incertum adulterium in futuro, quam certum homicidium in jjrasenti. Better an uncertain adulteiy to be endtu'ed, than a certain self-murder to be acted. How can they hope for God's hand of mercy, that lay on themselves a hand of cruelty. Rhasis in the Maccabees, faUing upon his own sword, and thromng himself down from the wall, yet committed himself to God's keeping, ' calling upon the Lord of life and spirit,' &c., 2 Mac. xiv, 46. The text says twice (with little credit to its own judgment) that it was done manfully. But it was magne, potius qudm bene factum, done with desperate valour ; with more ventm^e than wisdom, temerity than honesty. This was that the devil left out, when he cited scripture to Christ, Matt. iv. 6. ' In all thy ways ; ' ho made that a pa- renthesis, which was essential to the text. This the original testified, Ps. xci. 11. Custodient in viis tuis ; but this was none of his ways down from the pinnacle, to shew the people a tumbling trick, and to break his neck. So the devil labom-s to secui-e men of God's providence generally, though they be quite out of the way. He bids men be confident that God will keep then' souls, howsoever they walk ; so under colour of God's protection, he brings them to destruction. He tells a man of predestination, that he is sure of an eternal election to Life, therefore may live at his own pleasure ; so from God's decree draws eneom-agement to a secure life. He tells him of justification, that he is acquitted by the blood of Chi-ist ; so emboldens him on the back of presumption to ride post to hell : Whereas predestination and justification are only made known to us by ' weU-doing.' (2.) It is impossible for a man of an ill life, to hope that God will keep his soul. He that lives ill, and hopes well, teacheth his ignorance to deceive his wickedness, and them both to deceive his soul. ' Your ini- quities have separated between you and your God,' Isa. lix. 2. But ' Separate yourselves from the imclean thing, and I will receive you,' 2 Cor. vi. 17. Take away the bar, your sins ; break off the partition by repentance, then I will keep you, saith God. Commit your souls to the Lord's trust in well-doing, or not at all. If Christ had come down from the pinnacle headlong, and not by the stafrs, he had neglected the way, and so been out of the compass of God's promise to keep him. It is an over-bold presumption, to charge God to keep thy soul, whilst thou dost wilfully lose ♦Aug. 36 THE soul's refuge. [Sermon LX. it. Wilt thou clip the wings of thy soul, and then bid it fly to God ? It is all one, as if thou shouldst cut off a man's leg, and then send him on an errand. Our presumption is able to tie up God's aims, that he cannot help us. He that walks in profaneness, and commits his soul to God, is like him that throws himself into a deep pit, to try whether God will help him out, and save him from drowning. Man is timorous where he should be bold, and bold where he should be timorous. God bids us cast our care upon him for this life. ' Take no thought for yom" life, what you shall eat, or what 3'ou shall drink, or wherewith you shaU be clothed : your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these thiags,' jMatt. vi. 31. Yet we dare not trast God without a pawn ; unless we have bread, we think we shall starve. Here we fear, where we ought not. God tells us, the bread of heaven must feed oui' spii'its ; more necessary to maintain life in the soul, than is bread to preserve Ufe in the body : we never hunger after this, yet presume we have sound souls, and trust God to keep them. Here we do not fear where we ought. We are so sottish, that we dare tnist God with the soul, the more precious part, without well-doing, the means to have it saved ; yet dare not trust him with our bodies, unless we can see our bams full, or at least our cup- boards. But in vain thou committest thy soul to God, except thou obeyest God. There is stUl a commandment with the promise. If thou keep not the precept, thou hast no interest in the promise. If thou ^vilt not perform thy part, God is discharged of his part : if thou refuse to do well, he wiU not keep thy soul. The protection of God extends not to us iu lewd courses : we are then out of our way, and the devil may take us up as vaga- bonds. * If thou do well, shalt thou not be accepted ? if thou do evU, sin heth at the door,' Gen. iv. 7. If thou do evil, sin is thy keeper, not God. There was a temple, called the temple of trust : God will not be to them a temple of trust, that had no trust in their temples. It is a good thing to have God keep the soul, but the wicked cannot have this hope. He that hath money, lays it up in his coffers ; or if he sends it abroad, like a stem jailor, he suffers it not to go without a keeper, sound bonds. He that hath lands, makes strong conveyances to his desired heirs, that they may bo kept. If children, he provides to have them safely kept. He keeps his goods from the thief, his chickens from the kite, his lambs from the wolf, his fawn from the hound, his dove from the vennin ; yet he keeps not his soul from the devil. 0 wretched man, that must die, and knows not what shall become of his soul. The world would have it, but he knows it must not ; himself would keep it, but he knows he cannot ; Satan would have it, and he knows not whether he shall ; he would have God take it, and he knows not whether he will. 0 miserable man, that must part with his soul he knows not whither. We see what it is to lead an evil life, and to be a stranger to God. He ' knows his sheep,' John x. 14, but the goats are not written in his book. ' The foundation of God standeth sure, having the seal. The Lord knoweth them that are his,' 2 Tim. ii. 19. It is a goodly thing to be famous and remarkable in the world. Est pulclirum digito monstrari, et dicier, hie est. It is a goodly thing to be said, ' This is the man whom the world honours,' Esth. vi. 9 ; but perhaps this is not he whom God honours. He that suffers and does according to the will of God, the Lord will take that man into his bosom : ' Such honour have all his saints,' Ps. cxlix. 9. It is no great matter for men to be known to kings and nobles, if the Lord know 1 Pkt. IV. 19. j THE soul's refuge. 87 them not ; nothing to ride in the second coach, as Joseph ; to bo next to the prince, if they be strangers to the court of heaven. Therefore let us all lay hold on well-doing, that we may have comfort in well-dying. We desire to shut up our last scene of life, with m mantis tuas, Domine, commendo spirit urn meum ; Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Behold, while we live, God says to us, in manus tuas, homo, com- mendo Spirit urn meum ; man, into thy hands I commend my Spirit. As we use God's Spu-it in hfe, God will use our spirit at death. If we open the doors of our hearts to his Spirit, he will open the doors of heaven to our spirit. If we feast him with a * supper' of grace, Eev. iii. 20, he will feast us with a supper of glory. If we ' grieve his Spirit,' Eph. iv. 30, he will grieve all the veins of our hearts. When such shall say, Lord, into thy hands we commend our souls ; no, saith God, I will none of your spirit, for you would none of my Spirit. You shut him out, when he would have entered your hearts ; he shall shut you out when you would enter heaven. Let us therefore here use God's Spirit kindly, that hereafter he may so use our spirits. Let us in hfe entertain him with faith, that in death he may embrace us with mercy. So, Lord, into thy hands we commend our souls ; keep and receive them, 0 thou faithful Creator and God of truth, through Jesus Christ. Amen. THE SPIRITUAL NAYIGATOR BOUND FOR THE HOLY LAND. Before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.' — Rev. IV. 6. I HAVE chosen a member of the epistle appointed by our church to be read in the celebration of this feast to the most Sacred Trinity. There is One sitting on the throne, which is God the Father ; on his right hand the Lamb which was slain, only worthy to unseal the book, which is God the Son ; and seven lamps of fire burning before the throne, the seven -fold Spirit, which is God the Holy Ghost. Umis potentiaUter, trimis personaliter. Which blessed Trinity in Unity, and Unity in Trinity, inspire me to speak, and you to hear ! Amen. ' Before the throne,' &c. The Revelation is a book of great depth, containing tot sacramenta, qiiot verba;'' as many wonders as words, mysteries as sentences. There are other books of the gospel ; but BuUinger calls this Librum evangelicissimum.,-\ the most gospel-like book, a book of most happy consolation : delivering those eventual comforts, which shall successively and successfully accom- pany the chm-ch unto the end of the world. It presents, as in a perspec- tive glass, the Lamb of God guarding and regarding his saints ; and giving them triumphant victory over all his and their enemies. The writings of St John, as I have read it observed, are of three sorts. He teacheth in his Gospel especially faith ; in his Epistles love ; hope in his Revelation. This last (as of great consolation, so) is of great difficulty. There is manna in the ark, but who shall open it to us ? Within the Sanctum Sanctorum there is the mercy-seat ; but who shall draw the curtain for us, pull away the veil ? Our Saviour lies here (not dead, but living) ; but who shall roll away the stone for us ? open a passage to our under- standing ? The impediment is not in objecto percipiendo, but in organo percipiendi ; not in the object to be seen, but in our organ or instrument of seeing it : not in the sun, but in the dim thickness of our sight. God must say unto us, as the man of God spake to Eli in the name of Jehovah, 1 Sam. ii. Revelando revelavi, &c. ' I have plainly appeared unto the house of thy father.' For my own part, I purpose not to plunge to the depth with the ele- phant ; but to wade with the lamb in the shallows : not to be over-venturous in the Apocalypse, as if I could reveal the Revelation : but briefly to report * Hieron Ep. Paulin. t In Apoc. Con. 61 Rev. IV. 0. ] tue spiritual navioaxok. JJ9 what expositions others have given of this branch ; and then gathor some fruit from it, for our own instruction and comfort. Being bold to say with St Augustine, whosoever hears mo, nbi pariter certus est, pergat mecum ; xthi pariter liasitat, qiucrat mecum ; uhi errorem suum cognoscit, redeat ad me : %ihi meum, revocet me.'^- If he bo certain with me, let him go on with me : if he doubt with me, let him seek with me : if he find out his own error, let him come mito me ; if mine, let him recall me. With purpose of avoiding proUxity, I have limited myself to this member of ver. 6, 'And before the thi-one there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.' I find hereof seven several expositions. I will lightly touch them, and present them only to your view ; then build upon the soundest. 1. Some expound this glassy and crystal-like sea, of contemplative men: so Emanuel Sa. But I find this foundation so weak, that I dare not set any frame of discoui'se ou it. 2. Some conceive it to be an abundant understanding of the truth ; a happy and excellent knowledge, given to the saints ; and that in a wonder- ful plentitude : so Ambrose. Fer mare Imtorica, per vitrum vio rails, per chrijstaUinum spiritiialis intelUgentia. By sea is intended an historical knowledge ; by glass a moral ; a spiritual and supernatural by crystal. 3. Some understand by this glassy sea like crystal, the fuhiess of all those gifts and graces, which the church derives from Christ. In him dwells all fulness : yea so abundant is his oil of gladness, that it runs (as it were) over the verges of his human nature, unto the ' skirts of his clothing ;' plentifully blessing his whole church. Thus it is conceived by Brightman. As if this mare vitreum were an antitype to that mare fusum : spoken of 1 Ivings vii. 23, this ' glassy sea,' to that ' molten sea.' Among other admir- able works of that heaven-inspired king, ver. 23, ' He made a molten sea, ten cubits from the one brim to the other : it was round all about, and its height was five cubits : and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about,' &c. ; ver. 26, 'It contained two thousand baths.' The end why it was made, and use for which it served, you shall find, ' The sea was for the priests to wash in,' 2 Chron. iv. Now this might well seem to prefigure some great plenitude. For otherwise, for Aaron and his sons to wash in, Exiguus aliquis urceohis vel guttulus sitffecisset : some cruet, bason, or laver might sufiieiently have served. 4. Some intend this glassy sea, like to ciystal, to signify caelum chrys- taUinum, the crystalline heaven : which they aflirm to be next under that heaven of heavens, where the eternal God keeps his court, and sits in his throne. And somewhat to hearten the probability of this opinion, it is said here, this ' sea is before the throne.' 5. Some expositions give this sea for the gospel. And their opinion is probably deduced ft-om the two attributes, glassy and ciystalline. (1.) The fii-st expresseth j-j^rZwcu/rt^i materiem, a bright and clear matter. Which sets a difference betwixt that legal, and this evangelical sea. That was ex aire conflatum,, which is densa et opaca materies : of molten brass, which was a thick, duskish, and shadowy matter ; not penetrable to the sight. This is 7nare vitreum, a sea of glass ; more clear, perspicable, and transparent. That was a sea of brass, this of glass. In which disparity this latter far transcends the former. So that if David said, Ps. Ixxxiv., ' How amiable are thy tabernacles, 0 Lord of Hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord :' speaking but of that ' legal sanctuary,' Hsb. ix. 1, which was adorned with those Levitical ordinances, * Lib. 1, de Trin.. cap. 3. 40 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRJION LXI. and typical sacrifices ; how much more cause have we to rejoice with Peter and those two brethren, Matt. xvii. 1, to see Jesus Chi-ist transfigured in the gospel, ' his face shining as the sun, and his raiment white as the light' ? Being not come to the mount of ten-or, ' full of blackness, and darkness, and tempest,' Heb. xii. 18 ; whereat even Moses himself did ' exceedingly fear and quake ;' but 'unto Mount Zion, unto the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerasalem, and to an innumerable company of angels : to the general assembly and chm*ch of the first boiTi, which are Avritten in heaven,' &c. For, saith Saint Paul sweetly, ' If the ministration of condemnation be gloiy, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in gloiy,' 2 Cor. iii. 9. They saw Christum relatum, we revelation; Christ shadowed in the law, we see him manifested in the gospel. Great, vrithout controversy, is the mysterj' of godliness : God manifested in the flesh, justified m the Spirit, etc., 1 Tim. iii. 16. They saw x>er fenestram, we sine medio : they darkly through the "windows, we without intei'position of any cloud. Great then is the difierence between that figurative molten sea of brass, and this bright glassy sea of the gospel. This glass lively represents to us ourselves, and om- Saviour. Ourselves wicked and wretched, damnatos priusqudin natos, condemned before we were bom : sinful, soiTowfol ; cast do^vn by our own fault, but never restorable by om* own strength ; without grace, 'without Chi-ist, without hope, 'with- out God in the world,' Eph. ii. 12. Our Saviom' descending from heaven to sufter for us ; ascending to heaven to pro^•ide for us : discharging us fi'om hell by his suflerings, and intercessing us to heaven by his righteous- ness. Oh look in this blessed glass, and ' Behold the Lamb of God taking away the sin of the world,' John i. 29. Look in it again, and behold aU the spots and blemishes in yom* own consciences : as you would discover to yom* eye any blot on yom* face, by beholding it reflected in a material glass. See, contemplate, admire, meditate your own misery, and your Saviour's mercy, in this glass represented. (2.) CiystaUine is the other attribute : which is not idem sir/nijicans, but plenioris, nee non planioris virtutis: not signifying the same thing, but of a fuller and plainer virtue, or demonstration. Chrystallum est quasi expers coloris, accedous proxime ad puritatem aeris. Ciystal is described to be (as it were) void of colom*, as coming next to the simple pm-ity of the air. Now as the other attribute takes from the gospel all obscmity : so this takes from it aU impm-ity. There is no human inventions, carnal traditions, or will-worship mixed with this sea : it is pure as crystal. Abundant plagues shall be added to him that shaU 'add to this book:' and his part shall be 'taken away out of the book of Hfe,' that shall sacrilegiously 'take out from it,' Rev. xxii. 18. Let me say : God beholds us through this crystal, Jesus Christ ; and sees nothing in us lean, lame, polluted, or ill-favom-ed. "Whatever om* own proper and personal inclinations and inquinations have been, this tralucent crystal, the merits and righteousness of om- Saviom*, presents us pure in the eyes of God. Through this ciystal Christ himself beholds his church, and then saith, ' Thou art fair, my love, there is no spot in thee,' Cant. iv. 7. 6. There is a sixth opinion. Some by this glassy and ciystal sea, con- ceived to be meant baptism. Prefigm'ed by that red sea, Exod. xiv. To which red sea Paul alludes in the point of baptism, 1 Cor. x., 'I would not have you ignorant, how that all our fathers were imder the cloud ; and all passed through the sea. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, Rev. IV. G.] the spibitu.\l navigatok. 41 and in the sea.' Of this mind are Augustine (Tractat. 2 in John), Rupertus, Euthj-mius. The accordance of the type and antitype stands thus. As none of the children of Israel entered the terrestrial Canaan, but by passing the red sea ; so ordinarily, no Christian enters the celestial Canaan, but through this glassy sea. The ' laver of regeneration' is that sea, wherein we must all wash. * Verily, verily, I say unto thee :' He said so, that could tell ; and he doubles his asseveration, ' Except a man be born of water and of the Spu-it, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,' John iii. 5. Ordinarily, no man comes to heaven dry-shod ; he must wade through this ford. The minister must u-rigate. 1 Cor. iii. John Baptist must pour on water ; and Christ must christen us ' with the Holy Ghost and with fire,' Matt. iii. 21. There must be a washed body, a cleansed conscience. This is that the apostle calls ' pure water,' Heb. x. * Let us draw near with a trae heart, in full assui-ance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pm-e water.' So let us draw near: without this no daring to approach the throne of grace. Through this sea we must all sail, the Holy Ghost being our pilot, the word of God oui* com- pass ; or how should we think to land at the haven of heaven ! 7. Lastly, others affirm, that by this glass sea is meant the world. So Bullinger, &c. This being the most general and most probable opinion, on it I purpose to build my subsequent discourse. A special reason to induce me (as I think, the best light to understand the Scripture is taken from the Scripture ; and as God best understands his own meaning, so he expounds it to us by confemng places difficult with semblable of more facihty) I derive from Rev. xv. 2 : 'I saw as it were a sea of glass mingled with fire ; and they that had gotten the victory over the beast, and over his image, and over his mark, and over the number of his name, stand on the sea of glass, having the hai'ps of God.' Where the saints having passed the dangers of the glassy sea, all the perils and ten'ors of this brittle and slipper}' world, and now setting their triumphant feet on the shores of happiness, they sing a victorious song : ' Great and maiTellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty ; just and trae are thy ways, thou King of Saints.' Praising God with harps and voices for their safe waftage over the sea of this world. Now, for foi'ther confii-mation of this opinion, in ver. 3, the exultation which they sing is called ' the song of Moses the sen'ant of God.' So that it seems directly to answer, in a sweet allusion, to the delivery of Israel from the Egyptians, Exod. xiv., at what time the divided waters of the Red Sea gave them way, standing up as a wall on their right hand, and a wall on their left ; and that so long, till the little ones, and the women with child, might pass over dry-shod ; but at last, returning to their old com'se, swallowed up their pui-suers. Immediately hereon, Exod. xv., Moses and all Israel, turning back to behold the Eg}'ptians di'owned in the sea, or floating on the waves, whiles themselves stood secure on di-y land, they sung a song to the Lord. The children of Israel, having passed the Red Sea, sing a song to the Lord : the children of God, having passed the glassy sea, sing a song also ; and this latter song is called by the name of that first, even the song of Moses. So that the analogy stands thus. 1. The Red Sea was a tj"pe of this glassy sea, the world. 2. The old IsraeUtes, of the new and ti'ue IsraeHtes, the faithful. 3. The Egj'ptians, of all wicked persecutors and enemies of God's church. 4. Canaan, the land of promise, of heaven the land of pur- chase, which Chi-ist bought for us at so great a price. Our adversaries like theirs, our dangers like theirs, our waftage like theirs ; but the country we 42 THE SPIRITU.M NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. sail to far transcends that earthly Canaan. That did but flow with milk and honey for a time ; this with infinite joy, and illimited glory for ever. Against this construction it is objected. 1. This sea is before the throne : how can the world be so said ? Ans. Properly : to shew that all things in the world are not subject to fortune, but governed by ' him that sits on the throne.' 2. The world is rather thick and muddy : how can it be called crystal ? Ans. Fitly : not in regard of its own natui*e, for so it is polluted ; but respectu intuentis, in regard of God that beholds it ; who sees all things done in it so clearly, as in crystal. The allegory then gives the world — 1. For a sea. 2. For the sea of glass. 3. Like to crystal. 4. Lastly, it is before the throne. Two of the circumstances concern the world in thesi, two in hypothesi. It is described taliter and totaliter: simply, and in reference. Simply, what it is in itself; in reference, what it is in respect of God. The world is — I. Li regai'd of itself, 1, a sea, for tempestuousness ; 2, a sea of glass, for brittleness. II. In regard of God, 1, Hke ciystal, for God's eye to see all things in it ; 2, before the thi'one, subject to God's governance. I. A Sea. — The world is not a material, but a mystical sea. Time was that the whole vrorld was a sea, Gen. vii. : ' The waters prevailed exceed- ingly upon the earth, and all the high hills, that were under the whole heaven, were covered. Fifteen cubits upward did the waters prevail, and the mountains were covered.' As a poet, according with the Scripture, Omnia Pontus erant, deerant quoque littora ponto. All was a sea, and that sea had no shores. The deluge of sin is no less now, than was then the deluge of waters. The flood of wickedness brought that flood of vengeance. If their souls had not been fii'st drowned, their bodies had not been ovei-whelmed. The same ovei-flowing of iniquity shall at last dro'rni the world in fire. 1. The world may be veiy fitly compared to the sea in many concur- rences. (1.) The sea is an unquiet element, a fuming and foaming beast, which none but the Maker's hand can bridle. Matt. viii. 'What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him ?' The world is in full measui'e as unraly. It is the ' Lord that stilleth the noise of the seas, the roaving of their waves, and the tumult of the people,' Psa. Ixv. 7. Where the Psalmist matcheth roaring waves and roaring men ; the raging sea with the madness of the world. And yet God is able to still them both. The prophet calls the sea a raging creatm-e, and therein yokes it with the wicked. ' The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mii-e and dirt,' Isa. Ivii. 20. Una Eunisque Notusque niunt, creberque procellis Affricus, et vastos tollunt ad littora fluctus.* Yet the Lord ' gathereth the waters of the sea together as an heap : and layeth up the depth in store houses,' Psa. xxxiii. 7. Hear God himself speak to this boisterous element, Job xxxviii., 'Hitherto shalt thou come, but no fuiiher : and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.' Let me say ti-uly of God, what Pliny of nature, in this element, Hie ipsa se Nntiira rincit numerosis modis. God, who is marvellous in all his ways, wonderful in all his works, is in the sea most wonderfully wonderful. It is called j^qiwr, quasi minime cequnm : so (I think) the world Mimdus, quasi mimwe * Mne\d. 1. Rev. IV. 6.] the spiritual navigator. 43 mundus. Sometime f return d fremilu, of a boisterous and troublesome nature. The world is full of molesting vexations, no less than the sea. [1.] Sometimes it swells with pride, as the sea with waves ; which David eaith, ' moimt up to heaven,' Ps. cvii. Behold that Babylonian Lucifer, saying, ' I will exalt my throne above the stars of God : I will ascend above the heights of the clouds : I will be like the Most High,' Isa. xiv. 13, 14. Pride is haughty, and walks with a ' stretched-out neck,' Isa. iii. IG, and with an elevated head ; as if at every step it could knock out a star in heaven. Especially the proud man, Uke the sea, swells if the moon inclines, if his mistress gi'ace him. [2.] Vain glory is the wind, that raiseth up the billows of this sea. The offspring of the revived world are erecting a tm-ret, whose battlements were meant to threaten heaven. Gen. xi. Did they it in an holy ambition of such neighbourhood ? No ; they loved not heaven so well. Did they it for security upon earth ? Neither ; for Feriunt summos fuJgura monies • the nearer to heaven, the more subject to thunder, lightning, and those higher inflammations of heaven. "Whereas, Procul a Jove, procul dfulmine, was the old saying : Far fi-om Jupiter, far from his thunder. Their purpose was only gloiy in this world. And as the Psalmist saith, that the wind raiseth the billows of the sea ; ' He commandeth and raiseth the stormy wind, which Uftethup the waves thereof,' Ps. cvii. 25 ; so ambition was the wind that reared those waves and walls of pride. [3. J The world, like the sea, is blue with envy, livid with mahce. It is the nature of worldings to over- vex themselves at the successful fortunes of others. God must do nothing for another man, but the envious man's evil eye thinks himself wronged. He repines at that shower, which falls not on his own gi'ound. The precious balms distilled from heaven on neighbours, break the malicious man's head. He hath in him no honesty, but especially wants an honest eye. He wounds himself to see others healed. Neither are the blows he gives his ouii soul transient flashes, or lashes that leave no impression behind them ; but marks that he cames with him to his grave ; a lean, macilent, aflamished body ; a soul self-beaten black and blue. [4.J Sometimes it boils with wrath ; and herein the world and the sea are very semblable. A mad and impatient element it is ; how unfit to figure man ! Yet such is his indignation ; if in the rage and fuiy of the sea there be not more mercy. There is a time when the ' sea ceaseth fr-om her raging :' but the turbulent perturbations of this passion in the world continue without remission or inteiTuption. The angi-y man is compared to a ship sent into the sea, qurs Daimonem habet gubernatorem ; which hath the devil for its pilot. Ira mor- taliiim debet esse moHalis.-^ The anger of mortal man should be mortal, like himself. But we say of many, as Valerius Maximus of Sylla, It is a question, whether they or their anger die first ; or whether death prevents them both together. K you look into this troubled sea of anger, and desire to see the image of a man, behold, you find fiery eyes, a faltering tongue, gnashing teeth, a heart boiling in brine, and drying up the moistm'e of the flesh ; till there be scarce any part left of his right composition. The tumultuous rage of the world so reeks with these passions, that the com- pany of those men is as ominous and full of evil bodings, as the foaming sea. [5.] The sea is not more deep than the world. A bottomless subtlety is in men's hearts, and an honest man wants a plummet to sound it. PoUcy and piety have parted company ; and it is to be feared, they will • Lactant. 44 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. hardly ever meet again. He is counted a shallow fellow that is, as the Scripture commends Jacob, * a plain man, dwelling in tents,' Gen. xxv. 27. New devices, tricks, plots, and stratagems are only in request. Do you not know the reason hereof ? The world is a sea ; and in this sea is plain- dealing drowned. [6.] There is foaming luxury in this sea : a coiTupt and stinking froth, which the world casts up. The stream of lust in this mare morhium fumes pei-petuahy ; poisons the aii* we breathe ; and like a thick fog, riseth up to heaven, as if it would exhale vengeance fi'om above the clouds. This spumy foam is on the surface of the world, and runs like a white leprosy over the body of it. Commend the world, ye affecters affected of it : there is a foam that spoils its beauty. Praise it no further than Naaman was, 2 Kings v. He was ' captain of the host of the king of Syria, a great man with his master, and honom'able, because the Lord by him had given dehverance to Syria ; he was also a mighty man in valom- ; but he was a leper.' There is a blur in the end of the encomium, a blank in the catastrophe, a prickle under the rose. * But he was a leper ;' this venintamen mars all. The world, you say, is spaciosus, speciosus; beautiful, bountiful, rich, dehght- fol : but it is leprous. There is a Sed to it, a filthy foam that defiles it. [7.] The world, as the sea, is a swallowing gulf. It devom-s more than the sea* of Rome ; yea, and will devour that too at last. It swallows those that swallow it, and will triumph one day with insultation over the hugest cormorants, whose gorges have been long ingm'gitated with the world ; In viscerihus meis sunt, they are all in my bowels. The gentleman hath swallowed many a poor man, the merchant swallows the gentleman, and at last this sea swallows the merchant. There are four gi'eat devourers in the world, luxuiy, pride, gluttony, covetousness. The prophet Joel speaks of foui' horrible destroyers. ' That which the palmer-woiTU hath left, hath the locust eaten ; that which the locust hath left, hath the canker-worm eaten ; and that which the canker-woim hath left, hath the catei-pillar eaten,' Joel i. 4. The pahner is luxury, the locust pride, the canker gluttony, and you aU know that the catei-piUar is covetousness. Luxuiy, hke the palmer, swallows much in the world ; that which luxury leaves unspent, pride the locust devours ; the scraps of pride, the canker gluttony eats ; and the fragments of all the foimer, the caterpillar covetousness soon dispatcheth. These be the world's fom* wide-throated swallowers. These cu-cumstances have demonstrated (the first instance of this com- parison) the tumultuous tm-bulency of the world. There be many other resemblances of it to the sea. (2.) Mare amarum. The sea is bitter, and therefore called the sea. A quo dominatio, denominatio. The waters thereof are also salt and brinish. All demonstrates the world to have an unsavory rehsh. So it hath truly ; whether we respect the works or the pleasures of it. The works of this sea are the ' waters of Marah,' Exod. xv. 23. Kwe be tnie Israehtes, ' we cannot drink of the waters of Marah ; for they are bitter.' The works of the world have an unsavoury relish. Would you know what they are ? Ask St John. * All that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eye, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but it is of the world,' 1 John ii. 16. Hac tria pro trino Numine mundus hahet. Ask St Paul. ' Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy- ings, murders, drunkenness, reveUings,' Gal. v. 19. These opera tenehrarmn * A play upon the words ' SPa' and ' see..' — En. Ri:V. IV. G.J TIIK SPIRITUAI. NAVIGATOR. 45 are bitter works ; branches springing from that root, which beareth gall and wonnwood, Deut. xxix. Sour and wild grapes, which the soul of God abhorreth. As the good Simon told the bad Simon, Acts \'iii., ' Thou art in the gall of bitterness and bond of iniquit}'.' Nay, even the delights of the world are bitter, sour, and unsavoury. For if medio defonte Icponun, there hap not surfjere amari aliquid, yet knowest thou not, it will be bitterness in the end ? * Rejoice, 0 young man, in thy youth, and let thy heart cheer thee,' &c. ; * But know thou, that for all these things God will bring thee into judgment,' Eccl. xi. 9. It may be honey in the palate ; it is gall in the bowels. ' Though wickedness be sweet in his mouth, though he hide it under his tongue: though he spare it, and forsake it not, but keep it still within his mouth ; yet his meat in his bowels is turned, it is the gall of asps within him,' Job xs. 12. He that swims in a full sea of riches, and is borne up with whole floods of delights, is but like a sumpter horse that hath carried the tranks all day, and at night his treasure is taken fi-om him, and himself turned into a foul stable, perhaps with a galled back. The rich worldling is but a hired porter, that carries a great load of wealth on his weaiy back all his day, till he groan under it ; at night, when the sun of his hfe sets, it is taken fi-om him, and he is turned into a foul stable, a squalid grave, perchance with a galled shoidder, a raw and macerated conscience. Say, the delights of this world were tolerably sweet ; yet even this makes them bitter, that the sweetest joys of eternity are lost by over-losing them. There was a Roman, that in his will bequeathed a legacy of a hundred crowns to the greatest fool. The executors, inquiring in the city for such a one, were directed to a nobleman, that, ha-ving left his own fair revenues, manors, and manners, became a hogherd. All men consented that he was the greatest fool. If such a legacy were now given, the heirs need not trouble themselves in scrutiny ; there be fools enough to be found every- where, even so many as there be worldlings, that, refusing the honours of heaven, and the riches of gloiy, turn hog-keepers, nay, rather hogs, rooting in the earth, and eating husks. But how bitter, saltish, and unsavoury soever the sea is, yet the fishes that swim in it exceedingly like it. The world is not so distasteful to the heavenly palate, as it is sweet to the wicked, who have learned, though with that woe and curse, Isa. v., 'to call good evil, and evil good ; bitter sweet, and sweet bitter.' They strip themselves to adorn it, as the Israehtes did for the golden caif, and so adorned, adore it with devoted heai-ts. It is their Baal, their idol, their god. Alas ! it is no god ; more like, they will find it a devil. ]\Ir Foxe in his ' Martyrology,' hath a stoiy of the men of Cockeram, in Lancashire. By a threatening command from Bonner, they were charged to set up a rood in their church ; accordingly, they com- pounded with a carver to make it. Being made and erected, it seemed it was not so beautiful as they desired it ; but with the harsh visage thereof scared their children. (And what should a rood serve for, but to please children and fools ?) Hereupon they refused to pay the carver. The carver complains to the justice; the justice, well examining and understand- ing the matter, answers the townsmen : Go to, pay the workman, pay him ; get you home, and mark your rood better. K it be not well-favoured enough to make a god, it is but clapping a pair of horns on it, and it will serve to make an excellent devil. So add but your superstitious dotage, covetous oppressions, and racking extortions to the world, whereby you gore poor men's sides, and let out their heart-bloods ; and though it be no god 46 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeBMON LXI. to comfort, you shall find it devil enough to confound The world then is extremely bitter in digestion, whatever it be at the fii'st relish. Well yet, as salt and bitter as this ocean the world is, there is some good wrought out of this ill. That supreme and infinite Goodness dissuades his children from affecting it, by their experienced tartness of it. So the niu'se embitters the dug when she would wean the infant. How easily had Solomon been drowned in. this sea, had he not perceived its distaste- fulness ? "When his understanding and sense concludes, ' All is vexation,' his affections must needs begin to abhor it. God lets his children look into the world, as some go to sea to be sea-sick, that, finding by experi- ence what they would not credit by relation, they may loathe this trouble- some world, and long to be in the land of promise. He that once thoroughly feels the tui-bulency of the sea \^-iU love the diy land the better whiles he Uves. Our better spiritual health is not seldom wrought by being fii-st sea-sick — disquieted with the world's vexations. Salt water hath sometimes done as much good as sweet, hard things as soft, as stones as well as cotton are good casting for a hawk. The cnidities of sin in David's soul were vomited up by a draught of this bitter water. That profuse son (Luke xv.) would have been a longer stranger to his father's house, if the world had not put him to a hog's diet. Peter no sooner sees the billow, but he ejaculates to Christ a short but substantial prayer, ' Lord, save me.' For this cause is the world made to us so full of afflictions. Christ pro- miseth to give a reward, but not to take away persecutions, * Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness' sake : for theii'S is the king- dom of heaven,' Matt. v. 10. He doth not subtract all suffering, but adds a recompence. God doth so mingle, and compound, and make them both of one indifierency and relish, that we can scarce distinguish which is the meat and which the sauce, both together nourishing our spii'itual health. You see the alike distastefulness of the world and sea. This is the second resemblance. (3.) The sea doth cast forth her dead fishes, as if it labom-ed to purge itself of that which annoys it, giving only contentful solace and nutriment to those that naturally hve in it. So does the world, contending to spew out those that are dead to it. 1 Cor. iv. 10, ' We are made as the filth of the world, and the off-scoming of all things unto this day.' No maiwel if she pukes when we lie on her stomach. A body inured to poisons grows sick and queasy at the receipt of wholesome nourishment. John xv. 19, ' If ye were of the world, the world would love his own. But because you are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.' Not a piece of the world, but all the world. Matt. x. 20, ' You shall be hated of all men for my name's sake.' The godly are indeed the very health of the world. The family thrives the better that Joseph but serves in. The city is forborne so long as Lot is in it. The whole world stands for the elect's sake. And if their number were accomplished, it should be deUvered over to the fire. Yet, oh strange ! EUas is said to trouble Israel, and the apostles are thrust out of cities for tur- bulent fellows. But saith Ambrose, Turhatur ilia navis, in qua Judas f nit. The ship was troubled wherein Judas was. Christ was in a ship with the other apostles, without Judas : behold the ^vinds are still, the sea is calm, the ship safe. Christ was in a ship with Judas amongst the rest, and tur- batur ilia navk : the wind blusters, the waves roar, and a tempest endan- gers the vessel to ruin. Benefit muUis ex societate honi. One good man doth much good to many. IIev. 1\ . O.J Tiiic si'Hutual na.'igatuk. 47 He is not only as manacles to the hands of God, to hold them from the defulmination of judgments, but is also a happy prevention of sin. He keeps God fi'om being angiy. Ho calms him when he is angiy. A godly man is like David's hai-p, he chaseth away the evil from the company, and he doth (as it were) conjure the devil. For in his presence (as if he could work miracles) impudence gi'ows ashamed, ribaldry appears chaste, drunk- enness is sober, blasphemers have their lips sealed up, and the * mouth of all wickedness is stopped.' This good comes by the good. Yet because they are dead to the world, it casts them out. So the Ger- gesites did ' cast Christ out of their borders,' Matt. viii. So the pharisees did cast the convert that was bom blind out of their synagogue, John ix. 34. So the Antiochians did cast Paul and Barnabas out of their coasts, Acts xiii. 50. Like confectioners, that throw away the juice of the oranges, and preserve only the rinds, or as certain chemists, that cast all good extrac- tions to the gi'ound, and only make much of the poison. But if you will not be picked up of the world, you must adhere close to it, and with ali- mental congruence please its stomach. Will you go to the court ? You must be proud, or you shall be despised. Will you to the city ? You must be subtle, or you shall be cheated. Will you to the country ? You must partake of their ignorant and blind dotage, and join in their vicious customs, or you shall be rejected. If you live in the world, and not as the world, this sea will spew you up, as too holy for their company. But let them. For ' God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world,' Gal. vi. 14. (4.) The sea is no place to continue in. No man sails there to sail there ; but as he propounds to his purpose a voyage, so to his hopes a return. You hold him a prisoner that is shut up in close walls, the door of egress baiTed against him. He is no less a prisoner (though his jail be as large as the sea) that must not set his foot on di-y ground. The banks and shores be his prison walls ; and though he hath room enough for hia body, he is narrowed up in his desires. He finds bondage in hberty. The one half of the earth is but his prison, and he would change his walk for some little island. The world, in like sort, is no place to dwell in for ever. Self-flattering fools that so esteem it. Ps. xlix. 11, ' Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever, and their dwelling places to all generations.' Therefore ' they call their lands after their own names.' As if the sea were for mansion, not for transition. It was a glorious piece of the world, which ravished Peter desired to build tabernacles on. Matt. xvii. Yet it was perishable earth, and it might not be gi-anted. Heaven only hath mansions. (John xiv. 2, ' In my Father's house there are many mansions ; ' all the world else is but of tottering tabernacles.) And immobile regmim, Heb. xii 28, ' a kingdom that cannot be shaken,' when all the kingdoms and principahties of the earth shall be overturned. This world, then, only is for waftage. There is one sea to all men common, but a difi'erent home. We are all in this world, either strangers or stragglers ; the godly are strangers. ' Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as pilgrims and strangers, abstain from fleshly lusts, which fight against the soul,' 1 Pet. ii. 21. So that aged patriarch acknowledged to the Eg}^tian king, ' Few and evil have the days of thy servant been in his pilgrimage.' In that true golden legend of the saints, it is said of them, ' They confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth,' Heb. xi. 13. The wicked are stragglers too ; and 48 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. | SeRMON LXI. howsoever conenturjiffere pedes, and to 'take their portion in this Ufe,' Ps. xvii. 14, 3'et they must, with Judas, to ' their own home,' Acts i. 25. We grow upward, they go forward, to heaven or hell, eveiy man to his own place. Let the rich man promise his soul a requiem here, Luke xii. 20. Let the atheistical cardinal of Bom-hon prefer his part in Paris to his part in Paradise ; yet the sea is not to be dwelt on. It is but for waftage, not for perpetuity of habitation. This is the fourth resemblance. (5.) The sea is full of dangers. To discuss the perils of the sea belongs rather to the capacity of a mariner than of a divine. I wiU only apprehend so much as may serve to exemplify this dangerous world. [1.] The sea is one of those fearful elements wherein there is no mercy. 0 that the world had but so much mercy as might exempt and discharge it of this comparison ! But if we take the world for the wicked of the world, we read that ' the very mercies of the wicked are cnael.' [2.] There be pu-ates in the sea. Alas ! but a handful to that huge army of them in the world. Take a short view of them, boiTowed of a divine traveller. Fury fights against us, like a mad Tm-k. Fornication, like a treacherous Joab, in kisses, it kills. Drunkenness is the master-gunner, that gives fia'e to all the rest. Gluttony may stand for a corporal ; avarice for a pioneer ; idleness for a gentleman of a company. Pride must be captain. But the arch-phate of all is the devil, that huge leviathan ' that takes his pleasm-e in this sea,' Psa. civ. ; and his pastime is to sink the freight of those merchants that are laden with holy traffic for heaven. ' Canst thou draw out this leviathan with an hook, or his tongue with a cord which thou lettest down ? Canst thou put a hook into his nose, or bore his jaw through with a thorn?' Job xh. 1, 2. Historians speak of a fish that is a special and oft-prevaihng enemy to this whale, called by some vihvella, or the sword-fish. The most powerful thing to overcome this mystical levia- than is the sword of the Spirit, which, to be seconded with the temporal sword of the magistrate, is of singular purpose. WhUes neither of these swords are di'awn against this pirate, and his malignant rabble : no marvel if they make such massacres on the sea of this world. Let the red dragon alone ; and whilst himself comes tumbling down from heaven, he wiU di-aw down many stars with his tail. [3. J There be rocks in the sea, which if a skilful pilot avoid not warily, he may soon have his vessel dashed in pieces. How many ships have been thus cast away ! How many merchants' hopes thus split ! They call their vessels by many prosperous names : as, the Success, the Good-speed, the Triumph, the Safe-guard. How vain doth one rock prove all these titles ! The rocks of om- marine world are persecutions and oflences, which he as thick as those fieiy sei-pents in the wilderness, with their venomous and burning stings. Num. xxi. Christ's cause and Christ's cross go most comm only together ; and who shall be sooner offended than his httle ones ? ' All that will live godly in Chi'ist Jesus, shall sufler persecution,' 2 Tim. iii. 12 ; as if it were a fatal destiny to them, not to be evaded. * Woe unto the world, because of oftences,' saith he that is able to execute ven- geance upon his adversaries. Matt, x^'iii. 7. ' It must needs be that offences come : but woe be to that man by whom the offence cometh. It were better for him that, with a miU-stone hung about his neck, he were drowned in the depths of the material sea,' as his soul hath been already drowned in this mystical sea of wickedness. Well, put the worst. If these rocks do shatter us, if these persecutions shall split the bark of our life, yet this be our comfort: our death is not mors, but immortalitas ; not Rev. IV. O.J the spiritual navigator. 49 a death, but an entrance to life incapable of dying. Rocks in the sea undo many a merchant. These rocks eventually make us happy ; and often we have just cause to take up that saying, Perieramus, nisi penissemus, we had been undone, had we not been undone. [4.] Besides rocks in the sea, there be also gulfs. In the Sicilian sea there is Scylla, a gi-eat rock, and Charj'bdis, a place of dangerous swallows, whereout was drawn that proverb, Incidit in Scyllam, cupiens vitare Charijb- dim. Mystically, in this world there are not only rocks of persecutions, but gulfs and swallows of errors and heresies. Let us beware lest, avoiding the one, we be devoured of the other. There is a perilous gulf in the Roman sea, (too, too many of our nation have found it) ; dangerous swallows about Amsterdam. It is good to fly from the gulf of superstition, but withal to avoid the swallow of separation. It is ill turning either to the right hand or to the left ; mediocrity is the safest way. When opinion goes before us, it is a great question whether truth will follow us. Strag- gling Dinahs seldom return, but ravished, home. Singularity in conceits concerning matters of rehgion, are as perilous as to follow a plurality oi multitude in evil customs. A man may perish as easily in the fair-coloured waters of heresy, as in the mud of iniquity. What matters it whether thou be drowned in fair water or foul, so thou be drowned ? Beware of these gulfs and swallows. [5.] There be straits in the sea of this world. Those of Magellan or Gibraltar are less dangerous. The hard exigents of hatred, obloquy, exile, penury, miseiy : difficult straits, which all sea-faring Christians must pass by to the haven of bliss. Pirates that care not which way they direct their coui-se, but only watch to rob and spoil, are not bound to these passages. So worldlings, that never aim or intend for heaven, but to ballast them- selves with the wealth of the world, from whomsoever, good or bad, or howsoever, by fair means or foul, they attain it, may keep the broad ocean, and have sea-room enough. For ' broad is the way of destruction, and many there be that keep it,' Matt. vii. But the godly are bound for the coast, that lies upon the cape of Bona Speranza, and they must of necessity pass through these straits. ' Straight and narrow is the way that leadeth unto hfe, and few there be that find it.' But if, like those Argonautae, we will sail for the golden fleece of joy and happiness, we must be miUtantes inter fluctus, content with hard passages. It is our solid comfort (as it was fabled of that ship, that it was made a star in heaven), that we shall be one day inter sidera triumphantes, ' stars fixed in the right hand of God,' and shining for ever in glory. This is the fifth danger of our mystical sea — straits. [6.] There be sirens in the sea of this world. Sirens ; hirens, as they are now called. Those in the material sea are described to have their upper parts the proportion or beauty of women; downwards they are squalid and pernicious. Virgo formosa superne, decidlt in turpem piscem. They enchant men with their voices, and with sweet songs labour sopire nautas, sopitos demeiyere, to luU the mariners asleep, and sleeping, to sink and drown them. What a number of these sirens, hirens, cockatrices, courtezans, in plain English, harlots, swim amongst us! Happy is it for him that hath only heard, and not been infected. Their faces and their voices promise joy and joiity. Their effects are only to drown and shipwreck men's fortunes, their credits, their lives, their souls. A book called Opus tripartitum speaks of the storks, that if they catch one stork leaving his own mate, and coupling with another, they all fall upon VOL. in. D 50 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. him, and spoil liim of liis feathers and hfe too. But, as if this sin were grown a virtue by custom among us, there are not wanting, ' who, knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them,' Rom. i. 32. If, in authority committed to inferior magistrates (the per- suasions of my heart excuseth the higher powers, and the impartial proceed- ings of the truly reverend and godly prelates of this land testily it), there were not some connivance (God forbid patronising!) of these enormities for some sinister respects, the sirens about our river of Thames should be, if not sent swimming to Gravesend, yet at least taken in at Bridewell stairs. Perhaps a poor man incontinent may smart for it ; but how often dares an apparitor knock at a great man's gate ! If lust comes under the rank of honourable, or worshipful, who dares tax it? But let as many as would be one spirit with the Lord Jesus, hate to be one flesh with a siren, 1 Cor. vi. It is recorded of Ulysses, that he stopped his ears against the incantations of these sirens ; and having put the rest under the hatches, bound himself to the mast, to prevent the power of their tempting witchcrafts. Ulysses was held a wise man; sure, then, they are no less than fools that prove and approve their charms. No man loves a gally-pot for the paint, when he knows there is poison ia it. I end in the epigram of a modem poet — Si renum cupis incolumem servare salutem, Sirenum cantus effuge ; sanus eris. [7.] Another peril in this mystical sea is the frequency of tempests. Some have ' tempestuous looks,' as Laban, Gen. xxxi. Some ' tempestu- ous hands,' as Sanballat, Neh. iv., to hinder the building of Jerusalem. Innumerable have tempestuous tongues, as Ishmael, Shimei, Eabshakeh. Such tempests have been often raised fi'om the vapour of a maUcious breath, that whole kingdoms have been shaken ■s\ath it. Master Foxe mentioneth, in his Book of Martyrs, that one in the street crj'ing ' Fire, fii-e,' the whole assembly in St Mary's, in Oxford, at one Mallaiy's recantation, presumed it to be in the church. Insomuch that some laboured at the doors, where, through the crowd of many, not one could pass. Some stuck in the win- dows. All imagined the very church on fire, and that they felt the very molten lead drop on their heads. Whereas all was but a false fii'e. There was no such matter. In like sort scandalous slanders and invective con- tumehes begin at a little breach, one calumnious tongue, and get such strength, like mutineers, with marching forward, that the world soon riseth in an uproar. These are called by Ambrose, ProceUcemundi. And what world- faring Christian hath escaped these storms ? But says Epictetus, Si rect^ fads, quid eos vereris, qui non recte reprehendunt ? If thou do rightly, why shouldst thou fear them that blame wrongfully ? Do well and be happy, though thou hear ill. This is another danger — tempests. [8. J There is yet a last peril in the sea, which is the fish Bemora. A fish, it is described, of no magnitude, about a cubit in length, yet for strength able to stay a ship. It is recorded that Caius Caesar's galley was stayed by this fish. There are many remoras in this world that hinder the good speed of Christian endeavours. Would Herod hear and obey John Baptist's preach- ing ? He hath a remora that hinders him, Herodias. Would Nicodemus fain come to Christ ? Fear of the Jews is his remora. Would Paul come to Thcssalonica ? The devil is his remora. ' We would have come to you HeV. IV. G.] THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOK. 51 once and again, but Satan hindered us,' 1 Thess. ii. 18. Yea, doth Christ himself puipose, in his infinite mercy, to suffer for us, and pre-acquaint his apostles with it ? Even Peter will be his remora. * Master, favour thy- self. This shall not be unto thee,' Llatt. xvi. 22. Hath that forward young man any good mind to follow Chi-ist ? The parting with his goods to the poor is his remora. Would you have him that is rich follow poverty ? Such are our rcmoras now, that hang upon our anus, like Lot's wife, dissuading our departure from Sodom. Ai-e we in\ited to Christ's supper, the gospel ? Some oxen, or farms, or a wife's idleness, the pleasures of the flesh, retard us. Some business of our own is a remora to God's business. Ai-e we called to speak in the truth's cause boldl}' ? The a^ful presence of some great man is our remora, we dare not. Doth our conscience prompt us to parley for the restoring of the church's right ? Our own impropria- tions, and the easy gain of the tenth of our neighbour's goods, are a remora, we cannot. Axe we exhorted, in the name of Jesus Christ, for God's mercy to us, to shew mercy to his, to feed the hungr}', succour the weak, relieve the poor, and make us fiiends of om- unrighteous mammon by charity ? Alas ! the world, covetous desire of gain, is our remora, we must not. Tell the covetous man that he is not God's treasurer, but his steward, and blame him for perverting the end of his factorship, there is a davU. plucks him by the sleeve, thirst of gain, God he confesseth his master, but the world his mistress. If you ask him why he doth not in charitable deeds obey his Master, he answers his mistress will not let him. Would the young man repent ? His harlot steps forth, and, like a remora, stays his com'se. Let a sermon touch a man's heart, and begin remorse in him, that he purpose reformation, good fellowship, Uke a remora, stops him. Yea, let a man in an age (for rare are the birds that drop such feathers) erect hospitals, piety and devotion shall meet with some remoras that would overthrow them. You hear the dangers of the sea of the world, the fifth circumstance of this comparison. (6.) In the sea there be /'%^uss lydmcpayot, fishes that eat up fishes. So in the world, d^^pwo-o/ av^^o}m(pay(ii, men that eat up men, Ps. xiv. 4. ' Have aU the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? who eat up my people as they eat bread.' The wicked man devoureth the righteous. ' Thou makest men as the fishes of the sea,' Hab. i. The labours of the poor, even his whole heri- tage, is worn upon the proud man's back, or swallowed down into his belly. He racks rents, wrings out fines, extorteth, enhanceth, improveth, impo- verisheth, oppresseth, till the poor tenant, his \die, and childi-en cry out for bread, and behold, all buys him scarce a suit of clothes ; he eats and drinks it at one feast. Oh, the shrill cry of our land for this sin, and the loud noise it makes in the ears of the Lord of Hosts ! The father is dead that kept good hospi- tality in the country, and the gallant, his son, must Uve in London, where, if he want the least superfluity that his proud heart desireth (and how can he but want, in the infinite pride of that city ?) he commits all to a hard steward, who must wring the last drop of blood from the tenant's heart, before the landlord must want the least cup to his drunkenness, the least toy to his wardrobe. If this be not to eat, swallow, devour men, blood and bones, then the fishes in the sea forbear it. Hear this, ye oppressors ! Be merciful. You will one day be glad of mercy. The yeUings of the poor in the country- are as loud as your roarings in the city. The cups you drink are fall of 52 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. those tears that drop from affamished eyes, though you perceive it not. You laugh when they lament, you feast when they fast, you devour them that do you service. God will one day set these things in order before you. (7.) The sea is full of monsters. Innumerable, and almost incredible are the relations of travellers in this punctual demonstration. As of estau- rus, a fish chewing the cud like a beast ; of the manate, headed Hke an ox ; and of certain fl}ing fishes, &c. And are there not in this world men-mon- sters ? I do not say of God's making, but of their own marring. You would think it prodigious to see a man with two faces. Alas ! how many of these walk daily in oui* streets ! They have one face for the gospel, another for the mass-book ; a brow of allegiance for the king, and a brow of apostasy or treason for the pope, whensoever he shall call for it. You would think it a strange defect in nature to see a man born without a head. Why, there are innumerable of these headless men among us, who, like brute beasts, have no understanding, but are led by the precipitation of their feet ; follow their owti mad affections. Others redundantly have two tongues, dissemblers, hypocrites ; the one to bless God, the other to curse man made after his image. They have one to sing in a chm'ch, another to blaspheme and roar in a tavern. Some have their faces in theu* feet, whereas God, os homuii sublime dedit, ccelumque tuerijussit, gave man an upright countenance, and framed him to look upwards. These look not to heaven, whence they did drop, but to hell, whither they will drop. Insatiable earth-scrapers, covetous wi-etches, that would dig to the centre to exhale riches. Others have swords in their lips, a strange kind of people, but common, railers and re^dlers. Every word they speak is a wounding gash to their neighbours. Weigh it seri- ously. Are not these monsters ? (8.) On the sea men do not walk, but are borne in vessels, unless, hke our Saviour Christ, they could work miracles. In the world men do not so much travel of themselves, as they are carried by the stream of their own concupiscence. So saith St Chrysostom, ' Hie homines non ambulant, sed feruntur ; quia diabolus cum delectatione compellit illos in mala.' '^ Here men do not walk, but are carried ; for the devil bears them upon his back, and whiles he labom-s them to hell, wind and tide are on his side. When he hath them in j^i'ofundis abijssi, upon that bottomless depth, he strives to exonerate his shoulders, and doth what he can to let them fall and sink into the infernal lake. So Paul saith that temptations and snares, foolish and hurtful lusts do (no less than) drown men in perdition. You think yourselves on dry and firm ground, ye presumptuous wantons. Alas ! you are on the sea, an inconstant sea. Digitis a morte remoti Quatuor, aut septem, si sit latissima tosda : Soon overboard. The winds will rise, the surges will beat, you will be ready to sink ; cry faithfully, and in time with the apostles. Lord, save us, or we perish. (9.) Lastly, the sea is that great cistern, that sends water over all the earth, conveying it through the veins, the springs, till those dispersed waters become rivers, and then those rivers run back again into the sea. This vast world scattereth abroad her riches ; drives and derives them by certain passages, as by conduit-pipes, unto many men. The rich man shall have * Horn. 7, Oper. imper. KkV. IV. G.] THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. 58 many springs to feed him with wealth ; the east and west winds shall hlow him profit ; industry, policy, fraud, luck shall contend to give his dition the addition of more wealth. At length when these springs have made a brook, and these brooks a river, this river runs again into the sea. When the rich man hath sucked the world long, at last absurbetur d mundo, he is sucked up of the world. Whatsoever it gave him at many times, it takes away at once. War, exile, prison, displeasure of gi-eatness, suits of law, death, empty that river in one moment, that was so many years a filling. Man's wealth is hke his life ; long a breeding, soon extinct. Man is bom into the world with much pain, nursed with much tenderness, kept in childhood with much care, in youth with much cost. All this time is spent in expectation. At last, being now (upon the point) a man, the prick of a sword kills him. Even so is our wealth piled, so spoiled ; the world, like some politic tp'ant, sufiering us to scrape together abundant riches, that it may sm-prise us and them at once. Innumerable other relations would the world and the sea afibrd us. I desire not to say all, but enough ; and enough I have said, if the afiections of any soul present shall hereby distaste the world, and grow heavenly. Oh, what is in this sea worth our dotage ! what not worth our detestation ! The sins of the world offend our God ; its vanities hurt ourselves ; its only good blessings serve for om* godly use, and to help us in our jom-ney. But we know that we are of God, and the whole world Ueth in wickedness. Pray we, that this sea infect us not, especially drowoi us not. Though we lose, like the mariners in the prophecy of Jonah, our wares, our goods, our vessel, our Hberties, yea our lives, let us keep our faith. It is the most dangerous shipwreck, that this naufragous world can give, the shipwreck of faith. They write of the serpent, that he exposeth all his body to the blow of the smiter, that he may save his head. So lose we our riches, our houses, lands, liberties, lives ; but keep we faith in our Head, Jesus Christ. Though we live in the world, let us not love the world, saith St John. Not fashion ourselves to it, saith St Paul ; hate the vices, the villanies, the vanities of it. Think it easier, for that to pervert thee, than for thee to convert that. Water will sooner quench fu'e, than fire can warm water. A httle wormwood embitters a good deal of honey ; but much honey cannot sweeten a little wormwood. Call we then on our God to preserve us, that the e'vil of the world infect us not. Aristotle saith, if a man take a vessel of earth new and raw, close up the mouth thereof, throw it into the salt sea, letting it lie there a day or two ; when he takes it up, he shall find fresh water in it. Though we be soused in this ocean-world, yet if the Spirit of grace seal us up, the brinish waters of sin shall not enter us ; but we shall be vessels of gi-ace here, hereafter of glorj'. If I have been somewhat long on the sea, you will excuse me. It is a great and vast element to travel over in so short a time. Some observa- tions I have given you, that I might not cross the world without some fruit of my voyage. Only what I have spoken of the waters, let it not be drowned in the waters, as the proverb saith, not perish in your memories, without some fiTiit in your Kves. 2. The next circumstance gives the world, not only for a sea, but mare vitreum, a sea of glass. You see, I must carry you further on this element, and yet at last leave many coasts unvisited, much smothered in silence. Let not all be via navis, as the wise man speaketh, the way of a ship on the sea, leaving no track or print in your remembrances. This glassy attribute shall give us observable three properties in the world. 51 THE SPIRITU^VL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. (1.) Colour. (2.) Slipperiness. (3.) Brittleness. As certainly as you find tliese qualities in glass, expect them in tlie world. (1.) Colour. — There is a glassy colour congi-uent to the sea. So Virgil insinuates, describing the Nereides, certain marine nymphs. Milesia vellera nymphse Carpebant hyali saturo fucata colore. And not far removed, Vitreisque sedilibus omnea Obstupuere ; — Which is spoken, not in respect of the matter, but of the colour, and perspicuity. So Ovid in an epistle. Est nitidiis, vitroque magis perlucidus amne, Fons sacer. All the beauty of glass consists in its colour ; and what in the world, that is of the world, is commendable, 2J^(^ter colorem, besides the colour ? A cottage would serve to sleep in, as well as a sumptuous palace, but for the coloui'. Russets be as warm as silks, but for the glittering colom*. The Egj^ptian bond-women give as much content, as Queen Vashti, but for thp coloui'. The beauty of the fairest women is but skin deep, which if nature denies, art helps them to lay on colours. And when they are most artifi- cially complexioned, they are but walking and speaking pictures. It is the colour of gold that bewitcheth the avarous ; the colour of jewels that make the ladies proud. If you say, these are precious and comfortable in them- selves, then feed on them, and try if those metals can (vidthout meat) keep your life and soul together. The truth is, man's coi-poral eye sees nothing but coloui-. It is the sole indefinite object of om- sight, whithersoever we direct it. We see but the lay part of things with these optic organs. It is the understanding, the soul's interior eye, that conceives and perceives the latent virtues. AU that we outwardly behold, is but the fashion of the world ; and St Paul saith, ' The fashion of the world perisheth,' 1 Cor. vii. 31. The colour fades, and the splendour of things is decayed. That if the world, Uke aged and wi'inkled Helen, should contemplate her own face in a glass ; she would wonder, that for her beauty's sake Troy should be sacked and buiTied; man's soul endangered to eternal fire. Oh how is the splendom- and glory of the world bated and impaired since the original creation ! The sky looks dusky ; the sun puts forth a di'owsy head; as if he were no longer, as Da\dd once described him, Uke a 'Bride- groom coming out of his chamber, or a strong man rejoicing to nm his race.' The moon looks pale, as if she were sick with age ; and the stars do but twinkle, as if they were dim, and looked upon the earth with spectacles. The colom-s of the rainbow are not so radiant, and the whole earth shews but like a gaiment often dyed, destitute of the native hue. It is but colour that delights you, ye worldlings. Esau lusts for the pottage, because they look red; and the drunkard loves the wine, because it looks 'red, and sparkles in the cup,' Prov. xxiii. 31. ' Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth its colour in the cup, when it moveth itself aright.' "What babes are we, to be taken by these colours that only please the eye, or the sensual part of man, and harm the soul ! like children that play with glass, till they cut theii- fingers. Avicen saith, that glass among stones is as a fool aiiiongst men ; for it IIeV. IV. 0. I THE SPIRITUAL XAVIUATOR. 5ft takes all paint, and follows precious stones in colour, not in virtue. So docs this world give colours to her riches, as if there were some worth and \irtue in them, till we ai'e cozened of heavenly and substantial treasmcs bv over-prizing them. No matter, saith Isidore, is more apt to make min-ors, or to receive painting, than glass. So men deck the world, as the Israel- ites did their calf, and then superstitiously dote upon it, as Pygmalion on his carved stone. But can colour satisfy? Is man's imaginative power so dull and thick as to be thus pleased '? Shall a man toil to dig a pit, and laboriously di-aw up the water ; and then must he sit by and not drink, or di-ink and not have his thirst quenched ? Yes : thus do we long after eai'thly things, which obtained, give us no fuU content; thus disregard spnitual and heavenly, whereof but once tasting, we go away highly satisfied. Say, then, with Bernard — Oh bone Jesii, fons indeficiens, Humana conla reficieus : Ad te ciirro, te solum sitiens : Tu mihi salus sufficiens. Oil, Jesus, fountain ever flowing, Thy graces on man's soul bestowing! To thee I run with thirsty heart, And none shall want, though I have part. For others it shall be said, ' Lo, this is the man that made not God his strength; but trasted in the abundance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness,' Psa. lii. 7. But the faithful * shall be hke a green oHve-tree in the house of God,' ver. 8; and of as fresh a blee* as Daniel, w-hom the mercy of God, wherein he tnists, waters for ever and ever. The colour of this glassy sea vanisheth, like the beauty of a flower ; and when it is withered, who shall re^dve it? Rub your eyes, and look on this world better : it hath but a surphuUed cheek, a coloured beauty, which God shall one day scour off \^'ith a flood of fii'e. Trust not this glass for reflection, as if it could present you truly to your own judgments. It is but a false glass, and will make you enamom-ed both of yourselves and it, till at last, the glass being broken, the sea swallows you. Thus for the colour. (2.) Glass is a slippeiy metal. A man that walks on it had need be shod as the Germans, that slide upon ^ice. But go we never so steady on this glassy sea, even the just man faUs seven times a day. How soon are we tripping in om* most considerate pace ! David said he would take heed to his ways ; but how soon did his foot slide upon this glass ! Psa. xciv. 18. ' When I said, my foot slippeth, thy mercy, 0 Lord, held me up.' Let us all pray with him : * Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps sUp not.' And if we have stood, let us magnify him in the next psalm. ' Thou hast enlarged my steps under me, that my feet did not slip.' For the wicked, how sm'ely soever they think themselves fixed in this world, yet, Psa. Ixxiii. 18, they are set in slippery places. They talk of strong and subtle wrestlers ; but the cunningest wrestler of all is the world : for whose heels hath it not tripped up ? The wisest Solomon, the strongest Samson, have been fetched up by this wi'estler, and measm-ed their lengths on the ground. How dangerous, then, is it to ran fast on this sea, where men are scarce able to stand ! No marvel, if you see them fall in troops, and lie in heaps, till with their weight they crack the glass, and topple into the depth. * That is, blow or bloom. — f-n. 56 THE SPIRITUAL, NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. There you shall see a knot of gallants laid along this glass, that have run headlong at pride. There, a coi-poration of citizens, that have run at i-iches. Here, a rabble of drunkards, that ran apace to the tavern. There, a crew of cheaters, that posted as fast to Tyburn. Thus the devil laughs to see men so wildly running after vanity, and this glassy sea so easily hurhng up theii' heels. It is reported of the Irish, that they dig deep trenches in the ground, and pave the surface over with gi'een turfs, that their suspectless enemies may think it fii-m gi-ound. This world is the devil's vanity sea, full of trenches and swaUows, which he paves over with glass. The way seems smooth, but it is slippery. His intention is mischievous, lit lapsu graviore ruamus, that we may have the surer and sorer fall. He that walks on this slippery glass had need of three helps : cu'cumspect eyes, sober feet, and a good staff in his hand. First, He must keep his eyes in his head. Eph. v. 15, ' See that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as mse.' Pliny writes of the eagle, that when she would make the stag her prey, she lights down between his horns, whence he cannot shake her ; and with dust ready laid up in her feathers, she so filleth his e,yes, that he being blinded, breaks his o"svti neck from some high cliff or mountain. If the devil can blind a man's eyes with the dust of vanities, he will easily fling him down on this shppery glass, and di'own him in this dangerous =.ea. Neither must om' eyes only be careful to descry oui* way, but of sound and faithfiil discretion, not to be deluded with the spectacles, which this glassy sea presents, so retarding our journey to heaven. Pliny reports, that when the hunter hath stolen away the tigress's whelps, he scatters in the way gi'eat miiTors of glass, wherein, when the savage creature looks, she, seeing herself presented, imagines these to be her young ones ; and whilst she is much troubled to deliver them, the hunter escapes. If we stand gazing on the glassy mirrors of this world, fame, honour, beauty, wealth, wantonness, thinking we see therein pre- sented those dear joys we should seek for, behold, Satan in the mean time doth insensibly rob us of them. Let us look well about us : we walk upon glass. Secondly, He must have sober feet. He had not need be drmiken, that walks upon glass. If he be drunken with the vanities of this world, he may mistake himself, as that drunkard did, who, seeing the resultant light of the stars shining in the water about him, thought he had been translated into heaven; and rapt in a gi-eat joy, fell a waving, as he imagined, in the air, till he fell into the water, not without peril of life. He that is spiritu- ally drunk may, in like sort, imagine the stars to be fixed in this glassy sea, which are indeed in heaven ; and that the world can afford those true joys, which are only to be found above. I have heard of some coming out of a tavern well lined with Uquor, that, seeing the shadows of the chimneys in the street made by the moon, have took them for great blocks, and down on their knees to chmb and scramble over them. So worldlings that are drank, but not with wine, enchanted with earthly vanities, think every shadow which is put in their way to heaven a great block, and they dare not ventm-e. Sober feet are necessarily required to our travel on this glassy sea. Thirdly, Lastly and mostly. He that would walk stedfastly on this glassy sea, had need of a good staff to stay him. The best and surest, and that which will not let him fall, or if he do fall, will soon raise him, is that David speaketh of, Psa. xxiii. 4, God's staff. ' Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no caiI : for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me;' confortant — make me strong, bear and hold me up. Rev. IV, 6.] tue spiritual navigator. 67 Eg}'pt is but a ' broken reed.' He that leans on it shall find the splin- ters running into his hand ; and cursed is he that makes flesh his arm : but who leans faithfully on this stall', shall never perish. Thus you have heard this glassy world's slipperincss. (3.) This glass denotes brittleness. Proverb and experience justify this. As brittle as glass : a fit attribute to express the nature of worldly things ; for glass is not more fragile. ' The word passeth away, and the lust thereof,' saith St John, 1 John ii. 17. Man himself is but brittle stuflf, and he is the noblest part of the world. ' Man that is born of a woman, is of few days, and full of trouble. He comcth forth like a flower, and is cut down; he flieth as a shadow, and continueth not.' ' Sic in non hominem vertitur omnis homo.' Let him have an ample portion in this life, and ' his belly be filled with God's hidden treasures,' Ps. xvii. 14. Let him be 'full of children, and leave the rest of his substance to his babes.' Let him be happy in his lands, in his children, in his success, and succession. ' Yet a little while, and the wicked shall not be ; thou shalt diligently consider his place, and shalt not find it,' Ps. xxxvi. 10. Glass, whiles it is melting hot and soft, is pliable to any form ; but cold and hard, it is brittle. When God fii'st made the world, it was malleable to his working haiid, to his commanding word ; for he spake the word, and things were created. The next time he toucheth it, it shall break to pieces like a potsherd. ' The heavens shall pass away with a great noise, the elements shall melt wdth fervent heat, and the earth also, and the works that are therein, shall be burnt up,' 2 Pet. iii. 10. Isidore mentions one that came to Tiberius the emperor with a vial of glass in his hand ; and throwing it do^^^l to the ground it brake not, but only was bent, which he straightened again with his hammer. But, saith the same author, the em- peror hanged him for his skill. How pleasing an invention should that false prophet make, that should come and tell the covetous worldling, or luxm'ious epicure, that this glassy world is not brittle, but shall abide ever ! But serve him as the emperor did, hang him up for an atheistical liar that so speaks. The decay of the parts argues the dotage of the whole, -^tna, Parnassus, Olympus are not so visible as they were. The sea now rageth where the gi'ound was dry; and fishes s'wim where men walked. Hills are sunk, floods dried up, rocks broken, towns swallowed up of earthquakes ; plants lose their force, and planets their virtue. The sim stoops like an aged man ; as weary of his com-se, and willing to fall asleep. All things are subject to violence and contrariety, as if both the poles were ready to ruinate their cHmates. ' The end of all things is at hand,' 1 Pet. iv. 7 ; when ' Compage soluta, Ssecula tot mundi snprema coaggeret hora.' God hath given us many signs of this. Portenta, quasi poiro tendentia. Sirfna habent, si intelligantur, linguam suam. Signs have their language, if they could be rightly understood. Ultima tribulatio multis tribulationibus priBvenitur. There are many calamities preceding the last and universal calamity of the world. No comet, but threatens ; no strange exhalations, alterations, seeming combustion in the heavens, but demonstrate the general deluge of fire that shall destroy all. ' Nunqnam futilibus percanduit ignibus rether.' 58 THE SPIKITUAL NAVIGATOK. [SeBMON LXI. As God's tokens in the plague pronounce the infallibihty of instant death, so these signs of the world's sickness are avant- couriers of its destruction. Men are desirous to buy the calendar, that in the beginning of the year they may know what will betide in the end ; what dearth, or what death, will ensue. Behold, Christ and his apostles give us a prognostication in the Scriptures : foretelling by signs in the sun, moon, stars, in the uni- versal decay of nature, and sickness of the world, what will happen in this old year, what in the new year, which in the world to come. The mathe- maticians and astronomers of the earth never dreamt of a universal eclipse of the sun, only Christ's almanac reports this. Matt. xxiv. All beings are of one of these four sorts : Some are fi-om everlasting, not to everlasting. Some to everlasting, not from everlasting. One only thing is both from, and to, everlasting. The rest are neither to, nor from, ever- lasting. First, Some are fi-om everlasting, not to everlasting : as God's eternal decrees, which have an end in theii* detennined time, but had no beginning. So God, before all worlds, detennined the sending of his Son to die for us, Acts ii. 23 ; but he came * in the fulness of time,' saith the apostle, Gal. iv. 4. This decree had no beginning ; it had an ending. Secondly, Some are to everlasting, not from everlasting : as angels, and men's souls, which had a beginning in time, but shall never end ; because they are created of an unmortal natui'e. Thirdly, One only thing, which is indeed ens entium, God himself, is both from everlasting and to everlasting. For he is an uncreated and eternal subsistence : Alpha and Omega ; that First and Last, that had neither beginning nor shall have ending. "UTiom Plato called to ov ; and he calls himself by Moses 6 ujv, ' that was, that is, and that is to come ;' the same for ever. Fom-thly, Other things are neither from everlasting, nor to everlasting ; for they had a beginning, and shall have an end. Of this sort are all worldly things. God will give them their end as he is Omega, that gave them their creation as he is Alpha. All these things do decay, and shall perish. ' Mors etiam saxis, nominibusque venit.' Death shall extend its force even upon stones and names. 'V\Tio can then deny this world to be brittle '? We see how slowly the tired eai'th retm-ns us the fniits which we tmsted her bowels mth. Her usuiy grows weak, like a decayed debtor, imable to pay us the interest she was wont. ' Ni \-is humana quotannis Maxima qiiseque manu legeret.* The world is lame, and every member, as it were, out of joint. It caught a fall in the cradle, as Mephibosheth by falling from his nurse ; and the older it waxeth, the more maimedly it halteth. Sin entered presently after the world's buih, and gave it a mortal wound. It hath labom'ed ever since of an incurable consumption. The noblest part of it, man, first felt the smart ; and in his cm'se both beasts and plants received thens. It fell sick early in the morning ; and hath now languished in a Ungering lethargy, tih the evening of dissolution is at hand. Now, since the world is a sea, and so brittle a sea of glass, let us seek to pass over well, but especially to land well. A ship under sail is a good * GfoTi:. i. Rev. IV. G.J the spiritu.vl navigator. 59 sight ; but it is better to seo her well moored in the haven. Be desirous of good life, not of long life : the shortest cut to our haven is the happiest voyage. Who would be long on the sea ? If a stoim or wreck do come, let us save the best good. Whatsoever becomes of the vessel, thy body, make sure to save the passenger, thy soul, * in the day of the Lord Jesus.' I have now done ynth. the sea, and for this point here cast anchor. II. Thus far we have surveyed this glassy sea, the world, in regard of itself. The other two attributes concern Almighty God's holding and beholding, guarding and regarding, his seeing and overseeing it. Et videt, et providet : he contemplates, he governs it. His inquisition, and his dis- position, are here insinuated. Somewhat (and not much) of either. 1. That God may most clearly view all things being and done in this world, it is said to be in his sight as clear as ciystal. As in crystal there is nothing so little but it may be seen ; so there is nothing on earth said or done, so slight or small, that it may escape his all-seeing providence. Omnia sunt nucla et patent ia oculis ejus. ' There is no creature that is not manifest in his sight ; but all things are naked and opened unto the eyes of him, with whom we have to do,' Heb. iv. 13. In vain men hope to be hid from God. * He that planted the ear, shall he not hear ? He that fonned the eye, shall he not see ? ' Ps. xciv. 9. All the earth is full of his gloiy. ' Whither shall I go from thy Spirit ? or whither shall I flee from thy presence?' Ps. cxxxix. 7. It is there amply proved, that neither heaven nor hell, nor uttennost part of the sea, nor day nor night, light nor darkness, can hide us fr-om his face. ' For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me iu my mother's womb.' Our sitting, walking, lying down, or rising up ; the thoughts of om- hearts, works of om* hands, words of our Hps, ways of our feet; our reins, bones, bosoms, and our mothers' wombs, wherein we lay in our first informity, are well known unto him. Qualis, mihi dicite, Deus censendus est ; Qui cuncta cernit, ipse autem non cernitur ! said an old poet. * The Lord hath seven eyes, which run to and fro through the whole earth,' Zech. iv. 10. He is totus oculiis. Let us not flatter oiirselves with those, Ps. x., that ' say in their heart, God hath forgotten : he hideth his face ; he will never see it ; ' and so endeavour to pluck out the eye of know- ledge itself. But there is neither couch in chamber, nor vault in the gi'ound, clouds of day, darkness of night, bottoms of mountains, nor holes of rocks, nor depth of seas, secret friend, nor more secret conscience, heaven nor hell, that can obscure or shadow us from the eye of the Lord. Wheresoever we are, let us say with Jacob, * The Lord is in this place, though we be not aware of it,' Gen. xxviii. 17. Oh, the infinite things and actions that the eye of God sees at once in this ciystal glass of the world ! Some caring to come out of debt, others to get into debt. Some delving for gold in the bowels of the earth, others in the bowels of the poor. Some buying and bargaining, others cheating in the market. Some praying in their closets, others quafiing in taverns. Here some raising their houses, there others ruining them. Alteiian con- suynmantem matrimonium, alterum conswnentem imtrbnonium One mar- rying and going to the world, another miscanying, the world going from him. Thei'e run honoiu- and pride cequis cenicihus. There walks fraud cheek by jowl with a tradesman. There stalks pride vdth the pace of a soldier, but habit of a courtier, stri-^-ing to add to her own stature, feathered on the crown, corked at the heels, light all over, stretching her legs, and GO THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. SerMON LXl. spreading her wings like the ostrich, with ostentation of great flight ; but, nil penna, sed mus, not an inch higher or better. There slugs idleness ; both hands are in its bosom, while one foot should be in the stirrup. Hal- loo in his ear, preach to him ; if he "will not waken, prick him with goads ; let the corrective law disple * him ; he cries not Fodere nescio, but Fodere nolo ; not, I know not how to dig, but I will not dig. Here halts opinion, lame, not with the shortness but length of his legs, one foot too long that mars the verse. There runs pohcy, and moves more with an engine than many men can do with their hands, leading life after this rule : si occulte, bene ; if close enough, well enough. There hunies the papist to the mass, and his wife, the cathohe, equivocate before a com- petent judge, though Christ would not before a Caiaphas, climbing to sal- vation by an attorney, and likely to speed by a proxy. There slides by the meagre ghost of maHce, her blood drank up, the marrow of her bones wasted, her whole body Uke a mere anatomy. There fly a crew of oaths Hke a flight of dismal ravens, croaking the ' plague to the house' where the swearer is, Zech. v. 3. Nay, ruin to the whole land, Jer. xxiii. * For oaths the land moumeth.' Here reels drunkenness with swollen eyes, stammering feet, befiiended of that poor remnant of all his wealth (the riclily stocked grounds, richly furnished house, richly filled purse, are all wasted, and nothing is left rich but), the nose. There goes murder from Aceldama, the field of blood, to Golgotha, the place of dead souls, and from thence to Hinnom, the valley of fii'e and tonnents. There see atheism projecting to displant the paradise of God, and turn it to a wil- derness of serpents. Heaven is held but a poet's fable, and the terrors of hell, like Hercules' club in the tragedy, of huge bulk, but rags and straw are the stuffing. Creatures that have a little time on earth, and then vanish. Tu qui dicis, transit Christianus, ipse transis sine Christianis. Thou that sayest the Christians perish, dost perish thyself and leave the Chiistians behind thee. Whither go these atheists ? I beheve not to heaven, for they believe there is no heaven. They shall never have those joys they would not beheve. They are not in hell neither ; there is no atheist. Where then ? In hell they are indeed, but not as atheists. They no sooner put their heads within those gates but atheism di'ops ofi"; they be- lieve and feel now there is a God. There you shall hear hypocrites, a pipient brood, cackling their own ripe- ness when they are scarce out of their shells ; whose words and works diti'er, as it is seen in some tap-houses, when the painted walls have sober sen- tences on them as, ' Fear God, honour the king,' ' Watch and pray,' ' Be sober,' &c., and there is nothing but drankenness and swearing in the house. There is ignorance, Hke a stricken Sodomite, gi'oping for the way ; nay, indeed, neither discerning nor desiring it. He sees neither numen nor lumen, neither diem, the dayhght of the gospel, nor Deum, the God of day and gospel. There goes slovenly faction, like a malcontent, that, with incendiary scru- ples, labours to divide Judah from Israel. It was a strange doom that Valens the emperor gave against Procopius, causing him to be tied to two great trees bowed forcibly together, and so his body to be pulled asimder ; that would have pulled asunder the body of the empire. The humourists thrust themselves into this throng, or else I would have spared them ; but tiTith of love to some must not prejudice love of truth in any. If they had as imperative tongues and potential hands, as they have optative minds, * Qu. "Disciple?"— En. Kev. 1\'. O.J THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. 61 they would keep an infinitive stir in the lacerated church. God sees the malicious Jesuit calling up a parliament of devils to plot treasons. He hears their damnable consultations, and observes them, whiles they apparel blood- red murder and black conspiracy in the white robes of religion. He saw Garnet plotting in his study, and Faux digging in the vault, and meant to make the pit, which they digged for others, swallow themselves. He beholds, as in a clear mirror of ciystal, all our impm-ities, impieties, our contempt of sermons, neglect of sacraments, dishallowing his Sabbaths. Well, as God sees all things so clearly, so I would to God we would behold somewhat. Let us open our eyes, and view in this ciystal glass our own works. Consider we a little our o\\'n wicked courses, our perverse ways on this sea. Look upon this angle of the world, for so, we think, AnrjUa sig- nifies ; how many vipers doth she nurse and nourish in her indulgent bosom, that wound and sting her ? The landlords' oppression, usurers' extortion, patrons' simony, commons' covetousness ; our unmercifulness to the poor, over-mercifulness to the rich, mahce, ebriety, pride, profanation — these, these are the works that God sees among us ; and shall we not see them our- selves ? Shall we be utter strangers to our owti doings ? ' Be not deceived : neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God,' 1 Cor. vi. 9. Let not us then be such. * Let us not be desirous of vain -glory, provoking one another, euAying one another,' Gal. v. 26. Methinks here, vain-gloiy stalks in like a mountebank gallant, provocation like a swagger- ing roarer, and malice Hke a meagre and melancholy Jesuit. All these things we do, and God sees in the Ught ; and in the hght we must repent them, or God will punish them with everlasting darkness. You see how the world is clear to God's eye as ciystal. 