NICHOLS SERIES OF STANDARD DIVINES. PURITAN PERIOD. ixi\i (^mtxnl 'Bxtha By JOHN C. MILLER, D.D., LINCOLN college; HONORARY CANON OF WORCESTER; RECTOR OF ST MARTIN'S, BIRMINOHAM. THE WORKS OF THOMAS ADAMS. YOL. III. TO WHICH IS APPENDED SERMONS AND TREATISES BY SAMUEL WARD, WITH MEMOIE BY THE REV. J. 0. RYLE. COUNCIL OF PUBLICATION. W. LINDSAY ALEXANDEK, 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 TH:0MS0N, D.D., Minister of Broughton Place United Presby- terian Church, Edinburgh. ©cneral ©Jidor. EEV. THOMAS SMITH, M.A., Edinburgh. THE WORKS rv\ THOMAS ADAMS: TUE SUM UE HIS SERMONS, MEDITATIONS, AND OTHER DIVINE AND MORAL DISCOURSES. . By JOSEPH ANGUS, D.D., PBINCIPAI. OF THE BAPTIST COLLEGE, REGENT'S PARK, LONDON. 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. KOBEliTSON. NEW YORK : C. SCPJBNER & CO. IH.DCCC.LXII. CONTENTS. PAGE Adveetisement, ...... vii Memoir of the Rev. Thomas Adams, . . . . ix SERMONS. LVni. Semper Idem ; or, The Immut.4£le Mercy OF Jesus Christ Heb. XIII. 8, . 1 LIX. The Taming OF the Tongue James III. 8, . 10 LX. The Soul's Refuge 1 Pet. lY. 19, . 28 LXI. The Spiritual Navigator bound for the Holy Land Rev. IV. 6, . . 38 LXII. Presumption running into Despair Rev. VI. 16, . 63 LXIII. Heaven-Gate ; or. The Passage to Para- dise Rev. XXn. 14, 74 Meditations upon some part of the Creed, 85 LXIV. God's Anger Ps. LXXX. 4, . 265 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 folio, and the adaptation of the speUing 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 original edition, which 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 foho is well known to be 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 regarding; 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 practical purposes. Vm 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. Edinburgh, March 1862. 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, try 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 Loudon, 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, f See page xxix., &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 published ; 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.i* His too is as yet the shadow of a name. The man we cannot see, nor have we found a witness 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 life. , 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. Gostwicke — and to Lady Jane Gostwicke, one of Adams' sermons is dedicated. Sir William came to the baronetcy in 1612, and died in 161 5. J 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 Beunet Fink§ (Lipscomb says), when he resigned 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 EUesmere, 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 Neio and Old. London, 1658. •j- 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 by 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 Magna Britannia ; sub voce 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. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XI foi-mer was only a curacy, and was filled 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 office he 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 quality.' 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 politic, 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 preferment. || 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. Lend. 1828. See also Malcolm's Londinium redivivum, vol. iv. p. 483. J J ournals of House of Commons, 1641. § Dugdale says the rectory was 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. U Perhaps Adams hints at this fiact, when, in dedicating one of his books to Dr Donne, he speaks of the work as ' the poor fruit of that tree Avhich grows on your ground, and hath not from the world any other sustenance.' The Ban-en Fig Tree, preached at St Paul's Cross, Oct. 26. 1623. f Stew's Survey, Lon. 1633 ; Maitland's History ; Seymour's Survey, 1734. jdi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. The dean and chapter deemed it more fitting that the commimion table should 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 Arches 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 EUzabeth, who had directed that all communion tables should be placed where the altars formerly stood. | 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 sufiiciently 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 following 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, * Kushworth Collections, vol. ii. Year 1633. t Prynne'8 Cant. Doom, p 88. % Wilkin's Cone, torn iv. p. 188. § Laud's History of his Troubles and Trials. Works iv. p. 225. Library of Anglo Cath. Theology. 11 Rushworth, vol. ii., a.d. 1637. f See a full account in Nelson's Collection, vol ii. p. 729. Lond, 1683. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XIU — '.£'1500 was spent in beautifying the church. Shortly after the Lord Treasurer and Lord Collington 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 the 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 1658, 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 later years of this period, 1630-1640, it is probable that Adams had little connection with St Gregory's. His friend Dr 3f Donne died in 1630. In 1633, the Puritan Archbishop Abbott followed 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 disliked. 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 circumstances, 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 Court 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. XIV MEMOIK OF 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, Dv 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 vv^ished 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 Sr 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 1G42 at latest, this order was carried out in the case of St Paul's. The rectories of St Bennet'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 dC128 a-year; and at the Restoration, it was reckoned that a hundred of this sum had disappeared. From 1G36, therefore, till the time of his death, Adams must have been supported, in part at least, by the bounty of his friends. The distinction is perhaps practically of small moment. Whe- ther Adams were himself sequestered, or the income of his living 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, and 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 his clients.* The very year in which *" r 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 I. 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 Eislory, i. % Lives o/the Clwf- Justices, i. 361. m MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Parliament, and was commander at Marston Moor ; but after the 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.-f* William, Earl of Pembroke, Clarendon tells us, ' was most uni- 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.';]: He was 'the Pembroke' of Ben. Jonson's well known epitaph, and was nephew of Sir Philip Sydney ; being himself also a poet. In 1616, 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 * Neal, 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 Bennct's in 1630, and, if we may trust the title-page of his Commentary on St Peter, rector of St Gregory's in 1633. 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 supposition 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 xuords. 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 Bennct'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 a 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 gi'ounds, we may be tolerated by another Physician to serve our cures (for so I find our charges, not 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 be poor. ' The minister of the parish,' says he, ' shall hardly get from his patron the milk of the vicarage ; but if he looks for the fleece of * Physic from Heaven. VOL III b XVIU MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. the parsonage, lie shall have (after the proverb) Lanam Caprinam; a goat's fleece, — contempt and scorn.' * * Christ sends tis,' he says again, ' as lambs among wolves. If they cannot devour our flesh, they will pluck our fleeces ; leave us nothing but the tag-locks, poor vicarage-tithes : while themselves and their children are kept warm in our wool, the parsonage. Nay, and they would clip ofl" the tag-locks too, raven up the vicarages, if the law would but allow them a pair of shears. Every gentleman thinks the priest mean ; but the priest's means have made many a gentleman.' t And again, ' To cozen the ministers of their tithes in private, or to devour them in public, and to justify it when they have done ' — this is general — ' to laugh at the poor vicar that is glad to feed on crusts, and to spin out twenty marks a year into a thread as long as his life ; while the wolf inns a crop worth three hundred pounds per annum,' — this is very definite, what if it be personal ! — ' this is a prey somewhat answerable to the voracity of their throats. Let every man, of what profession soever, necessary or superfluous, be he a member or a scab of the commonwealth, live ; and the priest be poor, they care not.' In those days there were upwards of 4000 non-resident livings out of 12,000, and upwards of 8000 held practically by lay impro- priators, ij; The first fact justifies Adams' denunciation of non- residence ; the second justifies the holdmg of two or more livings by one man. At Wingrave, it may be added, the chief revenues belonged to the lay rector — not Egerton ; so that, with both vicar- age and preachership, it is probable Adams had but a scanty support. This much, though but little, on Adams' personal history. It is hardly needful to add that the writer of these volumes is not Thomas Adam, the rector of Wintringham, in Lincolnshire, the author of ' Private Thoughts,' and of various expositions and sermons published posthumously. He died in 1784?. Nor is he the Thomas Adams of Calamy's Nonconformist Me- morial. This Adams was the younger brother of Richard Adams, one of the editors of Chamock's works on ' Providence and on the Attributes,' and son of the rector of Worrall, in Cheshire. He was admitted Bachelor of Arts at Cambridge in 1644. Afterwards he Avent to Oxford and became a Fellow of Brazennose. In 1655, he left his fellowship, and was appointed to the rectory of St Mildred's, Bread Street, London.§ In 1662, he was removed for nonconformity * The Sinner's Passing Bell. f The Wolf Worrying the Lambs. X Ichahod, or Five Groans of the Cliurch. Camb., 1663. Quoted by Stanford. g Wood's Athena: Oxon. Calamy's Nonconformist's Mem. MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS. XIX and afterwards resided in the families of Sir S. Jones and the Countess Dowager of Clare. He died in 1C70. Tlie Thomas Adams just named belonged to a family of clergy- men ; their names and history are given in Wood, but our author is not amongst them. Lipscomb has dignified the writer of these volumes with the de- gree of M.A., and elsewhere he is styled B.D. and D.D., but there is no evidence that he really attained these dignities. His learning and ability are undoubted ; and he speaks as one who had been at a university, and who greatly valued a university education. But his name occurs in no college list, nor is he known to any of the historians of either Oxford or Cambridge. These last results are of small positive value, but they are worth stating. They narrow the field of future inquiry, they correct some popular impressions, and they tell us in some degree who and what Adams was not. The precise position of Adams in relation to the civil history, the ecclesiastical discussions, and the literature of his age, it is im- portant to settle. That position illustrates both his character and his writings. In France, Henry the Fourth having recently displeased Eliza- beth, and belied his whole life by professing the Catholic faith though still a friend to Protestants, had gone, towards the close of the earlier half of James's reign, to his account, cut off prematurely by the dagger of an assassin. Holland had declared her independ- ence, and was now deciding against Arminius. In England, the Hampton Court Conference had disappointed the Puritan party, and had strengthened the High Church tendencies of King James ; the nobility and king had been providentially saved from the gun- powder-treason ; the new translation of the Bible had just been completed, and was now winning its way into general acceptance. Raleigh, the prince of merchant adventurers, was prosecuting his romantic career, and was soon to expiate his misfortunes by an un- just death on the scaffold. The Court of High Commission was strengthening its power, and preparing for the disastrous usurpa- tions of Strafford and Laud. A considerable portion of the clergy and laity of England were beginning to be weaned from the Estab- lished Church. Scotland had recently resisted the attempt to impose upon her Episcopal forms. Scandals, both ecclesiastical and civil, were extending on all sides ; good men were alienated from their old friends by ecclesiastical tyranny, and by childish petulance. A civil war seemed even now at hand. What Adams ,5EX MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS. thouglit of several of these events, we know. Of others, he has spoken never a word. Ecclesiastically, matters stood thus. James had come to the throne at the beginning of the seventeenth century, with a strong preference for Calvinism, and with strong aversion to Popery. These feelings were gradually toned down, till, after the Synod of Dort, he became a friend of the Arminian party ; and the Papacy itself he began to treat with indulgence. In 1622, he published directions to his clergy, to the effect that ' no preacher under a bishop or a dean should presume to preach on the deep points of predestination or election,' ' that no preacher should use railing speeches against Papists or Puritans,' and ' that no parson, vicar, curate, or lecturer, should preach any sermon in the afternoon, but expound the Catechism, Creed, or Ten Commandments.' In this last direction, Adams and all probably agreed ; the two former must have been very distasteful to him and to many. They were specially aimed at that party in the Church who had hitherto dwelt, in their preaching, on the doctrines of grace, as they were called. This party included many eminent men ; and they were sustained by several, who themselves dwelt seldom on these doctrines, but still questioned the propriety of the king's directions. Archbishop Abbot and Dr Davenant, Bishop of Salisbury, were among their leaders. The very year in which Adams published his collected works. Bishop Davenant lost favour at Court, by preaching on pre- destination, and for the same offence, several clergymen were severely punished. The whole party were called Doctrinal Puri- tans, and Adams was undoubtedly among them. Sometimes these Doctrinal Puritans were defined in other ways. Bancroft and Laud were both admirers of a ceremonial religion. They held opinions on rites and forms hardly consistent with the simplicity and spirituality of Protestantism. Sometimes it was the question of kneeling at the Lord's supper, and bowing at the em- blems ; sometimes of signing with the cross in baptism ; oftenest it was the question of whether the communion table was to be re- garded as an altar. But whatever the exact question, it had always the same issue. ' These forms,' it was said on the one side, ' are spiritual symbols, and they are essential. They represent great truths.' * Leave them indifferent,' it was said on the other, ' and we may observe them ; make them obligatory, because important, and they become at once substantially Popery, and we cannot adopt them.' ' Doctrinal Papists,' the advocates of them were called, and under that name they are the opposite of ' Doctrinal Puritans,' Dr Williams, the Bishop of Lincoln, had recently created MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXI a great ferment, by publishing in favour of the Puritan views. Several clergymen were compelled by Laud to resign their livings, and some few were (to use King James's phrase) , * harried out of the land.' Thirty years later, they would have joined the Non- conformists of 1G62. They shared by anticipation in their noncon- formity, and they agreed in their doctrinal views. Perhaps Adams' sympathies were less decidedly with Williams than with Davenant. Judging from his works, he would probably never have left the Church on a question of forms ; though ready to leave it if necessary, on a question of doctrine. Doctrinal Puri- tanism he loved ; the connection between certain rites and Doc- trinal Popery he did not clearly see. And if he feared it, he so prized unity, and dreaded division, that he preferred quietly to preach the truth and use his liberty, leaving to others the discus- sion and the settlement of such questions. There are passages in his writings, which imply that he deemed the Puritans (as they were called), right in every thing, except in their ' schismatic spirit.' ' They,' he tells us, ' are the unicorns that wound the Church. Their horn, the secret of their strength, is precious enough, if only it were out of the unicorn's head !' Some were schismatical beyond question. But does not a large portion of the guilt of schism lie at the door of those who were bent on making obligatory and essential what are at any rate non-essentials, whether of practice or of faith? Such is Coleridge's decision — a de- cision he defends with loving sympathy for the men, and by un- doubted facts. Adams's relation to the general literature of his age must also be settled. In his youth he was the contemporary of the race that adorned the reign of Elizabeth, — Spenser, and Shakespeare, and Jonson, Bacon and Raleigh. Among the men of his own age were Bishops Hall, and Andrewes, Sibbes, the author of the 'Bruised Reed' and ' The Soul's Conflict,' Fuller the historian, and now in the church and now out of it, Hildersham, and Byfield, and Cartwright. Earle was busy "writing and publishing hisMicrocosmography,andOverbury had already issued his ' Characters.' A little before him flourished Arminius and Whitgiffc, Hooker and Reynolds ; and a little after him, Hammond and Baxter, Taylor and Barrow, Leighton and Howe. There is evidence that Adams had read the works of several of his contemporaries and predecessors ; and he has been compared with nearly all the writers we have named. His scholarship re- minds the reader of that 'great gulf of learning,' Bishop Andrewes. In sketching a character, he is not inferior to Overbury or Earle vni MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS. In fearless denunciations of sin, in pungency and pathos, he is sometimes equal to Latimer or to Baxter. For fancy, we may, after Southey, compare him with Taylor ; for wit, with Fuller ; while in one sermon, at least — that on ' The Temple' — there is an occasional grandeur, that brings to memory the kindred treatise of Howe. Joseph Hall is probably the writer he most resembles. In richness of scriptural illustration, in fervour of feeling, in soundness of doctrine, he is certainly equal ; in learning, and power, and thought, he is superior. In this last paragraph a high place is assigned to Adams for the literary qualities of his writings. Apart from the excellence of his thoughts, the language and the imagery in which he clothes them are very attractive. Herein he differs from many of the Puritan Divines, and on the scholar and student he has peculiar claims. Indeed, for ' curious felicity ' of expression he is almost alone among the evangelical authors of his agej* A few specimens may be selected. Like all extracts, however, they do scanty justice to the beauty of the passages whence they are taken. They are gems, but their brilliance depends in part on the setting. Turn, for a good specimen of his general style, to his description of the Suitors of the Soul, England's Sickness, vol. i. 401. He gathers illustrations from all sources. From grammar learning : — ' There is a season to benefit, and a season to hurt, by our speech ; therefore it is preposterous in men to be consonants when they should be mutes, and mutes when they should be consonants. But a good life is never out of season.' — Heaven and Earth Reconciled. 'With God, adverbs shall have better thanks than nouns,' — i.e., Not what we do, but how we do it, is the grand question. From the facts of common life, turned to ingenious uses : — ' We use the ocean of God's bounty as we do the Thames. It yields'us all manner of provision : clothes to cover us, fuel to warm us, food to nourish us, wine to cheer us, gold to enrich us ; and we, in recompense, soU it with our rubbish and filth. Such toward God is the impious ingrati- tude of this famous city. She may not unfitly be compared to certain pictures that represent to divers beholders, at divers stations, divers forms. Looking one way, you see a beautiful virgin ; another way, some deformed monster. View her peace : she is fairer than the daughters of men. View her pride : the children of the Amorites are beauteous to her. When we think of her prosperity, we wonder at her impiety ; when we think of her impiety, we wonder at her prosperity. that her citizens would learn to MEMOIR OF THOMAS ABAMS. XXlll manage their liberal fortunes with humility and sobriety ! that when death shall disfranchise them here, they may be made free above, in the triumph- ant city, where glory hath neither measure nor end.' — The City of Peace. From ripe scholarship, that knows how to glean in all fields, and how to defend the consecration of all to the service of the sanc- tuary : — ' Learning, as well as office, is requisite for a minister. An unlearned scribe, without his treasure of old and new, is unfit to interpret God's oracles. The priest's lips shall presei'vc knowledge, is no less a precept to the minister, than a promise to the people : we are unfit to be seers, if we cannot distinguish between Hagar and Sarah. A minister without learning is a mere c}-pher which fills up a place, and increascth the number, but signifies nothing. There have been some niggardly afi'ected to learning, calling it man's wisdom. If the moral says of a poet, or a philosopher, or, perhaps, some golden sentence of a father drop from us, it is straight called poisoned eloquence, as if all these were not the spoils of the gentiles, and mere handmaids unto divinity. They wrong us : we make not the pulpit a philosophy, logic, poetry-school ; but all these are so many stairs to the pulpit. Will you have it ? the fox dispraiseth the grapes he cannot reach. If they could beat do^vn learning, they might escape censm-e, for their own ignorance. For shame ! Let none that have borne a book dispraise learning. She hath enemies enough abroad. She should be justified of her own children. Let Barbaiy disgi-ace arts, not Athens. With all this richness of fancy, there is a plainness and a direct- ness of speech, that often reminds the reader of honest Latimer : — * Give, then, your physician leave to fit and apply his medicines, and do not you teach him to teach you. Leave your old adjurations to your too obsequious chaplains, if there be any such yet remaining. Speak unto us smooth things, p-ophecrj deceits. Threaten your priests no longer with such expulsions from these poor vineyards which you have erst robbed, because they bring you sour gi-apes, sharp wine of reproofs. Bar not the freedom of these tongues, by tying them to conditions : this you shall say, and this not say, on pain of my displeasure. You may preach against sins, but not meddle with the pope ; or you may inveigh against Rome and idolatry, so you touch not my Herodias ; or you may tax lust, so you let me alone with Naboth's vineyard. As if the gospel might be preached with your limitations ; and, forsaking the Holy Ghost, we must come to fetch direc- tions from your hps.' Or, again : — ' If we equal Israel in God's blessings, we transcend them in our sins. The blood-red sea of war and slaughter, wherein other nations are drowned, is become dry to our feet of peace. The bread of heaven, that tnie manna satisfies our hunger, and our thirst is quenched with the waters of life. The better law of the gospel is given to us, and our saving health is not like XXIV MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. a curious piece of array folded up, but is spread before our believing eyes ■v\-itbout any shadow cast over the beauty of it. We bave a better High Priest to make intercession for us in heaven, for whom he bath once sacri- ficed and satisfied upon earth, actu semel, virtute semioer, with one act, but with virtue everlasting. We want nothing that heaven can help us to, but that which we voluntarily will want, and without which we had better have wanted all the rest, thankfulness and obedience. We give God the worst of all tilings, that hath given us the best. We call out the bad sheep for his tithe, the sleepiest hours for his prayers, the chippings of our wealth for his poor, a corner of the heart for his ark, when Dagon sits uppermost in his temple. We give God measure for measure, but after an ill sort. For his blessings heapen, and shaken, and thrust together, iniquities pressed down and yet running over. He hath bowels of brass and a heart of iron, that cannot mourn at this our requital.' Yet withal he is full of tenderness : — * The sins of our times I would arraign, testif}^ against, condemn, have executed : the persons, I would have saved in the day of the Lord.' — The White Devil. The sins he most earnestly rebukes are drunkenness,* litigious- ness, and the quirks of the law, ' engrossing,' swearing, and rapacity, while he never fails to note that unbehef and unthankfulness, — the sins of the heart, — are at once the source and the chief of them all. Mark the force and the beauty of the following, culled at random from his pages : — ' He that preaches well in his pulpit but lives disorderly out of it, is like a young scribbler ; what he writes fair with his hand, his sleeve comes after and blots.' ' As Christ once, so his word often, is crucified between two thieves, the papist on the left hand and the schismatic on the right.' ' Every one can lesson us, that will not be lessoned by us. Not that we refuse knowledge from, any lips, since nothing can be spoken well but by God's Spirit, who sometimes reproves a Jonah by a mariner, Peter by a damsel, and Balaam by an ass.' * The devil may be within, though he stand not at the door.' * He swears away that little share of his own soul, which he had left.' * Every good heart is in some measure scrupulous, and finds more safety in fear than in presumption. I had rather have a servant that will ask his direction twice, than one that runs of his own head without his errand.' * Yet these men (Garnet, Faux, &c.) must be saints, and stand named * See, for example, on drunkenness, The Divine Herbal, Works, ii. 443 ; ITie Black Saint, i. 48 : On litigiousness, 21ie City of Peace, ii. 322, &c. For a very impressive view of the evil of sin, see his remarks on the last state of a bad man worse than the first, in The Black Saint, ii. 65. MEMOm OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXV with red letters on the pope's calendar : red indeed ! So dyed with the martyi-ed blood of God's servants !' ' Only death restrains the wicked man from doing any fm-thor mischief. Perhaps, he may give away some pa}Tnents in his testament, but he parts with it, in his will against his will : and it is but a part, whereas Judas returned all, yet went to hell !' ' Let good fellows sit in a tavern from sun to sun, and they think the day very short, confessing (though insensible of their loss) that time is a light-heeled nmner. Bind them to the church for two hours, and you put an ache into their bones, the seats be too hard. Now time is a creeple, and many a wearj' look is cast up to the glass. It is a man's mind that renders any work troublesome or pleasant.' 'Fire and fagot is not God's law, but the pope's cannon shot.' ' They plead antiquity, as a homicide may derive his murder from Cain. They plead unity : so Pharisees, Sadducees, Herodians, combined against Christ. They plead vmiversaUty : yet of the ten lepers but one was thank- ful. Where many join in the truth, there is the church ; not for the many's sake, but for the truth's. The vulgar stream will bring no vessel to the land of peace.' As a preacher and a divine, he has many excellencies, though they are not unmixed with grave faults, which belong, however, as much to his age as to himself. In the subjects of his sermons, and generally in his choice of texts, he is remarkably felicitous. * The Way Home,' ' The City of Peace,' ' The Saints Meeting,' ' Majesty in Misery,' ' Semper Idem,' ' Heaven and Earth Reconciled,' ' The Mystical Bedlam,' ' The Sinner's Passing Bell,' ' The Fatal Banquet,' ' The Shot or Reckon- ing,' ' Presumption running into Despair :' each suggests a beauti- ful or striking thought, while the text is in every case itself a sermon. Have we rightly appreciated in the modern pulpit the importance of a good text ? Great thoughts ought to underlie our discourses. If the reader will study those of our Lord, as recorded in St John, or note his touching address at Nazareth, he will feel the force of this suggestion. It is one secret of Adams's power. Nor is it to be overlooked that he deals largely in expositions of Scripture. He does not, indeed, busy himself to shew the connec- tion or to trace the undercurrent of thought that often runs through chapters and books of the Bible, but in verbal expositions he is rich and happy. Many texts will be found set in new lights, while they often reflect something of their own lustre and beauty on the thoughts amid which they stand. The beginning of his sermon on the * City of Peace,' and his sermons on ' England's Sickness,' are good illustrations. XXVI MElIOrR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Sometimes his comments are based on mistakes, and sometimes he pushes the interpretation of the letter of Scripture to an extreme ; but his expositions are often both accurate and striking ; and they well illustrate the principle, that it is the ministry of the wwd to which the preacher is called. That he did this under the convic- tion that ' men were not safe while they were ignorant of the Scrip- ture,' is clear from his own teaching.* Herein we agree entirely in the estimate of a previous editor of some of his works. ' The author leads the reader at once to the Bible. He keeps him there. He analj^ses the words of the passage under consideration. He largely illustrates the historical circum- stances. He draws, by easy and natural inference, suitable lessons of a practical character. Analogies start up ; these are instantly dealt with. Fables, anecdotes, classical poetry, gems from the fathers and other old writers, are scattered over nearly every page. But the starting-point is evermore the language of holy Scripture. We confess that, apart from all other attractions, we have a grow- ing conviction of the incomparable superiority of this mode of teach- ing rehgion over every other. It has prevailed in every age of the Church in which Christianity has flourished.' f His theology may be defined most briefly, though somewhat un- happily, as anti-popish, Calvinistic, and evangelical. Hear, for example, how he speaks, in spite of the king's injunc- tions and Laud's tendencies : — ' Judas was a great statesman in the devil's commonwealtli, for he bore four main offices. Either he begged them shamefully, or he bought them bribinglv, or else Beelzebub saw desert in him, and gave him them gratis for his good parts. He was hypocrite, thief, traitor, and murderer. Yet the pope will vie offices with him, and win the game, too, for plurality. .... But let bim go. I hope he is known well enough; and every true man will bless bim self out of his way.' — TJie White Devil. Again — * The favour of God overshadows us, as the cherabim did the mercy-seat. I know that Rome frets at this ; and let the harlot rage her heart out. She thunders out curses; but (blessed be God) we were never more prosperous than when the pope most cursed us. Yea, Lord, though they curse, do thou bless. Convert or confound them that have ill-will to Sion ; and still let us inherit thy peace, that thou mayest inherit our praise.' — Phi/sic from Heaven. How keen is the following : — ' The Pope plucks us by the sleeve (as a tradesman that would fain have * ' Physic from Heaven.' ■j- Introduction to Selections from Adams's Works, bv Dt Stowell, p. xxii. MEMOIB OF THOMAS AD.VMS. IXVU our money), and tells us that ho only hath the balm, and shews us his mass-book. If we suspect it there, he warrants the virtue from a general council. K it doth not yet smell well, he affirms (not without menacing damnation to our mistrust) that it is even in the closet of his own heart who cannot err. " Tut," says he, " as it grows in God's gai-den simply, it may poison you." As if it were dangerous to be meddled withal till he had played the apothecarj', and adulterated it with his own sophistications.' — Phi/sic from Heaven. And yet his religion is not hatred of popery simply : — • Do we justly blame them that worship the Beast of Rome, and yet find out a new idolatiy at home ? Shall we refuse to worship saints and angels, and yet give divine worship to ourselves ? This is a rivahj- that God will not stand.' — The Temple. Nor is it at all hatred of popish forms : — ' One man,' says he, ' is crop-sick of ceremonies. He hath a toy in his head that the church's garment should not be embroidered, nor have more lace or fringe than his own coat Rither than his children shall be crossed in baptism, he will out of the ark into some fantastical wherry. Let him tarry, and hear what the law speaks in its law of peace : In Christ Jesus neither circumcision availeth an)jthinfl, nor uncircumcision, but a new creature; i. e., neither ceremony nor no ceremony, but the substantial: a new creature.' — The City of Peace. His Calvinism may be judged from the following : — ' The first-horn, ichich are urittcn in heaven. — This is a description of the persons of whom the chmxh consists. The church itself is a number of men whom God hath set apart by an eternal decree, and in time sancti- fied to become real membere of it. They are written in heaven; there is their eternal election: and they are the,/j/s?