2. Lastly, this glassy sea is not only as crystal for its transparent bright- ness, that the Almighty's eye may see all things done in it. But it lies, for situation, before his throne, generally for the whole, and particularly for every member, subject to his judgment and governance. His throne signifies that impartial government which he exerciseth over the world. ' The Lord shall endure for ever ; he hath prepared his throne for judgment ; and he shall judge tJie world in righteousness, he shall minister judgment to the people in uprightness,' Ps. ix. 8, 9. Neither is it all for judgment ; there is not only a terrible thunder and hghtning flash- ing from his throne, but out of it proceed comfortable voices speaking the solaces of the gospel, and binding up the broken-hearted. Therefore it is said, ver. 3, there is a ' rainbow about the thi-one,' which is a sign of God's covenant, a seal of his eternal mercy towards us. This is roimd about the seat, that God can look no way but he must needs see it. So that to the faithftd this throne is not tenible : ' Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in the time of need,' Heb. iv. 16. K there be the fire of judgment, there is also the rain of mercy to quench it. Neither is this a transitoiy throne, subject to changes and schemes, as all earthly thi-ones are ; but (Heb. i. 8), ' Thy throne, 0 God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.' ' He shall reign ever the house of Jacob for ever ; and of his kingdom there shall be no end,' Luke i. 33. He that sits on the throne is not idle ; to let all things in the world run at sixes and sevens ; but omnia non solum permissa a Deo, sed etiam immissa. So disposing all things, that not only the good are ordained by him, but G2 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. even the evil ordered. The sin is of man, the disposition of God. But let God alone with oportet necessitatis ; let us look to oportet officii. Sennacherib cannot do what he lists, God can put a bridle in his lips, a hook in his nos- trils : ' 0 Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the stafl' in then- hand is mine indignation,' Jer. x. 6. ' Thou art my battle-axe and weapons of war: for with thee will I break in pieces the nations ; and with thee wiE I destroy kingdoms,' Jer. h. 20. Ulterius ne tende odiis ; go no further upon God's wrath, thou desperate, wicked man. Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the em- peror Valentme, infected with the Arian heresy, that being about to write \^-ith his o'mi hand the proscription and banishment of Basil, the pen thrice refused to let faU any ink. But when he would needs write, such a trem- bling invaded his hand, that his heart being touched, he sent presently and recanted what he had wiitten. But I press this point no farther, having in other places hberaUy handled it. The four beasts, in ver. 8, ' rest not day nor night, sa}'ing Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.' The fathers, from these words, observe the mysteiy of trinity in unity, and of unity in trinity — that God is thi-ice called holy, signifies the trinity ; that our Lord God Almighty, the unity. Quid est, quod ter Sanctus dicitur, si non trina est in Divinitate persona ? Cur semel Dominus Deus dicitur, si non est una in Divinitate substantia ? * Let us then, with the four-and-twenty elders, faU down before him that sits on the throne, ascribing worship to him that hveth for ever ; and casting oui* crowns to the gi'ound, renouncing our own merits, sing to the eternal Unity, ' Thou art worthy, 0 Lord, to receive glory, and honour, and power ; for thou hast created all things, and for thy plea- sure they are and were created.' Amen. ♦ I\ilgent. PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. ' They said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on tis, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the icrath of tlie Lamb. — Rev. vi. 16. This verse may be distinguished into error and terror; the eiTor of the re- probate, the terror of the judge. Their error is manifested in their invo- cation, in which we may observe: to what? mountains and rocks; for what? to fall on them, to hide them. Thus their amazed en'or and ignorance is expressed in their prayer. For the ten-or the Judge is described by his omniscience, ' from the face of him that sitteth on the thi'one ; ' his omnipotence, ' from the wrath of the Lamb.' Every cu'cumstance serves to aggravate their foUy and desperate fear. 1. They fear God, but too late. 2. They open their hps to confess the in- vincible power of Chi'ist; before they were either dumb in silence or blas- phemous in contumeUes. 3. They pray to the mountains and rocks, which hear them not. 4. To fall on them, which they dare not. 5. To hide them, which they cannot. 6. They beg to be concealed from him that is aU eye, fi-om the face of him that sits on the throne. 7. To be protected Irom him that is all power, ' from the wrath of the Lamb.' Before we come to their error and matter of their invocation, let us examine two things : what they were, and what they did. 1. The persons thus amated* with eiTor and amazed with terror are de- scribed in the precedent verse : ' The kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, the bond, and the fi-ee, hid themselves in the dens and rocks of the mountains.' The greatness of man, when it comes to encounter with God, is weakness and vanity. Is the reprobate a king? The crown on his head is not thunderproof; lift he his sceptre never so high, there is a sceptre of justice shall smite it down. Is he great in his country, that (as they write of the sea about the castle of Mina) the current goes ever with the wind of his wiU ? Be he never so high, there is one ' higher than he, and the Highest of all regardeth it,' Eccles. viii. 5, and will subject it. Is he rich ? Were he the eldest son of Mammon, and sole heir to all the usurers in the world, can his gold save him? Is vengeance afraid to strike * That is ' mated.'— Ed. 64 PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. [SeRMON LXII. his vessel because his sails be of silk and it is ballasted with refined ore ? Shall he buy out his damnation with coin ? No, the Samuel of heaven will never take bribes.* Is he a chief captain ? Be his looks never so stem, his speech never so imperious, impetuous, he may command here and go without. Were he general of Xerxes' army, yet he shall find the words of the psaLm truth, * Man is not saved by the multitude of an host.' Is he mighty? Were he, as Alexander thought himself, till he saw his own blood, the son of Jupiter Hammon, yet woe to man when he shall wrestle with his Maker. Proud worm, he may dare to lift up his head, but shaU quickly be trodden into slime. When the Lord of hosts is angry, whose wrath shakes the earth and burns to the bottom of hell, who shall proudly without confusion look him in the face ? Silly giant of men, that thou shouldest dare to grapple, to parley, yea, so much as to look at God! Lo, greatness! Time was when, if a friend in the court shaU say to thee, as Elisha to the Shunamite, ' What is to be done for thee ? Wouldest thou be spoken for to the king, or to the captain of the host? ' 2 Engs iv. 13, it would have seemed as high a gratifying and ratifying of his love to thee as thou couldst have desired or he expressed. AVhat favour will it be at this day to be spoken for to all the kings of the earth, ' great men, rich men, mighty captains ? ' Alas ! they have need to be spoken for themselves. The greatest potentate, if repro- bate, hath now his honour laid in the dust, and fi'om a public throne he creeps into a hole. As ambitious Herod received his pride and glory (with dero- gation to God, vo.T Dei) in a theatre, so now his shame and confusion is in the sight of the whole world, of good and bad angels, of good and bad men. Sennacherib, in his ruff, could once say, ' Where is the king of Hamath, and the king of Arphad, the king of the city of Sepharvaim, Zena, and Ivah?' Isa. xxxvii. 13. But now where is the king of Ashur? Thus ' God leadeth princes away spoiled, and overthroweth the mighty,' Job xii. 19, 21. For their wickedness, ' he poui'eth contempt upon princes.' Then shall be manifest the uni-esistible power and unblameable justice of God, ' who sitteth upon the cu'cle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers : stretching out the heavens as a cui'tain, and spreading them as a tent to dwell in. He bringeth the princes to nothing, and maketh the judges of the earth as vanity,' Isa. xl. 22, 23. What privilege, then, do these inferior authorities bring with them, that the bondman should thus strive to be free, the fi-eeman to be mighty, the mighty to be a chief captain, the chief captain to be rich, the rich to be great, the great to be kings, till, in their opinion, nil restat quod prccstat, nothing remains to be aspired to. Whereas to these; men, ovinia in proesenti parva, in fine nulla, j^ost Jin em mala, all is for the present little; for 2it lima, sic suhlunaria, as the moon itself, so all things under it are subject to eclipses and changes. In the end they are nothing; death, when the game is done, shuflling king and pawn into one bag. After the end found evil things; for et perdiintur et perdunt, they are both lost themselves, and lose their owners. These so popular wonders, the terror of slaves and mirror of fools, on whom the eye of the world was fixed with admiration, are glad to hide themselves in holes. Where are you, ye great men, that were so ambitious of fame, and made human praise stand in competition with conscience, as if it were the better mistress and worthy of more servants? Alas! glad to * 1 Sam. xii. 2. — Ed. Rev. VI. 16.] presumption rtinning ixto despair. 65 be shrouded in holes ; your greatness now wisheth itself so little that it might not be seen. You insatiate covetous, that never ceased joining house to house, land to land, and possessing whole countries, yet whined for lack of elbow-room ; lo, you shall at this day be glad of a hole, a dark hollow cave in a rock, for your pai'lour, or more glad if you might be dis- solved into nothing. 2. ' They said :' We have described the persons, what they were. Let us see what they did. They said : They open their Hps to confess the invin- cible and ine\itable power of Christ. Whence derive we two observations. (1.) The sense of present misery takes away atheism. Before, their mouths were either shut by silence or opened by blasphemies ; possessed either with a dumb or a roaring devil. ' God was not in all their thoughts,' Ps. X. 4 ; or if in their thoughts, not in their hps ; or if in their hps, but to his dishonour ; not named but in their oaths. Now, lo, they speak, and make a desperate acknowledgment of that power they erst derided. The day of judgment, when it comes, shall find no atheist. What those de- generate creatm-es would not believe' they shall see ; they would not acknow- ledge their Maker, they shall find theii- Judge, and cry to the mountains, Fall on us, &c. ^ Consider this ' ye that forget God, lest you be torn in pieces when there is none to deliver you,' Ps. 1. 22. You may forget him dm-ing your short pleasure, you shall remember him for ever in torture. Proceed to ' speak of him wickedly, and like enemies to take his name in vain,' Ps. cxxsix. 20 , you shall one day fall low before his footstool, not with a voluntary, but enforced, reverence. You that have denied God on earth, the fii-st voice that shall come from your lips shall be a hopeless acknowledgment of his majesty. ^2.) The saying that comes from them is desperate ; whence note that, m God's just punishment, desperation is the reward of presumption. They that erst feared too little, shaU now fear too much. Before, they thought not of God's justice, now they shall not conceive his mercy. Consciences that are without remorse are not without hon'or. It is the kindness which presumptuous sin doeth the heart, to make it at last despair of forgiveness. ' They say.' Behold, God accuseth not, they accuse themselves. God loves to have a sinner accuse himself, and therefore sets his deputy in the breast of man ; which, though it be a neuter when the act is doing, is an adversary after- wards. The conscience is Uke the poise of a clock ; the poise being down, all motion ceaseth, the wheels stir not ; wound up, all is set on going. "Whiles conscience is down there is no noise or moving in the heart, all is quiet ; but when it is wound up by the justice of God, it sets aU the wheels on working, — tongue to confess, eyes to weep, hands to wring, breast to be beaten, heart to ache, voice to cry ; and that, where mercy steps not in, a fatal cry, to the hills, ' Fall on us, and hide us.' Sin and judgment for sin make the most cniel men cowardly. Tyrants whose frowns have been death, oppressors that have made thefr poor tenants quake at their looks, now tremble themselves, and would change firmness •dth an aspen leaf. They that care not for the act of sin shall care for the punishment. Tumidi faciendo, timidi patiendo. Nero, that could not be tired in cutting throats, is soon weaiy of his own torment. They that have made others weep, shaU desperately howl themselves. Cain, that dm-st kiU the fourth part of the world at a blow, even his own brother, dares after- wards not look a man in the face, lest he should be slain, Gen. iv. 14. 66 PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. [SeRMON LXII. "Who durst be more impudently bold with God than Judas, when he be- trayed his only Son to mm-derers ? Yet, after the treason, who more cowardly than Judas ? He becomes his own hangman. The cui'se that foUows sin makes presumption itself to shudder. But what madness is it not to complain till too late. If our foresight were but half as sharp as our sense, we should not dare to sin. The issue of wickedness would appear a thousand times more horrible than the act is pleasant. Let this teach us now to think of the justice of God as well as his mercy, that hereafter we may think of his mercy as well as his justice. The mercy of God is abused to encom-age lewdness, and wi-etched men by Christ's merits are emboldened to commit that for which he died ; but so men may run with mercy in their mouths to hell. They that in life will give no obedience to the law, shall in death have no benefit by the gospel. When they gave themselves over to lying, swearing, coveting, &c., they were wont to cr\^ Mercy, mercy ; now, lo, they feel what those sins are, and ciy nothing but justice, justice ; they cannot think on mercy. They that have abused mercy, must be quitted with vengeance. • The good now sing, ' With thee, 0 Lord, is mercy ; therefore thou shalt be feared.' The reprobates sing at last. With thee, 0 Lord, is judgment ; with thee is storm and tempest, in- dignation andwi'ath, confasion and vengeance, and therefore aii, thou feared. These necessary occurrences thus considered, let us pass to their invoca- tion, wherein is exemplified their error. Here we must observe, To what ; For what they call. 1. To what. — They are mountains and rocks, um-easonable, yea, insen- sible creatures. WTience we may deduce two inferences, a negative and an affiiTnative. (1.) Negatively, it is clear, that they have no acquaintance with God, therefore know not how to direct their prayers unto him. If their trust had been in God, they needed not to fly to the mountains. So David sweetly, Ps. xi., ' In the Lord put I my tnist : how then say you to my soul. Flee as a bird to your mountam ?' It is God's charge ; ' Call upon me in the day of trouble ; and I will deliver thee, and thou shalt glorify me,' Ps. 1. 15. But, Rom. X., ' How shall they call on him in whom they have not be- lieved ?' Or beheve in him they have not known ? And how should they know bim but by his word ? Alas, those mutual passages and intercourse of means they have ever debarred themselves. They would neither sufier God to trouble them by his word, nor would they ofler to trouble him by their prayers. ' They wUl not call upon him,' Ps. xiv. 4, nor will they hear bim calling upon them. Therefore as those that never were in the company of God, they know not how to addi-ess themselves to bun, but rather to rocks and mountains. As extremity discemeth friends, vere amat, qui misenim amat, so it distin- guisheth a man in himself. A sudden disturbance gives a great trial of a Christian's disposition. For, as in a natural man at such an afii'ightment, aU the blood runs to the heart, to guard the part that is principal, so in a cTood man, at such an instance, all the powers and faculties run to the soul, to save that which is principal. The blood and spii-its strive to save the life of the body ; faith and hope to save the hfe of the soul. So that at the sudden assault of some danger a man shall best judge of his own heart. It may be at other times a dissembler, for ' man's heart is false, who can know it ? ' yet at such time it will manifest itseif, and cannot deceive. If God hath been our famihar friend and accustomed helper, danger doth not sooner assault us than we salute him by our prayers. The first thought Rev. YI. 16.] presumption running into despaib. G7 of our hearts is Jesus Christ ; the first voice of our lips is Peter's on the sea in such an extremity, * Lord, save me,' Matt, xiv 30 ; our faith is reposed on his wonted mercy and protection, ' We know whom we have beheved.' Daniel calls on God ere he falls to the lions ; this stops their mouths. The wicked, in such misery, are either heavy and heartless, as Nabal, whose ' heart died within him, and he became as a stone,' 1 Sam. xxv. 37. Or desperate, as JuHan, throwing his blood up into the air, with a blas- phemous confession. Or sottish, as these here, running to the mountains, unprofitable, unpossible helps. When the blow of vengeance strikes the covetous, he runs to his counting-house ; if his bags can give him no suc- cour, he is distracted. If any broken reed be their confidence, in these overwhelming woes, they catch drowning hold of that ; so they and their hopes perish together. There are some whose tongues are so poisoned with blasphemy, that, in an unexpected accident, the very first breath of their lips is a curse or an oath. As if they would swear away destraction, which every ungodly speech di-aws on nearer. If these men had been acquainted with God in fair weather, they would not forget him in a storm. But they that ^vill have no familiarity with God in peace, shall have him to seek in extremity. "When therefore some sudden peril hath threatened thee with terror, note seriously how thou art afiected. Though the danger came unlooked for, let it not pass unthought of ; but as thou blessest God for dehveiy, so examine the good or ill-disposedness of thine own heart. If thou find thyself courageous and* heavenly-minded on thy confidence in God, take at once assurance of thy faith and God's mercy. He that now stood by thee, wiU never leave thee. If otherwise, lament thy sins which darken thy soul's way to the mercy- seat, and beseech Jesus Christ to store thy heart with better comforts. If thy treasm-e be in heaven, and thy soul hath been used to travel often thither, when danger comes, it knows the way so well that it cannot miss it. (2.) AffiiTnatively, this presents a soul amazed with fear and folly. They call to the mountains, that can neither hear nor answer. When the world was destroyed with water, men chmbed up to the tops of the mountains ; when it shall be dissolved with fire, they will desire the holes of the rocks, to he under the hiUs. The mountains are but swellings of the earth, and the rocks are sm-d things, that have no ears : can they hear ? or if they hear, can they answer ? or if they answer, can they save ? When the graves must vomit up their dead, shall the rocks conceal the hving ? Those five kings could not be hid in the cave of Makkedah fi-om Joshua, Josh. x. 17, and shall any cave hide from Jesus ? Whiles guilt and fear consult of refuge, how vaia shifts they imagine ! Adam would hide his disobedience in the bushes ; Saul his rebelhon in the crowd of the people. So the hood-winked fool seeing nobody, thinks nobody sees him. Helpless evasions ! When Adonijah heard the trumpets sounding at Solomon's coronation, he quaked, and * fled to the horns of the altar,' 1 Kings i. 50. When the ungodly shall hear the archangel's tnimp pro- claiming the coronation of Christ, they have no sanctuary (they never loved it in all their fives), but fly to the rocks and mountains. The grave is a dark and privative place : yet as a prisoner that comes out of a sordid and stinking dimgeon, into the open air for his trial in a desperate cause, had rather keep the prison still ; so these reprobates newly raised from the earth, cry to it to receive them again, glad to remain (though not on the face of it with pleasure) in the bowels of it with rottenness and 68 PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. [SeRMON LXII, solitude, rather than in the open light to come hefore the judgment-seat of Christ. The grave is a down-bed to hell. They suddenly start out of their sleep, and meet with ghastly amazedness at the mouth of their sepulchres : beholding on the one side sins accusing, on another side hellish fiends vexing, an anguished conscience biirning within, heaven and earth without ; above them the countenance of an angi-y Judge, below them a lake of unquenchable fire, round about howling and bitter lamentation : no marvel then if at the world's end they be at their wits end, and cry to the moun- tains, ' FaU on us.' Let all this declare to men the vanity of their worldly hopes. God is the Preserver of men, not hiUs and rocks. The rich man is brought in upon a 2^^'emunire, can his gold acquit him in this star chamber ? The epicure thinks to di'own sorrow in lusty wines ; the oppressor mistnists not the power of his own hand ; the proud refugeth his troubled heart in his trunks, the lustful in his punks ; what is this but running to rocks and mountains ? Thus madly do men commit two eiTors. They ' forsake the Creator, which would never forsake them, and adliere to the creatm'es, which can never help them,' Jer. ii. 13. ' 0 Lord, the hope of Israel, aU that forsake thee shaU be ashamed, and aU that depai*t from thee shall be written in the earth,' Jer. xvii. 13. Now at this day, perhaps, they would seek to the Lord, but they are answered. Go to the gods whom ye have served. Lo, then, of these gods they shall be weary, as in Isa. ii., where these very words of my text are delivered, ver. 19, ' They shall go into the holes of the rocks,' &c., it is immediately added, ' Li that day a man shah cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which he made for himself to worship, to the moles, and to the bats.' Even the spiritual idolater, the covetous, shall thi'ow his images, golden or sUver shrines for the Diana of his avarice, his damned coin to combustion, with a va;, Woe unto it, it hath lost my soul ; as the sick stomach loathes the meat, whereof it sm-feited. Well, let us leave invocation to these rocks, worldly refuges, and remember that there is One to be called on, who is only able to defend us, a sph'itual, holy, and happy rock, Jesus Christ. Da^id often calls God his ' Rock and his Refuge,' Psa. xviii. 2, and xxviii. 1. A rock that bears up the pniars of the world, ' Their rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves beingjudges,' Deut. xxxii. 31. He that builds his house of assur- ance on this Rock, shall stand immovable to vnnd or weather ; he needs not the shelter of mountains, ' for he shall stand like Mount Sion, that abideth fast for ever,' Psal. cxxv. 1. They that despise him, shall find him a Rock also, ' If they fall on it, they shall be broken : if it fall on them, it wiU grind them to powder,' Matt. xxi. 44. He is a stone, the stone, the ' head- stone of the comer,' Ps. cxviii. 22. cut out of the quarry of heaven, ' without hands,' Dan ii. 45, of whom we are made ' hving stones,' 1 Pet. h, 5. He is strong without all things ; aU things weak without him ; trust in him, and you shall have no need to fly to rocks and mountains. 2. For what. — The benefit that they would have the rocks and the mountains do them, is to fall on them and hide them. Whence we derive three observations. (1.) Despair is ever wishing for death, often impatiently snatching at it in this world ; but when the last day comes, so gi-eedily longing for it, that to be sure of it, they desire the mountains to dispatch them. Death by the •wicked is now most feared, death at the last shall be the thing most wished ; * they shall desire death, and shall not find it.' They that sit in the warm nest of riches, hatching up their brood of lusts, quake at the hearing Rev. VI. 16.] presumption running into despair. 69 of death. There are some fear to die, others not so much to die as to be dead. The former are cowardh', the other unbehe\'ing souls. Some fear both, to whom nothing in Hfe than hfe is more desirable. But when this last extremity comes, mo)-i ciqnunt, they desu'e to die. And that death, like a merciless executioner, might not have too many strokes at their lives, they beg help of the mountains, that they may be thoroughly dispatched at once, w^ithout need of a second blow. Cain, at his arraignment for his brother, would needs Uve ; God gi-ants it, as if it were too much favour for him to die. But he yields it for a curse, as if he heard his prayer in anger. He lives, but banished from God, canning his hell in his bosom, and the brand of vengeance in his forehead. God rejects him, the earth repines at him, and men abhor him. Lo now Cain would die ; himself now wisheth the death he feared, and no man dares pleasure him with a murder. As Nero in the like case, Nee amicinn, nee inimicum habeo, I have neither friend nor enemy ; or as Saul found in his aiTuour-bearer not a will to kill him, though he had a will to be killed by him. Death these repro- bates feared, and only death is now desh-ed. ' They cry to the mountains, Fall on us.' (2.) Observe that rocks and mountains are far lighter than sin. Zacha- riah compares it to a talent of lead, Zach. 5 ; Isaiah calls it a burden, Isa. xsi. Such a weight bore our Saviour, that he groaned under it. * I am pressed imder you, as a cart is pressed that is full of sheaves,' Amos ii. 13. The wicked, that, like Babel-builders, think to aspire to heaven by multiplying of earth, would be glad if, cumuli tumuli, their bodies might be bm-ied under their heaps of wealth, where their souls had been buiied long before. But what is a load of earth, a mountain huger than Etna, under which Jupiter was said subter fuhninare girjantes, what is the whole massy body of the earth, to the weight of sin ? Think of it, ye Theomachoi, that strive in your rebellions imponere Pelion Ossa,je rapacious covetous, that ' load youi-selves with thick clay,' Hah. ii. You lay heavy burdens on the poor, heavier on your consciences. Sin may seem hght for a season, as a pack made up, but not assayed, with one of your fingers. When Satan shall lay it on you, it will break your backs. You bear it now Uke cork and feathers ; at that day you shall judge it heavier than rocks and mountains. Now, in contempt of law and gospel, honesty and conscience, earth and heaven, they call to pride, ambition, blasphemy, ebriety, luxury, oppression, ' Fall on us, and cover us,' wearing ' pride as a chain, and covering them- selves with craelty as with a gannent,' Ps. Ixxiii. 6. Sin hes at the door, and they easily take it up. The devil puts his shoulders under the weight, and, thus supported, they feel it not. But when God's justice shall ' reprove them, and set their sins in order before their eyes,' Ps. 1. 21, yea, impose them on their weak and yielding consciences, how different will their cry be? 'Mountains, fall on us; rocks, cover us.' The swearer saying to these heavy creatures. You are lighter than my oaths; the covetous, You are not so ponderous as my oppressions; the adulterer. The whole earth is a gentle pressure to the burden of my lusts. Custom in sin obstupefies a man's sense, and still, Kke that Roman Milo, his strength increasing with his burden. He that first carried sin a wanton calf, can at last bear it a goring ox. Men lock up their iniquities, as the usurer his money in a chest, where the light of reproof may not find them out. They pack all their iniquities upon Him that will bear them for none but His ; or reseiTe them to an hour's repentance, setting them a day of •70 PEESUMPTION EUNNING INTO DESPAIB. [SeRMON LXII. cancelling, but they break it, as if their last breath could dispel and scatter them all into au*. But, alas ! sins then are found heaviest of all, and here, like malefactors pressing to death, they ciy out for more weight, the acces- sion of rocks and mountains, to dispatch them. Lo, they are to come before the Judge, therefore would be pressed to death by these ponderous and massy creatures. The mountains have not been more barren than they of goodness, the rocks not so hard as their hearts. The cross of Chi-ist hath been held too heavy, repentance too troublesome a guest for their houses, faith and obedi- ence have been cast off as poor fi'iends, all godliness too weighty; now rocks and lulls are light. Chi-ist's yoke was not for their shoulders; Satan's must. His law might not be borne, it was so heavy; his wrath must be borne, and that is heavier. Oh, then, thrice-blessed they whose sins God bindeth up in a bundle, and sinks them in the whirlpool of for- getfiilness, that they may never be imposed, for they are too heavy to be borne. (3.) Observe that before these ■wicked were lords of nations and countries (for they are said to be princes, captains, conquerors, rich men); now they would be glad of one hole to hide them. Of all their dominions they beg but the baiTenest parcel, a rock or mountain ; and that to do them a poor office, to conceal them. How much doth man's avarice and ambition covet here, how little contents him hereafter ! In death the wickedest potentate must be content with a gi'ave. After death he would be content with a grave still ; yea, glad if in the bottom of a mountain he might be hidden. He;ir this, ye covetous, that 'join house to house, and land to land,' by disjoining the sosieties of men, as if you would leave the whole earth to your babes. Excutit natura redeiintem, siait intrantem,-^ Natm-e shall as strictly examine your going out as it did your coming in. Konne telhois tres tantum cubiti te expectant ? f Do not only three cubits of ground allot themselves to receive you ? Only a gi'ave remains, and all you that boast of your great lands shall at that day say, Hcec terra mea, et terra tua, this is all my land, this is all thy land ; even so much room as thy dusts will take up, and all the remainder of mighty Hercules ■nill scarce fill a little pitcher. A little quantity of ground hath natm-e proportioned thee, didst thou possess as much as ever the tempter shewed Christ ? When certain philosophers intentively beheld the tomb of Alexander, saith one, Her i fecit ex auro thesaurum ; hodie aunivi ex co facit thesaunnn,\ ' Yesterday he treasured up gold, to-day gold treasm-es up him.' Another, ' Yesterday the world did not content him, to-day ten cubits contain him.' Socrates carried Alcibiades, bragging of his lands, to a map of the world, and bade him demonstrate them. Alcibiades could not find them, for, alas ! Athens itself was but a small and scarce discernible point. A wiser man spake otherwise of his lands, U Af/er, qudni multorum fuisti et eris! nunc mens, et jjostea nescio cujus, ' 0, land, how many men's hast thou been, and shalt be! now mine, and hereafter I know not whose.' So Uttle gi'Oimd contents us when we are dead. But when the wicked shall rise again, would it not serve them still with all their hearts ? Had they not rather lie in rottenness than combustion ? Were not a cold gi-ave more welcome than a hot furnace ? Yes, rather had they be dead without sense than alive in toi-ment. Now they beg not a city, though a little one as Zoar; not a house, though poor and bleak as Codrus's ; not an open air, though sharp and irksome, scorched with the * Sen. t Basil. t Alphons. KeV. VI. 16.] PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. 71 Indian sun, or frozen with the Russian cold. There is no hope of these favours. Give them but a mountain to fall on them, and a rock to hide them, and they are highly pleased. Here is a strange alteration for the wicked, when they shall go from a glorious mansion to a loathsome dun- geon, from the table of surfeit to the table of vengeance, from fawning observants to afflicting spirits, from a bed of down to a bed of fire, from soft linen and silken coverings to wish a rock for their pillow and a moun- tain for their coverlet ! Nay, and yet they that commanded so far on earth cannot command this piece of earth to do them such a kindness. They could in the days of their pride speak imperiously enough, ' This land is mine, this town is mine ; ' as Nabal said, ' Shall I take my meat and my drink?' &c.; but now they feel it was none of theirs, not one hole must Bhelter them, not one hillock do them service. Nothing helps when God will smite ; mountains and rocks are no de- fence when God piu'sues. * Dost thou think to reign because thou clothest thyself in cedar?' Jer. xxii. 15. What is cedar against thunder? God hath a hand that can strike through forts, rocks, and bulwarks. The sevenfold walls of Babylon cannot defend the tyrant within them. The heavens ' melt at the presence of the Lord; if he touch the mountains, they smoke ' for it. The ofispring of the revived world offer to build a tower whose top might reach to heaven. What security could be in it? Are not things nearer to heaven more subject to the violences of heaven, lightning, thunder, and those higher inflammations ! Feriunt summos ful- gura monies. In se magna ruunt, summisque negatum est stare diu. God soon made it a monument of their folly and his power. He gives con- fusion of their voices and their work at once. When God rained from heaven that gi-eatest shower that ever the earth did or shall sustain, you know their shifts. They think to overclimb the judgment, and, being got up to the highest mountains, look down with some hope on the swimming valleys. When the water began to ascend up to their refuged hills, and the place of theii' hope became an island, lo, now they hitch up higher to the tops of the tallest trees, till at last the waters overtake them, half dead with hunger and horror. The mountains could not save them in that day of water, nor shall the mountains in this day of fire. It is not then the defence of forts and ports, the secrecy of caves or graves, the bottom- burrows of hiEs, or vaulty dens of rocks ; not a league with all the elements of the world, beasts of the earth, stones of the street, that can secui'e them. Be hidden they cannot ; what should they then wish but death ? They that once trembled to die do now more quake to live ; they would be glad of a riddance, and kiss the instrument of their annihilation. They would prize and embrace it as the best happiness that ever saluted them, if, like beasts, they might perish to nothing. Here they envy the stork, stag, raven, oak for long life, and chide nature for their own shortness; but at this day they would change with any flower, though the continuance thereof were not so much as Jonah's gom'd's, and think not to be was to be happy. The pangs of the fii'st death are pleasures in respect of the second. But what hope is there of their security or refuge in mountains, when, ver. 14, ' the very heaven shall depart as a scroll that is rolled up toge- ther, and every mountain and island shall be moved out of thefr places ?' So Isa. xxxiv. 4. Heaven is expansion tanquam linteum, et diducta lamina; but shall then be ' folded up like a gaiment,' whose beauty is not seen ; or ' rolled together like a voliune,' Heb. i. 12, whose large contents are, as it were, abridged. Not that the matter of the world shall be quite 72 PKESUMPTION BUNKING INTO DESPAIR. [SeKMON LXII. abolislied ; for, as we say now of grace, Adolet non abolet naturam gratia, so we may say of justice, Perficit non destruit inundum justitia. Corruption sliall be taken away, not all the matter that was corrupted. But if all things be thus narrowly searched, how shah the ungodly hope to lie hidden ? II. We have now considered the horror of the reprobates ; let us look to the Judge, from whom they desire to be hidden. ' From the presence of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the -na-ath of the Lamb ;' in whom we find an omniscience, and an omnipotence, which circumstances the time allows me but to mention. First, for his all-knowing wisdom : — 1. ' From the face.' — It was ever the fashion of guiltiness, to fly from the presence of God. Adam had no sooner sinned, but he thrusts his head in a bush. Sin's inevitable effect is shame. Though impudence bear it out for a time, ' They were not ashamed when they had committed abomina- tion,' Jer. vi. 15 ; yet they shaU one day ' bear the reproach of their sins, and be ashamed, yea even confounded,' xxxi. 19. Shame must come, either first to repentance, ' What fruit had you then ia those things, whereof you are now ashamed,' Rom. vi. 21 ; or at last in vengeance, ' Let them be ashamed that transgress without a cause,' Ps. xxv. 3. Let this teach us how to judge rightly of sin, that diives us from the face of God. But doth not the glory of the Lord fill all the earth ? ' Whither then shall they go from his face : whither fly from his presence ?' Ps. cxxxix. 7. We shall find the prophet concluding in that psahn, that there is neither heaven nor hell, nor uttermost part of the sea, nor day nor night, hght nor darkness, that can hide us from his face. Our sitting, lying down, rising up, the words of our tongues, ways of our feet, thoughts of our heart, our reins, bones, and mothers' wombs, wherein we lay in our first informity, are well known to him. Let us not flatter ourselves, as if we would pluck out the eye of knowledge. ' God hideth his face, he wiU never see us,' Ps. x. 11. For there is neither couch in chamber, nor vault in the ground; neither bottoms of mountains, nor holes of rocks ; neither secret friend, nor more secret conscience ; neither heaven nor hell, that can conceal us. ' Of him that sitteth.' — Christ now sits in gloiy. While he was on earth, how Uttle rested he ! He dearly earned that voice before he heard it, ' Sit thou at my right hand :' now behold he sits. Good rest is the reward of good labour. The week of our days spent, we shall have an eternal Sab- bath: 'Enter into God's rest,' Heb. iii. 11. 'Rest from our labours,' Rev. xiv. 13. Hast thou laboured ? thou shalt have ease : hast tho travelled in the ways of grace ? thou shalt sit on the seat of glory. ' On the throne.' — Chi-ist at this day shall appear in his true majesty. On earth he would not be crowned. The reason of his refusal was, ' My kingdom is not of this world.' Now he sits in his thi'one. He hath a kingdom here, but it is secret in the conscience : then it shall be conspicu- ous, ' sitting in his throne.' His majesty hath been despised ; but now, ' Bring those mine enemies that would not have me reign over them, and slay them before me,' Luke xix. 27. Thus difiers Christ's fii'st coming and his second. Then in humihty, now in glory ; then with poor shepherds, now -s^ith mighty angels ; then the contempt of nations, now the teiTor of the world ; then crowned with thorns, now with majesty ; then judged by one man, now judging all men ; then in a cratch, now in a throne. You see his all-knowledge ; now for his ahnightiness. 2. ' From the wrath.' — The wrath of Christ in his justice : Jttribidtur ira Deo per effcctiim. As man offended seeks revenge, so when God executes Rev. VI. 16.] presotiption running into despair. 7» judgment, it is called his wrath. But passion in us, perfection in him. He hath long been provoked ; give him now leave to strike. You that mado BO light to trample his blood under your sensual feet, shaU now find what his wrath is. Let us now think of this wrath, that wc may escape it. Tho commination of hell doth not less commend God's providence, than the pro- mise of heaven. Nisi intentata esset gehenna, omnes in gehcnnam caderemus.* Now or never is this wrath to be escaped : therefore, ' Kiss the son lest he bo angi-y, and so ye perish from the way ; if his wrath be kindled, yea but a little, blessed are they that put their trust in him,' Ps. ii. 12. 'Of the Lamb.' — Christ was called a Lamb in his passion; so here in his coming to judgment, not that he should sufler any more, but to shew that the same Lamb that was slain shall give sentence on his murderers. ' The Father judgeth no man, but hath committed all judgment unto the Son. And hath given him authority to execute judgment, because he is the Son of man,' John v. 22-27, so Acts xvii. 31, and Rev. i. 7. It shall aggravate their vexation, that the Lamb, who ofiered his blood for their redemption, shall now censure them for despising it. He that would have been their mediator to pray for them, and their advocate to plead for them, must now be their judge to sentence them. The Lamb that saveth the sheep on the right hand, shall cast off the goats on the left. The Lamb they have contemned, by this Lamb they shall be condemned. Woful men, whom the WTath of the Lamb hghts on ; for he shall give them an Ite, maledicti. What shall then become of them, but to knock at the gates of heaven whiles those gates are standing, and cry for ever to God, but to no pm-pose ? I have no will to end with a terror ; yet no time to sweeten your thoughts with those comforts which faith might suck from this last word, 'the Lamb.' I say no more. The godly shall find him a Lamb indeed, as willing now to save them, as before to suffer for them. He hath purchased, promised, and prepared a kingdom ; and they shall ' reign with him that sits on the throne, and with the Lamb for evermore.' To whom be eternal glory I Amen. Chrys. HEAVEN-GATE; OB, THE PASSAGE TO PAEADISE. * And may enter in through the gates into the city.' — Eev. XXII. 14. If we supply these words with the first word of the verse, * blessed,' we shall make a perfect sentence of perfect comfort. ' Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city.' In the whole there be premises, and promises. The premises qualify us ; we must be such as are blessed ; and who are they? QuiprcEstantmandata, ' that do his commandments.' The promises crown us, and these are two : First, that we ' may have right to the tree of life,' even that which ' is in the midst of the paradise of God,' Eev. ii. 7. From whence the angel, with a flaming sword, shall keep all the reprobate ; secondly, Et per iwrtas ingrediantur civitatem, ' and may enter in through the gates into the city ;' when without shall be dogs and scomers, &c. ; whosoever loveth and maketh a he. To the last words of the verse I have bound and bounded my discourse ; wherein I find thi'ee points readily ofi"ering themselves to be considered, viz., 1. Motus, motion, 'enter ia ;' 2. Modus, manner, 'through the gates ;' 3. Tewiiniis, place, ' into the city. So there is a threefold cii'cumstance. 1. Quid, "VMiat ? an entrance. 2. Qua, How ? through the gates. 3. Quo, Whither ? into the city. 1. The motion. 'Enter in.' — They are blessed that enter in; perse- verance only makes happy. Our labours must not cease till we can (with Stephen) see these gates open, and our Saviour ofiering to take us by the hand, and welcome our entrance. We know who hath taught us, that only ' continuers to the end shall be saved.' It is observable, that in the Holy Spirit's letters sent to those seven churches, in the second and third chapter of this book, all the promises run to perseverers ; vincenti dahitur, to him that overcomes it shall be given. Nee jmranti ad p)ralium, nee jmgitanti ad sanguinem, multo niinus tergiversanti ad peccatum, sed vincenti ad victonam. Nor to him that prepares to fight, nor to him that resists to blood, much less to him that shews his back iu cowardice, but to him that overcomes to conquest. Demas, seeing this wa* ran away ; fell back to the security ol Rev. XXn. 14.] heaven-gate. 75 the world. Saul made himself ready to this battle, but he durst not fight — glory and lusts carried him away. Judas stood a bout or two, but the high priest's money made him give over, and the devil took him captive. But Paul fought out this combat even to victory, though * he bore in his body the marks of the Lord Jesus,' Gal. vi. 17. * I have fought a good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith ; therefore now there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, shall give me,' 2 Tim. iv. 7, 8. This is a good hfe, saith Bernard. Mala pati, et honafacere, et sic usque ad mortem perseverare, to sufibr evil, to do good, and so to continue to the end. Some came into the vineyard in the morning, some at noon, others later ; none received the penny but they that stayed till night. Augustine affirms this to be aknost all the contents of the Lord's prayer : Hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done.* Wherein we desire that his name may always be sanctified, his kingdom always propagated, his will always obeyed. Ladeed this grace perfects all graces. We believe in vain, if our faith hold not out to the end ; we love in vain, if our charity grow cold at last ; we pray in vain, if our zeal grows faint ; we strive in vain at the strait gate, if not till we enter. Venire ad relirjionem est vera devotio ; sed non religiose vivere vera damnatio ; to come to the truth of religion is true devotion; not to live religiously is true damnation. Man is naturally like a horse that loveth short journeys, and there are few that hold out. Whence it comes that the last are often first, and the first last. ' Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize ? ' 1 Cor. ix. 24. He that hath a good horse can go faster up a hill than down a hill. He that hath a good faith doth as quickly ascend the Mount Zion, as the wicked descend to the valley of Hinnom. If men would as strongly erect themselves upwards, as they direct their courses downwards, they might go to heaven with less trouble than they do go to hell. But he that at every step looks at every stop, and numbers his perils with his paces, either turns aside faintly, or turns back cowardly. They that go wandering and wondering on their journey, are at the gates of Samaria when they should enter the gates of Jerusalem. God saith, ' I will not leave you,' Heb. xiii. 5. Will you, then, leave God? One told Socrates that he would fain go to Olympus, but he distrasted his sufficiency for the length of the journey. Socrates told him — Thou walkest every day Uttle or much ; continue this walk forward thy way, and a few days shall bring thee to Olympus. Every day every man takes some pains. Let him bestow that measure of pains in travelling to heaven ; and the further he goes the more heart he gets, till at last he enter through the gates into the city. Bernard calls perseverance the only daughter of the highest King, the perfection of virtues, the store-house of good works ; a virtue without which no man shall see God. \ There is a last enemy to be destroyed — ■ death. We must hold out to the conquest even of this last adversary, which, if it conquer us by the sting of our sin, shall send us to the doors of hell ; if we conquer it by our faith, it shall send us to the gates of this city — heaven. Lauda nuvigantem cum pervenerit ad portum. All the voyage is lost through the perilous sea of this world, if we sufier shipwreck in the * Aug. de bono Perseverantise, cap. 2. t Perseverantia est unica summi Regis filia, virtutum consummatio, totiua boni repositorium, virtus sine qua nemo videbit Deum. 76 HEAVEX-GATE. [SeRMON LXIIl. haven, and lose our reward there, where we should land to receive it. What get we, if we keep Satan short of ruling us with his force many hours, when at our last horn* he shall snatch our bliss from us ? The runner speeds all the way; but when he comes at the race's end to the goal, he stretcheth forth his hand to catch the prize. Be sure of thy last step, to put forth the hand of faith then most strongly : Ne perdatur prcemium tantia laboribiis quoesitum ; lest the reward be lost, which thou with much labour hast aimed at. It is not enough. Queer er e ccelum, sed acquirere; non Christum sequi, sed consequi : to seek heaven, but to find it; not to follow Christ, but to over- take him; not to be brought to the gates, but to enter in. ' Many wiU say to Christ in that day. Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name ? ' Matt. vii. 22. But the ' Master of the house is fu'st risen, and hath shut to the door,' Luke siii, 25. Either they come too soon, before they have gotten fiiith and a good conscience ; or too late, as those foohsh vii-gins. when the gate was shut. If, then, we have begun, let us continue to entrance.* Cujusque casus tanto majoris est criminis, quantb priusquam caderet, majoris erat viitutis. f Eveiy man's fault hath so much the more discredit of scandal, as he, before he fell, had credit of virtue. Let us beware that we do not slide; if slide, that we do not fall; if fall, that we fall forward, not backward. ' The just man ' often slips, and sometime ' falls,' Prov. xxiv. 16. And this is dangerous ; for if a man, while he stands on his legs, can hardly gi-apple with the devil, how shall he do when he is fallen down under his feet ? But if they do fall, they fall forward, as Ezekiel, Ezek. i. 28; not backward, as EU at the loss of the ark, 1 Sam. iv. 18 ; or they that came to sm-prise Christ. * They went backward and fell to the gi'oiind,' John xviii. 6. Cease not, then, thy godly endeavours, until Contingas portum., quo tibi citTsus erat. Say we not like the woman to Esdras, whether in a vision or otherwise, when he bade her go into the city — ' That will I not do ; I will not go into the city, but here I will die,' 2 Esd. x. 18. It is a wretched sin, saith Augustine, after tears for sin, not to preseiwe innocence. Such a man is washed, but is not clean. Quia commissa flere desinit, et iterum jienda committit. He leaves weeping for faults done, and renews faults worthy of weeping. Think not thyself safe, till thou art got within the gates of the city. Behold thy Saviour calling, thy Father blessing, the Spirit assisting, the angels comforting, the word directing, the glory invit- ing, good men associating. Go cheei-foUy, till thou ' enter in through the gates into the city.' 2. The manner. ' Through the gates.' — Not singularly a gate, but gates. For the city is said to have ' twelve gates. On the east three gates, on the north three, on the south three, and on the west three,' Eev. xxi. 12 : to declare that men shall come from all the comers of the world, ' from the east, and from the west, and from the north, and from the south, and shall sit down in the kingdom of God,' Luke xiii. 29. These gates are not literally to be understood, but mj-stically : Pro modo intrandi, for the manner of entrance. The gates are those passages, whereby we must enter this city. Heaven is often said to have a gate. * Strive to enter in at the strait gate,' saith Christ, Matt. vii. 13. ' Lift up your heads, 0 ye gates, and be ye lift up, ye everlasting doors,' saith the Psalmist, Ps. xxiv. 7. ' This is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven,' saith * That is, ' As far as entrance.' — Ed. t Isidor. Rev. XXn. 14.] heaven-gate. 77 Jacob, Gen. xx^-iii. 17. There must be gates to a city : the.y that admit ue hither are the gates of gi'ace. So the analogy of the words infer; doing the commandments is the way to have right in the tree of hfe ; obedience and sanctification is the gate to this city of salvation. In a word, the gate is grace ; the city is glory. The temple had a gate called Beautiful, Acts iii. 2 ; but of poor beauty in regard of this gate. Of the gates of the sanctuary spake David, in divers psalms, with love and joy. ' Enter into his gates with thanks- giving, and into his courts with praise,' Ps. c. 4. This was God's delight. ' The Lord loveth the gates of Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob,' Ps. lxxx%-ii. 2. This was David's election, to be a porter or keeper of the gates of God's house, 'rather than dwell in the tents of wickedness,' Ps. Ixxxiv. 10. This his resolution : ' Our feet shall stand within thy gates, 0 Jerusalem,' Ps. cxxii. 2. Solomon made two doors for the entering of the oracle. They were made of ' olive trees, and wrought upon with the carvings of cherubins,' 1 Kings vi. 32. The olives promising fatness and plenty of blessings, the cherubins hoUness and eternity. These are holy gates. Let eveiy one pray with that roj'al prophet, * Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will go into them, and I will praise the Lord. This is the gate of the Lord, into which the righteous shall enter,' Ps. cxviii. 19, 20. In brief, we may distinguish the gates leading to this city into two : adoption and sanctification. Both these meet in Christ, who is the only gate or door whereby we enter heaven. ' I am the door,' saith our Sa%iom% janua vitce, the gate of life ; * by me if any enter in, he shall be saved,' John X. 9. (1.) Adoption is the first gate. 'We have received the spu-it of adop- tion,' Rom. viii. 15. Without this passage no getting into heaven. The inheritance of glory cannot be given to the childi'en of disobedience ; they must first be converted, and adopted heirs in Christ. The gi-ace of God is twofold. There is gratia gratis agens, and gratia gratum faciens. This second grace, which is of adoption, is never in a reprobate ; not by an ab- solute impossibihty, but by an indisposition in him to receive it. A spark of fire falling upon water, ice, snow, goes out ; on wood, flax, or such apt matter, kindles. Baptism is the sacrament of admission into the congi'e- gation — of insition -:= and initiation, whereby we are matriculated and re- ceived into the motherhood of the chm'ch. Therefore the sacred font is placed at the church door, to insinuate and signify our entrance. So adop- tion is the first door or gate whereby we pass to the city of glory. This is om* new creation, whereat the angels of heaven rejoice, Luke XV. 10. At the creation of dukes or earls there is great joy among men ; but at our new creation angels and seraphins rejoice in the presence of God. Our generation was d non esse, ad esse — from not being, to be. But our regeneration is d male esse, ad bene esse — from a being evil, to be well, and that for ever. Thi'ough this gate we must pass to enter the city ; without this, death shall send us to another place. No man ends this life well, except he be bom again before he ends it. f Now, if you would be sm-e that you are gone through this gate, call to mind what hath been your repentance. The fii'st sign of regeneration is tlirobs and throes. You cannot be adopted to Christ without sensible pain, and compunction of heart for your sins. The Christian hath two births, and they are two gates. He can pass through none of them but with * That is, grafting.— Ed. t Aug. 78 hea\t;n-gate. [Sermon LXIII. anguish. Both our first and second birth begin with crying. Our first birth is a gate into this world ; our second is a gate into the world to come. There is some pain in both. For this world, but little joy after the pain ; for the other, after shoi-t son'ow, eternal glory. (2.) Sanctification is the second gate. ' Make your calling and election sure,' saith Peter, by a holy life : ' For so an entrance shall be ministered unto you abundantly, into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Chiist,' 2 Pet. i. 11. But ' there shall in no wise enter enter into it any thing that defileth ; neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie,' Kev. xxi. 27. Therefore Paul prays the ' God of peace to sanctify us wholly,' 1 Thess. v. 23. Holiness is the way to happiness ; gi-ace the gate of gloiy. But some may object from that of Paul, that this sanctification must be total and perfect ; but who can come so furnished to the gate ? therefore, who can enter the city ? I answer: There is requu'ed only sancti- Jicatio vice, non patriae : such a sanctity as the gate can afford, though far short of that within the city. The school distinguisheth well. It must be communiter in toto, et universaliter in singulis partibus ; but not totaliter et per- fecte. This sanctification must be communicated to the whole man, and universally propagated to every part, though it have in no place of man a total perfection. Indeed, nullum peccatum retinendum est spe remissionis. Xo sin is to be cherished in hope of mercy. But we must strive for every gi-ace we have not, and for the increase of every grace we have. Quceren- dum quod deest bonum, indulgendum quod adest. Let us make much of that we possess, and stiU seek for more, ' striving to the mark,' Phil. iii. 14. And yet when all is done, profectio hoec, non perfectio est ; we have made a good step fonvard, but ai'e not come to our full home. But still, ' Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,' and * enter not into judgnnent with us.' Now, since this gate stands in our own heart, give me leave to describe it, and that briefly, by its properties and its parts. Its properties are two. It is low and httle. [1.] Low. — Heaven is weU called a 'building not made with hands,' 2 Cor. v. 1 ; for it difi'ers both in matter and foim from earthly edifices. For matter, it is eternal, not momentaiy ; for manner, fabricked without hands. Great manors on earth have large answerable porches. Heaven must needs be spacious, when a httle star, fixed in a far lower orb, exceeds the earth in quantity ; yet hath it a low gate, not a lofty coming in. They must stoop, then, that will enter here. ' He hath filled the hungry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty away,' Luke i. 53. The rich in their own conceits, and proud of their own worth, shaU be sent empty from this gate. Zaccheus climbs up into a sycamore tree to behold Jesus ; but when Jesus beheld him got up so high, he said, ' Come down, Zaccheus ; make haste, and come down,' Luke xix. 5. Who- soever will entertam Jesus, must come down. The haughty Nebuchadnez- zar, that thinks with his head to knock out the stars in heaven, must stoop at this gate, or he cannot enter. Be you never so lofty, you must bend. God's honoui- must be prefen-ed before your honour. It is no discredit to your worship to worship God. [2.] Little. — Chiist calls it a ' narrow gate,' Luke xiii. 24. They must be little that enter ; httle in their own eyes, slender in the opinion of them- selves. * Whosoever shall not receive the kingdom of God as a little child, he shall not enter therein,' Mark x. 15. Samuel to Saul ; ' When thou wast httle in thine own sight, wast thou not made the head of the tribes of Israel ?' 1 Sam. xv. 17. When Jesse had made all his sons pass before Rev. XXII. 14.] heaven-gate. 79 Samuel, he asked him if none remained yet. Jesse answers, Yes, a little one tending the flocks. ' Fetch that little one,' saith Samuel, ' for we will not sit down till he come,' 1 Sam. xvi. 11. That little one was he. Says the angel to Esdras, * A city is built, and set upon a broad field, full of all good things, yet the entrance thereof is narrow,' 2 Esd. vii. 6. This is spAtiosa et speciosa civitas ; A city beautiful and roomy ; yet it hath but a narrow wicket, a little gate. Alas ! how will the surfeited epicure do to enter, whose gluttonous body is so deformed, that it moves like a great tun upon two pots ? What hope hath an impropriator, with four or five churches on his back, to pass this little gate ? The bribing officer hath a swollen hand, it will not enter ; and the gouty usurer cannot thrust in his foot. The factious schismatic hath too big a head ; the swearer such forked blasphemies in his mouth, that here is no entrance. Pride hath no more hope to get into the gates of that city above, than there is hope to cast it out the gates of this city below. Much good do it with earthly com'ts, for it must not come into the courts of heaven. Think, 0 sinner ; you cannot go with these oppressions, with these oaths, frauds, bribes, usui'ies, with these wickednesses, into the gates of this city. You must shift them off", or they will shut you out. You hear the properties ; the parts are now to be considered, and these are four : The foundation, the two sides, and the roof. The foundation is Faith; one of the sides, Patience; the other, Innocence; the roof, Charity. [l.J Faith is the foundation. ' Be ye gi'ounded and settled in the faith,' Col. i. 23. Credendo fimdatur, saith Augustine. It is grounded in faith. All other graces are (as it were) built on this foundation. Credimus quod speramus : quod credimus et speramus, diligbmis : quod credimus, speramus, et diligimus, opteramur. "VMaat we hope, we believe ; what we beheve and hope, we love ; what we believe, hope, and love, we endeavour to attain. So all is built on faith. Hope on faith. Nulla spes increditi : it is impossible to hope for that we believe not to be. Charity on faith : why should a man give aU to the poor, unless he beheved an abundant recompence ? Repentance on faith : why else suffer we contrition for sin, if we beheved not remission of sin ? Tem- perance on faith : why forbear we the pleasing vanities of the world, but that we beheve the transcendent joys of eternity, whereof these harlote would rob us ? Patience on faith : why would we endure such calamities with willing quietness and subjection, if we beheved not an everlasting peace and rest to come ? All obedience on faith, that God would accept it in Jesus Christ. If all be built on faith, I may call it the basis and founda- tion of this gate. * Without faith it is impossible to please God : for he that Cometh to God must beheve that he is, and that he is a re warder of them that diligently seek him,' Heb. xi. 6. Faith is the passage-way to God ; not one of that holy ensuing legend entered the city of hfe without this. He that hath faith shall enter : yea, he is entered. ' He hath ever- lasting life, and shall not come into condemnation ; but is passed from death to hfe,' John v. 24. [2.] Patience is one of the pillars. ' Ye have need of patience ; that, when you have done the will of God, ye might receive the promise,' Heb. X. 36. That when you have suffered before the gates, ye may enter the city. There be three enemies that assault the soul before she enter the gates — a hon, a leopard, and a fox. The hon is the devil, who roareth with hideous cries and bloody jaws, 1 Pet. v. 8. The leopard is the world, 80 HEAVEN-GATE. [SeEMON LXTII. whicli liatli a gay spotted hide ; but if it take us witliiii its clutches, it de- vours us. The fox is our concupiscence, bred in us, which craftily spoils our grapes, our young vines, our tender gi-aces, Cant. ii. 15. Patience hath therefore an armed soldier with her, called Christian fortitude, to give re- pidse to aU these encounters. And what he cannot feriendo, by smiting, Bhe conquers ferendo, by suiiering. Vincit etiani dum patitur. She over- comes, even while she suffers. Patience meekly bears wrongs done to our own person ; fortitude encounters com'ageously wrongs done to the per- son of Christ. She will not yield to sin, though she die. She hath the spirit of Esther, to withstand things that dishonour God. ' If I perish, I perish,' Esth. iv. 6. [3.] Innocence is the other pillar. As patience teacheth us to bear wi'ongs, so innocence to do none. Patience gives us a shield, but innocence denies us a sword. Ourselves we may defend, others we must not offend. Innocence is such a virtue. Quae cmn aliis non nocet, necsihinocet.-^ Which as it wrongs not others, so nor itself. He that hurts himself, is not inno- cent. The prodigal is no man's foe but his own, saith the proverb ; but because he is his own foe, he is not innocent. Triumphus innocentice est non p)eccare ubi p}oUst.\ It is the triumph of innocence not to offend where it may. No testimony is more sweet to the conscience than this : ' Remember, 0 Lord, how I have walked before thee in trath, and with a perfect heart,' Isa. xxxviii. 3. So Job, ' My heart shall not condemn me for my days.' J Blessed soul thus comforted. It smiles at the frowns of earth, and dares stand the thunder. Though there be no innocency but rejoiceth to stand in the sight of mercy ; yet thus in the midst of injimes it cheers itself, ' 0 Lord, thou knowest my innocence.' The wicked ' cover themselves with violence as with a garment,' Ps. Lsxiii. 6 ; therefore confusion shall cover them as a cloak. But * blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth,' Matt. v. 5. That part of the earth they live in shall afford them quiet ; and their part in heaven hath no disquiet in it. Si amoveantur, admoventur in locum, a quo non reinoventur in cetemum. If they be moved, they are moved to a place fi-om whence they shall never be removed. ' I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, 0 Lord,' Ps. xxvi. 6. If innocence must lead us to the altar on earth, sure that must be our gate to the glory of heaven. [4.] Charity is the roof, diligendo perficitur ;^ love makes up the build- ing. * Now abideth faith, hope, and charity ; but the greatest of these is charity,' 1 Cor. xiii. 13. It is a grace of the lovehest countenance, and longest continuance ; for countenance, it is amiable ; all love it. The poor respect not thy faith so much as thy charity. For continuance, faith and hope take their leave of us in death ; but charity brings us to heaven-door, and ushers us into glory. I know not what to say more in thy praise, 0 charity, than ut Deum de ccelo traheres, et hominem ad caelum elevares ;\\ than that thou didst bring down God from heaven to earth, and dost lift up man from earth to heaven. Great is thy virtue, that by thee God should be humbled to man, by thee man should be exalted to God. You have the gates described. Let us draw a short conclusion from these two former circumstances, and then enter the city. * Augustine. f Seneca. X A different rendering of chap, xxvii. 6 ; nearly the same with the marginal reading in the authorised version. — Ed. § Augustine. |1 Hugo de laude Charitatia. Rev. XXII. 1-i.] heaven-gate. 81 The Sum. — There i8 no entrance to the city but by the gates ; no pas- sage to gloiT but by grace. The wall of this city is said to be great and high, Rev. xxi. 12. High, no climbing over ; gi-eat, no breaking through. So Christ saith, ' No thief can break through and steal,' Matt. vi. 20. Therefore through the gates, or no way. ' Corruption doth not inherit iu- corruption,' 1 Cor. xv. 50. This coniipted man must be regenerate that he may be saved ; must be sanctified that he may be glorified. Babel- builders may ofler fair for heaven, but not come near it. The giants of our time, I mean the monstrous sinners, may, imponere Pelion Ossce, lay rebellion upon presumption, treason upon rebellion, blasphemy upon all, as if they would sink heaven with their loud and lewd ordnance, and pluck God out of his throne ; but hell gapes in expectation of them. This gate is kept, as the gate of paradise, with a flaming sword of justice, to keep out * idolaters, adulterers, thieves, covetous, drunkards, revilers, extortioners,' 1 Cor. vi. 9 ; and other * dogs ' of the same Utter, ' from the kingdom of God,' Rev. xxii. 15. Some trust to open these gates with golden keys ; but bribery is rather a key to unlock the gates of hell. Let Rome sell what she list, and warrant it, like the seller in the Proverbs, ' It is good, it is good.' Yet it is naught ; but were it good, God never promised to stand to the pope's bargains. Others have di-eamed of no other gate but their own righteousness. Poor souls, they cannot find the gate, because they stand in theu* own light. Others think to pass through the gates of other men's merits ; as well one bird may fly with another bird's wings. For all those hot promises of the works of saints for their ready money, they may blow their nails in hell. Only gi'ace is the gate. Per jjortam ecclesicB intramiis ad j^oitam Para- di^',.-'- We must be true members of the church, or the door of life will be shut against us. Heaven is a glorious place, therefore resen-ed for gracious men. Admittuntur ad spiritus justonnn, non nisi justi. To those 'spirits of just men made perfect,' Heb. xii. 23, must be admitted none save they that are justified. Kings are there the company ; none of base and ignoble lives can be accepted. Heaven is the gi-eat "WTiitehall, the court of the high King ; none are entertained but Alhi, such as are washed white in the blood of Chi'ist, and keep white their own innocence. Ungi'acious oflenders look for no dwelling in this gloiy. You that have so little love to the gates, are not worthy the city. If you will not pass through the gates of holiness in this life, you must not enter the city of happiness in the hfe to come. Thus we have passed the gates, and are now come to 3. The City. — Now if I had been, with Paul, rapt up to the third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2, or had the ' angel's reed wherewith he measured the wall,' Rev. xxi. 17, I might say something to the description of this city. But how can darkness speak of that light ? or the base countiy of earth describe the glorious coui't of heaven ? ' Glorious things are spoken of thee, 0 city of God,' Ps. Ixsxvii. 3. Glorious cities have been, and are in the world. Rome was eminently famous ; all her citizens like so many kings ; yet was it observed, illic homines mori, that men did die there. But in this city there is no dying. Mors non erit idtra. ' There shaU be no more death,' Rev. xxi. 4. I will narrow up my discom'se, to consider in this city only thi-ee things ; (1.) its situation ; (2.) its society; (3.) its gloiy. (1 .) Its Situation. — It is placed above ; ' Jerusalem which is above is free, the mother of us all,' Gal. iv. 26. Heaven is in excelsis. * His foundation is in the holy mountains,' Ps. Lxxxvii. 1. So was Jerusalem *■ Aug. Serm. 136 de Temp. VOL. 311 *■ 82 HEAVEX-GATE. [SerMON LXIII. seated on earth to figure this city ; built of the * quarry of heaven,' Dan. ii. ; * on sapphires, emeralds, and chiysolites,' Rev. xxi. There is a heaven now over our heads, but it shall 'wax old as a garment,' Heb. i. 11. It is corruptible, and so combustible. This city is eternal ; Mount Sion, never to be moved ; a kingdom never to be shaken. We are now under this lower heaven, then this shall be under us. That which is our canopy shall be our pavement. (2.) Its Society. — The king that rules there, is one Ahnighty God, in three distinct persons. He made this city for himself. ' In his presence is the fulness of joy, and pleasm'es at his right hand for evermore.' Ps. xvi. 11. If he gave such a house as this world is to his enemies, what, may we think, hath he provided for himself and his friends ? But will God dwell there alone ? He is never alone ; himself is to himself the best and most excellent company. Nevertheless, he vouchsafes a dwelling here to some citizens, and these are either created so, assumed, or assigned. [1.] Created citizens are the blessed angels; who, from their first crea- tion, have enjoyed the freedom of this city. They stand always in the presence of God ; they can never lose their happiness. [2.] Assumed ; those whose spirits are already in heaven. There ' are the spirits of just men made perfect,' Heb. sii. 23. They are ah-eady in soul taken up, and made firee denizens of this city. [3.] Assigned ; the elect that live in the militant church, waiting for the day of their bodies' redemption ; crying still. Come, Lord Jesus, come quickly ! These are conscripti, ' written in the Lamb's book of life,' Rev. xxi. 27. Now, though we are not already in full possession, because our apprenticeship of this hfe is not out ; yet we are already citizens. ' Ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God,' Eph. ii. 19 ; and we have three happy pri- vileges of citizens. First, Libertas; freedom from the law; not from obedience to it, but from the cm'se of it. Pmstemiis quod possumus : quod non possumus, non damnabit. Let us keep so much of it as we can ; what we cannot keep shall not condemn us. Liberty in the use of these earthly things ; heaven, earth, air, sea, with all their creatm-es, do us service. ' Whether things present, or things to come, all are yom-s ; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. Secondly, TuteJ a imperii; the king's -^roiQciiorx, Angelis mandavit. 'He hath given his angels charge over us, to keep us in all our ways,' Ps. xci. 11. Is this all ? No. ' He covers us with his feathers, and under his wings do we trust ; his truth is our shield and our buckler,' ver. 4. Our dangers are many in some places, and some in all places ; we have God's own guard royal to keep us. They ' are sent from God to minister for their sakes, which shall be heirs of salvation,' Heb. i. 14. I need not determine whether any particular person hath his particular angel. St Augustine hath well answered, ' Quando hoc nesciatur sine crimine, non opus est ut dejiniatur cum discrimine.^ '^ Since oiu* ignorance is no fault, let us not trouble ourselves with curious discussion. Bernard directs us to a good use of it : ' Quantum debet hoc tibi infeire reverentiam, afferre devo- tionem, confeire Jiduciam.' The consideration of the guard of angels about us, should put into our minds reverence, into our hearts devotion, into our souls confidence. Thirdly, Defensio Legis: the defensive protection of the law. Christ is * Enchirid. cap. 59. Rev. XXII. 11.] ueave.n-oate. 83 oar advocate. * Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's elect ? It is God that justifioth,' Horn. viii. 33. We are impleaded ; Paul appeals to Caesar, we to Christ. The devil accuseth us, we are far remote : behold our Counsellor is in heaven, that will not let our cause fall, or be overthrown. * K any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous,' 1 John ii. 1. Thus are we citizens in present, shall be more perfectly at last. Wo have now right to the city ; we shall then have right in the city. We have now a purchase of the possession, shall then have a possession of the purchase. * Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am, that they may behold my gloiy, which thou hast given,' John xvii. 24. This is our Saviour's will and testament, and shall not be broken. The company then adds to the gloiy of this city. We are loath to leave this world for love of a few friends, subject to mutual dislikes ; but what then is the delight in the society of saints ; where thy glorified self shall meet with thy glorified fi-iends, and your love shall be as everlasting as your glory. There be those angels that protected thee ; those patriarchs, pro- phets, apostles, martyrs, that by doctrine and example taught thee ; yea, there is that blessed Saviour that redeemed thee. Often here with groans and tears thou seekest him, ' whom thy soul loveth ; ' lo, there he shall never be out of thy sight. (3.) Its Gloiy. — Non mihi si centum linguce. If I had a hundred tongues, I was not able to discourse thoroughly the least dram of that ' inestimable weight of gloiy.' The eye hath seen much, the ear hath heard more, and the heart hath conceived most of all. But ' no eye hath seen, nor ear heard, nor heart apprehended the things which God hath prepared for them that love him,' 1 Cor. ii. 9. Augustine, after a stand, Deus hahet quod exlii- heat.-^ God hath something to bestow on you. K I say we shall be sati- ate, you will think of loathing ; if we shall not be satiate, you will think of hunger. But ihi nee fames, nee fastidium : there is neither hunger nor loath- ing. Sed Deus liabet quod exhiheat. No sooner is the soul within those gates but she is glorious. Similem sibi reddit ingredientem. Heaven shall make them that enter it, like itself, glorious : as the air by the sun's bright- ness is transformed bright. Quanta felicitas, ubi nullum erit malum, nullum deerit bonum ! How great is that blessedness, where shall be no evil pre- sent, no good absent ! This is a blessed city. Men are ambitious here, and seek to be free of great cities, and not sel- dom buy it dearer than the captain bought his burgess-ship. f But no such honour as to be denizens of this city ; whereof once made free, how con- temptibly they will look at the vain endeavours of worldly men ! Think, beloved, yea, know ; how sweet soever the gains of this lower city be, it is yet far short of the gains of heaven. And you will one day say. There is no city to the city of God, where ' shall be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor any more pain,' Rev. xxi. 4. Death, with all his apparitors, that cites the whole world to his coui-t, sorrow, crjdng, pain, shall be no more. ' They shall persecute you fr-om city to city,' saith Christ, Matt. X. 23, till at last we come to this city, and then out of their reach. 0 that this clay of ours should come to such honour ! Well may we sufier it to endure the world's tyranny, and to be afflicted by the citizens thereof; alas, we are but apprentices, and they will use us hardly tiU our years be out. When that day comes, we shall be free possessors of this city. * In Joh. Horn. 3. t Acts xxii. 28.— Ed. 84 HEAVEN-GATK. [SeKMON LXIII. You hear now the gate and the city, what should you do but enter ? Pass through the gate of grace, a holy and sanctified life, and you shall not fail of the city of glory ; whither once entered, you shall sing as it is in the psalm, Siciit audlvimus, ita et vldimns: As we have heard, so have we seen iu the city of oui* God. We see that now which was preached to us ; yea, and ten thousand times more than ever could be uttered. You shall say to Christ, as the Queen of Sheba to Solomon : ' I heard much of thy gloiy ; but, behold, the one half was not told me,' 1 Ivings x. 7. You saw Jei'U- salem before in a map, now you shall walk through its streets, and obser^'e its towers and bulwarks, fully complete its glory. But my discourse shall give way to your meditation. The joys are boundless, endless : the Lord make us free of this city 1 Amen. MEDITATIONS UPON SOME PART OF THE CREED. I BELIEVE IN God, The first thing in the order of every building is to lay the foundation sure ; no architect intends to leave there, but he is no good architect that doth not begin there. First, let us be thoroughly grounded in the truth of reli- gion ; and then not be determined and shut up in the rudiments, but gi'ow on in knowledge. The end of our ministerial function is not to give satis- faction to curious hearers, but to breed devotion, and bring salvation to humble souls. This age is strangely transported with an humorous appe- tite to novelties, and rather affecteth variety of toys than a constancy of plain and sober truth. The contrivers of the policy of the Romish Church knew too well how the people would be carried with imagination. There- fore they devised such change of ceremonies, their poetical metamorphoses, transubstantiation, masses like masks, elevations like interludes, proces- sions like the measures of a dance ; their friars of so many colours, like a painter's apron ; their legends of saints, like the tales of the knight of the sun, or the queen of the fauies, all to please imagination. Theii- churches like theatres, then- images like motionless actors — a histrionical rehgion, yet pleasing to the eye, and taking the fancy. Their antipodes, the novelists, take the same course. The w^holesome doctrine of the text, as too famiHar to common preachers, they often quite forsake, and pick out crochets, paradoxes, strange and improper conclusions, as the only way to their own credit and profit, by fomenting the imagination. Yea, such is the wantonness of our auditories, the gi'een sickness of the people's humour, that sound food is vilipended, and they must have quirks to please imagination. From hence it comes that so many cradities oppress their souls, that so many fumes and giddy vapours fly up into their heads, that 60 many hot spirits, like over-laden cannons, recoil against discipline, break out into factions, and with the splinters of their cracked opinions, do more mischief than deliberate doctrine or discipline can easily cure. But is this the way to be saved ? Will the flashes of a luxurious wit build men up to the kingdom of heaven ? To the foundation, then. Without which groundwork, errors will be admitted for truth, and the pride of supposed knowledge fortify the heart against knowledge. I know not whether, through the frequency of preach- 86 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. ing or rareness of catechising, this latter is grown into contempt. He that is but a little turned of eight in the morning, past a child, thinks himself too high for this form. To be examined the reason of his faith he is ashamed, as if the doctrine of grace were a disgrace, and men were ashamed of nothing so much as to learn. It would not be thus. I believe in God. — There be some perambulatory things that I will but salute, as, fii'st, the name of the creed, which it seems to take from the first word, credo, as the Lord's prayer, from the two first words, is called the pater-noster. In other languages, symholum, which may signify a shot, which is, when every man pays his part of the reckoning, the sum of all, or a badge, as a soldier is known by his colours to what captain he belongs. This distinguisheth Christians fi'om unbelievers or misbelievers. Or a ring, the metal whereof is digged out of the golden mines of the gospel, and (as we receive it) formed by the blessed apostles. Many are curious, some superstitious, in keeping their nuptial ring. To lose that they hold omin- ous. But look to thy faith ; for if that be cracked by misUving, or lost by misbelieving, thou losest thy interest in Jesus Christ. Secondly, the Authors, the apostles ; because it is theirs for the matter, though not for the maimer. So it is the word of God, though not the Scripture of God — not sovereign, but subordinate — not protocanonical scripture, yet the key of the holy Scripture.* The abridgment of that gospel which Christ taught the apostles, the apostles taught the church, and the church in all ages hath taught us. The plain and absolute sum of holy faith, so comprising the doctrine of the new covenant, that it may be familiar to the weakest capacity, and retainable by the fr'ailest memory. Not long, not obscure, ne duni instruat mentem, oneret memoriam.f There be two main things ; first, the act, which is to believe ; the other, the object to be believed, which are aU. the ensuing articles concerning both God and the church. Therefore credo must be applied to every article ; ioT fides est tota cojndativa, he that looks for good by any, must hold all. Faith is generally an aclmowledgment and assent to the truth, James ii. 19. It is either common to all ; such is an historical faith, which is in the devils themselves, and temporary faith, that wiU always keep the wann side of the hedge, never windward. Christ is little beholden to that faith, and that faith shall be httle beholden to Christ. Or pecuhar to the elect, which is a supematm'al gift of God, whereby we apprehend the promise of life, and are persuaded of our own salvation by Christ. First, a gift of God, not brought with us, but wi'ought in us. Let none be so sottish as to think the faith whereby they shall be saved was bred and bom in them, for it is the fair gift of God. ' I was bom in sin,' saith Da\dd, Ps. li. 5 ; in- sin, not in faith. Sin is hereditary, not faith. That I cannot but have from my earthly parents ; this I cannot have but from my heavenly Father. Secondly, supernatural ; not only above that natm'e wherein we were bom, but even above that nature wherein our first parents were made. Above coiTupted nature, j-ea, above created nature. The state of innocence nei- ther had, nor had need of, faith in Christ. But so soon as man was fallen he wanted a Redeemer, and to obtain redemption he must have faith. So it belongs not to generation but to regeneration. It is a new grace taught in the new covenant of grace. Other graces, in our conversion, are but renewed; our knowledge, love, obedience, all renewed ; but this faith is not renewed, but in our conversion takes its fii'st being. Thirdly, whereby we apprehend. This is properly an action of the hand, and faith is the spi- * Amhr. • t Aug. MKDIIATIONS UPON THE CKKED. 87 ritual band of a Christian. Fourthly, the promise of life ; for if there were uo promise there could be no faith. Fifthly, and are persuaded of our owd salvation by Christ. This is no opinion, no affection, but a persuasion, not of others' salvation (the devils believe that God will save some), but of our own, and that only by Jesus Christ. I believe. — I, not ue. First, because every one best knows his own heart, and therefore can make best confession of his own faith. Secondly, no man can be saved by another's faith, but by his o\vn only, Hab. ii. 4. Charity is of a gi'eat latitude, embracing all ; faith looks to a man's self. I must put all men in my paternoster, only myself in my creed. Pray I must for others, believe for myself. In my believing, I plead mine own cause ; in my praying, I plead also the cause of all my brethren. So no man's foith can do me good, but mine own. I may be the better for an- other man's charity ; the magistrate's justice may do me right ; the know- ledge of the learned may instruct me ; but none of all their faiths can save me. Am I the fatter for the meat another eats ? Or refreshed by his sleep, when rest leaves me ? Can another's soul animate my body, when its own forsakes it ? Shine the sun never so clear, if we be bUnd we are still in darlmess. The Lord of life conversed with the Jews, yet were they still dead, through want of faith. The alms is bountiful, but what if we have no hand to receive it ? The fountain of Christ's blood is open, but faith is the friend that must put us in, or we perish. In God. — There be three degrees or differences of beUeving, credere Dewm, Deo, in Deimi.'^ First, To believe there is a God ; and no man possibly can thnist this faith out of his heart. Secondly, To beUeve God ; that is, to acknowledge his word for truth. Thus far go even reprobates, but this faith cannot save them. Not that it is fides Jicta (1 Tim. i. 5), by way of similitude : as a histrionical king is called a king, or the picture of a man, a man ; for this is a true faith, but not sufl&cient to save. Nor that it is Jides informis, because it wants charity, which the Eomanists would have to be the form of faith. Nor that it is extorta et coacta, en- forced fi'om the clear e^ddence of things ; for all faith is voluntary, if we believe St Augustine. f But a defective faith, because it appUes not the merits of Christ to a man's self. Thirdly, To believe in God, or on God, or into God ; to acknowledge him our God, and to place our whole con- fidence in him. We say, credimus Paulo, but not in Paidum ; but credi- miis Deo, et in Deiim. I beHeve he is, I believe he is good, I beheve he is good to me. Faith is a kind of thing infra scientiam, supra opinionem : scientia habet cognitioneni, opinio dubitationem ; inter has duas Jides est media.\ Faith is neither a certain science, nor a doubtful opinion ; but a middle natm'e between them, admitting neither of demonstration nor hesitation. For better declaration of this heavenly grace, faith, I refer you to that lively expression of St Paul, ' I am crucified wdth Christ, nevertheless I live : yet not I, but Christ hveth in me ; and the life which I now Hve in the flesh, I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. ii. 20. Of which words, admit this short paraphrase, ' I am crucified with Christ.' But Christ was crucified with two male- factors, Paul was none of them. He was at the foot of Gamaliel, not at the foot of the cross on Moimt Calvary. Had he been there, he would rather have helped to cracify Christ than yielded to be crucified with * Aug. t De Spir. et Lit. cap. 32. X Alex. Hal. Destruct. vitio., par. 6, cap. 82. 