-bom, i. e., new-bom; there is their sanctification. For the two parts of the description — their primo- geniture and registering in God's books — are but boiTowed speeches, whereby God would ratify the everlasting predestination and salvation of his chiu-ch A man may have his name wi-itten in the chronicles, yet lost; written in durable mai'ble, yet perish ; written on a monument equal to a colossus, yet be ignominious; written on the hospital gates, yet go to hell ; written on his own house, and yet another come to possess it. All these are but writings in the dust and upon the waters, where the characters perish as soon as they are made. They no more prove a man happy than the fool could prove Pontius Pilate a saint because his name was wTitteu in the creed. But they that are written in heaven are sure to in- herit it.' — The Happiness of the Church. Again — ' The church may be sick, yet not die. Die it cannot ; for the blood of an Eternal King bought it, the power of an Eternal Spirit preserves it, and the mercy of an Eternal God shall crown it.' — En'jlamVs Sickness. XXVIU MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS. And yet this view is so guarded by explanations and so blended with distinct announcements on the sufficiency of Christ's work and grace, that Adams is as fair a representative of Calvinistic doctrine as Calvin himself ' It was not one for one that Christ died, not one for many, but one for all, .... and this one must needs be of infinite price.' * His commentary on the second of Peter abounds with felicitous expositions of difficult questions in relation to these doctrines. For illustrations of the evangelical spirit of Adams, the reader must turn to his writings. When he treats of evangelical doctrine, he writes carefully and clearly. His remarks on the Fatherhood of God, on Christ's sacrifice for sin, on imputed righteousness, on faith and how it saves, on the inseparable union of pardon and holi- ness, though not suggested by any modern controversies, shew, by their sweep and far-reaching application, that they are great truths he is describing, and that he perceives the breadth and bearing of the truths he describes.! It is not, however, in distinct statements of doctrine that his love of the gospel appears, so much as in the general tone of his writings. Herein he resembles Baxter rather than Owen. His gospel is all- pervading ; and his treatises are not lectures but sermons, — popular appeals to those whom he is seeking to reclaim and to save. Generally he is rather clear and vigorous than emotional. Yet there are passages in which evangelical truth is steeped in feeling. His description of the state of the impenitent, and of the tears that ought to be wept over them, and elsewhere of ' the fulness that is in Jesus,' J it is impossible to read without deepest sympathy. They shew, like the account he has given in one of his dedications of the exhausting anxieties of a London pastorate, that the writer's heart was as warm as his head was clear. His gospel was an affec- tion as much as a creed. While he shunned not to 'declare the'whole counsel of God,' ' night and day he warned every man with tears,' ' that he might be pure from their blood.' And this is surely his highest praise. Herein he followed an apostle, and herein, with reverence be it s])oken, he followed his Lord. ♦ See on predestination tne cause of no man s ruin, ' Man's Seed-time and Harvest, ' vol. ii. 364-5: On original sin, and the wisdom of spending strength in correcting it, rather than in investigating its origin, ' Meditations upon the Creed,' Works, vol. iii. f See ' England's Sickness,' i. p. 395-437 ; ' The Wolf Worrying the Lamb,' ii. p. 114 ; ' Faith's Encouragement,' ii. 203, &c. ; 'Bad Leaven,' ii. 342. X See ' Meditations upon the Creed/ Works, iii., under the word Jesus. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XHX It has already been intimated that most of the facts of Adams's life are gathered from his own writings, and especially from the prefaces and dedicatory epistles prefixed to his sermons, as they were first published. These prefaces we now proceed to give. With two exceptions, they are not inserted in the folio edition of his works, published by himself in 1G29. That edition is the basis of the text adopted in these volumes ; and as it contains the last touches of the author's own hand, it is entitled to that honour. But the prefaces are well worth preserving. They throw light upon the character of the writer. They are also rich in noble trutlis. All that can be obtained are here given, and the preface to the Com- mentary on 2d Peter is added, to complete the series. His works may be best arranged in the order in which he wrote them, or where this is not known, in the order in whicli he published them. The ' Epistles Dedicatorie ' and the ' Addresses to the Reader' are taken from the 4to editions. The words in brackets give the alterations he made in the titles for the folio edition. The Gallant's Burden : A Sermon, preached at Paul's Cross, the 29th of March, being the fifth Sundaj in Lent, 1612. By Thomas Adams. PubUshed by authority. London : Printed by W. W., for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1G14. To the Honourable Sir William Gostwicke Baronet, and his worthy Lady, the Lady Jane Gostwicke. Honourable Sir, — I acknowledge freely, that the world is oppressed with the press, and the confluence of books hath bred a confusion of errors, of vices, so hard it is to distinguish betwixt profitable and vain writings ; and having called out the best, so easy it is with so much good meat to surfeit ; yet it is not, therefore, meat unnecessary. It is no sober inference, because both text and readers have been corrupted with false glosses, to reject all expositions, all applications ; both are fit, this latter most neces- sary, for our understanding is better than our conscience ; there is some light in our minds, httle warmth in our aflections. So against natm-e is it true in this, that the essential qualities of fire, Hght, and heat, are dinded ; and to say, whether ovu hght of knowledge be more, or our heat of devotion less, is beyond meed. Let this (considered) plead for me, that I (do but) rub this sorrowing knowledge m us, to bring it back to some life of obe- dience. If any feel theh thick eyes hence to receive any clearness, or their numbed aflections to gather (the least) spirit, let them at once give God the glory, and take to themselves the comfort. Sin hath got strength with age, and, agauast all natmal order, is more powerful, subtle, and fuller of active dexterity now in the dotage of it, than it was in the nonage. Both pulpit and press are weak enough to resist it. If, therefore, this small aiTOW of reproof can wound (but even) one of his limbs, it shall a httle euenate hia tyranny. Whatsoever this sermon is, it is wholly yours, and he that made it, whose patronage I could not be ambitious of, if I should only fix my XXX MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS. eyes on my own deservings ; but in the affiance of your good natures, mature judgments, and kind constructions of my weak endeavours, I have presumed to make you the patron of my labours, who was freely the patron of myself. I know that God's word can countenance itself, and needs not the shelter of an human arm, not though it had as many Edomites to deride it, as it hath patrons to defend it ; but I find not only the best writ- ings of the best men, but even some of those holy books, inspired from heaven, bearing in their foreheads (as from the penmen) a dedication. I confess, it is not all for your protection, somewhat for your use ; and you are blessed in favouring that which shall be best able to favom' you. May I, therefore, entreat yom- honours to give it happy entertainment to your own hearts, favourable protection to the world's eyes ? so shall that and myself be (yet more) yours. The God of all power and mercy be as faith- ful a shadow of refreshing to your souls, as your kindness hath been free to my wants, who must ever remain. Your honoui-s's, in all faithful observance, Tho. Adams. Sir William Gostwicke, to whom this volume is dedicated, was Lord of the Manor at Willington, the parish in which Adams was then labouring. Heaven and Earth Reconciled [united] : A Sermon preached at St Paul's Church, in Bedford, October 3. 1612, at the visitation of the Right Wor. M. Elaner, Archdeacon of Bedford. By Thomas Adams, Minister of the Gospel at Willington. 2 Cor. V. 19. London : Printed by W. W., for Clement Knight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1613. To the Right Honourable Lord Heney, Earl of Kent, Lord of Hastings, Weisford, and Ruthyn. Right Honourable, — I know not under whose wings I might better shelter an apology for the ministry, than under your honour's, who have ever lived a ready patron to defend us from the oppositions and wrongs of our adversaries ; making them no friends to yourself that are enemies to the gospel ; wherein you have procm-ed some (blessed) trouble to yourself, by frequent complaints ; deserved great love of your country, and secured your soul of an eternal recompence. Let it be your praise, happiness, comfort, that you have not only not lived in opposition to the truth, as our refractoiy papists ; nor in the lukewarm neutrality of this age, that conceives a mixed religion, compounded of Zion's and Babylon's ; nor thought it enough to coimtenance preachers, as some that would make God beholden to them for their looks ; but you have stood to, seconded, succoured, and (which is yet a higher testimony) relieved many a distressed servant of the Lord, not with Micha's wages, or pittances of charity, but with ample rewards, worthy your honour's bounty to give, and their necessity to receive. Let all these true and happy reasons plead for and (somewhat) justify my ambition, that have dared to look so high for patronage as your honour. Worthier pens have contented themselves with meaner protections. It is not the excellency of the work, but the noble- MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXI ness of 3-onr disposition, that cncouragcth me, who am thence prompted not to foar your acceptation. You that have been so general a shadow of re- freshing to ministers, take from me all cause to distrust your favour; specially in the countenancing of that written, which you have ever actually and really furthered. Proceed (most honoured lord) to aflcct the truth (yet) more zealously, by your help to support it, by your favour to protect it ; so shall you make blessed use of that honour God hath here invested you withal, and interest yourself to the honour of heaven ; and whiles nobility without religion dies in infamy, and is buried in the grave of oblivion, your noble zeal, or zealous nobleness, shall live here to your Maker's glorj' and the church's comfort, and hereafter leave behind it a never-decaying monument of honour, which, if the ingratitude of men should forget, shall never pass the hand of God vmrewarded with glory. This book salutes your honour with the new year ; may they both give you happy content ! The God of mercies multiply his favours and gi-aces on you, and make your cup to run over with his blessings ! Your honour's humbly devoted, Tho. Adams. The Earl of Kent was a member of the liberal party, and a man of very moderate ability, Clarendon says. Judging from Adams's epistle, he must have been a lover of the gospel, and of all good men. The Devil's Banquet, Described in Six Sermons : — 1. The Banquet Propounded, Begun ; 2. The Second Service ; 3. The Breaking up of the Feast ; 4. The Shot or Reckoning ; 5. The Sinner's Passing Bell ; 6. Physic from Heaven. Published by Thomas Adajis, Preacher of God's Word at Willington, in Bedfordshii'e. [The Fatal Banquet.] Amos vi. 7. Ambros de Poenit. — Pascitur libido conviviis, nutritur deliciis, vino accen- ditur, ebrietate flammatur. Lust is fed with feasts, fatted with pleasures, fired with wine, made flaming with drunkenness. London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for Ralph Mab, and are to be sold in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Greyhound. 1614. To the very Worthy and Virtuous Gentleman, Sir George Fitz-Jeoffert, Knight, one of his Majesty's Jiistices of the Peace and Quorum in the County of Bedford; saving health. Right Worshipful, — This sermon, though it be bom last, was not so conceived. But as it came to pass in Tamar's travail of her twins, though Zarah put forth his hand first, and had a scarlet thread tied to it, the dis- tinguishing mark of primogeniture, yet his brother Pharez was born before him, I intended this subject to a worthy audience, fastening my meditations on it ; but soon finding that I had grasped more sands than I could force through the glass in two hours, and loath to injure my proposed method, I let it sleep till fitter opportunity might awaken it. Now, behold, without the common plea of this writing age, the importmiato request of friends, I willingly adventure it to the light ; and since your favour to my weak (or rather no) deserts hath been ever full of real encouragcn^ents ; since your aiiection to hteratui-e (and the best of learning, the gospel) hath ever vouch- XXXll MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. safed a friendly countenance to your neighbour-ministers, I could not make myself so liable to the censure of ingratitude as not to entreat your name for patronage, which, though it deserves better acknowledgment, and finds it from more worthy voices, yet I, that yield to all in learning, would yield to none in love and service to you. The cause in question requires a worthy defender, not for its own weakness, but for the multitude and strength of oppositions. Men brook worse to have their sins ransacked than their inveterate wounds and ulcers searched. Qui vinum venenum vocant, they that call drunkenness poisoning speak harsh to their ears that (qimsi deum colunt) embrace and worship it as a god. You are one of that surrogation into whose hands God hath trusted his sword of justice. Draw 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. Our derided, rejected preaching appeals to your aids ; help us with your hands, we will help you with our prayers. With wisdom and courage rule the wild days you live in. Proceed (worthy sir), as you have conformed yourself, to reform others. Reach forth your hand to your confined limits ; overturn the table, spoil the banquet, chastise the guests at this riotous feast. You see how justly this poor, weak, coarse-woven labour desires the gloss of your patronage to be set on it. I cannot either distrust your ac- ceptance, knowing the generousness of your disposition, nor need I so much to entreat your private use (who are stored with better instructions) as your commending it to the world. If any good may hereby be encouraged, any evil weakened, my reward is full. The discourse is sexduple, whereof the first fr'uits are yours, whose myself am, that desfre still to continue Your worship's in my best services, Tho. Adams. Ad vel in Lectoeem. Religious reader (for I think few of the profane rabble read any sermons), let me entreat thee for this, that (cum lectoris nomen /eras, ne llctoris offi- cium gerasj thou wouldst accept it, not except against it, and, being but a reader, not usurp the office of a censurer. The main intents of all preachers and the contents of all sermons aim to beat down sin and to convert sinners, which the most absolute and unerring Scriptui-es have shadowed imder divers metaphors, comparing them to beasts, to blots, to sicknesses, to sterilities, to pollutions, to leavenings, to whoredoms, to devils ; ia all which (and many other such figui'ative speeches) I think it lawful, nay, necessary for us, God's ministers, to explain the metaphor, and (stiU within bounds of the similitude) to shew the fit accordance and respondency of the thing meant to the thing mentioned. Indeed, to stretch the text against its own will is to martyr it, and to make every metaphor run upon four feet is often violahile sacris. But so long as we keep the analogy of faith and the sense of the present theme, it is a fault to find with us. Indeed, rhetorical flourishes without solid matter is like an Egyptian bond- woman in a qL'een's robes; or the courtier's chamber, which is often a rotten room, curiously hanged. God's word is full of dark speeches, dark, not in themselves, but to our thick-sighted understandings ; therefore, his propositions require expositions. Not that we should turn plain morals into allegories, but allegories into plain morals. The former was Origen's fault, of whom it is said (I speak not to uncover that father's nakedness, but to shew that all men may err, and therefore truth of love must not pre- MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXIU judice love of truth) that wherein ho should not allegorize, he did ; and wherein he should have allegorized, to his woe he did not. I have pre- sumed, not without wan-ant of the best expositors, to manifest thu manifold temptations of Satan under the harlot's inveigling her customers. 1. As wisdom, ver. 8, sends forth her maidens, her ministers, to invite guests to her feast of grace, so vice sends forth her temptations ; nay, she sits at the door herself, ver. 14, and courts the passengers. 2. K wisdom call the ignorant, ver. 4, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither; as for him that wanteth understanding, she saith, &c. Vice, which is the true foil)', is her zany, and takes the words out of her mouth, ver. IG, Whoso is simple, let him turn in hither ; and as for, &c. 3. If wisdom promiseth bread and wine, ver. 5, ' Come, eat of my bread, and drink of the wine which I have mingled, sin will promise no less to her guests, ver. 17, Stolen waters are sweet, and bread eaten in secret is pleasant. Here is, then, a plain oppo- sition of grace and sin, wisdom and folly, chastity and uncleanness, Christ and the devil. He is mistaken, then, that shall judge me mistaken in this allegory. I stand not so much on the sound as the sense ; not so much on the hteral as spiritual meaning. In the fonner I have instanced; insisted on the latter. It should be tedious to give account for every cu'cumstance. The learned and good man will judge favom-ably. To the rest, si quid tu rectius istis protiuus imperii, si non, his utere mecwn. I pass by the trinal objections against sennons in print, as the deadness of the letter, the multitude of books pressing to the press, &c. ; as if the eye could give no help to the soul ; as if the queasy stomach could not forbear surfeiting ; as if some men's sullenness and crying pish at sermons should be prejudicial to others' benefit; as if the prophets had not added hne to line as well as precept upon precept. I hear some idle drones humming out their dry derisions that we will be men in print, slighting the matter for the author's sake ; but because their invectives are as impotent as themselves are impudent, I will answer no further than hac culpas, sed tu non meliora facis. Or, to borrow words of the epigrammatist — Cum tua non edas, carpis mea carmina Leli : Carpere vel noli nostra, vel ede tua. Sloth sits and censures what th' industrious teach, Foxes dispraise the grapes they cannot reach. One caveat, good reader, and then God speed thee. Let me entreat thee not to give my book the chopping censure, A word old enough, yet would have a comment. Do not open it at a venture, and, by reading the broken pieces of two or three lines, judge it. But read it through, and then I beg no pardon if thou dislikest it. Farewell. Thine, Tho. Adams. The Second SER%acE of the Devil's Banquet. By Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willington, in Bedfordshire. Zech. V. 4. Royard, Homil. i. in 1 Pet. iii. — Reddere bonum pro bono Humanum ; reddero malum pro malo, Belluinam ; reddere malum pro bono, Diaboli- cum ; reddere vero bonum pro malo, Diviuum. (good for good\ ( man. evil for evil • ., x /• beast. •1 f , !-)s the pai-t of a- , ., evil tor good ^ devil, good for evil j ( saint. VOL. Ill C XXXIV MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, aud at Britain's Burse. 1614. To the Honourable and Virtuous Lady, the Lady Jane Gostwicke Baronetess, saving health. Madam, — I am bold to add one book more to your library, though it be but as a mite into your treasury. I that have found you so ever favourable to any work of mine, cannot but confidently hope your acceptance of this ; not for the worth of it, but because it bears your name (and my duty to it) in the forehead, and offers itself to the world through your patronage. Somewhat you shall find in it to hearten your love to virtue, much to in- crease your detestation to vice. For I have to my power endeavoured to unmask the latter, and to spoil it of the borrowed form, that sober eyes may see the true proportion of it, and their loathing be no longer withheld. I cannot doubt, therefore, that your approbation of the book will be frus- trated by the title. I am content to furnish out Satan's feast with many special dishes, and to discover the waters of iniquity which he hath broached to the world ; not to persuade their pleasure, but lest ignorance should sur- feit on them without mistrust, lest the perverted conscience should securely devour them without reprehension. Here you shall see, in a small abridg- ment, many actual breaches of God's sacred law, not without liableness to condign punishment. You heard it with attention spoken in your private church ; you gave it approval. I trust you will as well own it written. It is not less yom's, though it be made more public. I need not advise you to make your eye an help to your soul, as well as your ear. They that know you, know your apprehension quick, your judgment sound, and (that which graceth all the rest) your affections religiously devoted. Yet since it is no small part of our goodness to know that we may be better, I pre- sume to present this book and (with it) my own duty to your ladyship, the poor testimony of my present thankfulness, and pledge of my future service. The God of power and mercy continue his favours to you, who have stUl continued your favours to Your honour's humbly devoted Thomas Adams. The Breaking up of the Devil's Banquet ; or, the Conclusion. By Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at WiUington, in Bedfordshire. Rom. vi. 21. Tertul. lib. ad Martyres. — Pax nostra, bellum contra Satanum. To be at war with the devil, is to be at peace with our own conscience. London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1614. To the Right Virtuous and Worthy Sisters, the Lady Anne Gostwicke and Mrs Diana Bowles, saving health. That I have clothed this sermon in the livery of your patronages, I might give many reasons to satisfy others. But this one to me is, instead of all, that you affect the gospel ; not with the sudden flashes of some over-hot dispositions, but with mature discretion and sound obedience. I could not, therefore, suffer any thought of mine own unworthiness to dissuade me from presenting this poor labour to your hands, who have so favourably accepted MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXV my weaker services, I owe you both a treble debt of love, of service, of thankfulness. The former, the more I pay, the more still I owe. The second, I will be ready to pay to the uttermost of my power, though short both of your deserts and my own desires. Of the last, I will strive to give full payment, and in that (if it be possible) to come out of your debts. Of all these, in this small volume, I have given you the earnest. As you would, therefore, do with an ill debtor, take it till more comes. It shall bo the more current, if you will set thereon the seals of your acceptance. It is the latter end of a feast ; yet it may perhaps afl'ord you some Chris- tian delicate, to content your well-aflected spirits. It shall let you see the last service of sin's banquet, the harsh and unpleasant closure of vanity, the madness of this doting age, the formal dislike and real love of many to this world, the evil works of some critical, others hypocritical, dispositions, the ending, conclusion, and beginning confusion of the devil's guests. The more perfectly you shall hate sin, the more constantly you shall hold your erst embraced \'irtues ; and so in happy time work out your owa salvations. God give a successful blessing to your Christian endeavours, which shall ever be faithfully prayed for by Your worships' affectionately devoted Thomas Adams. The Shot ; oe, The Woful Price which the Wicked Pay for the Feast of Vanity. By Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willing- ton, in Bedfordshii'e. Luke xvi. 25. August, de CivitateDci, lib.xxii., cap. 3. — Prima mors animam dolentem pellit de corpore ; secunda mors animam nolentem tenet in coi-pore. The soul by the first death is unwillingly driven from the body ; the soul by the second death is unwillingly held in the body. London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1614. To the very Worthy Gentleman ]\Ir Francis Crawley, savw(j health. Sir, — There are four sorts of banquets, which I may thus distinguish : JfEtum, letiferum, helium, helluinum. The first is a joyful feast ; such was the breakfast of the world in the law, or the dinner in the gospel, or (yet the future more fully) the Lamb's supper of glory. This is a deHcate feast, yet not more than the next is deadly, the black banquet, which is prepared for the wicked in hell, which consists of two dishes, saith the school, pa:na damnl and pana sensus ; or, as the philosopher distinguisheth all misery into cojnam and inopiam ; cojna tribulationis, inopia consolationis. Or after some, of three : amissio cceli, privatio terra, positio inferni ; the missing of that they might have had, the privation of that they had, the position of that they have, and would not have, torment. Or, according to others, of four : merciless miser}', extremity, universality, eternity of anguish. Our Saviour abridgeth all into two, or rather one (for they are homogenea), weeping and gnashing of teeth. This is a bloody banquet, where (cross to the festival proverb, the more the merrier) the multitude of guests shall add to the horror of miseries ; so afflicting one another with their echoing and reciprocal groans, that it shall be no ease, socios habuisse dolons. This is a lamentable, but the third is a laudable feast. It is that the Christian S2XV1 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. maketh, either to man (wliich is a feast of charity) or to God (which is a feast of grace). Whereimto God hath promised to be a guest, and to sup with him. The last is a bestial banquet, wherein either man is the sym- posiast, and the devil the discumbent ; or Satan the feast-maker, and man the guest. Sin is the food in both. The diet is not varied, but the host and Satan feast the wicked, whiles they feed on his temptations to surfeit. The wicked feast Satan, whiles their accustomed sins nourish his power in their hearts. So St Hierome, Dtjemonum cibus ehrietas, luxuria, fornicatio et universa ritia ; Our iniquities are the very diet and dainties of the devils. With this last only have I meddled, endeavouring to declare it, to dissuade it, according to the dichotomized carriage of all om* sermons by explication, by apphcation. Sin is the white (or rather the black mark) my arrow flies at. I trust he that gave aim to my tongue, will also direct, level, and keep my pen from swerving. But since reproofs are as goads, and beasts wiU kick when they are touched to the quick, and he that speaks in thunder shall be answered with Ughtning ; by which consequence I may suspect storms, that have menaced storms ; therefore behold, it runs to you for shelter ; not to instruct your knowledge, who can give so exquisite counsel to others in the law, to yourself in the gospel, being quahfied, as that perfect rhetorician should be, vir bonus clicendi peritus ; but that through your name I might offer (and add) this poor mite into the treasury of the church, ascribing the patronage to yourself, the use to the world, the success to God. Accept this poor testimony of my gratitude, who have avowed myself, Your worship's, ia all faithful service, Thomas Adams. The Sinner's Passing Bell; or, A Compiaint from Heaven for Man's Sins. PubUshed by Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willing- ton, in Bedfordshire. 1 Cor. xi. 30. August. Epist. 188. — Ipse sibi denegat curam, qui medico non pubhcat causam. He hath no care of his own cure that declareth not to the physi- cian his grief. London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1614. To the truly Noble Knight, Sir Anthony Saint John, saving health. Right Worshipful, — The sickness of this world is grovra so lethargical, that his recovery is almost despaired ; and therefore his physicians, finding, by infalUble sjTnptoms, that his consumption is not curable, leave him to the malignancy of his disease. For the eye of his faith is bhnd, the ear of his attention deaf, the foot of his obedience lame, the hand of his charity numbed, and shut up with a griping covetousness. All his vital parts, •whereby he should live to goodness, are in a swoon ; he lies bed-rid in his security, and hath little less than given up the (Holy) Ghost. It cannot be denied, but that he lies at the mercy of God. It is, therefore, too late to toll his passing bell, that hath no breath of obedience left m him. I might rather ring his knell. Yet because there are many in this world, many sick of the general disease of sin, whose recovery is not hopeless, though their present state be hapless, and some that, if they knew but themselves sick, would resort to the pool of Bethesda, the water of life, to be cured, I have. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. IXXVU therefore, presumed to take them apart, and tell them impartially their own illness. O that to perform the cure were no more difficult than to describe the malady, or prescribe the remedy. I have endeavoured the latter ; the other to God, who can both kill and give life, who is yet pleased, by his word, to work our recoveiy, and to make me one (unworthy) instrument to administer his physic. Now, as the most accurate physicians, ancient or modem, though they delivered precepts in their faculty worthy of the world's acceptance and use, yet they set them forth under some noble patronage ; so I have presumed, under the countenance of your protection, to publish this (physical, or rather) metaphysical treatise ; for, as the sickness is spiritual, so the cure must be supernatural. Assuring myself, that if you shall use any observation here, and give it your good word of prohatum est, many others will be induced the more readily to embrace. My intent is to do good ; and if I had any better receipt, I would not, like some physicians, I know not whether more envious or covetous, with an excellent medicine, let it live and die with myself. God conserve your (either) health, and give yon, with a sound body, a sounder faith, whereby you may live in the life of grace here, of glory hereafter. Your worship's humbly devoted Thomas Adams. The Sinner's Passtng Bell ; or. Physic from Heaven. The Second Sermon. Pubhshed by Thomas Adams, Preacher of God's word at Willing- ton, in Bedfordshire. Hosea xiii. 9. August. Serm. de Temp., 145. — Quid de te tu ipse tam male meruisti, ut inter bona tua nolis ahquod esse malum, nisi teipsum ? How didst thou, oh wicked man, deserve so ill of thyself, that among all thy goods, thou wouldst have nothing bad but thyself ? London : Printed by Thomas Snodham, for John Budge, and are to be sold at the great south door of Paul's, and at Britain's Burse. 1G14. To the venj Worthy Gentleman Mr John Alletne, saving health. Sir, — I have endeavoured, in this short sermon, to prescribe to these sick times some spiritual physic. The gi'ound I have received from the direction of God ; the method I submit to the correction of man. In this I might err ; in the other I could not. The main and material objects I have levelled at are : 1. To beget in us a sense of the sins we have done, of the miseries whereby we are undone. 