88 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CBEED. Christ. Hov,', then, is he crucified with Christ ? Not as a man consisting of body and soul, but as a sinner cariying about him the body of death. To understand this, consider two things : First, That Christ on the cross was not a private, but a pubHc, person ; what he did and suffered there, we did and suft'ered in him. As the first Adam did not sin only for him- self, but for all that should come from him ; so the second Adam did not die at all for himself, but for all that should come unto him. Secondly, There is a real donation of Christ to us, and a spiritual union of us to Christ, whereby he is made as indissolubly ours as if we had been crucified in our own persons. Such is the powder of faith, that w^e who were the causes of his death shall be made partakers of his life. ' Nevertheless I live.' I am not abolished as a creature, but only cruci- fied as a sinful creature. This is not an annihilation of my being, but a reformation of my former being. I am not what I was, nor whose I was. Not what I was : I was Saul a persecutor, I am Paul a professor ; I was a sin-lover, I am a sin-hater ; I am not what I vvas from my natural mother, but a new thing from my supernatural Father. Not whose I was : I was Satan's kennel, I am Christ's temple ; I am crucified and dead to what I was, I live to what I was not ; but now death and life are opposites, and there is no passing from one to the other but by a medium, and that is faith. Three things bring death to the soul by sin : First, its guilt, which makes us liable to condemnation. Secondly, its filth, which makes both our persons and all our actions odious. Thirdly, its punishment, which is death, in the extent of body and soul, and that for ever. With this three-forked sceptre did sin reign over all the sons of men. The tree of life afi'ords us a threefold antidote against this threefold death. First, the life of justification ; the righteousness of Christ cancelling the obligation of the law, and acquitting us from the sentence of condemnation. Secondly, the life of sanctification, regenerating every part and faculty of us by a supernatural virtue derived from Christ, infusing new principles. Thirdly, the life of joy and cheerfuhiess, which made Job exult and Paul insult over all calamities, as more than conquerors. So that we are dead to those sins which did Idll us, and we live to that glory which shall crown us. ' And yet not I.' Not I ? who then ? what contradictions be these ? First, I speak, and move, and WTite, yet I am dead. Can a dead man perform these actions ? For a man to be dead, and to tell others he is so, implies a contradiction. But grant him dead, and there is an end ; for death is the end of all. Nay, but hear him again, ' nevertheless I live.' This is a short death, that is so soon turned to life. Or is he both at once alive and dead, dead and alive, at the same instant ? Yes, Paul is dead, and Paul lives ; peccant Paul is dead, believing Paul lives. Dead quatenus subcUtiis i^eccato, alive quatenus insitus Christo. Well, then, let his last word stand, he lives. ' Yet not I.' Here is another contradiction. Is not a man that he is, himself? Can he be made strong by the strength of another ? or rich by the wealth his neighbour possesseth ? or can another's honour ennoble him ? No ; yet he may live by the life of another. No soul can animate this body but mine own, yet neither body nor soul can live but in and by God. Thus doth he annihilate himself, that he may omnify his Master, that Christ may be all in all. So it follows ; — ' But Christ liveth in me.' Christ is the fountain and root of all spiri- tual life, having it so superabundant in himself, that he conveys it to all his members. He is Frinceps vitce (Acts iii. 15) ; yea, Frincipium vitce. He that begins not to take life from Christ shall never live ; he that doth MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 89 shall never die. Now, he lives in n.s by virtue of his union with us, which is both a spiritual and a substantial union, whereby the person of the be- liever is made one with the person of the Saviour. Neither is this in- credible to reason ; for if, by virtue of a civil contract, the husband and wife be one flesh, though sundered by many miles, the one being in this land, the other beyond sea, yet still they are caro una, why may not Christ and the believer be one spirit, though he be in heaven and we on earth ? He lives in us as the root lives in the branches, as the head liven in the members. The soul doth not more properly enliven the body, than he doth quicken both body and soul. Take away the soul from the flesh, earth becomes earth ; sever Christ from the soitI, it is but a dead carrion. According to the nearness or remoteness of the sun, elementary bodies be either light or dark, hot or cold. Chiist is that ' Sun of righteousness ' to our souls ; his absence leaves us dead, his presence re\ives us. The be- Hever can never perish, unless life itself could die. ' Christ Hves in me.' — But can we all say, Christ lives in us? Neither speak I of gross sinners, not gi-afted into Christ ; but even to those that applaud themselves in their holy portion, and look to be saved. Why do they suck on the breasts of this world, and seek to solace themselves in vanities ? Is not the life of Christ in us above all sweetness ? Are not the gi'apes of Canaan satisfying enough, but we must long for the onions of Egypt ? Why should we look unto Phai-phar, that have Jordan ? He that hath the Hving waters of Jesus flowing in his heart, is mad if he stoop to the puddles of vanity, or seek content in the world. Yea, such a one will scarce descend to lawful pleasm'es, but for God's allowance, and nature's necessity ; and then but as the eagle, who lives aloft, and stoops not to the earth but for her prey ; or as Gideon's soldiers, to sup his handful, not to swill his belh'ful. I deny not oil, and wine, and recreation; but we must not live by these, but by Christ. He that is come to man's estate, throws away rattles and babies : the philosopher could be merry without a fiddle ; as one of them told the musicians, oflering their service, that philosophers could dine and sup without them. How much more may the Christian re- joice without a playfellow? He hath holy meditations of the forgiveness of his sins, peace and reconciliation with God ; and {■o break ofi" this for the entertainment of vanity, is more absurd, than for a husband to leave his fair and chaste wife, peerless for beauty and innocency, for the embraces of a black and stigmatical strumpet. We have generous and noble delights, angelical pleasures ; what should discomfort us ? ' Jesus Christ lives in us.' 'And the hfe which I now live in the flesh.' — By flesh, he means here, not the corruption of nature, but the mortal body. It is one thing to live in the flesh, another thing to hve to the flesh. To live in the flesh, is a dying life ; to live to the flesh, is a Hving death. By none of these hves the beUever ; but by another, a better, a surer, which as he hath aliunde, from another place ; so he lives after another manner ; it is calitus in- s;j»ira?rt, and so called ccehstis vita: 'our conversation is in heaven,' Phil, iii. 20. Of moles of the earth, this makes us souls of heaven ; of snails, dromedaries. How impossible did it seem before to us, that we should be persuaded to deny the world, to forsake ourselves, to condemn our own pleasures ? We thought it as easy for stones to climb mountaias, or for iron to swim. Yet this new hfe of faith doth naturahze these holy afiec- tions to us ; Chiist working upon us, as the sun doth on the vapour ; of a gross, heav}-, and squolid substance, it makes it light and aerial, apt to 90 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. ascend to the middle region. To outward duties go both the natural and spiritual man ; but with what difference of affections, of success ? A bear goes not more unwillingly to the stake, nor a galley-slave to the oar, nor a truant to school, than the one. The other, willingly, cheerfully, as being (not driven with fear, but) ' led by the Spirit of God,' Rom. viii. 14. The manner of guidance is indeed aymia, a mighty motion, but no coactive violence ; for Christ moves the will, and makes it ducible. ' Draw us, we will run after thee,' Cant. i. 4 ; we will run, not go with an ordinary motion, but rim, disdaining all paces but the swiftest. He draws us, but with our wills. Aliter trahitur claudus ad prandium, aliter reus ad suppliciumJ'- There is great difference between these two attractions ; of a lame man to his dinner, and of a guilty malefactor to his execution. This new life is a new internal principle ; which is like a spring to the watch, or oil to the wheels, to make the motion quick and permanent. ' Now.' — This distinction of time hath a double reference ; hke Janus, it looks both ways, to the time past, and the time future, though it speak of the time present. First, to the time past ; this is not such a life as I did live before : that was to the flesh, this is but in the flesh. In the former state I was dead, now I live. How many live and die, before they come to St Paul's nunc? They consume their days in time-eating vanities, and the greatest part of their life is the least part wherein they have lived. Oh that they would recollect themselves, and be sure of this nunc, to say, ' Now I live,' before they go hence, and cease living! It is never too late, you say; but, I am sure, it is never too soon, to begin this life. Be not like truants, that slubber out their books, before they have learned their lessons. Secondly, to the time to come ; noiv, I live by faith, I shall not so live always. ' Now abides faith, hope, and charity,' 1 Cor. xiii. 13. Now, two of these shall cease one day. I now live by faith, I shall live by vision ; now by the expectation of hope, hereafter by the possession of gloiy. Faith is now the queen, and charity the handmaid that waits upon her. The damsel attends upon Judith through the gates of the city, through the watches of the army, through aU dangers and passages, till she comes to the tyrant's chamber door : there she is not suffered to enter ; Judith goes in alone, and by her own hand delivers Israel ; the waiting woman hath not a stroke in it, Judith xiii. Faith is this gi'eat lady, charity her handmaid ; through all the actions of goodness she attends on her mistress ; when faith sets down the objects of her beneficence, love is her secretary ; when she disposeth her good deeds, love is her almoner ; when she treats a league of peace with her neighbours, love is her ambassador ; what work soever she undertakes, charity is her instrument. But when it comes to the point of justification, to enter the presence chamber of the gi'eat King, to procure remission of sins, imputation of righteousness, and peace of conscience, here charity leaves her to herself, and hath not a finger in that business. Thus is it now. But hereafter, these two shall change places ; charity shall be the lady, and faith the waiting-woman. When the soul is to be dis- charged out of prison, and moves to the high court of heaven, faith waits upon her all the way ; but at the presence-chamber of glory, faith stays without, and love only enters. Yet though faith and hope, at last, perish in the act, they shall never perish in the effect; for we shall enjoy what we have both beheved and hoped. * I live by the faith of the Son of God.' — It is called the faith of Christ First, because he is the revealer of it ; neither nature nor the law opened * An- MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREKI). 91 the door of faith, but the Son of God ; it belongs to the gospel. ' The law came by Moses, but gi-aco and truth camo by Christ Jesus,' John i. 17. Secondly, because he is the author of it : the ' founder and finisher of our faith,' Heb. xii, 2. Thirdly, because he is the object of it; faith desires * to know nothing, but Christ crucified.' This faith is the means of this life ; sin divides us from Christ, faith re- unites us. We live primarily and properly by Christ, as the body lives by the soul. Mediately or instrumcntally by faith, as by the spirits, which are the bond of soul and body. As the leg or aim lives by the proper sinews, veins, arteries, whereby it is united to the head, heart, and liver, those more noble parts, so fiiith is that special ligament that knits us on earth to Christ in heaven. ' He that hath the Son hath life ;' and he that hath faith hath the Son. By this Paul doth here challenge Christ for his own (as it were), engrossing the common God, as if he were his and nobody's else. It is well observed by a worthy divine, -'■= that faith is a wonder-worker, and hath a Idnd of omnipotence in it ; that it can remove mountains, command the sun to stand still, raise the dead, animating it with an ever-living spirit. So that the potent works, which indeed only Christ doth, are attributed to faith. It is he that, by the power of his death, deadeth sin in us ; and of his resurrection quickeneth us. Yet faith is said to mortify, faith to vivify, faith to purify, faith to justify, faith to sanctify, faith to save us. It is the poorest of all virtues, therefore of all vii-tues God most honoureth it : respexlt humiUtatem, as the blessed virgin sung, Luke i. 48. Love is more noble ; it is a meaner act to beHeve, than to love. Charity is a rich giver, faith but a beggarly receiver. Yet thus hath it pleased God to honour this virtue, so quite out of request with the world, that we shall live by that, and all other graces shall be beholden to it. Mary Magdalene had done much for Christ, washed his feet with her tears, and diied them w4th her hairs, anointed him with spikenard; and he commends her for all these ; but there was another thing that saved her, to which all the rest yield, her faith : ' Thy faith hath saved thee.' Not thy sorrow melting in tears, not thy humility kneeling in the dust, not thy charity in the expense of that precious unguent ; none of these hath saved thee : but ' thy faith hath saved thee, go in peace,' Luke vii. 50. Nor yet in this do we sacrilegiously robe the servant in the divine honours of her sovereign ; yea we say, if faith knew any arrogance against her master, or insolence against her fellows, she were no more faith. But while we magnify faith, we reflect all upon Christ, who justifies the imperfection of our believing with the perfection of his deserving. It is for the honour of the Son of God, that we live by His faith ; as notwithstanding our eyes, we are beholden to the sun for seeing the light. ' Who loved me.' — The foundation of all good to man, is the love of God. A love without all invitation, or the least merit in the object. We love nothing, but either there is, or we suppose there is, some goodness in it. God loved us, when he knew there was no good thing in us. The motive of our love is fi-om without us, the cause of God's loving is within himself. We love a man because he is good ; God loves a man because himself is good, though the man were stark naught. Our love doth not make a thing good, but embraceth it as being good before ; but that which before was bad, God's love maketh good. Habet in se Deiis quod diligat, invenit in nobis quod puniat. God hath the matter of love in himself, the cause of punishment he finds in us. * Chr s. 92 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. We were in worso case than the wounded man, upon whom the Samari- tan shewed mercy, Luke x. There was some reason why he should pity him. First, because he deserved not that unjust measure at their hands, that robbed him. Secondly, the Samaritan himself might happen to be in the like distress ; therefore he tendered that compassion he desired to find. But first, God saw that we deserved that damnable estate wherein we laj' ; and that not one dram of sorrow was put into the potion more than we merited to drink off. Secondly, Himself could never be in the like case, sitting in heaven, far enough out of the reach of miseiy and mischief; yet he loved us. ' Loved me.' — It may be so : Paul had good expeiience of his love, by a miraculous conversion, a supernatural rapture and revelation. Yea, but he doth not engross all this love to himself, but rather speaks in the person of all believers ; teachmg us to pledge him in that sa'^ang cup, whereia he had begun to us so hearty a draught. Thou that art born in a time and place where the gospel flourisheth, and Christ is continually preached to thy conscience, must needs confess that God hath loved thee. Indeed, the unbelieving pagan and the misbelieving papist cannot conclude to them- selves thus comfortably. But when I consider my illumination, the clear means of my redemption, the evidence and demonstration of those invalu- able treasures of mercy opened to my heart, I must acknowledge that God hath loved me. If he had not loved me, he would never have done thus for me. If the Israelites so applauded their own happiness, by being the depositories of the oracles of God — ' He hath shewed his statutes to Jacob : the heathen have not the knowledge of his laws,' Ps. cxhai. 20 ; if they thought themselves so blessed in having the law, which Saint Paul calls the ' ministration of death,' — how are we bound to him for the gospel, ' the ministry of salvation ? ' This is the voice of that faith which shall save us ; ' he hath loved me.' Charity rejoiceth that God hath loved also others ; faith, that he had loved me. Charity prays for others, faith believeth for a man's self. 'And given himself for me.' — This indeed is a sound proof of his love : ' Greater love hath no man than this, to give his life for his friends.' ' Given : ' We were never able to pm-chase him ; all the treasures of the world were trash and rubbish in comparison of him. 'Himself:' not a man, nor an angel, but himself. As when * God had no greater to swear by, he sware by himself;' so when he had no greater to give, he gave himself. ' This is a true saying, and worthy of all men to be received,' 1 Tim. i. 15 : a gracious gate to a glorious building ! Prefaces are ordinary in the Scrip- tures ; this is no ordinary preface. Without preface it should be received; where the ware is good, there needs no sign. Many things may be worth looking on ; this is ' worthy to be received.' Like the ark, it makes a man, and his house, and all blessed that receive it. It is thankful, and requites them that receive it, as Christ made Zaccheus a liberal amends for his entertainment. It is worthy to be received ' of all men,' and "with all faculties of soul. Worthy of the intellective part. Nothing more excellent to be knoAvn : * I determined to know nothing among you, but Christ crucified,' 1 Cor. ii. 2. Worthy of the affective part ; nothing more dearly to be loved: 'Sweeter than honey and the honey-comb ;' more precious than ' thousands of gold and silver.' "WTien the body and soul cannot hang together, this comforts us. Worthy of the executive powers, for it beauti- fieth and graces all our actions. Worthy to be bought with all labour, with expense of goods, with expense of bloods. Ho that hath this faith, how MKIJITATIUNS UPON TUK CIIKKD. 93 doth ho dlipcnd tlie world's tliree great mistresses — profit, honour, pleasure ? The liord gives many temporal benefits to reprobates ; suflers a wicked Haman to be a great emperor's favourite ; hits a Nabal wallow m his golden dung ; fills the belly of a profane Esau. But he gives Christ to none but those whom in Christ ho loves for ever. By this that hath been spoken, we may well relish the sweetness of faith. Now take some useful directions about it. First, Learn to know God : ' How shall we beheve on him we have not known ?' Rom. x. 1-i. It is not the bare rehearsal of the creed that can save a man's soul. Knowledge is not so much slighted here, as it will be wished hereafter. The rich man in hell desires to have his brethren taught, Luke xvi. 28. Sure, if he were alive again, he would hire them a preacher. ' The people are destroyed for lack of knowledge,' Hos. iv. 6. If we see a proper man cast away at the sessions for a noii legit, with pity we conclude he might have been saved, if he could have read. At that general and last assizes, when Christ shall ' come in flaming fire,' w^ith thousands of angels, woe be to them that ' know not God,' 2 Thess. i. 8. For ' he will pour out his fury upon the heathen, that kuow him not, and upon the families that call not on his name,' Jer, x. 25. It is the fashion of this intemperate age to shuffle the cards, while they should search the Scriptures ; to spend more upon cooks than books ; till they bmy the soul alive, in the sepulchre of a blind and sensual flesh. Jonathan's eye ' waxed dim with fasting ;' our intellectual eye is put out with feasting. Our means is liberal, but we will not allow ourselves to loiow ; like those that have a free school in the to-w-n, yet never a one can say his cross-row. ■•:= Or, if some can spell, yet ' understandest thou what thou readest ?' Acts -siii. 30. Submit thyself to a teacher ; for if thou diest in ignorance, thou canst not die in faith. If a stranger be setting his pace and face toward some deep pit, or steep rock — such a precipice as the chfis of Dover — how do we cry aloud to have him return ? yet in mean time forget the course of our own sinful ignorance, that headlongs us to confusion. Do we not expect from them most work to whom we have given most wages ? Do we not look that a frank pasture should yield fat sheep ? How then shall we answer God, for his cost and charges to save us ? Sccondhj, Let us acloiowledge om* unbelief. Though we little suspect it, there is none of us whose heart is not full of infidelity. There can be no greater indignity oflered to God than not to take his word, which is not to believe him. How doth animated dust scorn such a distrust ? They that lie for an advantage, scalding their mouths to beguile their customers ; they that promise what they mean not to perform, laying their tongues to pawn, without purpose to redeem them; they that are led with gain, as the butcher enticeth a poor lamb from its bleating mother, by a gi'een branch in his hand, to the house of slaughter ; — do they believe in God, that he will sus- tain them here, and crown them hereafter ? Job thought God did him a good tm'u in taking away all ; his account being lessened, by abating his receipt. There be some that v/ould think no hell like it. Alas ! they can scarce allow their own bodies garments and sustenance. All is to have and to hold, as their indenture mns ; and they never come out of their own debt, so base are they to others, so sordid in themselves. But now, what spends such a man in a year upon his soul ? What does God and heaven cost him ? 00. Do these believe in God ? I tremble to speak it : the devils believe more. 0, but they have a good faith and a good mean- * Tlie muliiplication taLle. — Ed. 94 MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. ing! It is false; they have a bad faith, and a worse meaning, for they mean not well to themselves. We are aU faithless by nature, dead in tmbelief, not only with dimmed 63-68, and wounded affections, and weakened souls, like that robbed passenger, ' half dead,' Luke x. (Such indeed is that usual resemblance, wherewith the Pontificians shadow out our estate before conversion ; but as that man fell among thieves, so that text is fallen among thieves too.) But quite dead ; so say Christ and his apostles, which we have cause to believe before the pope and his Jesuits. Naturally, there is no faith in us, till the Spirit of gi'ace infuse it. Thirdhj, Let us be humbled and annihilated in our selves, that we may the better believe in God. When the poor man finds no sustenance at home, he is glad to go to the door of charity. The earth is indeed fixed, but thou art not fixed on it ; thy gold will but expose thee to danger ; how many have lost their lives for no other fault but being rich ? Thy trade will fail, thy friends will change the copy of their countenance, thy children may prove unkind, thy own heart will fail, thou wilt fail thyself : ' Believe in God,' Prov. iii. 5, he will never fail thee. Let thy reason tell thee of more refuges than Ahasuerus had provinces ; in the day of trouble thou wilt be to seek. He that will not trust in God in prosperity ; in adversity, for God, he shall tnist to himself. Read Jer. xvii. 7, 8. There is no winter ■with that man, no fall of the leaf ; his comforts be ever fresh and green, as it were an everlasting spring. ' 0 Lord, my hope is in thee ;' so long as hope holds the heart will not bm-st, but his hope shall never vanish that is placed in God. Fourthhj, Endeavour we to keep our faith always waking and working, that we may feel it. Quod iioiijit, non xxitefit : if faith be in us, it wiU be felt, 2 Cor. xiii. 5. But the broken heart confesseth, I would believe, but I feel the smoke of my sins smothering it ; in my best vigilancy many known errors escape me, and many more escape unknown. But wherefore came Christ but to save sinners ? All things are possible to faith, all sins are pardonable to an infijiite mercy. As St Martin answered the devil, tempt- ing him to despair for his sins, WTiy, Satan, even thy sins should be for- given if thou couldst believe. Whether thou be a young convert that hast so much life as to feel thyself dead in sin ; boldest Chi-ist but with be- numbed hands ; hast life, and dost not believe thou hast it ; behevest, and yet wiU not be persuaded that thou believest. Be comforted ; even to feel the want of feeling is an argument of life ; he that is stark dead neither feels nor knows he doth not feel ; no man feels his sickness that is quite dead ; nor are we sensible of corruption, by corruption, but by grace. Or whether thou hast fallen into some filthy puddle of sin, yet faith will never rest till thy peace be made with thy God and thy own conscience. And for ordinaiy infirmities, faith fetcheth out a pardon of course ; thy prayer in the morning cleansing thee fi'om the weaknesses of the night, and thy prayer in the evening from the vanities of the day. Thus do thou more duly wash thy soul and affections than ever pharisee did his hands and his face. Faith hath a remedy for aU diseases ; daily we sin, and faith doth as daily and duly by the blood of the Lamb recover us. God sees all our violations of his law, knows eveiy peccant act better than our own con- science, but withal he sees the atonement made in the sacrifice of his own Son, a satisfaction able to pay all our debts. Hence no sin shall oblige us to condemnation, no debt shall bear an action against us. The rich creditor sees manv items in his books, knows what debts have been owing, but MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKKED. 95 withal he sees them crossed and cancelled, so that the debtor need not break his sleeps for such engagements. I deny not but faith may be sometimes duller and more inactive, yea brought to a very low ebb, yet even then be comforted. God accepts the will and earnest desire to believe for faith it- self ; nor are we justified for the perfection of our faith, but for the perfec- tion of that obedience which our faith apprehends. Among the IsracUtes stung with serpents, some (likely) had dim eyes, some were far off, yet by looking on the brazen serpent they were healed as well as the clear-sighted, to shew that they were not cured for the virtue of their sight, but for the ordinance of God. 'Blessed are the poor in spirit,' that complain their want of faith, that feel themselves full of unbelief, that gi'ieve they can be- lieve no better ; blessed are such, they do believe truly, they shall believe more powerfully. Samson's hairs may be shorn by the deceit of Delilah, his strength be enervated, but his locks shall grow again, his strength shall return. Jordan may not fill her banks every morning, yet the tide will come. There is an hour when John does not stir in the womb, he shall spring at the approach of Jesus. God never began a building but he finished it, Luke xiv. 30. Man often fails to perfect his undertakings, either through former ignorance or want of future ability ; process of time may teach him that the founda- tion was not good, the model not convenient ; there is a Tobiah or San- ballat, sickness or poverty, to hinder him. But God can neither be wiser at the second thought, nor weaker in the conclusion. Faith is like the daisy (so called quasi day's-eye), that sets with the sun and opens with his rising ; her condition being according to that planet's motion. If that ' Sun of righteousness ' goes beneath the globe, faith hangs its head, closeth itself, contracts its leaves ; but, having fetched his cu-cumference, and rising in her hemisphere with the beams of his shining and wanning mercy, faith dilates itself, sprouts, and sends forth a pleasant odour. ' The damsel is not dead, but sleepeth,' Mark v. 39. Yet our best course is to prevent this slumber ; he is a dull servant that falls asleep at his work ; let us be doing good works, this shall keep our faith waking. Fifthly, Let us continually be nourishing our faith, that it may thrive and grow in us. The flesh hath not more need of repast and recreations than the soul hath of her cheerings. Draw in the sweet air of God's precious promises ; this will breed excellent blood and cheerful spirits. Feed upon that heavenly nectar, make it thine owti, as the body doth meat by con- coction, that it may disperse itself through all the veins of the soul. Think of that promise which cancels all thy debts ; how sweet a thing it is to have God's anger appeased, his infinite justice satisfied, thy innumerable sins pardoned ; that neither death nor hell need be feared, as being utterly un- able to separate thee from Christ ; that spite of all temptations thou shalt stand, that thy condition is not changeable ; that thou art now the son of grace and the heir of glory. These be the high and stately things that be- long to thee, who belongest to Christ. Our Paschal Lamb is slain, all the days of our life be holy days, the true manna that shall presei^ve us alive for ever is set on our tables ; who can have such cause to be merry V Do we complain that we want something which the world hath ? Why, we have that which the world shall never have. Are we loth to trust God longer than he comes to us with a full hand, as the usurer will not trust the man but the pawn ? This is to live by sense, not by faith. There is not the least promise made in the blessed gospel, but the behever will live more comfortably by it, than if all the monarchs of the world had commanded 96 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. the most puissant of their kingdoms for his sustentation. ' So God loved the world, that he gave,' &c., John iii. 16. Let me take my ovm dinner out of this feast, a portion for mj^self out of this infinite treasm-e, leaving nevertheless for others ; I am satisfied, abundantly satisfied, and there re- mains nothing, but that I hasten to make an end of sin and long for glory. If we would maintam a healthful temper of the body, we must keep the pores, veins, arteries, and such passages clear and free from colds and ob- structions, as physicians tell us. So faith must be kept clear and void of drowsy oppilations, that the Spirit may have the freer passage and scope for motion and action ; he that is asthmatical, narrow-breathed in his faith, cannot but be lumpish and melancholy. To believe in God is the best physic for all diseases, the best diet to keep the conscience in everlasting health. Our assurance of blessedness must not make us careless of helps ; the husbandman believes his ground will yield him a good crop, yet he neglects no tillage. The merchant hopes for a prosperous voyage, yet he is shy of rocks and pu-ates. The hope of a good end encourageth all pro- ceedings ; we that have such a prize in our hands, God forbid there should want a cheerful forwardness in our hearts. I believe in God. — I come now to the object of our faith — God : described here by his name, number, nature, distinction. 1. Name. It is impossible that any name should express the nature of God. If the heaven of heavens cannot contain him, for he contains them, how should four letters and two syllables comprehend him ? * How can an infinite being be signified by a limited name ? If all the earth were paper, all the sea ink, and eveiy plant a pen ; or were the heaven parch- ment, the air ink, and every star a pen, and every living creature a ready writer, yet could not the least part of his immenseness be set down. Yet will he be called, and called upon, by this revealed title, ' God.' I believe in God, that infinite power, which no word, no world, can contain. 2. Number; only singular, God, not gods. Plui-ahty of gods was the error of gentilism, and such an opinion as the wiser sort made themselves merry withal. Dens, si non wins, nuUus.\ The bees have but one king, the flocks but one leader, the heavens but one sun ; one kingdom could not hold Romulus and Remus, though one womb did. The whole world hath but one governor. If there were more gods than one, then singly and apart each must have less strength, so much being wanting to one, as the rest had gleaned from him. Therefore he hath no name, because he is but one, and the proper use of a name is for distinction from others. Now if but one God, then but one religion : one God in the first precept, and presently one rehgion in the next. One in the law till Chi-ist came ; one in the gospel when he came. Those former St Paul calls ' beggarly elements,' Gal, iv. 9 ; the fii'st letters of the book to school the people of God. When the fulness of time brought Christ, and Christ brought with him the fulness of knowledge ; these last true riches make the other beg- garly. Now if Paul could not endure Christ and Moses together, how would he endure Christ and Belial together ? One king we have, and long may we have ; not here the Solomon of England, and there the Jeroboam of Rome. One church, whose motherhood may we all embrace ; not here the Sarah of Christ, and there the Hagar of antichrist ; here a kind mother, there a bloody stepdame. One gospel, and long may we have it ; not here the written verity, there unwritten vanities ; not human tradition blended with the divine canon. One religion, and no more ; not here Christ's temple, • Aug. t Tcrtiil. MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. 97 and tlicre the idols of Babel, the synagogue of superstitious Baalites, at next door to the communion of saints. One faith, and may we all pre- serve it, for it preserves us; not here the merits of Jesus, and there the relics of Jesuits. One way, one truth, one life, without which we err, we lie, we die ; which keeping, we go right, we believe right, and shall live for ever. How should the unity of the Spirit, and vanity of the flesh, ever accord ? ' One body, one spirit, one hope of our calling, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in us all,' Eph. iv. 4. 3. Nature. — If we could fully understand the nature of God, we might as well give him a name ; we can do neither. God is an essence spiritual, simple, infinite, most holy. (1.) An essence subsisting in himself, and by himself; not receiving it from any other; all other things subsist in him and by him ; ' in him we hve, move, and have our being.' (2.) Spiritual : he hath not a body, nor any parts of a body, but is a spirit, invisible, indi- visible. (3.) Simple, we are all compounded ; God is without composition of matter, fonn, or parts. (4.) Infinite; and that in respect, [1.] of time, without beginning or ending. [2.] Of place, excluded nowhere, included nowhere ; within all places, without all places. (5.) Most holy ; his ■v\'is- dom, goodness, mercy, love, are infinite. Divers men and angels are called holy, wise, merciful; hut, ^rirst, they are so made by him, it is his holiness that is in them, and they are but holy and good in their measure, in the concrete ; God is holiness itself in the abstract ; secondly, The creature is one thing, and the holiness of the creature is another thing, but God's holi- ness is himself, it is his nature. Thus much our narrow capacity may con- ceive of him ; but this sea is too deep for men or angels to sound. Only, if such we believe him, let us strive to be like him — holy, good, merciful ; this is to ' partake of the divine natm-e,' Heb. xii. 10. Scrutan temeritas, linitari p'letas est. 4. Distinction. — This title, God, is not proper to the first person only, but common to the rest. Such is the order of the creed ; first, generally, in the forefi'ont, to propound God, and then to distinguish him into three sub- sistences— Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They are three in persons, not in nature ; one in natui'e, not in persons. Nature may be common to many ; as humanity, the nature of man, is common to all mankind. Person is some incommunicable and individual thing subsisting by itself; as Peter is a man by himself, and Paul a man by himself specifically. Either is a man in unity of nature, but Peter is not Paul, nor is Paid Peter, in unity of person. Let us conceive tkree persons in one essence, not divided but distin- guished, and yet not more mingled than di\ided. Think of one substance in three subsistences, one essence in three relations ; one Jehovah, begetting, begotten, and proceeding — Father, Son, Spirit. The path is narrow, we must walk warily ; the conceit either of three substances, or of one subsist- ence, is damnable. Many men may have the same nature in specie, but they cannot have it in numern, because they are created quantities, therefore separable. So Peter, Paul, John, have one universal form, yet are not one man, but three men. But the divine nature being infinite, admitting nei- ther composition nor di^-ision, tlu-eo persons may subsist in it, yet they are not thi"ee gods, but one God. The light of the sun, the light of the moon, and the hght of the air, are for nature and substance, one and the same light, yet are they also three distinct hghts. The Hght of the sun being of itself, and from none ; the hght of the moon from the sun ; and the light of the air fi-om them both. But here only we can adore, and not conceive, we VOL. ni. G 98 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. may conceive and not utter, we may utter and not be understood. Now this point is useful. First, For the direction of our faith. We are bound to beUeve one God in three persons, but there can be no fiiith of a thing utterly unknown. If barely to say, ' I believe in God,' were sufficient to save, heaven would be fuller than it is like to be. But this is a strait gate, and few enter. Learn, therefore, to know that you may believe ; to believe, that you may be saved. This binds us to believe the first person of the Deity to be our Father, the second to be our Saviour, the third to be our Sanctiiier ; if we know not what they do for us, our confession is a confusion. Secondly, For the direction of our worship. The Trinity in unity, the Unity in trinity, is to be worshipped. He that shall adore one person, with- out the rest, worships an idol, John iv. 22. K we worship all three, and not as one God, we make three idols. If we frame to ourselves another form than God prescribes, we worship not him but ourselves. They that wait on the king know the special forms and terms of honouring him ; all his subjects know that he is to be honoured, that reverence, obedience, and love is due to him ; and that is a disloyal unmanuerliness which denies humble obeisance to so great a majesty. But, if the king make special laws, prescribing the form of his honour, every subject is bound to know that. Ignorantia juris will excuse no man, for he is bound to take notice. God hath set down the manner, and defined the honour, which he will have, and how ; to this we are all obliged, and must observe it. Tkirdhj, For the direction of our prayers. We must not call upon one person, and leave out the rest, as the Jews do on the Father, denying the Son. May we not pray to one person? Yes, safely and comfortably, if we include the rest. While we fix our heart upon one, and shut out the other, our prayer is sin ; let us mention one, and retain all, we oft'end not. None of them doth aught for us without the rest ; all their outward works are common. Therefore, to beg of one, and not of all, is injurious. Here let us be sure to take oui- Mediator with us, otherwise we go to the throne of grace without comfort ; in whom we must conceive a true man- hood gloriously united to the Godhead, without change of either nature, without mixture of both. As in the Deity we conceive three persons and one nature, so in Christ two natures and one person. These apprehensions we must so sever that none be neglected, and so conjoin that they be not confounded. These be mysteries, yet in some measure leai-nable ; great depths, yet we may safely wade in them'. Yea, this high knowledge is necessary ; and he that hath it not may babble, he doth not pray. Think of the man Christ, but without separation of the Godhead united, whose presence and merits give the only passage, acceptance, vigour to our prayers. In him let us send them up to the glorious Trmity, beg mercy of the Father for his Son's sake, beg sanctity of the Holy Ghost for Christ's sake, beg mercy of Christ for his own sake ; petition for all good things to all the three persons, but dare not to ask of any without the mediation of Jesus. The least glimpse of this knowledge is worth all the beams of secular skill ; the gleanings of this irradiation better than the vintage of the whole world. Let us study to conceive aright, that we may pray aright ; and pray, that we may conceive; and meditate, that we may do both; and that God we believe in direct us, enable us, that we may do all ! The first person is described. 1. By his title, ' The Father.' 2. By his attribute, ' Almighty.' 3. By his efiect, ' Maker of heaven and earth.' 1. The Father. — I3ut doth not this seem to give the first person some prero- MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 99 gative above the rest, being set before the rest? Answ. He is indeed first, not in priority of nature, for there is but one God, one infinite ; nor in priority of time, for there is but one eternal ; nor in priority of honour, for none is gi'eater than another; but in respect of order, prioritate orujlim,-' as being the fountain of the Deity, jiriiicijjium Deifati'i.f The Father is of none, the Son is of the Father only, the Holy Ghost from them both. So they are distinguished, John xv. 26. Suppose three kings, equal in royalty, all God's immediate lieutenants, met in one place. They cannot all sit do\vn first, but one in the fii'st place, &c. Yet we cannot say he that sat first is the chiefest. Seeing we must name them all, in order we begin with the Father. But still let me adore simply, not explore subtlely, this won- derful mystery. ' Father ' is a relative term, Paternitas supjMnit fiUatinnetn, Mai. i. 6. This is sometimes understood of the whole Trinity. So Adam is said to be ' the son of God,' Luke iii. 38. * Call no man father on earth, for one is 3'our father in heaven,' Matt, xxiii. 9. We have indeed earthly parents, but God is our Father originally, Mai. ii. 10, man organically ; God the Father of our spirits, man only of om* flesh, and he receives this honour from God. Sometimes it is given to Christ, Isa. ix. 6 ; Pater ceteniitatis, ' the everlasting Father.' Heb. ii. 13. The Son of God is the father of man, as a man may be at once the son of a father and the father of a son. ' The Father,' in a double relation: to Christ and to us. — God hath on*^ Son by generation, many by regeneration, innumerable by creation. (1.) In respect of Christ, who is his Son, naturally, singularly, consub- etantially, coeternally. Therefore, it is the incommunicable propriety of the first person to beget ; in this he is distinguished from the other two. Creatures do, indeed, also beget, but with a gi-eat diflerence. In created generations the father is before the son in time, but here the Father begets from all eternity; so both the begetter and begotten are coequal, coeval, in respect of time. God the Father begets God the Son by communicating his whole essence to him. No created father begets so. Adam did not convey his whole essence to his son, for then there must have been an abolition of himself, the generation of one being the corruption of another. But God doth give the whole essence, and yet retain it, being infinite. Man be- getting, is forth of the child begotten, and the child is forth of the father; so they are two men. But God the Father begets the Son in himself, not forth of himself, so both persons are still one God. But if they be one nature, then the Father begetting the Son begets himself. Answ. The godhead of the Father begets not the godhead of the Son, but the person of the Father begets the person of the Son ; both which are several and dis- tinct persons in one Deity. (2.) In respect of us. — God is the Father of Christ by nature, of angels by election, of all men by creation, of all magistrates by deputation, of all Christians by profession, of all saints by adoption. ' I ascend to my Father, and your Father,' saith Christ, John xx. 17; not Nostnan, but Meum, etvestnim: aliter meum, aliter vest rum: metim nntura, vestrum gratia.\ Father of the angels. Job i. 6, Ps. Ixxxix. 6. These be the eldest of the created sons. Father of all men, Acts svii. 28; making our bodies by natural and mediate generation, forming our souls by immediate infusion, Heb. xii. 9. Father of magistrates; they are called the ' sons of the most High,' Ps. Ixxxii. 6. Saul as a man might be the son of Belial, but Saul as a king was the son of God. Father of all Christians by profession, * Aquiu. t Aug. J Aug. 100 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CHEED. 1 Pet. i. 17. Father of all the elect, by adoption, Rom. viii. 15; so that now we love him, not for fear, but we fear him for his love. Thus he is our Father. Bj redemption, Col. i. 12, Ps. xxv. 22 : 'Is not he thy Father that bought thee?' Deut. xxxii. 6. By education : he both broughl us into the world, and hath brought us up in the world. For sanctification : * Is not he our Father that sanctifies us?' Isa. i. 2. For instruction. Matt. X. 20: ' The Spirit of your Father shall speak in you.' In com- passion: 'As a father pities his children,' Ps. ciii. 13. In correction: thus * he deals with us as with sons,' Heb. xii. 7. Lastly, for salvation: * Come, ye blessed of my Father,' &c. Yea, Luke xii. 32, ' It is your Father's will to give you the kingdom.' Thus he is our Father. We have other fathers, but God is the Father of our fathers ; we have instrumental fathers, this is our original and fundamental Father. Child, in the Hebrew, often signifies no more but a transcendency : as the ' child of wrath,' ' children of death,' ' sons of perdition,' Ephes. ii. 2, deep in hell's books. Filii contumacice, given to disobedience. ' The child of hell,' Matt, sxiii. 15. * The sons of death,' 1 Sam. xxvi. 16, Ps. Ixxix. 11, Filii mortis, pro morti destinatis. ' Children of this world,' Luke x\'i. 8. for suc"h as are addicted to this world. Or, Luke xx. 34, filii seadi, for such as live according to the custom of the world. ' Children of Belial,' * children of the devil,' for such as practise the works of the devil. Gen. v. 32, Filius quinfjentomm anno rum ; how old soever in Hebrew, they are called sons. The wicked man belongs not to the fatherhood of God; there- fore, he hath many parents, as a bastard is called filius jMjndi. The saints, indeed, have many filial titles, but all in relation to God. Filii lucis, Job xii. 30, ' children of the hght,' because God is the light. Filii pads, Luke x. 6, ' sons of peace,' because God is peace. Filii sapientice, Matt. xi. 19, ' children of wisdom,' because God is wisdom. Filii regni, both for outward profession and inward condition, ' children of the king- dom,' Matt. viii. 12, xiii. 38, because y?7« regis, children of the king, heirs of the kingdom. Filii promissionis. Gal. iv. 28, ' children of promise,' because God hath covenanted to be their Father; it is paternum J'vedm. Filii thai ami. Matt. ix. 15, ' children of the bridechamber,' such as the bridegroom shall admit to his glorious nuptials. ' Children of the resm'- rection,' Luke xx. 36, because in the resurrection this Father shall acknow- ledge them for his own children. The magistrate is a civil father, 2 Engs v. 23. ' Kings shall be nursing fathers,' Isa. xlix. 23. Honour thy father, reverence the magistrate. The minister is a spiritual father, 1 Cor. iv. 15; Gal. iv. 19; Philem. ver. 10. lie is a mean, but God is the main in this adoption. Christ is om* ' elder brother,' Rom. viii. 29 ; yet also our father. Such was the pre-eminence of buihright, both mider nature and the law, that the first-born son was the head of the family ; bore the name, sustained the place, exercised the office of a father, to the governing and even blessing of his younger breth- ren. Now, if primogeniture had such a privilege and precedency, by the rules of justice, among children of the same generation, much more may orir Saviom- challenge it by a higher right and title. Non iimuit habere coliai- redes,*- because his inheritance is not abridged by the multitude of possessors. But why would God have more children, seeing that one Son is sufficient for his delight, and in him alone he is well pleased ? Ans. He needed them not for any completion of his own happiness, it being infinite and incapable of augmentation ; but he doth it for the communication of his * Aug. MEDITATIONS UI'ON THE CREED. 101 mercy, and manifestion of lais glory. Christ is his Son by an eternal generation, not made, but begotten ; a Son by nature, whereof all adoption is but an imitation, as the civil law speaks. It is a prerogative case, that a father, having a natural son, may not assume a legal, adopted, or sup- ported son, because this latter help was invented and intended only for eolace of the father's ban-enness, or a supply in regard of the chilch-en's mortality. ' Lord, what wilt thou give me, seeing I go childless ? and the steward of my house is this Eliezer of Damascus,' Gen. xv. 2. As if Eliezer should be Abraham's heir ; for lack of a natural, an adopted son. But this is a mortal and barren help. Had the day of our conception never dawned, and the morning of our adoption never come, God might well have spared us ; he knew how to be happy without us. Before moun- tains or fountains, hills or depths, had any being, God was delighted in wisdom, his own Son ; yet withal, he graciously adds, ' My pleasure was in the sons of men,' Prov. viii. 30. This was not to close up our Creator's defects, or to fmiiish his scarcitj^, but to communicate his perfection and abundance. Such was his infinite mercy, that when he could have been glorious enough without us, yet he did adopt us. Neither was the principal heir against this adoption, not gnidging that more beside himself should call God Father. But as the whole store of Eg3^t came thi-ough the hand of Joseph, so the whole largess of all heavenly blessings to mankind, came through the hands of Christ. Jacob's family had perished by famine, but for Joseph : the family of the whole world had been lost, but for Jesus. God hath ' chosen us and adopted us in him,' Eph. i. 3, 4. Though his decrees are before all times, eternal ; yet some men, according to the received process and succession of causes here, have guessed at the manner and order of this election ; concluding Christ as the fu'st oftect of God's ordination, a mediator, in some sort, of God's actual choice, and our potential childship. But nan refert did, quod non confert disci: God hath abstracted it, and no contemplation of man can reach it. Let the matter of our study be, not how he hath chosen us, but whether he hath chosen us ; not so much to inquire the reconciliation of mercy and justice in our heavenly Father's counsel, as in our heavenly Father's covenant. Let us be delighted with the prophetical declaration, more with the real exhibition, most of all in the experimental application of our common Saviour. Through all passages we find no acceptation, but ' in the Beloved,' Eph. i. 6 ; Gal. iii. 26. This faith hath its beginnmg from the Spirit of Christ, that eternal Father within us ; and apprehends the merit of Christ, the righteousness of that Father without us ; at which instant we become actual childi'en, and cvj, Abba ! Father. To make all this useful to ourselves, here first occur- the comforts this title gives us, then the duties it requires of us. Comfort 1. The honour of having such a Father, 1 John iii. 1. How high is this dignity ! ' To be called the sons of God,' John i. 12 : this is our prerogative royal. We tell you not of a kindred imperial, adopted into some of the Caesars' families, nor of David matching into the house of Saul, which seemed to him no small preferment ; we blazon not your arms with the mixture of noble ingi-essions, nor fetch your lineal descents from heroes and monarchs. As in the contention between Mary and Jane, the gentle- men of Oxfordshire came to the university for counsel in that title ; but were answered, that they had many excellent arts and mysteries, but the study of heraldry was not practised among them. Only as Peter said, ' Silver and gold I have none, but what I have, I give,' Acts iii, 6 ; 102 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. SO, what we know we declare. Do you ask no more : you need no more. To be made the sons and daughters of God, is honour amply sufficient. This dignity will appear greater, if you remember the pit from whence you were digged. We were not only dust in our inception, and ashes in our dissolution, but far worse : our father w^is an Hittite, the swarthy king of heU ; oui" mother an Amorite, leprous and loathsome sin ; desperately forlorn, cast into the wilderness ; a sordid skin, and no clothes to hide it : exposed to the rage of hellish monsters, more ravenous than the wolves ot the evening : antequam nati, damuati ; adjudged to captivity before our nati^dty ; benighted in ignorance before ever we saw the sun ; Satan's prisoners, whom he purposed to bind in everlasting chains of blackness. We have read of hopeless foundlings entertained by mu-acle, as young Cyrus in a shepherd's house, a cottage not much above the ground ; no likelihood of high promotion there, yet exalted to a kingdom. Of Moses among the bulrushes, taken up to be the son of Pharaoh's daughter. Of Da-^-id, from the sheepfolds advanced to a monarchy. But no example holds proportion with this : it is of Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi, the bastard fruits of fornication, we speak, Hos. i. 8 ; that these should be fetched from accursed thi'aldom, and estated in the glorious liberty of the sons of God ; this transcends all admii-ation. That the Jews, those elder sons, for whom God had done so many miracles, should be rejected; the lost angels for ever disinherited, and we wild brambles adopted : 0 let all thoughts be held digressions, all occmTents and meditations superfluous, that serve not to remember us of this ineffable and inestimable mercy. Comfort 2. This assures us that we shall never fall into destruction, for there is no mutability in this our Father. If now sons, sons for ever. Kec morihus nostris convenit filiuni habere temporalejii, could man's law say. This is an inheritance too glorious for a man of polluted lips to describe ; no study can comprehend it, no pulpit deliver it, no university teach it, but that one university of heaven. Deo et imreuti noii redditur cequiva- lens : none but an ostrich will leave her eggs to the sun above, and to the sand below, forgetting the foot of a beast or passenger to frustrate her hopes. But God's affection is always dear and indefatigable, which Saint Bernard compares to the most tender mothers, springing up similitudes, aa the falconer doth partridges ; and yet all short, as no natm-al parent can afford her brood such heat, such motion, such nourishment, as God doth. Many neglects doth the good father pardon, without averting his love from his child. Absalom is up in arms against his own father ; Da^dd musters his troops too ; but as he encom-agoth them with his eye, so he restrains them with his tongue : ' Deal gently with the young man Absalom, for my sake.' 0 how favourable be the wars of a father ! But this seems to be unjust mercy, deal gently with a traitor ; of all traitors, with a son; of all sons, -with an Absalom: so bad a son of so good a father: one that himts for his blood and crown. For whose cause should Absalom be pm-sued, if he be forborne for David's ? He was com-teous to others, plausible to aU the people, only crael to David. He was not sure of the success ; the number was unequal. Absalom's forces doubled his, so that he might have been driven to sa}'. Deal gently with Absalom's father. Yet, squaring the greatness of his hopes by the goodness of his cause, and granting himself the victoiy, he commands pity to the conspirator. A messenger comes. David's first question is, not how fares the host, but MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 103 how fares Absaiom. Cusbi resolves him. How is he thunder-struck with the word ! As if he were at once bereft of all comfort, and not cared to live but in the name of Absalom, he goes weeping, and crying, 0 Absalom, my son, &c., 2 Sam. x-\iii. 33. Israel prized his life dear, worth ten thousand of theirs, yet ho wisheth it exchanged for a traitor's — ' Would God I had died for thee ! ' Absalom conspired against the Ufe of David, yet David would give his life to reprieve Absalom, Here was the love of a father, which I instance as the shadow of that unmeasurable mercy which the true King and Redeemer of Israel bears to his children. Thus have we Christ praying for his murderers, even while they were scorning him, killing him : ' Father, forgive them, they know not what they do.' If we be sons, we are ungracious, we are rebellious sons ; yet still doth our heavenly Father compassionate us. God needs not seek occasion against us ; every moment v\-e provoke and deserve his wi-ath : just cause he hath to sentence us, ' Let them perish.' Yet still he forbears us, gives us life and motion ; yea, even that power which we abuse to dishonour him, StiU he chargeth his celestial armies, the blessed angels, ' Deal gently with my children.' While we lift up our arms against heaven, they lift up their arms to support us : they bear us in their bosoms, as mothers do their curst children, that scratch their breasts. Unkindly we deal with him, pillage his chui'ch, defraud his members, dishonour his name ; yet so kind is he, that he chargeth all crcatui-es to spare us. Yea, even when we would not spare ourselves, he hinders us : as the nurse binds the hands of the umnily child, when it would do "^aolence to its own face ; speaking to us, as Paul to the jailor, * Do thyself no harm,' Acts xvi, 28. Here is a paternal mercy, past the comprehension of all finite capacities, A near resemblance of it was that of David, the deputy and type of Christ : ' Deal kindly with my son Absalom ;' ' would God I had died for thee, 0 Absalom, my son.' But how far greater was the love of our Saviour, who said of us wretched traitors, not, Would God I had died for you; but, I will die, I do die, I have died for you. Oh ! lova like himself, infinite ! whereat the angels stand yet amazed, wherewith the saints are ravished. So grievous are our faults, that were the Lord other than a father, how could he pardon us ? And, being a father, he must needs be angiy with us ; but because he is a father, he will not disinherit us. A temporal father is loath to part with his mortal child ; how will the Shunamite weep for her son ? yet parents are but the nurses of their children, God is the father ; and may not the father at his pleasiure send for the child fi'om nui'se ? Perhaps the milk of our breasts is not wholesome, our counsel is not good ; the air is infectious, this world is baneful ; or we would bring them up ill ; therefore death is the father's messenger to fetch them home. We would not forego them, but we must ; God loves them better than we ; loves us better than we can love them : he is able to keep both us and them, John x. 29. Here let us still remember, that all the love of the Father to us is in and by our Elder Brother, Christ, ' the Beloved,' ' the Son of his love.' God loved others : he loved Abel, held his blood precious ; he loved Enoch, translating him to himself; he loved Abraham, whom he called his fi'iend ; he loved Jacob, loved him before he was, gave him the blessing ; he loved Joseph, prospered him in every place — all Egypt, all his brethren, witness it ; he loved Moses, called him his faithful servant ; he loA'ed Noah, saving him from that general destruction ; he loved David, choosing him from the folds : loved Samuel, selected him from a child ; he loved Solomon, 104 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. gave him wisdom ; loved Daniel, that man of desires ; loved Elijah, fetching him up to heaven ; he loved Josiah, praising him for an incompai'able prince ; loved Mar}', the blessed Virgin, ' she found favour in his eyes.' Christ loved Lazarus, vrept for him ; loved John, suffering him to lean on his breast ; loved Paul, whom he rapt up to paradise. God loveth us, loveth others, loves his whole chm'ch, loves infinite thousands ; but all these * in the beloved,' Jesus Christ. Comfort 3. Toleration of wants. The good father doth not turn off thq child for being weak and sickly ; but is so much the more indulgent, as \i\i- necessity requires succoiir. If his stomach refuse meat, or cannot answer it with digestion, will he put him out of doors ? No ; when the Shuna:nite's son complains of his head, she lays him in her bosom. A mother is good to all the fruits of her womb, most kind to the sick infant ; when it lies with its eyes fixed on her, not able to declare its grief, or to call for what it desires, this doubles her compassion : ' So the Lord doth pity us, re- membering our fi-ame, considering that we are but dust,' Ps. ciii. 14 ; that our ijoul works by a lame instrument ; and therefore requires not that of an elemental composition, which he doth of angelical spirits. The son is commanded to write out such a copy fairly ; he doth his best, far short of the original ; yet the father doth not chide, but encourage him. Or he gives him a bow and arrows, bids him shoot to such a mark ; he draws his utmost strength, lets go cheerfully ; the arrow di-ops far short, yet the son is praised, the father pleased. Or being sent of an errand, he falls by the way, is hindered by the insinuation of bad company : temptation assaults us, lust buffets us, secular business diverts us, manifold is our weakness, but not beyond our Father's forgiveness : ' He will spare us, as a man spareth his son that serveth him,' Mai. iii. 17. Comfort 4. Supportation of infirmities. Our Father's strength is made glorious in our weakness. Matt, xviii. 14. Patris voluntas, fi Hi, validitas.-'- Thus we are taught in the first words of that prayer compiled by Wisdom itself, ' Our Father,' admonens adoptionis dlvinm; ' which art in heaven,' 2)eregrmatio)us humamc. That we may both know we need help, as pil- grims on earth from God in heaven ; and conceive trust or hope of that help because he is our Father. There is in him, 1, Skill; an omniscient Father, that ' knows what things we have need of, before we ask him,' Matt. vi. 8. Thy natural father will repair the wants he knows (1 Tim. V. 8), God knows before we declare them. 2, Will, because he is a Father ; every one wisheth well to his own. 3, Power, because he is in heaven ; ' ask, and it shall be given you,' Matt. vii. 7 ; because he is a Father, om* Father, our Father in heaven. We are full of want and woe ; there is pity and plenty with our Father. This was the fii'st consideration of that retm-ning unthrift, ' In my father's house there is bread enough, and to spare,' Luke xv. 17 ; the sense whereof taught him so devout a humilia- tion, ' Father, I have sinned.' Oratio sine maJis, c-J quasi avis sine alis. The child, finding itself too weak to go alone, puts forth a hand to the waU to stay it. We are too feeble for the encounters of Satan, we have a Father strong enough : ' Kis grace is sufficient for us.' The wronged child stands not to right itself; but resolves, I will tell my father, Exod. xiv. 14. Is the world and the flesh too hard for us ? let us tell our Father. This should comfort us in aU our sufleriugs, Paier ridet, Ps. xxxiv. 15. Will David undertake that monstrous giant ? Ehab will soon snib him for it : Get thee home, fooUsh stripling, to thy hook, to thy harp ; * Bern. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. 105 let swords alone to thcra that can use them. Saul looked for one as much higher than himself, as he was taller than the rest ; for some stem face and brawny arm ; young ruddy David was so far below his thoughts, that he receives contempt instead of thanks. But he hath leave to go, not with Saul's annour, but with God's ; with no sword but that of the Spirit, faith. All Israel looks on him wdth pity and fear ; why is this comely young man suffered to cast away himself upon such a monster ? w^hj^ is the honour of Israel hazarded upon so unlikely a combatant ? The Philistine looks on him with scorn ; * Am I a dog, that thou comest to me with staves ? ' After all this insolence and ostentation, hear David's reply : ' Thou comest to me with a sword, spear, and shield ; but I come to thee in the name of the Lord of hosts,' 1 Sam. xvii. 45. I am indeed weak, but he in whose name I come is potent enough. Thou hast defied the host of God, and the God of hosts. This God fights against thee by my hand ; he is able to revenge his own cause. With one stone he confounds him : there lies the Philistian champion, and the terror of Israel, at the foot of a shepherd. He that considers httle David grappling with great Goliath, and great Goliath gi'ovelling under little David, must confess that we have a Father able to deliver us. Comfort 5. Admission into his presence. Without fear the good child may come to his kind father. First, there is a persuasion in our hearts that he is our Father; then a petition in our mouths for supply of wants, or pardon of sins, or deliverance from perils. That which faith generally believes, prayer particularly begs. We believe in our Father, abihty to give, never denying ; wisdom to give, never repenting ; goodness to give, never up- braiding. This makes us ciy, not speak softly, as in fear, but loud, as in assurance. "When the king hath promised a boon, the subject comes with special security into the presence. Are we laden with sin, and would be eased ? privy to imperfections, and would have them supplied ? Do wo fear some judgment, and would be secured ? are we haunted with a temp- tation, and would be quitted ? full of thankfulness, and would be delivered ? We have the warrant of a Father, Pray, and be comforted. But let us beware of sin, that wall make us run away from our Father, and hide ourselves. If w^e deHght in sin, God will not delight in our prayers. He doth not hear malicious and deliberate simiers, Ps. Ixvi. 18, John ix. 31. It is a high privilege to come into the presence chamber of a mortal king, and not seldom even great men want this prerogative. Yet the king's son may have fi'ee entrance ; no sex'vant dares deny the son. Neither have we access only to the throne of grace, but even of glory ; oui" prayers go before, ourselves shaU follow. If he admit our petitions, he will not deny our persons. The king gladly receives a letter from his absent son, how joyfully will he entertain himself? Why should we fear to die, that may commend our souls into the hands of a gi'acious father ? Luke xxiii. 46. No obedient child fears that messenger, how grim soever he looks, that he knows will bring him to his loving father. Comfort 6. Provision of all good things. It is part of the father's duty to provide for the family. Parents lay up for their children, not childi-en for their parents. Shall God be defective in that he requires of us ? Quid jiater negabit JlUis, qui hoc dir/uatus est, tit sit pater ? Many be our necessary wants, besides those imaginary ones which we make to ourselves. Thou art rich, and complainest the want of children. Thou hast a Father. ' In- stead of thy fathers, thou shalt have children' (Ps. xlv. 16), was but a tem- poral blessing ; but instead of children thou hast a Father : this is a spiritual 106 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. blessing. Cannot this content thee ? Is not this Father ' better to thee than ten sons ? ' as Elkanah said to Hannah, 1 Sam. i. 8. Children may be unkmd, vexations instead of comforts. There is unchangeable compas- sion in this Father. King Edward the First, hearing the news at one time of the death both of his father and of his son, lamented more for his father, giving this reason : I may have more sons, I can have no more fathers. When the case stood so with Abraham : I mnst either kill my only son or disobey my heavenly Father ; though the conflict were gi-ievous between natm'al affection and faithful obedience, he prefers his Father. How far unhke to those that, to content a child's humour, will displease an almighty Father ! Doth the world throw contempt upon us ? ' It is our Father's will to give us a kingdom,' Luke xii. 32. Bene feiiur calumnia, cum acquiritur corona. That celestial royalty makes large amends for all. Do we want riches ? Pater novit, ' our heavenly Father knows that we have need of these things,' Matt. vi. 32. Non dnlitetis affectum, j^ater est; non diihitetis cffectmn, novit quod indigetis.-f ' If ye, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will j'our heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him?' Matt. vii. 11, where is a threefold compari- son, 1. Dantis ad dantcm, betwixt the givers. God hath the better store. Man gives and wants. God's treasury hath never the less. Who would travel far to a broken cistern, that dwells at next door to the fountain ? 2. Eecipientis ad recipientem, betwixt the receivers. Grant that Jacob loves Joseph dearly, Benjamin dearer, yet God loves them both better, and bet- ter provides for them. 3. Dati ad datum, betwixt the gifts. Corporal things maintain but a corruptible life, spirituals preserve an incorruptible soul. Confer on thy son never so many honours, manors, jewels, orna- ments, yet he shall die. Our Father gives that shall keep us alive for ever. Pater est, ergo vult ; in ccelis est, crcjo potest. \ Our 'Father,' to signify his mercy;' 'in heaven,' to declare his all-sufficiency. Non denegahit petentibus sua, qui sponte obtulit non p)etentihus sc. Some children are sick of their father, longing when his testament shall be ratified by his death, that they may be fingering the legacies. But let us affect patrem rather than patrimonium, not so much desiring heaven itself, as the glorious presence of oiu' Father there. Dcus dahit se et sua, petentibus se plus quam sua. God will give himself and his riches to those that seek himself above his riches. They are extremely covetous whom that infinite Deity cannot content. This is om' happy supply of comfort by om- Father : for our impotency we have his omnipotency ; for our transgi'cssion his pardon ; for our miseiy his mercy ; for our affliction his compassion ; for our weakness his might ; for our indigence his indulgence ; for contempt in the world content in the Lord. Therefore let us sing, ' Blessed be God, the Father of mercies, and the God of all consolation,' 2 Cor. i. 3. Now, as this title gives dignity, so it requu-es duty. Many are content, that as a father he should bless them, but not as a father command them. They love to be of the taking hand, but will part with nothing. But we must serve him Uke morigerous children, that he may do us good as a gra- cious Father. Duty 1. We must be ' led by his Spirit.' This is one proof that we ai-e his children, Rom. viii. 14. Seeing this paternity is the foundation of all hope for what we want, of all continuance of that we have, it is good to be sure of it. Now God, as it is said of Adam, begets no children, but ' in his own likeness.' Generation doth not more than regeneration, eflectuate a * Clirys. t -"^ug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CT.KED. 107 similitude of the child to the parent. Wc commonly know younjr ones, whoso children they arc, hj then* complexion and condition. Such a blood and such a spirit moves in their veins. When God calls for his sons, I make no doubt but the devil himself will appear. Job i. G ; and I fear, among those that profess and call God father, he will find many of his own children, John viii. 44. Some come into the congi-egation of God's childi-en, either in a sullen humour, as Cato was supposed to step into the theatre, merely that he might step out again ; or in a bravery, as men make appearance at a muster, to shew theii* fui-nitui'e and feathers, and flash off a little powder ; or for company, like geese to the capitol. There is an humble heart and a teachable spu-it ; this is rare to find. If we be not led by the Spmt of our Father, what assui-ance have wc that we are not bastards ? Dutij 2. Let us be humbled for oui- natui-al condition, and strive for this spiritual adoption. We had a worse fatherhood than that of con-uption. Job xvii. 14. No child is so like its father as a man by nature is hke Satan, in his thoughts, desires, delights. None of us can endm-e the ex- probration of a base parentage. Yet, if men's works be devilish, Christ's censui'e holds ; and to be the son of a hangman, of an harlot, is honour to it. Our Romish neighbours talk much of their miracles ; but all present wonders shall lose the reputation of strangeness, would you bless our eyes with this miracle, to see aU become the holy children of a heavenly Father. The earth shall be filled with admiration, hell vrith distraction, heaven with acclamation, the church with exultation, eveiy good heart with gladness, every iU one with madness, all with amazed looks, at such a con- version. Is the former Saul joined with the prophets ? the latter Saul with the apostles ? Do the children of Nimrod, hunters and oppressors ; the childi'en of Lamech, fighters and swaggerers ; the children of Jubal, singers and pipers, all come in ? all made the children of God ? Sm-e, ' Japhet is persuaded to dwell in the tents of Shem.' Now, he that can raise to Abraham sons of stones, work this ! Come, then, to meet him, that ' rans to meet you,' Luke xv. He came onoe in his Son, he comes continually in his word ; and he will provide the fat calf, better than all our venison. He will give the kiss, and the ring, and the robes, precious and incomparable things to entertain his sons. Dutij 3. Good children follow then- father, and observe him as the copy of their hfe. In case of injury, what doth my father ? ' He causeth his sun to shine, and his rain to fall,' Matt. v. 45, even on his enemies ; in this be the • children of your Father.' In the works of charity, what doth my Father? 'He is a Father of the fatherless, a Judge of the widow,' Ps. Ix^iii. 5 ; so is his good Son, ' a Father to the poor,' Job. xxix. 16. I our Father give us the inheritance, and we stick at a small beneficence, it is as if a favourite, when the king had given him a great manor under the broad seal, should grudge to pay the fees. He is unw^orthy to be a rich man's heir, that will not pay the scrivener for making the will. Let us look up to our Father, and love him for his mercies, fear him for his love, re- verence him for his goodness, obey him for his greatness, and be thankful for his kindness ; thus should a good son do. Many complain the unruh- ness of then- children, forgetting how um-uly themselves are to their Father. It is just with God to pimish the untowardness of his children, with the untowardness of then- childi-en. While we fear not oui- Father, what re- verence should we find in our children ? The sole compendiary way, to be a happy father of earthly children, is first to be a holy child of our heavenly Father. Childi-en are hke a looking-glass ; a verj- breath may defile them : 108 MEDITATIONS UrON THE CKEED. or as a stringed instrument, tliat is put out of tune by the very change of the weather. Let the mother confer with the father, as Hannah did with Elkanah about young Samuel's dedication, so concerning their young Samuel's education. Let us shew them how we would have them behave themselves toward us, by our own behaviour tovrard God. BiiUj 4. Avoid all ungodly society ; so ' God will be a Father to us, and we shall be his sons and daughters,' 2 Cor. vi. 18. He is a graceless child that will take part with his father's enemies. Amicus Dei non erit, qid inimicos Dei non oderit. ' Do I not hate them that hate thee? ' Ps. cxxxix. 21. My enemies I love, thy enemies I hate : non qnatenus sunt hominef<, sed quatenus sunt hastes. Shall I accompany those that revel out the Sabbath, as if there was no God to serve ? How the son of so good a father was wrought upon by bad company (Luke xv.), consider with fear. Ask those brands which have been snatched out of this fii'e, the souls that have escaped this snare, how more outrageous than whirlwinds, more contagious than the breath of basilisks, bad fellowship is. There be divers words that lose their sense in constmction, and many souls that lose their innocency by consortion. Xo poison is more violent, more virulent, than that is shot from the breath of such infectious sei"pents. Duty 5. Be patient under his corrections : blows from a stranger recoil upon him with quittance ; fi'om a father they require patience. If two childi-en be tighting, and a man parting them, lets the one alone, coiTects the other, we conclude, the child whom he beats is his own son. God lets bastards escape, but chastiseth his childi'en, Heb. xii. 10. Some in calamity seek to wizards for help, or to such uncouth means ; this is for the son, when he is whipped by the father, to run to his enemy for succom*. No, let us beseech the same hand that inflicted it, to remove it ; and till he does, be patient under it, believing that the father will do what is best for the child. Honora patrem non solum osculantem, sed et verherantem ; et in- dulgentem, et ohjun/antem. Lord, thy veiy strokes are mercy; if thou correctest us as children, thou meanest to save us as a Father. Duty 6. If he be om- Father, ' where is his honom- ?' Mai. i. 6 ; and how can we honour him, but by our obedience 7 Honour thy temporal father, much more thy eternal. Shall an obstinate sinner say to God, ' My Father, thou art the guide of my youth ?' Jer. iii. 4. Shall we dissemble, whose Father is tnith ? be gripulous,* whose Father is bountiful? revenge injuries, whose Father is merciful ? walk in darkness, whose Father is light ? Of all his errors, this most galled the unthrift's heart, that he had grieved his father, Luke xv. 18. Our 'fniits' are called for; these 'honour our Father,' John xv. 8 ; our ' good works,' these ' glorify our Father' on earth. Matt. v. 16, and according to these he will glorify us in heaven. But a * bad son shames the father,' Prov. xxviii. 7. Duty 7. Let us maintain the honour of our Father with zealous courage. Did our flint-hearted bashfulness injure our o'svti persons, the matter were less grievous ; but the common cause of God is wi-ongcd through his chddi'en's timorousness. "Which of us hath not yielded an implied consent to God's dishonour ? which of us in our places is bold to rebuke coiTuption, as Paul did Peter, to the face ? where is the ear that tingleth, the blood that riseth, the heart that thrilleth, at the lies and blasphemies of the age ? Unhallowed tongues in everj' place wound our Father's name ; which was able to make Croesus's young and dumb son speak : while childi-en that are dumb should speak, we that can speak, ai-e dumb and speechless. Shall we, like those * That is, griping or niggardly. — Ed. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 109 rulers, believe, and not dare to confess ? John xii. 42. Shall we usui-p more in our fear and love than our Father ? Yet how liath this stolen courage from men's hearts, and men's hearts fi-om the Lord. Our forefathers stood against the torrent of the times for Chiist, being prodigal of their bloods in that fiery trial ; and shall we be ashamed to speak for him, and that against private sins, where, if our words prevail not. we have shewn our zeal? Vir bonus et sapiens audehit dicer e Pentheu;* ' Thou art the man.' I wiU speak, saith Esther: 'If I perish, I perish,' Esth. iv. 14. If we deny him before mortals, shall not he deny us before angels ? Is there not a fearful ' lake ' proA-ided for ' feaiful ' men ? Rev. xxi. 8. Oh it is beyond all imagination terrible for us to think, above all wonder horrible for them to feel, what punishment belongs to such dastards, yea to such bastards, not childi-en of their Father. How will all theii- poHcies shrink, what a world of confusion will surprise their hearts when God shall say, ' Depart, I know you net.' Cowards you have been, none of my champions ; strangers you ai-e, none of my children. I know there be some, that with monstrous tongues, bigger than their hands, can speak great words, play their prizes in empty forms, and seem valiant ; non quia phis cordis, sed 7ni)uis oris habent : not because they have more courage, but less modesty. But far be it fi-om us in the cause of our Father to hold our peace. Shame is the consequent of sin ; let us bestow aU our shame on om- own sins ; and not think it a shame, but an honour, to stand for the gloiy of om- Father. Duty 8. Seeing we have a Father so lo\'ing, and able to pro\ide for us, let us banish all immoderate care, Matt. vi. 26, 32. In a family the father provides for all ; he that doth not, is worse than an infidel ; the church is God's family, his providence sustains it : if thou be one of the house, put thy trust in the Father. If we see a young man busily purveying for him- self, building, purchasing, proling, raking wealth together, we say. Sure his father is dead. If our cai-e be set night and day on the things of this life, losing our repasts, breaking our sleeps, weaiing out om* bodies with la- bours, tearing our souls with distractions ; it argues, that either God hath cast us otf, or we take him for no father of om-s. Indeed if our Father were poor, we might look to ourselves ; but seeing his riches know no measure, his love no end, it is enough for us to be sm-e of our adoption, let him alone with our portion. If a temporal father give no legacy to one child among the rest, yet he will recover a child's part by law. But our Father can neither want legacies to give, nor love to bestow them ; if we bo his children we shall be blessed. ALMIGHTY. — This consists in two things. First, he is able to do what he pleaseth, and that in aU places, Ps. cxxxv. 6. Next, he is able to do more than he pleaseth, able to turn ' stones into children,' Matt. iii. 9 ; or ' into bread,' Matt. iv. 3 ; yet he never did it. Able to command legions of angels for his rescue, yet he did not, Matt. xxvi. 53. Able to have saved himseK from death, and confounded his deridcrs, he would not ; but rather chose, by not saving himself, to save us, Luke xxiii. 35. He is able to make more worlds, more suns for this ; he would not, wiU not. Thus God can do all that he will do, actually ; and more than he will do, potentially. There be three things that (divines hold) God cannot do, without derogation to his ahnightiness : (1.) Such as be contrary to his personal propriety: as the Son cannot beget the Father, nor either of them proceed from the Holy Ghost. (2.) Such as be contrary to the essential property of the godhead ; as he cannot be finite, nor ignorant of anything ; he cannot make * Horat 110 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. another God, another infinite. He ' cannot lie,' Titus i. 2, Heb. vi. 18 ; he ' cannot die,' he ' cannot deny himself,' 2 Tim. ii. 13 ; cannot repent, cannot change. Num. xxiii. 19, Ps. ex. 4, Mai. iii. 6. Mature potest signum, non consilium. Whom he hath decreed to save, he cannot damn ; if he have promised mercy, he cannot thi-ow to hell ; for he cannot do agamst his promise, against his purpose. These are the effects of impotency, signs of imperfection, which, if God could admit, he could not be God. Man can indeed he and change, and sin, and repent, therefore is weak ; but God cannot, and because he cannot he is omnipotent. Dicitur omnijwtens, fad- endo quod vult, )wn patiendo quod non vult.-'-- (3.) Some think that he cannot do things which imply contradiction ; of a stone he can make a man, or tmn man into a stone ; but that a stone, being a stone, should also be a man, this they hold impossible. A woman was turned into a pillar of salt, but become a pillar, she ceased to be a woman. So water was changed into wine, but then it was no longer water. That, in the same place, and not in the same place, at the same time, and not at the same time, the sun should shine, and not shine — this is a mani- fest contradiction. "WTien we deny the Romish reaUty of Chi-ist's body in the sacrament, they think to choke us with a jMtest Doviinus, God can do this. But beside that a body hath dimensions, circimiscribed, hmited to some place, and to extend it to innumerable places, is to make it cease being a body ; the sea was divided, the sun stood still ; but that was still a sea, this still a sun ; but, if a body could be everywhere, it were not still a body. But yield that God can do this, therefore he doth it, is no good consequent. From uill to can is a good argument, ' Lord, if thou vnli, thou canst make me clean,' Matt. viii. 2 ; not fi-om can to uill. But this is mh-aculous, say they. We answer, Christ ■uTought no miracle, but man's sense might appre- hend it to be a mu-acle. "UTien he turned water into wine, made him see that was born blind, fed thousands with a few loaves ; the sight, and taste, and sense being exercised, could testify these for nm-acles. Here the sense is against it ; we see bread, take bread, taste bread, digest bread ; there- fore not the real body, otherwise than in a sacramental relation and mys- tery. Faith is supra sensuni, not contra rationem. It were a strange faith, when I see and know this church to be wood and stone, to beheve that it is brass and iron. Duty 1. This should strike a terror unto us, as the poor child quakes when he sees his father coming with the rod. ' I am ah-aid of thy judg- ments ; ' they httle consider of God's almightiness that tremble not at his judgments. 'It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands' of his justice, Heb. X. 31 ; but into the hands ' of his mercy' we desire to commend our- selves ; there is no place safer. Do not think to pass cm-rent with thy sins, because thou art long forborne ; he that was able to overthrow thee before this in his power, will call thee to account in his justice. Aaron might look somewhat heavily on that sad spectacle, amazed to see his two sons dead before him, Le\it. x. 3, dead in displeasure, dead suddenly, dead by the immediate hand of God ; yet he ' held his peace ;' not out of suUenness, but submiss patience ; seeing it the Lord's pleasure, and their deseii, he is content to forget that he had sons. God's judgments must be honoured, * Aug. Adams appears to have misunderstood this passage. He quotes it iu vol. i. p. 115, and translates it, ' He is called almighty in doing what he pleaseth, not in suffering what he pleaseth not,' and it is evident that he attaches the same meaning to it here. Whereas it woula seem that the meaning is, ' He is called almif»ni)w. If an}' object, that he ' made all things for himself,' Prov. xvi. 4, 1 answer, this is meant, for his glory, not for his neces- sity. [4.] That our hearts might not be set on the world, which hath an ending, but on him that hath no beginning. The house was made for man, not man for the house. But how did God employ himself before ? Was he weary of doing nothing ? To this bad question the Hebrews made as mad an answer : that he was making many little worlds, which he as suddenly destroyed as he created, because none pleased him till he came to this. Another answers, that he was making hell for such busy inquisitive fools. St Augustine truly. Nee cesmndo torprdt, nee operando lahoravit ■ he wag neither idle nor weary ; not more happy, but more known to be happ}", by malving it. (6.) In what space was it made ? In six distinct days. God could have made it in a moment ; he would not. He took leism'e, non ex neces- sitate, sed ex volnntate. Such was the creature's disability, that when God had prepared matter, it could not give itself form. As in the word and sacraments heavenly cheer is provided, yet the soul departs never the fatter, unless God give the appetite of faith. First, If the creatures had been produced all at once, they had not been so sensible of their o^ti infirmity, as by the succession of their making. Eve had not been so welcome to Adam, had she been made at once with him.* Secondly, Ne increata ridcrentur,\ one seeing another created gathers his own creation from it. Thirdly, To shew the Creator's liberty and power over the creatures ; he that made light before the sun, was not beholden to the sun for hght. Plants were made the third day ; yet the sun and rain, which makes plants grow, not till afterward. God can cause herbs to gi'ow without the opera- tion of heaven, -n^thout heat, dews, or influence. Fourthly, To teach us a serious deliberation in all our undertaking. Wlien perfection itself was content to take leism-e, shall imperfection be rash and sudden ? Precipita- tion in our works makes us unlike to God : heady fool, art thou wiser than thy Maker ? The proverb tells us, ' Not too fast, we shall have done the sooner. ' I am sure. Not too fast, and we shall have done the better. Fifthly, If all had been made in a moment, this had been too mystical for our apprehension ; therefore he did use days and degi'ees, that our thoughts, * Aug. t Ambr. 120 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. after him, might move paces of admiration and of thanks. He made all in six days, and rested the seventh, that we might set the seventh day apart for their special meditation, after our o%\ti works done in the six. How long should we be in contemplating on that, which he was so long a-making ? Lastly, This commends his wonderful providence, that he prepared the table before he in\'itcd the guests : ' Come, for now all things are ready. Luke xiv. 17. Yea, he made the house ready for the tenant, before h made the tenant that should have the house. He created beasts, but firsn he made herbs and grass to feed them. He created man, but not till al things were made fit to entertain and sustain him. By his providence, we that are born should not distrust to be kept ; that provided whereb}' we should be kept, before we were born. He that purchaseth an inheritance for a son before he hath him, when he hath him will not disinherit him. God could have done all sooner, for he works not as the creatures do. Nature works by degrees, little by little, as the heavens mature things on earth : art helps natm'e, by watering, manuring, warming. Angels work more suddenly, they have wings for their speedy expedition. God works in an instant, by his fiat, ' said,' and ' done ;' so Christ turned water into wine. But it is one thing what God can do by his gi'catness, another what he will do in his goodness. (7.) The end why all is made is for the glory of the Maker. Not ex addUamento, as if God would purchase a glory he had not before ; scd com- municative, to manifest that glory to us, which was and is ever infmite. An excellent painter draws an exquisite piece ; the exposing this to public view doth not improve his skill in himself, but make it known to others. The world could not make the Maker glorious, yet is it an occasion to make him appear glorious to his creatures. Thus he made all for his own glory and om- use. They of the old world built an ark to save Noah, not themselves. Skilful workmen made the sant'tiim sanctorum, whereinto being finished they might never enter. The carpenter frames a house for one more honourable than himself. God did not so : the supreme end was his own glory ; the inferior and dependent, our benefit and comfort. To dwell in it himself he made it not ; to be honoured b}* them that dwell in it, so he made it. St Augustine would have three things declared : qtiis feccrit, who made the world ? how ? and why ? If we demand, rrhn ? it is God; if how? by his word; if ichy? because he is good.* Nee enim est author excellentior Deo, nee ars efficacior verho, nee caum melior bono.] Moreover, he would have four things marked : by the perpetuity of the creatures, intelUfjitur Creator ceternus, we understand the Maker to be eternal ; by the magnitude, omnipotens, almighty ; by the order and dispo- sition, sa])ie)is, most wise ; by the government and pro-\-idence, bonus, most good. He that is good made all good, for our good, that we should be good and do good, to the glory of his goodness. Duty 1. God must be glorified in all creatures, because he is the Maker of all creatures : ' Thou art worthy of honour and glory, for thou hast created all things,' Rev. iv. 12. When we behold some rare piece of a skilful workman, we are not satisfied till we know his name, thinking it but just to give him due commendation. There is no place that presents not to our view the unspeakable wisdom and goodness of God in the crea- tures. Lot us not stick in the ftibric, but look up to the Ai"chitect, honouring him who for his honour made them. It is the argument of a dull and * Do Civit. t In Joan. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. ] 21 non- intelligent man, to sec an excellent work without minding it ; as negli- gent readers run over books, and never think of the author's art or the printer's. Non aiiiat artifices, qui von intelli(/it artes. There is no greater disgrace to the statuar}' than for men to pass by a famous statue without casting eye upon it. Ubi mea legeris, me arjiiosce, was but a reasonable request. ' Consider the works of God,' Ecf'.as. vii. 13. He meant them not to be sHghted ; meditation is th iiieans to give the Maker gloiy : ' The invisible things of God are understood by the visible,' Rom. i. 20. He that had no other book but this, shall be condemned at the last day for a non ler/it. Thus we may know God ad extra, by his effects ; though non ad intra, in his essence : ex 2wstero terr/o, licet non ex ant icn facie. This is his general epistle to the world, whereby he reveals his power and good- ness. Man's primer, wherein he that cannot read may spell almightiness. A glass that retlects vipon us the beams of infiniteness. Secidmn est specu- lum. A large theatre, wherein eveiy creature is either an actor or a spec- tator ; man is both. The ploughman's alphabet, the shepherd's calendar. Man is bound to it. (1.) Because he only hath understanding, a soul able to comtemplate, not only from the cedar to the hyssop, but even from the angel to the worm, that the same hand made both, nee superior in illis, nee inferior in istus. It is a lean and unblest understanding that is not thus exercised. (2.) Because he hath a special day appointed for this solemn business ; that he should rest from his own works, and meditate on God's works. Not that common days are exempted : he that is grind- ing at the mill may study on that pro\ddence which ordained bread for man. But there is one day of seven distinctly separated, that this exercise may be distinctly performed. Qui Sabbatizavit d creando, docet nos Sahha- tizare in meditando. Duty 2. Let none of the Creator's glory be misplaced upon the creatures : * We have nothing, but what we received.' Have we strength ? we received it ; wisdom ? we received it ; riches ? we received them. We made not ourselves wise, strong, or rich ; shall we glory in alieno, tanquam in pro- prio ? Let not the ' strong, wise, or rich, glory in his strength, wisdom, or riches ; but in tliis, that he knoweth the Lord,' Jer. ix. 24 ; knows him to be strong, wise, and rich ; strong in making, wise in forming, rich in fur- nishing the world. Nor is this caution appropriated only to those Jews adjudged to captivity ; but as that in the hand of the angel was an ' ever- lasting gospel,' Rev. xiv. 6, so this in the mouth of the prophet, is an everlasting sermon. Qucedam sp)ecialiter pronuntiata, f/eneraliter sapiunt.* But ' most men will proclaim their own goodness,' Prov. xx. 6. Eerfum nobis induimus animos ;\ everyone bears the mind of an emperor; few 'remember their Creator,' Eccles. xii. 1. Pride is ever a confusion, of old Babel that was, of new Babel it shall be. The Maker is not afraid of his creature, when it comes in competition with him ; such a fear belongs to mortal emulation. What cares the potter for the swelling of his pitcher, which he can break, as he did fashion, at his pleasure ? Is wisdom honour- able in men? Quam sapiens ille, qui sapientes facit, yea and 'confounds the wisdom of the wise.' Is power reverenced ? Quam potens ille, qui potentes facit, yea and makes the potent become impotent. Have riches respect ? How rich is he that gives all riches, and leaves himself never the less ? So foolish are we to glory iu these things, without trembling before him whose they are. » Tertul. t Sen. 122 MEDITATIOXS UPON THE CREED. "Why should we do, or speak, or tliink, but to tlie praise of cm- Maker? For what shall God reward thee, but for that whereby men glorify God in thee ? A servant wrongs his noble master by a base carnage ; yet he is but his master, not his maker. Oh, happy man, whose conscience wit- nesseth his actions directed wholly to the glory of his Creator ; that knows himself boimd to nothing else, because he was made for nothing else ; whoso tongue speaks his praise, whose hand works to his praise ! In the last psahn, the Rabbins have found out thu-teen Halleluiahs, answering those thirteen properties of God, Exod. xxsiv. 6. 7. So he begins, so he ends ; every verse, every sentence hath his HaUduiak. After twelve comes a thirteenth, that when we have done, we may begin again with the praises of God. Here, because our life is short, we sing it in breves and semi- breves ; hereafter we shall sing it in longs, for ever. ' Lord, open thou our hps, and ouj^ mouth shall shew forth (not ours, but) thy praise.' Duty 3. Let us humble ourselves with repentance, who have corrupted what he hath created. ' Prepare to meet thy God ' in fear and humility, Amos iv, 12, lest he set forth against thee in dreadful fury. Nonfadlim struere, qudm destruere : It is as easy to pull down as to build up ; he that was so mighty in the one, is not less in the other. David saith, ' I am fearfally and wondeifully made,' Ps, cxxxix. 14. Many a one may say, I am feaifuJly and wondeifully destroyed. If we repent not of our corruption, God wiU repent ot our creation ; and woe to the man of whose makmg God shall sliew himself sorry. Hence it comes, that wo abuse the other creatures, because we forget om-selves to be creatures ; and that is violated which was made for man, even by that man which was made for God. Durst we sur- feit to the utmost stowage and capacity of our bottoms, if we knew ourselves accountable creatures, and accountable for the creatm-es ? Dutij 4. Let us serve God with all, because he made all. The curious smith wiU not brook to have his files exercised upon stones ; nor the mathe- matician lend his engines for wasters and bandies. There is no artist but would have the instruments he makes employed to their purpose. In the great workhouse of the world, or in the Httle shop of man, eveiy instrument must be used to its own pui-pose. Let the tongue praise God ; he made it for that purpose. As man is a Httle world in the gi-eat, so his tongue is a great world in the httle : Grande honwn, or rfrande malum. ^- It is either the trumpet of God's praisas, or Satan's loud ordnance of blasphemy. Let the heart praise God ; he made it for that purpose. The tongue is the heart's messenger ; so often as it speaks before the heart dictates, the messenger runs without his en-and. He that will not speak idly, must think what he speaks ; he that will not speak falsely, must speak what he thinks. When the heart maliceth, or the tongue dissembleth, were they made for this purpose ? The knees and hands have also their offices ; let no part of the body lag behind, no affection of the soul stray abroad ; let us worship him withal, that made all for his worship. The Lord hath given us knees to bow, tongues to pray, hearts to love ; we take these blessings, and bestow them upon his enemies. The potter may err in framing his vessel, and so in anger dash the unfadging clay against the walls. God could not err in our creation, and he is still working us to his service ; if nothing will effect it, his will must be fulfilled m vengeance, whose word was not answered in obedience. Vuty 5. This corrects their sauciness, that seem to make themselves creators. Among the papists, the mass-priest takes upon him this power * Jerom. MEDITATIONS UPON TIIS CREED. 123 to make God. Almighty men, that can make their Maker ; that whereas God by his word made them, they by their word can make God ; he made them of nothing, they him of a piece of bread. "Wliat naturian ever thought or taught, that the pot did create the potter ? Among us, God made all creatures ; the rich patron thinks himself a maker too, and is ready to call a man his creature. His first gift plants him, his second waters him, third makes him grow ; hie Dem nihil fecit : now he is his creature, as if God had done nothing for him, had nothing to do with him. This no man justifies in a direct line, but ex ohliqiio, some do in effect ; imposing such works on their creatures as cannot stand vnih the honour of God. Sins are offices for the devil ; while they so employ them, they use tb.em worse than they do their beasts. If thy pride will thus insult over God's best creatures, the basest of all creatures, worms and fiends, shall insult over thee. Comforts. — That God, who did manifest such power in our creation, will be no less glorious in our redemption and conservation. * He doth not despise the work of his own hands,' Job x. 3 ; he hates nothing that he made ; there is no man but favours the effect of his own worth. Let man understand, whether is greater, jiifitos creare, or imjnos justijicare ;* to create righteous creatures, or to justify the unrighteous. Certainly, si (rqiialis sit utrumque potmitiir., hoc est majoris misericordicB ; if both be of equal might, this last is of greater mercy. The former was opus dirjiti, this opus hrachii, that of his word operative, this of the Word mcarnate. Yet he can open the eyes of the blind, that could make him eyes that had none, Isa. xlii. 6. He can raise a dead soul, that could make the soul which had no being. Thus he doth remember us of his power in the creation, to assure us of his grace in our redemption, though it be harder than to spread out the heavens, Isa. xlv. 18. Soon doth the potter, of pliable clay, frame a vessel to his mind ; let it be once hardened and deformed, it is difficult to mend it. Therefore the tenns of creation are used in describing the work of our re- demption ; as if it were as glorious to regenerate a man as to make a world, Eph. ii. 10 ; iv. 24. A clean heart is a rare blessing, it is created, Ps. Iv. 10. Peace in the heart is sweet, it is created, Isa. Ivii. 19. From hence arose Paul's bold challenge and defiance to all his enemies, Rom. viii. 35 ; Why ? they are creatures, and cannot cross the resolved will of their Maker. Lord, thou didst make us when we were not, for thou art glorious ; wilt thou save us that were lost, for thou art gracious ? M.VKEK OP Heaven and Earth. — I come to the creation in the par- ticulars. By heaven and earth. Gen. i., is understood the matter, and seed, where out all things were made ; first created in the matter, after perfected into form, and last beautified with their ornaments ; as trees and beasts in the earth, fi-shes in the sea, fowls in the air, stars in the sky. Here we understand not only heaven and earth themselves, but all the creatures which they contain in their distinct places. In this great machine, most fitly, most v/isely are all the parts disposed. We know not whether more to praise the matter, the method, or the form. The head of this creation is heaven, and earth the footstool. Yet, as he that would ascend to the top of an house begins at the lowest stair, so though heaven be better, yet earth is nearer. I will therefore first consider the place where we are, then arise to the place where we would be. The earth is the centre of the world, created firm, Eccl. i. 4, not to be shaken by any hands but the Maker's, when in his wrath he pleases to totter the foundations of it. This is the common sewer of all the world's corruption, 124 siEDiT.'.Tioxs u?o:; the crvEED. the receptacle of all the lees and dregs of natnre. Yet liow admiratle is it, both for that we see on it and we may find in it. Every lineament of her face yields many wonders ; an innnmerable vai-iety of beasts, worms, herbs, flowers, seeds, plants, fniits, appear. What pile of gi'ass is there wherein we may not read the finger of God ? ' Let the earth bring forth grass,' &c. From which divines gather that the world was made in the spring, and that Christ was crucified the same day that Adam was created, that the first might be a type of the second. The first man could call the beasts by names agi'eeable to their natures. Now, what son of man doth know all the beasts either by name or nature ? What herbalist can describe the virtue of every plant ? Long industry hath found out something, but (as the greatest discoverer of the world) leaves more unknown behind. Strange are the treasures which the bowels of this earth hide from our eyes. Mines of metals, quarries of stone, that it is hard to say whether the back or the entrails be richer. These hath God laid up secretly and basely, that we should not over-search nor over-value them. The wealth they yield to oiu* purses is far short of their obsen'ation to our minds. Our heart is too narrow to admire sufficiently that we tread upon, how much less com- prehensive of our Maker ? But if we shall subject our hearts to that which God hath subjected to our feet, we are a baser earth than that which carries us. The sea is comprised under this title. That great deep, the womb of moisture, the huge pond of the world, wonderful in divers respects. 1. For situation, which Ambrose and Basil collect from the psalm (civ. 6), to be above the earth. ' Thou coveredst it with the deep, the waters stood above the mountains.' It is reported of an Egj'ptian king, and after him of Darius, that they would have cut the earth, and joined the Nile and the Red Sea to- gether, but that they found it higher than the land by three cubits, and so ceased.* But indeed it is not so ; and the Ptolemies eftected that design without any danger of inundation. We see by experience the earth to be the heavier element, and so to have her foundation lowest. Yet cannot the sea overwhelm it, and this by (not miracle, but) ordinary providence, that hath so disposed it. The waters rage, foam, swell, as if they would swallow it up ; yet the Lord shuts up this roaring element in a channel, like a barking cur in a kennel, wraps up this huge beast as a child in swaddling clouts, stays its rage by an insensible violence, and (in a won der of natui'e) confincth his waves. 2. For motion. Why it moves for- ward, why it retires, is to us above all reason wondeiful. He only thr.» made it knows why he made it so ; and by its ebbing and flowing kee} _ it from overflowing us, that so \^Testling with itself we might live. 3. For the innumerable creatures in it Great whales, like li-^ang mountains, roll- ing up and down in those dreadful billows. Neither earth nor air can com- pare for wonders with the sea. Behemoth is short of the Leviathan. Yet hath the most wise God taught nian to subdue this monstrous creature. Hell only hath a Le^^athan more terrible than the sea. The same God teach us and help us to overcome him by our faith. Such uncountable munbers, strange shapes, various foiTQS, and huge quantities be in the sea. that we know not whether to wonder more at the element itself or the crea- tures it contains. Ipsa se nafin-n riiicit nmnernsis moclift.j; 4. For the strange art of sailing on it. That there should be a plough to delve a passage through the unwieldy ocean, a saddle for the back of that unruly beast. Thus have I made a brief circuit of the whole earth, a short cut over the * Strabo. t Phn. MEDITATIOXb Ul'ON IIIK CKKED. 125 vast sea. There is yet a shorter passage than this, which is by the con- tempt of them both, especially in rej^ard of that which follows, which is IIeaven. — This contains generally all that is above the earth. In this high and stately building be three stages, all called heaven — Aiireum, Side- roum, Empyra^um. The first is the space from the earth to the firmament. So we read of the fowls of heaven, the windows of heaven. The next contains the sun and stars. The highest is invisible, that third heaven, 2 Cor. xii. 2, the glorious place where Christ sits in his manhood, and whither all faithful -ouls are gathered. The lowest is for fowls, vapours, meteors ; the next ibr stars and lights ; the third for saints and angels. As in the division of Solomon's temple, three courts : the first is open for all ; the second is the body of that illustrious house, wherein those radiant caudles are continually burning ; the uppermost is the holy of holies. In the fu-st is mutabihty and trouble, in the next constancy and harmony, in the highest blessedness and glory. The first we feel, the second we see, the third we believe. In the two lower is no true felicity ; neither the birds nor the stars are happy. Only the third heaven, celestial paradise, is the place of everlasting joy. Still the higher we go the more perfection we find. That which excels another in place, excels it also in honour — the visible firmament transcend- ing the air, and the invisible yet more exceeding that. So let our holy thoughts, aspiring 'from one stair to another, attain at last to the top of Jacob's ladder, that empyi'eal heaven, the glorious seat of Christ. First, let us pass through the meanest region of heaven, and nearest to our senses, the air. Even here we find cause of admiration and praise. What variety of fowls fly up and down this heaven with their hghter wings, of numberless shapes and colours : some preying upon others, some play- ing among themselves, all seeking their meat of God, who ' feeds the young ravens when ihej call upon him.' How can we be mute when we hear the httle birds every morning carol the praises of their Maker ? Here we feel the subtle winds, now puffing from the east, then from the west, purging the air, as the lungs fan coolness upon the heart. These we hear whistle among the leaves, we perceive moving clouds and ships, we see not their substances, we know not their causes. These the Maker useth as parti- cular crosses to some, but general blessings to all. Here be the clouds, big-bellied with a burden heavier than themselves. These are driven with a violent agitation of the winds, yet hang and hold their load till a high hand crush them. How they are supported, why they should be delivered in this place, not in that, now, not then, what natu- ralist could ever prescribe ? Yea, that these wateiy sponges should be turned into furnaces, venting their sudden fii'es on all sides, and amazing the world with the dreadful noise of their thunders, the vapour making an eruption through the cloud, sending forth flashes that reach the eye before the roaring of the breach invades the ear, as the fire from the cannon is dis- cerned before the report. Thus from the midst of water doth God fetch fire, and hard stones from thin vapours. How wondrous would these things be if they were not common '? This heaven contains also those meteors, blazing comets, falling stars, letters and characters of such strange variety, whereout, though we cannot read the Creator's meaning, we may read his power, and tremble to sin against him. Often we behold gulfs and gapings in the sky, bright cii'cles, flashings in the heavens, fires darted up and down, matter for our admiration rather than examination. Natural causes be given by rational men ; but let us look higher, to the wisdom and mightiness of an infinite God. All of these in their kinds praise the Lord, 126 MEDITATIOXS UPON THE CREED. ' Fire and suow. storm and tempest, falfilling his word,' Ps. cxlviii. 8. Let not us forget liim. The next heaven we consider by its height, hugeness, glory. For its height : the Hebrews, by drawing this ascending hne forwards on a plain, have found it to be five himdred years' journey to the starry sky ; Aratus v.ill have it but of thirty days. Curious calculators, how are they troubled to deceive themselves ; the one making it too little, the other too much ! But such is the height, that it is a wonder our eye should reach the celsitude of it, and not be tired in the v/ay. Let it teach us, how easily our immortal souls can go further, when our eye, fixed in a mortal head, can extend so far. Now if so high, how large ? Ai't teaching that the orbicular compass must be proportionaljle to the height. How huge a cm-tain hath the Maker drawn about this little point, the earth ! We think this island spacious, yet it is not so much to the whole earth, as an inch to an acre ; the earth huge, yet were we in the stan-y heaven with these corporeal eyes, the whole eai^th v/ould seem less to us there, than one star of that doth appear to us here. Yea, not many stars are so little as it, and yet what ample spaces be there void of stars ! How small a thing is man to the earth, earth to the sun, the smi to the heaven ; man, earth, sun, heaven, and all to the Lord ! The glory of it graceth both height and magnitude : how delectable are ,the utmost walls, the ceiling and roof of this world ! How embroidered a canopy hath God drav/n over the head of man ! Lights to which precious stones, in their brightest lustres, are but clouds. What is exposed to our view, is admirable ; how much more that we cannot see, which God hath charged us to believe, that we may enjoy. If the outside of the royal palace be so magnificent, if the hall appear so rare, what ornaments are in the presence and inner chamber of the King ? Bj"- that we see without, we are taught to admire and desire the treasm'es and pleasui'es within. Thus high are our thoughts raised : conceiving ourselves first to have passed an earthy and watery V03^age, obseiwing the wonders of God by sea and land ; then, through the threefold region, seen the bottles and spouts of rain, felt the snows and hail, heard the rattling of the thunder, opened the caves of lightning, perused the meteors, visited the outgoings of the morning and evening, ascended to the stars, and conversed with those fixed and yet moved fixes ; now, before we mount higher, I interpose this short meditation. There be not two worlds ; God made but one world : this present, and that to come, are but divers parts of one and the same world. This is the morning, that the high noon; this the inn, that the home; this the gallery, that the bed-chamber. That is called future, because of our permutation ; differing like infancy and perfect stature. Travellers called the undis- covered parts of America novum orhem, the new world, because it was new to them. So St Peter calls that a new heaven and new earth, because the earth shall be renewed, and heaven is new to us at our aiTival thither. Whithersoevei sin could extend, corruption would not be kept back ; like an unhappy brood, it would follow the dam. There is nothing but labour and vanity under the sun : this is a fan- house, but the tenant hath in- fected it ; therefore he is as sure to be cast out, as ever he came in. Only the landlord's mercy lets him enjoy it for a time, that he may provide him- self of another. Lo, there is a better to be had ; mansions, not pavilions, purchased by Christ of his Father. He that can make ready his fine and his rent, which is faith and a good conscience, shall be instated in a per- petuity, domiis cBtemUatis, an inheritance never to be lost. MEDITATIONS UPON THK CREED. 127 This is higher than the dwelling of the sun and stars ; even the receptacle of the glorified spirits, the court royal of the blessed Trinity, Such is the privilege of God's children, that here by faith they see him that is invisible, and enjoy him that is inunenye ; and so begin that heaven, which the clear vision and unchangeable fruition shall consummate in the hea^•eu of heavens. Pioportionable are God's works to himself; )iiar/iium )nafjita decent. Kings do not build cottages, but magnify their royalty in sumptuous palaces ; how glorious is that which the King of glory hath built for himself ! If the lower side of that pavement, which the feet of the saints shall walk upon in iieaven, be so glorious a ceiling to us on earth, that no art of man, or riches of the world, can sample it, what be the parlours and chambers unseen ? If the sun, the light of the world, be of such majesty, what is the brightness and glory of its Maker ? If but some other of the stars were let down as low as the sun, they would all appear like suns to us, which now we only wonder at in their distance. If such a firmament be adorned, such an earth pre- pared, for the use and benefit of God's enemies, how happy shall those eternal mansions be, ordained for his friends ! It is the feeling of his gracious presence, that makes a heaven on earth. It is the manifestation of his glorious presence that makes a heaven in heaven. Lord, thou didst make the sun and stars for us, not us for them ; them for our temporaij use, not everlasting society. Raise us up as far above them, now in desire, hereafter in place, as they are yet above us ; that when the sun shall be darkened, and the moon tm-ned to blood, and the elements melt with heat, we may enjoy that light which shall never be put out ! In this heaven be the sun, moon, and stars, those radiant beauties of it. These were not made on several days, according to the dream of Eugubiuus, but all on the fourth ; nor in succession, as Basil thought, but all at once. The sun and moon are called the * great lights,' Gen. i. 16; not according to the Jewish fancy, that they were both made of equal light in the beginning, and that the moon, env^-ing the light of the sun, was brought into subjection, and made recipient of her light from him ; and of the beams, whereof the moon was deprived, God made the lesser stars. But the sun is a great celestial body, found by mathematicians to exceed the earth one hundred and sixty- six times in bigness ; whereas the stars of the first magnitude (whereof they reckon but fifteen) exceed it but eighteen times. Reason satisfies us of the sun's great quantity ; both because when it ariseth, all the stars are hid, the less lights giving place to the greater. And if it wore not of such quantity, how could the whole earth be enlightened by it ? Lastly, because it appears of like quantity to all throughout the world ; it is not gi-eater to us, and less to the Indians. Whereas herds of cattle afar ofi", shew like ants ; and a ship may be discovered so far on the sea, till it appear no bigger than a dove. The other gi-eat light is the moon ; which the Stoics held bigger than the earth ; Parmenides, equal to the sun; others, next to the sun ; but mathe- maticians find it less than the earth thu'ty-nine times, and the least of all the stars but Mercury. Moses calls it a gi'eat light, according to the vulgar ciipacity, because it is nearest of all stars to the earth, greatest in opera- tion, and governess of the night. Of the other fixed stars, and wandering planets, there be four ends or uses. 1. To distinguish day and night. 2. For signs of weather, especially when natural causes have begun to work ; as in the evening to presage the morning temperature ; but not to prognos- ticate things to come : that use v/ould be hissed out of almanacs. 3. To serve for signs and seasons. 4. To give influence, by their heat and 128 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. motion, to these inferior parts. But to calculate nativities, to ground pre- dictions, to find things lost ; to make stars aUas heneficas, alias vtalejicas , whereas God made all good ; this study is for them, who, so they may know something of heaven v/hile they Hve, are content to take another place when they die. Let not us he amhitious to know, what we cannot learn, our destiny in the stars ; but to learn what we may know, our names written in the book of life. The heaven itself were but a formless and confused creature, without light : this is the soul of the body, the beauty of all those beauties of the world. But if God made the light, was he not before in darkness ? No ; he needs no created light, that is himself a light uncreated ; no coi-poral light, that is a spiritual one. God is light, and in him is no darkness. He made this light for our mortal journey on earth ; himself is the light of our immortal abode in heaven. But if God made the light, who made darkness ? Darkness is nothing, but only the absence of light, as nakedness the want of clothing, and silence the cessation of noise. God did not dwell in this light that he made ; no more than when it is said, ' The Spirit moved upon the waters,' the waters were the habitation of the Spirit; but he so moved on the creatm'e, as the workman upon the matter which he is about to fashion ; the sun is earned about the earth, yet is not the earth the habitation of the sun. Now if one glimpse of this created light give so beautiful a lustre to all God's workmanship, how incomprehensibly glorious is that in himself? This the very beasts can behold, that not the very angels. This shines to the basest part of the creation, that only to the supreme world of blessedness. The light was made the first day, the sun not till the fourth, Gen. i. 5. How could there be a distinction of days without the sun ? Answer. There was a division of day and night before, but a more exact division afterward. What this former light was there may he many opmions. Some take it not for a natural, but a spiritual, light ;* but not truly ; for it made a visible difference betwixt day and night. Some for the element of fire ; but this light was moveable, whereas the elements are universally dispersed. If man had then been made, he had seen all lightsome, yet not seen from whence it came. As in a gi-eat pond we see the banks filled, we see not the springs from whence that water ariseth. He that made the sun made the light without the sun, before the sun, that we might not ascribe it to the sun. The light depends on the Creator, not on the creature. What light it was, where placed, how it moved, how long it continued, are fi'uit- less examinations. This observe we : God's power is not limited to means ; it was easy for him to make a heaven without a sun, light without a hea- ven, day without a sun, time without a day. Let us allow him to be Lord of his own works. Never distrust we that God in the want of means, who can either give them, or save us without them. Whatsoever we command, and want God, our poverty is miserable. Whatsoever we want, and have God, our riches are comfortable. As it was before man was made, so shall it be after he is dissolved : ' The sun shall be no more om- light by day, nor the moon by night ; but the Lord shall be om- everlasting hght,' Isa. Ix. 19, 20. One day again we shall have hght without the sun, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. Here we sometimes darken him to ourselves, but in heaven there is no eclipse. The created sun and light are for a world inferior to themselves. God's light is only for above. He that gave this light to the sun, which the sun gives to the world, what light hath he prepared for the heavens ? * Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 129 Here he made a sun for us, thoro he will make us 'like suns,' Matt. xvli. 2. The sun shall be ' seven times ' more ' glorious ' than it is now, Isa. xxx. 26, and we seven times more glorious than it is then. This light, thus dispersed for three days through the whole heavens, was the fourth da}- gathered and united to the body of the sun, that receptacle which God had ordained for it. The heaven was instead of a sun till the sun was made. Then it pleased the Maker's wisdom that one star should be the treasury of light to heaven and earth. He made one proper centre for all things of one kind, unto which he reduceth them. Light things mount upward, heavy substances have a natural propension downward. As the waters were gathered into one sea, so the hght was called into the com- pass of one sun. So shall all his chosen be congregated to one glory. Our souls and bodies are made to come to him, why should our desires be scattered from him? 'Wliy do we not settle our afl'ections upon his Christ, and shew ourselves to be of the commimion of saints ? The light of God is now dispersed into innumerable souls. It shall one day all be reconciled in himself. We are but as the heavens in their first imperfection, till we attain that centre, and be locally assembled to the presence of Christ. Continual light would have seemed tedious to man, therefore God inter- changed it with darkness. He could have made it perpetual ; he would not, that it might be more grateful. There is nothing but God himself, .vhereof man would not be weary. The manna was that sweet rehsh to every palate which the palate desired, yet was Israel satiate with it. Even the things which we most afi'ect cloy us with the continuance. Therefore God made such change of creatures to answer the desu-es of man, for whom he made them. God delights in constancy, we in change. There is no variety in that which is perfect, for there is but one perfection. The more •miform the more perfect. Yet so pleasing is the vicissitude of things, ,'iat the less worthy give us more content in their intercourse than better io in their perpetuities. To walk or eit or lie continually seems a pain not .olerable. We are sick with lying, therefore rise ; sick with working, therefore rest. So the day dies into night, the morning is a resurrection. Darkness keeps her turn, that light may be more welcome. There is no constant and unalterable fortune in this world, all hang together by succes- sions. Above it shall be day for ever. The night is only for mortality, it is eternal day in heaven. Yet let us strive, in some measure of resemblance, to be here as w^e shall be there. Let us dispel the clouds that darken our internal hght, that oui* souls may have a continual day. If any fog be gathered in our lives, any mist arise in our consciences, let us labour, like the moon under an eclipse, to get out, abhorring the interposition of lusts between the light of our salvation and our souls. Let us walk in the light of this day till we come to the day of that light. The ' third heaven.' How excellent is this world which our meditations have passed through, ourselves dwell in ! Yet how miserable in regard o our home. How is it beyond the tongue or thought of man to declare or conceive. ' No eye hath seen, nor ear heard,' &c., 1 Cor. ii. 9. Some have untruly gathered from 2 Cor. v. 1, that this heaven is eternal, never created ; but though it were ' made without hands,' yet it was ' made ; ' and the apostle calls it eternal, not because it had no beginning, but because it shall have no ending. ' Whose builder and maker is God,' Heb. xi. 10. Therefore it was made. Nor is it to purpose to say. It hath always been the place of the eternal God, thei'efore it is an eternal place ; for the 'heaven of heavens cannot contain him,' 1 Kings viii. 27. He may there VOL. UI. I 130 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED give a fuller remonstrance of his majesty, but it cannot comprehend his majesty. Others demand where this heaven is, and some have thought it to be everywhere ; but then hell itself should be in heaven. It is above these visible heavens. ' Christ ascended far above all heavens,' Eph. iv. 10. Others yet question why God created this third heaven, seeing his gracious presence makes every place a heaven. Answer. So it pleased him to ordaia a certain place for the manifestation of his glory to the elect an<7els and men. This is called by Christ ' his Father's house,' and the ' kingdom of heaven,' where God is king, and ruleth all in perfect glory. It is a place our souls cannot yet comprehend, may it one day comprehend our souls. 1. This discovers the general folly of the world. Men curiously seek to keep theu' footing in this mortal and barren turf, without assuring them- selves of that heaven which is a thousand times more glorious than the firmament. Suppose a man hath two houses, one a torn cottage, open to wind and weather, the other a princely palace, impregnable for strength, unmatchable for beauty ; the foi-mer by tenure at another's will, the other by inheritance. If he shall bestow all his care and provision in highten- ing and dressing the uncertain and beggarly shed, leaving the other unre- garded, is he not mad ? God hath pro\'ided for us two houses, the one of * clay, whose foundation is in the dust,' Job iv. 19, the other of gold and precious stones, ' sapphires and chiysolites,' Eev. xix. Yet what labour and cost is there to patch up the ruins of this homely cabin, with what price do we buy a little physic to rectify it ? Yet will scarce be at the small necessary charges of the other. Not break a sleep, nor fast a meal, nor part with a superfluity of our substance, for an eteraal mansion in heaven. How much gold will the rich worldling give to save his life ? How small a cost doth he think sufficient for his soul ? He will forbear a dish that he loves, upon the physician's warning, for the one ; he will scarce forbear a sin, upon God's warning, to save the other. Fond man ! this house shall be taken fi-om thee ; the sun shall not shine to thine eyes ; those holes shall be filled with darkness ; then prepare thyself for that other, which before the world was prepared for thee. Break ofi" thy sms by repentance, hate the vice that may stop thy passage to bhss. Flatter not thyself with a treasure of conversion in thy o^™ hands ; but seek the Lord while he may be found, lest when thou wouldest find him, he be then to seek. 2. Be content with thy condition here, be it poverty, or sickness, or disturbance ; there is a third heaven shall make amends for all. How vahantly did Paul imdergo his bm-den, encouraged with this consideration ! ' I look not to the visible things, that are temporal, but to the invisible, that are eternal,' 2 Cor. iv. 18. 0 the difterent departm-es of the reprobate and Christian ! The one dies howling, the other rejoicing ; the one knows he changeth for the better ; the other mistrusts, for the worse ; to the one death is a gulf of sorrow, to the other a port of hberty ; he, because he is stripped for a scourging ; this, because he lays off his clothes, after his toil, to go to bed. Little cared Abraham to change his dwelhng so often, that knew a countiy provided for him to dwell in for ever. Queen Elizabeth, being a prisoner in her sister's days, wished herself a milkmaid for freedom: but had she then foreseen her own future fortunes, so long, so prosperous, so glorious and blessed a reign over this kingdom, she would not have ad- mitted that thought. All our loathness to depart, and fears in departing, arise from our own unsettledness ; we have not made sui-e to oiu-selves a MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 131 dwelling m cbese glorious heavens ; many mansions there he, John xiv. 2, we have not provided ourselves one. Did we truly value it, above all cities, crowns, kingdoms, pleasures, inheritances, comforts, how could we but set our hearts upon it, or rather upon him that bought it for us, and us for it ! We would then say with David, ' Woe is me that I must remain in Meshek ;' with Simeon, ' Now let thy servant depart ;' with Eiias, ' I am weary of my life ; ' an end, good Lord. We would bo far from lingering .and hankering after this Baca of tears, and wilderness of fears, were we sure that this removal should di-y our eyes, and end all our labours. ' Om- light momentary atliiction worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory,' 2 Cor. iv. 17. A superlative, transcendent phrase, not to be found in any heathen rhetoric, because they never wrote of such a theme, nor with such a spirit. What is here in the world but vexation ? for a minute of peace, months of trouble ; for a dram of honey, pounds of gall and aloes ; our souls, like Noah, find no resting for the soles of their feet, till they come to this mount Ararat; whither their works follow them, w^here their sorrows leave them. Believing and remembering this, why should we either so mourn for our departed friends, or fear for our departing selves ? Jacob thought some evil beast had devoured Joseph, while Joseph was alive, and triumph- ing in Egypt. Those saints are not lost, but gone before us to the joys of this heaven : they may praire, not j^tn'ire. Let us long to be with them, more than scholars do for holidays, apprentices for freedom, spouses for marriage, labourers for theirwages, husbandmen for harvest, heirs for their in- heritance, or princes for their Idngdoms. I could wish to hold your thoughts longer in this blessed court ; whither, you are not so unkind to your- selves, as not to wishyoiir own arrival. But it is only the Spirit of God that can imprint these patterns in our hearts ; that at all times we may remember them, especially in that great and solemn day of our death, when Satan will be busiest, and ourselves weakest. 0 then let us think of these unspeakable com- forts ; how our souls leave a broken and ruinous cage, the keeper imlocking the door ; with what vivacity they shall pass through the lower regions of the air, pierce the clouds, go by the moon, sun, and stars, transcend the fij.-ma- ment, and those higher orbs, cheerfully mounting up to the glorious gates of eternal light and life, be welcomed by saints and angels to the court of blessed- ness, and possessed of those delights which know neither measure nor end. IflE Creation of Man. — The world is a great man, and man is a httle world. Quantiihmi dominum posuit Dens in tantum dominium ? a little lord over a great lordship. I will discourse of him first in general, then of his special parts. Hominem, adhominem, de honiine loquentem, doceatfactor hominum. The points be six. 1. The preparation to his factm-e. 2. The model or form. 3. The time. 4. The place. 5. His dignity. 6. His society. 1. The preparation to his making ; ' Let us make man,' Gen. i. 26. Other creatures were made by a simple /?«?; man not without a divine consulta- tion of the blessed Trinity ; not for the difficulty, but dignity of the work; it was not more painful, but more noble. Here was something to be produced )n the sixth day, better than all the visible works of the former. The rest were made at once, man was first formed, and then inspired ; as God did seem to be deliberate in the pm-posiug, so he used degrees in the making. The painter will be studious about that which he means to make his master- piece. This was to be the crown of God's works on earth, as the angela ai'e in heaven. 132 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 2. The fonn after whicli man was made is the image of his Maker. Other creatures are made in several shapes, like to none but themselves : man after the image of God. He that made all things would have some- thing somewhat to resemble himself. WTierein consists this image? First, Eugubinus thought that God did take a human shape when he made man, but that could not be his image if he had assumed it ; this was the error of the anthropomorphites. Secondhj, Some say, ' after the image of God ; ' because hke that nature which Clu'ist was to assume ; but Christ took our likeness, not we his. Thirdhj, Some understand it for the soul's immoiiahty ; Damascene, for the fi-ee will ; Chiysostom, for dominion over the creatui'es. Fourthly, Others, because as all things are origiaally in God, so by partici- pation in man ; he partakes with the stones in being, with the plants in gi'owing, with the beasts in mo\ing, with the angels in understanding. And as God is the principal end of all things, so man the secondaiy and subordinate, for whose use they were made. And, as all things had their being from God, so aU men had then- beginning from Adam. St Augustine hath seven several conceits, which I mention not. The most, with the master of the sentences, think this image to consist in reason and understanding ; save that some also add charity. These be the conceits of men. God teacheth us otherwise ; expressly, that this image consists * in knowledge, holiness, and righteousness,' Eph. iv. 24, Col. iii. 10. First, Such as is the image of God renewed, such was it created ; but it is re- newed in these ; therefore secondly, if this image were in the substance of the soul, wicked men and spirits had the image of God : for the substance of spirit and soul is in them stUl. Thii'dly, Dens non damnat ima{/inem suam;^- God doth not destroy his own image; but the soul of the reprobate is damned. That image of God wherein we were created, is not condemned but crowned ; but only the righteousness of the soul is cro-\A-ned. Fourthly, that image of God which man received in his creation, he utterly lost by his transgi'ession, otherwise it needed no renewing. But the substance of the soul, with the natural faculties, was not lost,f therefore this image could not consist in that. The whole man in his inward and outward part in- veteravit; the inward is now renewed by regeneration, the outward shall be restored by the resmi-ection. Now there needed no repairing, if there had been no impairing, nor decay ; nee restitutio sequeretur, nisi destitutio pra- cesserat. Fifthly, that image which is naturally begotten is not God's ; it is absurd to think that image propagated ; as ' Adam begat a son, in his own likeness, after his image,' Gen. v. 3. Therefore this image was not in man's substance, but in his knowledge and confonnity to the will of God. God is alone, after his own singular manner, simple, infinite, glorious. It is impossible that any creature should be like him in his proper being, be- cause it is a creatm-e. "VMiat is finite to infinite, mixed to simple, weak to omnipotent ? There can be no perfect resemblance of God ; yet of all visible creatm-es man comes nearest to it. Most creatm-es are all body, angels are all spirit, man is body and spiiit. Nor yet is this con-espondence in his natui-al faculties, but in his divine gi-aces. Wisdom and holiness was the fij'st copy fi'om which they were dra^vn. So long as we were ■«'ise and good we were like to God. We made ourselves sinners, and sin made us fools. In our creation we were like God, by transgression we became unlike ourselves. While we now commend man, we praise him to his shame. He that magnifies the ruins of Zion never saw her in her perfect beauty. The honour of man as he is, is a disgrace to what he was ; the better we * Ambr. t Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEEP 133 were, we are the worse, as the sons of some lavish cr tainted ancestors tell of the lands and lordships that once were theirs, or as blind Samson should talk of his former valour. Yet how hath God's goodness overcome our badness, sending the image of his own person to restore us the image of our creation ! 0, let the readiness of our desires be answerable to the gracious- ness of his mercies, seeking to redeem what we have lost, to recover in Christ what we have lost in ourselves. If our damage turn not to our benefit, the second fault is ours. We may be better in the second Adam than ever we wore in the first, stand surer in grace than we did in nature, if our faith be as strong now as our condition was flexible then. 8. The time of man's creation, the sixth day. The stage being fully prepared, man was brought upon it, as an actor and spectator : an actor, that he might not be idle ; a spectator, that he might not be discontent. Earth is made ready for his use, heaven for his contemplation. He saw the heaven a glorious place, but far off. See it he might, not reach it; God will therefore make him a little heaven upon earth, fit him with a paradise at home. If he had been ordained immediately for heaven, as were the angels, what needed a body? If appointed to live always on the earth with beasts, what needed a soul? If he had not been to dwell a while upon the earth, his body had been superfluous ; if to dweU ever there, his soul had not been so happy. Therefore, as God ordained a heaven for his soul, so an image of heaven for his body. He was enabled both to contemplate and to do. If only to contemplate, some vast wilderness or barren mount might have served. But he that gave him a heart to meditate gave him also business to do ; hands fit to work, and work fit for his hands. He was created in a perfect age, his body being fit for generation, as it appears by the charge following his facture, ' Increase and multiply ; ' and immediately after his fall was Cain begotten. Some think he was made about the years that Christ died, but it is most likely rather when the patriarchs were fit to generate, about sixty-five, for under those years none of them begat childi-en, Gen. v. 12. So adding sixty and five to nine hundred and thirty, Adam will appear to have lived longer than Methuselah or any of the patriarchs. But that he was a giant, able to wade over the ocean, this is a Jewish fancy. The sight of his eyes and reason of his soul were perfect at once, and the objects which both apprehended gave him cause to apprehend himself blessed. If we could now conceive in meditation what he then per- ceived in fruition ! When he first opened his eyes he saw a glorious heaven above him, a steady and pleasant earth under him, serviceable creatures about him, a perfect understanding and peaceable conscience within him, a glorious God before him ; and he knew as well what all these things meant as if he had been long acquainted with them. Thus when God had made the great house of this world and famished it, then he brought in the tenant to possess it. An empty palace is a fair gift of a king to his sub- ject, though he be not at the charges to adorn and supply every room with answerable furniture ; the bare wall had been too good for us. But he that measures his gift by his own goodness, so beautified this ;^orld for man, whom, above the world, he beautified for himself. 4. The place where he was made and set to dwell was paradise ; as if the common earth had not been good enough for him, but a garden. The whole earth was excellent, this was the best part of it. This place was for pleasure, for labour, for instruction, to delight him, to exercise him, to teach him. 134 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. (1.) For pleasure. Such -^as the Maker's bounty, not only extending to life, but to the happiness of hfe. Eveiy part of earth would yield fi.ni.tB enough for Adam's sustentation, this shall also for his delectation. He that made all things good, did also provide that they might be well ; then- solace ■was his care, so well as their being. Not only competency, but abimdance, may stand with innocence. That vita vitalis requu'es a confluence of many good things. They are too rigid and austere that forbid lawful dehghts. Let no teacher make the way to heaven more thorny than God himself made it and meant it. Those idolaters cut and mangle their own flesh in their sacrifice. But for whom was this sei-vice ? Not for God, but for Baal. I cannot beheve that God will ever give a papist thanks for whipping him- self. Our lawful pleasures are his pleasm-es, and our (unbidden) wrongings of our own selves are his injuries. That is a superstitious worship which makes the worshippers miserable. God dehghts not in our blood, but when the witness of his gloiy calls for it. The world hath ways enough to vex us ; we need not be om- own toimentors. It is no credit to a man's holiness that he condenans all recreation. Let me look to please God, and then know that he hath made the world to serve me. Men may eat and da-ink even to honest dehght, so withal they worship the giver, Ps. xxii. 29, and do not hke Esau, who ' did eat and drink, and rose up, and went his way,' Gen. xxv. 34, never minding the author; no gi-ace, but fuU, rose up, went his way. (2.) For labour. Paradise was not only to delight his senses, but also to exercise his hands ; as bees love to be in gardens, yet must there work out their honey. In every pleasure there is some labour ; the hunter's sport doth oft bring him home weaiy. All Adam's dehghts could not make him happy had his life been lazy. The state of innocence did not except him from diligence. Idleness might not be tolerated either by the perfection of his natui-e or command over the creatm-es. After his fall labour was in- flicted as a punishment ; before his fall it was not dispensed with as incon- venient. How many sons of Adam still take dehght in dressing gardens and plantmg nurseries ? He is, therefore, no sooner made than set to work. Before he sinned his labour was without necessity, without pains without weariness ; if there be now sorrow in it, we may thank sin for it. In paradise all thmgs laboured for man, now man must labour for all things. Adam did work because he was happy ; we, his children, must work that we may be happy. Heaven is for joys, hell for pains, earth for labour. The fii'st whole day that ever man spent was a holy day, the six following were work days. Let us labour that we may rest ; the more cheerfully we go about our lawful business the nearer we come to our para- dise. Christianity is a vocation, not a vacation : ' AYork out your salvation with fear and trembling,' Phil. ii. 12. ' Work:' this is cuiere, to do ; 'work out,' be instant, constant in it : this sat arjere, to do sufficient; ' your salva- tion,' keep the right course : this is hoc aijerc, to do the best. Our labom-s end with our lives, oiir rewards end not with om- labours. (3.) For instruction. God did teach man's heart by that he did exer- cise his hands. There were two principal trees in the garden, the tree of life and the tree of knowledge. Other trees had a natm-al use, these a spiritual ; they were Adam's sacraments. The ' tree of hfe ;' not because it was able to give immortality, or to pre- sence from death till man was translated to immortality. Some schoolmen* hold that it had a power to preserve from death by a natural faculty ; * Tostat. Scotus, Aquiu., Perer. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 135 Bonaventura, by a supernatural faculty. But, indeed, by eating its fniit it could do neither ; no food that is cormptible can make the body incor- ruptible, for neither the fruit could nourish without its own coiTuption, nor maintain life without nourishment. If man had not sinned he had not died ; but for this immortality he was beholden to his creation, not to the tree. And without sin he had lived ; eat what fi'uit ho would, saving only one. It is called the tree of life, not efective, but siffnijicative ;* not for operation, but signification ; being a figure of that tnie immortality which man should have enjoyed from God, continuing in his obedience. So the Scripture expounds it, symbolically, Prov. iii. 18 ; Rev. ii. 7. This was one sacrament, to assure Adam continuance of happiness, upon his perse- verance in holiness. Albeit God, tliat ordained the end, immortality of life, did not appoint this fruit the efi'ectual means of that life ; yet certainly it served to nourish the soul, by a lively representation of that tree whose fruit is eternal life. The ' tree of knowledge ;' not because it gave knowledge speculative, but experimental. For if it had bettered their knowledge it had been their gain, not their loss. But it was another sacrament ; to shew man that, if he transgi-essed God's commandment, he should die, and so come to an experimental knowledge of good and evil. Life is the act of the soul, knowledge is the life of the soul : the tree of loiowledge, and the tree of life, were ordained as earthly helps of the spiritual part. The one was for confirmation, the other was for probation or trial ; the one shewed him what life he should have, the other what knowledge he should net wish to have. B'lt when he had tasted of the tree of knowledge, he might not taste of the tree of life : that immortal food was not for a mortal stomach. God gave him the one, and forbade the other ; now qui arripitit prohibitam, amisit concessam : by taking that was prohibited, he lost that was allowed. Yet he that drove him from the visible tree promised him that in-visible tree, whereof the other was a sj-mbol or sacrament, Christ. So now at once he perceives his o-«ti death by th.e sense of reason, and apprehends his future life by the eye of faith. All our tastes are too much seasoned with the forbidden fruit, nitimur in vetitum, cupimusque negata. There is a tree of life, let us hunger after that. None but repentant sinners can relish it : let us repent that we have eaten, believe that we may eat, and eat that we may live for ever. Adam in that visible tree saw his Saviour, ere he had need of a Saviour ; he saw the means of a heavenly life, before he had lost the earthly. We have a clearer evidence, why then have we not a stronger faith ? The tree of hfe was nailed to the tree of death, that we who fell by the tree of death might come to the tree of life. When we contemplate that paradise wherein man was created, we conceive it a place of such joy, that om' thoughts want place to apprehend it. Yet that paradise, to which man is predestinated and redeemed, doth more exceed that than that exceeded a barren desert. Let others vainly trouble their wits to seek that paradise which is lost ; let us set our hearts to seek that paradise which may be found. When Adam had sinned, that earthly paradise was shut ; when Christ had died, this heavenly paradise was set open. From thence we were cast out in Adam, hither we are admitted in Christ. He that took that from us in justice, promised this to us in mercy. That could contain but a few, this hath room enough for us all. We made ourselves unfit for that by sinning ; the Lord make us fit for this other by believing ! * Aug. 136 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 5. The dignity of man ; ' Thou hast made him a httle lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour,' Ps. viii. 5. Paulo inferiorem an^fclis, multo superiorem reHquis. First, He had a sweet com- munion with God, his soul and hody being a sanctuary for his Creator ; many familiar passages and conferences interceding between them. It was sin that caused Adam to hide himself ; fear follows guilt, and sin is the mother of shame. But some sparks of di^dnity appearing in Christ, Peter cries, Recede; ' Depart fi'om me, for I am a sinfd man, 0 Lord,' Luke v. 8. How pleasant is the tranquillity of soul arising fi'om the assurance of pardon ! How inconceivable was that deUght when the soul needed no pardon ! Then, such was the wondrous beauty of his body, such a majesty resulting from his face, that it struck a reverence and awe into all the crea- tures : ' The dread of you shall be upon all things, for into your hand they are delivered,' Gen, ix. 2 ; so that they neither dui-st nor could rebel against man. "While he served his Creator, he was feared of eveiy creatui-e. More than this, he had a patent of dominion over them. Gen. i. 26. He that made man and all the rest, prfrposuit, set man over all the rest. To witness this subjection, they present themselves before him as their lawful king. Some have conceited Adam sitting in some high and eminent place as in a chau* of state, his face shining brighter than Moses's, and every beast coming as he was called, and bowing the head as he passed by, being not able to behold his majesty. But certainly, by a secret instinct from God, they were gathered to Adam, ' he brought them,' Gen. ii. 19. "Wherem he might admire his Maker's bounty, behold his own excellency, exercise his o^vn authority, and, lastly, shew his wisdom ; — Which was gi'eat. (1.) Li natm-al things, for the name was given ac- cording to the nature ; therefore he understood at first the propriety of every creature. But it is objected that ' Solomon was wiser than all men; none Uke him before, none arose Uke him after,' 1 Kings iii. 12. And he understood the natm*e of plants, beasts, fowls, and fishes ; of ' everything,' chap. iv. 33. Tostatus doth prefer Solomon before Adam for wisdom. Answer : This is spoken of the common generation of men, excepting both the first Adam and the second : the former being created without sin, the other bom without sin. So that until Christ, certainly Adam was the wisest man. (2.) In supernatural things ; he was not ignorant of the mystery of the Trinity, in whose image he was made. (3.) In future things ; he had some knowledge of Christ to come, though not yet as a Redeemer, yet perhaps as the author and fountain of hfe, whereof that tree was a symbol. Of the fall of angels I know not whether he had knowledge ; because Eve was without suspicion, who else would have been cautelous of such a conference. Thus God gave the natiu'e to his creatures, Adam must give the name ; to shew they were made for him, they shall be what he will unto him. If Adam had only called them by the names which God imposed, this had been the praise of his memoiy ; but now to denominate them himself, was the approval of his judgment. At the fii-st sight he perceived their dis- positions, and so named them as God had made them. He at first saw all then- insides, we his posterity ever since, with all our experience, can see but their skins. Therefore are they presented to their new lord, to do then- fiii'st homage, and to acknowledge then- teniu-e. Thus did God honour man, before man did dishonour God and himself. The hons crouch at his feet ; the bears and tigers tremble at his look ; the eagle stoops to his call ; he commands, the behemoth and leviathan obey. He can now stoop the MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 137 hawk to his lure, send the dog of his en-and, teach one fowl to fetch him another, one beast to purvey for his table in the spoil of others ; but this is by art and violence, then it was by natui'e, without compulsion or resist- ance. Here I find cause to condemn three opinions. (1.) That man in his innocency should have slain the beasts to help his experience, by taking knowledge of their inward parts ; or for his sport and delight in hunting, or for his sustentation in eating.* But this is not likely, for ' death entered by sin,' Rom. v. 12 ; if there had been no sin, no death could have seized upon either lord or servant. Ad usinn erant, von ad esum. The killing of beasts, on what occasion soever, whether for food, for know- ledge, or pleasure, belongs unto the bondage of corruption, which sin brought with it. 'I have given you the herb, the tree, the fruit,' Gen i. 29; fruit, not flesh. Homo innnortalis vivehat ex frnctibus, homo mortaJis rivit ex mortibas.j; The beasts should not have died for us, if we had not been dying in ourselves. I am persuaded, if man had not sinned, no beast should have been killed. I dispute not their question, that think the beasts remaining at the resurrection shall be preserved. But let this tem- perate our authority fi'om unmerciful tyranny ; it was sin that made us butchers, and taught the master to eat the servant. (2.) The anabaptists, from that general grant. Gen. i. 26, would fetch their confused community, and teach eveiy son of Adam to challenge a free use over all the creatures ; as if, because the fishes of the sea be common, therefore also the fishes in every pond. But it is a gross collection, for the gift must be used according to the will of the giver. Now as he gave this liberty, so he distinguished a propriety. We may drink the milk of kine, but of our own kine ; wear the wool of sheep, but of our o^vn sheep, or such as our money hath bought and made our own. These men have robbed the decalogue of the eighth commandment, as the papists have of the second. An error that hath in it, we know not whether more impotence or impudence, so barbarous that the best conviction is the magistrate's bastinado. He that will steal a horse by a comaterfeit warrant out of the Scripture, is well worthy to be confuted with a halter, (3.) Those that have wi'ung blood out of the nostrils of reason, in fi-am- ing arguments to the dishonour of man, thinking it the credit of their wits to vilify whom God doth thus dignify — man. TuUy, prince of the acade- mics, was transported with such a fury, he rails on nature, calls her step- dame for bringing man into the world naked and weak, and so makes him inferior to the brutes, whom God hath made little inferior to the angels. The Lord hath thus honoured man, and yet who but man could thus dis- honour the Lord ? There be such degenerate men, content to proclaim themselves bastards that they might disgrace all their fraternity. An opinion, that like a blazing meteor is dissolved in the wind, and in its dissolution vanisheth ; as if God had made him the worst of aU creatm'es whom he meant to make the best. Here, as David speaks, ' If the enomy had only reproached me,' Ps. Iv. 12, if the wrong were only man's, we might be silent ; but God is injm-ed in his workmanship, et j)^^ latera hominum petitur Creator hominum. I Let me proportion a censure fit for these cen- surers : Ne prceferantitr brutis, qui bruta praferunt ; if they will prefer beasts before men, let their portion be among the beasts. For us let us honour God in man, who hath honoured man next himself; inferior to the angels in om- natm-e, superior to the angels in the advancement of our nature, assumed by the image of his own person, Jesus Christ. * Basil ; Perer. t Greg. % Lactant. de opific. Dei 138 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 6. Plato and some of the Hebrews thought that Adam was created at first both man and woman, and was aftenvard di\dded into twain ; or that they were both at fu-st made together, but joined by their sides, hke concorporate twins, and after parted: they have too many such fables and fooleries. So the poets came in with theii- apish fictions : Hesiod with his Pandora, whom Vulcan made, all the gods adoring, adorning, and contributing to her; Venus gave her beauty, Pallas comeliness, Mercurj- wit — whereupon she was called Pandora ; which, opening the lid of the tun, di\'ided care and gi-ief to men who lived before without. They would beHeve Hesiod of Im Pandora ; not Moses, nor God himself, concerning liis Eve.^!"- The woman hath many adversaries that disdain her competition with man. Some mil not allow her a soul, but they be soulless men. God ' in his image created them,' Gen. i. 27, not him only, but him and her — • them, ' male and female ;' therefore she hath a soul. Some will not allow her to be saved ; yet the Scripture is plain, ' she shall be saved by child- bearing,' 1 Tim. ii. 15. ' Two shall be gi-indi-ag at the mill,' diicc, two women, so is it originally ; ' one of them shall be saved,' Matt. xxiv. 41. Though Chi'ist honom-ed our sex in that he was a man, not a woman, yet he was born of a woman, and was not begot of a man. And howsoever wicked women prove the most wicked sinners, yet the worst and gi-eatest sin that ever was done, was committed by man, not by woman — the cru- cifying of our Lord Jesus ; not a woman had a hand in it ; even Pilate's wife was against it, charging her husband ' to have nothing to do with that just man.' Woman v/as the principal in killing the first Adam, himself being accessoiy. But, in killing of the second Adam, man was the princi- pal, and woman had not a finger in it. In a word, God in his image created them both on earth, and God in his mercy hath provided them both a place in heaven ! Concerning the creation of woman, I observe thi'ee things : man's necessity, God's bounty, and the woman's conveniency. (1.) Man's necessity. A whole world to use, and so many milhons of creatures to command, had not been a perfect content for him without a partner. For Adam ' there was not a help found meet for him,' Gen. ii. 20. He saw all the creatures, he saw them fit to be his servants, none to be his companions. Not that the necessit}^ was such as if the Maker's wisdom could not have multiplied man without the woman. According to the Hebrew paradox, nothing is good but a woman ; which others lewdly thwart with a pseudodox, nothing is bad but a woman. But it was. First, For mutual society and comfort. She is compared to a vine : for its fair shadow and arbor of leaves, Refrigerlum, a refi'eshing to her husband. When he comes from his labour abroad, Latahitur sub rite sua, is his wel- come home. Secondly, For the propagation of the world, she is a ' froitftd vine,' which is one means of her salvation, as one end of her creation ; if they be fructiis natiritatis sua, liheri, not spurii : children, not bastards. Thirdly, To increase the chm-ch of God, and by replenishing the earth, to supply and store the kingdom of heaven. Fourthly, That from her might come that * promised seed ' which alone doth savc ns all. Therefore it was God's chai'ge, ' Increase and multiply ; ' and his provi- sion, ' It is not good for man to be alone.' To condemn that ' doctrine of devils,' which loads this holy estate with their dung-carts full of reproaches. Misliking all their former answers, they now sa}'. This Crescite is not a pre- cept, for it was given to beasts not capable of precepts, and it should then bind all men, not only to marrjs but to multiply by maniage ; therefore * Orig. ad Cels. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 13'J they will have it only an institution of nature and promise of fecunditj'. But here they fight with their own shadows, for we do not say that it is a commandment binding all, but a liberty gi'antcd to all ; in the barring of which liberty lies their sin. * When you are persecuted in one city, flee to another,' saith Christ ; yet he sinneth not that flieth not, when his faith is strong enough for the trial. Some have the gift of continency, which sup- plies this necessity ; but to constrain him to live without a wife, who cannot live without a concubine, is to enforce a necessity of sinning, where God hath giving the faculty of avoiding it. Before the fall, marriage was in bene- Jicium, now also in remedium. And though, in some respects, Felicior cffUbatus, single life is more happj'' ; yet matrimonium tutins, always mar- riage is more safe. Moses was a married man, Elias a virgin ; Elias called fire from heaven, Moses obtained manna from heaven. Elias was a wag- goner in the air, mounted through the clouds in a chariot ; Moses was viator in mari, a traveller through the sea : God honoured them both alike. The smell of the flourishing vine drives away serpents and venomous creatm-es : the love of the wife, seasoned with the fear of God, is a siij^ersedeas and bar to all Satan's temptations. (2.) God's bounty. When man was made, we do not read that he found the want of an helper : he that enjoyed God could want no contentment. The contemplation of the new made world, and the glory of the Maker, did so take him up that he had neither leisure nor cause to complain. Should he beg of God a companion, this had been to disesteem the happiness of his condition, to grudge at his Maker's goodness, and unthankfuUy to have questioned his own perfection. As too many of his sons make themselves unworthy of that they have by coveting that they want, which they might want and be never the worse, may have and be never the better. Adam found not this want in God, but God found this want in Adam. He that made him, and knew him better than he knew himself, saw his want and supplied it, giving him comfort in a creature beside him, that had enough in his Creator above him. And rather than his innocence shall want a companion, God will begin a new creation. Before we can see our defects, God forsees them, and is then providing relief for us, when we feel no cause to com- plain ; building a rampart for us, before the enemy comes to plant any ordnance against us. Still he watcheth over his ' beloved,' even ' while they sleep,' Ps. cxxvii. 3. How will he supply our necessity that thus stores us with superfluity ? When he efiected this, he did cast Adam into a ' deep sleep,' Gen. ii. 22, that neither his sight might be ofi'ended, nor his sense oppressed ; sleep being a binder up of the senses. Would he not have yielded this rib wak- ing ? yes, doubtless ; to such a Maker, and for such a pui-pose, most cheei-fully. But as Adam knew not while himself was made, so he shall not know while his other self is made out of him. God wiU so magnify his goodness, that he shall receive his happiness before he expect it ; that his joy in it, and thankfulness for it, may be the greater. So God * built the woman ;' she is called a building. First, Because man was an imperfect building without her. Secondly, Because the building of the family is by her ; so the Hebrews call a son ben, of banah, to build. Man in marriage is said rejmrare latus suum, to repair his maimed side ; and repetere costam suam, to require his own rib. And the woman is thither reimita, undo suhlata, reduced to her first place. The inscription she bears, is donum and bonnm, the gift of God ; ' he brought her to the man,' it was his new- world's gift, the Uke whereof was not to be found in all the riches of nature. 140 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. [S.) The woman's conveniency and fitness for man. She was not made out of the earth, which was the matter of man ; not out of the inferior creatures, which were the servants of man ; but out of himself, that she might be dear in estimation, and equal in condition, to him. Therefore she took her denomination from him, as her being out of him : of ish, isha; of man, woman. The school hath curious questions : whether this was one of Adam's necessaiy and substantial parts, or a superfluous and super- numei'ary rib ? If it had been superfluous, God had not made it and given it him ; if he had been imperfect without it, God had not taken it from him. There is diflerence between things useful and convenient, and those that be necessary. Therefore, if in God's sight man could not well have wanted it, it had been easy enough for him to make the woman of the bone, and to turn the flesh into another bone. But he so multiplied the spirits, so animated it, that it should never be missed, or give cause of complaint. ' This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,' saith Adam, Gen. ii. 23; not so much for the contemplation of her likeness, or consideration of her fitness, or sensible alteration in himself, as for the knowledge of her matter, and to shew his authority over her. He gave a name unto her, * She shall be called woman.' If she had been made by the request or will of Adam, or with the pain and detriment of Adam, she might aftenvard have been upbraided with her dependency and obligation. Now she owes nothing but to her Creator. Adam can no more challenge aught from her for his rib, than the earth can challenge from him. From a rib to a helper, was an happy change. Wlio was ever a loser by God's alteration ? ^Vhatsoever we have is his. "When he taketh from us his o^vn, which we had, he will give us better things, which we shall keep. He that gave man a woman to his helper, gave him by that woman a man to be his Saviour. Conclusion. — Wlien we see the heavens, the sun, and stars, we have good cause to say, ' 0 God, what is man ?' Yet all these creatures hath he made for one, and that one almost the least of all. The smallest dust or sand is not so little to the whole earth, as man to heaven. Yet all the creation hath not more wonder in it, than is in man. They were made by a mere fiat, man by consultation ; they at once, man by degi'ees ; they in shapes like to none but themselves, man in the image of God ; they with qualities fit for service, man for dominion ; they had their names from man, man from God. "When he had di-awn this real map, built the substantial fabric of the world, he did abridge it all into the small tablet of man. He alone consists of heaven and earth, soul and body. "When we say, ' Maker of man,' we include, ' Maker of all the world.' The price and virtue of things consists not in the quantity. One diamond is worth many quames of stone ; one loadstone hath more -virtue than mountains of earth ; one herb in the garden is better than whole fields of weeds ; we say the leg of a lark is better than the whole body of a kite ; we value an ounce of gold more than a talent of lead. Nor do I in this praise man, but God in man. The Maker must be glorified in all, but especially in the best of all. It is fit we should be consecrated to God above others, upon whom he hath bestowed more cost than on others. This is the end why he hath made us, to mani- fest his glory in us. His wisdom, goodness, mercy, is seen in all ; but who can take notice of it so well as man ? None but he can see what God hath done ; none but he can admire and adore him in what he seeth. "\^^ly should we do an}i,hing else but honour God, seeing he hath made us only able to honour him ? Think, 0 man, why thou wort made, and do not dishonour thy Maker. Let us cast ourselves down at his footstool, with MEDITATIONS UPON THE CUEKD, HI our knees on the ground, and from the ground of our hearts say, All honour and praise, all thauks and obedience, be to God, our Creator, for ever. Thus of man in general. Other visible creatures are wholly coq)oral ; the invisible are wholly spiritual. Man is both corporal and sensible in big body, spuitual in his soul. He is the figure and abstract of heaven and earth, and doth in his little contain as much. Consider the earth, whether outwardly in her best prime, when the spring hath decked her over \fith. fragrant and beauteous flowers ; yet they are but dull in regard of the face of man, whose colours are more lively and pleasing, like drops of blood upon beds of snow. Or inwardly, he hath veins for her mines, bones for her rocks, muscles for her quarries. Heaven hath a swift motion, yet the imagination of man far outstrips it. Their motion is continual, man's mind immortal. For the plants and grass of the earth, man hath excrementa, ornamenta, his hairs. For the sim and moon in heaven, man hath eyes to give his body light. Yea, there is more in this little man, than in the gi'eat world ; as the philosopher was more confounded in the small fly, considering her parts, than in the great elephant with his members. Now let us consider him in his parts ; and herein first of his body, then of his soul. Concerning his body, I consider fom* circumstances ; the matter, the honour, the order, and the wonder. 1. The matter of it. * God fonned man of the dust of the ground,' Gen. ii. 7 ; not to be the soul's sepulchre, as Plato taught, but the soul's organ, to execute what she dedicates. This was not a slimy matter, mixed of earth and water ; but the dust, the thinner and pui-er part of the earth. Man was at first of that element composed, unto which he shall be at last resolved ; this was dust. ' Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt retm-n again,' Gen. iii. 19. Certainly, his was a more excellent constitution than any other creatm-e's ; a temper fit for the instrument of such a soul. (1.) Others, by reason of their cold and gross humours, grow over: beasts with hairs, fowls with feathers, fishes with scales. Man is smooth and clear ; God shining upon him as the sun upon a plain glass ; on the rest as upon uneven clods, neither apt to receive nor reflect his beams. (2.) His form and proportion exceed the rest; his members being disposed to a ready use, a hand to machinate and perfect the invention of his head. (3.) The uprightness of his stature gives him pre-eminence. Their faces are set to look downward ; man hath an erected and exalted countenance ; ad sidera tollere vidtiis. And in the majesty of this carriage, he makes a demonstrance of his dominion over the rest. (4.) Though they may excel him in the quickness of some sense — the eagle in seeing, the dog in smelling, the mole in hearing, the spider in feeling, and for strength, the horse is most powerful, — yet man can better discern and judge of the outward sense, make more noble use of it ; and what excellency of either strength or sense is in the rest, he adds to himself, and makes his own by reducing it to his sei-vice. It was fittest that his body should be made of a ten*ene, not ethereal or celestial matter, because he was to live on the earth. A body capable of sense, by which the soul, being sent into it as a naked table, might gather experience, and by experience knowledge. And howsoever it was mortal, considered in itself, as compounded of contrary natm-es, the elements, yet by God's conservation it should have been immortal, without sin. "We are made of dust, and dust will claim her own. Why do we glory in om' gi*eatness ? When that father stood by the tomb of Caesar, with tears he exclaimed, Ubi nunc pulchritudo Casaris? Where is now the 142 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. glory of Cfcsar ? Wlieve be his troops of nobles, armies of soldiers, orders of senators, imperial majesty, the fear of nations, honour and terror of the world? Uhi nunc luec omnia? Quo uh'dt maiinificentia tua ? Why do we covet ? ' 0 earth, earth, earth, hear the Lord's word,' Jer. xxii. 29. Thrice : other men are earth twice, earth in coming from it, and earth in going to it. The covetous man is earth thrice, for his love of earth transforms his soul into it. A mortal fool, to heap up so much wealth for insensible dust ! Wliy put we confidence in man, whose hfe is nothing but a little breath ? Isa. ii. 22. Stop but his mouth and nostrils, and he is a dead man. A veiy shuttle ; no sooner in at one side but out at the other. Job vii. 6. Sickness is often without a name, non publico morho yiomen fatetur. Death is always knowTi, and known inevitable, in what shape soever it appears, noil medicina contra mortem. Wliy do we reckon upon fourscore ? Quantu- him est quod vivimus ! Wliy do we fear what we cannot shift ? If we be in Christ, it is the gate of life. It is said, tempus communis mediciis, time can remedy some evils, translating the rod of the righteous to the backs of the wicked. But mors communis medicus indeed. It can cure all diseases of body and soul, that no sore be left in the one, no sin in the other. Nil cms sentit in nervo, cum nianus est in ccelo :* the body may sleep quietly in the dust when the soul is in heaven. 2. The honour of it. Albeit the image of God in man consists in wis- dom and sanctity ; yet there may be a hkeness in other respects. Yea, though the body cannot be like a spirit, much less a finite body to an in- fmite spirit, yet even in the body may be found some prints of the divine majesty. First ; Man is said to be made after God's image ; man, not the soul of man only. The soul without the body is not a perfect man. Secondly ; God's image was also in Christ's body ; for he says, * He that hath seen me hath seen my Father,' John xiv. 9. Me, he saith not, that hath ' seen my soul ; ' nor could his soul be seen. Thirdhj ; WTien God prohibits the shedding of man's blood, he yields this reason : ' For in the image of God made he man,' Gen. ix. 6. Now, the soul cannot be killed, therefore there must be some similitude in the body. So precious is the life of man, who had this image created ; much more of Christians, who have this image renewed. Fourthly; Owx body is the example of that world which was in God from all eternity. As he pui*posed and formed it, so with a summary abridgment in man he expressed it. Fifthly ; There is few of om- members but be (in a metaphorical sense) attributed to God. By our eyes he signifies his knowledge ; by our ears his regard to prayers ; by our feet his coming towards us ; by our hands his power. So that these serve not only for the offices of our soul, but be also certain types and resemblances of some perfections in God. Sixthly ; The mind in the body is like a candle in the lantern, which makes the horn transparent, and difilisive of the light. The soul knows, not the body ; yet the soul com- municates her knowledge by the body. This is the honour of the body, fit to be the mansion of so noble a guest. We may despise this earthly frame, as it is om* own ; we must admire it, as it is God's ; we should not abuse it, as it belongs to both. It is but a tabernacle for the soul, 1 Cor. \i. 19, it is a temple for the Lord. Let us not so defile it tUl both the soul and the Lord be weaiy to dwell in it. We love the cabinet for the jewel's sake, esteem it for that it contains. He is absm'd that will stable his horses where he means to lay his honourable guests. Yet how do many men pollute this fair house by drunkenness, * Tertul. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 143 making it a swinc-sty, by uncleanness a LrotLel, by worldlincss a dunghill, by oppression a lion's den, by voluptuousness a boar's frank, by malice a stove or burning furnace, and by continual sin a ban-icaded jail to imprison the soul ! Thus, instead of God's resemblance, it is made the cxemplaiy of Satan, a habitation for bats and owls, a cage of unclean birds. Prosti- tuted harlots, that set up a trade without credit, and (contraiy to all honest )rofessions) break with too much custom, little think how they make that oody the devil's pinnace, which God built an ark for himself, a good ship o transport the soul to paradise, till at last they become no longer God's, jut the chirurgeon's creatures. Not to speak of those external violences ind inward disturbances wliich many contract to their own bodies, some setting the house on fire by wrathful passions, others untiling it and break- ing doNvn the windows by intemperance, even sordid nastiness makes it odious to God. For, howsoever Christ prefers jmritatem cordia puritati cutis, the pure heart is best ; yet seldom doth a clean soul dwell in a slut- tish body. As that of the philosopher is held to be true, that the outward complexion inclines the inward disposition, so the unhandsomeness of the cover disgi'aceth the contents of the book, and through the chinks of an imhightcd flesh we may read a neglected soul. But as God gave us our bodies for service, so he calls also for them in om* holy sacrifice, Eom. xii. 1. 3. The order. The head, as it is nearest to heaven, so likest to heaven, both for roundness of figure, globular, resembling the finnament, which is a perfect circle and circumference, and for situation of divine graces in it. From the head all senses have their original, there they strive to declare their virtues. That which indeed makes a man dwells here, the princely power of reason. The forehead is smooth and clear, like the brow of hea- ven. The face is full of sweet proportions, the seat of beautj^, the throne of majest}', an external figure of the mind, the relish of all the other parts. Of this beauty colour is the matter, and proportion the form, which ariseth from the general harmony of the whole. The eye is the centre where all these beauties meet, the hfe of the face's comeliness moves there ; it is the model of all the other graces united. God set two gi'eat lights in heaven, so two living glasses in the midst of om* visage. By these are remote and unreachable objects represented to the mind ; and because they be tender, and subject to danger, he hath fenced them in with lids and covers, hollow bones and prominent brows. The tongue, that instrument of speech and taste, is but a small nimble piece of flesh, yet how rare and melodious voices are formed by it ; notes able to ravish the heax-t of man ! It can discom-se of heaven and earth, things visible and unseen, manifest the thoughts of the mind, persuade the soul with arguments. It is called the glory of man, because it best expresseth the glory of God. Those instni- ments of eating, the mandibles, how are they fortified ? The upper is fixed, the lower hath scope of motion, contrary to those gi'inders in the mill, where the upper moves above, and the lower hes still. The neck is small and sinewy, the arms long to extend, the hands active to do, the thighs and legs like marble pillars to support, the feet to transport and move the body according to the will of the mmd. Every part is so disposed, with power, proportion, and conveuiency, that we cannot think a reason how it should be otherwise, or give them any fitter place. Now, as what God hath joined together, let no man put asunder; so what He hath ordered in wisdom, let not us disorder in folly. K one be born with a defective, superfluous, or misplaced limb, we call him a monster, a prodigy, yet is he so besides his will, even of God's making. But we have 144 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. monsters of tlieir own making. Man's face hath an outward reference to heaven. Other creatures grovel down to the earth, all their senses be intent upon it. Man is reared upwards, as prompt to look upon heaven, as his foot hath no power to tread beside earth. '\Vhat monsters are they that deject their countenances, abase their bodies, deface themselves, and, being men, make themselves beasts ? Such are the covetous ; the eyes of the brute are not more pronely fixed on the earth. Omnia subjecisti, ' God hath put all things under his feet,' Ps. viii. 6. The worldling crosseth this ordinance, subjecting himself to all things. How vile and degenerate is it, suhjici subjecto, for man to put his heart under that which God hath put his feet ? Yet, if their bodies were answerable to their affections, incederent quadnq^edes, they would go on all four. Other creatures have but four muscles to turn their eyes round about ; man hath a fifth to pull his eyes up to heavenward, as his proper inheritance and home. Lest our eyes should be too much bent on what they should not, they have peculiar nerves to attract them toward the seat of their rest, to shew that we can never truly be happy till we come to enjoy that place whither our eyes may invite our hearts, and our hearts should direct our eyes. Let it be our care to keep ourselves as God hath made us. As our head is nearest to heaven, so let the thoughts of our head be most fixed on heaven. As our feet are lowest, so let the things under our feet be held vilest. The joints of our knees have a facility in bowing, let them do daily homage to their Maker. Our hands are nimble instruments, let them act the duties of our calling ; an idle hand is as improper as a heavy air. Let our foreheads be smooth and calm like heaven, without the frowns and foi*- rows of wrath. Our faces are the seat of majesty, let us not make them the snares of iniquity. Our eyes are the body's light, let them not purvey for the soul's darkness. Our tongue is the instrument of music and melody ; it is never in tune, but when it sings the praises of God. The God of order requires that every pai't keep the order of God. Lord, thou hast made our bodies in harmony, preserve them in sanctity, and crown them with immortal glory. 4. The wonder. There is not a member wherein we find not cause of wonder. Our body was so far beyond our own skill in the making, that it poseth and astonisheth us in the considering. So many arteries, sinews, veins, none of them idle, or without manifest defect to be missed ; a wonder ! The necessary dependence and disposition of those inward parts, for all the ofiices of life, like the wheels of a most curious clock, that the disorder of one puts all out of frame ; a wonder ! The liver is the fountain of blood ; the heart of vital, the brain of animal, spirits : now that from the same nourishment, the liver should derive blood, and the heart spirits ; and that the brain, which is a cause of feeling, should have in itself no feeling ; another wonder ! That this body should be kept alive by dead things, the flesh of slain beasts ; a wonder ! for how should that which is dead give life, or maintain it ? That since the fall, man eats and drinks in such a quantity : this in common reason should rather choke than nourish him. Yet thus hath God made his stomach a limbeck, to digest all meats that be wholesome for his nourishment ; a wonder ! There is no such strength in the body, whereby it should hold together, no more than a piece of earth set upright ; yet, being animated with a soul, it can move and work, with- out which the sinews could not confirm the flesh to the bones ; a wonder ! Innumerable are these marvels, if the natmralist would consider them ; but I am not physician enough to reckon them. Only thus much I say, * I am MEOITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 145 fearfully and wonderfully made,' Ps. cxxxix. 14 ; wonderfully in the con- ception, more wonderfully in the completion, most wonderfully in the inspii-a- tion. God made us, and we knew it not ; brought us into the world, and we knew it not ; preserved us in the cradle, and we knew it not ; now we are come to maturity, and do know it ; lot us serve him, and glorify his name for ever. Conclmion. — Man being made in so goodly a proportion, and so far excelling all other creatures, how comes it to pass that he is so mortal and momentary, a flower so quickly vanishing ? This hath been an old philo- sophical complaint, that nature to man was a stepdame, allowing him least time that could make best use of his time. Ars longa, vita brevis : the stag, the raven, ti*eble the age of man. He only can understand, and he is kept from improving it, by the shortness of his time. Let me answer this by an apologue. When Jupiter had made the world, and all the beasts in it, they no sooner opened their eyes, and beheld this glorious fi-ame, but they were jocund and meiTy. But yet they knew not their employment, and therein desire to be satisfied. The ape went fii'st to know his office. It was answered, that he was to sei've man ; to skip and play, and make him sport, in sundiy tricks and imitations ; to be bound to a chain, and do as man would have him. This relished somewhat harsh, but there was no remedy. He demands how long he must endure this ; it was told him, thirty years. He thought that too tedious, and begged a shorter time ; Jupiter was contented, and bated him ten. Then came the ass, to know the fortune of his condition ; which was also to serve man, in a laborious life, can-}-ing bui'dens, bearing stripes, and not seldom wanting his suste- nance ; and the tenn of this service was also thirty years. Discontented with this long slavery, he desires Jupiter to take ofi" some of his time, and to bestow it on those that desired it. This was gi-anted, and he was like- \rise eased of ten years. Then comes the dog ; and his office was to run a-huuting, to kill hares, but not to eat a bit of them ; when he was wearj', to be glad of scraps ; to wait in the dark, and keep the house ; and this for thirty years. But petitioning for the like abatement, it was granted, and ten years cut off. Last comes the ox, to know what he should do ; which was also to serve man, in drawing the yoke and other carriages for his use, with the galling pricks of many a goad, to rouse his dulness. He also craves abridgment of his thirty years, and lo ! twenty was abated to him ; provided that, when he had labom'ed to do man service ten years with his ii%'ing body, he should then be killed to feed him with his dead flesh. Now comes man ; and finding himself of so immortal and discursive a soul, usufructuary lord of all the world, a potent prince in so fair a dominion, he demands his office, which was to sei*ve his Maker in a cheerful obedience. He hkes it well, but how long was he to live ? Jupiter answers, that he had detennined to every one thu-ty years. Man thought this too short a time for so pleasant a dwelling, therefore begs that the years which were taken from the other might be added to his. It was gi-anted, but with this condition, that, ha-^nng first lived his own thirty years, he should enjoy the rest in their order. Ffrst, the life of the ape, full of fancies and wanton 'mitations ; then the life of the ass, moiling and toiling, carrying and recarn-ing, labouring for the riches of this world, but withal, eating little part of his own gains ; so till fifty. From that to sixty, the life of the dog, snarling at one, barking at another, hunting about for preys, and scarce eating a morsel of them, but, in a foohsh covetousness, leaving them all for others. The remainder, like the ox ; lazy, unwieldy, full of pains and VOL. ui. K 113 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. aclies, till at last death comes to take liim out of tlie pasture. This fable teacheth us, that long life, if it be not sanctified from these bestial qualities, is an unhappiness, rather than a favour ; and that man need not grumble at the shortness of his time, seeing other creatures live but for a time, and then perish ; whei'eas after this short Ufe of misery, God hath provided for us an eternal life of glory. The soul of man. — The body hath had its due honour, whereof every part, for place, use, and form, doth exceed wonder. Yet doth not this human body more excel other visible creatures, than the soul doth excel that. The heavens are purer than the earth ; the body is of the earth, the soul is from above the heavens. The body is to the soul as a barren turf to a mine of gold, as a mud-wall about a delicate garden, as a wooden box wherein the jeweller carries his precious gems, as a coarse case to a fair and rich instrument, as a rotten hedge to a paradise, as Pharaoh's prison to a Joseph, or as a mask to a beautiful face. It is so excellent a thing, that itself considers it cannot sufficiently conceive its own excellency. For method, I desu'e to touch upon these six circumstances : What it is, From whence it comes, When it begins. How long it continues. What it is like, and What it is able to do. 1. What it is; no accidentary quality, but a spiritual and invisible essence, subsisting by itself. This appears, because the soul hath often a disposition adverse to the body's ; she would pray, when the other would sleep ; and is often most comforted, when the body is most distressed ; as a bird sings most merrily when her cage is opened. And, because it hath a being when it is removed from the body ; as the musician lives though his lute be broken. For the specific difierence, beasts are said to have souls, but they be not substances, but peculiar qualities, arising from the temperature of the body, and vanishing with it ; the soul of the beast is said to be ' in the blood,' Gen. ix. 4. Angels are spirits, but cannot be united with bodies, so as to make one entire person. Man's soul is his form, the first mover of the body, and the principnl thing that makes man to be man. There be spirits in man, but this is not the soul. Some think that man consists of three parts, because Paul mentions ' soul, spirit, and body,' 1 Thess. v. 23. But there by spirit is signified the mind, by soul, the will and affections ; these are not two things, but two faculties, for the soul is but one. So it is called the ' spirit of our mind,' Ephes. iv. 23, which is the more noble and purer part of the soul. Indeed, soul hath divers acceptations in the Scripture. First, For the whole man ; ' The soul that sinneth, shall die,' Ezek. xviii. 20 ; the soul, totus homo, the whole man. * Tribulation upon every soul that doth evil,' Rom. ii. 9 ; upon every man. Secondly, For that immortal part of man; fear not man, for he cannot 'kill the soul,' Matt. x. 28 ; the better part cannot be killed. Thirdly. For the affections and will, which is the inferior part of the soul. Thou shalt love the Lord ' with all thy soul,' Matt. xxii. 37 ; love is an act of the affective part. Fourthly, For the life ; deponit animcan, that is vitam, ' he giveth his Hfe.' The life of the beast is the soul of the beast,* Gen. ix. 4 ; the blood being the seat of life, and chariot of the vital spirits. When we read in philosophers and physicians, of a spirit in man, which working in the heart is called vitalis, the lively faculty ; in the hver, naturalis, the natural faculty; in the head, animalis, the animal faculty; •we must not think this to be the reasonable soul, but rather the chair wherein she sits, and the organ whereby she works ; without whose service, the soul cannot so perfectly exercise her powers and acts in the body. In MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 147 ecstacies, if the spirit be comforted, the soul is comforted ; if the spirit be suffocated, the soul and body are resolved. 2. From whence it comes ; not by traduction from our parents. A body may be engendered of bodies, because something is imparted and conferred from them ; but a soul cannot bring forth a soul, because nothing can separate a thing that is thin and immaterial. That man's soul is not traduced, consider these reasons. First, ' God breathed into his nostrils the breath of hfe, and he became a living soul,' Gen. ii. 7. His body lay senseless on the gi'ound, till a soul was breathed into it by its Maker. SeconJh/, God made the woman, Adam named her. ' This is bone of my bone, and flesh of my flesh,' Gen. ii. 23 ; not soul of my soul ; ho knew she had no part nor portion of his soul. Thirdhj, If a soul could beget a soul, then an angel might beget an angel. Fourthh/, The first man Adam was made ' a living soul,' living, not quickening. Fi/thhj, They are called the 'fathers of om* bodies,' Heb. xii. 8, not of our souls; we have another ' Father of our spirits,' most plainly ; it is God that * formeth the spirit of man within him,' Zech. xii. 1. There is some dificrence in the making of our bodies ; at fii'st by the immediate creation of God, now by the combi- nation of man and woman ; but there is still the same rule of creating the soul ; it is particida divince aura;, breathed into the flesh by himself. In- fundendo creatur, et creando wjundltur ; it is infused in the making, and made in the infusing. Nor yet may we think, that the beginning of the soul is of the essence of God, which seemed to be the error of Lactantius. For as breath is no part of his substance that doth breathe it, so the soul is no part of God's essence that doth give it. If it were part of the divine essence, it were immutable, without beginning, from all eternity ; yea every soul were God. It doth neither arise from the substance of our parents, nor from the essence of God ; but is immediately fonned and inspired by the Maker of all, and infused into the body. The body was made of the earth, common to his fellows, and there lay as senseless as the earth, from which it was taken, and by which it was supported. It was the life of breath, that gave it the breath of life ; no air, no earth, no water, no element was here used, to contribute to this work ; we are beholden to nothing but God for our soul. Our flesh is from flesh, our spirit is from the God of spirits. Now, he that breathed upon the body, and gave it a living spirit, breathe again upon us all, and give us his Holy Spirit ! 3. When it takes beginning. Etsi cum corpore non definit, saltern cum corpore incipit ; though it do not end vnth the body, yet it begins with the body. In the making of the first man, God first instrumentalised a perfect body, and then infused a hvely soul. Now the body is made by ordinary generation in the womb, and the soul is inspired into it, before it see the Hght, or draw breath. ' The children struggled in Rebecca's womb,' Gen. XXV. 22 ; which proves not only infantum animas, sed et pugnas ;* they seem not only to have souls, but even affections. ' The babe leaped in Elizabeth's womb for joy,' Luke i. 14 ; hi motus gaudia restra, says Tertullian to pregnant mothers, that you may be assui-ed your unborn 'nfants have souls. This string I the rather touch, because some naturians have disputed against it ; and would have the life of such children to be either merely vegetative, such as in plants and roots ; or sensitive and mo- tional, such as in beasts ; both which die with the subjects wherein they are ; and not rational, which is the soul. But both the canon law condemns • Tertul. 148 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CHEED. her for a horaicide, qum conccptum in utero deleverit, that destroys the fruit of her own womb ; and if abortion, after hfe, be caused, murder is com- mitted ; God's law, man's law, and their ovs^n conscience condemns it ; therefore the soul is inspired before the birth. Yea so precise were the Sorbounists, and so ascribing to the outward element, that if the hand of an infant, which could not be bom, appeared, they would have it baptized ; alleging that baptism is for the soul, not for the body ; and the soul is tota in qualihet parte, whole in every part. But this truth we affirm, that so soon as the body is formed in the womb, the soul is inspired by the Lord, and having once a beginning, it shall never have an ending; which is the next circumstance considerable. 4. How long it continues. The soul is made of an everlasting nature ; it hath a beginning to live, it shall have no time to die. There is indeed a death of the soul; not that it ceaseth to be, but when it ceaseth to be righteous; it doth still subsist in nature, but not ia the comfort and peace of God. Our soul sleeps not in a li-ving body, therefore shall not sleep in a dead body. The souls of reprobates have their deportation, as the rich man's soul was fetched from him, Luke xii. 20 ; and their detrusion, being ' cast into hell,' Luke xvi. 23. But they that die in the Lord, do instantly go to the Lord, as the soul of Lazarus was in Abraham's bosom. So Christ assured the penitent malefactor, ' This day thou shalt be with me in paradise,' Luke xxiii. 43. Corpus resolvitur, anima ahsolvitur ; quod re- solvitur in terram suain, nihil sentit; qu(E ahsolvitur, in aternum gaudet. The body is dissolved, and feels no pain ; the soul is absolved, and rejoiceth in bliss. The departed saints are dead in their worst part only, hving in their best, vivit, qua voluit vivere, parte magis. Death to such a soul is not exitus, but transitus — its transmigration, not abolition. ' God is the God of the living,' Matt. xxii. 32. Therefore Abraham is alive, Jacob is alive. Now then* bodies be dead, therefore their souls live. * We shall go to them, they shalt not return to us,' 2 Sam. xii. 23. Men's souls have a beginning without an end. The soul and body part for a time, but they shall meet again to receive an irrevocable doom. They do not obambu- late and wander up and down, but remain in certain places and receptacles of happiness or unhappiness, either in the hands of God, or in the devil's prison. The soul is the principal in doing well or ill, therefore she is fii'st in receiving her reward of either pain or peace. 5. To what she is like. The superscription the soul bears Is the image of God ; as it came from him, so it is most like unto him. God is immortal, so is the soul ; God is immaterial, so is the soul ; God is an understanding sphit, so he hath made the soul, and withal to will freely ; God is invisible, so is the soul ; God is spiritual and simple, so the soul hath nothing mixed or con- crete, nothing moist, nothing airy or fiery. The soul quickeneth the bod}^ as the Lord quickeneth the soul and all things. The soul was perfectly created, and is now imperfectly regenerated to be wise, holy, loving ; and therein resembles the v/isdom, sanctity, and love of God. As God is the centre of every circumference, filling all places, so the soul is whole in the whole, and wholly in every part, neither increasing nor decreasing with the body. Lastly, the soul is an image of the Trinity, which is to be wor- shipped in unity ; not in unity of the persons, nor trinity of the God- head ; but in unity of the Godhead, and trinity of the persons. In the Deity, there is the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost ; and these three are one God : so in the soul, there is the understanding, the will, and memory, * Ambr. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 149 three distinct faculties ; yet these three are but one soul. This is the principal part of man, a princely similitude of the infinite God. Object. Man is the image of God ; but it is lawful to make the image of the image of God, therefore to make the image of God. Ans. Man is made after God's image in his soul, not in his body : that therefore wherein man is like God, is invisible, and cannot be imaged. No man can make a picture of the soul. 6. What the soul is able to do. It is wonderfully capable and active ; can pass by her nimble thoughts from earth to heaven in a moment ; can be all things, can apprehend all things, can know that which is, and con- ceive of that which never was, never shall be. Man's soul is comprehen- sive of imiversality, and hath virtiiUan ad infinita ; nature hath set no limits to the thoughts of the soul. It can remember things past, foresee things to come, apprehend things present, which are not elementary but divine faculties, and can come from none but God himself. Therefore it hath several names, according to its several powers. Bum vivijicat, anima: dum vult, animus: dumscit, mens; dumrecolit, memoria: dum indicat, ratio : dumsjnrat, spiiitus: dum sentit, sensus.-^' Quickening, it is the soul; willing and knowing, the mind ; recollecting, the memor}^ ; judging and discoursing, reason ; breathing, the spirit; and as sensitive, the sense. Here is not a difference of substances to the difference of names ; for all these are but one soul. As the earth can have no heat nor nourishment but from the heaven, so the body can have no life, sense, nor motion but from the soul : more glorious in these powerful faculties than the heavens are wdth the sun and stars. But why doth it not work so powerfully at its fii'st infusion ? Answer. Not that (according to some philosophers) it is more or less in substance. And for diminish- ing of the quahties, whereby they would prove the mortality of it, it is as when we have found a mass of gold, and the same being fined becomes less ; by diminution of the quality, we should deny the substance. But thus we answer, it is straitened by the imbecility of the organ; we are not born men ; there is difference between the creation of Adam and the gene- ration of all his childi-en. First the body increaseth in the womb by the life of the parent, until the infusion of the soul ; being animated, it grows by the soul's virtue, and is not at an instant instrumentalised of perfect stature. Adam, at the fii'st infusion of his soul, was able to discourse. We cannot do so. Physicians give the reason of a natural moistness, that drowns and clouds the understanding part, and as that is dried up, so reason appears ; but divines say more certainly this disability comes by sin. But leaving these things to the learned, come we to some more useful conclusions, applying all to ourselves. 1. Seeing the soul is so far more excellent than the body, let it be more carefully tendered. Non anima pro corpore, sed coipus pro anima: nee corpus in anima, sed anima in corpore sita est.f The soul was not made for the body, as the lute is not made for the case, but the body for the soul, as a box for the jewel. Man w^as made last, because he was to be the best; the soul of man was inspired last, because that was to be yet more noble. If the body have this honour to be the soul's companion here, yet, withal, it is her drudge : Instrumentum est, sed et impedimentum est ; both the organ and the clog of the divine part. For service it is a labourer, for life a companion ; an instrument for action, a bar to contemplation. External works be effected by it ; but it hinders the internal, which are more worthy and necessary. The imprisoned bird, when she sees no remedy, sings in * Aug. de Spir. et Anim. cap. 24. t Chrys. de Kecup. laps. 150 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. her cage ; but she flies most and highest when she is at hberty. Set the soul once at freedom, she will then most cheerfully sing the praises of her Maker. Yet the common course is to fortify this prison, and to boast in corporal abilities. But qui r/Ioiiatur in viribiis corporis, gloriatur in viribxis carcerls. I do not approve the sullenness of that soul which wrongs the body : but I worse like to have the body wrong the soul, to have Hagar tricked up in Sarah's gannents, and set at upper end of the table. K the painted popinjay, that so dotes on her o\vn beauty, had an eye to see how her soul is used, she would think her practice more ill-favoured and un- handsome, than perfuming a putrefied coffin, or putting mud into a glass of crystal. For shame, let us put the soul foremost again, and not set heaven lowest, and earth uppei'most. 2. Seeing the soul comes from God, and is made to return unto him, let us cheerfully surrender it when he calleth for it. Let them rise up continu- ally to him, and fix themselves in their thoughts upon him who alone created them in then- infusion, and infused them in their creation. Let them long to come back to the fountain of their being and the author of their being glorious. So willing were Simeon, Luke ii. 29, and Paul, Phil, i. 23, to have those bonds loosed that kept them fi'om the gloiy of their Maker. So Stephen disposeth his soul, ' Lord, Jesus receive it.' Thou hast created it, redeemed it, justified it, sanctified it, and in thy good time wilt glorify it ; Lord take it into thine own custody ; seeing I am to leave my body, do thou receive my spirit. ' And when he had thus spoken, he feU asleep,' Acts vii. 59. "WTien he had uttered such excellent words, and with such a resolute spirit, and in such a reverent manner, giving unto 'jod the life of his soul, and forgiving men the death of his body, he sweetly fell asleep. Christus 2»'o nobis liominem induit, Stephanus pro Christo hominem exidt.-'- Chi'ist became man for Stephen, and Stephen became no man for Christ ; as cheerfully putting off his flesh as the sleepy man puts ofi" his garments. ' Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit, Ps. xxxi. 5; 1 Pet. iv. 19. 0 how willingly doth that man send up his soul, that be- heves the God who inspired it wiU graciously receive it. 3. Seeiag the soul is immortal, and cannot be extinguished, let us neglect the body in comparison of it. Most men are aU for the body, nothing for the soul. Yet ' what shall a man gain, by winning the world, and losing his soul ? ' Matt. xvi. 26. There be thi'ee things in that comparative bargain : 'enninus primus, gain of the world ; terminus seciindus, loss of the soul ; (rqui iihrium, which is weightier ? Yet how many lose the jewel to keep the box, spiU the wine to preserve the vessel, make more of the shell than the kernel. Now few men's souls stand them in so much as any one part of their bodies. The coverings of then- heads, their veiy shoes, cost them more in a year than theu* souls. We wiU not trast an unskilful coachman, a rude waterman, with om* bodies ; any minister will serve for our souls. Do we caU them from their injustice, from sacrilege, fi'om uncharitableness ? Alas ! men will have their wills, whatsoever become of their souls. Every soul in itself is of gi-eater price than the whole world; thy soul to thyself should be of gi-eater account than a million of worlds. Seek goodness to thy soul, other goods will come in without seeking. "^Tien Solomon begged wisdom, riches and honour came unasked for. Monica prayed that her son Augustine might tm-n catholic Christian ; God made him a most illuminate doctor. Sisera asks water; Jael gives him milk. Gehazi begs one talent; Naaman constrains him to take two, 2 Kings v. 23. Save thy * Greg. Nyss. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 151 soul, and save all ; lose that, and lose all. Howsoever it go with tliy goods or good name, be sure to look well unto thy soul, that whether thou die for the Lord, or in the Lord, thou mayest with comfort resign it to the Lord. But alas ! our souls are kept like slaves, and our bodies like gentlemen. We desire a good servant, a good child, a good field, a good friend ; we would have our apparel good, our meat good, our bed good, our very beast good, all things good about us, only we do not care though our souls be bad within us. How comes it to pass, that thou hast deserved so ill of thy self, Ut inter bona tua omnia non vis esse malum nisi teipsum.-^- Thy body hungers, thou wilt give it food ; thirsts, and thou drinkest ; is weaiy, and thou goest to rest. Thy soul may stai-ve, without seeking spiritual manna ; it may cry out Sltio, and not be brought to the living waters ; wearied with lusts and the troubles of conscience, and yet thou seekest no peace. If we be Mien into the waters, how do we catch to save the body ? how do we run from an house on fire ? how warily shun an infected place — all to pre- serve a brittle, miserable, mortal body. Yet neither the present floods of sin, ovei-whelming the poor soul, nor the future fire of hell, never to be quenched, nor the plague of bad society, can make us fear the eternal loss of our souls, as if that which God had made only excellent, we thought it only to be nothing worth. In sickness, we cry. My head, my head, my sides, my heart ; but My spirit, or My soul, is seldom our complaint, as if it were so easy to save that, upon which depends the saving of all the rest. 4. Seeing the soul is so capable, so comprehensive, let us seek for some- thing that may fill it. Nothing in the world, not the world itself, can do this. Otherwise, why did not so many kingdoms content that ambitious monarch ? why do not whole lordships of lands, heaps of coin, treasures of jewels, satisfy their possessors ? But that still there is as much desire, as there is abundance; and they so want many things, as if they had nothing. This covetousness is not the error of the body ; alas, that receives but little. Perhaps it longs for some delicate food, yet is it soon satisfied, and begins after repletion to loathe it. It takes no pleasure to be laden with store of gold; many jewels, and glorious apparel, are but a burden to it; the body is not desirous of honour, it is the soul that covets all these things, and with all these things is as little satisfied as without them. There is only one thing that can fill the soul, and that is God ; as nothing can limit it, but that is evei-y^vhere, so nothing can satisfy it, but that is infinite : an infinite nature can fill an infinite desire. 0 may he dwell in them, that hath appointed them to dwell in clay, and fill our souls, as he hath made them to fill our bodies ! Lord, thou hast created them of an heavenly nature, do thou sublime them from earthly afiections. Sanctify them with grace and holiness, replenish them with peace and happiness. Let them draw our bodies upward, and not our bodies draw them down- wards. 3. The divine providence. — This is that most free and powerful action of God, whereby he disposeth aU things ; that universal art, whereby all the afiairs of the world are ruled. Some things are by choice, some by chance, some by election within us, some by disposition without us, some by opposition against us, some by co-operation by us, some by infliction upon us : God sits in his throne, orders all. ' He worketh all things according to the counsel of his own will,' Eph. i. 11. First there is a counsel, as a faciamus ; then a purpose, as a faciamus hominem ; then a will, resolving to do according to that purpose ; then an efiect succeeding it, working * Aug. de Temp. Ser. 145. 152 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. according to that will, and an universal extent, ' all things.' So God respects one thing, that he regards all things ; so he minds all things, as if they were one thing. The carpenter or mason, having built the house, are paid for their work, and so leave it to another to inhabit. The shipwi-ight builds the vessel ; the merchant o^-ns it, the pilot guides it, the sea bears it, the wind drives it, the rocks split it, and the shipwright cannot help it. But he that made the world looks to it, as he gave it being, so he keeps it in being. The gardener hath inclosed a piece of ground, planted it, fenced it, finished it, is still dressing it, yet weeds will grow, wonns will spill the roots, and while he sleeps, thieves may break in and spoil it. But God so watcheth over his plantation, that no power can alter the least piece of it without his will. The workman makes a cui'ious watch, every pin and wheel is well placed, the spring and all in perfect tune, himself keeps it, and it goes well, yet will it gather foulness, and time will wear it out. But God is so presential to every piece of his fabric, that he keeps it from rust, nor can time alter it, if eternity will preserve it. For method, fii'st let us hear what error hath spoken against this provi- dence ; then what reason can allege for it ; and lastly, the truth of it, and wherein this providence consists, in which consists all things. The philosophers, as they had sundiy sects, so divers opinions concem- incf the divine providence. Some held that the gods did, nee curare sua, nee aliena, regard nothing ; wherein they are like our atheists, but some of them not altogether so bad ; for ask Epicurus and Pliny how the world is governed, they will tell you, CcpJestia caiisis naturalihus, inferiora vi stellarum per influentias : but above all these they acknowledged a Deity. So the Stoics held, that God did govern heavenly things by himself, sublunary things by the disposition of staiTy influences. Objection 1. God is at ease and quiet in heaven ; what need he trouble himself with earthly matters ? What is it to him, whither thou goest, or what thou speakest, or how thou workest ? Ea cura quietos sollicitat ? Ans. This is a poor reasonless conceit of God ; as if rest itself could be weaiy, or peace itself be disturbed ; whereas the heavens are not weary of moving, nor the mind of thinking. It is a pleasure even to a good man, not a pain, to see all things in his family well ordered. That which changeth place, or is capable of motion, may admit of labour. God if infinite and impatible, seeth all things without eyes, does all things wither hands. Our wars cannot disturb him. The thunder of the air may troubl the earth, the vapoui'S of earth trouble the air, the quarrels of two nations disquiet a neighbouiing third ; but nothing can molest God. Such fools are they that think God can be weary with business ; but when men in their pride could not make themselves like God, in their folly they would make God like themselves. Objection 2. But this is injurious, to bring down the majesty of God to the husbanding of bees and ants, and such inferior businesses. Eangs do not stoop to take up eveiy brabble. ' How doth God know ? can he judge through the dark cloud ? He walks in the circuit of heaven,' Job xxii. 13 ; and there is a vast interposition betwixt that place and earth. They thought it not fit to give him a descent beneath the cii'cle of the moon ; and that his knowledge would become vile, if it were abased to take notice of trivial objects and occui-rents. Ans. This doth not disparage his wisdom, but honours it. How many a man hath been ambitious to count thfe ritars, and to give them names, whereby to know them again? God only 'knows MEDITATIONS UPON' THE CREED. 153 their number, and calls them all by their names.' Archimedes propounded it as a matter of wondrous reputation to himself, if he could have made a just numeration of the sand, which he foolishly attempted. Non vilitatem arguit, sed perfectionem. Is the glass vile, because it presents deformities ? or the sun defiled, because his beams fall on muddy places ? If God could be afflicted or infected with our corruption, it might be some prejudice to him. But he can turn that to his honour, which man doth to his dis- honour. ' He humbleth himself to behold things done in heaven, and on the earth,' Ps. cxiii. 6. The one is no more humbling to him than the other. We see that which lies at our foot, as well as that which stands at our elbow. Objection 3. They allege Scripture against it. 'He that increaseth know- ledge, increaseth son-ow,' Eccles. i. 18. Ans. : Solomon speaks there of a human knowledge, which is always attained with labour, often retained with gi'ief. Knowledge in man is varied. We know some things as past, some as present, others as to come ; God sees all uno intuitu. Man is anxious about the event ; God sees the end and beginning at one instant. But Num cura Deo de hohus ? ' Hath God care of oxen ?' 1 Cor. ix. 9. There- fore he regards not inferior things. Ans. : The apostle doth not exempt oxen from God's care, but shews that the law was not made for oxen's sake, but for ours. ' Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox treading out the com,' Deut. XXV. 4. Yea, this proves directly that God hath care of oxen, for whose sustenance he so provided ; but much more care of his ministers, unto whom ui that law he hath chiefest respect. Arctiore providentia com- plectitur Iwminem, quam bovem. He ' feeds the young ravens ;' a creature less worthy than oxen, because not so serviceable to man. He that would have an ox hve by his labouring, would have a minister live by his preach- ing. Deo est cura de bobus vestris, vobis non est cura de predicatoribus suis. God hath care of your beasts, you take no care of his ministers. Objection 4t. Many things come to pass by chance, but chance and pro- vidence cannot stand together. Ans. : In respect of God's prescience nothing happens contingenter, by chance ; because he foreknoweth all things, and ordereth them by a certain, deliberate, and eternal counsel. But in regard of us, who know not the causes, nor are of God's privy council, when things come which we do not expect, they are said to come by chance, Luke x. 31. * Time and chance happeneth to all,' Eccles. ix. 11. Videntur nobis fortuila, qu(E apud Deum consulta. God made fortune his slave, let not us make fortune our God. Objection 5. Providence and disorder cannot stand together ; but in the world there is nothing but disorder and confusion ; seditions, subversions, rebellions, contentions. In such burly-bur lies, what order, what pro^T- dence ? Ans. : The greater ; as to rule a headstrong horse is more than to ride a tame one. Indeed, this world is the devil's walk, and he is a lord of misrule ; he always comes in with a breach, and goes out with a stench. As it is God that keeps us, so that not a hair of our head doth perish ; so Satan watches that not a hair might escape. He loves to trouble the waters, to vex the righteous, to provoke the indifferent, to enrage the lewd, to turn all upside down. These things are, by the providence of God, not effective, but permissive ; and even in this mutinous irregularity, there is an order, though we see it not, disposing all these evils, to the conversion of the elect, to the confusion of the wicked, and the glory of his own name in both. Objection 6. But the means are visible by which all things be wrought 154 MEDITATIONS LTOX THE CREED. and preserved, as by their causes : what providence appears ? Ans. : First, God ordained the means as well as the end. He that determined the death of Christ, determined also the instruments. Secondly, The means is some- times evil, in matter or form, as that was ; yet he makes good the work, and carves an excellent piece with the worst tool. Thirdly, He is not tied to means, but can work with or without, besides or against nature. Fourthly, All media have their efficacy from him ; nor could the sun heat, nor bread nourish, but by the blessing of his providence. Objection. 7. But the innocent sufler most injuries, and the world runs merrily with men of the worst conscience. What providence is in this ? Bona mails, and mala bonis ? By rule of order and equity, the godly should fioui'ish and the wicked perish. Ans. : Many a good man hath been troubled Avith this temptation, but was never sent away without his resolution. Bead Ps. Ixxiii. 12, 13, 17. Who seeth not that prosperity increaseth iniquity ? and where is more want, there is less wantonness. The church, like the moon, gives ever the clearest light, when the sun seems to be in most opposition to it. Drones gather honey only from the hive ; a true behever will gather it even from thistles. W^e prescribe not a physician, by what medicine he shall help oui* body ; and shall we set down our heavenly Physician a coui-se, how he shall deal in the cm-e of our souls ? To think we need no pills, no cauteries, is to think we are not the sons of Adam. Had we rather stay in EgT.'pt, than by passing the penurious deserts of Ai-abia, to come to our Canaan ? It was a great prince that, being in health, pleasantly asked his physician, which was the way to heaven ; he gravely answered, That youi- highness thought upon when you were last sick. It is the vulgar opinion of a rich man, how much is he bound to God ? whereas a poor abject creatui'e doth often owe more to the divine goodness, to whose palate it hath embittered the world, that he may better relish the kingdom of heaven, and have it. Many a momentaiy tenant of this sophisticate happiness below, besides the miserable condition of his con- science, can scarce give away his money, but he must bequeath the devil to boot ; and his lands and houses have so sore incumbrances annexed to them, as hell-torments. The pontificians would have temporal felicity to be one special note of the true church against us ; but so the Jews' arguments were good against Jeremiah. ' While we did bm'n incense to the queen of heaven, we had plenty of victuals, were well, and saw no evil,' Jer. xh. 17, 18. Since we left off that worship, ' we are consumed with famine.' Thus God's plenty must prove God's piety, and cheapness goodness ; and the church must derive its mark from the market. But we answer. First ; When all things were so cheap in the commonwealth, the pope made all things dear in the church ; secular benefits were of an easier price in the market, than spiritual preferments and benefices were in the temple. Secondly ; Who was the author of this prosperity ? the queen of heaven, or the king of heaven ? Did the mother, whom they worshipped, or the Son, whom we worship, cause this plenty ? Thirdly ; Was this kingdom so rich, that the pope tenned it a well never drawn dry ? How comes it to pass that he di'ied it, and left it so poor, that it had not water to quench his thu-st, or to pay another tax? Fourthly; If this be a true mai'k, why is not ours allowed for a true church, which these threescore years hath enjoj'ed so much peace, that they fi'et theu* heartstrings, and en\'y is ready to burst her bowels at it ? Neither hath it at any time been disturbed, but through their treacherous attempts. But we obtrude not to them the prosperity of our MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CKEED. 155 state, but the purity of our doctrine, and honesty of our practice. Christ did not confute the dc\-il by a miracle, but by an oracle. Matt. iv. 4. AVe may sufler injury, and be never the worse ; they may enjoy plenty, and be never the better. Graces multiply by afflictions, as the saints did by per- secutions. * The more they were afflicted, the more they multiplied,' Exod. i. 12. These terrors may aflfront us ; they shall not affright us. Unguntur cruces, a quo inferuntur.'^ Crosses be rough and smarting ; but we look to the unction of comfort, that makes them portable and easy. In all condi- tions we bless his providence, who, according to his own wisdom, not ours, disposeth things ; which, if they be harsh to a state that must suflfer, are good for an estate that shall be blessed for ever. These be the objections against it. Now consider we some reasons for it, which we may derive from Scriptui'e, experience, conscience, consequence, conference, and sense. 1. The Scripture is copious and punctual in this magnifying of the divine providence ; ascribing to it the beginnings, proceedings, and events of all particular actions, whether casual in themselves, or rational in us. ' The lot is cast into the lap,' Prov. xvi. 33 ; ' the horse is prepared for the battle,' ver. 21, 31. God disposeth both the lottery and the victory. ' Man's goings are of the Lord,' ver. 20, 24. The die hath no sense, the beast no reason ; man hath both sense and reason ; yet all their motions are disposed of God. That he is a God ' on the hills,' as well as ' in the valleys,' the king of Aram proved to his cost, 1 Kings xx. That it extends to the feed- ing of widows with multiplied oil, and is a fatherhood to the orphan, I need not urge, no man denies, Ps. xxix. 9. Yea, even to the ' calving of hinds,' Ps. cxlvii. 9, to the ' feeding of Hons and young ravens.' They write of the raven, that, finding her young to be of a whitish colour, unlike herself, she leaves them, as if they were none of hers. Lo, then doth God's providence sustain them ! * Who provides for the raven his food, when his young ones cry unto God ?' Read Job xxxix. ' The very hairs of your head are num- bered,' Matt. X. 30. Quid villus cadit de homine? Quid numero concipi viinus potest ? But Sapientim ejus nan est numerus, Ps. cxlvii. 5. To lots, so was Canaan divided, albeit formerly in his decree disposed. Num. xxvi. 54. God had secretly destined Saul to the kingdom ; Samuel knew this. Yet, as if Israel would not be otherwise satisfied, the lots must decide this choice. God is so constant to his own purposes, that the man, whom he had determined, and Samuel anointed, the lot shall find out. There is no chance to the Almighty ; even casual things are no less necessary in their fii'st cause, than the natural. Saul may hide himself among the stuff, but he knew where the lots would light before they were cast. Haman would cast lots. Est. iii. 7 ; but did the Almighty sleep at his bloody design ? No ; he that keeps a calendar of all times and things, so inverted his intendments, that the day became dismal to the plotter of mischief; the lot of death fell upon Haman. 2. By experience. The order which appears in the whole course of nature proves it. In a family there is order ; some rule, some obey. A city consists of many well-governed famihes, where the grave senators guide the rest. A kingdom consists of many cities and towns, where one sits in the throne, and the rest do him reverence. The world consists of many king- doms, whereof God himself is the omnipotent monarch, so ruling the good, and overruling the bad, that all shall tend to his glory. Herbs and grass are for cattle, cattle serve men ; the heavens above, for them that are beneath ; ♦ Bern. lo6 JfEDITATIOXS LTOX TITE CREED. and all the creatures, above or beneath, serve for God : aU declare his pro- vidence. 3. Man's own conscience binds him to confess this truth. Suppose he hath done a murder, so closely that no eye saw him, no suspicion dogs him, he is out of all danger of the law. Yet doth his unquiet conscience vex, trouble, haunt, torment him, gives him no more ease than he shall find on the gibbet, 3'ea, if ever, his veiy confession shall assuage his pains. Another hath sinned in uncleanness ; no man accuseth him, yet if ever he shall be cleansed by re- pentance, his conscience will so gird him, that ho never rests till, by prayers and tears, contrition for it, and resolution against it, he hath made his peace ^^^th God. Now, ' if om- own heart condemn us, God is gi*eater,' 1 John iv. 20. That the veiy falling into some extraordinaiy sin should often occasion a man's good. Who could work this but the pro\idence of our Father? The thought of it is so tenible, and the guilt appears so irksome to him, that many days he bleeds for one houi-'s error — hates the place, the cause, the temptation to such a lewdness. As the being once overtaken with wine hath been a means to keep a man sober aU his life after, so that he answers the nest invitation to such excess with the dear remembrance of his fonner sorrov/s, what it cost him to recover his peace. Thus out of transgression doth the divine providence work sanctification. 4. If a supernatui-al hand did not govern the world, how could things come to pass so long foretold ? Or how could they be so long foretold before they come to pass? "V^Tiat man can ^prognosticate what particular event shall happen in this land a thousand years hence, if the world so long continue ? There is nothing in nature, nothing in aii;, nothing in the stars to make man thus wise. Let God inspire him, he can presently specify it. Josiah is named some two hundred and sixty years before he was bom, 1 Kings xiii. 2, and that he should then do the prophet speaks of as now in acting. Future things are present to the eternal, ^^^lat ai'e some centu- ries of years to the ' ancient of days ? ' "UTiat a perfect record is there of all names in the roUs of heaven, before they be, after they be passed ? At the giving they seem to be contingent in the wills of the parents or wit- nesses, yet were they before under the certainty of the divine knowledge, and are better known in heaven, ere they be, than upon earth whiles they are. God knows what names we shall have before we have a being, yea, he knew them before the world was ; and to testify this knowledge he doth sometimes specia% name the man whom many years after shall produce. There cannot be a more clear and certain evidence of a true God than the prescience of those things, whose veiy causes have yet no hope of being. No tongue, 0 Lord, but thine could declare it, no hand but thine accom- phsh it. 5. By comparison. Man doth his business with prudence and circum- spection ; and shall not God be more pro^ddeut over his work ? It is a pro- verb in Piudanis, hombics etiam triduanum j)rcEnoscunt ventum, ' WTio hath put wisdom into the inward parts, or understanding into the heart.' How wise is he that makes man so wise ? How should it be that homo providus conderetur a Deo nan prorido ? ' He that teacheth man knowledge, shall not he know ? ' Ps. xciv. 10. In all things the cause is nobler than the effect, the workman better than his work. The veiy ants have a providence. As if they foresaw a dear year, they gather more gi-eedily, and fill their gar- ners fuller. * The stork, tm-tle, and crane know their appointed times,' Jer. viii. 7. "Who endued them with such a sagacity but a most provident God ? Some write of the mice, others of the spiders, that ruinam domus prasentiunt. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. . 157 fhey foresee the ruin of a house, and get them gone ere it fall. How do the birds build their nests with secrecy and cunning ? the foxes and hares make and keep their muses and burrows ? Lord, they all acknowledge thy providence, ' in whose hand is the soul of every living thing, and the breath of all mankind,' Job xii. 10. 6. My last argument is from the feeling of every man. Let him that receives not good from this providence deny it. Bonwn est quod omnia appetiint* It is undoubted in speculation, experimented in action. We cannot see the goodness that is in God, but the goodness that is from God we may ; not goodness in the subject, but in the object. There is lux in htcido, and hoiicn in diaphano. Now, so generous an offspring must needs argue a divine parent ; and in the fruit we have an image of the tree. Nor is this goodness confined only to the orb of Israel, as if the world had no portion out of God's treasury. His goodness extendeth her sweetness, no less than his omnipotency doth her power. As no man lives that enjoys not the light and heat of his visible sun, so no man continues living but by the beams of this invisible goodness. * He left not himself without witness, in that he did good,' Acts xiv. 17. Not that everything is universally good for all things, but everything is good for something. Vult Deus omnibus bonum, non vult omnibus omne bonum. So that which antipathises against one thmg sympathiseth with another. What is poison to one is another's food. Things bad to us were not fi'om a bad beginning, as the Manichee would persuade an ignorant man, when flies molested him, that the devil made flies. We have too many such Manichees, that think what is repugnant to their humours is not good.f In an artificer's shop there be instruments wherewith a rude handler may cut his fingers ; shall he therefore condemn them, or him that doth dexterously use them ? We will not do this in a shop, and shall we in the world vilify such things as God useth to his glory ? We know not why frogs or flies or woims were made, yet we see them good in their kind, though sometimes noxious to us. Now, if those things be so good that are made of nothing, and changed in time, how incomprehensible is the goodness and sweetness of their maker?! 'Lord, the eyes of all things wait upon thee,' Ps. cxlv. 15, and thou sustainest them. Conclusion — It is the common course of the world to undervalue God's goodness. His favours of the day are forgotten before night, and his pro- tection in the night finds no thanks in the morning. If things go well with us we think it no more than our due ; if ill, we are ready to quarrel with God's providence. Yea, is not his goodness ravished and misused to the encouragement of our badness ? Do we not convert hie bounty to our im- penitency, his forbearance to our hardness ? Do we not wilfully offend him, while (we must confess) he doth graciously defend us ? Do we not lift up our sword against him that is our buckler ? and wrestle against that mercy which would save us ? So httle do we acknowledge his good- ness towards us, that we make use of it to our own ill. There be miUions of causes why we should honour God. It is hard if this one cannot pre- vail with us, that he does us good. Solomon was said to be without com- pare, 1 Kings iii. 12, yet even the hlies exceeded him, Luke xii 27, saving only in this, that he was sensible and apprehensive of God's goodness, which the other were not. To leave outward benefits, look into thine own bosom. There is enough to make thee cry out Quam bonus Dominus! If the multitude of his mercies could be numbered, or their greatness mea- * Arist. t Aug. t Bern. 158 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. sured, wlieii we recollect our own sins we had cause to despair. But see- ing our sins may be numbered and measured, and liis mercies cannot, we may be comforted in him that overcomes our evil with his goodness. He is offended, and forbears ; provoked, and yet blesses. We sin, he delays to pimish. We are peevish, and he is patient. If we repent he pardons us. If we return he receives us. "V^Tiile we linger he prevents us. So above measure, 0 Lord, ai-t thou good to us. Make us in some measure good to thee. Thus in general of the di\ine providence. Now, God governs the world with means, or without means. Without, so he madft heaven and earth without an instrument, trees to gi'ow without a sun. Man's first garment was of leather, without means God made it. He caused the Israelites' apparel to last forty years without mending. The hungry hons shall fawn upon Daniel, the inflamed furnace not singe a hair of those three martjTS ; seas and rivers shall forbear their wonted com'ses ; rocks shall pour out waters ; the prophet's cloak shall divide Jordan ; iron shall swim ; the sun shall stand still for Joshua, go back for Hezekiah ; five loaves shall feed thousands. Above natui-e, against nature, can our Maker effectuate his will. With means ; such are rational, as angels and men ; or irrational, which is the course of natui-e, created by his wisdom, conserved by his goodness. Among which, I take the sun and rain as two principal in- stances ; and as you may taste the sea by a drop, so in this abridgment consider his universal providence. * He maketh his sun to rise on the e^il and on the good ; and sendeth rain on the just and on the unjust,' Matt. v. 45. 1. The sun; this is one of God's common blessings, a most excellent piece of this fabric, by which many benefits are conveyed to all creatm-es. The world without it were hke a fair house without a window, or a goodly person without an eye. It is admu'able and effectual. (1.) For extension of heat ; every creature receives warmth from it. Therefore the philosopher calls \i principium generatioiiis: general hommem homo et sol. Naturally, no hfe can be received or preserved without heat; now, 'nothing is hid from the heat thereof,' Ps. xix. 6 ; therefore it may be called tourersaUs niintdi ignis. But some countries are exceeding cold; how then doth this sun extend his heat to aU ? To all, but not to all alike : the remoteness of it to some places, and at some times, was by God's first institution, who gave it an ecliptic line, and bade it run so. The spring would not be so welcome if there was no winter, heat itself would annoy were it continual. Yet even to the fmihest climates it sends so much warmth, as they must perish without it. (2.) For communication of hght; God in the creation drew together all that light he had made, and gathered it to the body of the sun, that jfrom that treasmy all the world might be em-iched. Therefore it may be called universalis rnundi ocuhts, the world's eye : we cannot see the sun's Ught but by the light of the sun. The true value of such a benefit, those old muffled Eg}-ptians, and such as now live in disconsolate diuigeons, can sufiiciently prize. The best thing that ever came to mankind is called * the hght,' John ix. 5. Our bodies were blind heaps of earth without the sun, our souls dark shadows without Chi'ist. (3.) For distinction of times ; that we may know the term of time, from the beginning of the world to the end. The computation of the year depends upon it ; by it spring is discerned from summer, autumn fi-om winter. In the accompUshing of some extraordinary work, God hath often put an MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 159 extraordinary sign in the sun. When he threatens to make the rivers of Eg}-pt run with the blood of the inhabitants, he says, ' I will cover the sun with a cloud,' Ezek. xxxii. 7. When he gave that miraculous con- quest over five kings and their kingdoms, ' The sun stood still in Gibeon.' When he prolonged the days of sick Hezekiah, * tke sun went back on the dial of Ahaz.' At the death of our Saviour, the sun was totally eclipsed, the moon being then in the full ; which caused a gi-eat astronomer to say, Vel Dens naturce j)atitity, rel mundi machina dissolvitur .* At his coming to judgment, the sun shall be darkened, and the moon turned to blood. For the ordinar}' works of nature, as ploughing, sowing, planting, &c., ordinary signs az'e sufficient. So the sun maybe called universale viumll horolof/ium, the gi'cat clock or dial of the world. It is a creatm'e that continually looks upon us, and we look upon it, yet forget to read the goodness of om* Maker in it. Let us not worship it, like sottish Indians ; but worship God for it, like good Chiistians. 2. Facit solem suum, he maketh His sun to shine ; the sun in the fii-ma- ment is God's sun, not om-s. ' The world is mine, and the fulness thereof. The earth is the Lord's,' Ps. 1. 12 ; his, not ours ; we walk upon it, but it is 'his footstool,' Matt. v. 35. To shew it is his, he causeth it to help his servants : ' The earth helped the woman,' Rev. xii. 16, by swal- lowing up the flood cast out of the dragon's mouth. To confound his adversaries, ' the earth opened, and swallowed up Dathan.' ' The sea is his, he made it,' Ps. cvi. 17 ; and he made it devoui- his rebels. The sea will shew the Egyptians that it regards the rod of Moses, not the sceptre of Pharaoh, Exod. xiv. 26 ; and as if she were glad of such an advantage over God's enemies, she shuts her mouth upon them, swallows them into her stifling bowels ; and after she had made sport with them awhile, casts them upon her sands, for a spectacle of triumph to their adversaries. Neither sea nor land do naturally divide themselves. The sea is moist and flowing, and will not be divided for the continuity of it ; the earth is diy and massy, and will neither naturally open nor shut again when it is opened. Yet to shew that both sea and land are the Lord's, the waters did part in twain, to give way to the Israelites for theii" deliverance ; and the earth did cleave, to give way to those conspii-ators for their vengeance : both earth and sea did shut their jaws again upon God's adversaries. There was gi-eat wonder in both. It was mai-vel that the waters opened, no mai-vel that they did shut again ; for their ebbing and flowing is natural. A mai-vel that the earth opened, but a gi-eater that it did shut again ; because it hath no natural disposition to meet when it is divided. But in both we see that God can use his creatures to his own pleasure, and make them spill or pre- serve with ease. ' The waters saw it, and fled ; Jordan was driven back,' Ps. xiv. 3. The waters know their Maker : when Christ was baptized, Jordan did flow and fill its banks ; when the same God leads Joshua through it in state, the waters must run back to the fashion of walls, and leave the channel diy. As if a sinew were broken, it recoils to both issues, and stands in admiration of its commander. ^Tiat a sight was this to their heathen enemies, to see the waters make both a lane and a wall for Israel ! Neither do they run hastily thi-ough this strange way, as if they feared lest the tide should return ; but they pace gently, in a slow march, knowing that watery wall to be stronger for them than walls of brass could be against them. He that seeks not a ford for their passage, but cuts the * Dion. Areop, 160 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CBEED. waves, shews the sea to be his, and every creature obsen^ant to him. He could have made Jordan like some solid pavement of ciystal for their con- vej^ance ; but this had not been so nxagnificent, every gi'eat frost can con- geal the water in a natural course. But for a ninning stream to stand still, to give back, and mount to heaps, till it become a liquid wall, is for nature to nin out of herself, to do homage to her Creator. 0 how glorious a God do we serve, to whom all elements do willingly submit themselves, and are glad to be what he pleaseth to make them ! ' The day is thine, and the night is thine ; thou hast made the light and the sun, summer and winter,' Ps. Lxxiv. 16. The heaven is his, the earth is his, the sea his, the sun his: if he bid it shine, it shineth ; if he chargeth it to forbear, it hides its face. At his appointment it runs forward like a giant, at his rebuke it inins back like a coward. Mortal men boast of then- lands, of their gold and silver, of their flocks and herds ; but ' the earth is the Lord's, and all that is therein ; ' * eveiy beast of the forest is mine, and the cattle upon a thousand hills,' Ps. 1. 10. In all things there is God's superscription ; therefore ' give unto God the things that be God's.' Let us not go fi'om the Maker to the creatm-e, but rather let eveiy creature direct us to the Maker. 3. Facit, He doth make his sun to rise ; not only hath at the beginning, but stiU doth. By virtue of his providence, the sun shineth, the earth fnictifieth, eveiything retains the ingrafted power. ' Hitherto my Father worketh, and I work,' John v. 17. He did not leave all to be governed by others, neither by intelUgences nor by angels, as one makes a clock, and leaves it to the sexton's keeping ; but he continually moves upon the world, as the Spirit did on the waters, not to hatch a new world, but to conserve the former. So long as the spring runs, the river holds its wonted stream; if that once be dry, her channels will be soon empty. God is that fountain which supplies every creatm'e, and there is nothing which his manutenancy upholds not. As it is a sun, and his sun, so the -virtue it hath to Ught and heat is from his maintenance, that God may be all in all. You will say. We are not heathen, to doubt thesu things. Nay, the very heathen should not have doubted these things. The whole world is a harp, eveiy string whereof cannot be moved and touched in so sweet a harmony without an infinite God ; yet as some little childi-en call every man they see their father, so those blind natm-als mistook everything for their maker. As (Edipus, in the poets, knew in general that he had a father, but knew not who his father was, and therefore such was his misfortune that whom he carefully sought he unwillingly slew ; so muffled pagans know there is a God, but not what this God is. Therefore, while they do not dihgently seek him, they ignorautly blaspheme him. ' But now, ask the beasts, and they shall teach thee,' &c., Job xii. 7, &c. Every creature hath a trumpet in its mouth to proclaim the Deity. All are re(ju 2^>'ofessores, professors of that great King, preachers of his divinity ; and the name of being they bear is thus written, ' The Providence of God.' This is a witness of such dura- tion, that no time can obhterate it; yea, time itself remonstrates it, and eternity shaU more clearly explain it. Had God written the book of his providence as he did the book of his law and gospel, with pen and ink, it had been imderstood only by the learned.* The rich might have bought it, the poor wanted it, the greater number know no more than their own language ; therefore, he wrote this argu- ment in eveiy man's tongue : ' Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, Cretes and Arabians, &c., all hear in their own tongues the wonderful works of * C]irv3. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 101 God,' Acts ii. 11. Critics would have been as busy in comipting the ele- ments as they ai-e now in abusing words, had this been committed to books. Yea, because nature is so diametrally repugnant to transubstantiation, the Council of Trent would have condemned it, or at least forbade it the laics in a ^•ulgar tongue. Our atheists had then been heretics, and, turning over natui-e's text, would have interpreted it by the devil's comment. But this book of universal providence is too heavy to be transported, too clear to be corrupted, too high to be reached with profane hands, too strong to be torn, too open to be shut, too plain to be misconstrued. ' The heavens declare the glory of God, and the fii-mamont sheweth his handiwork,' Ps. xix. 1 ; his handiwork, not only the manufacture but manutenancy of his hand. These things we do not deny, but we do not mind ; the creatures be always in om- eye, often in our hand, in our mouth, in our sense, when God is not in oui* heart. There is no creature but tells us with an audible voice, I am not he thou seekest, but I subsist in him whom thou seekest in me ; he that made me and thee hath set me here to direct thee to himself, that all glory might be his. If we shall honour the sun and forget God, this is truly to ' come out of God's blessing into the warm sun.' 4. The rain to fall. This is another of those common blessings whereby the divine providence emicheth the world, the rain. CaUdtiia et hmniduni are the two pillars of our life. The sun is called prindpium generationis, •propter calorem ; the rain, propter humorem : the one, ratione cujeiUis ; the other, ratione materia. Without heat, moisture would di'own; without moisture, heat would parch. Without the sun, the world would be sick of a dropsy; without rain, it would be sick of a bui'ning fever. Either of them severed would destroy it; both together do preserve it. Summer would over-diy the earth, and, by drawing up vapours, infect the air, and breed pestilences, did not winter check it. Winter would extinguish life, benumb the earth, and rot the plants, did not summer relieve it. Winter is like an old man, cold, but froward, pettish, testy enough; summer like a yovmg gallant, hot and fieiy. These two would never agi-ee together; therefore the spring and autumn, like men of more temperate dispositions, stand between them to part them. Fire and water, we say, can never agi'ee ; yet thus hath the wise providence disposed, that by the concurrence of these contraries the consort of things should be preserved. The sun draws up moisture, makes it a cloud, rarefies it; and as he took it from the earth, sends it back again in beneficial showers. A special means whereby the earth fructifies; ' Thou makest it soft with showers, thy paths di'op fatness, and the little hills rejoice on every side,' Ps. Ixv. 10 to the end. Therefore, the ' rain and fruitful seasons ' are often united, Acts xiv. 17. This is one of those keys which God entnisteth to neither angel nor seraphim, 'I will give you rain in due season,' Deut. xi. l-A; I, not the sun, not heaven, not an angel. The heavens, indeed, are ordinary instru- ments and second agents, but so subordinate to the fii'st worker, that in their actions he doth more than they. ' I will hear the heavens, and the heavens shall hear the earth, and the earth shall hear the fruits, and they shall hear Jezreel,' Hos. ii. 22. Our life is maintained by the fruits, the fi'uits are beholden to the earth, that to the heavens, they and all to the Lord. He gives that influence to the heavens which they give to the earth. The heaven Hke a father, the earth a mother, the children they bring forth are fruits, and these are for us. For God ordained not the heavens for then- own sakes, but for ours ; and it is a treasmy whereof himself still keeps the key, opening and shutting it at his pleasui-e. ' Canst thou loose the bonds of VOL. UI. L 162 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED Orion?' Job xxxviii. 31. He gives it here, he denies it there, ' causing it to rain upon one city, and not upon another,' Amos iv. 7 ; restraining it in this place, to that enlarging it; sometimes so pouring it down that 'the ships howl' on the sea, Isa, xxiii. 1, and sometimes so scanting it that the ' sheep mourn ' on the land, Joel i. 20. The Lord when he sends rain or drought respects our sin or obedience ; he considers not in what position heaven is, but in what disposition we are. We look up to the heavens, God looks down upon us. We turn the almanac in vain; the best prognostication we are to rely upon is God's mercy and our own innocency. * He turns dry land into springs of water,' Isa. xli. 18, to relieve the good; and 'a fruitful land into barrenness,' Ps. cvii. 34, to punish the bad. The Scripture speaks of no conjunctions nor oppositions of stars, no eclipses of the sun, wheieby to gather what God will do, that we should study them. But this is God's rule, * If ye consent and obey, ye shall eat the good of the land,' Isa. i. 19. Many astrologers are so for natm-al causes, till they become natural fools. The stars, say they, work upon the elements, the elements upon compound bodies, the qualities of such bodies may change the senses, the senses being changed alter the understanding, the understanding incHnes the will ; there- fore, the stars incline the will. This is like the drunkard's argument: He that driuks well sleeps well, he that sleeps well thinks no harm, he that thinks no harm is a good man; therefore, he that drinks much is a good man. It was a wiser answer of him that, being demanded the cause of those shelves about Sandwich haven, said it was the building of Tenterden steeple. They have set one poor man dwelling at twelve signs ; an anatomy they call it, as if he were to be dissected by twelve chirurgeons. Butchers deal better (as a reverend di-\dne * wrote in his younger days), for they join head and purtenance together; but these divicle the head, heart, and lungs to several owners ; saving that the liver, one of the most noble pai-ts, hath no governor. Perhaps in old time men had no livers. When crows part among them a dead sheep, eveiy one gets somewhat; but here either the signs scrambled or else played foul play, for Capricorn got nothing but the knees. It may be, he came too late to the dividend, but compassion was had, and a gathering was made ; Sagittarius gave him the lower pai-t of the thigh, and Aquarius the upper part of the leg, both which together make up the knee. Fond men ! hew they cozen others, and themselves ! Those signs be not above where they look for them ; they might look below and find them. The philosopher might have seen the stars in the water, he could not see the water in the stars, I am far from Copernicus's opinion, that the earth moves, and the heavens stani still ; but what they imagine to find in the heavens, I am sm-e we find on the earth. Cancer is not there, but here many an apostate retrograde to goodness. Here is Scorpio, the slanderer and blasphemer; Ursa major and minor, and Draco, are not foimd there ; here be those oppressors and covetous defrauders, sei-pents, and hydras, and dog-stars, and dog-days. There is no Taurus nor Capriconaus, no Aries nor Leo, above ; here be those bulls and goats, persecutors and unclean Uvers, Hons rampant, and rams assailant. Only we may believe that Libra is in heaven, for justice and her even weights and scales are scarce to be found in earth. The famines and wars, plagues and ruins, are not caused by the stars, nor to be read there ; no constellations produce those dii-e efiects, but our * Perkin. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 168 own sinful lives below. We are those wandering planets, that swerve from the holy line of truth ; we those irregular stars, of so strange forms and names, that move in a lunatic orb, and keep not the orders and course which God hath prescribed us. Saturn with his malevolent influence, Venus with her tempting aspect, the trines, quadratures, bad conjunctions, and worse oppositions, are all beneath. The cause of good or evil seasons, is in our good or evil lives. Let us be good in the sight of heaven, and heaven shall be good to us ; no star will be malignant to our bodies, if we nourish no bad aflection in our souls. ' The sun shall not smite thee by day, nor the moon by night,' Psa. cxxi. 6. We fear no constellations, we fear our transgi-essions. We di-ead neither Jupiter's con-uption, nor Mars's fever, nor Satm-n's inflammation, nor Mercury's madness ; only, 0 God of heaven and earth, let us fear thee and nothing else. Seeing the providence of God so blesseth us with all necessary things, let us honour him with thankful praises. Even lewd persons, when they fare well at another man's cost, will say, ' God save the fomiders,' though themselves be the confounders and abusers of it. And shall not we, in sobriety of heart, bless that God who so blesseth us ? If a man be ingrate for one benefit, give him a second ; if for that, tiy him with a third ; but if he slight this also, hold thy hand. God hath given us thousands ; if we hold our mouth from praising him, he will hold his hand from prospering us. If the servant bury his one talent, he shall have no more. He that cannot husband a hundred, must not look to have a thousand. We that are unthankful for the sun and rain, have made ourselves unworthy of Christ. ' The outgoings of the morning and evening praise him ;' yet we, over whose heads we know not whether the days or nights pass more merrily, forget him. Ingratitude loseth all, ' Take his talent from him,* Matt. XXV. 28. It deprives us of the good we have, it debars us of the good we might have, amittit data, pracludit danda. If men do not bless God for earthly things, he will not trust them with heavenly things. If Esau cannot keep his birthright, he shall lose his blessing. Because the Jews corrupted the law, they were defeated of the gospel ; and not valuing their own kingdom, the kingdom of heaven was taken from them, and given to those that will be thankful. While we praise not God for the light of the sun, how should he give us the light of heaven ? While we disregard the benefit of elemental rain to our bodies, how can we expect that elemental dew of grace to om' souls ? Lord, that we live not here in darkness, we are beholden to thy sun ; that we are not scorched and consumed with heat, we are beholden to thy rain. Make us thankful for these, much more for thy spiritual showers of mercy, and the light of glor}\ Thus in general of God's providence ; now I come to the manner, parts, and kinds of it. The manner of God's governing the world must be considered two ways, as it respects good, or as it respects evil. Evil is of two sorts, the fault, or the punishment. Sin is governed of God by two actions. First, an operative permission ; because he partly sufiers it, and partly works in it. First, in sin, there is the subject and matter, which is a certain quality or action, and those so far forth as they are themselves are good, having existence in nature, and God for their author, so that though sin be sufficiently evil to condemnation, yet it is not absolutely evil, as God is absolutely good. There is an infinite good, there is no infinite evil ; because the subject of evil is good, and hath in it regards of goodness- Secondly, and the form, which is 164 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CBEED, an anomy or transgression. Now this latter, God neither willeth, nor ordaineth, nor commandeth, nor causeth, nor helpeth ; but forbids, con- demns, and punisheth. When Adam was tempted to fall, his understanding was good, his -^ill good, affections good, the fruit good, all from God. But his using those to the breach of the commandment, was not good, but from Satan and himself. The wine in the cup is good, the stomach that receives it good, the lifting up of the hand good ; but the abuse of all these to excess is bad, and man's sin. The eye lusteth : the eye is good, the lustful look sinful. The hand striketh ; the motion is from God, but the injmy by that motion is none of his work. God moves the sinning instrument, he does not move the instrument to sin ; the action is from him, the defect from ourselves. He puts no wickedness into us ; but the evil which he finds in us, he moves and orders by his infinite wisdom, the bad instrument not knowing the good which he intends. The blinded mill-horse goes on for- ward, and knows not but that he is in the ordinary way ; he thinks himself whipped for one pm-pose, the miller knows it is for another. David was threatened that his bed should be incestuously defiled, 2 Sam. xii. 11. The counsel of Ahithophel, the lust of Absalom, have but fulfilled this judgment of God. 0 that infinite wisdom ! which can use the worst of evils well, and most justly make the sins of men his executioners. Neither is Absalom excusable by God's purpose, nor God chargeable with Absalom's fact. What if the Lord, for the correction of his own servant David, gave Shimei a tongue able to belch out such blasphemy, 2 Sam. xvi. 10 ; yet is Shimei's curse worthy of Abishai's sword. Wicked men are never the freer from guilt or punishment, for that end and hand wliich the holy God hath in their offensive actions. When David said, 'let him curse,' he meant to give a reason of his OAvn patience, not of Shimei's impunity. The true-hearted Israelites would fight against that usurping Jeroboam ; God forbids them, by this reason, ' This thing is done of me,' 2 Chron. xi. 4. The smart of that rebellion was from God, the sin of Jeroboam's rebel- lion was his own. God wills that as Rehoboam's punishment, which he hates as Jeroboam's wickedness. That conspuing hand moved from God, it moved conspiringly from Satan. When the brethren sold Joseph, and their posterity killed Jesus, neither did other than God purposed ; neither meant to fulfil God's purpose in it. There is a difference to be put between the evil work of man, and the good work of God in it. A malefactor is condemned, sentenced to die ; the executioner owes him a grudge, useth him hardly, by increasing his tortures, or prolonging his pains ; the judge and executioner do both one and the same work ; yet is it in the judge upright justice, in the executioner no less than murder. God so useth evil instruments, that he is free from the evil of the instruments. When he useth good instruments, men or angels, he works by them, and in them, guiding them by his Spirit, that they shall will what he willeth. When he useth evil, he only works by them, not in them ; they shall do what he determines, yet are left to do as their own corruption suggests. Secondly, Therefore his second action in the government of sin, consists in repress- ing and disposing it. He restrains men, that they shall not do what evil they would, and disposeth it to the good which they would not. For the evil of punishment, it is but the execution of his justice, 1 Kings xxii. 22 ; Amos iii. 6 : evil it may be to the sufferer, is good in the infiic- ter. Thus he is said to blind the eyes, and to harden the heart, Exod. vii. 13 ; Isa. xix. 14 ; Rom. i. 28 ; and so must all such places be understood, 2 Thess. ii. 11. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. ] 05 In respect of good, which be the natures and substances of all creatures, even of the devils, the quantities, qualities, motions, actions, inclinations, simply considered in themselves, are good. There is a natural good, which God created for our use, and a moral good, which he ordained for our practice. Now, these he governs sustinendo, that they decay not, and pjv- movendo, by dl•i^•ing them to their own particular ends. Let us learn hero in what awful reverence to hold the di^dne providence, which makes that is good to be good to us, and keeps what is evil from us. Therefore we pi'ay, Libera nos a malo ; a malo homine, a malo dcemone , from e-^-il men, from evil spirits, from evil works, from our own e-vil selves. The devil is like a Saul, bent s\"ith a javelin against us : wicked men like Shimei, gnashing their teeth at us, desirous to crash our bones. We have Absaloms and Ahithophcls, affections and opinions, the children of our outi bosoms, and coimsel of our o'mi brains ; all conspire against us feeble Da%ids, yet the Lord delivers us from them all. ' They compass us like bees,' Ps. cxviii. 12. Many are the evils we see and fear not, many we fear and see not, many we both see and fear, many we neither see nor fear. He whose eye of pro^adence never sleeps, whose hand of governance never rests, doth still defend us. Satan is such a mahcious and potent evil that, let God give him but leave, he would destroy us in a moment ; the world would sink us in the inundation of sin. Our own hearts are false to our- selves ; and we need no worse an enemy than that we cherish within us. Still this gracious providence delivers us. The kinds of this diwe pro\idence are two — general and special. General is that which extends itself to the whole word, and all things in it, indifferently, even to the reprobate angels. By this he maintains the order which he first did set in nature, preserving the life, being, substance of all. The qualities and virtues placed in the sun, stars, trees, seeds, herbs, would otheiTvise he in them dead and unprofitable. He governs the world per or/.cu- (jjiav, as a monarch in his kingdom: xar ivdoxiav, according to his good plea- sure, decreeing them to salvation whom he hath loved, and bringing salvation to them whom he hath decreed. Some add /^sra (r07%we7;ff;y, by concession, as he grants victories to Turks against Christians, and makes the wicked fox-tunate. ' All things (are said to) consist in God,' ia respect — 1. Of ubiquity : he comprehends all things, and is comprehended of nothing. The ' nations are but a drop of his bucket,' and time but a drop of his eternity. 2. Of omnipotency : in his power the whole frame stirreth ; the heavens could not move without him. 3. Of omniscience : all are within his knowledge, and from it receive their order, as soldiers their directions fr-om their captams. 4. Of decree : because the world did from everlasting hang in his foreknowledge and preordination. Thus they consist in him ; both for order, all agreeing in one glorious frame ; for continuance, that no substance in specie that was at fii-st made ever ceased, and the very singu- lars of every sort do consist in individuo ; and for co-operation, all following bis manuduction and rule. Thus, there is no creatm-e that is not beholden to God, for being upholden by God. St Paul tells the heathen that he did ' fill their heart with food and glad- ness,' Acts xiv. 17. The heart being synecdochically taken for the whole man ; for as food is the principal staff of hfe, so the heart hath a principal operation in our food. Not but that a gentile may want food sometimes, when as even an apostle was ' in hunger,' 2 Cor. xi. 27, and a patriarch driven to change his dwelling for famme. Gen. xii. 10. This filling is (not according to the insatiate desire of lust) sufficient to satisfy natm-e, not to 166 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. content humom- ; not. what man's folly may expetere, require, but what God's wisdom sees expedlre, convenient. But his hand is open to all. Reprobates that hate him fare the better for him, by his gifts. Their eyes stand out with fatness, that set their mouths against heaven. Many think of their wealth, as they say of venison, so thej" have it, they never inquire unde, fi-om whence it comes. But albeit thou mayest con the devil thanks for the manner of getting thy riches, yet thou art indebted to God for the substance itself. And thou that wouldst not pay God thy service for tho substance, must pay Satan thy soul for the circumstance, hke him that wilr hii-e his house of one, and pay his rent to another. Acknowledge his goodness, or thou shalt feel his justice. B[is special pro^^dence is that whereby he governs and blesseth his church, gathering them by his gospel, guiding them by his grace, and pre- serving them by his mighty power unto salvation, Isa. xliii. 1, 2. This doth not only wrap them up under the general blessing of his protection, but enlivens them with the Spirit of his special operation. It doth not only respect them as men, but as Chiistians ; not only as them in whom his image was once created, but as men in whom this image is again renewed. BQs general providence communicates good to aU, that in him they ' live, move, and have theii* being.' His special to his childi-en, gives them the life of comfort, the motion of gi'ace, the being of happiness. Others have the blessedness of Hfe, these have the life of blessedness. He often fills others' bones with marrow, their bams with com, their purses with money, their bellies with his hidden treasures ; but he fills the ' hearts' of his chosen ' with gladness.' Ps. iv. 7. "VMien a man apprehends a dis- tasteful object, the heart contracts itself, and calls in the spirits which it was wont to send forth, whereupon the outward members tremble, and the face looks pale and wan. But when he conceives a pleasing object, the heart dilates itself, dispersing spii-its into the outer parts, to give more scope of delight and enjo}Tnent. Though this pro\idence do such good to the wicked, that their table stands fall of dehcates, and their cups of wine, Dan. v. 6 ; yet ' even in laughter the heart is sorrowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' But to the faithful, ' His blessing maketh rich, and he addeth no soitow with it.' If wealth could give content, why should rich men ever be sad ? If honours, why cannot cro^sTis keep our cares ? No, man's triangular heart can never be filled with this globular world ; but some comer wiU be empty, still there wiU be room for more. Only the thi'ee persons of the infinite Deity can replenish it with sweet satisfaction, to the utmost capacity of it. This special care of the chui'ch is in Jesus Christ, ' in whom consist all things,' Col. i. 17. 1. Because he is that atonement which keeps the world from being dissolved by Adam's fall. 2. Because the comfortable use of all the creatures is recovered to us, by a covenant or patent of mercy in him. 3. Because the respect to him and his church keeps the world up to this day, which being once complete, it should not stand one hour. Thus ' aU things are ours, because we are his, and he is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. All things : the scriptures for direction, sacraments for confirmation, angels for protection, creatures for sustentation, crosses for correction, death itsoif for the way to perfection. By what tenure do we hold all ? By deed of gift. In whom granted ? In Christ. ' Grace, mercy, and peace, from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord,' 1 Tim. i. 2. Ut Deiis acit, Ui* Pater vult, ut Dominus potest, ut noster debet Jesus Saivaior m hoc, MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 167 CJiristus uuctus ad hoc. ' I am, saith the Lord,' Exod. iii. 6 ; calling bim- eelf so, he is the God of all ; ' The God of Abraham ; ' so be is the God of his elect in Christ : * I am thy God, 0 Israel ! ' Our God. (1.) Ours, ob specialem cultiun, we serve him. (2.) Ours, ob sjiccialem ai-ram, he pre- serves us. (3.) Oui'S, ob specialem mercedcm, he will give us his own in- heritance. Benjamin's mess exceeds the rest. Gen. xUii. 34. All Jehosbapbat's children have fair legacies ; Jehoram goes away with the kingdom, 2 Chron. xxi. 3. These God calls his jewels, Mai. iii. 17 ; other be but his ordinary vessels, these be bis jewels. He gives common persons enough to make them happy for this world ; he emicheth his children with the blessings of the world to come. 1. Seeing this eye of providence is everywhere, and no work, no thought is hid from it, let us walk as iu bis presence. If the king had an eye to see every act, an ear to bear eveiy word in his kingdoms, durst the Seminary whisper treason, or the mutinous incense rebellion ? Adultery dares not abuse the wife in sight of the husband, though he doth often in spite of the husband. ' Will he force the queen before my face,' saith Ahasuenis ? Esth. vii. 8. The servant vnll not steal fi-om his master looking on ; yet men rob God to bis face. Do we think he sees us not ? ' He that made the eye, shall not he see ?' Can we put out the eye of knowledge itself? There is nothing so secret and abstracted from men's senses, ut creatoris aut lateat cognitionem, aut effur/iat jJotestatem.*' He that stands on the bank, sees only the water running by him ; but from a high tower, he sees the present stream, the water that is coming on, and that gone by. God on the battlements of heaven beholds all. The sun is the world's eye, yet the interposition of the earth keeps him from seeing us in the night. God sees in the night, the ' darkness and light are all one to him,' Ps. cxxxix. 12. But, alas ! men hve as if this eye was put out ; there sits one scorning holy things, in a holy place ; another plotting his neighbour's ruin ; a thousanr" sins in a thousand several shapes, projecting to themselves prosperity in their unrighteous courses. But all this while God is forgotten, as if these were not • to be found sinners,' Gal. ii. 17. Though be seems now to coimive, yet he wUl 'judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,' Rom. ii. 16. Men may by tbeii- sins hide God from themselves, they can never hide themselves fi'om God. We are never out of bis sight ; therefore let him see us so Uve in grace, that we may Uve to see him in glory. 2. Let us be patient in all estates, seeing nothing can happen to us but by the disposition of this providence. The body is inseparable from the soul during life, yet we see not the soul, but the body only. So we cannot sever God's providence from the act done, yet we see the act more clearly than his providence. Therefore we have two eyes, that if we fasten one upon the visible calamity, we may fix the other on God's invisible mercy. Thou art deprived of thy health, estate, friends, or bberty; I deny not that thou shouldst look on these miseries, and in those sorrowful cha- racters read thy own deserts ; but withal, behold the band that sent them. These be like shavings, to make us smooth aud straight; if God pare us to the quick, it is because we should feel it; that so being sensible of the pmarit, we might amend the fault. If this act of providence can effectuate our patience ; then as the stars do shine in the night that be bid all day, so our Christian courage, that lay obscure in the sunshine of prosperity, by the night of affliction shall appear more glorious. 3. Let us believe that God will provide for us ; this is a main strength * Aug. 168 SIEDITATIOXS UPON THE CREED. of this article. This was Abraham's faith; Bominns providehit , Gen. xxii. 8. We de iire and have not, because we ask not ; we ask and have not, because we believe not. Never man wanted provision that tmsted in this pro\ddence. God lacks neither will, nor skill, nor power to help us. We call him * almighty,' therefore beUeve that he can ; ' om- Father,' therefore hope that he will ; and that he may never be to seek, we know whither to go to him; 'which art in heaven, ' he is always at home. He is called 'Jehovah,' not only because of his independent being, present to all times and places,^ Of all other things we may say, either they were and are not, or they are and were not, or they were and are, but shall not be ; but Jehovah is the same for ever. God and Lord have been communicated to some creatures ; never Jehovah. But also because of his mercy to his church ; a constant care to provide for them. "What is made, is mutable ; but the Maker is as good, as merciful, as gi'acious, as ever he was. He will make good all his promises ; man promiseth out of his poverty, what he cannot perform ; or out of his folly, what he should not perfonn ; or out of his falsehood, what he will not perfonn. God can, for he is rich; knows, for he is -nise; will, for he is faithful Lhat hath promised. ' I have set the Lord always before me, therefore I shall not be moved,' Ps. xvi. 8. When David's soldiers threatened to stone him, 'he comforted himself in God,' 1 Sam. xxx. 6. Nothing shall dismay us, if we believe. If the challenger be on the left hand to defy us, we have a champion on the right to defend us ; if the in- vader be behind, the protector is before us. A\Tien Stephen was fallen imder that shower of stones, he saw Christ ' standing at the right hand of God,' Acts vii. 55. 'Standing;' often do we read him 'sitting' at the right hand, here ' standing.' In common distress he sits still, and so (as it were with ease) strengthens us ; but in this sore conflict, when his enemies were mad with rage, and the fii'st martyr was to encounter death for his name, he stands up, like a champion vowing to revenge his own quarrel. ' Lord, let thy mercy Hght upon us, as we do put our trast in thee;' ' Lord, in thee have I tmsted; let me never be confounded.' There be three sorts of men not rectified in then- faith concerning God's providence. Fu'st, Some wiU not beheve that he will do anything, unless they can cast about how he may conveniently do it ; as if he could not cross the sea without making a bridge. Secondly, Some are so supinely dependent on this providence, that they neglect all appointed means, and look to be fed by miracle. Thii-dly, Others will not believe that he favours any man's cause, when he affects his person; and so think that people's faith not to be worth the keeping, whom God suffers to be losers by it. The fijst gives God less than he should have, the next gives him more than he would have ; the former, too little ; the other, too much ; the last give him nothing at all. Against those three eiTors I propose my next three directions. 4. We must not tie the divine providence to means ; as if God knew not how to preserve us, because we cannot prescribe him the manner. That pi-ince thought, God must needs ' make windows in heaven,' 2 Ivings vii. 2, and rain bread, or else that prophecy must fail. But as he heard it with his ears, and would not beheve it with his heart ; so his judgment was to see it with his eyes, and not taste it with his mouth. True faith hath learned to trust God without means ; it is but a sorry faith that trasts him wdth means, it is no faith at all that ties him to means. Let us bind all means to God's providence, bind his providence to no means. How often did that unfaithful Israel distru*it then- kno-svn God for un- MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CXIEED. 109 knoNVD means ? Merciless Pharaoh is behind them, a not more merciless sea before them ; and now they cry out, as if God knew not how to save them. Lo, his mercy is beyond their infidelity, they are delivered. Now they that had complained of too much water, go three days without ; as if God meant to punish their unbelief with the defect, who had distnisted him for the abundance. Water was their fear, water shall be their want. Before they saw all water, and no land ; now they see all dry land, and no water. Well, after three days God sends them water ; will they yet trast him ? But what was it ? ' bitter water,' Exod. xv. 23 ; long thirst will make bitter water seem sweet, but these could not be endured. The wells ran pure gall ; they liked their moistm-e, but abhorred their rcUsh. Lo, God sweetens the waters ; will they yet tinist him ? No ; now they complain as fast of hunger. ' He sent us indeed streams of water, but can he give bread also ? can he provide flesh for his people ? ' Ps. Ixxviii. 