2. To rebuke our forgetfolness oi God's long since ordained remedy, the true intrinsic balm of his gospel ; in the saving use whereof we are (like some countries, blessed with the medi- cinal benefits of nature, yet), through nescience or negligence, defective to ourselves in the application. Inward diseases are as frequent as outward ; those by disquiet of mind, as these by disdiet of body. It was a rare age that had no spiritual plague ranging and raging in it. Ours hath manifold and manifest, vile and visible ; the world gi-owing at once old and decayed in nature, lusty and active in producing sins. Wickedness is an aged harlot, yet as pregnant and teeming as ever. It cannot be denied, but that otrr iniquities are so palpable, that it is as easy to prove them, as to reprove them. Were our bodies but half so diseased (and yet this year hath not favoured them) as our souls ai-e, a straugo and unheard of mortality would MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. ensue. Man is naturally very indulgent to himself, but misplaceth his bounty. He gives the body so much liberty, that it becomes licentious ; but his soul is so prisoned up in the bonds of corrupt affections, that she cries of him, as that troubled princess of her strict keeper. From such a jailer, good Lord, deliver me. The flesh is made a gentleman, the mind a beggar. Sick we are, yet consult not the oracles of heaven for our welfare, nor solicit the help of our great physician Christ. He is our Saviour, and bare our sicknesses, saith the prophet ; yea, took on him our infirmities. Infinnitates speciei, non individui: infirmities common to the nature of mankind, not particularly incident to every singular person. Those he took on himself, that he might know the better to succom* us in our weakness. As the queen sung of herself in the poet, Non ignara mall miseris succurrere disco. It is most perfectly true of om- Jesus, that he learned by his own sorrow to pity ours, though all his sufferance was for our sakes. But how should he help us, if we make not our moan to him ? How should we be restored, when God's saving physic is unsought, unbought, unapplied ? To convince our neglect, and persuade our better use of the gospel, tends this weak labour. To your protection it wilhngly flies, and would rest itself under your shadow. The God of peace give you the peace of God, which passeth all human understanding, and afford you many joys in this life to the end, and in the next his joy without end ! Yours in the services of love, Tho. Adams. The White Devil ; or, The Hypoceite Uncased. To this Foui-th Im- pression are newly added — 1. The Two Sons ; or The Dissolute conferred with the Hypocrite : 2. The Leaven : or, A Medicine for them both. By Thomas Adams. London : Printed by Thomas Dawson, for William Arondell, and are to be sold in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Angel. 1615. To the Very Worthy and Nohly-Dlsjjosed Gentleman Sir Thomas Cheeke, Knight. Eight Worshipful, — This sermon bears so strange a title in the fore- head, that I durst not (a while) study for a patronage to it, but intended to send it to the broad world, to shift for itself, as fearing it would not be owned ; for it taxeth many vices, specially the black evil, secret thie\'ing, and the white devil, the hypocrite, whence it taketh the denomination. Now, what ambitious courtier would grace such a stranger? What vicious greatness would entertain such a page ? what corrupted lawyer such a client ? what covetous gentleman such a tenant ? what usurious citizen such a chapman ? indeed, what guilty man such a book, as will tell him to his face, thou art the man? Yet because first, generally, the world would think I had brought forth a strange child, that I could get no godfather to it ; and especially, because you (rare in these apostate times) are known free from the aspersions of these speckled stains, the world bestowing on you that worthy (not undeserved) character of virtue ; so that with a clear and unclouded brow (the argument of an innocent soul) you Taa,j read these hues, I have been bold, at once, to offer this to your patronage, and myseK to your service. To this, your affection to divine knowledge, good profection iji it, and much time spent towards the perfection of it (a disposition worthy MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. XXXJX your blood) have prompted mo with encouragement. It is not the first of this nature that I have published (perhaps the last), but if I had not judged it the best, I would not have been so ambitious as to present it to the view of so approved a judgment. Thus in affiance of your good accept- ance, I humbly leave you to him, that never leaveth his. Your worship's, in my best of services, Thomas Adams. To my most esteemed and singular land Friend Th. A., good, content, and true happiness. I never knew bosom wherein I reposed better trust, with better success, I have caused a new edition (with a new addition) of an old sermon. The White Devil hath begot the Two Sons. I hope it shall speed never the worse for the progeny. With you, I am sure, it will pass ; and with all those that can understand charitably. I have lighted on some masts, under whose sails I have sent my works to the world. If the traffic hath proved profitable to others, I am rejoiced in my own loss. I have certainty to find now (though not, what I never expected giving, or respected given, yet) at the least good words, kind looks, and a loving acceptance, which I have not often found. My words are few ; you know the latitude of my love, which ever was, is, and shall be, Yours inseparably, Thomas Adams. To THE Reader. Honest and understanding reader (if neither, hands off) I never saluted thy general name by a special epistle till now ; and now perhaps soon enough ; but if honesty be usher to thy understanding, and imderstanding tutor to thy honesty, as I cannot fear, so I need not doubt, or treat with thee for truce. Truce, of what ? of suspense, not of suspension ; it belongs to our betters. Suspend thy censure, do not suspend me by thy censure. I do not call thee aside to ask, with what applause this sermon passeth, but (it is all I would have and hear) with what benefit. I had rather convert one soul, than have an hundredth praise me ; whereof, if I were (so besotted to be) ambitious, by this I could not hope it ; for it pulls many tender and tendered sins out of their downy nests ; and who strikes vice, and is not stricken with calumnies ? I must rather think it hath passed from one press to another, to a worse, hazarding itself to be pressed to death with censures, which yet (though I lowly hope better) I cannot fear, since it speaks no more, nor other than justifiable truth. What hath been objected already, I must briefly answer. It is excepted that I am too merry m describing some vice. Indeed, such is their ridiculous nature, that their best convic- tion is derision ; yet I abominate any pleasantness here but Christian, and would provoke no smile but of disdain, wherein the gra^-ity of matter shall free my form of words from lightness. Others say, I am otherwhere too satirically bitter. It is partly confessed ; I am bitter enough to the sins, and therein (I think) better to the sinners, more charitable to the persons. Some wish I would have spared the church-thieves, because it is not yet generally granted that impropriations of t}'thes are appropriations of wrongs, but if there be a compotent maintenance to the minister, and not to him neither, except of worthy gifts (provided that they judge of his gifts and xl MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. competency), it is enough ; well, if any such be grieved, let him allow his minister a sufficiency, under which he cannot live, without want to his family or disgrace to his profession (at least, so taken) and hereof certified, I will take counsel to draw the books, and put his name out of the catalogue of thieves. But it would be strange if any of these Zibas should yield to Mephibosheth a division of his own lands or goods ; when they do, I will say, David is come again to his kingdom, or rather the Son of David is come to judgment. Others would have enclosers put out, because (commonly) great men, but therefore the greater their sins, and deserving the greater taxation. Nay, some would persuade usury to step in, to traverse his indictment, and prove himself no thief, by the verdict of the country ; because stib judice Us est, it is not yet decided that usury is a sin. It is sub judice indeed, but the Judge hath already interposed his interlocutory, and will one day give his definitive sentence, that usury shall never dwell in his holy mountain. Others blunder in their verdict, that I have too violently baited the bag at the stake of reproach, and all because I want it. I will not return their cen- sure, that they are hence known to have it that speak against me, for speaking against it ; who yet, if they would light the candle of their speech at the fire of their understandings, would easily see and say, that it is not fulness of the bag, but the foulness of the bag-bearer, that I reprove. I could allow your purses fuller of wealthiness, so your minds were emptier of wicked- ness ; but the bag's effects, in our affects, usually load us, either with par- simony or prodigality, the Ughtest of which burdens, saith Saint Bernard, is able to sink a ship. Others affirm, that I have made the gate of heaven too narrow, and they hope to find it wider ; God and the Scriptures are more merciful. True it is, that heaven-gate is in itself wide enough, and the narrowness is in respect of the enterer ; and though thy sins cannot make that too little to receive thee, yet they make thee too gross and unfit to get into that : thus the straitness ariseth from the deficiency (not of their glory, but) of our grace. Lastly, some have the title sticking in their stomachs ; as if Christ himself had not called Judas a devil, and likened an hypocrite to a whited sepulchre ; as if Luther did not give Judas this very attribute, and other fathers of the church, from whom Luther derives it. Good Christian reader, leave cavils against it, and fall to caveats in it. Read it through ; if there be nothing in it to better thee, either the fault is in my hand, or in thy heart. Howsoever, give God the praise, let none of his glory cleave to us earthen instruments. If thou likest it, then (quo animo legis, ohservas, quo ohservas, servo) with the same affection thou readest it, remember it, and with the same thou rememberest, practise it. In hope of this, and prayer for this, I commend this book to thy conscience, and thy conscience to God. — Willington, March 27, 1614. Thine if thou be Christ's, T. A. Sir Thomas Cheke, to whom the volume is dedicated, was grand- son of Sir John Cheke, the well-known Greek professor at Cam- bridge, and one of the revivers of learning in England. Sir Thomas was knighted by James I. He resided near Romford, in Essex, and died in 1659. The address to the reader is one of the raciest of Adams's writings, affording a sample of his wit, severity, and tenderness, all combined. MEMOni OF THOMAS ADAMS. xll This volume and the corresponding one, ' The Black Devil,' have been quoted from John Vicars,* down to our own times. The Sermons named on the title-page of the White Devil have each of them a separate title-page, but no separate Dedication. The Two Sons ; or The Dissolute conferred with the Hypocrite. Augustin. in Luc. x^iii. 14. — Videte fratres : magis Deo placuit humili- tas in malis, quam superbia in bonis factis. London : Printed by Thomas Dawson, for William Arondell, and are to be sold in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Angel. 1615. The title-page of the other contains only these words — ' The Leaven ; or, A Direction to Heaven.' Neither place, date, printer, nor publisher. The Black Devil [Saint] ; or, The Apostate : Together with the Wolf Worrying the Lambs, and the Spiritual Navigator bound for the Holy Land : In Three Sermons. By Thomas Adams. Jer. xiii. 23. Bern., Sent. — Quid prosunt lecta et intellecta, nisi teipsum legas et in- telligas ? London : Printed by WiUiam Jaggard. 1615. To the Honourable Gentleman, Sir Charles Morrison, Knirjht, Baronet. Worthy Sir, — I have been bold, upon better acquaintance with your yu-tues than with youi'self, to send a short treatise to your view. I know whose judgment it must pass, yet am fearless, not in any arrogant stupidity of my own weakness, but in a confident presumption of your goodness ; a weighty habit, not parallel, but transcendent, to youi- greatness. Perhaps natui-e hath taught you that to be generous is to be virtuous ; but I am sure wisdom hath perfected natural disposition in you, and given you not only an excellent theorical discourse, but an actual reducing of those things into practice, which are better than you shall find here. Though you have happier contemplations of your own, yet accept these as the slender pre- sents of a poor man given to the rich. Weak I confess it; for how should the child be strong begot in the father's weakness ? It hath the more need of your protection, and knows the better to express itself and the author, ever ready, at your honourable command, to do you seiwice. Tho. Adams. To the Reader. Reader, this book stands at the mercy of thy capacity for thy censure. Perhaps thou wilt judge it done for opposition's sake ; the Black Devil to the white ; perhaps for imitation, perhaps for afibctation. Thou mayest form causes enough in thy imagination to produce it, yet miss the right. It was to shew thyself and all other perusers the blackness of sin, and, among the * ' One very wittily and most worthily distingiiishea these loose livers into Black Devils and White Devils ; and our blessed Saviour himself confirms the truth of this distinction.'— Cofe/nans St. Conclave Visited. [By J. \ icars, 1647.] Xlii MEMOIR OP THOMAS ADAMS. rest, of apostasy. Would you not behold impiety in the true colours ? You may forbear. If you would, look here and detest it. K you will take out a good lesson, and hate to do it, neither you nor I shall have cause to re- pent our labours. Once we must give account what we have heard, and seen, and done, when the pleasures of sin, like old surfeits, shall give a bitter reluctancy in the stomach of the conscience, and we are going to God's cold earth. Learn we now to prevent the doing of that which we shall one day be sorry to have done. There is no man hving but shall re- pent of his wickedness, either on earth or in hell. Read, and be instructed. If you find just faults here, I submit my weakness to your censure. In omnibus meis scriptis non modo pium lectoreni sed liherum correctionem desi- dero. But to those censurers, qui vet non intelligendo rej^rehendunt, vel re- prehendendo non intelligunt, I wish either a more sound understanding or more sober affection. Criminor, ampJector : tihi sunt communia, lector. But as he that com- mendeth himself is not approved, but whom the Lord commendeth, so if the Lord approve I pass not for man's judgment. If you snib me for writing so frequently, and not confining myself to the pulpit, I answer (be- sides that I will not neglect 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 abundans caidela non nocet. Farewell. Be satisfied, be blessed. Tho. Adams. WlNGRAVE, July 7. LUCANTHROPY ; OR, ThE WoLF "WORRYING THE LaMBS. By ThOMAS AdAMS. Mat. vii. 15. Tertull.^ — Quasnam 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 the truly worthy 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 sporit- 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 forming malice and sanguinous cruelty 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, literally 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 ; whose 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 their own report) sets so many mad pens like wheels a running, importunacy of friends. I have willingly published what I had hope would do good published. Only this I feared to keep from the press, lest it should steal thither another way. Being there, I could not with better confidence fasten upon a known patron MKMOIE OF THOMAS ADASIS. xliii than yourself, who can hoth understand it and will read it ; not only the epistle, but the whole book. Though that fashion with many patrons, of pei-usiug more than their own titles, bo 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 untin-ifty spending of time, and a soriy success will conclude it, when we are curious in plotting a method for our inferior delights, and leave our salvation unwrought up. We strive to settle our lands, to secure our monies, to confinn our estates ; but to conform our lives, or to make sure our election, is vilipended. And yet when all 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 like glories in heaven. So shall your mcmoiy 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 seiTices, Tho. Adams. The Spibitual 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 WiUiam Jaggard. 1G15. To the tndi/ Religious M. Crashaw, M. Milward, M. Davies, M. Heling, icith other uorthy 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 little from your temporal to a spiritual traffic, and have sent you a Christian Na\'igator, 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 lies in a little volume : why, you have seen the whole world narrowed up into a small map. They that have been said, after many years, at last to compass it, have not described all coasts and corners of it. Even theii* silence hath given succeeding generations hope to find out new lands ; and you know they have found them. You cannot expect more of two hoiirs' discoveiy, than of seven years'. I leave many things to be descried by others, yet dare promise this, that I have given you some necessary directions for your happiest voyage. Over this glassy sea you must sail, you are now sailing. Truth be your chart, and the Holy Ghost your pilot. Yom* course being well directed, you cannot possibly make a happier joiimey. The haven is before your eyes, where your Sa^•iour sits with the hand of mercy wafting you to him. You cannot be sea-sick, but he will comfort and restore you. If the tempest comes, call on him, with Peter, Lord, save us ! and he will rebuke the winds and the seas ; they shall not hurt you. Storm and tempest, winds and waters Xliv MEMOIE 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 weU 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 comparatively confereed 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 Ealph Mab. 1615. To the Rirfht WorsJiipfid Sir John Claypoole, Knight, saving health. Worthy Sir, — I have venturously trafficked with my poor talent in pubUc, whiles I behold richer graces buried in silence : judging it better to husband a Uttle 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 gamer. 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 Adams. 2 Tim. iii. 9. AuGUSTiN. de Trinit. Lib. 4, cap. 6. — Contra rationem nemo sobrius. London: Printed by George Purslowe, 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 THOMAS ADAMS. xlv To the Bight Honourable Sir Thomas Egkrton, Knighl, Baron of FAlesmerCy Lord High Chancellor of England, one of His Majesty's Rigid lion. Privy Council, the true Pattern of virtue and Patron if good learning. Right Honourable, — It is a labour that hath neither recompcnco nor thanks, to tell them their madness that fain would think themselves sober. Having therefore presumed (not to trouble the peace, but) to disquiet the secuiity of our Israel, I dm'st not but aspu*e 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 woiihy precedents ; your honourable name having stood as a communis terminus or sanctuary of protection to the labours and persons of many students. The imerring hand of God hath placed your lordship in the seat of justice and chair of honour- (especially if it be true what St Hiero- nymus says, that summaapud Deum nohiUtas, durum essevirtutibus), whereby you have power and opportunity to whet the edge of virtue with encom-age- 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 rigoui* in the Couii 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, Uberty ; 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 : desiiiug rather to learn by yom* doings how to say, than to teach you by my sapng 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 \^'ith 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 uuworthiest servant, and Your honom-'s in aU duty and thankful observance bounden, Tho. Adams. Sir Thomas Egerton, Lord Ellesmere, was the patron of the parish of Wiugrave, 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 1G15. By Thomas Adams. Bern., in Cant., Serm. 35. — Gratiarum cessat decursus, ubi recursus non fuerit. Whereimto 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 Ivnight, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Churchyard, at the sign of the Holy Lamb. 1616. Xlvi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. On the next page, the Titles of the Five Sermons 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 whereof (by the operation of the blessed Spirit) may both en- lighten the understanding and warm the afiections 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. Politic 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 scienticE, pax conscientia ; ]nscati mind, adificatio sertitia. Your noble endeavours are observed by all eyes to be distinguished into this method : from 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 fij'e of correction eat out the rust of corruption. You may punish even whiles you pity. The good magistrate, like a good chirurgion, doth with a shaking hand search ulcers, more earnestly desirin^f von invenire quod quarit, quam inve- nire quod p)imiat. The God of mercy and salvation wrap up your soul in the bundle of life, and (when the lust of the earth shall to the dust of the earth) fix you in the blessed orb of glory. Your worshipful's in all faithful observance, Tho. Adams. Of the Five Discourses published along with the Sacrifice of Tha.nkfulness, ' 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 of Honesty. Ps. xxxvii. 37. August, in Joh. Horn. ii. — Simplex eris, si te mundo non implicaveris, Bed explicaveris. Explicando enim te a mundo, simplex ; implicando, duplex eris, 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 Sisters. John xxxiv. 34. MEMOIK OF THOMAS ADAMS. xlvH August. — Domus Dei fundatur credendo, spcrando crigitur, diligendo perficitur. London : Printed by Thomas Purfoot, for Clement Knight, and arc to be sold at bis shop in Paul's Churchyard, at tbo sign of tho Holy Lamb. 1616. The Taming of the Tongue. Matt. xii. 37. Bern. — Lingua, quae facile volat, facile violat. 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. Diseases of the Soul, [The Soul's Sickness] : A Discoui-se Divine, Moral, and Physical. By Thomas Adams. Sen. — Desinit esse remedio locus, ubi qua3 fuemnt 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 Hohj, Judicious, and icorthihj Eminent in his Profession, Mr William Randolph, Doctor of Physic. Worthy Sir, — It will seem strange to those that better know my un- worthiness than j'our merits, that I should administer i)hysic 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 tho 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 ApeUes 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 rudiments, as I gathered in the university in a short time, and have had much opportunity to lose since. Somewhat is chimed out of experience, wherein I may say necessitas was in- genii largitor ; as Phny writes of the raven, who labouring of thirst, and spying a vessel with some little water in it, but so deep as she could not reach, filled the vessel with stones, till the hea^'ier matter sinking down- wards, 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, nins over, and \vithout diminution to itself, is communicatively dispersed to others. Only do you use it, as I desire you should myself: if it be in health, conserve it; if foul, purge it. For my o^vn part, I am content that no happy meditation of mine should be ut Curia Martis Athenis ; or, like some precious mysteiy which a prac- titioner will get money by while he lives, but sutler 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 gi-eater 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 straitening our warped 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 all sweet to a sensual palate : learning from Salvian that Qua petulantium auribus placcnt, ayrotantium animis noii prumnt. For my soul, I prescribe to others that which I desire ever to take myself, such Xlviii MEMOIR OF THOMAS AD.UIS. 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 staff 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 yomrself. Perhaps a great number of men are of my mind, and frequent are the knocks at your study-door ; but I am sure that all those desires are not inflamed with that light of knowledge which I have of your sufiiciency, through much private conference. Rudeness or prolixity do ill in 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 imnes ; which, if you make public, you shall have the like addition to my 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- siring that, as it hath found the way to you, you would give it your pass to the world ; and (if it grow poor with contempt), your legacy of approbation. Wingrave in Buck., May ult. Your worship's in all just references of love, Thos. Adams. To THE Eeader. The title of this book requires some apology. There is a book lately conceived in Scotland, and born in England, which both promiseth in the frontispiece, and demonstrates in the model, the method and matter here proposed. Whereof I cannot speak, having onl;; cursorily 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 will 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 fall time to have been printed, and, perhaps, an impression sold, before that of Mr 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 censure, 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 pubhshed 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 allusion will be found in the atidress prefixed to the Happiness of the Church, (see p. H). MEMOIR OF TUOMAS ADAMS. lllX A Divine Herbal together with a Forest of Thorns. In Five Ser- mons : — 1. Tho Garden of Graces ; 2. The Praise of Fertility ; 8. The Contemplation of tho 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 segetcs, et super spinas ; sed segeti pluit ad horreum, spinis ad ignem : et tamen una est pluvia. London : Printed by George Purslowe, for John Budge, and are to be sold at his shop, at the gi-eat south door of Paul's and at Britain's Burse. IGIG. To the liifiht Honourable William, Earl of Pembroke, Ijord Chamberlain of his Majesty's Household, and one of his Majesty's most honourable Frirnj Council, and Knight of the most noble Order of the Garter, the most noble Embracer and Encoiirafjer 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 youi* own garden, and give so good noui'ishment to yom* \'irtues, delightful taste to the church, and odoriferous savour to all ; that, hke the vine in Jotham's pai'able, they cheer the heart of both God and man. Your honour, I know, 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 Avither in an hour (for moriuntur quomodo oriuntur). Your herb of grace shall flourish and be praised, both ob eminentiam and permanentiam, 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 gai'dens, though a poet records it : Terra salutiferas herbas, eademque nocentes Nutrit, et urticae proxima saepe rosa est. Your honour will love the hght 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 King of kings in heaven, is faithfully piayed for by Your honour's humbly devoted Tho. Adams. The Soldiers's Honour : Wherein, by divers inferences and grada- tions it is evinced that tho profession is just, necessary, and honourable ; to be practised o^ some men, praised of all men. Together with a short VOL. m. d 1 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. 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, published to further use. By Thomas Adams. Exodus XV. 8. London : Printed by Adam Islip and Edward Blount, and are to be sold in Paul's Chui-chyard, at the sign of the Black Bear. 1617. This dedication will be found in vol. i., p. 31, as Adams himself printed it in the folio edition. The Happiness of the Chukch ; 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 Scripture, 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 are to be sold at his shop, near unto the httle north door of Saint Paul's, at the sign of the Gun. 1618. To the Bight Honourable Sir Henry Montague, the Lord Chief-Justice of Enr/Iand, my very good Lord. Eight 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 forward 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 your 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 ofiended, if it be told of the offences. Men study courses, and practise them ; and if the clergy find fault, yea, if we do not justify and make good what they magnify, and make common, they will be angry. It is the most thankless service to teU 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 encourage goodness ? to make that practical and exemplaiy, which is here only theorical and preceptory. God hath entrusted to your hands his sword of justice ; draw it in his defence against the enemies of his grace and gospel. You sit at the common stem, 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 your soul, and, lastly, crown your head with eternal glory ! Your lordship's observant chaplain, Tho. Adams. MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. K 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 Avhole is signed, ' Your unworthy preacher, Thomas Adams' : — It is not unlinown to you, that an infirmity did put me to silence many weeks ; whilst my tongue was so suspended from preaching, my hand took opportunity of writing. To vindicate my Ufe from the least suspicion of idleness, or any such aspersions of uncharitable tongues, I have set forth this real witness, which shall give just confutation 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 443 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 : — Paut 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. I'd ; Man's Seed Time and Harvest, Gal. vi. 7 ; Heaven Gate, Rev. xxii. 14 ; The Spiritual Eye Salve, Eph. i. 18 ; The Cosmopolite, Luke xii. 20; The Bad Leaven, Gal. v. 9 ; Faith's Encouragement, Luke x\ii. 19. Pakt U. — The Saint's Meeting, Eph. iv. 13; Presumption Running mto Despair, Rev. vi. 10 ; Majesty in Misery, Mat. xxvii. 51 ; The Fool and his Sport, Prov. xiv. 9 ; The Fu-e of Contention, Luke xii. 49 ; The Chris- tian's Walk — Love's Copy — A Crucifix, Eph. v. 2 ; The Good Pohtician dhectcd, Mat. x. 10 ; The Way Home, Mat. u. 12 ; Semper Idem, Heb. xiii. 8 ; God's Bounty, Prov. hi. 10 ; The Lost One Found, Luke xix. 10 ; A Generation of Serpents, Ps. Iviii. 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 Avritings and the following. Whether sickness laid him aside, or whether he now began to prepare those Meditations on the Creed wliich King James was soon to direct all clergymen to indulge in on Sunday afternoons, is not known. The fact is un- doubted. EiRENOPOLis : The City of Peace. By Thomas Adams. Bvo. Lon- don, 1622. Dedication, see Vol. ii., p. 310. lii MEMOIB OF THOMAS ADAMS. The Baeeen Tree. A Sermon preacted at St Paul's Cross, October 26. 