20. Here was drink, and meat. Now, as if there was as little possibility of the thing, as visibility of the means, they cry out with less hope than they that gather reUef for prisoners do at the doors of usm-ers ; bread and meat ! God, to try them further, and to magnify his own power, gives them what they ask, and no more. They desii-e flesh, and receive quails ; they beg bread, and have manna. Had it been the coarsest flesh, and the basest pulse, hunger would have eaten it without sauce, and thought it dainty. But God doth not only supply, but pamper them ; gives them the meat of kings, and the bread of angels. By what means '? Do they till the ground, plough and sow ? they might have perished before harvest ; neither was the wilderness fit for increase. Do they reap, and thrash, and grind, and bake ? No, God prepares this bread to their hands. Other bread ariseth from the earth, this comes down from heaven. Do they spread their nets, whistle, call for the quails ? do they go a fowling for their dinners ? These be ordinary means. No; they travel not to seek the quails, the quails travel to seek them. They come not by instinct of nature, but by the power of the Creator ; needs must they come, whom God brings. Take one instance more. The same Israelites see those walled cities, whose height yet was not answerable to their report, Josh. vi. 2 ; the fame so afii-ighted them, ere thefr eyes beheld them, that they were likely to say in distrust. How shall we scale those invincible fortifications ? what engines can batter such towers? God prevents their unbelief ; tradidi in manum tuam, 'I have delivered them into thy hand.' Were theii- walls higher than eagles could soar over, this is enough for their downfall. For on whose earth have they raised those castles ? out of whose treasm^' digged those piles of stones ? Who gave them art, strength, and time to build ? Be their foundations deep as hell, their battlements above the clouds, their soldiers giants, their commanders made up of policy and valom*, this same ' I have delivered them to thee,' is enough to vanquish all. Means can do nothing without God, much less against God. But still the want of means dismays Israel, and flatters Jericho ; these do not fear, the other cannot hope. Lo, on a sudden, the waUs fall down of themselves ! They had silver trumpets, yet must use rams' horns ; they had swords and arms, they use only their voices and feet ; means poor enough, but the rich power of God performs all. Let these examples strengthen ourfaith in this providence. The gates oT hell ai-e stronger than the walls of Jericho ; yea, we do not besiege Satan, but Satan besiegeth us ; the foiiifications of sin are to natm-e utterly in- vincible. Yet by means that appears contemptible to the world, they shall 170 MEDITATIONS UPON THE -CREED. be overthrown and triumplied over, 1 Cor. i. 27. How weak soever water appears in the font, bread and wine at the table, or man's voice in the pulpit, for so great a work, jet even by these doth the unhmited power of God save our souls. If he were bound to means, he would have kings his orators and angels his preachers, and not poor ministers ; but he will have us owe aU the honour of our salvation only to himself. Do we want sus- tainments ? we cannot be nearer driven than God's own people in the wilderness. Cities have bread, but thou wantest money ; they had money, but the wilderness had no bread. God sends it ; how ? by a leisui-ely pro- vidence ? were sowers, mowers, mUlers, bakers employed in it ? No ; we are under these means, God is above them. ' Can he foi-nish a table in the wilderness?' Ps. Ixxviii. 19. Yes, even in the places of extremest scarcity. The fowls shall come m flocks, like obedient creatures, at their Maker's call, and offer themselves to their slaughter. We do not so will- ingly serve him for our preferment and salvation. Who can distrust the great Housekeeper of the world, when he sees such provision iu his store- house, and that he can furnish tables in the wilderness ? Did he so then, and cannot he do so now ? Is he growing careless ? or rather we faithless ? He that made one suit last forty years whole, shall not we trust him for clothing ? Do we think it impossible to be sustained because we want money ? Paul speaks of ' content in food and raiment ; ' he mentioned not money. I have known many children want, whose fathers did put confidence in their moneys ; I never knew any want whose fathers did put their confidence in God. How many orphans in this city are left without portion or patrimony, yea, knowledge of their own parents. God provides that they do not perish, Hos. xiv. 3. He stiU stu-reth up one heart or another, by one means or another, to comfort the poorest. The IsraeUtes never fared so well as when they were at God's immediate finding, and in the morning expected theu' breakfast from heaven. But now, you say, God works by no miracles. As if he could not find means, because he will do no miracles ! As if nature was not his servant, to do as he bids her ! What if he does not keep the widow's meal from wasting by expense, when he sends her every day new meal ? What if he do not multiply our old store, when he supplies us with new ? WTiat if we have no bread left in the evening, when he gives us ' every day our daily bread ? ' We are taught to beg bread for the day, not that this day's bread should last us the whole year. While our provision holds out, we have less occasion to pray ; it is our sensible want and dependence on God that gives wings to our devotion. Yea, even stni God works miracles, though we take no notice of them. That our hearts should be converted by preaching, this is a miracle. That our faith should believe above reason, this is a miracle. That Satan doth not destroy us, this is a miracle. If he does not fetch water out of a rock, yet he fetcheth repentance out of sin, and makes the stony heart gush out tears ; this is a greater miracle. If he does not turn water into wine, yet he turns our son'ow into joy ; as great a miracle. If he does not feed five thousand bodies with a few loaves, yet he feeds five thousand souls with one oermon; as great a miracle. If he does not open the corporeal eyes of one born bhnd, yet he enlightens the understanding that was bom blind to spiritual things ; no less a mh-acle. Still he cleanseth lepers, casteth out devils, raiseth the dead, straightens cripples, stops bloody issues ; in a spiritual manner; no less mnacles. Why do we not trust him without a miracle, who will work miracles from heaven rather than we shall want provision MEDITATIONS LTON THE CREED. 171 upon earth ? Why do we not repose upon his mercy ? Lord, thy hand is not shortened to give, let not ours bo shortened or shut to receive ! Why do ye not wait on him, whom we have found so powerful, so merciful ? We set the mercy and love of God upon a wrong last, while wo measure it only by our present sense. Nature is jocund and cheerful while it prospereth : let God but withdraw his hand, no sight, no trust. Many can praise him for a present favoirr, that cannot depend upon him in the want of means for a future. We are all never weary of receiving, we are soon weary of attending. 5. Let us use ordinate means, but not trust unto them. So must we accept the means, that we rely on his providence ; and so rely on his pro- vidence, that we do not neglect the means. Man hath two apprehensive instruments, his hand and his heart ; and there lie before him two objects, the divine providence and ordinary means ; this natural, that supernatural. Now, if he shall misplace these, and lay hold on the wrong object, his error is feai-ful ; as when he shall give God his hand, and the means his heart ; his hand to God, to work with his visible power ; his heart to the means, as if there was his confidence. To beg that fi'om heaven which lies before us on earth, is slothful negligence ; to take that on earth, without trusting on the blessing of Heaven, is faithless diffidence. Shall the able sluggard lie on his back, and call God to help him up ? Doth the soldier look that God should give him the victory, while he fights never a stroke ? No ; but ' let the praises of God be in their mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand,' Ps. cxlix. 6. So Joab : ' Let us play the men, and the Lord do what seemeth him good,' 2 Sam. x. 12. How did our Sa\dour disclaim trust in the means ! There is other ways to live than by bread, Matt. iv. 4 ; yet in due season he did eat, not refusing the means upon any presumption of this providence. So he repelled another temptation, descending by the stairs from the pinnacle, not the next way ; he knew that the devil did but equivocate with him, leaving out ' in all his ways.' God himself does not exercise this miraculous power when nature lies ready for his use : ' Take the rod in thy hand, wherewith thou smotest the river, and smite the rock,' Exod. xvii. 5. God could have done it by his will without a word, by his word without a rod ; but he will do that by means, which he can as easily do without. Besides, what virtue was in the rod to cleave a rock ? An axe, or stronger engine, cannot do this. There was no virtue in the rod, none in the stroke, but all in the command of God. Means we must use, but expect their efficacy out of themselves. They that use not the means to get faith and repentance, do no more indeed repent or beheve than they can live that neither eat nor drink. As we say of a false fi-iend, wheresoever I see him I will trust to myself; 80 wheresoever I meet the flattering world, I will trust to the everlasting Lord. 5. Let us not think the worse of a good cause, because this providence doth not always prosper it according to our expectation and desires. Be- cause God doth not at once * consume that man of sin,' shall we suspect our own rehgion ? The men of Israel were smitten by the men of Ai, yet the men of Ai had not the true religion, but the men of Israel. Professors of the gospel in foreign parts are persecuted by the antichristians, spoiled of their countries, inheritances, privileges, peace ; shall we therefore judge the divine providence, or fault the gospel ? The Spirit of grace, and our holy faith forbid it. Because God doth not send them present deUverance, nor present likelihood of,deliverance, shall we think he dislikes the cause, 172 MEDITATIONS UPON" THE CREED. and so gi-ow cool in our devotion at home, as if he neglected it abroad ? Canaan was the Israelites' own land, long before they enjoyed it ; being Hneally descended from him that was first possessor of it next after the flood, and so right heirs ; yet were they so long kept out of possession, that they were not able to set their title on foot, yea scarce knew their own title ; yet God restored them to it. From small and unlikely beginnings the divine providence produceth great effects. Against Sennacherib he did not stand to levy, muster, train, and aim soldiers ; but took a nearer way ; his angel making in one night, one hundred eighty-five thousand dead corpses, Isa. xxx^^i. 36. To satisfy the pro- jjhet's servant, taken with a bodily fear, he did not so much as trouble an angel, but by a mere apparition in the clouds effected it, 2 Kings v. 16. Against the Philistines, vdih thek thirty thousand chariots, he did not em- ploy an angel, not a cloud, no creature at all ; but struck a terror into their hearts, and they slew one another, 1 Sam. xiv. So he reduced Gideon's two and thirty thousand to three hundred men, lest the augmentation of their forces should be the diminution of his honom-. He wiU not be wooed with multitudes, when he means to fight himself. "^Tien God made the world, was it not of nothing ? For the several creatures, made on several days, he had matter before him, stuff enough to cut them out of all sizes ; in his first work there was the seed of all creatures. But for the stuff itself, heaven and earth, this he made of nothing; he had not any seed of heaven to which he might say, Do thou hatch out heavens, sun, orbs, or stars; he had no seed of earth to which he might say. Do thou hatch an earth. All at first was nothing, and from that nothing came aU. Now he that made the whole earth of nothing, cannot he recover one piece of it with a little ? The church was very thin, when Euas knew of none but himself; God tells him of seven thousand more. Seven thousand was much to one, was little to all the world ; yet these seven thousand have peopled heaven with armies of martyrs, flocks of lambs, saints vrithout number, and replenished those places of gloiT, depopulated in the fall of angels. Rev. vii. 9. Still God hath his ' remnant,' and out of that remnant he vnl\ make up the whole gannent, Rom. xi. 5. Often do we continue a sinfiil com'se of Ufe, drown the holy gi'aces in our hearts by habitual practices of naughtiness, fall asleep in our uncleanness, or covetousness, or intemperance, to the veiy forgetting of all devotion in God's service ; and if we do hear, it is sleepily ; if pra}^ perfunctoiily. When we are roused from this spintual slumber, and see the fearful estate we stand in, we begin with trembling to apprehend the anger of God, think his mercy inaccessible, his majesty inexorable ; and are ready to sink into the gulf of desperation. Yet the Lord recovers us, there is ' the seed of God remaining' in us ; upon which the Holy Ghost sits and hatcheth a new creatm-e of us ; and from that httle beginning we are brought to a modest, but infallible, assurance of his mercy towards us. Now weigh the means whereby he doth this ; it is so small in appearance, that none can discern it but he that feels it. He suffered the magicians to counterfeit some of his greater works ; but in the least, he brought them to acknowledge the finger of God. The finger, that was enough ; the aim of God, the hand of God needs not ; for what he wiU do, his finger is suf- ficent. Some rabbins held, that the devil could not make any creature less than a barley corn. As 'ndth men, it is harder to make a little clock, a little picture ; Homer's Iliads in a nut- shell ; anything in a httle than in a larger foiTQ. Because it is so with men, they dreamed it to be so with Satan. But we that are apt to admire great works in small forms, why do MEDITATIONS Ul'ON THE CUEED. 173 we not believe that Goil will do gi'eat works with small means ? Let this stay and i)acily our hearts and tongues in all the great business of the world ; the undertakings of princes, the discomfiting of armies, the restoring of inheritances, the malice of persecutors, the sulTerings of saints. On this blessed providence let us all wait ; without either presumptuous confidence, or cowardly diffidence ; beseeching God to dispose of them, of us, of all, to his own gloiy. * The poor committeth himself unto thee, for thou art the helper of the fatherless,' Ps. x. 14. 7. Let us take heed of ascribing any good thing to other cause than tho divine providence. That old Chaldean superstition is devolved to us ; we * sacrifice to our nets,' Hab. ii. IG, to our wits. A sia that God was so careful to prevent in his Israel ; that the prophet was so heedful to avoid in himself. ' Not our own arm, not our own sword,' hath gotten us the victor}', Dcut. viii. 17 ; therefore ' not unto us, not unto us, but to thy name give the glory,' Ps. xliv. 3. God gives us rain, and we are ready to praise the weather for it ; he sends us plenty, we commend the earth ; he gi-ants us peace, we applaud our own power and policy. Preferment comes, then the plotting of our brains, the goodness of om* fi'iends, the success of our good fortunes, are only mentioned. Then, we are bom under a lucky planet, we rise ofl" our right sides ; anything hath the honour, rather than he that owns it. It was the error of Israel to Aaron, facito nobis deos, ' make us gods to go before us ; ' but they were not so impudent as to say, facito 710S deos, make us ourselves gods to go before others. We are apt to erect images, and dress altars to ourselves ; though Saturn be tm-ned out of his kingdom, Plutus be confined to hell, and Phoebus have resigned his chariot. We do not call Paul Mercurius, and Barnabas Jupiter ; we om'selves will be Jupiters and Mercuries, new earthly deities. From the worship of the pontifical 'beast,' many are relapsed to a new idolatry ; in- stead of the pagan idols, sun and stars ; instead of the popish idols, saints and angels ; thej^ are ready to do homage to themselves, dust and ashes ; not thinking of the cause above, but of their own industry below. You need not run to Rome, ransack their temples, break down their altars, and deface their images ; and there is indeed the glory of a church hke the glory of a play-house, where every man is courting his own mistress ; you need not tell them. These be no gods, they can do you no good. No ; take a shorter joui'ney, run to yourselves, and your own hearts. Let us tell them, neither om' own luck, nor our own wit, nor our own labour, hath brought us the good things we possess ; we are all miserable sinners, and worthy of nothing but torments. It is the divine providence that hath hedged in our estates, set us in seats of honoiu', filled om* bams, fields, shops, houses ; it is this, not the sea, that hath walled in our land, and so long kept out invading war. It is this, not the clouds, that hath given us plenty ; this, not our policy, that hath preserved us in peace and truth. Without which, our meat and drinli could no morenom'ish us, than the stones in the wall. The Lord hath given us wealth and happiness, the same God give us also content and thankfulness ! 8. This discovers a main imposture, and received vanity of our days, the foretelling of future things ; which attempt is a presumptuous injur}- to God's providence. This is a study for those heathen that know not God, Jer. X. 2. He taught Israel by his prophets, he taught thee not by his planets. How expressly hath he confuted and confounded such fortune-tellers ? Isa. xix. 12. If they will undertake to know fates by the stars, and by erection of figures, how comes it to pass that they do not know their own ? 174 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREEI*. He that is not able to know his own, and will promise to tell me mine, is either a fool or a juggler ; choose him whether. ' Shew me the things that are to come hereafter, that we may know ye are gods,' Isa. xli. 23 ; this is only God's art, will you make yourselves gods ? ye shall prove yourselves fools. * He frustrateth all their tokens, and makes the diviners mad,' I&a. xliv. 25 : God shall destroy then; : 0 then let not us believe them. The prognosticator tells us that he boHeves God's providence ; yet withal, he writes a prediction of all things that must happen the year following, which is indeed to compliment with God in words and to abuse him in deeds. Too many have thus lost God's providence in the stars, whereas the stars are to be found in his providence. And if they be to go a journey, or undertake a business, they will turn over the almanac before the Bible, and consult the signs, while they forget to say their prayers. As if one having an excellent watch, should still be in admiration of the spring, by which aU the wheels have the swifter or slower motion, and keep their com'se ; and never think of his art and invention that made it. When such English almanacs come out, that set down all the future passages of the year as confidently as if they had received that prognosti- cation from the angels, which they sell to the stationers : yea, when French almanacs come with their predictions concerning states and princes, one would think that, in this clear light of truth, there should not be found one soul so dark as to credit them. But fools will be meddling with strange things, as the satyr did with fire till he burnt his fingers. Whatsoever these men prognosticate, the likeliest thing to happen is the direct con- trary. Not once of twenty times did I ever turn over almanac to examine what he foretells of the present weather, but I found it quite cross. When they threaten us with rain, it is most commonly fair ; and when they flatter us that it will be fair, it is sure to rain. Therefore Diogenes, when a bungler was a shooting, ran to the mark ; other places might be dangerous, but he was sure he would never come near that. So the best credit to be given all these prophecies, whether of the weather, which is less intolerable, or of men's fortunes, which is most sacrilegious, is to presuppose the con- trai-y. For when there are but two ways, cold or hot, wet or dry, good or bad (to shew how God laughs them to scorn from heaven), they speak only that which shall not be. If they should hit the right, yet a fool might say as much ; it will rain, or it will hold up, it is but an even lay. Rather, man is his own star, and he that can keep a clear conscience commands the stars, they shall not constrain him. Let the stars do their worst, and star gazers say their worst, so long as we faithfully serve the God of heaven. I deny not but the stars have some power to work upon us, but this divine providence orders the stars ; and we have a Star above all stars, that hath ' the seven stars in his hand,' Rev. i. 16, ready to defend aU that trust in him. 9. Let the eye of our mind be always fixed on this divine providence, that considering the unspeakable goodness it hath continually done us, in all necessities we may hope that it will help us. Through aU the passages of our life let us gather observations of it ; how it kept us in the womb, brought us into the world, watched our cradles, guarded our infancy, tutored our youth, preserved us from danger, supplied us with blessings ; that thus finding it always hitherto graciously present, we may assure ourselves it will never be absent. David lacks a sword, Ahimelech can furnish him with none but Goliah's, 1 Sam. xxi. 9 : 0 give me that, there is none like it. Why ? for the metal's sake, or for the strength's sake ? ""^o, other MEDITATIONS UPON THli CREED. 175 might be as shai-p, as strong ; but for the Lord's sake, of whose mercy he had so good experience by that sword. Why else was Israel commanded to build altars and erect pillars in their passages, but that they might stand like trophies and holy memoratives of the Lord's mighty mercies in those places ? So God bids Moses ' take the rod wherewith he smote the river,' Exod. xvii. 5 ; not simply naming the rod, but with a description. Why ? Be- cause with that rod he smote the river, and turned it into blood, Exod. vii. 20. Now his faith might well expect, that the same rod, by the same ap- pointment, should as well turn the stone into water, as it did turn water into blood, and the sea into a pair of walls. This latter wonder was easily credible to him, that had tried the rod to be so miraculous. Nothing more animates us to present affiance, than the recognition of favom'S past. The same rod that brought plagues to Egypt, brings blessings to Israel ; hj the same means can God both save and condemn, as the same sword both de- fends and kills. Such due registers and records let us make of God's mercies, that we may never want confidence, as our blessed Maker doth never want providence. 10. Let us imitate his providence, which is the way to approve ourselves his children. Do good to all ; why ? Your heavenly Father doeth so, Matt. V. 45 ; without this demonstration of love, you have little proof that you are not bastards. But such a one doth me harm, shall I do him good ? No man can so offend thee as the sinner offends God : yet God doth him good ; he lives by his providence. To love him that loves us, is the pubh- can's charity ; it is common to drunkards, whoremongers, usurers, and is no more in effect but self-love. Non tarn cUUglt socium, qudm in socio seip- sum. Thus far the children of hell go, shall not the children of heaven go fui'ther ? As we have received a greater measure of love from God, so let us shew a greater measure of love to men. Yet withal, as God makes some difference, giving good things to all, but the best to his servants ; so ' let us do good to all, but especially to the household of faith,' Gal. vi. 10, as those of a family will love together, and hold together, more than they will do with strangers. 11. Lastly, Seeing the divine providence bestows the creatures upon us to use, let us forbear to abuse them ; for this were imthankfuUy to wrong God in them. They are sent to nourish us, sent to serve us, sent to teach us ; sent ad salutem, not to be usedac? insaniam.-'' The very bread we eat, should put us in mind of that bread of life ; our apparel, of that garment of righteousness which doth justify us, and of glory that shall crown us ; our houses below, of those eternal mansions above ; the hght of the sun invites us to that everlasting hght in heaven ; the winds in their aiiy regions, of that sacred Spirit which blows and sanctifies where he pleaseth ; the running streams summon us to that crj'stal river, and fountuin of living waters ; the earth, when it trembles, remembers us of the w^orld's final dissolution. There is no page in the book of nature unwritten on ; and that which may not be a teacher to inform us, will be a witness to condemn us. It is the voice of all creatures to man, accipe, redde, cave ;f to which let me add, profice, parce, rale. Accipe, take us to thy use and comfort ; I heaven am bid to give thee rain, I sun to give thee life, I bread to strengthen thy body, I wine to cheer thy heart ; we oxen leave our pastures, we lambs our mothers, to do thee service. Redde, remember to be thankful ; he that * Beru. t Hug. de S. Victor. 176 MEDITATIOXS UPON THE CREED. gives thee all, commands thee to return him somewhat ; it is hard if thou canst not thank the gi'eat housekeeper of the world for thy good cheer. Cave, beware of abusing us ; the beasts of the field cry, Do not kill us for wantonness ; the fowls of the air. Do not riot with us ; the wine, Do not take me to drunkenness, devour not me to disable thyself. Projice, do good to us and thyself. To us ; feed the sheep which thou meanest to feed upon ; meat thy horse, that he may perform thy journey. They are dumb, and cannot call for what they want; thou hast reason, provide for them. For thyself; profit by us ; let us not only please thine eye, but cherish thy body. Consider our virtues, to further thee toward life eternal ; feed on our sub- stances, to help thy life temporal ; that in both thou mayest acknowledge and bless our Maker. Let not the grain mould in thy gamers, nor the gold rust in thy coffers ; but profice, so use us, that thou mayest be the better for us. Farce, yet somewhat spare us ; do not play the t}Tant with us, delight not in our torment ; let om* death satisfy thee, without a merciless vexa- tion ; do not satiate and gorge thy appetite with our groaning semce. But as for thy sake we were made, so deal with us, that we may long do thee good. Do not spoil matrem cum filiis, destroy not our breed, but only take so much as may serve thy own turn. Vale, farewell ; when thou hast thus rightly used us, and standest in no more need of us, death calling thee to a better place, farewell. Having dealt kindly with us on earth, may God deal mercifully with thee in heaven. "Where thou shalt not need this sun, for God shall be thy light ; nor this air to breathe thee, nor this earth to bear thee, nor bread nor wine to sustain thee, for Christ shall be aU in all unto thee. The Fall of Man. — The next part of the Creed concerns Jesus Christ, directing our faith how to beheve in him. Wherein he is set forth as a Savioui", performing the great work of our redemption. But redemption presupposeth some precedent captivity. If man had stood, as we have considered him made, we had known the Son of God, but not as ' con- ceived of the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary,' &c. Therefore, by order of conveniency, before we come to look upon our Redeemer, we are fii'st to look upon our o^Tn need of a redeemer. Our lifting up gi'ants that we were once down. For coi^ftiection therefore of these two parts, our creation, whereby we were made, and our redemption, whereby we are re- paired, betwixt both these, our apostasy hath a due place of meditation. In our fall, there are four points especially considerable : the cause, the manner, the time, and the measure. The cause is double. First, The efiicient cause was Satan ; for we must conceive no otherwise of the serpent than of his instrument. Moses did not indeed name the devil, but spake according to the gi"oss capacity of the people, who would understand nothing but visible things. So in the story of that apparition to Saul, that is called Samuel which was only his re- semblance. There Satan in the shadow of Samuel, here Satan in the body of the sei-pent. But why did Satan make choice of the serpent ? Answer, First, for subtilty, wherein his usefulness was no less than his likeness. He is subtile to recover his dimmed sight by the juice of fennel ; to cast ofi" his winter coat, subtile to stop his ears to charms, subtile to insidiate man, Gen. xlix. 17. Secondly, For aptness in carrjdng the business : the ser- pent was fit for insinuation, he could wind in and out and never be seen of Adam. Thirdly, Had he framed a voice in the air. Eve would not have gi-anted so familiar a conference. Foui'thly, Had he appeared in human MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 177 shape, there being no more mankind but she and her husband, his impos- ture had been palpable. But Eve knew that serpents could not speak, why then did she not mis- trust ? Answer : She was sufficiently able to put a ditforence betwixt the faculty of beasts and power of angels ; but being transported with the fair promises, she did not so much mind nude, from whence they came, as qualcs, what they were. She was so rapt with an ambitious desire of bettering her estate, that she never intended whether it was a good or a bad angel. But why was she not a&-aid to talk with a seqjent ? Not because the sei-pent had a beauteous face, countenance hke a virgin ; as you have heard of mermaids, virr/o fonnosa siipenie, which is not nature's action, but the poet's fiction. There is no such serpent, unless it be in a moral sense, a beautiful face with a serpentine heart in a whore. But because, dm-iug the state of innocency, no creature was loathsome to man. Serpents and beasts had the same fonn and shape before, but not the same terribleness and nocent powers. Wicked atheists deride this story, yet beUeve their poets, that a river saluted Pythagoras, an elm ApoUonius, that Jupiter's bull did speak in Rhodes, and Achilles's horse foretold his master's death. There is no doubt but that, by permission, Satan can possess a body, living or dead. The other cause was the will of om- parents, Eccles. \di. 29. Freedom of will is fourfold : lihertas ad solum malum; adsoluinhonum; restiicta,part'nn adhonum , absoluta ad honum ret malum. 1. Freedom to only e^dl, which is in repro- bate men and angels ; and is indeed more properly a thraldom than a free- dom. 2. Freedom to only good, which is in God by natm-e, in the angels by grace. 3. Freedom restrained, partly to good, but not without touching upon evil ; this is in militant saints. 4. Freedom absolute to good or evil indifferently ; this was in Adam. He had no inclination to sin, nor yet was he bound by any necessity from sin. God, in restraining one tree, declared that man had power either to take or forbear it. For God, he was no ways any cause of it. He did not only make them righteous creatures, but also gave them righteous wills ; told them plainly what he would exact, and what they could perform. But why did he not prevent it ? Answer: He was not bound imto it, he permitted it for divers reasons. 1. To make the most excellent creatures sensible of their own infirmity, how unable they are to stand without his supportation. 2. That there might be an occasion to exercise both his justice and mercy ; justice in punishing, mercy in saving. If in the world had been no miseiy, there had been no work for mercy, no need of Christ. If no sin, no matter for his justice to shew itself. 3. To will nothing but good, is a state reserved for heaven ; to will nothing but evil, is a state reserved for hell ; to will good and evil, is a state disposed for earth. There is a double grace : one, to be able to will and do that is good ; the other, to be able to per- severe in willing and doing good. God gave Adam the former, not the other. Dedit iwsse perseverare si vellet : non dedit veJle perseverare cum possit. 4. God owes no creature anything ; beggars must be no choosers. We that are indebted to him for all that we are, cannot challenge more than he will give. He so governs all things he hath made, ut etiam. proprios motus exercere sinatA- 5. He might justly sufier this evil, because he knew how to turn it into good. It was not prater loluntatem Dei, that were to make a lame providence ; not contra voluntatem Dei, that were to make a weak omnipotence ; but jujcia voluntatem Dei, in part he ordained it ; not as it * Ang VOL. UI. M 178 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. was a sin to ruin the creature, but as a way to exercise tlie justice and mercy of the Creator. But if Adam did that which God willed, he did not sin. Answer : He did will the same matter, but not after the same manner, nor to the same end. Suppose an Israelite had wished the death of that persecuting tyrant Benhadad, and Hazael also wished it : the fonner, because he was a malicious enemy to God's church ; the other, that he might get his king- dom. God and Adam willed this fall ; but neither God with man's intent, nor man with God's intent, Adam's purpose was to be like God, God's to manifest his own gloiy. But God decreed it, therefore man could not avoid it. Answer: In respect of God's decree, it was necessary ; in respect of Adam's wiU, it was voluntary : the Creator's purpose did not take away the creature's freedom. But God's will is the cause of Adam's will, and Adam's will the cause of this fall, therefore God's will is the cause of this fall; for quod est causa causa, is causa causati? Answer: God's will is a moving cause of the wills of evil men, not as they are evil, but as they are wills. As a man makes a lame horse bear his burden : cogit claudum por- tare, non cogit equum claudicare. God so inclines the evil will, that while he moves the will he is not entangled with the evil. Who can now complain of God ? Not the devil, God did not cause him to deceive man. Not Adam and Eve, they fell by their own wills, without his instigation ; and this their own consciences did confess. Can the pos- terity of Adam ? No ; reprobates justly suffer, and must acknowledge they have but their deserts. And for the elect, they get more by the second Adam than they lost by the fii'st. ' 0 the depth,' &c., Rom. xi. 33. The manner was by temptation ; which was partly subtile, partly mali- cious, all devilish. Satan's malice was high and gi'eat : high, in that he meant this mischief at God himself, whose infinite majesty being out of his reach, he thought to spite him in ruining his workmanship ; as the Romanists took their pleasure and revenge on Queen Elizabeth's picture, because they could not come at her person. Great ; for despairing to save himself, he endeavoured to destroy all the world. Now, his fraud was not inferior to his malice, which will appear in twelve crafty circumstances. 1. For his vessel, a sei'pent, a thing so like him for craft, that it is still his emblem. Every serpent is (as it were), a young de\'il, and the devil is called an ' old serpent.' 2. For his insinuation to the place : who would look for a serpent in paradise ? What wonder is it, if our corruption finds him in our closet, among our bags, in our beds with his unclean suggestions, on our boards among our many dishes and full cups ; whenas our parents, being holy, found him in paradise ? 3. For his use of the time. He is not sooner got in, than he falls to work. He lays hold on the fii'st opportunity, knew it was no advantage to Black his design. A little forbearance might have improved man's experi- ence, and so prevented his mischief. To think him idle, is as gross, as for the times of ignorance to call then- fairies and hobgobhns, harmless devils. 4. For his choice of the tree. There were many trees in paradise ; you find him about none but the forbidden. There was no danger in the rest ; here grew the fruit of his hope. By no tree but this could they miscarry ; upon none but this dwells his subtle expectation. 5. In his singling out the woman ; who being the weaker in resistance, was the more malleable to his purpose ; the fitter for him, both to work upon, and to work by. Though she had good helps, holiness and wisdom, MEDITATIONS UPON THE CBEED. 179 yet he outvied her, and she lost the game. He keeps his old trick still ; when he would pervert a whole family to superstition, he teaches his Jesuit to begin with the woman. To witchcraft he brings more women than men ; therefore the Scripture names a witch in the feminine gender, Exod. xxii. 18. He sped so luckily with this plot in paradise, that he practised it upon Solomon and Samson ; he foiled the strongest, and fooled the wisest, by a woman. 6. For watching his opportunity ; not only assaulting the woman, but absente viro, when the man was not by. Had Adam been present, he durst not have attempted it. It was in Uriah's absence, that he wrought Bath- sheba to folly. Let Ulysses be at home, Penelope's suitors vanish. 7. In his question, to move doubt. ' Yea, hath God said. Ye shall not eat of every tree ? ' It is likely, that they had spent some time in confer- ence, from which premises the serpent mfers this conclusion, Num dixit Deits ? This is strange, that God should give you any such prohibition ? Not eat of every tree ? as if God had dealt hardly with them, in the abridg- ment of this liberty. If Satan can but get us to stand him, and hold him talk, he makes himself suxe, and dischargeth as at a dead mark. ' Blessed is he that hath not stood in the way of sinners.' 8. In his reply, to work distrust. ' Ye shall not die ; ' never think that God hath any meaning to kiU you for so slight a matter. To doubt of the commandment, is the way to expose ourselves to the transgression. Usury, and monopoly, and monomachy, had never been known, but by hearsay ; had not men stood to talk \Yith Satan, and to hear his reasons and argu- ments, what he could say for such horid sins. Hence it came to be put to those two imhappy referees, the devil's wit and man's will. 9. In his protestation of safety, and promise of glory. ' Ye shall be aa gods ; ' sicut, for quality, not for equality ; so far from mortal creatures, that you shall be immortal powers. But whether is the devil more subtle to promise, or man more simple to believe, that there may be safety in sin? Safer is a vessel on the sea without mast or stem, or a blind cripple in a house on fii-e. He that bids us look to speed well in doing ill, promiseth us good luck in breaking our necks. 10. In his suggestion to envy and discontent. Why one tree ? Sure, he gi-udgeth you that fruit, as if he kept it for his own tooth. Why this tree ? sure there is some more delight and goodness in this tree than in all the rest. How many thus lose the comfort of their own estate, by envying the betterness of another's ? How foolish is he, that will fast from his own wholesome supper, because his neighbour hath better cheer ? Lord, rather give me a contented want, than a discontented abundance. 11. By his flattering them with the increase of knowledge and honour. ' Ye shall know good and evil.' Now they knew nothing but good ; and what gets a man by the knowledge of evil ? Who being in health, would make himself sick, to know what sickness is ; yea, rather kill himself, that he might get experience of death ? And for honour, what a puff do am- bitious men, like boys about a bubble, catch at ? What if my name be despised on earth, so long as it is written in heaven ? This were as when the sun sends forth his glorious beams, to ciy for the putting out of a candle. Yet how easily doth honour and knowledge, the knowledge of honour, the honour of knowledge, transport the sons of corrupted nature I A cunning devil ! that sends a man to seek for hght in a vault, his own glory in the dishonour of his Maker. 12. In his ambiguity of speech ; every vrord being capable of a double 180 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. construction ; as he used aftei-wards to deliver his oracles. ' Ye shall not die,' that is, not presently the death of the body, yet presently be made mortal. * Your eyes shall be opened ;' so they were, to see theu- confusion. ' Ye shall know good and evil ; ' so they did, not by a bettered knowledge, but by a miserable experience. ' Ye shall be as gods ; ' either as good angels, or as apostate devils. Thus his words have an ambagious meaning ; that howsoever it should happen, he might keep his credit, by expounding it according to the event. So if he failed now, he might hope to prevail another time. 'Now when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,' Gen. iii. 6 ; there is the voluptuousness of her desire ; ' and pleasant to the eyes,' there is the curiosity of her sight ; and ' would make one wise,' there is the vanity of her mind. Proportionable to the Apostle's description of the world ; ' the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life,' 1 John ii. 16. We sin according to the pattern of our mother; see, like, take, die ; and so infect others, as Eve having eaten, gave her husband. Had she stayed her hand with her own fall (as he that ignorantly drank to his friend in a cup of poison, but once perceiving it, threw away the cup, admitting no pledge), Satan had been prevented, we preserved, the root of mankind being uncorrupted. But such was her unhappiness, to invite man to this cursed banquet; so they both did eat, and set all their posterity's teeth on edge. Observation 1. If we had been by, and seen Adam, in hoc articulo posi- tum, in a strait, betmxt the persuasion of his wife, and the precept of his Maker ; how would we have cried out to him, Take heed, the apple is fair, but the core will choke thee ; the woman of thy love is the instrument of thy bane. Yet when it comes to our own turns, our memory forgets, and our conscience forbears, to give us this caution. Tcnn minime cautiwi est, d quo miserrime casum est.^^- Consider thy soul in Adam's stead, concupi- scence is Uke Eve, thy wife ; Satan is still himself, his bait is the forbidden fruit. He opens his pedlar's pack, bids concupiscence like and take ; rea- son is hitherto absent, the wife is won, concupiscence woos reason ; if she can prevail, Satan laughs to see them both perish together. ' How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee ?' Jer. iv. 14. 0 coiTupt man, God doth not blame us so much that these thoughts come, but that they are suffered to tarry. They may knock at our door, we may choose whether we will let them in. Their intrasion is not, their entertainment is, our feult. Think betwixt the cup and the lip ; this draught of gain or lust is deadly. Though Eve be taken, save Adam. Let not Lot look back for his wife, though she perish. Ohs. 2. Satan still works by his factors ; he would be too abhorred in his own shape, therefore comes in hke concealed ware, and the more plausible his artillery, the more terrible his batteiy. Poison goes the more unsus- pectedly down in a pleasing goblet. The devil presumes, like the Phihs- tines, that Samson will deny Delilah nothing. Mischievous pohticians have got this trick of their father, to use other instruments in all dangerous de- signs ; as the monkey took the sleeping cat's foot to rake the chestnuts out of the fire. The actors shall be upon the stage, but the poet is close be- hind the curtains. What vessel soever bears the evil motion, wife or friend, let us suspect Satan in it, as David did his captain, ' Is not the hand of Joab in this ? ' 1 Sam. xiv. 19. The devil hath a hand in it, as he brought upon Adam, per amorem uxoris, amarorem mortis. So easy it will be for him that will be uxorious to his wife to be injurious to his God. • Bern. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 181 Obn. 8. Satan flatters them with benefits and glorious shows : they shall be wise, they shall be as gods, wise as gods ; but not a word of death, or confusion, or desen'ed societj' of devils. When he tempted Judas to that unnatural treason, he shewed him the silver, not the halter. \\Tien he sent Gehazi after Naaman, he suggested unto him the garments, and the money, not the leprosy. He shewed Christ on the mountain, ' all the kingdoms of the world, and the gloiy of them,' Matt. iv. 8 ; he presented him with the glory, not with the vanity : while he magnifies the pomp, he hid the vexa- tion. If there be any pleasure, majesty, braverj^ in the world, where should we find it but in the com-ts of princes ? There be the rich jewels, em- broidered robes, sumptuous feasts, glorious triumphs, refulgent beauties, honourable attendance, royal state ; and these he lays forth to the fairest show. With the inconveniences he meddles not, unless it be with their concealment. Full many a care attends on greatness, sovereignty is full of jealousy ; he fears most, who is most feared. Christ's crown was all thorns, no crown is without some thorns. The highest seats are ever uneasy. Those innumerable discontents, which are hke shadows to sub- Hme places, Satan hides out of the way ; nothing is left visible, but what may allure. When he assaults any poor soul, he suffers nothing to appear to the eye but pleasure, profit, a sweet satisfaction of our desires, and a phantasma of happiness. There is also wi-ath, and judgment, and torment, and sting of conscience belonging to it; these must be, but these shall not be seen. All the way is white snow, that hides the pit. Green gi'ass tempts us to walk ; the sei-pent is rmseen. If temptations, like plaises, might be turned on both sides, the kingdom of darkness would not be so populous. K David could have foreseen the gi'ief of his broken bones ere he fell upon Bathsheba, those aspersions of blood and lust had not befallen him. If Achan could have foreseen the stones about his ears before he filched those accursed things, he would never have fingered them. But as it is said of Adam and Eve after their fall, Tunc sunt aperti ocuJi eorum, ' Then their eyes were opened; ' then, not before. Judas was blind till he had done the deed, then his eyes were opened, and he saw it in its tnie horror. Sins are hght in the common balance of flesh and blood, but bring them to ' the measure of the sanctuaiy.' Adulterous acts are unlawful, ex con- fesso ; but of wanton looks men make no reckoning, yet they weigh in the judge's balance as heavy as condemnation. Matt. v. 28. The smallest atom is seen in the sun, which we think nothing in the dark. The coral, so long a^ it is under water, is white ; being got above the water, it waxeth hard and red. Our sinful works in theii- own element, seem soft, and fair, and harmless ; being brought into tlie open air, they appear red and bloody. Lines may be so written with the juice of a lemon that no man can read them ; heat the paper against the fire, you read them easily. The charac- ters of our flagitious Hves are so kept from us that we read no ill : let us bring them to the fiery trial, this shall make all om* works and words, yea the secrets of our hearts, legible. SoiTOws and woes are reserved for the farewell of sin ; that they may be both seen and felt at once. When we are once sure, Satan is a tyrant ; till then, he is a parasite. If we desire to be safe, let us view the back, as well as the face, of temptations. This good use let us make of our grandmother's ill, that we deceive Satan of ♦Iiat trick whereby he deceived her. When he invites us to view the glori- ous beginning of sin, let us look first to the ending, and so prevent him. The third circumstance is the time, and I will not spend much time 182 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. about it. Some would have Adam to continue in paradise about three and thirty years, because Christ Uved so long upon the earth ; some, forty days, that there might be a correspondence between the intemperancy and the remedy. The first Adam sinned in eating, and the second Adam fasted forty days for it. Others hold that he fell the next day after kis creation, upon the day of rest. But it is not likely that upon a day of joy God would execute a work of sorrow, nor curse in that which he had blessed. Othere say upon the eighth day, that day sevennight after his making ; as the eighth day was ordained for circumcision, that the father's apostasy and the children's recovery might be answerable for the time. But the most received opinion is according to Saint Augustine : that they fell on the very day of their making. Moses having set down the creation, without inter- position of anything, comes immediately to the fall. For reason to confii-m this opinion. 1. Satan fell presently after his making ; non stetit in veritate, ' he abode not m the truth,' John viii. 44. He scarce tasted the sweetness of an angelical life, but as soon as he had it, he lost it ; so it is likely of man. 2. Christ calls the devil a ' murderer fi'om the beginning.' This could not be from the beginning of the world, or of time, then he had none to kill, it must be fi'om the beginning of man ; therefore in man's beginning Satan did set upon him. 3. His implacable mahce would edge and urge him to lay hold on the first occasion, and his subtilty would admit no delay, lest man's experience should have confii-med him in obedience, and enabled him to persist ; therefore that very day. 4. Adam had not yet tasted of any fi-uit; it is clear, not of the tree of life. Gen. iii. 22 ; and -with that he was most hkely to begin. This appears both by Satan's onset, and the woman's answer, ' We may eat ;' may, have not yet. Now they would not have stayed long without eating ; therefore, that veiy day. 5. Presently after their making they were bidden to increase and multiply, so that if they had tarried there long Adam, in obedience to the commandment, must have kno^vn Eve, and so they should have gotten children without sin ; for it is an erring ignorance to think they were not made fit for procreation and of apt disposition. 6. Never any man on earth kept the Sabbath without sin but Christ. That is called the ' rest of Christ,' Heb. iv. 10, that enjoyeth a cessation from aU the works of sin. Therefore he fell before the Sabbath, and that must be the very day. 7. What became of hons and such creatures, whose natural suste- nance is flesh? They did not feed upon gi-ass, and to say they did eat flesh is absurd, for there was no death before the fall ; so that, if Adam had stayed long in paradise, their fast must have been tedious and above nature. 8. The psahn says, ' Adam abode not in honour,' Ps. xhx. 12, he lodged not one night in honour. So some read it. Lun, signifying to stay all night. If he did not continue in paradise one night, he fell on the day of his creation. But how could so much business, as the aggi'egation of the creatures, their nomination by Adam, Eve's temptation by the serpent, the man's seduction by the woman, God's conviction and curse of them aU, be de- spatched in so few hom-s ? Answer : 1. The imposition of names was per- formed by Adam ere Eve was made ; and this he could do at first sight, without trial of their natures, by reason of his singular wisdom. 2. Such is the celerity and subtilty of spirits, that Satan was nimble enough to play ofi" his part in a very short space. 3. It was in the ' cool of the day,' about eventide, when God gave the sentence. Thus in the scope of eight or nine hours all these passages might be accomplished. But what is all this to MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED, 183 US, to know when he fell, so long as we feel too sensibly that he is fallen ? Yes, this point is not barren of use, it teacheth us two things. Consideration 1, The fickleness of all temporal things. If innocency itself could not keep this world, no, not one whole day, how brittle hatii corruption made it since ! If our righteous father could not preserve him- self without sin twelve hours, how vainly presumptuous are we, his infected children, to be confident of our standing! No man but he that is God and man, ever stood without falling. And in him, we are so much more happy than Adam was, that we shall not faU into perdition ; but this we have common with him, and from him, that we cannot but fall into transgression. In saying the Lord's Prayer, he that prays, * Lead us not into temptation,' confesseth that he may fall ; he that prays, ' Forgive us our trespasses,' confesseth that he had fallen. Both which lead us to a penitent contrition for what we have done amiss, and to a careful circumspection about what we do ; that we stand upon our guard, and watch the blow, to defend our- selves. Thou hast done well ; be not too sure ; trust not thj' o'wn legs ; * let him that thinks he standeth, take heed lest he fall ;' Paul himself hath his buflets, 2 Cor. xii. 7 ; the bladder that is full of wind must have a prick to let it out. ' I sent to know your faith, lest by some means the tempter hath tempted you,' 1 Thess. iii. 5. They were his hope, his joy, his crown, yet they might be tempted. Light the taper at the fire of the sanctuary, and leave it burning clear, yet there is a thief to waste it ; yea, it is ready to dim itself, if there be not snufiers to keep it bright. If spiritual things may thus be forfeited, what assurance is there of tem- porals ? No mere man ever stood so high as Adam ; this earth is now divided among many kings, which was all his alone. Their lands bring them no increase without industry, his yielded fruits naturally. The whole earth his field and orchard, paradise was his private garden. They often command and go without ; all things obeyed Adam. Storms and thunders, serpents and flies, stand in fear of no prince; none of these durst or could injure Adam. His glory was gi-eat, gi'eater his safety, his command greatest of aU ; yet this potent, safe, happy king lost all in a moment. 0 then what constancy can be expected from the world ? AU these were in his hands, like an estate in the true owner's ; we are all naturally usurpers, and cannot challenge one foot in our own right ; shall the thief be secure when the true man was not ? "What land is so entailed to posterity, but the dying possessor may not give it this farewell and inscription; 7iunc mea, nunc hujits, sed postea nescio cvjiis? 0 happy man, who neither loves the world, nor the world him ; both being dead, either to other ! Dum alter alterum non ajjpetit, quasi mortuus mortumn nan attendit. Abraham and Job, and many other saints, have been rich and potent ; yet while the world flourished about them, it did not flourish within them ; it smiled on them, they did not smile on it. Now, it is decrepit in itself, yet lusty in us ; withered in its own parts, yet it gi'ows green in our afi'ec- tions. It wooed them, and they scorned it ; it frowns on us, and yet we woo it. It was to them, as the Jebusites to Israel, a drudge ; we subject ourselves to it, as Israel did to the Egj^tians. It profiered them service, and might not be entertained ; we profier it ourselves, and request it to entertain us. They could not be caught with its sweetness, we doat upon the bitterness of it. Sequimur fugientem, quern illi spreverunt sequentem. But while we lean upon that which is falling, shall we not fall with it ? Lo, Adam could not hold it, while it was good, while he was good, all was good; now being grown stark naught, if we trust it, we are worse than it. 184 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. Consideration 2. The cunning of that adversary', whom it is hard to elude, impossible to avoid. It is now since Adam's fall above five thousand years ; the devil lost none of his time ; he that would not forbear innocency one day, will assault comiption eveij hour. He could not augment his malice, he hath improved his experience. If he were so crafty then, what a cunning devil he is now ! Et illefortior ad jmfjnauchim, et tu dehilior ad repugnan- dinn. If, as Samson lost his strength with his lock, that angel had lost hip wisdom with his goodness, we were safer in the wide world, than Adam wafc in his impaled paradise. But he still remains an angel, though a mischievous one ; and we are men, not half so wise as our father. Lord, let it not be presumption in us to beg, that thou wouldst make us wiser than Adam ; that all the tricks of Satan may never cozen us of our grace and portion in Jesus Christ. Yea, let us be as far from security, as he is from ignorance or charity. Ille nan cessat discere tentando, nos discamus non cessare cavendo. Give a serpent a wound, he will turn again ; everj^ good deed gives that old serpent a wound ; let us look for his malice, be sure he will tmn again. He is ever busy, but worst at last, discharging his shot thickest when it is almost night ; recompensing breritatem temporis, gravitate tcntationis. He strikes continually, but his first and last blows are most dangerous. He assaulted Adam so soon as he came into the world, most furiously he sets upon all the children of Adam when they are going out of the world. Look well to the conclusion ; for as the tree is loaden, so it bends ; and as it bends, so it grows : and as it grows, so it falls ; and as it falls, so it Ues ; and as it lies, so is it found at the last day ; and as it is found at the last day, so it must continue for ever. The Measure. — Some sensual men have extenuated Adam's sin ; alas ! it was but eating an apple. Wherein they do implicitly and by consequence tax God of injustice, to lay so heavy a punishment on him for so slight a fault. What, condemn a whole world for so small a matter? Be not deceived, we shall prove it by evidence, as we find it by experience, to be a gi'ievous rebellion ; not one single sin, but many in one ; as Leah said of Gad, 'Here comes a company;' simplex pomum, 7)udtiplex peccatum. The quantity of a sin must not be measured by the object, about which it is conversant, but by the commandment which prohibits it. It w^as not the fruit eaten, but the law broken, that made him guilty. He that will truly value his sin, must not so much look to the thing done upon earth, as to the majesty offended in heaven. ' Against thee, 0 Lord, against thee, have I sinned,' Ps. li. 4. David had sinned against Uriah, his subject ; but he looks up to God, his sovereign. Here, non tot grana inpomo, quot mala in peccato. In one fact we find ten several sins. (1.) Increduhty. They did not believe God's word to be trae : he says, ' Eat and die ;' they hope to eat and not die. Howsoever other sins speed, unbehef is sure to smart. He deserv'es no mercy of God, that will not take his word. This indignity we still ofi'er him, more paterno ; still doth the want of faith shut men out of paradise. (2.) Blasphemy, in giving credit to the devil, more than to God. His moriemini they doubt ; Satan's no7i moriemini they believe. Let the devil charge the God of tnith with falsehood, the God of love with envy ; yet to this they subscribe. Is it a small sin to reproach their Maker ? (3.) Cm-iosity, in affecting greater wisdom than the God of wisdom saw fit for them. Satan flatters them x^nth some strange operation in this fruit : this thej' Inugr t^ fip'5 ; t^ their owv woe they found it. "VMiat great evils MEDITATIONS UPON TIIK CRKED. 185 rise from small beginnings ! It is probable that curiosity turned Lot's wife into a pillar of salt ; she would but see forbidden Sodom, and sped worse than Sodom. That cmiosity sent home Dinah deflowered ; she would but see the virgins of the land, and left her own virginity behind her. Her idle curiosity bred all that mischief ; upon this she wanders abroad, upon her wandering follows ravishment, upon the ravishment mm-der, upon the murder spoil. It is holy and safe to be jealous of the fii'st occasions of evil. Curious Lot's wife lost herself, curious Dinah lost a city, curious Helena lost a kingdom, curious Eve lost all the world. (4.) Wantonness, in sinning without need. All the trees in the garden were at their service ; all pleasant and allowed, only one pleasant and for- bidden. She slights that she might have ; and for that she might not have, she bequeathed this legacy to all her children, that they should naturally desire what they may not lawfully possess. (5.) Pride and ambition to be no worse than their maker. If all failed, Satan hoped this would do it. Had his bait been beauty. Eve was fair and amiable ; certainly the most beautiful woman that ever the world had, or shall have ; none but a glorified body in heaven can excel hers, and in enjoying her, Adam had, with pleasure, without offence, enjoyed himself. Had it been delight, he knew that he wanted none which earth could yield him, while he had a heaven within him. Had it been gold, why all was his own already, and how basely would he have esteemed the most shining metals who had no use of coin, no fear of want ! K all Adam's sons knew the little worth of gold as well as he did, the devil would never have turned digger, for all his mines could not have won one piece of a soul. It was then a proud desire of bettering his condition ; what but this could turn man out of paradise, angels out of heaven, and tumble so many millions to hell! (6.) Unthankfulness. Had not God done enough for them ? created them after his own image, estated them in the monarchy of the world, fur- nished them with a pleasant habitation, paradise, the seat royal of the whole earth, set serviceable creatures to attend them, pleasure itself to de- light them, perfect knowledge to accomplish their blessedness ? Yet as if all this were not worth thanks, they must be something that God would not have them, or have something that God would not grant them. He had studied to make them happy, and now they study to make themselves miserable. They must know more than they did, as if God did not know that they knew enough. Still do we inherit this saucy appetite of our grandmother ; we can never rest satisfied with the portion which God hath carved us. Wanton children never speed worse than when they have things of their own choosing. How well doth he deserve to lose all he hath, that repines for one thing he hath not ? When Eve had all the world and the innumerable delights in it, yet she would hazard all for one apple. This was the ampUfication of David's fault by the prophet, contemning the variety of his own wives for the forbidden one of his subject, 2 Sam. xiii. How doth our ingratitude overlook the many blessings of God in discon- tent for one ! Thus I have seen a sullen guest at a well furnished table, because he is prevented of one dish that he hath a mind to, keep a melan- choly fast and eat never a bit. (7.) Presumption : they made themselves confident of God's mercy, that though they did what he forbade them, yet he would not do as he threatened them. As if he prized them above his own honour, and would break his word to spare them that broke his law. So the evil man flatters himself; God will be gracious though I be ungracious. ' The judgments of 186 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. God are far above out of his sight,' Ps. x. 5. Out of his sight ; as an eagle at her highest towering so lessens herself to view, that he sees not the talons, nor fears the grip. Thus man presumes till he hath sinned, and then despairs as fast afterwards. At first, ' Tush, doth God see it ?' At last, ' Alas, will God forgive it ?' But if a man will not know his sins, his sins will know him ; the eyes which presumption shuts, commonly de- spair opens. Cain, that fears not to kill his brother, feai's that every passenger will kill him. Israel calls for the flesh-pots of Egypt, but they forget the smart, the seasoning of the pot, the whips, the straw, the bricks, the seiwitude, childi-en haled from their mothers' breasts. The bitterness of sin is always concealed to the last ; that morsel, after the banquet, is left to close up their stomachs. Satan is a dumb devil while the mischief is a doing, but a roaring de\dl when it is done. During the merriment of sin, he is altogether against conscience, and stops her mouth; but in the sor- rowful sense of it, he takes her part and extends her voice. While the debtor trades and is busy in the world, the creditor lets him alone ; but if he once break, then action upon action. Let Eve teach us how great a madness it is to complain too late. Had she foreseen how by that act she should lose the comfort she had, endm-e a torment beyond her thought, be- reave her husband of happiness, make her posterity miserable, and bring a curse upon the whole world; the frait had hung still on the tree, and the Son of God not been put to hang on the tree of death for it. (8.) Murder, causing the death of all those that were to take life from them. She that was made the ' mother of the li^'ing,' became, by that act, the mother of the dying. Had she eaten alone, it is likely she had died alone ; but when she gave to her husband, she killed us all. Therefore, that Adam might see he had begot a son in his own image, their first-bom child was a mui'derer. Adam slew his posterity, Cain slew his brother. The same devil that did set enmity betwixt God and man sets enmity be- twixt man and man; and the same cause that moved Satan to tempt the first man to destroy himself and his posterity, moves also the second man to destroy the third. I do not doubt but though Adam could not be innocent in paradise, yet he was a good man out of paradise ; his fall had made him wary, so that his children's education was holy. Seeing he had bereaved them of that image of God which he had for them, he would labour, by all good endeavours, to repair it in them, that so his care might make some amends for his trespass. ' But who can bring a clean thing out of an un- clean ? ' Job xiv. 4. That which is crooked can none make straight. To make his children guilty, this he had done easily; he found it impossible to make them all holy. There is no breeding can alter destiny. We are all too hke one another in that wherein we are unlike to God. Fan the grain from the chaff, make it never so clear when you sow it, yet you shall find chaff when you reap it. Goodness may be repaii-ed in ourselves, it cannot be propagated to om's. That Adam was an elect saint there is no question ; he had two elder sons, perhaps twins, yet how contraiy are their estates, their dispositions. Had nature any remaining privilege, the first- bom child of the world had not been a reprobate. Now, the elder was a murderer, the yoimger a saint. The elder had his impiety from natm-e, the younger his sanctity from the free gi-ace of God. Our hatred of the serpent and his seed is from God ; their hatred of the holy seed is from the serpent, Gen. iii. 15. In one and the same person are both the seeds of the woman and serpent. Cain's natm-al parts are of the woman, his vicious qualities are of the sei-pent. The woman gave him to be a brother; the serpent, to be a MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. 187 fratricide. Yet here is the comfort, the father shall not answer for the son ; he is never the fui*ther fi'om heaven, though he cannot bring his children along with him. As the better cannot cany up the worse to heaven, so neither shall the worae pull down the better to heU. (9.) The easiness of the commandment makes the transgression more heinous. You say it was but for eating an apple that he was condemned ; and I say it was but eating an apple that was forbidden. Will you blame God for punishing him for so little, and not blame him for offending in so little? The easier the precept, the easier was the obedience. As the Syrians said to their master, ' What if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing?' 1 Kings v. 13. "VMiat if the Lord had commanded him some gi'eat matter? Say he had charged him to fast foiij^ days, and that in paradise, as the second Adam did in the wilderness ? Had he begotten a son in innocency, and been charged to offer him up in sacrifice, as Abraham was tried? Had he been bound to abstain from his beauteous spouse, to till the earth for his bread, or plant trees for his fruit ? Here had been gi'eater difficulty of obeying, but no toleration of sinning. But when it was only an apple, the fruit of a tree, of one tree, of one among such variety, and such variety of as fair and allowed fruits, certainly quo facilius praceptum, eh gravius peccatum, the more easy the command the more heinous the disobedience. He that will not do a little for God, is there any hope he will do much? He that will not part with his sin wiU more hardly part with his son at his Maker's bidding. He that grudgeth a cup of cold water wiU more stick at a cup of warm blood for Christ. Peccare in minimo, pec- catum non viinimum. Saint Augustine* brings in Eve thus disputing of the tree. Si bona est, quare non tanqo ? Si mala est, quare in jjaradiso? If it be good, why is it forbidden ? if it be bad, what doth it in paradise ? It is in paradise because it is good ; but thou must not touch it, because thou must be obedient. Let this example teach us to be careful of small precepts. ' Well done, good servant; thou hast been faithful in a Httle,' Luke xix. 17. Fidel is in modico. But this seems to be a little commenda- tion, to be faithful in a Uttle ? Indeed, if we place modicum in Jidelitate, little in faithfulness, it is a diminution ; but fidelitas in modico, faithfulness in a little, is a commendation. He that cannot rule a httle boat must not be trusted with a great vessel. (10.) The main of all was disobedience, or transgression of the law of God ; and so we have ten sins bound up in one fact, as the ten commandments are summed up in one word, love. Yea, this very single offence was the breach of the whole law. And as from the mass of heaven and earth, that seed of aU creatures, innumerable kinds were formed, so from this one sin, the seed of all e^al, what a multitude of sins have been derived. The sins of one man are beyond all numeration ; how infinite are the sins of aU the world ! Question 1. What was the first sin in the world ? The Komish stream is altogether for pride, because Satan said, * Ye shall be as gods.' That they were tickled with pride by the temptation, and so were suffered to fall.f But this takes away the difierence betwixt the sin of man and of the angels. These fell by their own pride immediately, man by temptation unto pride. There was some fault in man before pride, none before it in the apostate spirits. The devil feU without a seducer, man not but by his seduction. Therefore man found mercy, they reap nothing but judgment. Man is restored by a Saviour, they must perish for ever. Man, quanta fragilior in natura, tantb facdior ad veniam.X * In Ps. Ixx. f Prosper. % Aug. 188 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREEb. But we find that Satan's drift was to make man doubt the truth of the commandment and punishment. Therefore his first deceit was fidem re- viovens. ' Ye shall not die.' He warrants them against all danger before he allures them with hope of honour. Therefore the first sin of the world appears to be infidelity/ For if man had constantly believed what God directly threatened, the devil had lost his labour. Pride followed upon infidelity, not infideUty upon pride. Here let us take notice that unbelief was the first sin of the world, and unbelief is the worst sin of the world. At first it lost all men, and still it loseth the greater part of men— pagans, infidels, heretics, and not a few of them that be called Christians, John xvi. 9. Will God break his word to save thee, thou unbeliever, who will not break it to save a world ? Rather than it, ' heaven and earth shall pass.' And dost thou hope to escape ? There is not a soul now in hell but con- fesseth itself damned for unbelief, Num. xxiii. 19. Question 2. Whether Adam lost his faith, and so was damned for his sin ? We say, against our adversaries, that our first parents lost not their faith in their fall. (1.) Though in that one act of faith they failed, it fol- lows not that their faith was utterly extinguished. He that is seduced in one article or point of faith, is he presently stripped of all faith ? Because a man stumbles, hath he no feet ? (2.) Peter denied his master ; yet he could not in his judgment so soon cast off" all opinion of Christ. Fear pre- vailed, his faith perished not. (3.) It was no formal infidelity, which is wilfully to reject God's word ; but only they were mateiially deceived ; their sudden and violent afi"ection overshadowing their judgment, like a thick cloud before the sun. (4.) If the life of faith should be extinct by every act of sin, spiritual life were more mortal than the corporal, and the sanctity of grace were no better than the morality of nature. God's pro- mise is a stronger foundation than for every blast of wind to blow down. (5.) There was remorse of conscience in them, and a shame for their ofi'ence. Now, repentance is an efiect of faith. Adam, therefore, was not a reprobate. For, first, the promise of the Messiah was given him immediately after his transgression ; therefore his interest was in him. Secondly, the fii'st Adam was a figure of the second ; but no man ordained by God to be a figure of his Son was a reprobate. Thirdly, he is called the Son of God, therefore he was not the son of death. Fourthly, \hQrQ is no likelihood that the root of all manldnd should perish, or that God would damn the fii'st image of himself that ever he made on earth. Hilary acknowledgeth Adam confessum, et venicB reseiratnm. Of the same sentence are Irenseus, Epiphanius, Ambrose, Augustine, and Ter- tuUian, who saith, that as he was cast out of the earthly paradise for trans- gi-ession, so he was admitted into the heavenly paradise by confession. ' Wisdom preserved the first-formed father of the world, and brought him out of his fall,' Wisd. x. 1. Oh the infinite extent of Christ's merits! How should not his blood save souls to the end of the world, that saved the first soul in the beginning ? It cannot be of less value or virtue, being exhibited, than when it was only promised. Question 3. Whether was Adam's sin the gi'eatest sin of the world or no ? We have considered it very great ; but Bellarmine says it was the greatest of all. (1.) Propter facilitatem ohedienticB, he had sufiicient grace to keep the law. (2.) Propter sim})licitate)n prtccepti, he had but one command- ment. We that have less power of obedience have a great number of com- mandments— ten for one. We have ten times as much to observe as he, and he had ten times more abihty than we. (3.) For ingratitude. Who MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 189 had received so much good to so little purpose. (4.) For propagation, his sin redounding to the huii of all the world. These reasons make it great, but not the greatest sin. We must distinguish of sins, they be personal or general. Personal sins be peculiar to the individual sinner, and only make him guilty. Gene- ral sins be common to all men. Cain's mm-der was a great sin, but per- sonal. It did not make his posterity guilty, because he never was appointed to be the root of his posterity. But Adam's was not a sin of his own per- son only, but of the human nature, he being the root or head, bearing in him all mankind. He sinned for us, and we all sinned in him. ' By one man sin entered upon all,' Kom. v. Nor can we say this of all Adam's sins, but only of his first.* If we consider the condition of his person, and the perfection of his state, especially the universal extent and bane of all mankind by it, so it was the greatest sin. But simply in itself consi- dered, many chilcben of Adam have gone far beyond their father. Cain's fratricide, killing one better than himself, for no other reason but because he was better than himself ; Pharaoh's tja-anny; Saul's partiality; Judas's treachery: all these were worse than Adam's apostasy. Thus it was not the greatest, ratione vel genere peccati. So we hold blasphemy and idolatry to be greater sins. Nor in regard of the sinner's affection ; for many are carried with a more violent and ungodly desire than Adam was in this temptation. Nor for the quality of the sin, for it was venial to him ; whereas if it had been the greatest sin, it never had been pardoned ; and the sins of reprobates are punished with everlasting fire. Which of us can deny that he hath done greater iniquity ? which of us ought not to repent with greater fervency ? Question 4. Whether was Adam's sin or Eve's the greater ? St Ambrose doth aggravate the man's ; f Chrysostom and Augustine the woman's. Let us hear them both. First, for the man's sin. (1.) An evil angel deceived the woman, but the woman deceived Adam. In so much as he had a weaker tempter, he was the greater sinner. Answer : But the same serpent tempted them both. Eve was set upon single, Adam by a couple of tempters ; his, there- fore, was the stronger temptation. Besides, the woman was dear to him, and it is no hard matter to be deceived by a known and beloved fi-iend. (2.) The woman did not hear the precept from God's own mouth, as did Adam ; therefore he is the greater offender. Answer : The serpent urgeth this charge to the woman, * Yea, hath God said ? ' therefore it appears that she also heard the precept. (3.) The man is first rebuked. Answer: But the woman is first punished. (4.) The woman accuseth but the serpent, Adam did unkindly to accuse the woman. Answer : She could not accuse Adam ; he might well accuse her as the means of his fall. (5.) The woman in her punishment findeth mercy. Though she should bring forth ' in sor- row,' yet she should be ' saved by her fruit,' which was matter of joy. Answer : The man hath as great a share in that blessing as the woman ; and the saving seed was promised before her punishment was inflicted. It is concluded, then, that the woman was in greatest fault ; | not because she only presumptuously affected the divine equality, for of this also the man was guilty. That derision of his ambition, ' See, the man is become as one of us,' had not been given him, had he not heard and credited the false persuasion of Satan, ' Ye shall be as gods.' But, First, Adam sinned only in doing the forbidden act. Eve not only admitted it in herself, but * Aquin. Lombard. t Ambr. Institut. Virgin., cap. 4. J Lombard. 190 1IEDITATI0X3 UPON THE CP.EED. also tempted the man ; and had now learned so much of the devil, as to do his office. Not that she gave it him on pm-pose, lest, if she died, he might have taken him another v.ife, as the Hebrews dream, for she was the only woman in the world ; but because she was desirous to make him partaker of her supposed happiness. Secondly, Vi'' peccavit in se tantion, et in Deion; mulier in se, Deum, et marititm.'^ Adam only harmed himself, she wi-onged both herself and her husband. Thirdly, The gi'eatness of the sin is com- paratively seen by the punishment ; but the woman was more pimished, therefore she more ofiended. Over and above man's penalty, she hath an addition of soitow in travail. This the order of then* pmiishment demon- strates. First, the serpent is cursed, as the fii'st seducer ; next, the woman, as being in the second degree of offence ; the man is reserved to the last and least punishment. Fifthly, The plain Scripture avers it : ' The man was not deceived, but the woman was deceived, and was in the trans- gi-ession,' 1 Tim. ii. 14. Xot that Adam was not deceived at all ; but, first, he was not fii'st deceived ; the woman sinned before him. Secondly, Not immediately deceived ; Satan had tempted her to tempt him. Thii'dly, He was not so deceived, as to become the author of seducement to others. He sinned either scienter, wittingly ; or per errorem incofjitatioiiis, not by ignorance, but through want of confidence. Aaron sinned against his judgment in making the calf, and Solomon, in giving a toleration for idolatiy : their sin was gi-eater than Adam's. Fourthly, Eve's sin is so amphfied, as if the man's fault, compared with hers, were scarce coimted a transgression. Tiro mulier, non mulieri vir, author e}roris.-\ So easy is it for a man to be seduced, quadam amiculm benevolentia,\ by her that lies in his bosom. This, then, be the conclusion, resolved by Thomas. § The sin of Adam was gi'eater, equal, less than the woman's, in different respects. First, greater, in regard of the perfection of his person ; his dignity being more, so was his iniquit}'. Adam pAus peccavit, quia omni bono ahundavit. He had the more excellent gi-aces, and greater strength to resist. Secondly, equal, quantum ad genus p)eccati, both fell in one thing ; the same infidehty, in not believing God more than the sequent ; the same concupiscence, in coveting fruit forbidden ; the same ambition, in desiiing a better state of perfection : these were alike in them both. Thu'dly, less, quantum ad speciem supierhicE. ; in the woman was a gi-eater piide, and her sin was tem- pered with a gi-eater measure of unbehef and ambition. Adam gave credit to Eve, but Eve to the sei-pent. He was inductus, she inducta, et induc^ns. Therefore, the woman's was the gi-eater sin. This doth not hold stiU, that the daughters of Eve be greater sinners than the sons of Adam. The woman then tempted the man, now commonly the man tempts the woman. But where that sex takes to be evil, it is exceeding evil. Many men had one devil a-piece, one woman had seven devils. Wickedness in them doth not so easily take, as fire is long before it be incoi-porate with iron ; but when once it does, it is hardly di'iven out. But I wiU no longer compare them ; both are bad enough ; the Lord have mercy upon us all ! Application 1. To make some good use of this evil, is to take notice of our own frailty. Adam fell, fell in his innocency, feU from his innocency, fell with his knowledge, fell by one temptation. We are not innocent, but guilty in him. That guilt prochves us to any impiety. Our knowledge is clouded, many temptations besiege us, and we have less power to hold out. How ready must we be to fall, how unable to stand ! Si Adam in paradko, * Aug, t Chrys, J Ambr, § Summ, II. 2, qu, 163, art. 4. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 191 quid nos in sterquilinio ? 0, the wretched security of the world ! Fateor patrem deception, non sentio me decipiendum.* Against the stream of the world, a man is made ex deteriore melior, of worse better ; but with the full torrent e.r melinre deterior, of better worse. Is the unguarded treasure safe in the house with thieves ? a soUtary virgin among libidinous ravishers ? a poor lamb among a rabble of wolves ? So is a soul among these hellish lions. A house may be so barricaded and fortified, as to withstand mortal invasions ; but what doors or bars can keep out the devil ? especially when he hath a fi-iend within, as ready to open as he to enter. Every man knows the way to be evil, familiarly ; but to be good, is a new art, which none can teach but God. Security is the very suburbs of hell ; there is nothing but a dead wall between. Hope and Life would once take a journey together. Each chose an attendant ; Hope, Security ; and Life, Jealousy. When Hope would take rest, Secm-ity sleeps by her. Life is fearful of dangers ; therefore sets Jealousy to watch by her. Thus guarded, they are all safe. But one night the two handmaids mistook their mistresses. Jealousy watcheth by Hope ; hereupon she starts, and trembles, and slumbered so unquietly, as if Ihubt (her old enemy) had seized on her. Life, trusting to the vigilancy of her sentinel. Jealousy, and having (in her stead) so poor a guard as drowsy Security, was surprised by her old enemy. Danger. In this conflict. Life calls to Hope for succour ; but alas ! Hope had enough to do to help her- self. In this extremity steps in Wisdom, who discovers the en'or, at whose approach Doubt and Danger fled ; Hope and Life recovered. But to pre- vent the like mistaking hereafter. Wisdom bound Secm-ity to Hope, Jealousy to Life ; and in every wise man they still so continue. Ut ilia certantes foveat, et ista torpentes punfjat.\ K mortal man had any immunity or exemption from sin, where was it to be expected ? In solitariness ? No ; Lot fell in the mountain. In the wilderness ? No ; for there Christ himself was tempted. In paradise ? No ; there man fell, De loco voluptatis. In heaven ? No ; there angels fell. Sub prasentia Divinitatis. In Christ's College ? No ; there Judas fell, in Schola Salvatoris. Si non in eremo, si non in Collegio, si non in Paradiso, si non in ccelo, multb minus in m,undo.\ So we stand, as not without fear to fall ; so being fallen, let us look up, as not without hope to rise. The child is not safe but in the lap of its mother, not we but in the bosom of our Saviour. Application 2. Seeing all be fallen in Adam, and by justice shut up under condemnation, what privilege of nature can minister cause of glory ? Can riches ? Alas, they never came in request with man, till sin had made man out of request with God. When he had lost heaven, he came to mind earth ; having forfeited his God, to dig for gold. Metalla, quasi [ura ra. aX/.d, Vost alia necessaria. When they had tilled the ground, and wTought out bread, planted trees, and gathered fraits, built houses for shelter, and found other things to sustain life there, hum est in viscera torce, they rummage the bowels of their mother earth. Antiquiora sunt necessitatis inventa, qitdm voluptatis. Gold and silver are centred in the entrails of the earth ; nearer to hell than heaven. Their orb is among pagans, not Christians. Methinks, when I see a man look big because he is rich (and such are not scant), he is hke one that swells because he hath the dropsy, or as a son that hath lost his father's inheritance, proud of a little dust from his grave. Can glories ? Alas, they were at first but Hke the shadows of high towers, now the shadows of pigmies, and that at noon ; and at the best, but * Bern. t Gregor. % Bern. 192 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. shadows. Glories, like glow-worms afar off, shine bright ; come near, they have neither heat nor light. All that the world's glory leaves behind it, is but like a man that falls in the snow, and there makes his print ; when the sun shines forth, it melts both form and matter. ' Remember from whence thou art fallen,' Rev. ii. 5. If the proud could but think from whence they are fallen, they would look but poorly on the height to which they are risen. For birth, it were enough to pale the cheek of the purest gold, to think of the base earth out of which it was digged. And for learning, with what a tedious dilficulty do we attain a small glimpse of our forefathers' knowledge ? There is nothing left for which a man would think well of himself ; but that moss will grow to a stone. Let us hold ourselves, as we are by nature, the basest of all creatures ; there is no danger in this tenet. There is danger in riches, danger in knowledge, danger in dignity ; there is no danger in humility. AjjpHcatlon 3. This gives us cause to bewail our downfall, and the miser- able effects it produceth. He that sees heaven lost, paradise vanished, earth cursed, hell enriched, the world corrupted, all mankind defaced, and all this by one fall, were his tears as deep as a well, this would pump them out. Often when they plough the ground too deep, they discover springs of water ; he that shall send this meditation to the root of his heart, will soon fetch tears from his eyes. God gave us tears for no other purpose, but to weep for our sins. We are fallen into poverty, and weep ; tears will not enrich us. We suffer injury, and weep for it ; tears will not re- dress it. We lose om* friends, and weep ; tears will not revive them. We are sick, and weep ; tears is not physic to recover us. We have com- mitted sin, and weep for that ; tears will now help us. This is the disease, for which repentance is a proper remedy. To cure such a sore, this is the only salve. Man fell by an affectation of joy, he must rise again by the affection of sorrow. The world was once drowned with water ; but ever since Adam's fall it hath been a ' valley of tears.' That part of the world that shall be drowned in the bottomless lake, spends its days in laughter ; that part which shall rejoice for ever, must be first di-owned in tears. The son who having a noble father, sees him by foul treason condemned himself, and destroying his whole posterity, and will not weep for it, hath less passion than stones. Yea, we read that stones have cloven in sunder when Christ suffered; rocks have gushed out water, being smitten with a rod; Jeroboam's altar rent with a word ; yet fleshy hearts are obdurate. Bonaventure hath a strange wish ; upon that of the prophet ; a ' stony heart changed to a heart of flesh,' Ezek. xxxvi. 26. A heart of flesh ! No; Lord, rather give me a heart of stone. Seeing altars have rent, stones brake, rocks flowed water ; yet fleshy hearts have remained hard ; Lord give me rather a heart of stone. Application 4. This may teach us all to look to the beginnings of sin, when we consider in how small a matter (as the world construes it) the world was lost ; and that an infinite ruin followed the eating of one apple ; what an army of plagues may be mustered up by an act of rebellion ! Adam's brealifast will not be digested tiU doomsday; it was but a little meal, even for one man, yet the whole world took a sm'feit of it. David's heart smote him, for touching of Saul's garment; this garment was not on, there- fore he meant no harm to his person ; yet he relents. Tender consciences regret at those actions which a wicked heart passeth over with ease and a smile. Saul is not troubled for seeking of David's blood, David is troubled MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 193 for cutting Saul's garment. Consciences are like stomachs : one surfeits with the lightest food, and gi'ows sick of dainties ; another turns over the hardest morsels, scarce edible in their natm'e. But here is the difference : this may be called a good stomach, but the sample of it is a bad conscience. Every good heart is in some measure scrupulous, and finds more safety in fear than in presumption. It is better to abstain from some lawful things, than hazard ourselves to things unlawful. As that state is better, where nothing is allowed, than where all things, so the timorous conscience is better than the lawless. There is no hope of that man who makes no bones of his coiirses ; but there is likelihood of him that is scrupulous. I had rather have a servant that will ask his direction twice, than one that runs of his own head without his errand. Let us fear the fij-st entrance to evil. If Hezekiah admit the Babylonians to see his treasury, he hath endangered its loss ; yea, invited danger. The doors are locked, the thieves cannot get in ; they then open a casement, and put in a little boy ; this boy cannot rob the house ; no, but he can open the door to those that will rob it. Pompey's sick soldiers, being entertained in compassion, grew strong enough to spoil the city. We see not that harvest of sorrows which follows a small seed of sin. Paul said of the mariners, ' Except these abide, ye cannot be safe,' Acts xxvii. 31 ; but let me say of your sins, If they do abide in you, ye caimot be saved. He is a rare David that hath not some Absalom, some darling lust, the fosterling of his indulgence, which he would have spared. In Athaliah's massacre of the blood royal, young Joash was hid in the bed-chamber, and came to be king, 2 Kings xi. 2. Save any sin, snatch it from mortification, nurse it in the bed-chamber of the heart, hide it from impartial Athahah, and it will in time come to be king over us. Weigh the efiect before thou admit the cause. Wisdom begins at the end; and if she likes not that, ends at the beginning. Had Adam fore-considered the miserable efi'ects of that eating, the fruit had hung on the tree to this day, untouched for him. Application 5. Admii-e we God's mercy with thankfulness. Adam sinned but once, and was cast out of that glorious garden for ever. We sin daily, yet God doth not shut heaven against us. The Lord did thrust him out, he calls us in. He did set angels against his re-entry, he appoints angels to guard our journey. They that were employed for his expulsion are ministering spirits for our admission. There was a fiery sword to defend the garden fi"om invasion; not torrida zona, the parching countiy under the equinoctial;-;- not a wall of fire, not purgatory. f But a sword, which by its shaking seemed to glitter as a flame of fire ; not improbable, some fiery in- flammation in the Ukeness of a sword, for a terror in that passage. There is no sword against us, but for us, even the ' sword of the Spirit ' to defend us.