1623. By Thomas Adams. London : Printed by Aug. Matbewes, for Jobn 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 Paul's, together with the Prebend Residentiaries of the same Church, my vei-y good patrons. Right Worshipful, — Not out of any opinion of tbis sermon's wortb, to wbicb I dare not invite your judicious eyes ; nor any ambition to merit of my patrons, wbom I read styled petty creators ; but in bumble acknow- ledgment of yom- favours, I present tbis small rent of tbankfulness, the poor fruit of tbat tree wbicb grows on your own ground, and batb not from tbe world any otber sustenance. Vouchsafe, I beseecb you, your patronage to tbe cbild, wbo bave made tbe father of it Your worship's devoted homager, Tho. Adams. To THE Reader. I neither affect those rheumatic pens that are still dropping upon tbe press, nor those phlegmatic spirits tbat will scarce be conjm'ed into tbe orb of employment. But if modest forwardness be a fault, 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 morning, before night it was visible. His holy pen had long since written it with ink, now bis band of justice expounded in tbe characters of blood. There, was only a conditional menace : so it shall be. Here a terrible remonstrance : so it is. Sure ! be did not mean it for a nine days' wonder. Their sudden departure out of the world, must not so suddenly depart b-om the memory 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 favour, when he gives a man law. We pass no sentence upon them, yet let us take warning by them. Tbe remarkableness would not be neglected, for the time, tbe place, the persons, tbe number, tbe manner. Yet stiU 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 Saviour's conclusion upon a parallel instance : Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. There is no place safe enough for offenders ; but when tbe Lord is once up in arms, happy man that can make bis own peace ! Otherwise, in vain we hope to run from the plague while we carry the sin along with us. Yet will not our wilful and bewitched recusants, from these legible characters, spell God's 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 tbe preparation of death may never prevent our preparation to die. And yet still, after our best endeavoui-, from sudden death, good Lord, debver us all. Amen. T. A. MEMOm OF THOMAS ADAMS. llii This sermon was preached 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 Court 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 preached at Paul's Cross, the 5th of August 1624. By Thomas Adams. London : Printed by A. Mathewes, for John Gi'ismand, and are to be sold at his shop in Paul's Alley, at the sign of the Gun. 162-i. To the Eight Honourable Sir Henry Carey, Lord Housdon, Viscount Eochford. My Lord, — Among the many absurdities which give us just cause to abhor the religion of the present Roman Chui'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 serve the Lord without them. As if God had repealed his unchangeable law ; and instead of condemning all worship by an image, would now receive no worship without an image. I have observed this one, among the other famous marks of that synagogue, that they strive to con- demn that which God hath justified, and to justify what he hath condemned. For the former, he hath precisely directed our justification only by faith in 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 plain rebeUion, and then make show to fetch them ofl' .again with a neat distinction. Thus do they pump their \rits 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 will regard a house of magnificent structure, of honour- able and ancient memory, when the plague hath infected it, or thieves possess it ? and who, in their right senses, will join themselves to that temple, which after pretence of long standing, stately building, and of many such prerogatives and royalties, is found to be besmeared with super- stitions, and profaned with innumerable idols ? \\Tiy should we dehght to dwell there, where God hath refused to dwell with us. I pubhsh this argument as no new thing to your lordship, but wherein your well-experienced knowledge is able to inform me. Only I have been bold, through 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, tho liv MEMOIR OP 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 Church. Acts xv. 36. By Thomas Adams. London. 1625. The Bishop of London, at this time, was Dr Moiintaigne. 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. iii. page 85.) Appended to the folio edition of the works, and probably pub- lished 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 hia share ; though tbeir 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 GrisTnand, who was one of Adams's publishers. So far as is known, the Meditations were not published till seven years later, though probably written some time before their pubKcation, 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 MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Iv general richness of thought, and tlie extensive writing he had now in liand — 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 Truly Noble and Worthily Honoured Sir Henry IVIarten, Knight, Judye of His Majesty's High Court of the Admiralty, 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 liatli been my forwardness, not without the instinct of om* heavenly Pilot, the most blessed Sphit of God, to make one adventure before, for he that publisheth his meditations may be well called an adventurer. God knows what return hath been made to his ovm glory ; if but httle (and I can hope no less, though I have ever prayed for more), yet that hath been to me no httle 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 diflerences, and in the disposing of naval affairs, and matters of such commerce, bemg known well 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 foimer, 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 encouragements 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 pati"onage, 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 honoui-ed 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 yours, shining upon these my weak endeavours, will encourage me to publish some maturer thoughts, which otherwise have resolved never to see the light. The sole glory of our most gracious God, the edification and comfort of his church, with the true felicity 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 Judo (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 Conjorming Clergy, &c., in a letter to a friend. London, 1076. Ivi MEMOIR OF THOMAS ADAMS. Thus far in these vokimes 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- tector. 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 Mara, 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 almoners and sanctified to be his dispensers of the fruits 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 in this hfe, and to crown their souls with everlasting joy and glory in the life to come, through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen. Thomas Adams. The Publisher is indebted to the Kev. 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 memoir begs to express his obligations. J. A. SEMPER IDEM; OB, THE IMMUTABLE MEECY OF JESUS CHRIST. 'Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.'' — Heb. XITE. 8. By the name of Jehovah was God kno^vn to Israel, from the time of the first mission of Moses to them, and their manumission out of Egj'pt, and not befoi'e. For, saith God to Moses, ' I appeared unto Abraham, and unto Isaac, and unto Jacob, by the name of God Almighty ; 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 equality 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, jmmns et novissiuitis, ' the First and the Last : which is, which was, and which is to come,' Rev. i. ; and here, * the same j'csterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Therefore he was not only Christ us Dei, the anointed of God, but Christus Deus, God himself anointed ; seeing that eternity, which hath neither beginning nor ending, is only pecuhar and proper to God. The words may be distinguished into a centre, a circumference, and a mediate line, refeiTing the one to the other. The immovable centre is Jesus Christ. The circumference, that nms round about him here, is eternity : ' Yesterday, to-day, and for ever.' The mediate line rcfemng them is, 6 a'jrog, the same : ' Jesus Christ, 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 natui'e, Christ of his office and dignity ; as divines speak. Jesus, a name of all sweetness. Mel in ore, inelos in aure, juhihis in corde.^- A reconciler, a Redeemer, a Sa\'iour. When the conscience wrestles 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, mcndacium, mors. Si scribas, von j)lacet, nisi lef/am ibi, Jesum, saith Bernard : If thou writcst to me, thy letter doth not please me, unless I read there Jesus. If thou conferrest, thy discourse is not sweet, without the name of Jesus. The *" Bcr. in Can. 2 SEMPER IDEM, [SeRMON LVIII. blessed restorer of all, of more than all that Adam lost ; for we have gotten more by his regenerating gi'ace 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 Savioui' : of whose names I forbear further dis- course, being unable, though I had the tongue of angels, to speak aught worthy taiito 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, still Jesus 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 Saviour, is a title of grace, 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 verbum 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, Christ; and our heart is unquiet till it rest in thee. It is natural to everything ajopetere 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 oui' life is ; but all these, our pleasure, treasure, life, are reposed in Jesus Christ. ' Thou art my portion, 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, cui non sufficit Christus. He is too covetous, whom Jesus Christ cannot satisfy. Let us seek this centre, saith Agustine : QiKBramus inveniendum, qu^ramus inventum. Ut inveniendus quaratur, paratus est : ut inventus quaratur, immensus est : * Let us seek him till we have found him ; and still seek him when we have found him. That seeking, we may find him, he is ready; that finding, we may seek him, he is infinite. You see the centre. II. 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 lights 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 tm-ns upon the dial, but Christ hath no tiu'ning. ' Whom he loves, he loves to the end,' John xui. 1. He loves us to the end; of his love there is no end. Tempus erit consummandi, nullum consumendi misericordiam. His mercy shall be per- fected in us, never ended. ' In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment ; but with everlasting kindness wiU 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 veiy ' heavens shall pass away with a noise, and the elements shall melt with heat,' 2 Pet. iii. * In Joan. HeB. XTTT. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 8 10 ; but the covenant of God shall not bo broken. ' I will betroth thee unto me for ever,' saith God, Hos. ii. 19. This marriage -bond shall never be cancelled; nor sin, nor death, nor hell, shall be able to divorce us. Six-and-tweuty times in one psalm that sweet singer chaunts it ; ' His mercy endureth for ever,' Ps. cxxxvi. ' Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' As this meditation distils into our believing hearts much comfort, so let it give us some instructions. 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 aura, ' the same.' To prove this, you have in Jud. i. 7, a jury of thi-eescoro and ten kings to take their oaths upon it. Ever}' one had his throne, yet there they lick up cnimbs 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 recalling. Wealth is hke a bird; it hops all day fi'om man to man, as that doth fi-om tree to tree ; and none can say where it will roost or rest at night. It is like a vagi'ant 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 all 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 carries 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 stability ? Honom- 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 gi-eat name of worldly glory is but like a peal iTing on the bells ; the common people ai-e the clappers ; the rope that moves them is popularity ; if you once let go yom- hold and leave pulUng, the clapper lies still, and farewell honour. Strength, though, like Jero- boam, it put forth the ami of oppression, shall soon fall do\vn withered, 1 Kings xiii. 4. Beauty is like an almanack : if it last a year it is well. Pleasure like hghtning: oritur, moritur ; 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, thi-ough their fingers, and yet they miss them ; and when they have them, they are but buttei-flies ; they have painted wings, but are crude and squalid wonns. Such are the things of this world, vanities, butterflies. Vel scqnendo labimur, rel asscquendo ladi- 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. then set not yom- hearts upon these things : calcaiida stmt, as Jerome observes on Acts iv. * They that sold their possessions, brought the prices, and laid them do^^^l at the Apostles' feet," Acts iv. 35. At their feet, not at * Anselm, Medit. 4 SEIMPEK IDEM. [SeRMON L'VUJ.. their hearts ; they are fitter to be trodden under feet, than to he waited on with hearts. I conclude this with Augustine. Ecce turbat mimdus, etaviatur: quid si tranquillus esset ? Formosa quomodo hareres, qui sic amplecteris fadum? Flores ejus qiiam colligeres,qui sic a sjnnis non revocas maimm ? Quam confideres (Bterno, 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 calm 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 flowers, who would not forbear the thorns ? They that so adrnke it being transient and temporal, how would they be enamoured 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 vestm-e 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 uncertain 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 Christ, the same yes- terday, and to-day, and for ever.' 2. This persuades us to an imitation of Christ's constancy. Let the stableness of his mercy to us work a stableness of om* love to him. And howsoever, like the lower orbs, we have a natural motion of our own from good to evil, yet let us sufler the higher power to move us supernaturally from evil to good. There is in us indeed a reluctant flesh, * a law in our members warring against the law of om-mind,' Eom. vii. 23. So Augustine confesseth : Nee x>lcme nolebam, nee plane voleham. And, £"^70 eram qui voU- 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. Lrresolution and unsteadiness is hatefol, 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 great press at a narrow door, whiles all strive, none enter. The epigrammatist wittily. Omnia cum 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 A\ill know aliquid 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. Their inquiry of aU things is not qudm bonum, but qudm novum.. They are almost weaiy of the sun for continual shining. Continuance is a sufficient quarrel 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 wonn Pliny writes of, mulVqjoda, that hath many feet, yet is of slow pace. Awhile you shall have him in England, loving the simple truth ; anon in Rome, gi'ovelling 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. Keb. Xin. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 5 turning, till there be nothing left but to turn Turk. To winter an opinion is too tedious ; he hath been many things. What ho will be, you shall scarce know till ho is nothing. But the God of constancy would have his to be constant. Stcdfast 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 yoiu' faithfulness to man, promising and not disappointing, Psalm xv. 4. Do not aliitd stantes, aliud sedentcs, lost yom* changing with God teach God to change with you. Nemo potest tihi Christ tan aiij'crre, 7iisi te illi an/eras.-'-- No man can tiu-n Christ from thee, unless thou turn thyself from Christ. For ' Jesus Chi'ist the same yesterday,' &c. III. We now come to the circumference, wherein is a distinction of three times; past, present, future. Tcmjyora mutantur: the times change, the cii"cumfereuce 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 thi'ee distinct terms, three distinct ways : — 1. Objective, in his word ; 2, subjective, in his power ; 3, effective, in his gi'acious 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 application. (1.) Yesterday in pre-ordination. — So St Peter, in his sermon, tells the Jews, that ' he was delivered by the detei-minate 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 from the foundation of the world,' Rev. xiii. 8. F rim prof nit, qitam fuit. His prophets did foretell him, the types did prefigm-e him, God him- self did promise him. Eatiis ordo Dei : the decree of God is constant. Much comfort I must here leave to j'our meditation. If God preordained a Saviour for man, before he had either made man, or man maiTed himself, — as Paul to Timoth}-, ' He hath saved us according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Chi'ist Jesus before the world began,' 2 Tim. i. 9 ; — then surely he meant that nothing should separate us from his eter- nal love in that Saviom*, Rom. viii. 39. Quos elegit increatos, redemit per- ditos, non deserct redemptos. Whom he chose before they were created, and when they were lost redeemed, he will not forsake being sanctified. (2.) To-day in incarnation. — ' When the fulness 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 Kon 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. Sam/uinem, quern pro viatre obtulit, antea de sanpidne matris accepit.\ 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 Datus ex Vivinitate, natus ex virfjine. Datus est qui erat ; natus est qui non erat. He was given of the Deity, born of the Virgin. He that was given, was before; he, as born, was not before. Donum dedit Deus aquale 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 vcteri, revelatus in novo. In illo pro'dictus, in isto pra'dicatus. 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 Eusob. Emiss. ubi supra, t Horn. 2, de Nat. Christ. § AppUcatiou. — Ed. 6 SEMPEE IDEM. [SeKMON LVTU. him, to them gives he power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on his name,' John i. 12. ' By one offering he hath perfected for ever them that are sanctified,' Heb. x. 14. This is sure comfort to us ; though he died almost 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. The river of his grace, ' which makes glad the city of God,' runs over its banks, though infinite souls have drank hearty draughts, and satisfied their thirst. But because we cannot apprehend this for ourselves 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 earth, visible and invi- sible, whether they be thrones or dominions, or principalities, or powers ; all things were created by him, and for him,' Col. i. 16. All things, even the great 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,'J)an. 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 Chi'ist for our creation ; but how much more for our redemption ? Si totum me debeo pro me facto, quid addam jam pro me refecto ? In p)rimo opere me mihi dedit: in secundo se mihi deditJ^' If I owe him my whole self for making me, what have I left to pay him for re- deeming me ? In the first work, he gave myself to me ; in the second, he gave himself to me. By a double right, we owe him ourselves; 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 jyater familias, 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 fi'ame 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 producetb, the other preserveth. 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 Epicures imagined, curare minima, to regard the least things, but rather an honour, curare iufinita, 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, ciim aliud volumus, aliud agimus, the event crosseth our purpose ; which must content us, though it faU out otherwise than we purposed, because God purposed as it is fallen out. It is enough that the thing attain its owia end, though it miss ours ; that God's will be done, though ours be crossed. * Bern, de dilig. Deo. HeB. XIII. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 7 But let me say, Hath God care of fowls and flowers, and will he not care for you, his own image ? Matt. ^^. 2G-80. 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 gi'omid ?' Matt. v. 45. And shall the faith- ful want his hlcssing '? Doth he provide for the sons of Belial, 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 x^^i. 31. ' In the day that God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,' Rom. ii. 16. Let the wicked flatter them- selves that all is but talk of any coming to judgment ; ?io» aliml videre patres, aliudve ncpotcs aspicient ; all is but ierricidamcnta ntitricuni, mere scare-babes. Scribarum penncc mendaces ; they have written lies, there is no such matter. But when they shall see that Lamb ' whom they have pierced' and scorned (Rev. i. 7), 'they shall ciy to the mountains and rocks. Fall upon us, and cover us,' Rev. vi. 16. Now they flatter them- selves with his death ; Mortuus est, he is dead and gone ; and ]\[ortuum CcEsarem quis metidt ? Who fears even a Caisar when he is dead ? But ' He that was dead, liveth ; behold, I am alive for evermore, Amen,' Rev. i. 18. ' Jesus Christ, yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Qimsitor scclerum veniet, vindexque reorum. Here is matter of infallible comfort to us : ' Lift up your heads, for your redemption di'aweth nigh,' Lulie xxi. 28. Here we are imprisoned, mar- tyred, tortured ; but when that great assize and general jail-deliveiy comes, mors non erit ultra, ' There shall be no more death nor sorrow, but all tears shall be wiped fi-om om- 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 Venitc heati, ' Come, ye blessed, receive your kingdom.' ' Sm'ely 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 INIediator of the new covenant, and by the blood of sprinkling, that speaketh better things than that of Abel.' AVhether they lived under nature, or under the law, Christ was their expectation ; and they were justified credendo in venturum Christum, by beheving 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. [SeEMON LVIII. yesterday to our fathers, is he to-day to us, if we be to-day faithful to him. All catch at this comfoi-t, but in vain without the hand of faith. There is no deficiency in him ; but is there none in thee ? Whatsoever Chiist is, what art thou ? He forgave Maiy 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 thou the like mercy, if thou have the like repentance. If we will be like these, Christ, assuredly, will be ever like himself. When any man shall prove to 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 eveiy day ; for no man knows his last day. Latet ultimus dies, ut observetur omnis dies. Therefore (saith Augustine) we know not our last day, that we might observe every day. ' To-day, therefore, hear his voice,' Psa. xcv. 7. Thou hast lost yesterday negligently, thou losest to-day wilfully; 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 dried 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 wiU be for ever our children's. As well now 'the light of the Gentiles,' as before 'the glory of Israel,' Luke ii. 32. 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 shaU 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 Psalmist 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 stai-ve their bodies, and hazard their souls, to leave them rich. To such a father it is said justly : Dives es liaredi, j^miper 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 com-se to make them miserable ; for HeB. XIII. 8.] SEMPER IDEM. 9 they leave tlicm not so much heirs to their goods as to their evils. They do as certainly inherit their father's sins as their lands : ' God layeth up his iniquity for his children ; and his offspring shall want a morsel of hread,' Job xxi. 19. On the contraiy, 'the good man is merciful, and lendclh; and his seed is blessed,' Ps. xxxvii. 26. 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. Trust, then, Christ with thy children ; when thy friends shall fail, usury bear no date, oppression be condemned to hell, thyself rotten to the dust, the world itself turned and bm-ned into cinders, still 'Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, and to-day, and for ever.' Now then, as ' grace and peace arc 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. But the tongue can no man tame ; it is an imrmy evil, full of deadly 2wiso7i.' — James III. 8. Heee 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 discom-se), 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, unraly 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- raly 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 nature 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 instrument ; let it give music to him that made it. All creatures in their kind bless God, Ps. cxhdii. They that want tongues, as the heavens, sun, stars, meteors, orbs, elements, praise him with such obedient testi- monies as their insensible natures can aflford. They that have tongues, though they want reason, praise him with those natural organs. The bii'ds 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 reh- gion to direct his reason, should much much more bless him. Therefore, says the Psalmogi-apher, that for the well timing 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 HI. 8.] the taming of the tongue. 11 Not that praise can add to God's glor}-, nor blasphemies detract from it. The blessing tongue cannot make him better, nor the cm-sing, worse. Nee melior si laudavcris, nee deterior si vituperavemJ- 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 wo cannot enlarge his gloiy, wo may enlarge the manifestation of his gloiy. 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 lives and happy lips (if I may so speak) may make a little Christ a great Christ. They that before little re- garded him, may thus be brought to esteem him gi'eatly ; giving him the honom* due to his name, and glorifying him, after om* 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 lips, a devout acknowledgment of God's praise ; Quia Creator ad esse; Conservator in esse; Becreator in bene esse; Glorijicator in optima esse. He gave us being that had none ; presented us in that being ; restored us, 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 qim debet, reddet eipatiendo qua; 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 like 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, necessaiy, little, singular. [1.] Excellent. Abstractively and simply understood, it is an exceeding excellent member, both quoad mojestatem, et quoad jucunditatem. 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 licence 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 admiration of man. Therefore it is observed, that God did punish the ingi-atitude 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 spirits can frame an aerial voice, as the devil when he spake in the serpent that fatal temptation, as in a trunk ; but man only hath the habitual faculty of speaking. SccondJij; For the pleasantness of the tongue, the general consent of all gives it the truest vwlos, 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. exxxiv. ■)■ August. 12 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeEMON LIX. evil ? I take the pliiloshplier's old and trite answer, Lingua nihil est vel bona melius, vel mala pejus : Than a good tongue, there is nothing better ; than an evil, nothing worse. Nihil habet medium , aut grande honum est, 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 gi'ace to the hearers. If it be evil, it is a wild bedlam, fall of goading and madding mischiefs. So the tongue is every man's best 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 Grod's public service. Pars optima hominis, dignaqucB 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, ' with salt,' as the apostle admonisheth ; not with fire, Col. iv. G. Let it not be so salt as fii-e (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. Rather ' 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 Italian proverb : The devil makes his Christmas pie of lewd tongues. It is his daintiest dish, and he makes much of it ; whether on earth, to serve his turn as an instru- 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 lips 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, convejdng 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 ; mirth without a partner is hilaris cum pondere feli- citas. But to disburden giiefs, and pour forth sorrows in the bosom of a friend, 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 spiiit hath said, I will speak yet ere I die ; and by spealdng 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 in 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 diligent messenger, a faithful tongue. [3.] It is little. As man is a little world in the great, so is his tongue a great 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 ; little in quantity, but great in iniquit3\ What it hath lost in the thickness, it hath gotten in the quickness ; and the defect of magnitude is recompensed in the agility. An arm may be longer, but the * Hieron. t Prudentiu3. James III. 8.] the taming of the tongue. 13 tongiie is stronger ; and a leg hath more flesh than it hath, besides bones, which it hath not ; yet the tongue still nins 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 iniuidiis fjarnditaiis, a world of prating. If it be a wrangling tongue, it is 7nundus Utir/atioim, 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 mundm scurrilitatis, a world of wantonness. If it be a poisonous tongue, it is 7nun- dus infectionis; saith our apostle, 'it defileth the whole body,' vcr. G. It is ' httle.' So httle, 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, rjiganteajactat: It is a 'httle member,' yet ' boasteth great things,' ver. 5. Though it bo httle, yet if good, it is of gi-eat use. A little bit guidcth a great horse, ad cquitis libitum, to the rider's pleasure. A little helm nileth a^'eat vessel ; though the winds blow, and the floods oppose, yet the helm > steers the ship. Though little, yet if evil, it is of gi-eat mischief. ' A little leaven sours the whole lump,' 1 Cor. v. G. A little reinora dangers a great vessel. A little sickness distempereth the whole body. A little fire setteth a whole city on combustion. ' Behold how great a matter a httle fire kindleth,' ver. 6. It is little in substance, yet great ad affectum, to provoke passion ; ad effectum, to produce action. A Seminary's tongue is able to set instraments on work to blow up a parliament. So God hath disposed it among the members, that it governs or misgoverns all ; and is either a good king, or a cruel tyrant. It either prevails to good, or peiTerts to e\il ; pm-ifieth or putrefieth the whole carcase, the whole conscience. It betrayeth the heart, when the heart would betray God ; and the Lord lets it double treason on itself, when it prevaricates with him. It is a httle leak that drowneth a ship, a little breach that loseth an army, a little spring that pom's forth an ocean. Little ; j-et the lion is more troubled with the little wasp, than with the gi*eat elephant. And it is ob- servable, that the Egyptian sorcerers failed in ^ninimis, that appeared skilful and powerful in majoribus. Doth Moses turn the waters into blood ? ' The magicians did so with their enchantments,' Exod. \ai. 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 lice (ver. 17), the magicians could not effect the like ; nor in the ashes of the fmnaco turned into boils and blains, chap. ix. 10. In frogs and waters they held a semblance, not in the dust and ashes turned into lice and sores. Many have dealt better ^^^th the greater members of the body than with this little one. Defece}-unt 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 h\-ing, with the other give and relievo his brother's wants. Two feet, one to walk on common days to his ordiuaiy labour. 14 THE TAMING 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, 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 aiTns 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 honoui'able. 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 Uttle, that the malice of them might be somewhat restrained. Thirdly, Because it is so unruly, the Lord hath hedged it in, as a man will 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, hke wild beasts, break through the circular hmits 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 husbandly, 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 bm'glary, 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, ' Lord, open thou my lips, and my mouth shall shew forth thy praise, ' Ps. li. 1 5. 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 Quidferet hie dignum tanto promissor hiatu? Saint Bernard gives us excellent counsel. Sint tua verba rara, contra muUilgquium ; vera, contra falsiloqicium ; j^onderosa, contra vaniloquium. Let thy words be few, true, weighty, that thou mayest not speak much, not falsely, not vainly. Re- member the bounds, and keep the no7i ultra. Secondly ; Since God hath made the tongue one, have not thou ' a tongue and a tongue.' Some are double-tongued, as they are do^bl^-hearted. i James III. 8.] the tajiing of the tongue. 16 But God bath 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. Ho hath given us two eyes, two ears, two hands, two feet. Of all these we will have, or at least use, but one. We have one eye to pry into others' faults, not another to see our own. We have one eai* to hear the plaintiff, 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. Wo 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 grace; monstrous men; monoculi, monojwdcs: bicordes,hilin{jnes: 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 con-sinceth them of preposterous folly, that put all their mahce into their 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 chirogram ; they cannot stretch them forth to the poor, nor give relief to the needy. Their feet podagram ; they cannot go to the chm-ch. Their eyes ophthabniam ; 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 ai'e in health; there is blithcness and volubility in them. If they see a distressed man, they can give him talkative comfort enough; ' Be wanned, 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 natm-e of the thing to be tamed, the tongue ; let us consider the difiiculty of this entei-prise. 