| There is no terror to keep us from approaching that celestial paradise ; but ' we are come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God,' &c., Heb. xii. 22 ; all amiable, peaceable, delectable. Thus Adam's strength oflend- ing, was punished with severity, our weakness finds pity. He had but one commandment, therefore was justly plagued for breaking it ; our proneness to sin is restrained by many, and we break them all ; yet God shews us «iercy. His justice came to reckon with Adam ' in the cool or evening of j\.e day ; ' his mercy came to save us by Christ in the evening of the world. The wind brought that terrible voice of examination to Adam ; that ' holy wind,' John iii. 8, brings the comfortable voice of salvation to us. Then, * Where art thou, sinner?' come forth to judgment; now, ' Where art thou, * Tc-~tuL t Lyran. Rupert. J Juniua. VOL. ir N 194 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. sinner?' come forth to amendment. Then, 'Hast thou eaten of that (sacramental) tree which I forbade thee ? ' Now, ' Come and eat ' that sacra- mental fruit which I give thee. Then fear and guilt made man hide himself in the bushes ; now, favour and faith calls him forth to the light of goodness. Then, his eyes were opened to see his shame ; now, our eyes be opened to see our Saviour. Then, in the day thou eatest, thou shalt die ; now, in the day thou eatest, thou shalt live. Then, cursed bo the earth for thy sake ; now, blessed is the world for my Son's sake. Then, in soitow shall the woman bring forth ; now, there is joy to all nations by him who was born of a woman. Then, dust thou art, and to dust return thy body ; now, from corruption and dust I will raise thee to glory. Then, man lost himself and all the world by his sin ; now, God hath sent redemption to all the world by his Son. Then, justly did we all die in Adam ; now, gi'aciously do we all live again in Jesus Christ. Original Sin is the effect of Adam's fall ; both a frait of it, and a punishment for it. It is the daughter of the fii'st sin, and the mother of all the rest. Yet this distinction must be observed : qitod pnus in I'lai-ye, pos- terius in progenie ; et in illo erat posterius, quod in nobis estprius. In Adam first was actual siu ; in us first is original, and after that follows actual. The points I will touch are these : What it is, Whence it comes, Where it dwells. How far it reaches. 1. What it is. Original sin is an evil uigrafted in our nature, wherein we were conceived and bom, and hath two parts. Fu'st, a real communication of the sin of our first parents to us ; everj' man that came, by ordinary com'se of natm-e, from Adam, sinned in the sin of Adam. This is not by imitation, according to the Pelagians ; nor by bare imputation, as the Jesuits ; nor only potentially, because we were in Adam's loins ; but really, by propagation. His sin ui eating the for- bidden fi'uit, was my sin. Though I were then unborn, yet it is mine, and I must answer for it, unless Chi-ist answer for me. He was then a public person, the pledge of mankind ; what covenant God made with him, he made with us ; what God gave him, he gave us ; what he promised to God, he promised for himself, and for us ; what he did, he did for himself, and for us ; what he received, he received for himself, and for us ; and what he lost, he lost for himself, and for us. When he lost his original purity, he lost it for all his posterity. Wlien guiltiness and corruption fixed iato his nature, it stained all his posterity, Rom. v. 12. But this seems strange, that a man must answer for a sin done by another, and that five thousand years ere he was bom. Answer : We gi-ant it true, were it Adam's sin only ; but it was his and mine, he being my father, and standing in my room. All men smart for Adam's sin as their own, yet few men weep for Adam's sin as their own. Let it not be so old that we have forgotten it, for it stands on our head or score in God's debt-books, and must there remain tiU our penitent tears wash it out. Secondly, There is a depravation and corruption of the whole nature of man, whereby he stands guilty and polluted before God, indisposed to aU good, and prone to all evil. All naturals are depraved, all supematu»ls are deprived. It makes the youngest child hateful to God, as the young wolf or serpent is to man, an issue coiTected by gi*ace, never fully stopped but by death. 2. Whence it comes. From our parents, without question. This leprosy began in Adam, and ran over all successions of mankind. ' I was con- ceived in sin,' saith that holy prophet, Psa. h. 5 ; not meaning any particular MEDITATIONS UPON TUK CBEED. 195 sin of his parents in the act of generation, for ho was begotten and bom in lawful marriage ; but his hereditary sin, whereof ho was guilty in his mother's womb. The manner of this propagation is hard to define. As the mother said to her children, ' I cannot tell how you came into my womb ; it was not I that formed your members,' 2 Mac. vii. 22. I know not how my soul was formed, but ho knows that formed it,- whether ho framed it together with the body, or infused it into a body first prepared and formed. So may it be said of original sin : we know we have it, and we know from whom wo had it ; we know not definitively how we came by it, we know not how to be rid of it. There be two select and most received opinions ; take your choice. 1. That in the instant of infusion God forsakes the soul, not in respect of the substance or faculties of it, but in respect of his own image, whereof it is deprived in Adam. Nor is this injustice in God ; for original sin in us is but a due punishment of that actual niix in him. Primo homini quod erat jxEiia, nobis fit natiira.\ 2. That the corruption of the body is derived from the parents, and the corruption of the soul from the body, as sweet oil poured into a fusty vessel loscth its pureness ; and still this contagion of the soul must be considered as a just punishment of sin. Objection : But sin is an act of the soul, not of the body ; it cannot then be in the body till the soul come ; and in the soul it is not, because that is imme- diately created pure of God ; therefore, imless the soul be traduced from the parents, where place you original sin ? Answer : It is neither proper to the body, nor to the soul, alone ; but is peccatum hominis, a sin of the whole man ; and the man consists of both. It comes from neither of them single, but out of the conjunction of them both together ; he is not a man that wants either. Neither the body must be respected alone, nor the soul alone ; but as they jointly make one man, and enter into one condition. But how stands this with God's justice, to thrust a clean soul into an unclean body, as a virgin in the stews ? Answer : 1. The soul and body are not respected of God as single substances, but as being joined they make one man. 2. The soul, though it be created pure, continues not in that state one moment, being made in the midst of an unclean place. Children die, therefore they have sin ; they die before actual, therefore they can have none but original. Some pontificians hold that original sin is only derived from Adam, not from Eve, because it is said, 'By one man sin entered,' Rom. v. 12. But, 1. Anthrojws signifies both man and woman. 2. Man is named because he is the chief instrument of generation ; ' for the man is not of the woman, but the woman of the man,' 1 Cor. xi. 8. By the law the males were only circumcised, because the beginning of carnal generation was from them. 3. Adam was the more noble person, and the transgression was not con- summated but by his consent ; therefore it is called ' his sin.' 4. If Adam alone brought in sin, then how was the woman * first in the transgi-ession !' 1 Tim. ii. 14. 5. The sin came by two, and the apostle says, ' it entered by one,' for they two made but one ; ' two shall be one flesh.' ^ By one it entered, yet both sinned: Quia intravit per mulierem de viro factam;^ or because if man had not sinned, mankind had not been corrupted. The truth is, that original sin came fi'om them both together. ' Of the woman came the beginning of sin, andthi'ough her we all die,' saith the preacher, Ecclus. XXV. 24 ; which is good Scripture against om- adversaries. Saint * Aug. t Aug. X Aug. § Lombard. IDC) MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. Augustine infers upon it, Per duos homines transisse peccatum. Both, saith Ambrose, Parentes lit generis, sic et erroris. This is agreeable to the law of nature ; Partus sequitur ventrem : if a free man get a cliild by a bondwoman, the child shall be bond by the mother, not free by the father. First, as sin entered into paradise, so it entered into the world ; for it is the same sin in us that was in them : in them actually, in us originally ; and the same sin must have the same beginning ; but it came into paradise by them both, therefore so into the world. 2. By whom death entered, by them sin entered ; but death came by them both, and they received one common punishment as being guilty of one sin ; both are turned into dust. From them both we have this corrupt habit, which is not only a privation of health, like a disease, but hath also humores mule dlspositos. But holy parents beget holy children ; for it stands not with reason that they should convey that to their children which they have not themselves. Answer : Parents beget childi'en as they are men, not as they are holy men. Sanctus generat, non regenerat folios carnis.'^- By generation they derive to them their natm-e, they cannot derive their grace, which is above nature. We give them what our earthly parents gave us, not what om- heavenly Father infuseth into us. Take the finest wheat, winnow it, fan it, skiy it, leave not a chaff upon it, then sow it ; when it is grown up, weed it ; when it is ripe, reap it ; when it is in the barn, thrash it : yet j'ou shall find as much chafi" as ever it had before. So God ordained it in the creation, that as oft as it gi'ows, it should bear stalk, ear, chaff, and all. A pippin may come from a crab-stock ; but this is a new gi'aft : it natm-ally bears none but crabs. Tame a couple of wolves till no cruelty appear left in them, yet the young wolf they engender will be bloody. Naturam expellas furca licet, usqiie recurret. If sanctified parents could produce sanctified children, I see no reason but counsellors should beget counsellors, and wise men beget wise men, not fools. But natui'e hath left us bad, and nothing but grace can make us good. 3. Where it dwells. This cannot be the substance of man, for by that reason the soul should not be immortal ; and Chi'ist, in taking oiir natm-e, should also contract sin, and so himself need a redeemer. It cannot be the faculties of the soul, the understanding, will, afl'ections : for these were in man from the first creation, whereas sin was not before the fall ; God made the faculties, he made not sin. It must needs then consist in the corrup- tion of those faculties, and so original sin is a disorder and evil disposition in the whole man, carrying him inordinately against goodness. The sub- ject of it then is not one part of man, but the corniption of the whole body and soul. The natural appetite is vitiated, fi'om whence come so innumer- able diseases and distempers. The outward senses are corrupted, the eye hunting after vanity, the ear opening the door to petulancy. For the soul, the understanding is hke a dark lantern, the light is dimmed ; the will like a water-mill driven with a violent stream, without cessation of evil, Gen. vi. 5. This cannot, therefore, come by imitation : then the faculties of infants should not be corrupted, for they cannot imitate good or evil ; yet they have sin, or they could not die. Yea, so death should reign over no son of Adam, that had not * sinned after the simiUtude of Adam's transgression', Rom. V. 14. Many, in sinning, do not propound to themselves the example of Adam, but have other occasions. The thief robs a passenger, and never thinks of Adam, but of gold. What is Adam's eating the fruit to adultery ♦ Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 197 or nncleanncss ? Besides, many in the world never heard of Adam's transgi-ession. What shall we say then ? Doth God give men souls answerable to their cori'upt bodies, as to other creatures, spirits agreeable to their conditions ? God forbid ! pure they came from him. Doeth the carnal pleasure of parents cause it ? No, for there is no generation without dehght ; and if that pleasure, considered in itself, were sin, man'iage itself were also sinful. And if it were granted a sin, j-et only that particular sin can be conveyed by it ; whereas original sin is the corruption of the whole nature. Doth the soul, then, come from the parents, as the body ? Divers have reasoned hard for this. 1. It is said of Adam expressly, ' God breathed into him the breath of life :' not so of Eve ; therefore her soul was from his. Ans. : Nay, therefore it had the same beginning with his ; otherwise he would have said, ' This is soul of my soul,' as well as, ' This is flesh of my flesh.' 2. ' The souls that came out of Jacob's loins were threescore and six,' Gen. xlvi. 26 : souls out of loins. Ans. : The soul is taken for the whole person. By a synecdoche, man is denominated by his better part. So Maiy is said to be hoToxog, the mother of God, because her son was God and man ; yet was he her son no further than he was a man : he was born only as a man. 3. But if the flesh only bo derived from our parents, then doth man confer less in his generation than brute beasts ; for they traduce not only bodies, but also spirits in their kinds. Ans. : God inspires the soul, but into the body, and so they both come forth of our parents. So totus homo ex toto homine nascitur : even the soul, albeit not materially, yet originally. Man's soul is not derived from the soul of his father ; yet man, as he consists of body and soul, is begotten of his father, the Father of spirits concuiTing in that natm-al act. Thus original sin jy^'ovenit ex came causaliter;* yet is in the soul subjective et formaliter. Siclaiess comes of coiTupt meats as the cause ; yet not the meats, but the body is the subject of sickness. The pure soul is infected with the contagion of impure seed, as a fair flower is sullied with unclean hands. They that live in a smoky house must needs be smutched, and contract some of the blackness. Put the whitest wool into the dye-fat of woad, it will come out blue. This, then, is an hereditary disease ; as a leprous father begets a leprous son : otten cceais caecum, and claudiis clau- dum. Parents' goodness repaired cannot make this goodness propagated : as the Jews, being circumcised, begat children that were uncircumcised ; to shew that the grace of circumcision was not hereditary, but they needed a new and successive circumcision of heart. The father had his sins for- given him when he begat his son ; he could not transmit part of that for- giveness to his son. The sanctity of parents no more passeth to theirs, than doth their knowledge and other virtues. Grace only comes from our supernatural Father in heaven. 4. How far it reacheth. It is not only a deprivation of original justice, and the want of this makes man culpable, though not cidjm actuali, qua est sitppositi, yet culpa originali, quce est naturcB. But also a pravity and deformity of all the powers of man ; the efiicient cause whereof was the perverseness of Adam's will, the instrument is carnal propagation, the end is eternal confusion, without the mercy of God in Christ, It is taken both actively for the sin of Adam, which was the cause of sin in his posterity, called originale oricjinans. And passively, for the natural corruption raised in Adam's offspring, by his transgression, termed Originale orirjinatum. The effects are three. First, Participatio culpce ; when he sinned, we * I yran. 198 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. Binned. Secondly, Depravatio naturw, a deformity wherein dwelleth no good tiling. Thirdly, Imputatio reatus, which subjeete us to wrath and death, both temporal and eternal. Bellannine says that this infection is malum, non 2)eccatum ; an evil, not a siQ. Ans. : Well then, by this concession, it is an evil ; and by St Paul's confession it is a sin, Rom. vii. 7 ; therefore it is an evil that is a sin. Object. : But it is lex peccati, the ' law of sin,' therefore not sin. Ans. : Yea, by this reason it is worse than sin. As the law that commands things holy is itself more holy, so concupiscence, the law of sin, prescribing things unjust, is itself more unjust. If it be not a sin, as they deny ; yet it is worse than sin, which they grant. By saying thus, what do they gain ? Object. : But it is not voluntaiy, therefore no sin. Ans. : That which was voluntaiy in our transgi'essing parents, is become necessaiy ia their cor- rupted children. Object. : But it was not a sia in Adam to be tempted of Eve, nor in Eve to be tempted of the serpent, till they consented. Ans. : This was true in them, because sin had then no being ; not so ia us, who brought sin along with us. They consented before they had sin, we have sin before we consent. Then, the suggestion was external, without them ; now it is internal, and from withia us. We have a sei-pent in our own bosoms : concupiscence, to tempt us. Their umocency puts Satan to' his trumps ; in our natui-al uncleanness he finds prepared matter to work upon. For reasons to prove this original concupiscence to be a sin, remaining in us even after conversion. ' K we confess our sins, God is faithful to forgive them ; yet, ' if we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves,' 1 John, i, 8, 9. The remission of sin, and the remansion of sin, may stand together. The guilt is taken away by forgiveness in Christ ; yet after this forgiveness, he that says he hath no sin, is a har. ' Let not sin reign in yom* mortal body,' Rom. vi. 12. This exhortation is given to men regenerate. Now, there was no fear of its reigning, if it were not remain- ing. So Augustine.* The baptized is cleared fi'om the guilt of all evils, not from the evils themselves. Nunquid caret ignorantia malo ? Is not the evil of ignorance still in him ? Now, concupiscence is worse than ignorance, and ignorance is a sin. In iis qui intelligere noluerunt, peccatian : in iis qui non piotuerunt, j^ccna joeccati : this evil that remaineth in us, being not Substantia, sed vitium substantia; : Dei gratia nos regenerante, non est impu- tandum : Dei gratia adjuvante, frainandum : Dei gratia coronante, sanandum. The Douay men say, it is a matter of exercise in the righteous, and if they resist, of merit. But so as well may spots and pimples make the face beautiful. "Whose is the flesh ? Is it not ours ? Who shall answer for the evUs done in the flesh ? Shall not we ? It is not our merit, that God's grace in us doth resist ; but it is our fault, that oiu' flesh doth rebel. There were certain heretics called Opliito", of the serpent, whom they did reverence, saying that he brought fii'st into paradise the knowledge oi virtue. Little other do the Rhemists, while they commend the serpent's tail or sting, teaching that it makes just men's actions more meritorious. But Espencaeus, a grave writer of theirs, urgeth that of St Cyprian, that no man escapes the biting of the sei-pent without hurt, which is lust. Nee quisquam ex illo vulnere saniis abit.\ It breeds sin, it brings forth death. Thus far I have gone : if any inquii'e or require further, let them correct themselves. This is enough for us to know ; and knowing this, it is more than we know how to help. When a house is on fii-e, it is a vain expense of time to inquu-e how it began: Tace lingua, succurre manu ; hold thy * Contra Julian lib. vi. 6, 5. f Prnpcrt. MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. 199 tongue, and bring thy bucket to quench it. St Augustine compares it to one fallen into a pit : while the passenger stands wondering how he fell in, he replies, I'll cori'ita quomodo hiuc me liheres, non quomodo hue ceciderhn quinras : never examine how I fell in, till thou hast first helped me out. The patient would be impatient to hear his chirurgeon stand questioning how he came by his wounds, before he hath stanched the blood, and bourld them up. It is the tree of knowledge that undid us, the tree of life can only recover us. Conclusion 1. In every man are all sins, because original sin is the material of all. This is not in some men more, in some less, but in all equally, as all are equally the children of Adam. There is in eveiy man a want, not of some, but of all, inclination to goodness ; a proneness, not tn some, but to all, evil. The seeds of all sins are within us ; I do not say the practice, but the seeds. But some are kind, others cruel ; some mild, others furious ; some ci\'il, others licentious. Answer : This difference ariseth not from more or less corniption, but from more or less limitation. God restraineth nature, but that is no thanks to nature. Something wo ascribe to corporeal constitution, something to civil education, something to legal subjection, something to secular vocation, something to national custom, something to rational direction, all to the limiting grace of God, that corrects nature from running into divers sins. Without which, any man would commit any sin, even the most horrid that ever the world brought forth. That some are not so angry, so wanton, so drunken, so covetous as others, it is not from their own natm-al goodness, but the super- natural goodness of God. There is not the same eruption in all, there is in all the same conniption. Some be not kites, others hawks, and the rest eagles, fi'om one and the same eyrie. But that God is pleased, for his chm'ch's sake, for order's sake, for the world's sake, for man's sake, for his own glory's sake, to repress and stint nature, there would be no society among men. Nor be these seeds in the worst only, but in the best-natured men. So that, make choice of the best man, and the worst sin ; and the worst sin is to be found in that best man, the seminale j^nncijnuni is in him. This every man that knows himself knows to be true. I appeal to the con- science, especially of a good man, whether he find not in his nature an inclination to the foulest sin in the world. He that doth not feel this suggestion of concupiscence, is stark dead in disobedience. Cain com- mitted an unnatural murder in killing his brother, and went to hell for his labour ; we hate such a villainy, yet is the seed of this sin within us. We are further from Adam than Cain was, we are as near to the sin of Adam as Cain was. He was the immediate heir of his body, we are as immediate heirs of his guilt. Sodom had found out an unnatural way of lust, and was destroyed with unnatural &ce for it ; we have the grace to detest it, yet, let our pride hear, the root even of that sin is within us. Sennacherib blasphemed the hving God ; Juliaji, both living and dying, blasphemed Christ : we know their fearful ends, and tremble to think of their sins ; yet is there in us by nature a disposition to those sins, and (without preventing grace) we may fall into them. When we read that Judas betrayed his Master, that Pilate condemned the innocent, that the Jews crucified their Saviour, we bless om'selves ; were Christ now living on earth, we could not use him so for all the world. But let us better consider of the matter : we are the childi'en of Adam as well as they, and were born with as much of him in us as they were ; so that, naturally, 200 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. there is malice enough in us, were he now among us, with Judas to betray him, with Pilate to condemn him, with the Gentiles to pierce his side, with the Jews to tear his heart. Yea, they are not few, that with their blas- phemies and oppressions still crucify, and that the glorified body of Christ. To conclude. Let a man conceive in his mind the most notorious sin that can be ; and though he do not act it, do not intend it, do never admit it, yet the matter, beginning, seed and root, is in him. Yea, even the seed of that unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost, though not one man among many thousands do commit it. In that sin is the sea of all sins, and ii? man is the fountain of that sin. All evil tends to a perfection, as well as goodness ; and the devil would fain screw up all to that height, till, like an exhalation, it be fired and sent down to hell. It is only the omnipotent goodness that restrains devil and man from being so wicked as they would and could be. ' The heart of man is deceitful above all things, and des- perately wicked,' Jer. xvii. 9 : a vast ocean, whereof we can neither see the banks, nor sound the bottom. Experience teacheth that men are friends to-day, to-morrow foes ; now civil, presently outrageous ; all their hfe kind comforters, on a sudden desperate mm'derers. From whence comes this alteration, but from hidden corruption ? The seed was before, now the temptation ripens it into act. When we hear of the murders, massacres, treasons, blasphemies, perjuries, apostasies, sacrileges, and such honible sins of the world, let us look homeward, and confess that any of these might have been om- sins, had not gi'ace prevented us. Conclusion 2. Through this sin we are all by natm-e the children of wrath, born subject to damnation, and stand like traitors convicted in the Prince's high displeasure, sure to die without a special pardon. The less suspicion of this, the greater danger. Every man is bom a pharisee, well- conceited of himself ; and if he miss scandalous impiety, he presently blesseth his own happy disposition. But let him know, that nature is as corrupt in him as in the worst man of the world. Therefore praise not thy nature, but God's grace, which hath so rectified thy natm'e. And to this common gi'ace that qualifies corruption, beseech him to add that saving gi'ace which mortifies corruption, without which the best nature of man shall never come to salvation. Yea, he that is conceived in sin is con- ceived in wrath, for the sin of man and the wi-ath of God are inseparable. The curse under which we are aU bom is threefold— of sin, of death, of heU. (1.) Sin, which is a bondage under Satan. A Spaniard over his galleys, a Turk over his slaves, are good masters compared with this. There, only men's bodies be captivated and subjected to labom-s and stripes, their mind is free ; but here, man's best part, his heart, conscience, soul, is under the king of cruelty ; whose law is injustice, whose service is sin, and his hire confusion. Man}' will not name the devil without defiance, yet serve him with all diligence. They spit him out of their mouths ; but he is lower, they should conjure him out of their hearts. There he sits in his throne, and keeps his court, till the Spirit of gi'ace dispossess him. Invite this ' honourable guest,' that sin may ' give place,' Luke xiv. 9 ; it will have some room, but let it ' with shame take the lowest room.' If a man could hover in the air, and see all the miseries of a town besieged, so long till aU their provision be spent, what lamentable shifts they make to protract a famished life ; one tearing a piece of stinking vermin out of another's throat ; a mother ready to devour the fruit of her o'vvn body, rcforcing that to keep hfe within her, that took life from her ; the murdering pieces dash- ing down houses, and ruining the inhabitants with their falls ; and upon the MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 201 entrance of the enemy, virgins shrieking with cries, and rending their hairs, that their bodies must be abused before they have leave to die ; the wife cleaving to the arms of her w^ounded husband, dying with him with whom she may not Hve ; the rage of a merciless enemy, ' kill, kill ;' the impotence of the sull'erers, ' die, die ;' how would his heart bleed in the commiseration of this calamity ? Alas ! this is but a poor shadow, a representation far too short, to picture out unto us the miserable slavery of the world under sin and Satan. Lands, houses, cities, estates, privileges, hves, and such tem- poral things do there perish ; but here the souls of men are murdered, massacred, captivated. One is set to scrape together wealth, whereof he must not taste ; there one is possessed with the spirit of blasphemy, daring heaven to vent his thunder ; here one burning with lust, there another besotted with drunkenness ; here one robbing the chm-ch, to the everlasting forfeit of her blessing, there another cheating the commonwealth ; all taking more pains in the devil's service, than ever poor slave did in those tyrants' galleys ; who can look at this estate with diy eyes ? This made Christ weep over Jerusalem ; by this she drew from him his tears before she had his blood. All this miseiy upon us, is from that sin original within us. (2.) Death, and this in itself is a terrible curse ; the very gate of hell, the portal of damnation. To the wicked it is the end of glory, and the be- ginning of shame ; the epilogue of their comforts, and the fii'st act of their everlasting torments. It is called the 'pale horse,' Rev. vi. 8, a furious and forcible beast ; Jehu's horse, that stamped Jezebel into pieces, was but a jade to it. The steed that dashes out the little puppy's brains, is weak in respect of death, which, with a spm-n or kick of his heel, foils the strongest constitution. It treads on the necks of kings and princes, as Joshua's captains ; insults in the terms of Rabshakeh, * Where is the king of Hamath, where is the king of Arphad, and Sephai*vaim ? ' Tyrants, whose force was upon the living, are by this horse laid among the dead ; mak- ing their beds in the slimy valleys, and laying their swords under their heads. Wiiere is Goliah with his beamy javelin, and brazen boots ? Hath wisdom delivered, strength rescued, or wealth ransomed from death ? This ' king of fears,' was bred by sin ; and so far as sin reacheth, he challengeth his dominion. In the sin of Adam all die. Death comes upon sinners, like an armed horseman upon naked footmen. There is no prevention by resistance, no evasion by flight. This winged Pegasus hath all men in chase ; sometimes gives them law, and at his pleasure fetches them up again ; gallops as swift as time, when his rider gives him the reins, and swallows the ground as he goes. He sets out after man as soon as he is put into the race of this world, and plays with him as the gi-eyhound with the badger ; sometimes he follows fair and far off, keeps aloof out of sight ; anon he takes his career, and is at his heels. Sickness is the neighing of his nostrils, after which, though he allows us some breath, yet in the end overtakes us, and is upon us in an instant. Yet in Christ, his natm^e is changed, and this horse shall but carry us over Jordan to the land of promise. The quartan ague is called the shame of physic ; but death indeed befools aU natm-al skill and valour. There is a disease we call the king's evU ; because he most happily cures it. So death may be called faith's evil; she only professeth the healing of this disease, and by the least touch of Christ's hand per- fonneth it as familiarly as the richest balsam heals the smallest cut of the finger. Such a curse came by the first Adam, by the second such a blessiBg. 202 3IEDITATION3 UPON THE CREED. (3.) Hell. The wrath of God is the curse of all ciu-ses, and hell the com- pletion of all tonnents. Death is pale, but his ' follower ' (Rev. vi. 8) is a black feUow. The very fit of a cholic is held an insufferable pain. A man would give all the world for ease; yea, many wish themselves out of the world to be out of that anguish. Now, if the pain of one part will so dis- temper body and soul that it cannot be relieved with all the pleasures on earth, what then shall that torment be when not one Idud of pain, but the whole ^•ials of wrath, shall be poured, not on one member, but on the whole soul, body, conscience; and that not for a time, but eternally, without hope of relief, which one thing makes hell to be hell indeed ; and that not in this world, where may be some comforts and remedies, but in that ugly dun- geon and infernal vault; and this not among living men, who, if they cannot ease thee, yet will pity and bemoan thee, but among damned spirits, which solace themselves in thy destruction, and rejoice to be thy tonnentors '? Death is the extremest of all sufferings on earth, and therefore fittest to give denomination to the tonnents of hell, which are called ' the second death.' When the spiritual court of man is breaking up, every office dis- charged, the eye £fom seeing, the tongue fi.-om speaking, the foot fi'om walking, only the sense is not yet past feeling, violent convulsions rending the veins and sinews, an anny of pangs assaulting the heart-strings; when a man lies betwixt life and death, having no hope to Uve, and yet no power to die; this is an image and shadow, and but a shadow, of that second death which can neither be endured nor avoided. This is that threefold cui'se of God due to the first sin of man. The first is a spiritual death, which is of the soul; the next a temporal death, which is of the body; the last an eternal death, which is of them both. These do answer to the three degi'ees of sin. 1. A guiltiness of Adam's disobedience. 2. The taint of original and universal corruption. 3. A pollution by many actual oflences. In the first every man is equally guilty, in the second equally corrupt, in the third each keeps that compass which the power of God limits. Now, as in our guiltiness of Adam's sin hath its beginning, in original sin its continuance, in actual sin its perfection; so the wrath of God, which always stands opposite to sin, is begun in leaving us to the slaveiy of Satan, is continued by death, and accomplished by damna- tion. This is the miseiy of oui- natural estate, for which we have all cause to be thoroughly humbled, seeing, if God should take us away v/ithout repentance, it is not possible to escape vengeance. But blessed be that God, who hath done better things for us, and from this hapless, helpless, hopeless condi- tion, hath, by a covenant of mercy in his own Son, raised us up to salvation. The Eemedy finds the next place in om* meditations. We see by de- monstration, and should not see without shame and soiTOW, our natui'al estate. Whither doth a man's sickness send him but to the physician ? A repairer we need, but where is ho to be found ? Where dwells that great physician that can do this cure? Is there any smiple in the garden of nature that hath this virtue ? No, non est mcdicamcn in liortis. Is there any among the sons of man, any among the sons of God, the blessed angels, that can help us ? No looking for a medicine in hell ; there is nothing but poison in those sophisticate vials of darkness. Angels could not if they would, devils would not if they could, do us this good. Shall we run to the law ? There is, indeed, a promise of life, but, withal, a condition which we were never able to perform, ' Do this, and live.' This we have not done; there- fore the law condemns us. It began in thunder and lightning, and never gave over thundering till that blessed shower came, Ps. Ixxii. 6, wherein MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREKD. 203 God rained dowii his own Son from heaven. Is there, then, no hope of life, no hfe of hope, remaining? Is our evil past all remedy? Must wo needs perish ? No. Behold the day breaks, the sun riseth, darkness vanisheth, wrath and malediction give place to favour and salvation. Justice is content to give mercy the upper hand. Grace comes down from the imperial court of glory, in a refulgent throne of ivory, drawTi by swans and doves, simplicity and innocency. Thousands of angels wait upon her, those celestial voices make her melody ; the sun calls his beams to do her reverence, the moon and stars bow low to her; the obedient clouds pax't to give her way, the earth springs to welcome her; the sea curls his waves, the floods clap their hands for joy ; the birds smg in the air, the beasts skip in the pastures. There is a universal holiday all over the world; only hell trembles, and the infernal spirits be struck with melancholy. Truth and righteousness go before her, peace and prosperity follow after her, pity waits on her left hand, on her right hand mercy ; and when she first sets her foot on the earth she cries, A pardon, a pardon. Hear, ye sons of men, and thereby sons of wi'ath. My sister, Love, hath prevailed with your offended Father, and he hath sent me, the daughter of his goodness, to bring you news of a Jesus, the Son of his delight and greatness. Lo, he shall come down to the earth, that you may ascend up into heaven ; he shall die, that you may live. Thus dear do you cost him ; be thankful to him. A pardon, a pardon ! Let the heavens sing, and the earth shout for joy, and the whole frame of nature triumph ! Peace be vpith you, for God is reconciled unto you. To assure you of which comfort, I, Grace, do promise both to live with you dm-ing this world, and that you shall live with me in the world to come. ' The law made nothing perfect, but the bringing in of a better hope did ; by the which we draw nigh unto God,' Heb. vii. 19. We desire to enter into heaven : the apostle tells us of a wrong door and of a right. The law was a wrong door, ' it made nothing perfect.' Whether we take it for — The moral law ; what hope of remedy was here ? God was ever won- derful in his works, and fearful in his judgments ; but never so terrible in the execution of his will as he was in the promulgation of it. What a majestical terror was there ! Lightning darted in their eyes, thunder roared in their ears, the trumpet di'owning the claps of thunder, and the voice of God outsounding the trumpet. The cloud inwrapping, the smoke ascending, the thunder rattling, the fire flashing, the mount trembling; Moses climbing and quaking ; paleness and death in the face of Israel ; an uproar in the elements, and all the glory of heaven turned into terror. Is there any hope that law should save the world, that did thus ten-ify it ? Never was such an astonishment : God hath been fearful in punishing the breach of his law, but never so fearful as when he gave the law. When he destroyed the old world, there were clouds raining, without fire ; when he destroyed Sodom, there was fire raining, without clouds. But here were fii'e and clouds, smoke, thunder, and earthquake, in one amazing mixture. Now, if there was such terror at the law giving, what shall be at the law requiring ? If such were the proclamation of God's statutes, what shall we think of the assizes ? The trumpet of the angels called them unto the former ; the voice of an archangel, the trumpet of God, shall summon all the world to the latter. There only Mount Sinai was on a flame, here the whole world shall be on hght fire. There only that hill trembled, here the foundations of the earth shall quake. Then the elements were in combustion, at this day they shall be in a confusion, ' and melt away with 204 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. a noise.' There heaven was darkened, here ' the heavens shall be dis- solved.' There only (as it were) sparks or flakes of fire, in this there shall be an universal flame. He that did thus forbid sin, how terrible will he be in doing vengeance upon sinners ! If he did appear so astonishing a lawgiver, what kind of judge must we expect him ? If there was Httle less than death in the delivering, where shall they appear that are guilty of the transgressing ? 'What shall become of the breakers of so fieiy a law? If he should but exact his law in the same rigour that he gave it, and no more punishment should be felt than was then seen and feared, yet sin could not quit the cost. But now the fire wherein it was delivered was but terrifpug ; the fire wherein it shall be required is consuming ; the fire wherein the breach of it shall be tonnented is everlasting. 0 happy men that are delivered from that law, which was given in fire, and in fire shall be required ! Fire will continue long in beUs and other metals, but time will wear it out ; but the fire wherein the law was given is still in it, and will never out. "WTiat are our terrors of conscience, stingings and gi-ipings of heart, sorrows and dis- tractions of spirit, in the remorse of sin, but the flashings of this fii'e ? Every man's heart is a Sinai, on which the law being read, there presently appear the clouds and smoke of rebellions, the thunder of God's vengeance, the earthquake of fear and despair, the fire of that burning pit. By this door then we cannot pass ; for as the cherubims guarded paradise with a flaming sword, so here is fia'e, and smoke, and thunder, and terror to keep us out. Or whether we take it for the Levitical law ; could the law of ceremonies and sacrifices, which was wholly figm-ative of Christ, do us more good ? Alas ! they were but the shadows of good substances ; and it must be the substance that doth us good, not the shadow. They were something, they are nothing : like stars which do us some pleasure in a dark night, but hide their faces at the gloiy of the sun. At fii'st they were vwrtales, dj^ing ; after Chi-ist's victory, mortiia:, dead ; now they are mortiferm, deadly. Some have called the legal priests cocos gloriosos, ^nar/nificos lanioiies, glorious butchers ; none but evangelical priests bring the saving health. Cii'cumcision prefigm-ed Christ : it is necessaiy that it should cease post adventmn, quod 2'>i'(vsig}i{ficavit advcntiim. All their sacrifices were figures of Christ's sacrifice ; why should beasts any more die upon altars, when Chiist hath died upon the cross ? Paul calls legal ceremonies * beggarly mdiments ;' such are the popish, Uke a beggar's cloak, full of patches. When the debt is paid, it is unjust to keep back the bond : Christ being come, and ha'sdng discharged all, it is injurious to retain the bond of cere- monies. In the spring we make much of buds and flowers to delight the eye and cheer the sense of smelling ; but in autumn, when we receive the fruits to content our taste and appetite, and to nourish us, the other are nothing worth. The afiianced virgin esteems every token her lover sends her, and solaceth her afiections with those earnests of his love in his absence ; but when she is married, and enjoys himself, there is no regard of the tokens. It was something to have a ceremony or a sacrifice, repre- senting a Saviour ; but this ' made nothing perfect ; ' and all the Ufe which those things had was from that Sa-\4our whom now we have. ' But the bringing in of a better hope did.' In the law moral there was no hope ; in the law typical there was a little hope ; in the law evangehcal there is a 'better hope.' This doth both absolve the fomier, and dissolve the latter. Moses had a vail on his face when he brought the law ; yea, MEDITATIONS UPON Tili; CREED. 205 God had a vail on Lis o\\'n face, which hid his presence in the holy of holies. Now, when Christ said ' It is finished,' both the vail of God did rend, and the vail of Moses was pulled off. The vail is off, we now clearly see Christ, the end of the law : our Joshua, that succeeded Moses, speaks to us bare- faced. What a shame is it if there should be a vail upon our heai-ts, when there is none upon his face ! * Even when we were dead in sins, God hath quickened us together with Christ,' Eph. ii. 5. Here is death in its extent, the worst of things wo can suffer ; and life in its extent, the best of things God can give. We have already looked death in the face, let us now more admiringly behold that love which hath given us life. What David said of Ahimaaz, ' He is a good man, and comcth with good tidings,' 2 Sam. xviii. 27, is infinitely more true of Christ : ' He brings good news with him.' There was impossibility in the door of the law, great difficulty in the door of shadows and figures ; but this last is the door of life, whereby we have hope, good hope, better hope of our salvation. Let us therefore ' draw nigh uuto God ; ' and good reason, for he hath drawn nigh unto us. In good manners, we should have gone first to him ; but we durst not, we could not, unless he had first descended unto us. ' Nigh unto God : ' it seems that we were far off before ; indeed, near enough to his presence, for we could not be but before him ; near enough to his power, for we could not move but in him ; too near (for us) to his justice, for that had condemned us ; but far from his favour, for that had not appi'oved us. Such terms of distance were betwixt God and man, that we could not approach ; and if we would, yet the door was shut against us. Blessed be he that hath the key in his hand, and with one turn did let us all in ; that by opening the door of his own heart, did open for us the door of heaven ; for when by death his side was pierced, the door of life was opened. He hath shewn us the way ; he hath cleared the way ; he is ' the way.' Let us di-aw near by him, who should never have been welcome without him ; and that God, to whom we draw near in faith and piety, draw near to us in love and mercy. The Covenant of Grace. — There is a promise of reconciliation whereby God's mercy raiseth up forlorn man from his misery : ' The seed of the woman shall break the head of the serpent.' In this covenant there be two parties : God is the principal, and he promiseth righteousness and salva- tion in Christ. Man is the other, and he binds himself, by God's grace, to believe and rest upon the promise. This covenant is not made with angels, who, as they fell without a tempter, so are left without a redeemer ; but with man. Nor yet with all men, but only with those to whom the free mercy of God hath given faith. ' All are concluded under sin, but the promise of faith by Jesus Christ is given to them that believe,' Gal. iii. 22. Sin be- longs to all men, the promise only to the faithful. There hath alwaj^s been a distinction of men. In Adam's family Abel was received into the covenant, Cain rejected. In the days of Noah, some were the ' sons of God,' the rest the ' children of men.' In Abraham's house, Ishmael is cast out, the ' promise is established in Isaac' From Isaac's loins Jacob is loved, Esau is hated. The Jews had the ' adoption,' the Gentiles were ' strangers to the covenant.' Object. : But as Adam received the first grace for himself and all mankind, so also the second, which is the promise. Ans. : Indeed, by creation he received goodness for himself and all his posterity, and in his fall he lost that goodness in him- self and all his posterity ; God did put ' enmity between the seed of the woman and of the serpent.' This is primarily understood of Christ, who 206 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. •was 80 properly the seed of the woman, that he was not the seed of man ; so betwixt Christ and Satan was the greatest enmity, for he consented to him in nothing. Next, by the woman's seed is meant all the elect, and by the sei-pent's seed all the wicked. Now, if all men were received into the covenant, then were all men the seed of the woman, and the sei-pent should have no seed at all. In every covenant there must be a mutual consent on both sides ; as there is a promise on God's part, so there must be a re-sti- pulation on ours, otherwise it is no bargain ; but he that believes not, con- sents not, therefore he is not of the covenant. That doctiine is repugnant to the Scripture, and unsound, which teacheth the redemption by the second Adam to be as universal as the sin of the first ; it is so, indeed, for value and sufficiency, it is not so for communication of the benefit. The ' world' is taken in both the better sense and the woi'se : ' the world is reconciled,' 2 Cor. V. 19, and 'the world is not reconciled,' 1 John v. 19; who can reconcile these speeches ? Saint Augustine thus : Christ redeemed totum mimdum ex toto viundo, a little world out of the gi'eat. So we speak in common phrase, emphatically, a ' world of saints,' and yet we know there is a world of sinners. For method in opening this covenant, I insist on five points — the extent, the restraint, the cause, the manner or form, and the instrument or charter. 1. Fh'st, for the latitude or extent, Christ's sacrifice was universal, of infinite value, but of definite apprehension. It is universal in four respects. (1.) For time. No time is excepted. He was ouce sacrificed in act, always in potentia, in eflect and vaUdity to save. Therefore, that he might save those who were before him, he is called ' the Lamb slain from the beginning of the world.' He was not sooner promised than his virtue was exhibited. God took his own word before he had performed the deed. And to shew that he saves to the end of the world, ' if any man sin (at any time) we have an advocate with the Father.' Adam sinned in the morning of the world, Noah in the forenoon, Solomon at high noon, Peter in the afternoon, we sm in the evening, they after us at veiy night ; Christ died for us all. Not that all men, at aU times, had this medicine, but whoso- ever had it found salvation by it. (2.) For place. Even when Jewry was the sole depositai-y of it, and the Gentiles were then ' no people,' yet here and there many became proselytes; and it was not so confined to Jerusalem, but that God called divers aliens, and joined them to his church. But now the door of salvation is set wide open, men may flock from the four winds, from all parts of the world, and be entertained. "When Gideon's fleece was wet, the ground was dry ; when the Jews had the chm'ch, the Gentiles wanted it. Now the ground is wet, and the fleece is diy ; the Jews want the church, and the Gentiles have it. Swarthy Afiica hath heard of Christ ; and America no sooner discovered her riches to us, but we discovered our better riches to them, and so ex- changed with them in a happy traffic. God grant them to become more rich by om-s than we have gi'own by theirs. So shall they perceive that all their mines are not worth one dram of the blessed gospel. (3.) For object. No sin is excepted. Bodily diseases, as they come from several causes, require several courses of cure. He that is sick of the stone, alias curatur quam februosus. Cold aches and palsies have another medicine, than burning fevers and inflammations. That which opens an obstruction increaseth a fluid evacuation. But Christ's sacrifice cures all — close-fisted covetousness, or open-handed profuseness ; the costive usm-er, or the laxa- tive rioter ; aspmng presumption, or dejected despair ; the cunning phari- MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 207 Bee, or the impudent publican ; proud afiectedness, or sordid nastiness ; natural impurity, or unnatural cruelty ; blind ignorance, wilful malice ; envy, idolatry, blasphemy ; there is no sin so desperate but this physic can cure it. Noah's drunkenness, Lot's incest, David's uncleanness, Solomon's defection, Peter's denial, Mary Magdalene's prostitution, Zaccheus's oppres- sion, the Ephesians' superstition, Paul's persecution — all are pardonable by this satisfaction. Whatsoever sin may be repented, may be remitted. (4.) For subject, no sort of men excepted. ' The gi-ace of God brings salvation to all men,' Tit. ii. 11, that is, all sorts of men. The seri'ant as well as the master ; the king in his robes, the beggar in rags ; licli Abra- ham and poor Lazarus ; the commanding magistrate, the obeying subject ; the bondman in fetters, the freeman in his liberties : * There is noi^^er Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female : for ye are all one in Christ Jesus,' Gal. iii. 28. There be distinctions of men : in respect of nation, some are Jews, and some Gentiles ; in respect of condition, some are bond, and some fi'ee ; in regard of sex, some are male, some female ; yet all these are taken away in Clu'ist, in whom all are one. There be fom' times and regards which take away all difference. 1. Sleep ; wherein the wise man differs not from the fool, the turbulent is as tame as the innocent, the lawyer is as silent as his paper. 2. Death, mors dominos servis : gentleman and laboui'er, landlord and tenant, are distinctions upon the earth ; in the eai-th, in the grave, there is no such distinction. The fiiirest lady makes no better dust than the Egyptian bondwoman ; Menipj)us, there, cannot tell Mercury which was Alexander and which the potter. All differences are shuified and tumbled together in the chaniel-house. 3. The resurrection ; those that lie in tombs and monuments rise no more gloriously than such as slept in their forgotten sepulchres. The angel tha'^ calls us out of the dust wiU not stand to survey who lies naked, who in a coffin ; who in wood, who in lead ; who in a fine, who in a coarser, shroud. ^Vhen that day comes, there is not a forenoon for lords to rise first, and an afternoon for meaner persons to rise afterwards. The groom must not stay for his master, nor the maiden wait to make ready her mistress. Indeed, * the dead in Chiist shall rise first,' the king's own servants be more graced than the rest ; yet these altogether. And for the wicked there shall not be such difference in appearing as was in offending ; not such in their rising as was in their lying down. 4. The redemption: Christ was not only made poor to save the rich, but he will be also rich in mercy to save the poor. He was not whipped to save beggars, and crovmed with thorns to save kings ; he died, he suffered all for all. It was not one for one, nor one for many, but one for all. One for one had been well in terms of equahty ; one for many in terms of equivalency ; ' thou art worth ten thousand of us,' say they to David ; but one for all, this one must needs be of infinite price. Saint Paul useth all these phrases ; sometimes, Chi-ist gave himself * for you,' which is vox spei, a word of hope ; sometimes ' for me,' which is vox fidei, a word of faith ; sometimes * for us,' which is vox unitatis, a word of unity ; sometimes ' for all,' which is vox charitatis, a word of charity. 2. But ai'e all men actually blessed by this covenant ? No ; for some men did not receive it, therefore were not blessed by it ; some men did not believe it, therefore not received it ; some did not know of it, therefore could not believe it ; some never heard of it, therefore could not know it. AH that called on the God of Israel were not the Israel of God, Piom. ix. 6. Though salvation were within that church, yet many in that church were without salvation. ' But have they not all heard ? 208 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. Yes verily, theii sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world,' Eom, x. 18, ' Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerasalem, and unto the uttennost part of the earth,' Acts i. 8. Divers of the fathers thought that the apostles did actually and personally preach the gospel in all nations. And yet it may well appear that a gi'eat part of the world hath been discovered since, which neither professed nor knew Christ. When Augustus's decree went forth, that all the world should be taxed, this decree and tax went not to the Indies ; yea, it is likely that, in all the floui-ishing state of the Romans, that monarchy was not heard of to them. But, as in Moses' time, the Mediterranean sea was called the great sea, because it was the greatest which they had then seen : so in the apostles' time, that was called all the world which was then known and traded in. This covenant is not yet offered to all men ; it shall be before the world's end. Now, even among those that have it, there is not to every one an efi'ec- tual success by it. Men may be within the covenant, and yet the covenant not be within them. By God's promise, it is necessary that every one that believes should be saved ; but it is not necessaiy that every one that hears should believe. Salvation is offered to many that do not oflfer them- selves to salvation. Some hear and believe not; many say they behcve, and repent not. Thus the covenant lies by them, sealed on God's part in the sacrament of baptism ; but not sealed on their part by a requhed faith, and answerable hfe. In a covenant dra'^Ti, there is no confirmation by sealing on one side, if the other refuseth. Now, he that believes ' hath set to his seal,' John iii. 83 ; but he that believes not hath not sealed. So a man may live mthin the circumference of the gospel, and have no benefit by it. Canaan w-as a land flowing with milk and honey, yet a man might hve in Canaan, and taste neither milk nor honey. ' I pray not for the world,' saith Christ, Jolm x\'ii. 9. There be two main parts of his mediatorship — his redemption, and intercession. Now, he excludes the world fi.-om his intercession, therefore from his redemption : for whom he does not pray, he did not die : he did not open his side, if he win not open his mouth for them. Let not men bear themselves too bold upon their acquaintance with Christ, when their afiection hes another way. Those merchants are blessed that sell all the world to buy Christ, not they that sell Chi'ist to buy the world. This covenant is too good for them that slight it ; and it is but a poor valuation to make it the best flower of our garland : but one among others, though a principal one. Nay, we have no flower, no garland, but that. The covenant of gi'ace is all oui' tenm'e ; and as that assui'ance can never be taken from them that have it, so there is nothing but woe to them that have it not. 3. The free mercy and good pleasm-e of God is the cause of this cove- nant. ' God did not choose you for your number,' or goodness ; ' but because he loved you,' saith Moses to Israel, Deut. vii. 8. The same may be said of all God's chosen : election hath no cause but dUection ; dilection hath no cause at all. To seek for a reason why God ' loved Jacob ' before he was, is to search for the begmning of eternity. ^Vhy did God make the world ? Quia voliiit, because he would. Quare voluit ? Why would he ? An idle question. Why did God choose some men to life everlasting in Christ ? Quia dilexlt : because he loved them. "Why did he love them ? This is a vain Qimre : there is no cause of the fu-st cause ; so high we can go, we dare not attempt higher. How comes it to pass, that we have wine and bread ? Because the earth yields us those fmits : ' the earth shall hear the com and wine,' Hos. ii. 22. "V\1iy doth the earth afford MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 209 them ? Because the heavens give it their kindly influence : ' the heavens shall hear the earth.' How doth the heavens impart this influence ? Because the Lord hath so ordained it : * I will hear the heavens.' Thus far religiously ; hut why hath God ordained it ? To ask this is a presump- tuous folly. Christ ' loved us, and gave himself for us,' Eph. v. 2 : he gave himself for us, because he loved us. Why did he love us ? There is no cause of that. We may as well seek for a place above heaven, or below the centre, as a cause beyond love. There must be no Quarc, where can he given no Quia. 0 the bottomless depth of that love ! ' Herein is love, not that we loved God, but that God loved us,' 1 John iv. 10. Here is love indeed, as if all other love were not worth naming or mention, in respect of this. Thus Christ loved us, and ' gave himself a sacrifice for us.' There is nothing better than Clu-ist, nothing better in Christ than love, no love better than to give, no gift better than himself, no wa}' to give himself better than in sacrifice. Other gi-aces are spoken of God in oblique : God of mercy, God of peace, God of comfort ; but love absolutely, in abstrado, ' God is love.' Thus, the cause of all causes is the love of God. 4. The manner of conveying this to man is by promise ; so to our first parents he begun it, so to divers patriarchs he renewed it, so by his pro- phets he confirmed it, and at the coming of Christ he performed it. We may conceive this done by way of contract and marriage : first God con- tracted his Son to our human nature, and then united it by a solemn mar- riage. This was no clandestine act done in a corner ; but though a dispensation was granted from the hi^h court of faculties in heaven, yet Christ would have the banns openly published ; and so they were at the least thrice. 1. In the church of paradise, when Satan flattered himself that he had subdued all mankind to his dition and command : even then a Re- deemer was proclaimed, a husband promised, the ' seed of the woman.' This was the first time of asking, and none forbade it. 2. In the church of patriarchs : ' Shiloh shall come, and gather the people to him,' Gen. xlix. 10 ; the Messiah shall be married to the chm-ch. This was the second time of asking, and none forbade it. 3. In the church of the Jews, and that at so famous a time, and in so great an assembly, when Ahaz was frighted with Syria and Israel, bending and banding their forces against him : < Behold, a virgin shall conceive, and bear a son, and shall call his name Immanuel,' Isa. vii. 14 ; which is interpreted by St Matthew, ' God with us,' the Son of God married to the nature of man. This was the third time of asking, and none forbade it. Now, when our Saviour took flesh, they were espoused. It is our cus- tom to publish this promise thrice before the marriage, and once at the marriage. So was it here, John the Baptist being honoured to be the proclaimer of this blessed nuptials : ' Behold the Lamb of God.' Now, the Lamb of God is espoused to the natm-e of man : the Lamb of God, of the parish of heaven, on the one part ; and the nature of man, of the parish of eai-th, on the other part. If any man, any creature, can shew any lawful cause why they may not be joined together, let him now speak, or else hereafter for ever hold his peace. There was no denial, but an universal acclamation from heaven and earth. The angels and a multitudj of the heavenly host, sang, * Glory to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men,' Luke ii. 14 ; so from heaven. ' Hosanna, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest,' Matt, xxi. 9 ; so from earth. As if heaven and earth had consented together in this marriage -song, ' God gave them joy.' The sanctuary wherein this VOL. III. O 210 • MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. sacred knot was tied, was the body of the vii-gin Mary. This was that sanctified temple wherein the divine and human natures of Christ were married together.* He that took on him the office of the priest was the Holy Ghost. ' The Holy Ghost shall come upon thee, and the power of the Most High shall overshadow thee,' Luke i. 35 : he did knit this knot. This promise is thus performed ; Christ is married to oiir nature. Yet doth not this bring all mankind within the covenant ; because, though Christ partake the human nature of all men, yet all men do not partake the divine nature of Christ. Here must be a new contract, a new marriage. We must be ' one spirit ' with him, as well as he is ' one flesh ' with us, or we have no part in this covenant. Here the Holy Spu'it doth a new office, and espouseth the believer to Christ, the wedding-ring being faith, the militant church the temple, the witnesses angels, the nuptial garment holi- ness of life, the duty of the wife to please her husband, the love of the hus- band to save his wife. This is the contract or espousals. The public and solemn maniage is to come. ' Blessed are they which are called to the marriage supper of the Lamb,' Rev. xix. 9. This is the true saying of God, this is his faithful promise; such shall be his gi'acious perfoimance. 0, the royal apparel, sumptuous cheer, unspeakable joy, at this feast, where the parlour is heaven, the cates glory and peace, and the music a choir of angels ! 5. The instrument of this covenant is the gospel; it is registered in the Scriptures, and kept upon eternal record in heaven. This is the tenure we hold by, our letters patent from heaven : the Old Testament from Mount Horeb, sealed with the blood of goats ; the New Testament from Mount Zion, sealed with the blood of the Lamb. The one promising and pre- figui-ing, the other performing and exhibiting, this reconciliation. There- fore Christ, immediately before his death, fii'st celebrated the passover, then instituted his supper ; first ending the law, then beginning the gospel. The law and the gospel, hke Jacob and Esau, had both one Father; yet how they difi'er. Esau hath the right of natm'e, the law was elder ; Jacob hath the right of grace, the gospel is sweeter. Yet, Jacob's hand was bom before Esau's heel. Gen xsv. 26; a beam of the gospel shone in paradise, before the written law came from the mount. Esau was rough and hairy ; the law is full of teiTor : Jacob smooth and mild; the gospel full of beauty. Jacob and Esau strove ia the womb, and began their wai* betimes ; the law and the gospel are at strife iu the Christian, and when God actually enters us into this covenant we begin this combat. The law comes in puffing, like Esau, in hope of the blessing ; but the gospel, hke Jacob, goes away full of the blessing. The law, like Esau, is full of tears ; the gospel, like Jacob, replenished with joy. Thus under the law the covenants were drawn; by the gospel the deed is sealed. They expected it, we have it ; they looked for it, we look upon it. As when the Israelitish spies had cut down a branch of gi'apes, and ' bare it between two on a staff' upon their shoulders, Num. xiii. 23, he that went before knew he had it, but he that came after saw it. Now, every man loond well to his deeds and assurance. How should we prize and preserve this covenant! How dear should the gospel be unto us ! Yet, alas ! there be too many that value it below the least trifle they affect. They will not forbear the least sin it forbids, nor yield the least duty it requires, nor do the least action it commands. It speaks to the covetous. Leave off thy worldiiness ; seek riches in me. No ; the fool and his counters must not part so. Yield me some of thy estate in charity to •Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. 211 the poor, in equity to the church. No; gospel, I thank you, I will not buy you so dear ! Thus they look to have the inheritance, yet despise the con- veyance. The least sentence of this charter, the least line of a sentence, the least word of a line, the least letter of a word, is worthy to be written in gold, and worn about the necks of Christians as their only glory. Honour should bo given to the meanest servant it hath, to the lowest part of the lowest servant. Quani spedosi pedes, ' How beautiful are the vei-y feet of them that bring this tidings?' * Blessed be the Lord that sent thee, and blessed be thou that hast kept me from shedding blood,' saith David to Abigail, 1 Sam. XXV. 33. Not only God, but even the minister is blessed in some sort that doeth good. Perhaps we cannot trim it up curiously enough for this choice age. The wits do not like it ; men in whom wit hath given honesty the checkmate. But will a man refuse a diamond because it is not curiously set, or a malefactor reject his pardon because it is not eloquently written? If Elias be hungry, he will not despise the meat that is brought by a homely messenger. Indeed, he that teaches good and does good marries the gi-aces and muses. But the gospel is the gospel; and whosoever brings it, the good heart will thankfully receive it. There is sweetness in flowers, though some smell it not; there is light in the sun, though the blind see it not; there is heat in fire, though the dead feel it not. Obsei-ve them that do carefolly seek it. Sure if there was not some goodness in it they would not so love it as not to value their Uves in regard of it. The countrjTnan knows not the price of a jewel, therefore stands by the buyer and the seller, hears what the chapman bids and what the merchant refusetb ; so he gets it. You wUl say that it is an occasion to make some men worse. It is true of one and the same word that it hath diflerent effects, in heartening the good to the sendee of Christ, and hardening the wicked in the service of Satan. But still itself is blessed and good. If the sun cause a stench, it is a sign that there is some dunghill nigh; if it reflect on a bed of roses, there is sweetness. We have cause to honour that which doth honour us ; cause to cherish that which doth enrich us; cause, if need require, even to die for that which gives us eternal hfe. 0, let us bless it, and bless God for it, that we may all be blessed by it, through the foundation of it, which is — Jesus. — Such is our Saviour's first title. ' I believe in Jesus,' without whom we had never knovni God our friend, and God would never have known us for other than his enemies. I will not dispute whether he could not have received us again to favour by some nearer and easier way than for his own Son to be humanified, and being man to be crucified. Aliter potuit ac Toluit ; he is not bound to give us any reason for what he does, we are bound to thank him for what he hath done. I have read many curious observations concerning the name Jesus.'^ Some of the first letter, which, among the Hebrews and Greeks, in sua cfente denarii rmmeri nota est. Some of the five letters, some of the three vowels, some of the two syllables, in which superfluous descant they lose the sweetness, as by too affected difiu- sion some fingers lose the note. Yet herein they come short of the monks and friars in their conceits of the word Maria ; they have so tossed it and turned it, so anagrammatized and transposed it, that never were five poor letters so worried since time did put them into the alphabet. They have made a goddess of her person, but a martyr of her name. They story to us how one was saved by only learning her name. His devout schoolmaster would have taught him the whole salutation, but the dull scholar only * Beda. 212 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED, attained the first two words, Ave Maria, and could never come to Ch-atia plena. He died, and upon the top of his gi'ave grew out a fair flower, whose leaves were natui-al characters of those two words, Ave Maria ; and the wonder being searched, they dig into his grave, and find this flower to spring out of his mouth. Let him beheve it that hath a faith of that size. But our salvation does not consist in syllables ; it is the sense, not the sound, of Jesus that saves us. We acknowledge brevitatem in nomine, im- mensitatevi in virtute. The argiament of this discourse I take from Matt. i. 21. ' Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people from their sins.' Wherein observe, 1. The imposition of a name, ' Thou shalt call his name Jesus;' and, 2. The exposition of that name, ' for he shall save his people.' 1. Jesus. — This name was not invented but accepted by Joseph, brought by the angel, sent by God himself. Before that heavenly embassage httle did Joseph conceive in his mind what Maiy had conceived in her womb. He would hardly have thought of a name expressive enough of so gi'eat a person. God infonns him what, and he performs that, calling him Jesus, therein ac- knowledging his reputed Son to be his true Saviom-, and him that took flesh of his wife to be the God of aU the world. Though we place not religion in names and titles, yet the wiser devotion is dehberate in this holy action. First, it is not safe to be ambitious of high titles, especially let us not arrogate the appellations of God. Some call their sons Emmanuel : this is too bold. The name is proper to Christ, therefore not to be communicated to any creature. It is no less than presimaption to give a subject's son the style of his prince. Yea, it seems to me not fit for Christian humility to call a man Gabriel or Michael, giving the names of angels to the sons of mortahty. On the other side, it is a petulant absiu'dity to give them ridiculous names, the very rehearsing whereof causeth laughter. There be certain afi"ectate names which mistaken zeal chooseth for honour, but the event dis- covers a proud singularity. It was the speech of a famous prophet, l^on sum melior patribiis meis, 'I am no better than my fathers;' but such a man will be sapientior patribns suis, wiser than his fathers; as if they would tie the goodness of the person to the signification of the name. But still a man is what he is, not what he is called; he were the same, with or without that title, or that name. And we have known Williams and Richards, names not found in sacred story, but familiar to our country, prove as gracious saints as any Safe deliverance. Fight the good fight of faith, or such like ; which have been rather descriptions than names. The name is given at our holy baptism, in the a^vful presence of God, of the blessed angels, of mihtant saints, at the child's admission into the chm-ch ; ' In the name of the Father, Son,and Holy Ghost.' All v.'hich should fill our mouths with sobriety, our hearts with reverence. The end of giving names (besides the main, which was for distinction) was either: (1.) For the memory of some good past; so Jacob was called Israel, be- cause he prevailed with God. So Moses, which signifies ' drawn up,' Exod. ii. 10. The occurrent begets praise ; so the goodness of ancestors is revived by giving their names to posterity. This they objected to Zachariah calling his son John ; ' There is none of thy kindi'ed called by this name,' Luke i. 61 ; intimating that the memory of progenitors should be preserved in their names. (2.) For the mention of good present; as John, the grace of God, because he was sanctified in the womb. Or for evil present, as Rachel's Bcnoni, Phinehas' wife's Ichahod; Adam, red earth. (3.) For the presage of some good to come ; as Abraham receives an enlarged name. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 218 because God meant to enlarge his family. Or for evil to come ; as Lo- ruhamah, one that hath not obtained mercy, Hos. i. G. Here God, as he extraordinarily created the nature, immediately imposed the name. God is the Father of his person, and he is the Godfather of his nature ; * Call his name Jesus.' Jesiis is a name of great honour. Nomen Jem prcBdicatum lucet, recogita- tum pascit, in^ocatnm sahat.-^ God gave him ' a name above all names ;' it was not enough to exalt his person, but also his name. AVhat is his nativity without an epiphany ? Why are things exalted, but that they may be in view and apparent ! so was the brazen sei^pent lifted up. Kings are so high, that upon earth they cannot be higher ; there is no way left to exalt them but this, to spread abroad their names. What name was this ? one among the famous names of men? No; super, above them all. Above aU names ! What, above the name of God ? We might say, ' He that did put aU things under him, is himself excepted,' 1 Cor. xv. 27. God gave him a name above all names, except his own.' But indeed, this is one of God's own names. ' I am a Saviour,' Isa. xhii. 11. How is it then given him, when he had it before ? Accipit ut homo, quod habehat ut Deus: He received that as a man, which was his own as God; he took with his nature his name, and the chief of all his names, the name of a saviour. Jesus, a principal name, both in regard of God, and of us. (1.) For God, though many titles of the Deity sound and seem to be more glorious, yet he esteems none of them like this. They have in them more power and majesty, but not so much mercy, not so much of that wherein God delights to be magnified above all his works ; and indeed the gi'eater mercy, the greater glorj^, 2 Cor. iu. 9. We read among those attributes of God (Exod. xxxiv. 6), one of his power, two of his justice, but many of his mercy. Other titles had not us men, and our salvation in them ; therefore he sets by no name like that, wherein with his glory is joined our safety. It is not so much for his own sake, that he so highly esteems it, but for us ; he had lost nothing, though we had lost ourselves. How should we esteem of him, that esteems of this name above aU names for our sakes ! But howsoever it be to him, sure it is to us most dear and precious ; we have no other name to hold by, Acts iv. 12. Without Jesus, God had been an enemy to us, therefore to us it is more sweet than all the titles of God. There is goodness and greatness enough in the name Jehovah ; but we merited so little good, and demented so much evil, that in it there had been small comfort for us. But with the name Jesus, there is comfort in the name of God ; without it, none. It is to us more useful than aU ; in the depths of aU distresses, when the body and soul can scarce hang to- gether, the one vexed wdth sickness, the other pei-plexed with conscience, how do we then implore him ? We beseech his mercy by the name of Jesus, even adjure him by that, to make good his own name, not to bear it for nought ; but as he is a Saviour, so to save us. This is our comfort, that God will never so remember our wretched sins, as to forget his own blessed name. But that as of all other he most loves it, so of all other he will least forget it. That he will interpose Jesus whom he loves, betwixt his -^Tath and our sins, which he hates. Thus, as suprema lex, salus, so supremum nomen, Jesus ; the highest, the sweetest, the dearest to us of all the names of God, is the name Jesus. 2. ' For he shall save his people from their sins.' The name itself, we hear, is honourable for its author ; God gave it ; honourable for its nature, * Bern. 214 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. God loves it ; now it is also honourable for its effect, it ' saves us from our sins.' In this exposition be three particulars. (1.) What he shaU do ; ' Save.' (2.) Whom he shaU save ; ' His people.' (3.) From what he shall save them ; ' From their sins.' Save. — (1.) First, he shall save. Was he for this called Jesus ? Why there have been many Jesuses, many saviours, Heb. iv. 8. Others had this name besides him, and before him. Jesus the worthy, Jesus the high priest, Hagg. i. 1 ; to say nothing of Jesus the son of Sirach. It is ti*u6 they had it, but not given them by God ; they had men to their godfathers. But here the name is ordained by God, in the mouth of an angel. There is now a sect or society of Jesus, Jesuits ; but this name was not given them by an angel, nor by their godfather, but by themselves, They gave themselves the name, God never gave it them. Whether they mean them- selves the servants of Jesus, so are we all by profession ; or the brethren of Jesus, so are all Christians by adoption ; or the fellows of Jesus, as if he had been the founder of their order, and head of their college, I know not. But sui'e there is no man so unlike to Jesus as the Jesuit. They affect also another name, disciples ; it is hard to judge in whether of them there is more ambition. Jesus was regular and ' obedient to the death ; ' no order in the world is so full of disorder, disobedience, and irregularity, as the Jesuits. Jesus paid tribute and honour to kings, Jesuits decrown them. Jesus was harmless, without fi'aud, ' neither was guile found in his mouth ; ' the Jesuit, where he is free, wears a mask upon his heart ; where he is not free, he shifts it, and puts it upon his face. His equivocations, his perjuries, his regicides, witness his simpUcity. They can no ways challenge this name, but by the conti'ary ; as mo)is a non movendo, lucus a non lucendo, so Jesuita a Jesum persequendo. For the other Jesuses, they had all need, and were glad to lay hold on the skii'ts of this Jesus, Zach. viii. 23 ; as on him alone that was able to save them, otherwise they had been falsely so named, lost men all. Therefore they are wilhng to resign it up to him, that he may bear it with a main difference fi'om them all. For saviours, other things, indeed, have been so called, Chad. ver. 21. Baptism is said to ' save us,' but no otherwise than as it represents the blood of this Jesus that doth save us, inwardly baptizing our souls. It is the Iving's broad seal ; it is the King that grants the tenure, the wiiting doth but convey, the seal doth but confirm it. Ministers are called saAaom-s. ' Save thyself and others,' saith Paul to Timothy, 1 Tim. iv. 16. Much is ascribed to the instrument, that belongs to the agent, James v. 20. So they are said to * turn hearts,' Luke i. 16, and make ' men righteous,' Dan. xii. 3, yet God only justifieth; and ' Tm-n us, 0 Lord,' or we shall never be tmnied. He bids Ezekiel raise up diy bones, Ezek. xxsvii. 9. We can as well raise the dead as save souls. But the wind comes, the Holy Spirit of God does it. We thrust away all honour with both hands. ' Not unto us, 0 Lord, but to thy name Jesus give the glory.' The Father saves, and the Holy Ghost saves ; but Christ alone paid the price of our salvation. This was the ' end of his coming,' Luke xix. 10, this the mean- ing of his name. Superstition would have the very letters of Jesus, though pronounced by a faithless tongue, drive out foul spirits. But to expect this from the mere sound of two syllables, is to change the name of salva- tion into a charm of conjuration. Rome may attribute too much to the name, but I am sure they give too Uttle to Jesus himself. For all that is sacri- legiously detracted from him, which is superstitiously given to saint, angel, MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 215 man, work, merit, or any creature. Against all such self-cozened and self- condemned idolaters, his jealousy shall one day break out like fire, and say. What have I to do with you ? If you can do all, or aught at all with- out me, then let me alone. Let me be cither saviom- alone, mediator alone, all in all, or none at all. But let their saviours be according to the num- ber of their cities. We have one for all, one above all, one that is all in all, and let us never think of any at all but this blessed Jesus. (2.) Not all people, but his. Caput est co7-poris siii, non alieni, another's body cannot hve by thy soul ; anhnat suum. The shepherd keeps his own flock, the master provides for his own family. But how could they be called his people before he had redeemed them ? Well enough. Be- fore all time they were his by election ; in the fulness of time they are made his by redemption. They were his before ex consilio cordis; now his, ex pretio sanrfuiuis. All are not his. /S'wfwi is a possessive and peculiar. Mine is the speech of a proprietary. Mij house, my land, my child, these be proper to me, not common to all. If all people were saved by him, how is he called the Saviour ' of his people ? ' If he be a Jesus to all, to whom shall he be a judge ? If all be saved by him, how shall he condemn any ? Why should the kindreds of the earth mourn at his coming, and wish the mountains to hide them from his face ? It will be said, because they beheve not. Belike, then, man's will must overrule God's will, whereas it is the common rule of Scriptm-e and nature that actus I'tnmce causa: ordinat actum secundfB causa. The sun rules the season, the season doth not govern the sun. We are therefore good because God hath chosen us. He did not therefore choose us because we would be good. He ' saves his people,' his people keep his laws, his laws are faith and obedience. Faith and obedience are not in the wicked, therefore they break his laws. They break his laws, therefore are not his people. They are not his people, therefore he doth not save them. If reprobates could here find an evasion, there might be some hope of their salvation. Men are deceived to think, when they lose themselves, that God loseth anything by them. What prejudice is done to the sun when a scornful eye refuseth to look upon him ? Take a branch from the tree, it bears fruit stiU. Cut ofi" a channel from the sea, it misseth it not. Christ hath no loss though men fall away. Therefore, qui vult vivere in capite, oportet esse de compote, we must be his people, of his church, if we will be saved. Unrelenting sinners have no more portion in Christ than dogs have in the bread of children. (3.) Why only from sin ? It had been acceptable enough to save us from poverty. How welcome is that fleet which brings in gold enough to make us all rich ! or to save us from our enemies, and the merciless hand of war ! How welcome was this Christ in '88, when he spoiled that homed crescent, and di'owned their new moon in the old sea ! At other times the moon rules the sea, but here the sea became too hard for the moon. Or to save us from famine, how welcome is bread to the hjingry ! Such tidings to famished Samaritans savoured sweetly even from the mouths of lepers, 2 icings vii. Or to save us from a raging pestilence, how welcome is that wind which can cleanse our infected air, and blow away the plague ! Or to save us from death — divers diseases are very painful, but death is fear- ful ; nature will endure much ere it yield to die — how welcome is that doc- tor who, shewing his vial, says. This shall cure you ! But ' from sin ? ' This is a thing that most make least account of ; nothing troubles them less than their sins. A wreck at sea, a cross on land, a suit at law, put men 216 MEDITATIONS CPON THE CKEED. out of patience, distraction hath a thousand ways to mar their peace ; but who break their sleeps for their sins ? Doth extortion trouble the usurer ? wantonness the adulterer ? lying the flatterer ? sacrilege the tithe-lurcher ? a painted image the juggling idolater ? Alas ! save them from their sins, and they think you take away their best friends. No saving match they hold it, unless they may save by it. Oh, it is a desperate resolution for men not to know what sin is till they know it too late, and understand it in un- quenchable fire. If a man had such sense beforehand, and all the corporai plagues that ever flesh and blood groaned under in this woi'ld, and the fuli punishment of one sin, were put to his choice ; rather than answer for one sin, he would offer himself to all those pains. By this time we begin to perceive what it is from which he saves us, sin. Indeed, what else could hurt us ? What is poverty, but the* want of a httle luggage ? Doth the horse think himself the better for the hampers on his back ? Take away sin, there is no man poor. Sin makes beggars, as beg- gars make sin. What is ignominy vidthout sin ? The world's obloquy is the honour of innocency. How did all the reproaches of Christ tmn to his glory ! When the sinner revileth the righteous, he throws dust at his enemy, which the wind drives back in his own face ; or like a mastiff", ill set on, that recoils on his owner's throat. There is no shame but sin. As poverty is but the want of a httle ballast, so contempt but the lack of a little sail. How weak a thing is the strongest adversary, while our sin is not his second ! Nothing can make us penetrable but sin. Saul fell on the mountains of Gilboa, not by the sword of a Philistine, but by his own sin. None could wound him till sin had fii-st disarmed him. It is the corruption and stench of sin that breeds the plague, and all those pestilen- tial tokens are but the tokens of sin. It is the fulness of sin that brings scarcity of bread. The bondage of service comes from the bondage of sin. Paradise itself were but a prison with sin, and the prison is a paradise with- out sin. Death should never have been at all, should not now be painful, but for sin. ' The sting of death is sin.' Take out the sting, you may put the serpent in your bosom. When the bee hath lost his sting in my hand, he may play with mine eye-lid, and do me no harm. All these are but the effects and wages of sin ; therefore tolle 2><^ccatum, tolle omne malum, take away sin, and there remains no evil. But the devil is our malicious adversary ; give him but leave, and he will not leave one man alive. HeU is a dismal place, unquenchable fire is an inconceivable pain. Why is not Jesus said to save us from these, but from sins ? Alas ! all these shall never do us harm without our sins. Sin first kindled the fire of hell, sin fuels it. Take away sin, that toimenting flame goes out. And for the devil, sin is his instrument whereby he works all mischief. By the sin which he finds in us, he brings more sin upon us ; so that to take away our sins is to disappoint his hopes. Intra te est, qiiod contra te est* As Sennacherib was punished by his own bowels, so the sin within us brings all woe upon us. Any man thinks it base to be a slave's slave, but it is only sin that makes man a slave to Satan. But for sin the devil had no business in the world, but must go home, save his breath to cool his tonnent, and make himself meny with his own fii^e. What abundance of benefits are here in one word. There is no evil incident to man, but it ceaseth to be evil when sin is gone. Blessings fall down like gi-acious showers ; but if they Hght upon a bad and ill-disposed ground, if sin be there still raging and reigning, nothing rises but weeds and * Aug. MEDITATIONS UrON Tllli tKLLD. 217 Buch noxious things. So that when Jesus takes away sins, he cloth bless our very blessings, and sanctify our afilictions. He fetcheth peace out ot trouble, riches out of poverty, honour out of contempt, Ubert}^ out of bond- age ; pulls out the sting of death, puts out the fire of hell. "Which should direct our estimate of sin, to think worse of it than of its punishment ; worse than of Satan, of death, of hell ; for these are but the instruments of justice, an executioner, a jail, a gibbet. It is only sin that sets them on work, that brings a malefactor to the bar, from whence these wait to receive him. So that they are all wrapt up in sin, and he that saves us from sin, saves us from all these. Were there no death, no torment, no plague, we should hate sin for its own sake. Could it be granted to the saints and angels in heaven to sin, they would abhor it. Thus should it be, thus let it be, on earth. Duty 1. We learn to hold this name in high respect and reverence. Did he take this name for our sakes, and shall not we honour this name for his Bake ? The heart is indeed jyrimum mobile, but that queen walks not abroad without her train. This God requires pi-incipaUy, but not only ; nothing can please him without it, yet that alone cannot do it. He hath created corporal organs to express without the mental devotion that is within. We must ' worship, and bow down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker,' Ps. xcv. 6. We begin our liturgj' with this invitation. Shall we ever say it, and never do it ? How ready be the Koman knees to bow to their Baals, which God hath forbidden ! How stiff be ours to bow to Jesus, which he hath commanded ! God hath bound this duty by an oath, shall we oflfer to make him forsworn ? Kom. xiv. 11 ; giving him no more reverence than the seats that hold us. Xot that this is required to the sound, but to the sense ; hearing his name, let us have mind on him. It is the signification, not the pronunciation, that requii'es our reverence. The novelist objects, that spiiits, as well as men, are commanded to bow to the name of Jesus, Phil. ii. 10. Now, they have no knees. A reverend prelate answers, What is that to us ? we have. They have their peculiar ways, which we cannot conceive, otherwise than by these gestures familiar to ourselves. They do it their ways, let us do it ours ; look we to our own duties, and not trouble our brains about theii's. To us hath God spoken it, and of us he requires it. But this form hath been superstitiously abused. So hath every sacred thing in religion. Shall we pull down oui' churches, because mass hath been said in them ? or take joined stools instead of pul- pits, because in these false doctrine hath been preached ? There is some superstition left in many hearers, idoHsing their own preachers ; shall we, therefore, hear no sermon ? In us there may be superstition ; there is none in that which God commands. But why not all this reverence to the name Christ, as weU as Jesus ? (1.) Christ is not the name of God ; God cannot be anointed ; but Jesii^ is the name of God, and that wherein he principally dehghts. (2.) Christ is communicated to others ; princes are called Christs ; but Jesus is proper to him ; there is no Saviour but he. (3.) Chiist is anointed ; to what end? To be a Saviour. Jesus is therefore the end, and the end is always above the means. The name of health is above the name of any medicine. He is high to whose person we bow, but he far higher whose very name exacts our reverence. Our Saviour's person is in heaven, but his blessed name he hath left upon earth. What interest have we in himself, if his name finds not reverence in our hearts ? If the knee will not bow, it may be smitten, that it cannot bow ; and the tongue that will not confess, may be- come speechless. And that name, to which men will do no honour, may 218 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. prove comfortless to them when they have most need of it. Therefore, let us do reverence to the name of Jesus while we live, that we may find comfort in the name of Jesus when we die. Dutij 2. This holy and happy name, Jesus, teacheth us that we were utterly lost in om-selves, Matt, xviii. 11 ; for if we had kept our first stand- ing, there had been no need of a Jesus. So that in our own sense and feeling, we must be men forlorn, if we wiU have Jesus to save us. If our wounds do not smart, who shall bind them up ? Luke x. 34. Many talk of Jesus that do not truly feel the want of him, Matt. ix. 12. He came to save sinners. Why, all are sinners ; what, then, to save aU ? Ko ; but sinners in sense and conscience, that mourn for their sins, and groan to be dehvered ; that find sin theu' torment, not that make it their sport ; that be 'braised and broken-heaiied,' Luke iv. 18; these be the sinners that Jesus is sent unto, and singles out. He gives his riches to the poor that want it, not to the rich, that scorn it. As repentance breaks the strong heart, so he heals the broken heart. To the captives he gives dehverance, while hbertines are reserved for vengeance. They that think they see, must remain still blind ; they complain their own bhndness, whom he makes to see. It is the stoim of despair, the sense of anguish, that makes men cry, * Lord save us, we perish,' Matt. viii. 25. A foimal acknowledgment of Jesus is common ; but how is a physician known and approved, but by a frequent resort of patients ? In the days of his mortal flesh, to cure their bodily diseases, how did they flock to him from aU coasts ? Yet he came not so much to heal the body, as to save the soul. When that bed-rid wretch ofiered himself to the new-stirred waters, still somebody stepped in before him, John v. 7. But whensoever we seek Christ, none shall thrast us by, none step before us. Never any man wanted mercy, that humbly and faithfully sought to Jesus for it. Conclusion. — This is that Jesus, the Son of God's love, the author of our salvation ; ' in whom alone he is well pleased.' It is trae that many worthy saints have been somebodies with God. He was pleased ^\-ith Enoch ; so did he gi-ace that saint, that he ' walked with God,' and God walked with him. He was pleased with Noah, fi-om whose sacrifice he ' smelt a savour of rest.' He was pleased with Abraham, who was called the ' firiend of God.' He was pleased with Jacob, sumamed Israel, a potent ' prince with God.' He was pleased with Moses, a faithful steward in his house. He was pleased with Samuel ; in so much, that they who rejected hkn, are said to reject God himself. He was pleased -nith David, called ' a man after God's own heart.' Pleased with Solomon, whom he crowned with wisdom and honour. Pleased with Ehjah, whom he took up in a glorious chariot to heaven. He was pleased with Josiah, with whom, for piety, no king before him, or after him, might be compared. Pleased with Daniel, callmg himseK the ' God of Daniel ;' ' though Noah, Samuel, and Daniel' should plead for the people, to shew that they were prevailing favourites with God, and could do something with him. He was pleased with Marj', the virgin- mother ; ' she found gi-ace with him,' and was honoured to bear his Son. Pleased with Mary Magdalene ; sent her as an apostle to the apostles ; yea, Christ appeared to her first, after his resurrection. He was pleased with Paul, whom he rapt up to the third heaven. He was pleased with many martyrs, that sealed his trath with then- blood. Pleased with many con- fessors, with many men, many women, whose names he wrote in the book of life, and whose souls he took up to heaven. But pleased with all these onlv in Jesus ; through and for the sake of the Messiah, the heir, the son of MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEK1>. 219 his desires and good pleasure, in whom he hath heaped up the fuhiess of grace, and treasures of all perfection. Thus God accepts many gracious works and virtues at our unworthy hands. The piety of Abel was accepted, the meekness of Moses accepted, the faith of Abraham was accepted ; the zeal of Phinehas, the justice of Solomon, the patience of Job, the humility of Paul, aU were accepted ; all the good works of faithful Christians are accepted ; but aU are accepted ' in the beloved.' Still it is in Jesus that God is pleased with us, and with what we do. Both our graces, our virtues, our works, our selves, are accepted for his sake ; in whom God is pleased with us all, our blessed Jesus. Christ. — This is the second title, which some take for his surname ; others say, it is no name at all, but a mere appellation, as for a particular man, be- sides his own name, to have the addition of lord, duke, peer, or prince. But, indeed, it is the name of his office, expressing that in significance, which himself was in substance, ' the anointed of God' for the world's redemption. Three orders of men among the Jews were anointed with holy oil. Kings, at their coronation ; so was David. Priests, at their consecration ; this began with Aaron and his sons, but afterwards was not used except to the high pries^ alone. Prophets, at their mission, as was Ehsha. This was figur»*"7e of Christ's unction, who was to be a king, a priest, and a prophet. Not that this was done with material oil, but with grace, the oil of gladness, and that ' above his fellows,' Ps. xlv. 7 ; neither was king, priest, or prophet, anointed in that manner and measure that Christ was. Two of these offices have fallen upon divers ; all three were never coinci- dent to any one man, but Christ. Samuel was a priest and a prophet, but he was not a king. David was a prophet and a king, but he was not a priest. Melchizedec was a king, and a priest, but not a prophet. Only Christ was all ; priest, prophet, and king. David was thrice anointed, once in Bethlehem, and twice in Hebron ; the Son of David was anointed. (1.) In his mother's womb, furnished with graces for so high a calling. (2.) In his baptism, when the Holy Ghost came upon him in a visible form. (3.) In his resurrection, when all power was given him in heaven and earth. Or, if but once anointed, yet to three several offices. Christ's anointing difi'ers from aU others. (1.) For the matter ; they with oil, he with grace ; that was oleum co-nsecratum, this oleum consecrans. (2.) For the author ; that oil was poured on by man, but with the appoint- ment of God : this was infused by God himself immediately, without the ministry of man ; ' Him hath God the Father sealed,' John vi. 27. The excellent graces which are in Christ's manhood, have their beginning from Godhead. (3.) For the measure ; angels and saints are glorious creatures, stored with rich treasures of grace ; but all come short of Christ, both in measure, number, and degree. For ' God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him,' John iii. 34. They have plenitudiiiem sufficienticB, he super- abundant i(E. He is every way the most principal and glorious man that ever was. Yet are not the graces of his manhood infinite, because the nature itself is definite. They are infinite in the deity, finite in the humanity, of the same Christ. (4.) For the efiect ; their oil was hmited to their own persons, it had no virtue to work upon others. But Christ's grace is so difiusive of itself, that it derives holiness to us, ' running down from the head to the skirts,' Ps. cxxxiii. 2, to aU his members. He was not only anointed himself, but our anointer. Therefore it is called ' the oil of gladness,' because it rejoiceth our hearts, by giving us spiritual gladness, and peace of conscience. 220 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. There is unguentum pra-parativum, wlierewitli the impostumed member is fomented, supplied, and prepared for lancing. Unguentum refectivum, oil that makes a ' cheerful countenance.' Unguentum sanativum, such oil as the good Samaritan poured into the wounds of the robbed traveller. Un- guentum consecrativum, with which kings are confirmed in their thrones. Unguentum odoriferum, which fiJls the room with a fi-agrant smell ; such was Mary's, that perfumed the house, John xii. 3. With the first, Christ was prepared for the sacrifice, to be lanced on the cross, for the letting out of our corruption. With the second in his baptism or transfiguration, when that divine testimony cheered his human heart, ' This is my beloved Son.' With the third in the grave, to heal the wounds which death hath made in his body. With the fourth in his resurrection, when he was made higher than the kings of the earth. After his ascension, he sent down the Holy Ghost with that odoriferous oil, the efiect of the former, to fill his church with that blessed sweetness. The holy oil was compounded of earthly ingredients, myrrh, calamus, cassia, and the like, Exod. xxx. ; so the graces of Christ's manhood were not the essential properties of his godhead, but certain created gifts and qualities, otherwise our nature could not have been capable of their participation. As that oil did sweeten the place where it was opened, so doth the grace of Christ drive away fi-om the nostrils of God the noisome savour of our sins, and so perfumes us with his righteousness, that both our persons and holy actions become acceptable to him. Thus in general, now let us particularly meditate on his threefold ofiice. 1. He was anointed to be our priest, to offer up that propitiatory, expia- tory sacrifice for all our sins. Legal priests offered many sacrifices, the Lamb of God was offered up once for aU. They sacrificed not themselves, but for themselves and the people ; Christ sacrificed himself, not for him- self, but for the people. But of this sacrifice more hereafter. Now the communication of that holy oil hath made us all priests, and we have also our sacrifices. (1.) A holy life. ' Offer to God the saci-ifice of righteousness,' Ps. iv. 6. Let thy heart be the altar, the fire charity, the hand faith, the knife that ' sword of the Sphit ;' make a whole bm-nt-offering of thy sins ; let not a loose thought, nor a straggling desire, escape this holy combustion. Then offer up the rest to his service. Christ gave his whole self for thee, give thy whole self to Christ. The Levitical sacrifice was to be without blemish, how much more the evangelical ? If Cain had offered himself when he sacrificed his beast,* he had been accepted of God. (2.) Prayer. ' Let my prayer come before thee as incense, and the Uft- ing up of my hands as an evening sacrifice,' Ps. cxli. 2. This should be our daily service, as a lamb was offered up morning and evening for a sacri- fice. But, alas ! how dull and dead are our devotions ! Like Pharaoh's chariots, they drive on heavily. Some, like Balaam's ass, scarce ever open their mouths twice. We should ' pour forth our souls' in prayer, as if our souls did strive wth our prayers, which should come first unto God ; as Ahimaaz ran with Cushi, who should come fii'st to David. We cannot look for a blessing without piayer, we camiot pray faithfully without a blessing. (3.) Thanksgiving. ' Whoso offereth me praise honoureth me,' Ps. 1. 23. * Offer the sacrifice of praise to God continually, the fruit of our lips, giving thanks to his name,' Heb. xiii. 15. These be the 'odours in the vials of the saints,' Rev. v. 8. But, alas ! we esteem oiu* blessings as Solomon did the brass gi^'en to the temple ; it was so much that he never stood to weigh * Rather, " and sacrificed his beast." — Ed. MEDITATION'S UPON THE CREED. 221 it ; they are so common, we forget to value them. The sun draws up clouds, and they give us showers : yet often hide that sun from us which drew them up for us. The Lord gives us blessings, and they give us sweet refreshings ; but take we heed lest they hide our God fr»m us. Christ's bounty j^e^'ii itifjrato, but then peril ingratus : the unthankful man loseth it, but then he loseth himself with it. This is a sacrifice that shall never cease ; after this world we need not pray, nor beg good things of God, for we shall have more than heart can wish ; yet even then we shall laud and praise him for ever. (4.) The fruits of chanty, which the apostle calls an * odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well pleasing to God,' Phil. iv. 18. ' Forget not to do good, and to communicate : for with such sacrifices God is well pleased,' Heb. xiii. 16. Siiperfiaa dhitl, necessaria pmiperi ; qui hiFcretinet, detinet aliena. The best gi*ace after dinner is to give the reversion to the poor. By this men may know whether they have sacrificed themselves to God or no ; for he that hath given the jewel will never stick at the box. Kec des tua, et detineas te ; nee des te, et detineas tua. Give not to the Lord thy goods, withholding thyself; nor give him thyself, withholding thy goods. But many, instead of filling the hands of the poor with these sacrifices, do fill their own. hands with the sacrifices of the poor. So, while they should ofier to God the sacrifice of a charitable devotion, they ofier to the devil the sacrifice of unjust oppression. Popish priests turn the ruins of the poor to the church ; our sacrilegers tmn the ruins of the chm-ch to themselves. * With such sacrifices God is not pleased.' (5.) Repentance. ' The sacrifice of God is a contrite spiiit, a broken heart he will not despise,' Ps. U. 17. If martyrdom do not call us to sacri- fice our bloods, yet let contrition work us to sacrifice our tears. The sacri- fice coiild not be ofiered, but it must bleed ; Christ in his sacrifice was slain for us ; nothing in om- sacrifice is to be slain but our sins. ' Mortify your earthly members,' Col. iii. 5, youi- lusts. There is one mortification to cast oiu'selves out of the world, there is another mortification to cast the world out of us ; the former is detestable, the other necessary. We must all, with Jacob, first marry Leah, ' blear-eyed' repentance, before we can have beauteous Rachel, peace of conscience. These be the Christian sacrifices. 2. He was anointed to be our prophet. He is that wisdom of the Father ; teaching by his oracles, convincing by his miracles, pel-forming the will of God, and informing us. Wisdom indeed ; not only according to his natm*e and eternal generation, the inward and essential Word ; but also in regard of his prophetical office, sweetly disposing the ways of man's salvation. ' Li him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' Col. ii. 3 : the fountain of all spiritual miderstanding, as all the senses are in the head. Thus was he anointed to teach us ; he was always a preacher ; Uving, he took aU occasions to instruct them that v^ere to in- struct his flock. Dj'ing, Edam crux Christi pendeiitis, cathedra fait docentis.'^ Sometimes a mountain, sometimes a ship, and last of all the cross, was his pulpit. But now are we instructed by this prophet ? hath this wisdom made us wise ? ' This is eternal hfe, to know God, and whom he hath sent, Jesus Christ,' John xvii. 3. Here is wisdom above wisdom : he that knows this, ■with experimental feeling, knows all. He is wise that knows things in their proper nature and causes ; but he that knows wisdom itself, which is Christ, is not only wise but blessed. 0 that I had so deep an insight in * Aug. 222 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. this divine wisdom, that I could limn it out to you in its true heauty f But a lame man may point you out the right way ; in a dark night, we had better have a httle boy with a candle Hghted, than a gi'eat man with an ex- tinguished torch. Yea, a superior may lean on an inferior, as a great torch may be Hghted at a small taper. So the very angels learned of the church the mystery of the incarnation, Eph. iii. 10. That great bishop of our souls teach us, that we may be able to teach you ! Whither should we send you for that learning which can save you, but to the word of this prophet ? ' Lord, to whom shall we go ? thou hast the words of eternal life,' John vi. G8. This shall make you wiser than your fathers, wiser than your teachers, wiser than your enemies. Without con- sulting these oracles, were we wiser than the children of the east, the day of judgment will find us fools. How murderous is that policy of Home, to wrap up the oracles of this oui* anointed prophet in an unknown language, with severe interdictions ! Oh ! but simplicity, the simplicity of children, is commended by them ! As if the sense of that precept did not concern either our affection for the subject, ' Be children in mahce, but not in knowledge,' 1 Cor. xiv. 20 ; or evil for the object, ' Be simple concerning evil, but wise unto that which is good,' Rom. svi. 19. There must be a scire facias before there can be di, fieri facias : the blind seamster wiU never sew true-stitch. They that will never seek what they should know, will never know what they should do. Let us love the wisdom of God, as we would have the God of wisdom love us. The whole world contents itseK with a veiy httle measure of this study, which should admit of no bounds but the common bounds of mor- taUty. This is one cause why God is so ill seiwed, for that can be no true worship of him which is separated from knowledge : the ' sacrifice of fools * is not accepted. He requires rationalem cidtum, our ' reasonable service,' Rom. xii. 1. If any man among you ' seemeth to be wise in this world, let him become a fool, that he may be wise,' 1 Cor. iii. 18. He speaks not of them that are wise, but seem to be mse ; and not wise in the king- dom of heaven, but in this world. And if they were all this, it were no great matter of pride ; where the wisest know but in part, and the rest see but a part of that part. Yet ' let him become a fool,' acknowledge his own natural blindness, for humble ignorance is better than proud knowledge, ' that he may be wise.' ' The meek he will teach his way,' Ps. xxv. 9 ; the humble are the docile ; God takes no other scholars into his school. Let me tell the world, that this divine knowledge is no matter of opinion ; yea, they come neai-est the matter, who stand farthest oS" in opinion from the world. There is a great deal of wisdom in the world, yet but a few wise men. "VVTien alms is divided among beggars, prizes among soldiers, lands or goods among legators, every one is discontented, and thinks ho hath not his full share. But knowledge, of all dividends, seems to be most equally divided ; for every man thinks his own portion sufiicient : Sorte sua contentits abit. At an assize, witnesses do not appear when jurates be called. In your several companies, when mercers be summoned, gold- smiths do not come in ; upon the citation of mechanics, none but mechanics shew themselves ; no tradesman wiU answer to the name of another craft or mysteiy. But at the proclamation, * Oj'ez, all that be wise come hither;' who comes not ? never was such an appearance in any court. But alas ! are aU wise that so think themselves ? Nay, is any man wise that applauds his own wisdom ? It is said * to make a man's face shine ;' but yet sanctified wisdom is by grace as far out of a man's conceit as the face by MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 223 nature is out of liis sight. It may shine to others, himself doth not think it glorious. The people saw the ' shining face of Moses,' and were afraid : Moses saw not the brightness of his own countenance. As there is no day without a night, only that is the longest day which hath the shortest night, so there is no mind of man without some clouds and shadows of eiTor and ignorance, only optimus ille qui viimmis urrjetur ; that is best which hath fewest. We call ourselves Christians : it were a shame not to yield ourselves to be taught of our Master. Christ came in sir/no ad Abraham, in lege ad Mosem, in came ad Mariam, in gratia ad electos, in evangelio ad omnes the church is his school, the gospel his doctrine. On earth let us be his disciples, that after our removal we may be admitted to a new form among the blessed angels. 3. He was anointed to be our king. He was to be a prophet, like Moses. * The Lord shall raise you up a prophet hke unto me,' Acts iii. 22 ; to be a priest, like Melchizedec, ' Thou art a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedec,' Ps. ex. 4 : so also a king, hke David, ' God will give him the throne of his father David, and he shall rule over the house of Jacob for ever,' Luke i. 32. Not such a king as Herod feared, when he steeped his prevention in the blood of infants : it is not a secular, popular, visible kingdom. Of temporal royalty he had so little share, that his chair of estate was the cross, his crown made of thorns, his sceptre a reed, the Vivat Rex was ' Crucify him ;' and the Head of the church had not a place to rest his head on. But a spiritual, immortal, invisible kingdom ; his throne being the heart of man, his court our conscience, and the sceptre his holy word. The Jews disclaimed him, ' We have no king but Caesar,' John xix. 14 ; we say the contrary, ' We have no iving but Christ.' What is said of Michael (Rev. xii. 7), is meant of Christ : the battle and victory is his. We need no angelical, that have an evangehcal. Head. Well, if he be our King, let him rule us : no Divisum imperium cum Jove 7nundus hahet: his throne brooks no rivals. K we divide his regiment, we di-\dde oiu-selves from his regiment. We must not set up one king in Hebron, another at Jerusalem ; prince against prince, Absalom against David, the prince of this world against the prince of the whole world. Not Christ shall command me to-day, mine own lust or pleasure to-morrow. If we be not his loyal subjects on earth, we shall not be his glorious courtiers in heaven. Never king bought his subjects so dear ; he may well challenge our allegiance. ' All the garments of our king smell of myrrh, aloes, and cassia,' Ps. xlv. 8. Let not our disobedience, by the odour and stench of our sins, overcome that sweet perfume to our own souls. He is the King anointed ; and with the odour of that supernatural balm we are pei-fumed. Let the fragrancy of his name draw us to hohness. Cant. i. 3 ; and of our own lusts be it said, ' Then place is no more found,' Rev. xii. 8. Yea, he hath made us all ' kings unto God his Father,' Rev. i. 6. How great is that King which makes kings ? Kings over our tractable and morigerous desires, to direct and encourage them. Kings over our muti- nous and rebelling lusts, to subdue and punish them : Parcere subjectis, et dehellare superhos. The glory of a king is not to exercise dominion over men's bodies, but to be a king of hearts. When a Christian can master his own aifections, this is regale imperium. He that can overcome a fulness of estate by abstinence, overcome injuries by patience, overcome blasphem- ing enemies by innocence, yea, overcome God himself by penitence, and hold that almighty hand by humble confidence, as Jacob wrestled with the 224 MEJJITATIOXS UPON THE CREED. angel, and got the better, he is a king indeed, and shall be called Israel, a potent prince with God. Kings hve not like common persons ; their apparel, diet, dwelling, at- tendance, revenues, all are above the vulgar rank. If Clirist hath made us kings, why do we live like beggars ? Our diet is manna, the bread of angels ; our apparel out of the rich wardi-obe of God's ov\ti Son ; our dwell- ing (for this is but our pilgi'image) is that glorious court above the starry firmament; our revenues be those immortal gi'aces fi'om the treasury of goodness, which can never be wasted ; our attendance no meaner than celes- tial angels. Thus we fly a higher pitch than the secular wing. ' Men think it strange that we run not along with them to riot and excess,' 1 Pet. iv. 4. They that walk out of the common road shall be deemed miracles, when as the kingdom itself is a mysteiy ; but to eagles of the same e}Tie it is neither miracle nor mystery. The hen that hath hatched partridge's or pheasant's eggs, seeing them rise from under the brooding and soar aloft, looks after them with wonder ; alas, she thought they had been her own, whereas they are of a higher kind. The world, in some sort, hath brought up God's childi-en ; for, ' first is that which is natural, then that which is spiritual,' 1 Cor. xv. 46. It may be we have eaten their bread, fed at their cost. But when these fly high at the game of high eternity, and take a course quite above the world, the old bu-ds, worldlings, stand amazed, and look strangely after them, because they ai-e ignorant that these are of a higher generation. Conclusion. — This blessed Chi-ist is the sole paragon of our joy, the foun- tain of life, the foundation of all blessedness. The sum of the whole Bible, prophesied, typified, prefigured, exhibited, demonstrated, to be found in every leaf, almost in every line ; the Scriptures being but as it were the swaddhng bands of the child Jesus, Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samson, David, were all renowned, yet are but meant on the by ; Clirist is the main, the centre whither all these lines are referred. They were all his forerunners, to prepare his way : it is fit that many harbingers and heralds should go before so great a Prince ; only John Baptist was that Phosphorus, or morning star, to signify the sun's approaching. The world was never worthy of him, especially not so early ; he was too rich a jewel to be ex- posed at the first opening of the shop. Therefore he was wrapt up in those obscure shadows, the tree of hfe, Noah's ark, Jacob's ladder; therefore called ' the expectation of nations,' longed and looked for more than health to the sick, or life to the dying. The golden legend of those famous worthies, Heb. xi., were but so many pictures which God sent before to the church, counterfeits, abridgments, and dark resemblances of the Prince of gloiy, ■whom his father promised to many unto mankind ; and ' when the fuhiess of time was come,' Gal. iv. 4, he perfoimed it. Lo ! now, all those stars drew in their borrowed light when that sun arose. To whom, instead of all the rest, Moses and Ehas did homage on Mount Tabor, as to the accom- phsher of the law and prophets. The best things of the world maybe proud and happy to be resemblances of him ; by him they were made, but for him they should not continue ; therefore most willingly they yield all their services to his honour, glad to be as silk and gold, fringe and lace, for the embroidery of his garments. The sun, the brightest of all stars ; wine, the sweetest of all hquors ; the rose, the fairest of all flowers ; bread, so necessary ; water, so refreshing ; all emblems to adumbrate some parcels of his infinite perfections. Were they all compounded into one, the most harmoniously, yet thev could not MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 225 make up an idea of him. He is life and light, the snn and the sum, the founder and the finisher of all perfect blessedness. Christus in imo, Chrtstus in summo ; Christ is the root, and Christ is the roof. With us divers things have their uses in some cases and places, but to make us righteous before God, to pacify our consciences, to preserve us in this world from sin, and in the world to come from damnation, nothing but Christ. As for God, he hath so set his love upon Christ, that besides him, or out of him, he regards no person, no action. Only look how much there is of Christ in any man, whether imputed or infused, so much he is in God's books. Out of that boundless treasury ho pays himself all our debts, and that so sufficiently, that whatsoever God can require for satisfaction, or man desire for perfec- tion, it is all found in Christ. Now this Christ, as he is our King, govern us ; as he is our Prophet, instract us ; as he is our Priest, save us, by the sacrifice of himself and his own precious merits. Amen. His only Son. — ' His Son.' Three things are here considerable : the per- son begotten, the manner of begetting, and the time. 1. The person begotten is Christ, who must be considered as he is a Son, as he is God. As a Son, he is not of himself, but the Son of the Father ; as God, he is of himself, not begotten, nor proceeding. He is alius a Patre, not aliud ;* Patre ; not the same species with the Father, but the same indiriduwn. 2. The manner : this is neither by flux, as water is derived from the spring by a channel ; nor by decision, as one thing is cut out of another ; nor by pro- pagation, as a gi'aft is transplanted into a new stock ; but by an unspeakable communication of the whole essence from the Father to the Son. "WTiich is no more a diminution of the Father's godhead, than the lighting of one torch doth take fi'om another. Lumen de Inmine, saith the Nicene Council. 3. The time ; which hath neither beginning, middle, nor end, but is eter- nal. Before mountains, or foimtains, or the world, ' the Lord possessed me,' Prov. viii. 22 ; now before the creation was nothing but eternity. But the person begettmg must needs go before the person begotten ? An- swer : There is a double priority, of time and of order. In the generation of creatm'es there must be a priority both of time and order ; here is of order, not of time. The Son of God therefore must needs be God. We are neither Arians, nor Lucians, nor Porphyrians, nor Atheists, that I should stand to prove this ; yet admit one argument to confirm it. Christ gave a resolute and constant testimony of himself, that he was the Son of God, and very God. Why, is this such a matter ? Divers others have not stuck at such a pro- fession. Nay, but hear it all. Never did any man an'ogate this title, to be called God, but was made the exemplary- spectacle of a miserable man. Our fii'st parents credited the devil, that they should be as gods. AATiat became of it, but the ruin of us all ? Herod did not exact it, but only ac- cept it ; he took without refusing, what was given him without asking ; yet what man ever perished more fearfully ? If Christ had pretended a divi- nity, and been but mere man, his confusion had been as grievous, as now his exaltation is glorious. But while Herod, Pilate, Caiaphas, and all those enemies of his deity were plagued, himself triumphs in the glory of blessed- ness. Never man was ambitious of this honour, but he was confounded ; Christ challenged it ' without robber}',' and was glorified ; therefore he is God. How should this gospel, which is more contrary to nature, than water is to fire, so win upon the whole world, that men should trust him with their souls, should witness him with their bloods ; but that he is om- nipotent God ? VOL. HI P 226 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. • His only Son;' because he is so in a special manner. Nothing can be. the Son of God as he is. Angels are God's sons by creation, believers by adoption, Christ as man by personal union ; but Christ as God, neither by creation, nor adoption, nor by virtue or grace of union, but by nature. But if Christ, as God, be the Son of the Father by nature ; and as man, by the personal union ; then he is two sons ? Answer : One person cannot be two sons, but may be one son in two respects. Two respects make not two things ; so light and heat should make two suns. Was it necessaiy that Christ should be God ? Yes. First, None can save but God. He alone can repeat his creation ; that is, to save us : 'Beside me there is no Saviour,' Is. xliii. 11. Secondly, That the grace of God might go beyond the sin of man. The sinning Adam was a mere man, the redeeming Adam is God and man : that as the first is far excelled by the second, so our comfort by the redemption of the second might be greater than our discomfort by the fall of the fii'st. Thirdly, We were aU lost, and there was need of remedy. What shaU that be ? Mercy ? No ; we had justly deserved punishment. What then ? Justice ? No ; for we stood in need of mercy. Here now for God to be so merciful as not to disannul his justice, and so just as not to forget his mercy : salvo jure jm- tidcr, parare locum misericordia : both to appease his wrath, that bis justice might be satisfied ; and yet so to appease it, that his mercy might be magni- fied, here must come in a meditation.* Now, what shall this be ? Shall we ofier God the world for satisfaction ? It is his o-^vn before. Should angels tender themselves ? They are engaged to him for their making ; besides, they are finite, and cannot answer for an infinite debt : this must be payed with an infinite sum ; therefore he must be God. But this is not all ; for what can satisfy for our apostasy but humility ? When God comes to obey, he must be humbled : he must serve that comes to deserve, which God only cannot do. When he comes to die he must be mortal, which God only cannot be. Therefore he was both : man to become bound himself, God to free us ; man to become mortal, God to overcome death ; man to die for his firiends, God to vanquish his enemies. The foot of that visional ladder stood close to Jacob's loins, the human nature of Christ to his church mihtant ; the top reacheth heaven, his divine nature is one with the Father, to bring U9 up to the church triumphant. How inconceivable was this mercy, how doth it swallow up all human comprehension ! If all the goodness of aU the men in the world were contracted into one, and all the badness quite thrown out ; yet were not this man worthy to kiss tlie hand of the Son of God, or to be saluted by him. But that he should die for those that had no goodness at all, here let our souls make a stand, and say, Lord, enlarge our hearts to be thankful, for we know not what to say. Suppose a subject hath done some capital ofience against his sovereign, and the king's wrath is so incensed that nothing but the ofiender's blood can appease it. Yet there is only one way to save him ; that is, if the prince, the king's only son, will undertake for him ; which, if he do under- take, there is not one dram of the penalty to be abated ; he must sutler all that is due to the transgressor, which is death. This condition, if the prince do not accept, here is a miserable subject ; if he do accept it, here is a merciful prince. And if the son would be thus compassionate, yet wiU the father suffer it ? What king will give his only son for his slave ? There could be no cause in us why either Christ should intei-pose himself, • Qu. 'Mediatioii?'— Ed. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 227 or God should admit such an interposition. Loath would man be to give his own sou for his own sin ; yet God gave /ilium sinim pro peccato non siio. Infinite was the love of this Father ; infinite the kindness of this Son ; infinite the grace of the Spirit ; infinite the mercy of that one God, Now the Son of God being humbled with the title of the son of man, hath dignified the sons of men with the title of the sons of God. Filios adoptavit Dens in Filio, j^Iurimos in uniyenito: so that now he is the 'first begotten among many brethren,' Rom. viii. 29. But if we be children, let us learn to know our Father. When the father is absent, the mother teacheth her children to know him ; by his care and providence for their education, by telhng them his will and commands ; how they may please, how displease him ; and if they swerve from these rules, she gives them coiTection. Our Father is innsible ; in his works only we see him, in his word we hear him ; this is voluntas Patris, our Father's will ; the church teacheth us to obey that doctrine. And if we straggle from that rule, she justly whips us for it ; for God hath allowed no fellow-doctor with himself. A man is made what he is taught ; doctrine transfoiins him into itself. Now the true mother will teach us the true doctrine of our Father ; and if we be trae childi-en, we will obey it. Duty 1. Seeing he is the Son of God, let us prize him above all things ; what should be dear to us in regard of him that paid so dear for us ? Indeed, it is no easy thing for the narrow heart of man rightly to comprise this inestimable jev>"el: his sweetness is so far beyond the faculty of our taste, his beauty beyond the apprehension of our eye. It is not enough to make much of him, but nothing must be regarded but for him. Let us not hold him with one hand, while the other grasps Mammon ; but embrace him with both arms of love. Ordinary objects are weU satisfied with an ordinary measure of our afiection ; but such a love wiU not content Christ. All the httle rivers of our love, united into one stream, cannot carry a vessel worth his acceptance. He that paid all debts for us, and gives all blessings to us, requires no less than all love from us. For the entertain- ment of common persons, wise hberality says. Enough is a feast ; but when a king is our guest, we think enough too little ; too much, or nothing. But for the Son of God, every little is too much ; we love him, that's enough ; but then we lie, and that's nothing. How do they love him that prefer the beauty of a wife, the petulancy of a child, yea, a cup of wine, or the content of a harlot, before him ? Money is that duminus factotum of the world. * A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh merry, but money answereth all things,' Eccles. x. 19. Money is the master ; rehgion, at best, but the master's mate. That can buy in offices, buy out ofi'ences, dignify peasants, magnify mushrooms ; what not ? This is the world's Pandora, the Diana, the trump that bears the game, the queen of hearts, the mistress of men's aflections, upon whom mistresses themselves must wait. Christ is put out of his lodging when this great lady must be entertained. 0 fools ! when will ye be wise ? When your heads ache, lay your bags of gold under them instead of pil- lows ; will they ease you ? Will it put lustre into yom- cheeks when sick- ness hath made them pale ? Will not one spoonful of the apothecary's cor- dial do you more good ? K they cannot do these poor things, of what validity are they in the distress of conscience ? Let Judas then see what comfort his money will afibrd him : enough to buy a halter to hang himself. Doth not too late experience teach thousands, that one dram of mercy is more worth than whole cofltrs and mines of refulgent metals ? Why then 228 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. do we not sell onr nothing to purchase Chi-ist ? What be oiir bugles in respect of this diamond ? The whole pack of the world, with all the haber- dash stuff in it, is not worth the least grace of the Son of God. It was a heathen circumscription of old coins, Niuiumts regnat, nummus vincit, num- mus imjyemt,^- which Charles the Great well turned into Christ : 'Christ reigns, Christ overcomes, Christ commands.' It is impossible to gain him unless we despise aU in regard of him, unless we lay down all for him that laid down his life for us. Many have some faint and languid wishes, O that Christ were mine ! but they want the fruition of him, because they make but a cold inquisition after him. The soul that seeks him as if she were undone without him, and rather than want him would want all the world, finds him her Jesus. He wiU be wooed, in the first place, Math the prime of our loves, joys, seiwices ; he is the Alpha of our grace, the Omega of our gloiy ; they that make him the Omega of their thoughts and cares, begin at the wrong end, and set themselves to work when the candle is out. But it is the Son of God that must bless our beginning, and crown our latter ending. Duty 2. Let this teach us humility and obedience ; the Son of God him- self was obedient, and that to the very death. We love obedience in a whole skin, but who wiU obey to the death ? And, indeed, death is the wages of sin and disobedience ; not the morigerous, but the rebellious son is punished. Yet such was the matchless humility of the Son of God, he humbled himself to the nature of man, and that was very low ; his hu- manity was humility enough, yea, to ' the form of a seiwant,' and that was lower ; even to wash the feet of his own sei'vants ; yea, to the death, and this was yet lower ; yea, to the worst kind of death, the death of malefac- tors, of the worst sort of malefactors. One death is worse than another ; if he must die, why not a fau', an honest, an easy death ? No ; the bitter- est and the most shameful death of aU. To be bom, and so to be bom ; to the cratch ; to die, and so to die, on the cross ; to be humbled to the na- tm'e of man, to the form of a servant, to the death of a malefactor. And this for the Son of God ! Thus hath he taught us obedience that laid down his life for our disobedience. Our Lord. — The Son of God is God, and therefore must be Lord of all ; yea, he is Lord also as mediator. Jesus Clnrist is the Lord ; a blessed conjunction, that Jesus, who is a Sa'viour, should also be Lord ; that not a fleecer, not a flayer, but a Saviour hath the place. "WHien lord and t}Tant meet in one person, the people rue it, Prov. xxis. 2. Power and malice be the worst match in the world ; these two make up a devil. Flies have a spleen, but they want strength. Bulls and horses have strength, but their spleen is dull : both are compounded in the dragon ; especially in that ' red dragon,' who, -wdth one swoop of his tad, drew stars from heaven, and by his mahce would not leave one star there. Claudius was a bad private man, but a good emperor ; Titus a good private man, but a bad emperor ; if we beheve Tacitus. Goodness and greatness is an excellent composition ; such is om* happiness. Jesus is the Lord. Christ, one that cm'eth iinctione, nnn punctione, with anointing, not with searing and lancing ; he is Lord. There be many on earth called lords ; but they are lords of earth, and those lords are earth, and those lords must return to earth. This Lord is immortal ; raising out of the dust to the honour of princes, and laying the honour of princes in the dust. A Lord, not qualified ; not of such a barony, county, signiory, but Lord, in ahstracto ; of universal extent. Lord of * Eeusner. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEKKP. 229 Leaven, to glorify whom he please ; Lord of earth, to make high or low, whom he please ; Lord of death, to unlock the grave. Rev. i. 18 ; Lord uf hell, to lock np the old dragon with his crew, Rev. xx. 3. He keeps the key, that shall let all our bodies out of their earthy prisons. A great Lord; whither shall we go, to get out of his dominion ? To heaven ? there is hia throne ? To earth ? that is his footstool. To the sea ? there his hand is most wonderful. To the darkness ? night is day with him. To hell ? there he is present in his fearful justice, Ps. cxxxix. 7. Whither, then ? Yes, to purgatory, or some of the limbos ; that terra incognita is not mentioned in Christ's Lordship. The pope may keep the key of that himself. But for the rest, he is too sauc}' ; advancing his universal lordship, and hedging in the whole world for his diocese ; stretching his arm to heaven, im-ubricking what saints he Ust ; to hell, in freeing what prisoners he list ; on earth, far and wide ; but that some of the wiser princes have cut short his busy fingers. ' Our Lord ;' so we believe, so we profess. Ours: he dearly paid for us; bought us, and brought us out of the hand of our enemies, that we might serve him. Here comes in our duty, that, as he is a Lord of himself, so he be acknowledged by us. This is expressed, 1, by our reverence ; 2, by our obedience. 1. If he be ' our Lord,' let us do him reverence. It hath ever been the manner and posture of God's servants, when either they offer anything to him. Matt. ii. 11, or pray to receive anything fr'om him, Ps. xcv. 6, to do it on their knees. "When the king gives us a pardon for our life, forfeited to the law, we receive it on our knees. When he bestows favour or honour, be it but a knighthood, men kneel for it. In that holy place, where men receive the forgiveness of sins, the honour of saints, so gracious a pardon, so glorious a blessing, there be some that refuse so humble a gesture to the Lord himself. Never tell me of a humble heart, where I see a stubborn knee. Indeed, this bodily reverence is not all ; the tongue and heart must not be left out. But when our body is in such a position, and our mind in such disposition, we are then fittest to speak of him, and to speak to him. The tongue must also confess his glory. Those httle engines are nimble enough in our own occasions ; they run like the plummets of a clock when the catch is broken. But in our public devotions, Aynen is scarce heard among us. The Amen of the primitive church was like a clap of thunder; and their Halleluiah as the roaring of the sea.* How do they convince our silence ! AH must do honour to this Lord ; they in heaven, willingly, ' casting then- crowns' at his feet ; they in hell are thrown down, and made his foot- stool ; they shall acknowledge him, though roaring, and on the rack, gnawing their tongues for spite. The regenerate sing his praise with cheer- ful voices ; the reprobates, like the band of Judas, shaU fall backward, and end their days in Julian's despcrateness. Vicisti : they shall confess him, though sore against their wiUs. He must be honoured ; if we be his ser- vants, by us ; whether we wiU or no, upon us. Either we must confess him singing, with saints and angels ; or howHng, with devils and damned spirits. God will be glorified in his Son, either by the gracious confession of them that yield, or the glorious confusion of them that stand out. 2. If he be our Lord, let us give him obedience. ' Lord, save me,' saith Peter, Matt. xiv. 30. He is a Lord to save. * Lord, what wilt thou have me to do ?' saith Paul, Acts ix. 6. He is a Lord to command. We like Saint Peter's Lord well ; to succour and save us, when we avp in any * Hieron. 230 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. danger ; he shall hear of us then. But we do not like so well of Saint Paul's Lord ; ' What wilt thou command to do ? ' Lorinus observes, that the apostles, before Christ's resurrection, used to call him Master ; after he was risen, only Lord ; to witness his power, and their obedience. When we would have him do us good, then ' Lord, help us ;' but when we should do him service, then 'who is Lord over us ?' Ps. xii. 4; we have no Lord, then. A young rich man came unto Chi-ist ; ' Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?' Matt. xix. 16. Hitherto, Good Master; God had been a good Master to him, that had so enriched him for this world ; and if he would give him the kingdom of heaven, too, he should be his best Master then. But when it comes to this, ' Sell all thou hast, and give to the poor,' he hung down his head, and went his way ; no more Good Master, no Lord now. This parting from his riches mars all. If this Lord cannot be served without beggaring his followers, he is no Lord for him. Christ is our good Lord, while he fills our coflfers with money, our bones with marrow ; but if he require aught from us, either to the poor in charity, or to his church in equity, this Lord may go seek him servants. But how do men forget themselves to be but stewards, while they deal thus with their Lord ? Is any steward the richer, because he hath much money of his Lord's entrusted to him ? He hath not the greater estate, but the greater account. Thus we play at fast and loose with Christ ; fast for our advantage, and loose at our obedience ; as if we were but his servants in compliment, to take his wages, and do our own business. His, when we have need of him ; our own, when he hath need of us. But let him be our Lord to govern us, or we shall not find him our Jesus to save us. ' Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things which I say ?' Luke vi. 46. How dare you give me that title in your words, and deny me that honour in your deeds ? ' No man can say, that Jesus is the Lord, but by the Holy Ghost,' 1 Cor. xii. 3. From the teeth outward, many a false Bphit can acknowledge it ; but to say it as it should be said, is the work ot the Holy Ghost in us. In judgment and doctrine we confess him, in affec- tion and practice we deny him. We hear this Lord in your lips, but let us see him in your lives. As a Saviour, every man will own him ; but few obey him as a Lord. But let his word rule our hves, that his blood may save our souls. Thus much severally of his four titles ; from them jointly considered to- gether, I desire to raise four uses. Use 1. Seeing this blessed Saviour is a person so full of absolute perfec- tion, let us fully rest ourselves content and satisfied in him. ' He filleth all things ;' good reason he should fill our hearts. If he be our host, our cup shall OTerflow ; if he be our physician, our wounds shall never rankle ; ho hath that wine and oil which will cure us. What if God take away all, and give us his Son ? are we losers by it ? No ; all accessions add nothing, all defects detract nothing from that soul's happiness which enjoyeth Christ. He is via lucens, Veritas ducens, vita coronans ; if we err, he is the Way; if we doubt, he is the Truth ; if we faint, he is the Life. What should dis- temper us, if our Saviour be in us ? We are fuU of sins ; his satisfaction answers for us. We have no righteousness ; his righteousness covers us. He takes it unkindly at our hands, if, through his justice, we do not hold ourselves completely just. We have manifold weaknesses. ' His grace is sufficient for us.' If he be not the object of our knowledge, our wisdom will end worse than did Herod's oration, in odious ruin. To hope or trust in God, and MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 231 not only through Christ, is a wild naturian faith, a Jewish, ungrounded confidence. Patience without him is a base stupidity; fortitude, a despe- rate presumption; temperance, a drunken sobriety; all virtues, but either natural qualities of the constitution or inoral habits of education, neither acceptable to God nor profitable to ourselves. If Christ be not their fonn, thoy are all misshapen ; he is the grace of all graces, as sugar sweetens all confections and mnsk perfumes all cordials. We may flatter ourselves with our good works, but if they bo not dyed in the blood of Cb' ist, God will not vouchsafe so much as to look upon them. Nature, custom, and education have done much for many. In these they rest, priding their owr hearts and pleasing themselves ; but without Christ, they are far from pleasing God. All our gi-aces are but the rays of his righteousness, the effects of his holy in- fluence. "Whither should we go for supply but to the fountain? In vain we seek it in nature, or hope to attain it by art. A^lio runs to the pack when the warehouse is open, or fetcheth water at th'> cistern when he may have it at the spring head, nearer hand, and bet+^r ch^^ap ? ' Without Christ we can do nothing,' John xv. 5. The bird can soonei fly without wings, the ship sail without wind, the body move without the soul, than we do any good without Christ. 0, that our hearts were more fixed on him and directed towards him, than the Heliotropium is to the sun, the iron to the loadstone, the loadstone to the polestar. For us that be ministers the text of all our sermons, the sermon of all our texts, is Christ. He is our only scope and theme, and all our task is, to crucify him again before your eyes, by preaching hii death and passion to your ears ; by the help of Christ, to preach the gospel of Jesus, to the praise of God. If we should intend to commend to you our own learning, or anything but Chiist, we had better have held our peace. We lay our foimdation on this Rock ; and if we should not, the rocks would cry out against us. Let the dotards of Rome give more reverence to the founders of their own rules and orders, than they do to Christ. Let those Fran- ciscan fathers snib their no\dces for talking of Christ and his gospel, and not of the rules of Saint Francis and their own order. Christ is our sermon, let Christ be our contemplation. ^Vhy else doth the Scripture re- semble him to such familiar and obvious things, but that in all occurrences we should remember him? He is compared to the light, that so often as we open om- eyes we might behold him ; to bread and wine, that we might not make a meal without him; to the door, tbat going in and out we might think on him ; to the water, that we cannot wash but we must meditate of his cleansing our souls ; to a garment, that when we put on our clothes we might thankfully consider his righteousness that covers us.* He is all in all unto us. Let us seek no content (for we shall find none) but in Jesus Christ. Use 2. Let us glorify his name that hath purchased glory for us. Let him not sufler the world's indignity through our impiety. ' Holy and reverend is his name,' Ps. cxi. 9; and as we term him our Lord, let us use him so. But we may weep to speak it. Our unseemly beha^dour, and the slender reverence that we give him, — I say not only in the common passages of our life and profane places, but even in the temple, his house of prayer and praise, — shew as if we were ashamed of his service, Rom. ii. 24, whereas our carriage there, of all places, should be so decent, so devout, so orderly, that if a stranger or unbeUever should come in he might be con- vinced to say, * Verily, God is among us,' 1 Cor. xiv. 25. So respectively f * Bern. t That is, ' respeotfnUy,' — Ed. 232 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. ought we to bear oiirsehes in his holy worship, that men may say, See what servants Christ hath ; how full of reverence to his sacred mysteries, how free in their contributions of charity, how forward and zealous in their obedience. This is to glorify that Chi-ist on earth who we look should glorify us in heaven. Yea, whether we eat or diink, work or walk, whatsoever we meditate, speak, or do, let all be to the glory of the Lord Jesus. Impertinent and unsavouiy be our best works when we have an eye to our o^Ya names, in- %dtuig honour to ourselves. This is to himt counter, to take great pains to no piarpose ; the more cost, the more lost. Such pharisees may, for then* charity, go to the devil, themselves and their moneys perishing together; whereas the least beneficence done for the love of Christ shall have a sm*e reward. Then be our ahns accepted, when the love of Christ constrains us, when his eye is more encom'agement than all the world besides, if, when good is done, the thanks and sole honour of the deed redound to him. ' I labom-ed more than they all,' saith Paul. But he corrects himself. Was it I? No, ' but the gi-ace of God in me,' 1 Cor. xv. 10. He will suffer no part of the repute to rest upon his own head, but repels it forcibly fi'om himself, and reflects it carefully upon his master; as Joab, when he had fought the field and gotten the day, sent for Da\-id to caiTy away the credit of the factory. Far be it from us to lurch any of his praise. Let all our works be done in the name of the Lord Jesus ; begun with his allowance, perfonned with his assistance, and concluded to his glory. We can desire no better a pajrmaster ; why should we do any work but his ? Let the Romish parasites blow up their mushroom into a colossus, yet * the strong shall be as tow, and the maker of it as a spark, and they shall both bum together, and none shall quench them,' Isa. i. 31. Their lord of the triple crown needs not be magnified; let him alone to magnify himself. But no praises light happily unless they reflect upon the Lord of glory. Those two comi;-figui"es, adulations and hj^erboles, are incompatible to him. He cannot be flattered, that is goodness itself; nor praised too highly, which is infinite. It is his just title to ' inhabit the praises of Israel.' Soli virtuti hius dehita ; * now there is none perfectly good that is, or was, or is to come, but only he that is, and that was, and that is to come. Be glory only to God. The best praises are lofty-winged and fly high, resounding at the immortal door of blessedness, Trin-nni Deo gloria. Use 3. Om* obedience and a holy conversation must not be omitted, otherwise we shall be sine Christo Christiani,\ Christians in name, without Christ indeed. In vain we profess to * know him if in our works we deny him,' Titus i. 16. If we will have him do good to us, we must do the good he wills us. He is to command, we are to obey But, alas ! instead of doing his -ndll, we are angi-y if he do not oiu-s ; if he answer us not in this thing or that which we would have, and when we would have it, we are presently in the tune of unthankful Israel, muiTuuring. Here it does not shew as if he were the Lord, and we to do his wiU ; but as if we were lords, and he to do our will; he to serve, our turns, and when he fails of that, to be turned out of his sovereignty. Men v.-ill acknowledge the Lord to be Jesus, but not Jesus to be the Lord. 0, Lord, be Jesus! but not 0, Jesus, be Lord ! We would have the Lord a Jesus to save us, but not Jesus a Lord to command us. But Jesus is the Lord; and those things which God hath joined together let no man attempt to put asunder. Use 4. ' Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,' Rom. xiii. 14. Saint Paul * Arist. t Bern. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 233 seems to borrow this phrase from the custom of those that were baptized in lus days, who, coming to that sacrament, did use to put oflf their clothes, and when they were baptized, to put on new garments. Now, the use of a garment is to apply it to the body and to wear it; so, to put on Chi'ist, Gal. iii. 27, is to express him in om- conversation. He is an excellent robe. Some write that Pilate, wearing the seamless coat of Christ, did pacify the angry Caesar ; but Christ is a garment that can appease God himself. They that wear gorgeous apparel are in princes' courts, they wait on kings. Whosoever are admitted to the court of heaven have put on Jesus Christ. ' Put on Christ,' a rare garment ; rare for the matter, rare for the making. The matter is of heaven and earth, God and man. For the making up ; in his conception the web was spun, in his birth it was woven, in his per- secution it was fulled, his life being ground in the mill of sorrow^s. Then was it dyed in grain, scarlet dye ; his blood was shed to colour it. In his death it was cut out ; iron was put to it, but it did not shrink. In his resmTection it was made up again. In his ascension it was richly adorned and beautified, and so laid up in the wardrobe of heaven. From whence it is spiritually taken, and continually worn of the elect by a faithful apph- cation ; a robe large enough to cover us all. Thus Christ, like the silk- worm, spun himself to death, that he might make a web of righteousness to apparel us, ' The king's daughter hath on raiment of needlework,' Ps. xlv. 14 ; Chi-ist is that garment of needlework, the needles that stitched him were the thorns and nails. Woe to them that shall abuse this robe, that shall either stain it with the blood of saints, or defile it with the asper- sions of their own lusts, or rend and tear it with blasphemies, or cut and divide it by their peace -breaking factions. Such are the schismatics, that play the tailors with Christ, and cut him out to new fashions. But let us in humble faithfulness put him on, and innocently wear him as our only glory. I conclude. Melius non esse, quam sine Christo esse, we had better not be at all, than be without Christ. I had rather be out of heaven with Christ, than in heaven without Christ. Yea, wheresoever Christ is, heaven is. When Christ was in the womb, heaven was there ; when Christ was in the manger, heaven was there ; when Christ was in the temple, heaven was there ; when Christ was in Zaccheus's house,; heaven was there : ' To-day is salvation come to this house,' Luke xix. 9 when Christ was in the ship, heaven was upon the sea ; when Christ was on the mountain, heaven was there : ' It is good to be here,' saith Peter ; when Christ was on the cross, heaven was even there ; when he ' brake bread at Emmaus, heaven was at the table ; when he took flesh, heaven came down to earth ; when he ascended, heaven went up to heaven. The same heaven is now in heaven, which makes heaven to be itself. Now he that is our heaven on earth, bring us to himself in heaven, through the exalting power of his o^vn most blessed merits ! Amen. The Incarnation. — ' The Word was made flesh.' Verbuin, quid sub- limius ? Garo, quid submissius ? Factum, quid mirabilius ? In the Word, there is eternity; infiesh, temporaUty; in ??tafZ^, personaHty. The Word is a creator, the flesh a creature, made a creation. Flesh, flnitum ; Word, infinitum ; made, unitum. There is divinum, humaman, and vinculum. In these three words, have been found above three hundred mysteries. 1. ' The Word.' The person incarnate is the Son of God : he that is eternal, before all time, was made man ' in the ftdness of time.' ' In the 234 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. beginniiig was the Word.' In ]3rincipio, that is, in principatu, as some expound it, taking djp/Ji to be not only ordinativum, but potestativum, as princes are called a^y^ovns, Rev. xix. 16, Or ' in the beginning,' tbat is, * in the Father.' Pate)' est principium nine princijno, filius principium de principio.'^ ' I am in the Father,' as the river in the fountain ; ' the Father in me, 'as in his engraven image, John xiv. 11. Or in p)nncipio, rather that is, in CBterno ; the creatures were /^w/i the beginning, the Word in the beginning, before there was a beginning. Jam turn patris erat sanctum et venerabile verhum.j God made the world, he made not the Word. He had his being before any creature took beginning, Prov. viii. 22. Erat, not/uit ; fait is given to that is not, fuimiis Troes ; erat quod est et erit. As he was, so he is, and is to come, Rev. iv. 8. "When was the Word ? in the begin- ning ; where was it ? with God ; what was it ? God. With God ? why so are the angels. Indeed, they are so locally, but not personally. The Word says, ' I and my Father are one,' John x. 30 ; unum, one substance, not Wilis, one person, in a plural verb, ' are one.' Semper cum patre, semper in patre, semper apud patrem, semper quod pater.'l 2. ' Flesh.' Why is his humanity expressed by this -word. Jlesh, whereas the soul is the more noble part of man ? Answer : The spirit cannot be seen, Luke xxiv. 39 ; the flesh is a visible and passible part ; * flesh,' not an idea or form of man conceived only in the mind, but the whole nature of man, consisting of a reasonable soul and body, existing in una individuo ; the tine dimensions of a body, the true affections of a soul, yea, the infir- mities of our sinful flesh, but quite separate from the siu of our flesh. He did partake of every state of man. Fu'st, Of innocence, wherein he had immunity, yea, impossibihty of sin. Secondly, Of grace, wherein his excel- lency is superabundant. Thirdly, Of gloiy, wherein he hath clearness and blessedness of vision. Fourthly, Of corruption, taking infiiTaities of nature, a natm'e of infii'mities. He had all fulnesses, numerositatis et copice ;§ yea, also of infirmities. But these be distinguished, passibilitatis, or inordina- tionis ;\\ there ai*e infirmities painful without sin, or sinful with pain; he took those, not these. He was in the reahty of flesh, Heb. ii. 17 ; but only in the ' similitude of sinful flesh,' Rom. viii. 3. Infirmities be either natm-al or personal ; natural, as to be bom weak, unlearned, subject to passions ; these he assumed. Personal, as to be bom lame, blind, diseased ; these he assumed not. Such as might be evidences of his humanity, not such as might be impediments of his ministry. His body, doubtless, was of a most excellent form, a stari-y brightness sparkling in his countenance, such as made his disciples follow him for love, and his apprehenders recoil for fear, though this were hidden under the vail of humihty. The blessed wood of that ark was exempt from all corruption,^ far purer than the body of Absalom, 2 Sam. xiv. 25. That which is made by mu-aelo, is more perfect than that which is made by art or nature : as when Christ made \\ine of water, it was the ' best wine.' That body which the Holy Ghost had shaped for so pure a soul, separated fi-om sin, united to the Son of God, proportioned in most equal sjonmetry, was not dis- figui'ed nor distempered with diseases. He lay not swollen with a dropsy, nor lame of the gout, nor languishing of a consumption. He took infirmi- ties, not diseases. He took afi"ections, not sins. Thou art covetous, Christ took not this ; he was made flesh, not covetous flesh ; he was covetous of nothing but his * Aug. X Ambr. || Bonav. t PaUad. I Chrys. % Hieron. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 235 Father's gloiy and our salvation. lam stained with sin, Christ had neither Bin nor stain : that Israehtc was without guile, that Lamh without blemish. He took the weaknesses of natural flesh, not of personal flesh : ' the seed of Abraham;' that is, the nature of Abraham, not the person. I know that he took our sinful infirmities too (for whatsoever in man was not someway assumed, was noway healed), but these in another kind ; not by way of inhesion, but by imputation, ' he was made sin for us,' 2 Cor. V. 21 ; by reputation, the world thought him a sinner, Mark xv. 28. In a word, he took so much of flesh as was expedient for us, not unseemly for himself. But the flesh is weak, Isa. xl. 6 ; and he was now to undertake the hardest design. Shall oiu- Samson, who (we expect) should foU the Philistines — death, sin, Satan, hell — sufi'er his hair to be shorn, his self dispowered, by taldng flesh ? yea, rather, * Put on strength, 0 arm of the Lord,' Isa. U. 9. But Christ, not so much with his strong arm as with his holy arm, hath gotten himself the victory. D(2mona non armis, sed morte subegit. Satan Uttle suspected in human flesh a power to overthrow his kingdom. 3. ' Is made.' The Maker of all comes to be made ; he that made man to be made of a woman. He thought it ' no robbery to be equal with God,' Phil. ii. 6. There be many gods in name, Christ is God by nature. Lucifer and the pope are gods by robber}-, Christ is by right. Natura sumpsit, non j^rasumpsit siqjerbia.--- Made flesh ; not by conversion : sicut verhum induit vocem, et non transit in vocem: sic Verbum ccternum induit car- nem, et non trannt in carnem : not as water is turned into wine, there is no mutation of God ; not by confusion, as divers sorts of grain be mingled in the heap ; not by composition, as divers metals are beaten together in a mass. But by the assumption of the manhood into God : naturam sus- cipiendo nostram, non mutando suam. His divinity was no whit consumed when his humanity was assumed. Ille manet quod semper erat, quod non erat indpiens. Homo Deo accessit, non Deus a se recessit.\ He was ' made flesh : ' non deposita, sed quasi seposita majestate.X Begotten of his Father as God before all times ; bom of his mother as man in the fulness of time. A wonderful union ; not hiijiis ex his ;§ the framing of a third thing out of diverse parts united ; but Jwjus ad hoc, an uniting of things so, that the natures remain distinct, yet the subsistence is but one. As the soul and body make one man, or as fire is incorporated into iron, or as the same man is both a lawj'er and a physician, or as a scion ingrafted to a tree, is one with the stock, yet still retains its own nature and fruit. Thus the man Christ is everywhere, not the manhood. ♦ Made flesh.' This was a work beyond the substitution of any created excellence ; either to defend the fruit from original infection, to which Adam's seed was hable, or to actuate it in the womb by an inconceivable operation, Luke i. 35 ; or indeed, to overshadow it from our ambitious examination. Si haberet ex- emplum, non esset singulare ; si ratione ostendi posset, non mirabile.\\ Let us grant the Lord able to do what we are not able to understand. This is work for our hearts, not heads ; humble faith, not curious inquisition, shall find the sweetness of this mystery. Object. 1 . Every person is the whole divine essence ; therefore if any person of the Deity be incarnate, the whole Deity is incarnate. Ans. : Deus incarnatus, non Deitas ; God is incarnate, yet not the Godhead, but the ♦ Aug. X Euseb. Eu. || Aug. t Prud. § Diurand. 236 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. person of the Son subsisting in the Godhead, The whole soul is in every part of the body : in the foot, in the hand, in the knee, lip ; yet doth it not exercise reason in ever}' part, but in the head only. Object. 2. Opera ad extra sunt indivisa : this was an external action of God to the creature; therefore not proper to the Son, but common to all. Ans. : Inchoative communis, no7i tenninatiie. The incarnation stands in two actions : the creation of a nature to be assumed, the assumption of it being created. The foimer was common to all the three persons equally ; the latter is the limiiing it to one person only ; so it is made peculiar to the Son. The word was only made man, yet they all did work together in the making of this man. Three women concur to the making up of a gannent ; haply one may spin it, another weave it, and the third shape it, yet one only of them wears it. In the choosing of a wife, there is the father, the mother, and the son ; the son likes, the father and mother consent ; all have chosen her, yet is the son only married to her. So tenninus unionis was in Christ. Object. 3. "\Miy not the Father or spirit incarnate, but the word ? Ans. : It was not fit for the fii'st person ; for so he should have been the son of a creatui-e, which is the Father of a Creator : the father of him that is by nature immortal God, should be the son of her that isby natm*e a mortal woman. To 'take flesh,' is to 'be sent,' John iii. 17;' but the Father cannot be sent; the fountain sends forth the river, not the river the fountain. It was not fit for the third person ; for so there should have been more sons in the Trinity than one ; the second person by natm-e, and the third by grace. It was fittest for the Son. First, "V\Tio so fit as the Son of God, to make us God's sons ; as the Son by natm-e, to make us sons b}' gi'ace ? Secondly', The inheritance was his ; who so fit to divide it with us ? he may dispose his own at his o^^Tl pleasure. Thirdly, The image of God was lost in us ; who so fit to repair it as the express image of his Father's person ? God made us Hke created resemblances of himself, we had made om-selves resemblances of Satan ; lo, he that is so like God, that he is God, confirmeth us again to this image. Fourthly, By this Word, God made the world ; by the same Word made flesh, he redeemed it. Fifthly, Christ is the wisdom of his Father ; by his wisdom he made all at the first ; by the same wisdom he restores all again. Sixthly, Man had foohshly afiected to be as God ; to rectify this, the Son of God must be man. As the Lord said in derision of man's folly, so we may sing in the praise of his merc5\ See, said God, ' man is become as one of us,' Gen. iii. 22 ; we say thankfully, ' See, God is becomelike one of us,' Acts xiv. 11. Verbum caro factum. Here is a trinity of words, and the work of a trinity of persons ; of the Father in sending, of the Son in accepting, of the Holy Ghost in applying. Thi-ee sisters work up one seamless mantle, which the second only wears. The father hath his work in creating this garment of the manhood, the Holy Ghost in setting it on ; only Christ wears it. St Augustine sends the cavilling Jew to his hai-p : there be thi-ee things together ; art, the hand, and the string ; yet but one sound is heard. Ars dictat, vianus tangit, cliorda resonat ;* both art and hand work with the string; neither art nor hand makes the musical sound, but the string. The Father, Son, and Spirit work together ; yet neither Father nci Spirit, but only the Son is made flesh. Sonum sola chorda reddit, carnem solus Chrutus induit. The operation belongs to three, the sound to one; ad solum chordam soni redditio, ad solum Jilium camis susceptio. * Aug de Incar. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 287 There is a fourfold coming of Clirist ; in came, fide, mo)ie, ci retrihutiove. In the flesh, John i. 14. In faith, Rev. iii. 20. In death, Mark xiii. 35. In judgment, Luke xxi. 27. According to these four comings, the church celebrates four adventual Sundays, effectually to prepare our hearts for the meditation of them. The whole world had been left had he not come in the flesh. So much of the world is still lost, to which he does not come in the Spirit, in faith. The world would be secure were he no more to be expected, therefore he will * come to judge the quick and dead.' If everj^ man were to tarry for his trial till the general consummation of all things, many would fear the commission of nothing ; therefore as he will come most cer- tainly to judge all men, so he comes uncertainly to judge any man ; every particular man hath his day, and there is one universal day for aU. Enia hominem, intra hominem, supra hominem, contra horninem. He came unto all, and all shall come unto him ; but if he once come into us, he will never come against us. Concerning his first advent, in the flesh, all things are accm-ately and exactly set down ; that they may be as apparently certain to us, as they are excellently wondeiful in themselves, qnanto accuratior in describendo Veritas, tantb persuasior in recipiendo Jides. We cannot doubt of this tnith, and be saved. The incarnation of God is that histoiy and mysteiy whereon the faith and salvation of the world dependeth. Noluit nos nerjUgenter audire, quod Hie voluit tarn diUricnter enarrare.'^ Conceived of the Holy Ghost. — For the explanation of this article, my discourse shall walk in the evangelist's steps, following the passages and circumstances in their due order. Luke i. 28, ' The angel came in unto her, and said, HaU, thou that art highly favom'ed, the Lord is with thee : blessed art thou among women.' Borrowing a little from the precedent verses, we have, 1. The place, Gahlee. 2. The time, the sixth month after John's conception. 3. The messenger, an archangel. 4. The salvation, ' Hail, thou that art graciously accepted,' &c. 1. The place was obscure ; Galilee, despised of the Jews, as quite desti- tute of all privileges. * Can any good thing come out of Nazareth ?' says even a Nathanael, John i. 46. ' Shall Christ come out of Galilee ? ' so the people disparaged it, John vii. 41. * Search, and look, out of Galilee ariseth no prophet ;' so the pharisees took up Nicodemus, ver. 52. Do we look for a king, where is not to be found a prophet ? From a country so corrupted, that there is scarce one to be saved, do we expect him that shall save us all ? Yes, nou tantum a Galilaa surgit propheta, sed Dominus frophetarum. No prophet comes out of Galilee, but an angel comes into Galilee ; yea, the God of angels and prophets descends there to be conceived, where his solemn oracles appeared not. The angel is not sent to the palaces of Jerusalem, but to a cottage of Galilee. Many noble dames and great ladies were in that metropohtan city ; honour and pleasure there kept their com-ts ; it was once ' the joy,' is stiU the fame of the whole earth. Yet how doth God overlook her stately turrets , and pass by her proud damoscls, directing his angel to Galilee ? As EUas was sent to none of the widows in Israel, but to one in Sidon, Luke iv. 16, so Gabriel is sent to none of the virgins in Jewry, but to one in Galilee. Goodness is gi-acious, where- soever she hides her head ; and humility is not more contemptible to the world than precious in the eyes of heaven. Angels had rather be with a saint at Nazareth than with a sinner in the court of Jerusalem. The place doth not honour the person, but the person honours the place, as tlie hea- vens do not make God glorious, but his presence glorifies the heavens. Be * Hieron. 238 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. content with tliy obscure Galilee ; thou art as near to present mercy, and to future glory, as temporal advancement can make thee. Yea, it is in thee to make thy shed a palace. God, that fiUeth all places, makes no dif- ference of places. Sapient is pat ria est iibicunque sapit,'''- the wise man's home is wheresoever he is wise. Credenti coelum est viicunque credit, the faithful man's heaven is wheresoever he believes. Galilee was a despised part of Israel, Nazareth a part of Galilee ; their own pride had hid it from the phariseeS ; the angel comes thither to find Ite holy virgin. Where can devotion serve the Lord, and the Lord not observe her ? The good conscience may think itself solitary, yet is never ^s'^thout company. God and good thoughts are within it, blessings and good angels are about it. Honour waits at the door of humility ; and though dogs and devils were barking to disgrace it, wUl not away tiU it hath encompassed its head with a crown ; as Samuel must attend till David be fetched from the sheepfolds to be anointed king. No poverty, no ignominy can bar out mercy. It shall find out goodness in the darkest comer of privacy. God makes not dainty to converse with a saint, be- cause he goes in rags, or dwells homely. It is for the pride of man to ob- serve such circumstantial differences, and to be transported with the glorious braveiy of places ; to shake the hand that wears the gold ring, not to drink to any below the salt. With God it is otherwise. He respects bonitatxm in twjuriolo more than celsitatem in palatio. ' Heaven is my throne,' yet ' I will look to the man of an humble heart,' Isa. Ixvi. 2. Than heaven, there is no place higher; than a poor contrite spirit, there is no coU' dition lower. The head and the feet stand furthest asunder; yet than betwixt these there is no sympathy nearer. Cold taken in at the feet sud- denly aff'ects the head; and if one tread on the toe, the head complains, Why do you tread on me ? They that think themselves lowst are most respected by him that is the Highest. In vain doth a man hunt after his shadow, he shall never overtake it, for all this while the sun is behind him ; let him turn and follow the sun, his shadow shall follow him. Whilst humility refuseth to hunt after glory, glory will hunt after humility. As no place is so secm-e as to keep out God's judgments; so no place is so obscm'e as not to be *'ound out by his mercies. The angel salutes Maiy in Galilee. Galilee, some say, >'ignifies a transmigration ; fit to shadow out his con- ception, who ' went forth fi-om the Father, and came into the world,' John xvi. 28. There is one transition. Who left his own people, that left him, and offered himself to the gentiles. There is another transition. In Gali- lee, yet in a city of Galilee. He that was to build a city would be con- ceived in a city. Spiritual Zion was the city he came to build, the founda- tion whereof was laid in his blood, the walls reared by his grace, the strong- holds fortified by his righteousness, a»d the perfection of it is his gloiy. 2. The time must be considered in a double relation. Quoad statum populi, quoad statum anni. First, for the state of the people, which was extremely corrupted. Indeed, the priesthood and daily ministrations con- tinued from David's time to Christ. They had inm through many troubles, many hurly-bm-lies, many alterations, yet the sacerdotal line was not inter- rupted. That order endured above eleven hundi-ed years. It was God that reserved his own worship. No thanks to them. They that were so apostated from holiness would not have stuck to deprave his service. Yea, the Pharisees had so blended it with theu* own traditions, that thousands among * Sen. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CUBED. 239 them knew not whicli was God's w^ord, and which the pharisees'. They had lost both purity of doctrine and piety of life. If Rome have lost these, her personal succession is but a poor argument. While the Jews crucilied their Saviour, no man denies that they kept the succession of priesthood, uo man thinks that they kept the succession of truth and holiness, which indeed make a church, and not the persons. That is a forlorn and miser- able church which hath lost the truth, though it have many priests ; as at the last day, there shall be 'little faith' in the world, yet abundance of Chi'istians. In this extremity of evil God produceth the gi'eatest good. ^\'llen things were at the worst, he began to mend them. Those times were fit for Christ, and Chi-ist was fit for those times. In the most des- perate decUnation of Israel came the most glorious salvation of Israel. I deny not but there were some holy in those degenerate days. Alas ! if Judah had wanted saints, where had they been found in all the world ? It is a miserable vintage where no good grapes be left to the gleaners, Rom. xi. 4. Ehas thought himself singular ; God teUs him of seven thousand partners that defied Baal. He hath some holy clients in the midst of the foulest depravations. The Jesuits, with aU their familiar devils, shall not biing all into the Inquisition that worship Christ under their noses. God disposeth of aU times, of aU men, therefore would dispose of some good men for his own times. All shall not go before him, nor all come after him; some shall wait upon him. Zacharias, Elizabeth, Mary, Joseph, Anna, Simeon, Nathanael, these were his attendants. It is fit, when the King of all the world came into the world, he should have some servants to enter- tain him. For this preparation was John Baptist sent before, that it might not be done without a noise. Indeed, ' he came unto his own, and his own received him not,' John i. 11. And because they received not him, he rejected them. For the state of the year, this was the sixth month after John's concep- tion. Christ was conceived in the spring, and bom in the solstice. John Baptist was conceived in September, so called quasi septimiis imber, in the autumn, fall of the leaf, or declining of the year. Chiist was conceived in March, the spring or rise of- the year. ' He must increase, and I must decrease,' said John, John iii. 30. 1. In the spring the world was made, in the spring it was redeemed. God begun both the creation and the reparation in one and the same season. 2. The world received its life from Christ in the spring, and Christ received his life from the world in the spring. Qui dedit, accepit, sub eodem tempore, vitam. 3. The sun doth then return to us, diffusing his beams and influence with a more powerful operation. Christ is our Sun of righteousness. He was never far jfrom us, but he never came so near unto us as when he took our flesh. 4. For the sweetness of the season. The spring renews the face of the earth, and heals the breaches of squahd winter. St'dlahunt montes dulcedinrm. * The mountains di'op sweetness, the hills milk and wine, and rivers flow with cheeiful waters,' Joel iii. 18. The gi'ound looks with a new face, hath new haks to her head, new clothes to her back ; the sun seems to have new eyes, the trees put out new anns, flowers bespangle the meadows, and birds sing in the branches, Cant. ii. 12. Here is a spring of blood in our veins, a spring of bl3'th in our countenances, a spring of hope in our labours, a spring of joy in our hearts. 5. In the spring the days begin to lengthen, tlie sun being past the equinoctial point. Under the law they had short days and long nights ; some glimpses and small irradiations of the hght, but quickly cloudyd with the mists of obscurity. Under Christ we have 240 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. long days and short nights. After the ghmmering and dim candle of legal shadows, we have the bright sun of evangelical substance. Theirs was a St Lucy's day, short and cloudy; ours is a St Bamaby's day, which hath scarce any night at all. Thus he that stretcheth out the heavens hath stretched out our days as heaven, yea, even lengthened them to eternity. Our mortal state, indeed, hath some night, not because there is not day enough about us, but there is some natural darkness remaining \vithin us. Our immortahty shall be clear, for there ' is no night at aU there,' Rev. xxi. 25. Oh, may this happy spring of grace never know any fall of leaf, never may night overtake this day of comfort ! 3. The messenger is an angel, which affords us divers meditations of light and use. (1.) An angel. So honourable was the message, that a man had been too mean to bring it. The incarnation of God could have no less a re- porter than the angel of God. Even the conception of his precm-sor was foretold by an angel. The Holy Ghost revealed to Simeon, that he should not see death till he had seen Christ, yet was not that prophet graced vnth. this embassage. John was to be such a harbinger of Jesus, and Zacharias shall have such a harbinger of John. John was to be the first herald of the gospel, and even his herald shall be an angel. The same angel brought both the tidings : to Zacharias, of his son ; to Mary, of her's. John was the greatest of them born of woman by man ; Christ, the greatest born of woman without man. Both were sent of the gospel's errand ; the one as a messenger, the other as the author. One angel foretells them both. John was to proclaim Christ, and an angel is sent to proclaim John. Christ came in silence, John with a noise. John was a wonder, but he wrought none ; Chi-ist was a wonder, and a worker of wonders. (2.) An angel. The vision of those celestial spirits was never common ; rarely they appeai-ed, and upon weighty occasions. But now especially, when their obstinate sins had locked up the revelations of heaven, when God had restrained his supernatural inspirations, and left them alone with their ordinary instructions, it was now wonderful news to see an angel. They were grown strangers to God in their conversations, and God was grown a stranger to them in his apparitions. Yet still their knowledge was better than their practice ; and till they had more obediently learned the old lesson, there was no need of a new. But when God intended to begin his gospel, he first visits them with his angels, before he visits them with his Son. His angel shaU come in the form of man, before his Son come to them in the nature of man. (3.) The angel's name is specified : Gabriel, he whose name signifies the ' strength of God,' shall bring news of the God of strength. A maid of mortal condition, therefore impotent, shall conceive him that is omnipo- tent. She shall be strengthened by him that shall be conceived in her. The indulgence of other mothers procm'es strength to their children, here the child shall add strength to the mother. (4.) It is not likely that this angel did formerly wait upon Marj' ; this was not his ordinary attendance. In that celestial hierarchy there is an order, though we cannot understand it. They are too presmnptuous, that appoint them their several walks, ranges, and quai'ters. Without question, they have their special charges. But as this was an exti'aordinary message, so this angel was sent extraordinarily on purpose. (5.) As no man was worthy to bear this news, but an angel, so nor was every angel thus honoured, but an archangel. Never did angel receive a MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 241 greater lionour, than this message of the incarnation of Lis Maker. Angels have been sent to divers : to Gideon, Manoah, &c. There the angel honoui'ed the message, but here the message honoured the angel. For never was any business conceived in heaven that did so much concern the earth, as the conceiving of the God of heaven in a womb of earth. He was highly glorious before, this added to his glorj'. (6.) The first preacher of the gospel was an angel. If God had not meant honour' to that office, he would have used a meaner instrument. An angel was the first preacher, and God hath ever since called his preachers angels.* He that is sincere in the smallest gifts, doth the office of an angel ; they that well employ greater talents, shall be reckoned among the archangels ; they that burn in the zeal of the truth, and kindle this holy fire in the heart of others, shall be numbered among the seraphims. How basely soever the world esteems us, we are the successors of apostles, of angels. God that sends us, calls us his angels ; men to whom we are sent, make and count us beggars. We preach the same Jesus to you, that Gabriel did to Mary. 0 that our sermons had such success in your hearts as his found in hers ! that you might all depart pregnant of the Lord Jesus. (7.) An angel ; that our reparation might be answerable to our fall. Eve was a virgin in paradise, Mary a virgin in Galilee ; Eve was espoused to Adam, Mary espoused to Joseph ; an e\il angel comes to Eve, a good angel to Maiy ; that bad one was the first motioner of sin, this good one is the first reporter of salvation. The one came j)ro2)ria voluntate, Deo permittente : the other, bona voluntate, Deo lircEcipiente : Satan came, God permitting it; Gabriel came, God commanding it. The evil angel was the cause of our ruin, the good angel could not be the cause of our restoring. That was author erroris, the beginning of our destruction ; this, nuntius salutis, but the messenger of our salvation. Yet, although the angels cannot be the authors, they are glad to be the reporters of our new blessedness ; joyful to tell that God hath done that for us, which they would and could not. Good news rejoiceth the bearer. "With what gladness did Gabriel bring this tidings of our Saviom*, and his own confirmer ! for as we are re- deemed to life, so they are established in life, by one and the same Jesus. (8.) God appeared frequently in the presentation of angels, until the fulness of time brought in the fulness of knowledge. Formerly, angels signified the presence of God, as an ambassador represents the person of the king. Now he restrains the angelical, having given us the evangeUcal revelation. Still the presence of angels is as ordinary, but not their apparition ; veiy rarely do we see them, yet we are never without them. We are never out of their sight, though they be out of ours ; they are by us, and we see them not ; they bear us in their arms, and we feel them not. When they do assume shapes, they are not more present, but moro visible. Our senses cannot perceive them, our faith may. We are God's little children, the angels be his elder sons ; posuit, praposuit nobis ; as in a family, the greater childi'en bear and look to the less. In quovis angulo adhibe reverent i am angelo : tibi prasunt, tibi prosunt. f Behave thyself reverently before those angels, whom thy God hath charged to protect thee. (9.) Mary was at home when * the angel came in unto her ;' in viuliebri orbe, the house. Straggling and gadding Dinahs sooner meet with devils, than with angels. It is not unlikely that she was at her devotions ; ante mentem repAevit quam ventrem ; sicut cum processit ex utero, non recessit ah animo. \ While Zacharias was oflfering incense, an angel came down (as it * Gregor. t P