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 theii* faculties and ofiices; none of them idle. [1.] The eye sees far, and beholdeth the creatures in cccJo, solo, sola: in the heavens, sun, and stars ; on the earth, birds, beasts, plants, and minerals ; in the sea, fishes and serpents. That it is an unraly member, let our gi-andmother speak, whose roving eye lost us all. Let Dinah speak ; her wandering eye lost her virginity, caused the eft'usion of much blood. Let the Jews speak concerning the daughters of Midian ; what a fearful apostasy the eye procured! Yea, let Da\'id 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 unraly 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 unraly evil.' [2.] The ear yet hears more than ever the eye saw; and by reason of its patulous admission, dei-ivcs that to the understanding whereof the sight 16 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeEMON 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. Mary 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 Grod, 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 mahce kicks at God. There is a dancing foot, that paceth the measures of circular wickedness. Yet, as unruly 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 Ahab'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 dabitis, what will you give me to betray the Lord of life ? There is a hand rf 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, 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 ftdl 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 lilies 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 creatures 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 JaJIES m. 8.] THE TAXIING OF THE TONGUE. 17 are all over poisonous ; tlio very basilisk, that kills witli his 03'cs (as they write) three furlongs off. 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 bo gi-eat wonders. ' They that go down to tho sea in ships, that do business in great waters; these see the works of tho Lord, and his wonders in the deep,' Ps. cvii. 23, 21. Yet those natural wonders have been tamed by our artificial wonders, ships. Even the levi- athan himself, ' out of whoso mouth go burning lamps and sparks of fire. Out of his nostrils goeth smoke, as out of a boiling caldron,' Job xli. 19, 20. Sqiicima sqiimiia; coiijwuj'dnr : 'the flakes of his flesh are joined together; they are finn in themselves, and cannot be moved.' Yet we know that this huge creatui-e 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 lure stops the highest-soaring hawk ; nay, art makes one fowl catch another, for man's delight and benefit; incredible things, if they were not ordinaiy. Snares, lime-twigs, nets, tame them all ; even the peUcan in the desert, and the eagle amongst the cedars. Thus saith our apostle, verses 7, 8 : ' Eveiy kind' (not every one of eveiy kind, but every kind of nature of all), ' of beasts, of birds, of sei-pents, and of things in the sea, is tamed, and hath been tamed of the natm-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 m.^y. It is most unworthy of answer. Woman, for the most part, hath tho glibbest tongue ; and if ever this impossibility preclude men, it shall nuich more annihilate the power of the weaker sex. ' She is loud,' saith Solomon, Prov. vii. 11 ; 'a foolish woman is ever clamorous,' ix. 13. She calls her tongiie her defensive weapon ; she means ofl'eusive : a fii-ebrand 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 life, and the apostles the words of salvation ; and many men's speech ministers gi-ace to the hearers. Yield it; yet this general rule will have no exceptions: 'no man can tame it:' man hath no stern-'- 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 lips,' 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 they often have an unruly trick. Abraham lies ; Moses murmurs ; Elias, for fear of a queen and a quean, wisheth to die. Jonah frets for the gourd ; David cries in his heart,! * AH men are bars ;' 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 instruction hence riseth in full strength ; that God only can tame ♦ Qu. ' helm ?'— Ed. t Q"- ' taste ?' or ' heat ?'— Ed. TOI.. Ill B 18 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeRMON 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. * Lord, open thou my lips, and then my mouth shall be able to shew forth thy praise,' Ps. H. 15. God must open Avith his golden key of grace, or else our tongues will arrogate a hcentious passage. We had better hold our peace, and let our tongues he 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. 3. His adulteiy 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 vmto thee, and mine iniquity have I not hid. I said, I will confess my transgressions unto 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 seiTant's eyes to see, 2 Engs vi. 17. He did open the prophet's ears to hear, Isa. 1. 5. He did open Paul's mouth to speak, Col. iv. 3. 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 unsavouiy speeches. We may think it a high oiSce (and worthy even David'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 weaiy 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 infusa ; when a good work, it is gratia dif- fma. 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 turn his heart. Two useful benefits may be made hereof. First, It is taught us, whither we have recom'se 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 iron to tame it ; God can. Let us move oiu- tongues to entreat help for our tongues ; and, according to their office, let us set them on work to speak for themselves. Secondl}', We must not be idle ourselves ; the difiiculty must spur us to more earnest contention. As thou wouldst keep thy house from thieves, thy ganneuts from moths, thy gold from rast, so carefully preserve thy tongue from unruliness. As ' the Lord doth set a watch before thy mouth, and keep the door of thy lips,' Ps. cxli. 3 ; so thou must also be vigilant thyself, and not tui-n over thy own heart to security. * How can ye, being evil, speak good things ? for out of the abundance of the heart ' James III. 8.] the taming of the tongue. 19 the mouth speaketh,' ]\Iatt. xii. 84. Look how far the heart is good, so far the tonrjue. If the heart beheve, the tongue will confess ; if the heart be meek, the tongue will be gentle ; if the heart be angiy, the tongue will be bitter. The tongue is but the hand without, to shew how the clock goes within. A vain tongue discovers a vain heart. But some have words soft as butter, when their heai'ts 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 errand, and, with stum- bling forgetfulness, trip at the door of truth. * The heart of fools is in then- mouth : but the mouth of the wise is in their heart,' Eccles. xxi. 26. To avoid ill communication, hate ill cogitation : a polluted heart makes a foul mouth ; therefore one day, ex ore tuo, ' out of thine o^\ti mouth, will God condemn thee.' II. 1. It is ' an umiily evil.' — The difficulty of taming the tongue, one would think, were sufficiently expi-essed in the e\il of it ; but the apostle seconds it vrith. another obstacle, signifying the wild nature of it, unnily. It is not only an e\dl, but an unnily 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 riolat: The tongue runs quickly, therefore wrongs quickly. Speedy is the pace it goes, and there- fore speedy is the mischief it does. WTien all other members are dull with age, the tongue alone is quick and nimble. It is an um'uly evil to om'selves, to our neighbom-s, to the whole world.* (1.) To om'selves ; verse G, ' it is so placed among the members, that it defileth all.' Though it were evil as the plague, and umnly as the possessed Gergesene (Matth. viii.), yet if set off with distance, the evil rests within itself. A leper shut up in a pesthouse rankleth to himself, infects not others. A wUd cannibal in a prison may only exercise his savage cnielty upon the stone walls or iron gi-ates. But the tongue is so placed, that being evil and um-uly, it hiu-ts aU the members. (2.) To our neighbours. There are some sins that hurt not the doer only, but many sufferers. These are districtly the sins of the tongue and the hand. There are other sins, private and domestical, the sting and smart whereof dies in the ovra soul ; and without ferther extent, plagues only the own soul ; and without fiirther extent, plagues only the person of the com- mitter. So the lavish is called no man's foe but his own ; the proud is guilty of his own vanity ; the slothful bears his own 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 Hghts on themselves. But some iniquities are swords to the countiy, as oppression, rapine, cir- cumvention ; some incendiaries to the whole land, as e\'il and umiily tongues. (3.) To the whole world. If the vastate ruins of ancient monmnents, if the depopulation of comitries, if the consuming fii-es 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 b}' the tongue. You see the latitude and extension of this unruly enl, more umiily than the hand. Slaughters, massacres, oppressions, are done by the hand ; the tongue doth more. Parcit manus abscnti, liufjua nemini: The hand spares to hm-t the absent, the tongue hurts all. One may avoid the sword by * Erasm. 20 THE TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeEMON LIX. running from it ; not tlie tongue, though he run to the Indies. The hand reacheth but a small compass ; the tongue goes through the world, If a man wore coat of armour, or mail of brass, jei penetrahunt spicula lingnce: the darts of the tongue will pierce it. It is evil, and doth much harm ; it is unruly, and doth sudden harm. You will say, Man}'- wicked men have often very 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 e"vdl, 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 well. Om* Saviour, 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 prattling devil ; with the malicious slanderer, a brawling devil ; with the unquiet peace-hater, a scolding devil ; with the avarous and ill-conscious lawv^er, a wi'angling devil ; with the fac- tious schismatic, a gaping devil ; with the swaggering ruffian, a roaring de^vil. All whom Christ by his ministers doth conjm-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 answers : He that daily commits new sins, and doth not penitently confess his old, roars much, yet holds his tongue. The father pricked the pleurisy-vein of our 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 calls it fire. Now you know fire is an ill master ; but this is unruly fire. Nay, he calls it ' the fire of hell,' blown with the bellows of mahce, kindled with the breath of the devil. Nay, Stella hath a conceit, that it is worse than the fire of hell ; for that torments only the wicked ; this all, both good and bad. For it is flabellum invidi, and Jiagellum 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 three sorts of lan- guages observed : celestial, terrestrial, and infernal. The heavenly language is spoken by the saints. * Blessed are they that dwell in thy house : they will be still praising thee,' Psa. Ixxxiv. 4. Their discom^se is habituated, like their course or conversation, which Paul saith is heavenly, Phil. iii. 20. The earthly tongue is spoken of worldlings : ' He that is of the earth is earthly; and speaketh of the earth,' John iii. 31. 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 Behal. Now, as the countryman is known by his language, and as the damsel told Peter, ' Sure thou art of Galilee, for thy speech bewi'aycth thee ;' so by this rule you may know heavenly men by their gracious conference ; earthly men by their worldly talk ; and hellish, by the language of the low countries — swearing, cursing, blasphemy. Well therefore did the apostle call this tongue a fii'e ; and such a fire as sets the whole world in combustion. Let these unruly tongues take heed jAilES 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 goeth 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 laud mourned,' Jar. xxiii. 10. No manel if God curse us for om* cursings ; and if the plague light upon our bodies, that have so hotly trolled it in om- tongues ; no wonder if we have blistered carcases, that have so blistered consciences ; and the stench of contagion punish us for om- stinking breaths. Our tongues must walk, till the hand of God walk against us. 2. 'Full of deadly poison.' — Poison is homhii iniinicum ; loathsomely contraiy to man's nature ; 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 full of it, ' full of deadly poison.' Tell a blasphemer this, tliat he vomits bell fu'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 infaUible warrant. 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 serpent, 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 bespurtle 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 cannot use it well. Mordet dctrahcndo, Ibujit adulando : He bites by de- traction, licks by flattery ; and either of these touches rankle ; he doth no less hmi by licking than by biting. All the parts of his mouth are instru- ments of wickedness. Logicians, in the ditiereuce betwixt vocem and soniim, say that a voice is made by the lips, teeth, throat, tongue. The psalmogi-apher 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 frementcs, frendentes ; 'gnashing teeth.' 3. The tongue Unf/iia mcndax, Imgua mordax : 'What shall be done unto thee, thou false tongue?' ver. 3. 4. The ihxoai lyatens sepukhnim: ' Their tlu'oat is an open sepulchi'e,' 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 throat, and there is devouring. I cannot omit the moral of that old fable. Three children call one man father, who brought them up. Dying, he bequeaths all his estate only to one of them, as his true natural son ; but which that one was, left uncer- tain. Hereupon eveiy one claims it. The wise magistrate, for speedy decision of so gieat an ambiguity, causeth the dead father to be set up as a mark, promising the challengers, that which of them could 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 TAMING OF THE TONGUE. [SeRMON LIX. mer bastards. The scope of it is plain, but significant. 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 cursing tongues ! To conclude, God shall punish such tongues in their own kind ; they were fall 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 fall could loose his tongue to blasphemy, wanted water to cool his tongue. His tongue sinned, his tongue smarted. Though his toiTQent was universal, yet he complains of his tongue. That panted, that smoked, that reeked with sulphur and brimstone : that bums with the flame of heU dead, that burned 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. TEE SOUL'S EEFUGE. ' Let them that suffer according to the uill of God commit the Jceepinf) of their soids to him in uell doing, as unto a faithful Creator.' — 1 Pet. IV. 19. A TEUE Chiistian's life is one day of tlii-ee meals, and every meal liatli in it two courses. His first meal is, Nasci et renasci ; to be born a sinner, and to be new born a saint. ' I was born in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me ; ' there is one course. ' Except a man be bom again, be cannot see the kingdom of God;' there is the other coiu'se. His second meal is, Bene acjerc, ct male pati ; to do well, and to suffer ill. ' Do good unto all, but especially unto those that are of the household of faith ; ' there is one course of doing. ' All that live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ; ' there is the other course of suffering. His third meal is, Mori et vivere ; to die a temporal death, to live an eternal life. The first is liis breakfast, and herein he is natui'ally natus et damnatus, bom in sin and condemned for sin; spiritually rcnatus et justificatus, bom again in righteousness and justified from sin. The last is his supper, wherein there is one bitter dish, death. StatuUim est omnibus scmcl viori, 'It is appointed to all men to die once;' omnibus semcl, 2)lerisque bis, to all once, to many twice; for there is a 'second death.' And that is truly a death, because it is mors vita;, the death of life : the other rather a Ufe, for it is mors mortis, the death of death; after which mors non erit ultra, 'there shall be no more death.' Therefore rise, that you may not fall; rise nov by a righteous life, lest you fall into an everlasting death. If the soul will not now rise, the body shall one day be raised, and go with the soul to judgment. The second com-se is incomparably sweet; vivere j)ost mortem, to live 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 lives well shall sleep well. He that now apprehends mercy, mercy shall hereafter comprehend him. Mercy is the tdtimus 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 jmtiendo malum and. faciendo bonum, in doing good and suffering evil. And on these two courses my text spends itself. Fii'st, ' they that suffer according to the will of God ; * there is the passion. Secondly, they may ' trust God with their souls in well doing ; ' there is the action. 24 THE soul's kefuge. [Sermon LX- More particularly, in the words we may consider five gradual circum- stances. 1. The sufferance of the saints, ' They that suffer.' 2. The integrity of this sufferance, ' According to the will of God.' ^ 3. The comfort of this integrity, ' 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 sufferance of the saints, ' They that suffer.' All men suffer: ' Man is born unto trouble as the sparks fly upward,' Job v. 7. This life is well compared to a throng 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 drives out both the former, and if he have not the greatest part in suffering evil, lightly he hath the greatest share in doing it. Outward things happen alike to good and bad. * There is one event to the clean and to the unclean; to him that sacrificeth, 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 wicked 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 unclean, righteous and wicked, promiscuously confused. (2.) The grave; this is a common house, a very pesthouse, where all lie together under the surgery 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 bio partes ubi se via findit in ambas.' Some go to hell, others to heaven. ' They shall come forth, they that have done good, mito the resurrection of life ; and they that have done evil, imto the resurrection of damnation,' John v. 29; some to immortal honour, others to immortal horror. 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 burn incense to their drag,' Hab. i. 16; nor all afiiiction to the good, lest they should fall to some sinister and unv/arrantable 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 vitce nee prosperitas innocentiam testatnr, nee acerhitas miseram anbnam indlcatJ- Neither do the crosses of this world mtness a man's guiltiness, nor the blessings of the world his innocence. But the good have a larger share in sufferings than the reprobates. Impiiis non per- cutitur nisi a domino, nos ab impiis. None strikes the wicked but God, but all the wicked strike and vex us. This world, Hke the earth, is a mere stepdame to good herbs, an own mother to weeds. No marvel if she starves us; all is too little for her own children. Omnes patiuntur plurima, quidam fere omnia. All suffer many kinds of miseries ; many suffer 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 : Jo}> fortinr in stcrcorc, quCiin Adam in Paradiao. Jdb was more Btroug to resist temptatious in the miserable dust than was Adam in that glorious garden. The Jews were connnanded to cat sour herbs with their sweet passovcr. Bitterness ever treads on the heels of pleasure. Jacob hath a son and loseth his wife; Benjamin is bora, 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* sour 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 evils 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 sutler is specially necessary. Sudden crosses find weak souls secm-e, leave them miserable, make them desperate. Ex- pectation malum leviits viordet. A looked-for evil smarts more gently. liepentina bona sunt suaviora; sed repentina mala sunt graviora. Unex- pected joys are more gracious, but unexpected evils are more gi'icvous. Mischiefs come most commonly without warning. They do not allow, as Jonas did to Nmeveh, forty daj's' respite; not so much as an hac node, 'this night,' which was allowed to the worldling: ' This night shall they fetch away thy soul fi-om 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 cubili ? ' What if sickness shall cast thee down on thy weary couch? Though riches allow thee meat for thy stomach, what if siclmess allow thee not stomach to thy meat? How if the veiy smell, if the veiy thought, of thy best dishes should offend thee? How if, after many tossed sides and shifted places, nullo potcris requiesccie lecto .- thou couldst find no comer to give thee ease ? How couldst thou take this distemper ? Thou ai't rich ; thy thi'oat tastes it, thy belly feels it, thy back wears it: how if, fi-om no fear of want, thou shouldst come to deep poverty, to care for to-morrow's provision, wth extreme sweat of brows not to cani bread enough to keep life and soul together, nakedness exposing thy body to the violence of heaven, scorching heat of the sim, cold stomis of the air? How couldst thou brook the difference between that abmidant opulency and this destitute penmy ? Thou art at homo in peace, singing in thine own vineyards ; thou sittest in a shock secm-e, whilst thy reapers fell do\\-n the humble corn at thy foot and fill thy bams. "What if for religion thou shouldst be sent to exile, where thou mayest weep with Israel to thy de- riding enemies, demanding a song of Ziou ? ' 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-ai-m our souls ; nothing shall make them miserable that have this preparation. Agabus told Paul, having fii-st bound his hands and feet with his gii'dle, ' Thus saith the Holy Ghost, So shaU the Jews at Jemsalem bind the man that owueth this girdle,' Acts xxi. 11. Hereupon the rest of the saints besought him with tears not to go up to Jerusalem. But observe that blessed apostle's resolved answer, Paratus sum, ' I 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,' vcr. 13. The account is past, I am prepared. 26 THE soul's refuge. [Seemon LX. Men that want this fore -resolution are like a secure city, that spends all her wealth in fiu-nishing her chambers and furbishing 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 yoimg 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 ventures 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 weU encounter their shadows. ' Mischiefs are like the cockatrice's eye, If they see first they kill, foreseen they die.' "What oui' foresight takes from their power it adds to our own ; it ener- vates their strength and corroborates 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 fire. (2.) They must be made welcome when they are come. Non ut hostes, sed ut hosjntes admittendi. They must not be entertained as enemies, but as guests. Their ' feet are beautiful that bring good tidings,' Kom. s. 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 vdthout correction, then are ye bastards,' Heb. xii. 8. Non timeas flagellari, sed exharedari* Fear not to be scom-ged, but to be disinherited. There is so much comfort in sorrow as makes all afilietion 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 lacryvKS. In misery he spared Saul, his great adversary; in peace he killed Uriah, his dear friend. 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 sun or the wind will first make a man throw off 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 Hvery, a sincere profession. Now which of these will micase thee of thy zeal ? The boisterous wind makes a man gather his cloak closer about him ; the hot, silent sun makes him weary of so heavy a burden ; he soon does it off. Secure plenty is the warm sun, which causeth many to discloak themselves, and cast oft' 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. When a man cannot find peace upon earth, he quickly runs to heaven to seek it. Plutarch writes, that Antigonus had in his army a valiant soldier, but of a sickly body. Antigonus, observing his valom-, procured 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 from danger, no more venturing into the van or forlorn place of the battle. Antigonus, noting and wondering at this alteration, asked him the cause of this new cowardice. He answers, ' Antigonus, thou art the cause ! Before, I ventm-ed nothing * Aug. t Greg. 1 Pet. IV. 19.] 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 afilicted life makes a man bold in his religion. It is nothing to part with hunger, thirst, cold, contempt ; but when prosperous fortunes flow upon him, he dares not stick so con- stantly to Christ. 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, InteU'ujat homo Dcum esse medicum : sub medicamento positus ureris, sccaris, clamas. Non audit medicus ad voluntatem, sed audit ad saiiitatem.* Understand God thy physician, he ministers to thee a bitter but wholesome potion. Thy stomach abhors it. Thou hest bound under his hand, whiles he works upon thee. Thou criest to be delivered ; 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 child cries for the knife, the parent knows it can but hurt him ; tliough he weep for it, he shall not have it. Such children 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 fi.-om the sufi'erance of the saints, to 2. The integrity of that sufierance. — ' 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 sufliciently 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 e-vil-doer.' For, chap. ii. 19, ' This is thankworthy, if a man for conscience toward God endure grief, suffering wi-ongfully.' This our Saviour taught us : * Blessed are they that suffer persecution for righteous- ness' sake' [non qui patiimtur, sed qui patiuntur jnvpter justitiam), ' for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.' Non mortes, sed mores faciunt martijres. It is not the death, but the cause, that gives the honour of martyrdom. Indeed, there is no man that sufters 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 suflerings of the reprobates : this is his just judg- ment. They are smitten, but for then- 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 beneplacitum 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 Ubelling, all these suffer, but not for conscience toward God, not ' according to his will.' They only are said to suflcr according to his wHl, that suffer first innocently, then patiently. (1.) Innocently ; for the wicked suffer, ^[ali mala, sed merito. Evil men bear e\'il things, but after theu- deserts. The pope hath made many • Aug. 28 THE soul's refuge. [Sermon LX. saints from this kind of suffering. Straw-saints, such as Garnet was. If they be first drenched at Tiber, and after hanged at Tyburn, martijres 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 ^vith- out an ague ; so none of them suffer from the Romish religion, nor without the Romish rehgion. Therefore as Aristides, dying 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 volnntaiem 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 martjnrs 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 fire, 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 oui'selves, if we suffer any wrong of men, let us be sure 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 mm-muring 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 sufier 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 run with patience the race that is set before us. If we cannot endure an angiy word fi-om our brother's mouth, how would we suffer boiling lead, and broiling coals, as the martyrs 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 wt. The back of patience can bear no load. But ' ought not Christ first to suffer these things, and then to enter into his glory ?' Luke xxiv. 24. First he was crowned with thoms, and then crowned with honours. Caput spinosum in terris, si sit (iloriosum in ccclis: That head must first wear a wreath of sorrow on earth, that shall wear a wreath of joy in heaven. ' Hereunto are we called : because Christ suffered for us, leaving us an example, that we should follow in his steps,' 1 Pet. ii. 21. * Martyrol. 1 Pet. IV. 19.] the soul's refuge. 29 Secondhj, That all this Is ' according to the \\ill of God.' Onr 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 surfeit on such meat made me sick. So the cur bites the stone, which could never have hurt him but from the hand that threw it. Look up to the first mover, madman, and discharge the means. The instrument may be unjust in thy wrongs, but the cause is just from him that inHicted it. What rod soever beats thee, consider it ' according to the will of God,' and bo 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 scmple. The impatient man wants either wisdom or obedience. Wisdom, if he be ignorant from whom his crosses come ; obedience, if he knows it, and is not patient. This is the integi'ity of the suflering ; 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 patitur propter Deitm, rccurrit ad Deum. He that suficrs 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 gi'ace to help in time of need,' Heb. iv. IG. Here let us observe three circumstances, Quis, Quid, Cut : who, what, to whom. (1.) Who ? — ' They that suffer according to the will of God.' Felicity tLinks 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 mioidi, with the poison of the world. ' Give strong di-ink to the hea-\y,' saith Solomon. God will not give his consolations to those that are drunk with prosperity, mad-men-y with this world ; but his wine to the heavy heart. He will * comfort them that mourn,' Isa. Ixi. 2. ' Let them that suffer commit,' &c. (2.) '\\1iat ? — 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 law^'er to keep our inheritance, the physician to keep our body, the coffer to keep our money, shephei'ds to keep om- flocks ; but the soul hath need of a better keeper. Howsoever it goes with thy liberty, with thy love, with thy land, with thy life ; 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. No7i anima i^ro cor- pore, sed corpus j^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 80 well 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 instinmient of the soul, it acts what the other directs ; so it is the external, actual, and instimmental olTender : Satan will 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 ovm 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 • Chrja. 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 will go with it. The devil is a churlish keeper ; he labours to keep the soul from salvation. The body is a brittle and inconstant keeper ; eveiy siclmess opens the door, and lets it out. God only is the sui*e 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. Lord, keep thou our only one ; do thou ' rescue our soul from destructions, our darling from the lions,' Ps. XXXV. 17. Trust us not with om' 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 fr'om the body ; in the body with the Lord. The two last are refeiTed 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 sito Domino. Here be four sorts of men reprovable. They that trust not God with their souls, nor themselves, but rely it only upon other men. They that will not trust God with their souls, nor others, but only keep it themselves. They that wiU trust neither God with their souls, nor others, nor keep it them- selves. They that will neither trust others with their souls, nor themselves, but only God, yet without his warrant that he wiU keep it. First, They that trust their souls simply to the care of others : they are either papists or profane protestants. The papist trusts 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 interposeth an armoury of Agnus 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 armour of God. He speaks of a plate of righteousness for the breast, shoes of 2X(tience 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, crucifixes, asper- sions, unctions, &c. Or they will trust the saints in heaven with their souls — ' Sancta virgo Dorthea, Tua nos virtute bea, Cor in nobis novum crea.' What that prophet (Ps. li. 10) desired ef 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 Vii'gin Mary — ' Virgo Mater, maris stella, Fons hortorum ; Verbi cella, Ne nos pcstis aut procella, Pectatores obruant.' 1 Pet. IV. 19.] the soxHi's refuge. 81 But the saints are deaf, nan amlimit. They wouhl pray them to forbear such prayers ; they abhor such superstitious worship. They that were so jealous of God's honour ou earth, would be loath to rob him of it in heaven. So our carnal professors only trust the minister with their soul, as if God had imposed on him that charge, which the prophet gave to Ahab, ' Keep this man : if by any means he be missing, then shall thy life be for his hfe,' 1 Kings xx. 39. But indeed if he do his duty in ad- monishing : * If thou warn the wicked of his way to turn from it ; if he do not turn fi-om 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 wi-ap it wann in the nest of their own presumptuous merits, as if good works should hatch it up to heaven. But the soul that is thus kept ^\^ll be lost. He that will go to heaven by his own 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. All in many things, many in all things; and the most learned papists, whatsoever they have said in their disputations, reserve this.tnith in their hearts, otherwise speaking in their deaths than they did in their hves. Now non merita viea, sed misericordia tita, not my merits, but thy mercies, Lord. All our life is either unprofitable or damnable ; there- fore, man, what remains? Nisi ut in tola vita tua deplores totam vitam tuam* but that dm-uag all thy life thou shouldest lament all thy life? 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 Sa'viour, Jesus Christ. Thirdly, They that will neither tinist others with their soul nor keep it themselves, but either do sell it for ready money, as Esau sold his bu-th- right, and Judas sold Jesus, or pa-mi it for a good bribe, some large tempta- tion of profit, or pleasui'e, or honour. They will not sell it outright, but mortgage it for a while, with a pm-pose (that seldom speeds) to redeem it; or lose it, walking negligently through the streets of this gi'eat 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 hoiTors within. They serve the de\irs turn for nothing. Fourthly, They that will trust God with their soul, but have no wan-ant that God will keep it. They lay all the burden upon the shoulders of Christ, and meddle no more ^vith the matter ; as if God would bring them to heaven even whilst they pm'sue 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 wU. As he doth save us by his Son, so he commands us ' to work up our salvation with fear and trembling,' Phil, ii. 12. He that lies still in the miry pit of his sin, and trusts to heaven for help out, without his o's\ti concumng endeavour, may hap to He there still. Sccondlij, Dying ; there is no comfort but to trust the soul with God. So David, ' Lord, into thy hands I commit my spmt,' 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 trust God with thy * Ansclm. 32 THE soul's refuge. [Sermon LX. spirit. The soul of the 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 neqnam, aiit nequicquam, either no comfort or dis- comfort; when thy wardrobe, furniture, junkets, wine offend thee; when thy money cannot defend thee ; when thy doctors feed themselves at thy cost, cannot feed thee; when wife, children, friends stand weeping about thee; where is thy help, thy hope? All the world hath not a dram of comfort for thee. This sweetens all, ' Lord, into thy hand I commend my soul; thou hast redeemed me, thou God of truth.' Our spirit is our dearest 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. Spiritum emittis, non amittis. Durius seponitur, seel 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. While 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 all sorrow. There may be trouble in the wilderness ; in the land of promise there is all peace. Then may we sing, ' Our soul is escaped as a bii-d out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped,' Ps. cxxiv. 7. Invadlt Satanas, evaclit 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 cheerfully ; and then, like a faithful Creator, that thou givest to him in short pain he will give thee back with endless joy. And so we come fitly from the comfort of our integrity, to 4. The boldness of this comfort. — ' As unto a faithful 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 carved. But much more natural to love his own images, his children, the walldng pictures of himself, the divided pieces of his o^vn body. God loves us as our Creator, because his own hands have fashioned us. But creaiit et vermiculos, he also created the worms. Yield it, and, therefore, non odit vermiculos, he hates not the very worms. Creavit et diabolum, he made the devil. No ; God made him an angel, he made himself a devil. God loves him nt naturam, as he is a nature; hates him ut diabohnn, as he is a corrupted nature, an evil, a devil. But we are not only his creatures, the workmanship of his hands, but his children. So Adam is called ' The son of God,' Luke iii. S8, his own image. Fecit liominem in similitudinem siiam, ' he made man after his likeness, in his image,' Gen. i. 26. We are more than opjis Dei, the mere work of God; for imnr/o Dei, the very image and similitude of God. "We may, therefore, be bold to commend om- souls to God, as ' a faithful Creator.' 1 Pet. IV. 19.] the soul's refuge. 83 Divers men have that for their God which uever was their Creator. , X^^^ proud man makes his honour his god, the covetous man makes his poh<i ^is god, the vohiptuous makes his belly his god. Now, whereas God Jio^ only charged in the iirst precept, ' Thou shalt have no other gods belbro me,' but added further in the next, ' Thou shalt not make to thee any imago or similitude of any thing, v.hether in heaven above, or earth be- neath, or water under the earth,' Sec. 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 epicure hath his idol in the water.* Let them take their gods to them- selves; let no Rachel that hath manied Jacob steal away Laban's idols. Our Creator is in heaven; boldly give thy soul to him. Who should better have it than he that made it? (2.) The other argitment of our comfort is, that he is fidelis, a faithful Creator. He is fiiithful to thee, how imfaithful soever thou hast been to liim. 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 great faithfulaess. He sends his Holy Spirit into thy heart, to apply this redemption of Christ: here is gi'eat faithfulness. Thou often turnest thy back upon him, and followmg sin, leavest him ; he leaves not thee. * I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee,' Heb. xiii. 5 : here is great faithfulness. He hath -pvomisod pcenitctili nmiam, crcdeiiti vita»i ; to him that repenteth, pai'don ; to him that believeth, salvation : here is faith- fuhiess. Now, hath he promised? he is faithful to perform it. "Wliat man or devil dares stand up to challenge God of unfaithfulness ? This infaUibihty Christ knew, when to his Father's faithful hands he gave up the ghost. You will say, AVho might better do it ? The Son might well be confident of the Father. Not he alone : the servants have been faithful also in this emission, and fomid God as foithful in acception. So David, Stephen, &c. God is faithful, there is no distrast in him ; all the fear is in thyself. How canst thou tixist thy jewel with a stranger ? God is thy Creator, and a faithful Creator. But how if thou be an unfaith- ful creature ? Thou wilt frequent the doors of thy patron, piesent 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 call upon him. There hath he charged thee, ' Seek my face ;' thou hast not answered, ' Thy face, Lord, I will seek.' By his Spirit 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 unfaithfulness that hinders us. The reprobates think Chi-ist a stranger to them ; ' "VMien did we see theehvmgi-y?' &c.. Matt. xxv. 44. But indeed they are strangers to Christ, and he may well say, When 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 all his life run from God, and shall God on his deathbed run to him ? No, you would not Imow me ; and therefore now, 7ion nori vos, I know not jon. But the faithful creature Icnows God a faithful Creator : • I know whom I have believed.' Thou mayest say with that good father, Effiedere anima mea, quid times ? Go forth, my soul, go forth with joy, what shouldst thou fear ? Yea it will go without bidding, * Joann. de Combis Compcnd, lib. 5. can. GO. V(.L. liX. c 34 THE soul's refuge. [Seemon LX. and fly clieerfully into the arms of God, whom it trusted as a faithful Crea.tor. I have served thee, believed on thee, now I come imto thee, saith liUther. ' I desu'e to be dissolved, and to be with Chi-ist, says Paul. These are not the voices of worldlings, but of saints. God will be a faith- ful Creator to receive and preserve their souls. I have served thee, saith man ; I have presei-ved thee, saith God. In me a-edis, ad me venis : thou believest 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 sm-e God will take the charge 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 imto me now, when ye are in distress T Jud. xi. 7. Did you thi'ust God out of your hearts, out of your houses, out of your barns, 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 jMtiendo malum, but in faciendo honum ; in suffer- ing that is evil, but in doing that is good. Otherwise if we thrust 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 tenure, to him it must be surrendered. We have a soul within us, but it is not ours (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 weU-doing, as to a faithful Creator. Some live as if they had no souls ; viore helluino, 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 repomint in midtos annos, they lay up for many years ; this was the cosmopolite's self-flattery. ' Soul be merry, thou hast much goods laid up for many years,' Luke xii. Yet others Uve 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 ofl'er of their deathbed refused. If a man had no soul, if a mortal one, if his own, if never to be requu'ed, he might without wonder be induced to hve sensually ; he that knows the contrary will live well, that he may die well, and com- mit his soul to God ' in well-doing.' Here further observe : A man may do good, yet come short of this comfort ; it is given bene facientilnis, 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.] the soul's refuge. 85 \( f all spoiled for want of a bend. ' Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and pharisees, j'ou cannot enter into the king- dom of heaven,' Matt. v. 20. Therefore St Paul's coimsel dhects 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 truth, but not in peace. Si'i'ure 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 truth; Jum ij'hcnmt earn, non quarunt vpsam.* They fail in their sic, they miss this same ' well.' Prostint aliis, sibi neutiquam. They do good to others, but not well to themselves. But wo have almost lost both bonum and bene, f^'ood and well. It is an ill disjunction, that our ftxthers had so good works, ;ni(l wanted our faith ; and we have the true faith, but want theu* works. This 'weir is the very fonn of a good work; and /on?; a dot esse rei, it cannot be good without it. Let me hero take just cause to reprove two sorts of people. (1.) Some there are that trust God with their souls, and destroy their o.vu bodies. But God will take no charge of the soul, but in well-doing. Those virgins that would kill themselves to prevent ravishments, are re- jtroved by just censure. Satitis incertum adulterium infutuw, qitam cerium humicidiitm in pnrsenti. Better an uncertain adulteiy to be endured, than a certain seli^murder to be acted. How can they hope for God's hand of mercy, that lay on themselves a hand of cruelty. Bhasis in the Maccabees, falUng upon his owti sword, and throwing himself down from the wall, yet committed himself to God's keeping, ' calling upon the Lord of life and spirit,' &c., 2 Mac. xiv. 4G. The text says twice (with httle credit to its own judgment) that it was done manfully. But it was magnd, potius qudm bene factum, done with desperate valom* ; with more ventm'e than wisdom, temerity than honesty. This was that the devil left out, when he cited Bcriptm'e to Christ, Matt. iv. 6. ' In all thy ways ; ' he 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 fi'om the pinnacle, to shew the people a tumbhng trick, and to break his neck. So the de\al 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 ^vlll keep their souls, howsoever they walk ; so imder colour of God's protection, he brings them to destruction. Ho 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 encom-agement to a secure life. He tells him of justification, that he is acquitted by the blood of Christ ; so emboldens him on the back of presumption to ride post to hell : "Whereas predestination and justification are only made knoAVTi to us by ' well-doing.' (2.) It is impossible for a man of an ill hfe, 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 ofi" the partition by repentance, then I will keep you, saith God. Commit your souls to the Lord's triist in well-doing, or not at all. If Christ had comedown from the pinnacle headlong, and not by the stau's, ho 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. 86 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 arms, that he cannot help us. He that walks in profaneness, and commits his soul to God, is like him that thi'ows himself into a deep pit, to try whether God will help him out, and save him from drownuig. 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 your life, what you shall eat, or what you shaU drink, or wherewith you shall be clothed : your heavenly Father knows you have need of all these things,' Matt. vi. 31. Yet we dare not tiust 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 our spirits ; more necessary to maintain life in the soul, than is bread to preserve life 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 trust God with the soul, the more precious part, without well-domg, the means to have it saved ; yet dare not trust him with our bodies, unless we can see our barns full, or at least our cup- boards. But in vain thou committest thy soul to God, except thou obeyest God. There is stiU a commandment with the promise. If thou keep not the precept, thou hast no interest in the promise. If thou wilt 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 in lewd courses : we are then out of our M^ay, and the devU may take us up as vaga- bonds. * If thou do well, shalt thou not be accepted ? if thou do evil, sin lieth 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 then* 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 lauds, makes strong conveyances to his desired heirs, that they may be kept. If chLldi'en, he provides to have them safely kept. He keeps his goods fi'om the thief, his chickens from the kite, his lambs fi'om the wolf, his fawn fe-om the hound, his dove from the vermin ; yet he keeps not his soul fr-om the devil. 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 wQl. 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 sm-e, 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 j^tdchrura cUgiio monsircui, 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 houoiu' have all his sahats,' Ps. cxiix. 9. It is no great matter for men to be known to kings and nobles, if the Lord know 1 Pet. IV. 19.] the soul's refuge. 87 them not ; nothing to ritle in tho second coach, .as Joseph ; to bo next to the prince, if they be stranj^ors to the com-t of heaven. Therefore let us all lay hold on well-domg, that we may have comfort in well-dying. We desire to shut up our last scene of life, with in 7naniis tuas, Domine, commcndo spiritum meum ; Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit. Behold, while we hve, God says to us, in manns tuas, homo, com- viendo Spirituiu mciim ; man, into thy hands I commend my Spirit. As we use God's Spirit 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 gi-ace, Kev. iii. 20, he will feast us with a supper of gloiy. If we ' gi-ieve his Spirit,' Eph. iv. 30, he will gi-ieve 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 thj^ hands we commend om* souls ; keep and receive them, thou faithful Creator and God of truth, through Jesus Chiist. Amen. THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR 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 fii-e burning before the throne, the seven-fold Spirit, which is God the Holy Ghost. Unus potentialiter, trimis lyersonalitcr. 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, quot verba;'-'' as many wonders as words, mysteries as sentences. There are other books of the gospel ; but BuUinger calls this Libnmi evanffelicissbnum,} the most gospel-like book, a book of most happy consolation : delivering those eventual comforts, which shall successively and successfully accom- pany the church 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 wi-i tings 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 ohjecto 2^ercipiendo, 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 thicloiess of our sight. God must say unto us, as the man of God spake to Eli in the name of Jehovah, 1 Sam. ii. Hevelando 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 Iii Apoc. Con. 61. RkV. IV. G.] THE SPIEITUAl, NAVIGATOR. 89 what expositions others have given of this hranch ; and then gather somo fi-uit from it, for our ovax instruction and comfort. Being bold to say with St Augustine, whosoever hears mo, ubi pnriter certiis est, j'en/at mccuin ; ubi pariter h(£sitat, qmcrat mecum ; vbi errorem suum cofjuoscit, redeat ad me : ubi meum, revocct me.-- If he be 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 unto me ; if mine, let him recall me. With purpose of avoiding prolixity, I have limited myself to this member of ver. 0, 'And before the throne there was a sea of glass like unto crystal.' 1 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 ciTstal-like sea, of contemplative men: so Emanuel Sa. But I find this foundation so weak, that I dare not set any fi'ame of discom-se on 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 plentitudc : so Ambrose. Per mare historica, per vitnim inoralis, per chrystallinnm spiritualis intclUgentia. By sea is intended an historical knowledge ; by glass a moral ; a spiritual and supernatural by cry'stal. 3. Some understand by this glassy sea Uke crystal, the fulness of all those gifts and graces, which the church derives from Ckrist. 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 natiu-e, 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 Kings 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 I'rom the one brim to the other : it was round aU about, and its height was five cubits : and a line of thirty cubits did compass it round about,' lie. ; ver. 26, 'It contained two thousand baths.' The end why it was made, and use for which it seiTcd, you shall find, ' The sea was for the priests to wash in,' 2 Chron. iv. Now this might well seem to prefigure some gi*eat plenitude. For otherwise, for Aaron and his sons to wash in, Exiguus aliquis urceolus vel [futtulus suffecisset : some cruet, bason, or laver might sufficiently have sensed. 4. Some intend this glassy sea, like to crystal, to signify calum chrys- tallinum, the ciystalline heaven : which they affirm 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 then' opinion is probably deduced from the two attributes, glassy and crv'slaUine. (1.) The fii'st e's.^Yesseth perhicidam matericm, a bright and clear matter. Which sets a difference betwixt that legal, and this evangelical sea. That was ex are conftatum, which is densa et opaca maieries: of molten brass, which was a thick, duskish, and shadowy matter ; not penetrable to the sight. This is mare vitreum, a sea of glass ; more clear, perspicablo, 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, Lord of Hosts ! My soul longeth, yea, even fainteth for the courts of the Lord :' speaking but of that ' legal sanctuaiy,' Heb. ix. 1, which was adorned with those LcAitical ordinances, * Lib. 1, de Trin,, cap. 3. 40 THE SPIEITUAIi NAVIGATOR. [SeEMON LXI, and t5^jical sacrifices ; how mucli more cause have we to rejoice witli Peter and those two brethren, Matt. xvii. 1, to see Jesus Christ transfigui'ed in the gospel, ' his face shining as the sun, and his raiment white as the Hght' ? Being not come to the mount of terror, ' 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 heaventy Jemsalem, and to an innumerable company of angels : to the general assembly and church of the first bom, which are written in heaven,' &c. For, saith Saint Paul sweetly, * If the ministration of condemnation be glory, much more doth the ministration of righteousness exceed in glory,' 2 Cor. iii. 9. They saw Christum relatum, we revelatum; Christ shadowed in the law, we see him manifested in the gospel. Great, without controversy, is the mystery of godliness : God manifested in the flesh, justified in the Spirit, &c., 1 Tim. iii. 16. They saw 2)er fenestram, we sine medio : they darkly through the windows, we without interposition 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 our Saviour. Ourselves wicked and wretched, damnatos 2)riusqtidm natos, condemned before we were bom : sinful, sorro'vs'ful ; cast down by our own fault, but never restorable by our own strength ; without gTace, ' without Christ, without hope, with- out God in the world,' Eph. ii. 12. Our Saviour descending from heaven to sufler for us ; ascending to heaven to pro\'ide for us : discharging us from hell by his sufierings, 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 all the spots and blemishes in j'our own consciences : as you would discover to your eye any blot on your face, by beholding it reflected in a material glass. See, contemplate, admire, meditate yom- own miserj^ and your Saviour's mercy, in this glass represented. (2.) Crystalline is the other attribute: Vfhich. is not idem sifiniJico72S, hni plenioris, nee non 2)lanioris virtutis : not signifying the same thing, but of a fuller and plainer virtue, or demonstration. C'hrystallum est quasi eoppers coloris, accedens proxime ad puritatem a'eris. Crystal is described to be (aa it were) void of colour, as coming next to the simple purity of the air. Now as the other attribute takes from the gospel all obscurity : so this takes from it all impurity. 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 shall 'add to this book :' and his part shaU be 'taken away out of the book of life,' that shall sacrilegiously 'take out from it,' Rev. xxii. 18. Let me say : God beholds us through this ciystal, Jesus Christ ; and sees nothing in us lean, lame, polluted, or ill-favoured. Whatever our own proper and personal inclinations and inquinations have been, this tralucent crystal, the merits and righteousness of our Sariour, pretents us pure in the eyes of God. Through this crystal 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 crj^stal sea, con- ceived to be meant baptism. Prefigured by that red sea, Exod. liv. To which red sea Paul alludes in the point of baptism, 1 Cor. i., ' I would not have you ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud ; and all passed through the sea. And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud, Rev. IV. C] the spiritual navigator. 41 and in the sea.' Of this mind are Augustine (Tractat. 2 in John), Eupertus, Enthymius. The accordance of the t^'pe and antitj'pe stands thus. As none of the children of Israel entered the terrestrial Canaan, l)nt 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 bom of water and of the Spu-it, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God,' John iii. 5. Ordinarily, no man comes to heaven diy-shod ; he must wade through this ford. The minister must irrigate. 1 Cor. iii. John Baptist must pour on water ; and Christ must christen us ' with the Holy Ghost and with tiro,' 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 true heart, in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled fi-om an evil conscience, and our bodies washed with pure water.' So let us draw near: without this no daring to approach the throne of gi-ace. Through this sea we must all sail, the Holy Ghost being our pilot, the word of God om- 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 pui-pose 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 conferring places difficult with semblable of more fjicility) 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 terrors of this brittle and slippery world, and now setting their triumphant feet on the shores of happiness, they sing a victorious song : ' Great and marvellous are thy works. Lord God Almighty ; just and true 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 further confirmation of this opinion, in ver. 3, the exultation which they sing is called ' the song of Moses the servant 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 course, swallowed up their pursuers. Immediately hereon, Exod. xv., Moses and all Israel, turning back to behold the Eg}-ptians drowned in the sea, or floating on the waves, whiles themselves stood secure on dry 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 ihja 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 Israelites, of the new and true Israelites, title faithful. 3. The Egyptians, of all wicked persecutors and enemies of God's chm-ch. 4. Canaan, the land of promise, of heaven the land of pur- chase, which Christ 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 S5>IKITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeEMON LXI. sail to far transcends that earthly Canaan. That did but flow with milk, and honey for a time ; this with infinite joy, and iUimited 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 aU 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 nature, for so it is polluted ; but respectu intuentls, 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. In regard of itself, 1, a sea, for tempestuousness ; 2, a sea of glass, for brittleness. II. In regard of God, 1, like crystal, for God's eye to see all things in it ; 2, before the throne, subject to God's governance. I. A Sea. — The world is not a material, but a mystical sea. Time was that the whole world 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 first drowned, their bodies had not been ovenvhelmed. The same overflowing of iniquity shall at last drown the woi'ld 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 fiill measure as unruly. It is the ' Lord that stilleth the noise of the seas, the roaring of their waves, and the tamult 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 creature, and therein yokes it with the wicked. ' The wicked are like the troubled sea, when it cannot rest, whose waters cast up mu-e and dii-t,' Isa. Ivii. 20. Una Eurusque Notusque niiuit, creberque procellis Aifricus, et vastos toUunt 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 further : and here shall thy proud waves be stayed.' Let me say truly of God, what Pliny of nature, in this element. Hie ipsa se Natura mncit numerosis modis. God, who is mai-vellous in all his ways, wonderfcd in all his works, is in the sea most wonderfully wonderful. It is called ^'Equor, quasi minime cequum : so (I think) the world Mundus, quasi minimi * ^neid. 1. Rev. rV. G.j the spiritual, navigator. 43 mundus. Sometime /return a fremitu, 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, ' mount 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 ]\Iost High,' Isa. xiv. 13, 14. Pride is haughty, and walks with a ' stretched-out neck,' Isa. iii. 10, and with an elevated head ; as if at every step it could knock out a star in heaven. Especially the proud man, like the sea, swells if the moon incKnes, if his mistress gi-aco him. [2.] Vain gloiy is the wind, that raiseth up the billows of this sea. The offspring of the revived world are erecting a turret, whose battlements were meant to threaten heaven, Gen. xi. Did they it in an holy ambition of such neighbom-hood ? No ; they loved not heaven so well. Did they it for secm'ity upon earth ? Neither ; for Feriunt summos fnhjura mantes : the nearer to heaven, the more subject to thunder, lightning, and those higher inflammations of heaven. Whereas, Prociil d Jove, procul dfuhnine, was the old saying : Far fi-om Jupiter, far from his thunder. Their purpose ■was onty glory 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 liftethup 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 malice. It is the natui'e of worldings to over- vex themselves at the successful fortunes of others. God must do nothing for another man, but the en\'ious man's evil eye thinks himself wi-onged. He repines at that shower, which falls not on has 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 owti soul transient flashes, or lashes that leave no impression behind them ; but marks that he canues with him to his grave ; a lean, macilent, affamished body ; a soul self-beaten black and blue. [4.] 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 from her raging:' but the turbulent perturbations of this passion in the world continue without remission or interruption. The angry man is compared to a ship sent into the sea, qiuB DcBinonem hahet guhernatorem ; which hath the de\^l for its pilot. Ira mor- talium debet esse mortalis.-^ 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 tiiem both together. If you look into this troubled sea of anger, and desire to see the image of a man, behold, yon 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 e\il 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 soimd it. Policy and piety have parted company ; and it is to bo 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 corrupt and stinking froth, which the world casts up. The stream of lust in this mare mortuum fumes perpetually ; poisons the air we breathe ; and like a thick fog, riseth up to heaven, as if it would exhale vengeance from 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 aftecters afiected 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 gi*eat man with his master, and honourable, because the Lord by him had given deliverance to Syria ; he was also a mighty man in valour ; 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 veruntamen mars all. The world, you say, is sjmciosus, sjjeciosiis; beautiful, bountiful, rich, delight- ful : 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 devours more than the sea* of Rome ; yea, and will devour that too at last. It swallows those that swallow it, and wiU triumph one day with insultation over the hugest cormorants, whose gorges have been long ingurgitated 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 great devourers in the world, luxury, pride, gluttony, covetousness. The prophet Joel speaks of four horrible destroyers. * That which the palmer-worm hath left, hath the locust eaten ; that which the locust hath left, hath the canker-worm eaten ; and that which the canker-worm hath left, hath the caterpillar eaten,' Joel i. 4. The palmer is luxury, the locust pride, the canker gluttony, and you all know that the catei'pillar is covetousness. Luxury, 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 aU the former, the caterpillar covetousness soon dispatcheth. These be the world's four wide-throated swallowers. These circumstances have demonstrated (the fii'st instance of this com- parison) the tumultuous turbulency 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 relish. 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, If we be true IsraeUtes, ' we cannot drink of the waters of Marah ; for they are bitter.' The works of the world have an unsavoury rehsh. 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 Nuinine mundus habet. Ask St Paul. ' Adulteiy, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies, envy- ings, murders, drunkenness, revellings,' Gal. v. 19. These opera tetiebranim * A play upon the words ' sea' and ' see.' — Ed. Rev. IV. C] the spiritual navigator. 45 are bitter works ; branches springing from that root, which beareth gall and wormwood, Deut. xxix. Sour and wild grapes, which the soiU of God abhorreth. As tho good Simon told the bad Simon, Acts viii., ' Thou art in the gall of biiteniess and bond of iniquity.' Nay, even the delights of tho world are bitter, sour, and imsavoury. For a medio defonte leporum, there hap not surrfere amari cdiquid, yet knowest thou not, it will be bitterness in the end ? ' Kejoico, 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 Bweet 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 tui-ned, it is the gall of asps within him,' Job xx. 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 earned the trmiks 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 hu-ed porter, that carries a great load of wealth on his weary back all his day, till he gi'oan under it ; at night, when the sun of his life sets, it is taken from him, and he is turned into a foul stable, a squaUd grave, perchance with a galled shoulder, 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-loving them. There was a Roman, that in his wdll bequeathed a legacy of a hundred crowns to the gi'eatest fool. The executors, inquiring in the city for such a one, were dii'ected to a nobleman, that, hawg left his own fair revenues, manors, and manners, became a hogherd. All men consented that he was the greatest fool. K 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 imsavouiy 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 e^il, and evil good ; bitter sweet, and sweet bitter.' They strip themselves to adora it, as the Israehtes did for the golden calf, and so adorned, adore it "with devoted hearts. It is their Baal, theu- idol, their god. Alas ! it is no god ; more hke, they will find it a de\il. IVIi" Foxe in his ' Martyrology,' hath a stoiy of the men of Cockeram, in Lancashire. By a threatening command fi'om Bonner, they were charged to set up a rood in theii- church ; accordingly, they com- pounded with a carver to make it. Being made and erected, it seemed it was not so beautiful as they desii-ed it ; but with the harsh \'isago thereof scared their children. (And what should a rood serve for, but to please children and fools ?) Hereupon they refused to pay the cars-er. Tho 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 bo not well-favoured enough to make a god, it is but clapping a pair of horns on it, and it wiU 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 hcari-bloods ; and though it be no god 46 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. to comfort, you shall find it devil enough to confound The world then is extremely bitter in digestion, whatever it be at the first relish. Well 3'et, 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 childi'en from affecting it, by their experienced tartness of it. So the nurse embitters the dug when she would wean the infant. How easUy 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 tm-bulency of the sea will love the dry land the better whiles he lives. 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 crudities 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 theirs 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 indifferency and relish, that we can scarce distinguish which is the meat and which the sauce, both together nourishing our spiritual health. You see the aUke distastefalness of the world and sea. This is the second resemblance. (3.) The sea doth cast forth her dead fishes, as if it laboured to purge itself of that which annoys it, giving only contentful solace and nutriment to those that naturally live 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-scom-ing of ail things unto this day.' No marvel 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 then- number were accomplished, it should be delivered over to the fire. Yet, oh strange ! Elias is said to trouble Israel, and the apostles are thrust out of cities for tur- bulent fellows. But saith Ambrose, Turbatur ilia navis, in qua Judas fuit. The ship was troubled wherein Judas was. Christ was in a ship with the other apostles, without Judas : behold the winds are still, the sea is calm, the ship safe. Christ was in a ship with Judas amongst the rest, and tur- batur ilia navis : the wind blusters, the waves roar, and a tempest endan- gers the vessel to ruin. Benefit multis ex societate boni. One good man doth much good to many. Rev. IY. 6.] tuk spiritual navigator. 47 Ho is not only as manacles to the Lands of God, to hold them from the defulmination of judgments, but is also a happy prevention of sin. He keeps God from being angr}\ He calms him when he is angrj'. A godly man is like David's liaq), he chaseth away the e\i\ from the company, and he doth (as it were) conjure the devil. For in his presence (as if he could work miracles) impudence grows ashamed, ribaldry appears chaste, dnmk- 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,' MM. viii. So the pharisees did cast the convert that was bom blind out of their synagogue, John ix. 34. So the Aiitiochians did cast Paul and I'>arnabas out of their coasts, Acts xiii. 50. Like confectioners, that thi-ow away the juice of the oranges, and preserve only the rinds, or as cci-tain chemists, that cast all good extrac- tions to the gi'omid, 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 ah- mental congraence 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 countiy ? You must partake of their ignorant and blind dotage, and join in their vicious customs, or you shall be rejected. If you Hve 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 glorjs 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 pm-pose a voyage, so to his hopes a retm-n. You hold him a prisoner that is shut up in close walls, the door of egi'ess 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 diy gi'ound. The banks and shores be his prison walls ; and though he hath room enough for his 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 rcgnuvi, 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 difl'erent home. We are all in this world, either strangers or stragglers ; the godly are strangers. ' Dearly beloved, I beseech you, as pilgi-ims and strangers, abstain fi'om fleshly lusts, which fight against the soul,' 1 Pet. ii. 21. So that aged patriarch acknowledged to the Egj-ptian king, * Few and e\'il have the days of thy servant been* in his pilgrimage.' In that tnie 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 SPIEITUAIi NAVIGATOB. [SeRMON LXI. howsoever conentur firjere pedes, and to 'take their portion in this life,' Ps. xvii. 14, yet they must, with Judas, to ' their own home,' Acts i. 25. We gi'ow upward, they go forward, to heaven or hell, every man to his own place. Let the rich man promise his soul a requiem here, Luke xii. 20. Let the atheistical cardinal of Bourbon 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. 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 cruel.' [2.] There be pirates 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. Fmy fights against us, like a mad Tm'k. Fornication, like a treacherous Joab, in kisses, it kills. Drunkenness is the master-gunner, that gives fii'e to aU 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-pirate of all is the devil, that huge leviathan * that takes his pleasure 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. Whiles 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 will draw down many stars with his tail. [3. J There be rocks in the sea, which if a skilful pilot avoid not warUy, 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 aU these titles ! The rocks of our marine world are persecutions and offences, which lie as thick as those fieiy serpents in the wilderness, with their venomous and burning stings, Num. xxi. Christ's cause and Chi'ist's cross go most commonly together ; and who shall be sooner offended than his little ones ? * All that will live godly in Christ Jesus, shall suffer persecution,' 2 Tim. iii. 12; as if it were a fatal destiny to them, not to be evaded. 'Woe unto the world, because of offences,' saith he that is able to execute ven- geance upon his adversaries, Matt, xviii. 7. *It must needs be that offences come : but woe be to that man by whom the ofience cometh. It were better for him that, with a mill-stone hung about his neck, he were drowned in the depths of the mtiterial 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 spHt the bark of our life, yet this be our comfort: our death is not mors, but immortcditas ; not Rev. IY. G.] the spiritual navigator. 49 a death, but an entrance to life incapable of dying. Rocks in the sea nndo many a merchant. These rocks eventually make us happy ; and often we have just cause to take up that saving, Perierauuis, »/.">* j^eriisseinus, wo had been undone, had wo 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 pi'overb, Incidit in ScijUum, cupieim vitare Cluin/h- diin. 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 devoiu'cd of the other. There is a perilous gulf in the Roman sea, (too, too many of our nation have foiind 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 gi-eat 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 or 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 di'owned ? Bewai'e of these gulfs and swallows. [5.] There be straits in the sea of this world. Those of Magellan or Gibraltar ai*e less dangerous. The hard exigents of hatred, obloquy, exile, penury, misery : difficult straits, which all sea-faring Chiistians must pass by to the haven of bHss. Pirates that care not which way they direct their course, 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, fi'om whomsoever, good or bad, or howsoever, by fan- 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 nari'ow is the way that leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.' But if, like those Argonai;ta3, we will sail for the golden fleece of joy and happiness, we must be militantes 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 wo shall be one day inter sidera triiunphantefi, ' stars fixed in the right hand of God,' and shining for ever in glory. This is the fifth danger of om- 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 squahd and pernicious. Virgo formosa superne, decidit in turpcm piscem. They enchant men with their voices, and with sweet songs labour sopire naiitas, sopitos demerr/ere, to lull the mariners askep, and sleeping, to sink and drown them. What a number of these sii'ens, 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 jolity. Their effects are only to di'own and ship\vreck men's fortunes, their credits, their lives, then- souls. A book called Opus tripartiluni speaks of the storks, that if they catch one stork leaving his own mate, and coupling with another, they all fall upon VOL. ni. D 50 THE SPIEITUAl, NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. him, and spoil him of his 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 testify 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 spu'it 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 in it. I end in the epigram of a modern poet — Si renum cupis incolnmem 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, Rabshakeh. Such tempests have been often raised from the vapour of a malicious breath, that whole kingdoms have been shaken with it. Master Foxe mentioneth, in his Book of Martyrs, that one in the street ciying ' Fire, fire,' the whole assembly in St Mary's, in Oxford, at one Mallary's recantation, presumed it to be in the church. Insomuch that some laboui'ed 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 di-op on their heads. Whereas all was but a false fire. There was no such matter. In like sort scandalous slanders and invective con- tumelies 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, Procellce mimdi. And what world- faring Christian hath escaped these storms ? But says Epictetus, Si rect^ facts, quid eos vereris, qui non recte reprehendunt ? If thou do rightly, why shouldst thou fear them that blame wi'ongfuUy ? 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 Bcmora. 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 gaUey was stayed by this fish. There are many remoras in this world that hinder the good speed of Christian endeavom'S. 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 Thessalonica ? The devil is his remora. ' We would have come to you Rev. IV. 6.] the spiritual navigator. 51 once and again, but Satan hindered us,' 1 Thcss. ii. 18. Yea, doth Christ himself pm-pose, in his infinite mercy, to suffer for us, and pre-acquaint his apostles with it ? Even Peter will be his reniora. ' Master, favour thy- self. This shall not be unto thee,' Matt. xvi. 22. Hath that forward young man any good mind to follow Christ ? The parting with his goods to the poor is his remora. Would you have him that is rich follow poverty ? Such are our romoras now, that hang upon our arms, hke Lot's wife, dissuading our departure from Sodom. Are we invited to Christ's supper, the gospel ? Some oxen, or ftu'ms, or a wife's idleness, the pleasures of the liesh, retard us. Some business of our own is a remora to God's business. Are we called to speak in the truth's cause boldly ? The awful presence of some great man is our remora, we dare not. Doth our conscience prompt us to parley for the restoring of the chm-ch's right ? Our own impropria- tions, and the easy gain of the tenth of our neighbour's goods, are a remora, we cannot. Ai-e we exhorted, in the name of Jesus Chi-ist, for God's mercy to us, to shew mercy to his, to feed the hungiy, succour the weak, relieve the poor, and make us friends of our unrighteous mammon by charity ? Aias ! the world, covetous desu-e 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 de\'il plucks him by the sleeve, thirst of gain. God he confesseth his master, but the v/orld 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 course. Let a sermon touch a man's heart, and begin remorse in him, that he purpose reformation, good fellowship, like a remora, stops him. Yea, let a man in an age (for rare are the bii-ds that drop such feathers) erect hospitals, piety and devotion shall meet with some remoras that would overtkrow them. You hear the dangers of the sea of the world, the fifth cu'cumstance of this comparison. (6.) In the sea there be lyjijig iyJvo(pdyoi, fishes that eat up fishes. So in the world, dk^^wrro; dv^ecti'rroipdyoi, men that eat up men, Ps. xiv. 4. ' Have all the workers of iniquity no knowledge ? w^ho eat up my people as they eat bread.' The wicked man devom-eth 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, wTings out fines, extorteth, enhanceth, improveth, impo- verisheth, oppresseth, till the poor tenant, his wife, and children ciy out for bread, and behold, all buys him scarce a suit of clothes ; he eats and di-inks 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- taUty in the countiy, and the gallant, his son, must hve 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 di'op of blood from the tenant's heart, before the landlord nmst 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 yellings of the poor in the country are as loud as your roarings in the city. The cups you drink are full of 52 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. those tears that drop from affaraished 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 like an ox ; and of certain flying fishes, &c. And are there not in this world men-mon- sters ? I do not say of God's maldng, 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 our 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 own mad afi'ections. 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 church, another to blaspheme and roar in a tavern. Some have their faces in their feet, whereas God, os homini sublime dedit, ccelumque tueri jiissit, gave man an upright comitenance, and framed him to look upwards. These look not to heaven, whence they did di'op, but to heU, whither they will drop. Insatiable earth-scrapers, covetous wretches, that would dig to the centre to exhale riches. Others have swords in their lips, a strange kind of people, but common, railers and revilers. Every word they speak is a wounding gash to theii' neighboui's. Weigh it seri- ously. Are not these monsters ? (8.) On the sea men do not walk, but are borne in vessels, unless, Hke our Savioui- 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 diaholus 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 labours them to hell, wind and tide are on his side. When he hath them in profundis ahjssi, 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, foohsh and hurtful lusts do (no less than) di-o-ttTi men in perdition. You think yourselves on dry and firm gi'ound, jq presumptuous wantons. Alas ! you are on the sea, an inconstant sea. Digitis a morte remoti Quatuor, aut septem, si sit latissima t«da : 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. iinper. Rev. IV. G.] the spiiiitu.vl navigator. 53 many springs to feed him with wealth ; the east and west winds shall blow him protit ; 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 nbsorbetur d mundo, he is sucked up of the world. Wliatsocvcr 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 like 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 tjTant, suflering us to scrape together abundant riches, that it may suq)rise us and them at once. Innumerable other relations would the world and the sea afford ns. I desu-e not to say all, but enough ; and enough I have said, if the aflectiona 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 oiu- jouraey. But we know that we are of God, and the whole world lieth in wickedness. Pray we, that this sea infect us not, especially drown us not. Though we lose, like the mariners in the prophecy of Jonah, our wares, our goods, our vessel, om- liberties, yea our lives, let us keep om* faith. It is the most dangerous shipwreck, that this naufi-agous world can give, the shipwTeck of faith. They write of the sei-pent, 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 foshion om-selves 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 fire, than fu-e 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^^l of the world infect us not. Ai'istotle 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 gi'ace seal us up, the brinish waters of sin shall not enter us; but we shall be vessels of grace here, hereafter of glory. 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 fruit in your hves. 2. The next circumstance gives the world, not only for a sea, but vmre vitreum, a sea of glass. You see, I must cari-y you further on this element, and yet at last leave many coasts un visited, 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. 64 THE SPIRITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. (1.) Colour. (2.) Slipperiness. (3.) Brittleness. As certainly as you find these qualities in glass, expect them in the 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 nitidus, vitroque magis perlucidus amne, Fons sacer. ? AH the beauty of glass consists in its colour ; and what in the world, that is of the world, is commendable, ^j?-«/e>- colorem, besides the colour ? A cottage would serve to sleep in, as well as a sumptuous palace, but for the colour. Russets be as warm as silks, but for the glittering colom-. The Egyptian bond-women give as much content, as Queen Vashti, but for the 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 tiy if those metals can (without meat) keep your life and soul together. The truth is, man's corporal eye sees nothing but colour. It is the sole indefinite object of our 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. AJlthat 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, like aged and wrinkled Helen, should contemplate her owq face in a glass ; she would wonder, that for her beauty's sake Troy should be sacked and burned; man's soul endangered to eternal fixe. Oh how is the splendour and glory of the world bated and impaired since the original creation ! The sky looks dusky ; the sun puts forth a drowsy head; as if he were no longer, as David once described him, hke a ' Bride- groom coming out of his chamber, or a strong man rejoicing to run 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 colours of the rainbow are not so radiant, and the whole earth shews but like a garment 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 their fingers. Avicen saith, that glass among stones is as a fool amongst men; for it Rev. rV. 6. 1 the spiritual navigator. 56 takes all paint, and follows precious stones in colour, not in virtue. So does this Avorld give colours to her ricbcs, as if there were some worth and virtue in them, till we are cozened of heavenly and substantial treasures by over-prizing them. No matter, saith Isidore, is more apt to make mirrors, 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 Pygmahou on his can'ed 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 draw up the water ; and then must he sit by and not drink, or drink and not have his thirst quenched? Yes: thus do we long after earthly things, which obtained, give us no full content; thus disregard spiritual and heavenly, whereof but once tasting, we go away highly satisfied. Say, then, with Bernard — Oh bone Jesu, fons indeficiens, Humana corda reficiens : Ad te curro, te solum sitions : Tu milii salus sufficicna. Oh, 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 trusted in the abmidance of his riches, and strengthened himself in his wickedness,' Psa. lii. 7. But the faithful ' shall be hke a green olive-tree in the house of God,' ver. 8; and of as fresh a blee- as Daniel, whom the mercy of God, wherein he trusts, waters for ever and ever. The colour of this glassy sea vanishcth, like the beauty of a flower; and when it is withered, who shall revive 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 with 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 slippery metal. A man that walks on it had need be shod as the Gemians, that slide upon [ice. But go we never so steady on this glassy sea, even the just man falls seven times a day. How soon are we tripping in our 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 shppeth, thy mercy, Lord, held me up.' Let us all pray with him : ' Hold up my goings in thy paths, that my footsteps slip 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 surely soever they think themselves fixed in this world, yet, Psa. Ixxiii. 18, they are set in slippery places. They talk of strong and subtle ^vrestlcrs ; but the cunningest WTestler 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 >\Testler, and measured their lengths on the gi'ound. How dangerous, then, is it to run 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 ia, blow or bloom. — Ed. 56 THE SPIEITUAL 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 riches. Here, a rabble of drunkards, that ran apace to the tavern. There, a crew of cheaters, that posted as fast to Tybum. Thus the devil laughs to see men so wildly running after vanity, and this glassy sea so easily hurling up their heels. It is reported of the Irish, that they dig deep trenches in the ground, and pave the surface over with green turfs, that their suspectless enemies may think it firm ground. This world is the devil's vanity sea, fall of trenches and swallows, which he paves over with glass. The way seems smooth, but it is slippery. His intention is mischievous, ut lapsu graviore ruamus, that we may have the surer and sorer fall. He that walks on this slippery glass had need of three helps : circumspect eyes, sober feet, and a good staff in his hand. First, He must keep his eyes in his head. Eph. v. 15, ' See that jq walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise.' Phny writes of the eagle, that when she would make the stag her prey, she lights do^vn between his horns, whence he cannot shake her ; and with dust ready laid up in her feathers, she so fiUeth his eyes, that he being blinded, breaks his own neck from some high cliff or momitain. If the devil can blind a man's eyes with the dust of vanities, he will easily fling him down on this slippery glass, and drown him in this dangerous sea. Neither must our eyes only be careful to descry our way, but of sound and faithful 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 g}'eat mirrors 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 dninken, that walks upon glass. If he be diimken 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 vaaj, 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 liquor, 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 climb and scramble over them. So worldlings that are drimk, but not with wine, enchanted with earthly vanities, think every shadow which is put in theii' way to heaven a great block, and they dare not venture. Sober feet are necessarily required to om- 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 evil : for thou art with me ; thy rod and thy staff, they comfort me ; ' confortant — make me strong, bear and hold me up. Rev. IY. G.] the spihitual navigator. 57 Eg^-jit is but a 'broken reed.' Ho that leans on it shall find the splin- ters running into his hand; and cursed is ho that makes flesh his arm: but who leans faithfully on this staff, shall never perish. Thus you have heard this glassy world's slipperiness. (3.) This glass denotes brittleness. Proverb and experience justify this. As brittle as glass : a lit attribute to express the natm-e of worldly things ; for glass is not more fragile. ' The word passcth away, and the lust thereof,' saith St John, 1 John ii. 17. Man himself is but brittle stulf, and he is the noblest part of the world. ' Man that is born of a woman, is of few days, and fall of trouble. He cometh forth like a flower, and is cut down; he flieth as a shadow, and continucth not.' ' Sic in non hominem vertitur omnis homo.' Let him have an ample portion in this life, and ' his belly be filled \vith 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 dihgently consider his place, and shalt not find it,' Ps. xxxvi. 10. Glass, whiles it is melting hot and soft, is pliable to any fonn ; but cold and hard, it is brittle. When God first made the world, it was malleable to his working hand, to his commanding word ; for he spake the word, and things were created. The next time he touchcth it, it shall break to pieces like a potsherd. ' The heavens shall pass away with a gi-eat noise, the elements shall melt with feiwent 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 down to the gi-ound 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 worldUng, or luxurious 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. iEtna, Parnassus, Olympus are not so xnsible as they were. The sea now rageth where the ground was dry; and fishes swim 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 sun 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 wei'e ready to niinate their climates. * The end of all thhigs is at hand,' 1 Pet. iv. 7 ; when ' Compage soluta, Ssecula tot mundi suprema coaggeret bora.' God hath given us many signs of this. Portenta, quasi pono tendentia. Siffna habciit, si iuteUitidutur, liufiuam suam. Signs have their language, if they could be rightly understood. Ultivia tribalalio mitltis tribulatiouihiis fa;rvenitiir. There are many calamities preceding the last and universfil cjilamity of the world. No comet, but threatens ; no strange exlialations, alterations, seeming combustion in the heavens, but demonstrate the general deluge of fij-e that shall destroy all. ' Nunquam futilibus percanduit ignibus sether.' 58 THE SPIKITUAL NAVIGATOR. [SeRMON LXI. As God's tokens in the plague pronounce the infallibUity 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 ecHpse of the sun, only Christ's almanac reports this, Matt. xxiv. All beings are of one of these four sorts : Some are from 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 from everlasting, not to everlasting : as God's eternal decrees, which have an end in their determined time, but had no beginning. So God, before all worlds, determined 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 immortal nature. 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. Whom Plato called to ov ; and he calls himself by Moses 6 uv, ' that was, that is, and that is to come ;' the same for ever. Fourthly, 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. Who can then deny this world to be brittle ? We see how slowly the tired earth returns us the fruits which we trusted her bowels with. Her usury grows weak, like a decayed debtor, unable to pay us the interest she was wont. ' Ni vis humana quotannis Maxima quseque 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 birth, and gave it a mortal wound. It hath laboured ever since of an incui-able consumption. The noblest part of it, man, first felt the smart ; and in his curse both beasts and plants received theirs. It fell sick early in the morning ; and hath now languished in a hngering lethargy, till 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 * Georg, i. i Rev. IV. G.J tue spibituajl navigator. 69 sight ; but it is better to see 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. AVho would be long on the sea ? If a storm or ^vreck do come, let us save the best good. Whatsoever becomes of the vessel, thy body, make sm'e to save the passenger, thy soul, ' in the day of the Lord Jesus.' I have now done with the sea, and for this point here cast anchor. n. Thus far wo 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, etprovidet: 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 bo in his sight as clear as crystal. As in ciystal there is nothing so httle 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 mala et patentia oculis ejus. ' There is no creatm-e 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 formed the eye, shall he not see ?' Ps. xciv. 9. All the earth is full of his glory, ' Whither shall I go from thy Spii'it ? or whither shall I Hce from thy presence ? ' Ps. cxxxix. 7. It is there amply proved, that neither heaven nor hell, nor uttermost part of the sea, nor day nor night, light nor darkness, can hide us from his face. ' For thou hast possessed my reins, thou hast covered me in my mother's womb.' Our sitting, walking, lying down, or rising up ; the thoughts of our hearts, works of our hands, words of our Ups, ways of our feet; our reins, bones, bosoms, and our mothers' wombs, wherein we lay in our fii-st informit}^ ai'e well known unto him. Qualis, mihi dicite, Deus consendus 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 ourselves with those, Ps. x., that ' say in their heart, God hath forgotten : he hideth hia 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. xx\iii. 17. Oh, the infinite things and actions that the eye of God sees at onco in this crystal glass of the world ! Some caiing 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 quaffing in taverns. Here some raising their houses, there others ruining them. Alterum con- summantem matrimonium, alterum consumcntem j)atrwioniiim One mar- rying and going to the world, another miscanying, the world going from him. There run honour and pride acquis ccrvicibus. There walks fraud cheek by jowl with a tradesman. There stalks pride with the pace of a soldier, but habit of a courtier, stri\-ing to add to her own stature, feathered on the cro^vn, corked at the heels, light all over, stretching her logs, and 60 THE SPIRITUAL NA^^GATOR. SeRMON LXI. spreading her wings like the ostrich, with ostentation of great flight ; but, nil peuna, seel usus, 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 twlo ; 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 policy, 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 hurries the papist to the mass, and his wife, the cathohc, equivocate before a com- petent judge, though Christ would not before a Caiaphas, climbing to sal- vation by an attorney, and hkely to speed by a proxy. There slides by the meagre ghost of malice, her blood drunk up, the marrow of her bones wasted, her whole body like 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, befriended of that poor remnant of aU his wealth (the richly stocked gi'ounds, 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 fire and tomients. 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 heU, 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. Tui qui dicis, transit Christiamis, ijjse transis sine Christianis. Thou that sayest the Christians perish, dost perish thyself and leave the Christians behind thee. Whither go these atheists ? I believe not to heaven, for they beheve 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 difier, 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 di-unkenness and swearing in the house. There is ignorance, like a stricken Sodomite, groping for the way ; nay, indeed, neither discerning nor desiring it. He sees neither numen nor lumen, neither diem, the dayUght 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 asunder ; that would have pulled asunder the body of the empu'e. The humourists thrust themselves into this throng, or else I would have spared them ; but truth 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?" — Ed. Rev. IV. G.J the spiritual navigator. 61 they would keep an infinitive stir in the lacerated church. God sees the malicious Jesuit callinj:^ up a parliament of do-vils to plot treasons. lie 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 miiTor of ciystal, all our impurities, 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 own wicked com-ses, our perverse ways on this sea. Look upon this angle of the world, for so, we think, Anrflia sig- nifies ; how many vipers doth she nurse and nourish in her indulgent bosom, that wound and sting her ? The landlords' oppression, usm-ers' extortion, patrons' simony, commons' covetousness ; oui- unmercifulness to the poor, over-mercifuhiess to the rich, maUce, 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 o\\-n 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, envying one another,' Gal. v. 2G. Methinks here, vain-glory stalks in like a mountebank gallant, provocation like a swagger- ing roarer, and malice like a meagi-e and melancholy Jesuit. All these things we do, and God sees in the light; and in the light we must repent them, or God will pimish them \vith 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 particulai-ly 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 thi'one for judgment ; and he shall judge tlie 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 lightning flash- ing from his tin-one, but out of it proceed comfortable voices speaking the solaces of the gospel, and bmdiug up the broken-hearted. Therefore it is said, ver. 3, there is a ' rainbow about the throne,' which is a sign of God's covenant, a seal of his eternal mercy towards us. This is round about the seat, that God can look no way but he must needs see it. So that to the faithful this throne is not tenible : ' Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find gi-ace to help in the time of need,' Heb. iv. 16. If there be the fii'e of judgment, there is also the rain of mercy to quench it. Neither is this a transitory throne, subject to changes and schemes, as all earthly tin-ones are ; but (Heb. i. 8), * Thy throne, God, is for ever and ever ; a sceptre of righteousness is the sceptre of thy kingdom.' ' He shall reign over 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 iton sohun permissaa Deu, sed etiam tDtwrna. So disposing all things, that not only the good are ordained by him, but 62 THE SPIRITUAIi NAVIGATOB. [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 Usts, God can put a bridle in his hps, a hook in his nos- trils : ' Assyiian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their 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 wiU I destroy kingdoms,' Jer. li. 20. JJltenus ne tende odiis ; go no further upon God's wrath, thou desperate, wicked man. Gregory Nazianzen speaks of the em- peror Valentine, infected with the Aiian heresy, that being about to write vrith his own hand the proscription and banishment of Basil, the pen thrice refused to let fall any ink. But when he would needs write, such a trem- bUng invaded his hand, that his heart being touched, he sent presently and recanted what he had written. But I press this point no farther, having in other places liberally handled it. The four beasts, in ver. 8, ' rest not day nor night, saying Holy, holy, holy. Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come.' The fathers, from these words, observe the mystery 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, fall down before him that sits on the throne, ascribing worship to him that hveth for ever ; and casting our crowns to the ground, renouncing our own merits, sing to the eternal Unity, ' Thou art worthy, 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. * Fulgent. PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. ' They said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us, and hide 7(sfrom the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the xiralh of the Lamb. — Rev. vi. 16. This verse may be distinguislied into error and terror ; the en'or of the re- probate, the terror of the judge. Theu" 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 error and ignorance is expressed in their prayer. For the terror 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 circumstance serves to aggravate their folly and desperate fear. 1. They fear God, but too late. 2. They open their hps to confess the in- vincible power of Christ ; before they were either dumb in silence or blas- phemous in contumelies. 8. They pray to the mountains and rocks, which hear them not. 4. To fall on them, which they dare not. 6. To hide them, which they cannot. 6. They beg to be concealed from him that is all eye, from 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 theii' invocation, let us examine two things : what they were, and what they did. 1. The persons thus amated* with error and amazed with tcn-or 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 free, 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 do\\'n. Is he gi'eat in his countiy, that (as they wi-ite of the sea about the castle of Mina) the cun-eut goes ever with the wind of his will ? Be he never so high, there is one ' higher than he, and the Highest of aU regai'deth 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. [SeEMON 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 cliief 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 bmns to the bottom of heU, who shall proudly without confusion look him in the fiice? SiUy giant of men, that thou shouldest dare to grapple, to parley, yea, so much as to look at God! Lo, gi'eatness! Time was when, if a fi-iend in the com't shall 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 Kings iv. 13, it would have seemed as high a gi-atifying and ratifying of his love to thee as thou couldst have desired or he expressed. What lavom- wiU 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 from a public throne he creeps into a hole. As ambitious Herod received his pride and glory (with dero- gation to God, vox Dei) in a theatre, so now his shame and confusion is in the sight of tbe whole world, of good and bad angels, of good and bad men. Sennacherib, in his rufi", 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 poureth contempt upon princes.' Then shall be manifest the imresJstil)le power and unblameable justice of God, ' who sitteth upon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grasshoppers: stretching out the heavens as a cm-tain, and spreading them as a tent to dwell in. He bringeth the prmces 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 fi'ee, 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 prcestat, nothing remains to be aspired to. Whereas to these men, omnia in 2>roesenti j^at'va, in fine nulla, 2)ost fin em mala, all is for the present httle; for ut 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, shuffling king and pawn into one bag. After the end found evil things; for et penluniur et j^ierdunt, 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, je great men, that were so ambitious of fame, and made human praise stand in competition with conscience, as if it were the better misti'ess and worthy of more servants ? Alas ! glad to * 1 Sam. sii. 2.— Ed. Rev. VI. IG.] presumption kunnino into despair. 65 be shrouded in boles ; yoiir f^reatncss now wisbetb itself so little that it might not be seen. You insatiate covetous, that never ceased joining house to house, laud 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 3'our parlour, or more glad if you might be dis- solved into nothing. 2. 'Tlicy said:' We have described the persons, what they were. Let us see what they did. They said : They open their lips to confess the invin- cible and inc^itablo power of Christ. Whence derive we two observations. (1.) The sense of present misery takes away atheism. Before, their mouths were cither 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 lips ; or if in their lips, but to his dishonom* ; 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 creatures would not believe they shall see ; they would not aclcnow- ledge their Maker, they shall find their Judge, and cry to the mountaias, 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 during yom- 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. cxxxix. 20 , you shall one day fall low before his footstool, not with a voluntaiy, but enforced, reverence. You that have denied God on earth, the fu'st voice that shall come fi'om youi* lips shall be a hopeless acknowledgment of his majesty. (2.) The saying that comes fi:om them is desperate ; whence note that, in God's just punishment, desperation is the reward of presumption. They that erst feared too little, shall 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 siu 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 like 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 woimd up by the justice of God, it sets all the wheels on working, — tongue to confess, eyes to weep, hands to ■svi'ing, 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 cruel men cowardly. Tyrants whose frowns have been death, oppressors that have made their poor tenants quake at their looks, now tremble themselves, and would change firmness with an aspen leaf. They that care not for the act of sin shall care for the punishment. Tumidi facicndo, timidi paticiido. Nero, that could not bo tn-ed in cutting throats, is soon weaiy of his own torment. They that havo made others weep, shall desperately howl themselves. Cain, that durst lull 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. jv. 14. 66 PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. [SeRMON LXII. Wlio durst be more impudently bold with God than Judas, when lie be- trayed his only Son to murderers ? Yet, after the treason, who more cowardly than Judas ? He becomes his own hangman. The cui'se that follows 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 encourage 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 cry, Mercy, mercy ; now, lo, they feel what those sins are, and cry 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, Lord, is mercy ; therefore thou shalt be feared.' The reprobates sing at last. With thee, Lord, is judgment ; with thee is storm and tempest, in- dignation and wrath, confusion and vengeance, and therefore art 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 creatm'es. Whence we may deduce two inferences, a negative and an affirmative. (1.) Negatively, it is clear, that they have no acquaintance with God, therefore know not how to du'ect 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 trust : how then say you to my soul, Flee as a bird to your mountain ?' 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 him but by his word ? Alas, those mutual passages and mtercourse of means they have ever debarred themselves. They would neither sufier God to trouble them by his word, nor would they ofier to trouble him by their prayers. ' They will not call upon him,' Ps. xiv. 4, nor will they hear him caUing upon them. Therefore as those that never were in the company of God, they know not how to address themselves to him, but rather to rocks and mountains. As extremity discemeth friends, vere amat, qui misenmi 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 affrightment, all the blood runs to the heart, to guard the part that is principal, so in a good man, at such an instance, all the powers and faculties run to the soul, to save that which is principal. The blood and spirits strive to save the life of the body ; faith and hope to save the life 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 canj know it ? ' yet at such time it will manifest itself, and cannot deceive. If God hath been our familiar friend and accustomed helper, danger dothj not sooner assault us than we salute him by om- prayers. The fii'st thoughlj Rev. YI. 1G.] prksujiption running into despair. 67 of our hearts is Jesus Christ ; the first voice of our hps is Peter's on the sea in such an extremity, ' Lord, save ine,' Matt, xiv 3U ; our faith is reposed on his wonted mercy and protection, ' We know whom we have believed.' Daniel calls on God ere he falls to the hous ; 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 Julian, thro\nug his blood up into the air, with a blas- phemous confession. Or sottish, as these here, ninning to the mountains, unprofitable, unpossible helps. ^\Ticu 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 ovenvhelmiug woes, the}' catch di-owning hold of that ; so they and their hopes perish together. There are some whose tongues are bo poisoned with blasphemy, that, in an unexpected accident, the veiy first breath of their lips is a cui'se or an oath. As if they would swear away destiniction, 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 will have no familiarity with God in peace, shall have him to seek in extremity. AVhen therefore some sudden peril hath threatened thee with ten-or, note seriously how thou art aflected. Though the danger came unlooked for, let it not pass imthought of ; but as thou blessest God for delivery, so examine the good or iU-disposedness of thine own heaii. 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, will never leave thee. If othenvise, lament thy sins v.hich 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.) Afiirmatively, this presents a soul amazed with fear andfoUy. 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 hills. The mountains are but swellings of the earth, and the rocks ai-e sui'd things, that have no ears : can they heai* ? or if they hear, can they answer ? or if they ausv.er, can they save ? When the gi-aves must vomit up their dead, shall the rocks conceal the li^Tng? Those five kings could not be hid in the cave of Makkedah ffom Joshua, Josh. x. 17, and shall any cave hide fi-om Jesus ? Whiles guilt and fear consult of refuge, how vain shifts they imagine ! Adam would hide his disobedience in the bushes ; Saul his rebellion in the crowd of the people. So the hood-winked fool seeing nobody, thinks nobody sees him. Helpless evasions ! WTien Adonijah huard the tnimpets sounding at Solomon's coronation, he quaked, and * lied to the horns of the altar,' 1 Kings i. 50. When the ungodly shall hear the archangel's triimp pro- claiming the coronation of Christ, they have no sanctuaiy (they never loved it in all their hves), but fly to the rocks and mountains. The gi-ave is a dark and privative place : yet as a prisoner that comes out of a sordid and stinking dungeon, into the open air for his tiial in a desperate cause, had rather keep the prison still ; so these reprobates newly raised from the earth, ciy to it to receive them again, glad to remain (though not on the face of it with pleasui-e) in the bowels of it with rottenness and 68 PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. [SeRMON LXII, solitude, rather than in the open light to come before 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 : beholdmg on the one side sins accusing, on another side hellish fiends vexing, an anguished conscience burning within, heaven and earth without ; above them the countenance of an angry 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, ' Fall on us.' Let all this declare to men the vanity of their worldly hopes. God is the Preserver of men, not hills and rocks. The rich man is brought in upon a preimmire, can his gold acquit him in this star chamber ? The epicm'e thinks to drown sorrow in lusty wines ; the oppressor mistrusts 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 errors. They ' forsake the Creator, which would never forsake them, and adhere to the creatures, which can never help them,' Jer. ii. 13. ' Lord, the hope of Israel, all that forsake thee shall be ashamed, and all that depart fi'om 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 je 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, ' In that day a man shall 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 throw his images, golden or silver shrines for the Diana of his avarice, his damned coin to combustion, with a v(b, Woe unto it, it hath lost my soul ; as the sick stomach loathes the meat, whereof it surfeited. 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 spiritual, holy, and happy rock, Jesus Christ. David often calls God his ' Rock and his Refuge,' Psa. xviii. 2, and xxviii. 1. A rock that bears up the pillars of the world, ' Then- rock is not as our Rock, even our enemies themselves being judges,' Deut. xxxii. 31. He that builds his house of assur- ance on this Rock, shall stand immovable to wind 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 shaU be broken : if it fall on them, it will grind them to powder,' Matt. xxi. 44. He is a stone, the stone, the ' head- stone of the corner,' Ps. cxviii. 22. cut out of the quany of heaven, ' without hands,' Dan ii. 45, of whom we are made ' living stones,' 1 Pet. ii, 5. He is strong without all things ; all 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 greedily longmg 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. IC] presumption running into despair. 69 of death. There ai-e some fear to die, others not so much to die as to be dead. The former are cowardly, the other unbelieving souls. Some fear both, to whom nothing in life than life is more desirable. But when this last extremity comes, mori cupiimt, they desire 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, without need of a second blow. Cain, at his arraigimient 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, carrying his hell in his bosom, and the brand of vengeance in his forehead. God rejects him, ♦iic 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 amicuvi, vec iniwicumhabco, I have neither fi-iend nor enemy ; or as Saul found in his armour-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 desii'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 bm-den, Isa. xxi. Such a weight bore om- Saviour, that he gi-oaned under it. ' I am pressed under 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 buried under their heaps of wealth, where their souls had been buried long before. But what is a load of earth, a mountain huger than Etna, under which Jupiter was said suhtcr fulminare gigantes, what is the whole massy body of the earth, to the weight of sin ? Think of it, ye Thcomachoi, that strive in yom- rebellions imponere Pelion osscc, ye rapacious covetous, that ' load yom-selves with thick clay,' Hab. ii. You lay heavy bm'dens on the poor, heavier on yom* consciences. Sin may seem light 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 hke 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, luxmy, oppression, ' Fall on us, and cover us,' wearing ' pride as a chain, and covering them- selves with cruelty as with a garment,' Ps. Ixxiii. G. Sin lies 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 diflerent will their cry be? 'Moimtains, 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 pressm'e to the burden of my lusts. Custom in sin obstupefies a man's sense, and still, Hke that Roman Milo, his strength increasing with his burden. He that fii-st 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 reserve them to an hour's repentance, setting them a day of 70 PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. [SeRMON LXII. cancelling, but they break it, as if their last breath could dispel and scatter them all into air. But, alas ! sins then are found heaviest of all, and here, Hke malefactors pressing to death, they cry 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 Christ hath been held too heavy, repentance too troublesome a guest for their houses, faith and obedi- ence have been cast ofi" as poor friends, aU godhness too weighty; now rocks and hills are light. Christ'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- getfahiess, 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 barrenest 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 grave. After death he would be content with a grave still ; yea, glad if in the bottom of a mountain he might be hidden. Hear this, ye covetous, that 'join house to house, and land to land,' by disjoining the societies of men, as if you would leave the whole earth to your babes. Excutlt natura redeuntem, sicut intrantem,-'' Natm'e shall as strictly examine your going out as it did your coming in. Nome telluns tres tantum cubiti te expectant ?-\ Do not only three cubits of gromid allot themselves to receive you? Only a grave remains, and all you that boast of your great lands shall at that day say, Hcfc terra mea, et terra tun, 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 will scarce fill a little pitcher. A little quantity of gi'ound hath nature proportioned thee, didst thou possess as much as ever the tempter shewed Clu'ist ? When certain philosophers intentively beheld the tomb of Alexander, saith one, Heri fecit ex auro thesanrum ; hodie aunmi ex eo facit thesaurum, | ' Yesterday he treasured up gold, to-day gold treasures 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, Arjer, qudm midtorum fuisti et erisi nunc mem, et jwstea nescio cKJus, ' 0, land, how many men's hast thou been, and shalt be ! now mine, and hereafter I know not whose.' So httle ground 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 Avithout sense than alive in torment. 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. -f- Baail. % Alphons. Rev. VI. 16.] presumption running into despair. 71 Indian sun, or frozen with the Russian cold. There is no hope of these favoiu's. 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 lire, 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 eartii 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 ono hole must shelter them, not one hillock do them service. Nothing helps when God will smite; mountains and rocks are no de- fence when God pursues. * 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 buhviU'ks. The sevenfold walls of Babylon cannot defend the tjTant within them. The heavens ' melt at the presence of the Lord ; if he touch the mountains, they smoke ' for it. The offspring of the revived world oiler to build a tower whose top might reach to heaven. WTiat security could be in it? Are not things nearer to heaven more subject to the violences of heaven, hghtning, thunder, and those higher intlammations ! Feriimt snnvnos ful- gura monies. In se marina ruiuit, swnniisque negation est stare tliu. 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 fi-om heaven that greatest 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 refiiged hills, and the place of their 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 fii'e. It is not then the defence of forts and ports, the secrecy of caves or gi'aves, the bottom- burrows of hills, or vault}- dens of rocks ; not a league with all the elements of the world, beasts of the earth, stones of the street, that can secure 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 en\y the stork, stag, raven, oak for long life, and chide natm*e for their own shortness; but at this day they would change with any flower, though the coutuauance thereof were not 80 much as Jonah's gom-d's, and think not to be was to be happy. The pangs of the first 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 their places?* So Isa. xxxiv. 4. Heaven is c.rpansitm tanqiuim lintenm, ct diducta lamina; but shall then be ' folded up like a garment,' whose beauty is not seen ; or ' rolled together like a volume,' Heb. i. 12, whose large contents are, as it were, abridged. Not that the matter of tho world shall be quite 72 PRESUMPTION RUNNING INTO DESPAIR. [SeRMON LXII. abolisliecl ; for, as we say now of grace, Aclolet non aholet natitram gratia, so we may say of justice, Perficit non dcstndt munclum jiistitia. Corruption shall be taken away, not all the matter that was corrupted. But if all things be thus naiTOwly searched, how shall 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 wrath 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 efiect 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 shall 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 in 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 di'ives us from the face of God. But doth not the glory of the Lord fill all the earth ? ' Wliither then shall they go from his face : whither fly from his presence ?' Ps. cxxxix. 7. We shall find the prophet concluding in that psalm, that there is neither heaven nor hell, nor uttermost part of the sea, nor day nor night, light nor darkness, that can hide us from his face. Our sitting, Ijang 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 vsdll 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 glory. Wliile he was on earth, how little 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 labom*. 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 thou travelled in the ways of grace ? thou shalt sit on the seat of gloiy. ' On the throne.' — Christ 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 throne. 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 humility, now in glory ; then with poor shepherds, now with mighty angels ; then the contempt of nations, now the terror 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 almightiness. 2. ' From the wrath.' — The wrath of Christ in his justice : Attrihidtiir ira Deo per effectum. As man offended seeks revenge, so when God executes Rev. VI. IG.] presumption running into despair. 73 judgment, it is called Lis -wTath. But passion in us, perfection in him. He hath long been provoked ; give him now leave to strilvc. You that made so light to trample his blood under your sensual feet, shall now find what his wrath is. Let us now think of this wrath, that wo may escape it. Tho commination of hell doth not less commend God's providence, than the pro- mise of heaven. Nusi intentata esset rjehenna, omnes in rfehennam cadcremiis.* Now or never is this A^-ath to bo escaped : therefore, ' Kiss the son lest ho be angiT, and so ye perish from tho way ; if his wi"ath 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 sulicr 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 aggi'avate their vexation, that the Lamb, who ofi'ered 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 jvidge to sentence them. The Lamb that savcth 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 AATath of the Lamb lights on ; for he shall give them an Ite, mcdcdicti. What shall then become of them, but to knock at the gates of heaven whiles those gates are standing, and ciy for ever to God, but to no pui-pose ? I have no will to end A^dth a teiTor ; yet no time to sweeten your thoughts with those comforts which foith 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. HEA YEN-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 hfe, 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? Quipr(pstantmandata, ' 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,' Kev. ii. 7. From whence the angel, with a flaming sword, shall keep all the reprobate ; secondly, Et j^er jwrtas ingrediantur civitateyn, ' and may enter in through the gates into the city ;' when without shall be dogs and scorners, &c. ; whosoever loveth and maketh a lie. To the last words of the verse I have botind and bounded my discourse ; wherein I find three points readily offering themselves to be considered, viz., 1. Motus, motion, 'enter in;' 2. Modus, manner, 'through the gates ;' 3. Tenniniis, place, ' into the city. So there is a threefold circumstance. 1. Quid, What? 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 offering to take us by the hand, and welcome our entrance. We know who hath taught us, that only ' contiuuers to the end shall be saved.' It is observable, that in the Holy Spirit's letters sent to those seven chui'ches, in the second and third chapter of this book, all the promises run to perseverers ; vincenti dabitur, to him that overcomes it shall be given. Nee 2'>aranti ad j^rcrlium, nee pugnanti ad sanguineni, multo minus tergiversanti ad peccatum, sed vincenti ad victoriam. Nor to him that prepares to fight, nor to him that resists to blood, much less to him that shews his back in cowardice, but to him that overcomes to conquest. Demas, seeing this war, ran away ; fell back to the secuiity of Rev. XXII. 14.] HEA^'EN-GATE. 76 the world. SaiU made himself ready to this battle, but ho 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 hia body the marks of the Lord Jesus,' Gal. vi. 17. ' I have fought a good fight, I have finished my com-se, 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 life, saith Bernard. Mala pad, et honafacere; et sicu.sque ad mortem perscverare, to sufler 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 almost 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 bo sanctified, his kingdom always propagated, his will always obeyed. Indeed this gi-ace 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 om* zeal gi-ows faint ; we strive in vain at the strait gate, if not till we enter. Venire ad rcUfiiomm est vera devotio ; sed non rel'ujiose vlvere 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 thjit hold out. "WTience it comes that the last are often first, and the first last. ' luiow ye not that they which nm 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 do^vnwards, they might go to heaven with less trouble than they do go to hell. But he that at every step looks at eveiy 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 Ohonpus, but he distrusted his sufficiency for the length of the journey. Socrates told him — Thou walkest eveiy day little or much ; continue this walk forward thy way, and a few days shall bring thee to 01}Tnpus. Every day eveiy man takes some pains. Let him bestow that measm-e of pains in travelling to heaven ; and the further ho goes the more heart he gets, till at last he enter thi'ough 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. f 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 navigantem cum pervenerit ad portion. All the voyage is lost thi'ough the perilous sea of this world, if we sufl'er shipwreck in the * Aug. do Lono Perseverantifo, cap. 2. t Per.severantia est unica summi Regis filia, virtutum consummatio, totius boiii repositorium, virtus sine qua numo videbit Deum. 76 HEAVEN-GATE. [SeEMON LXIIl. haven, and lose our reward there, where we should land to receive it. Whai get we, if we keep Satan short of ruling us with his force many hours, when at our last hour he shall snatch our hliss from us ? The runner speeds all the way; but when he comes at the race's end to the goal, he etretcheth forth his hand to catch the prize. Be sure of thy last step, to put forth the hand of faith then most strongly: Ne jierdatur j^rmminm tantis lahorihus qucesitum; lest the reward he lost, y^^hich thou with much labour hast aimed at. It is not enough, Qucerere ccclwn, seel acquircre; 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 will 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 fii'st risen, and hath shut to the door,' Luke xiii. 25. Either they come too soon, before they have gotten faith and a good conscience; or too late, as those foolish virgins, when the gate was shut. If, then, we have begun, let us continue to entrance."-''- Cujusqiie casus tantb majoris est criminis, quanto jjriusquam caderet, majoris erat virtutis. f Every 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 grapple 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 Eli at the loss of the ark, 1 Sam. iv. 18 ; or they that came to surprise Christ. ' They went backward and fell to the ground,' John x^dii. 6. Cease not, then, thy godly endeavours, until Continfjas portum, quo tibi cursus erat. Say we not like the woman to Esdras, whether in a vision or otherwise, when he bade her go into the city — ' That wiU I not do ; I wiU 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 preserve innocence. Such a man is washed, but is not clean. Quia commissa flere desinit, et iteruvi flenda 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 cheerfully, 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,' Rev. xxi. 12 ; to declare that men shall come from all the corners 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 mystically : 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, 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. f Isidor. Rev. XXII. 14.] hea\^n-gate. 77 Jacob, Gen. xxviii. 17. There must bo gates to a city: tliey that admit us hither are the gates of grace. So the analogy of the words infer ; doing the commandments is the way to have right in the tree of life ; 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 Davjd, 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. kxxvii. 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, 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 cai-vings of cherubins,' 1 Kings vi. 32. The olives promising fatness and plenty of blessings, the cherubins holiness and eternity. These are holy gates. Let ever}' one pray with that royal 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\'iour, janna vita, the gate of life ; ' by me if auy enter in, he shall be saved,' John X. 9. (1.) Adoption is the first gate. 'We have received the spirit of adop- tion,' Rom. viii. 15. Without this passage no getting into heaven. The inheritance of glory cannot be given to the children of disobedience ; they must first be converted, and adopted heu's in Christ. The gi-ace of God is twofold. There is gratia gratis agens, and gratia graium facicns. This second grace, which is of adoption, is never in a reprobate ; not by an ab- solute impossibility, 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 congre- gation — of insition* and initiation, whereby we are matriculated and re- ceived into the motherhood of the church. Therefore the sacred font is placed at the church door, to insinuate and signify our entrance. So adop- tion is the fii'st door or gate whereby we pass to the city of glory. This is our new creation, whereat the angels of heaven rejoice, Luke rv. 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 a, male esse, ad bend esse — from a being evil, to be well, and that for ever. Tkrough 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 sure that you are gone through this gate, call to mind what hath been your repentance. The first sign of regeneration is throbs and throes. You cannot be adopted to Christ without sensible pain, and compunction of heart for your sins. The Christian hath two buihs, and they are two gates. He can pass through none of them but with * That is, grafting. — Ed. t Aug. 78 HEAVEN-GATE. [SeEMON 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 short sorrow, eternal glory. (2.) Sanctification is the second gate. ' Make your calling and election sui'e,' saith Peter, by a holy life : ' For so an entrance shall be ministered unto 3'ou abundantly, into the everlasting Idngdom of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ,' 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,' Rev. 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 glory. 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 required only sancti- ficatio vice, non jjatrice : such a sanctit}^ as the gate can afibrd, though far short of that within the city. The school distinguisheth well. It must be communiter in toto, etuniversaliter insinrjuUs ijartihus ; but not totaliter et 23er- fecte. This sanctification must be communicated to the whole man, and universally propagated to eveiy part, though it have in no place of man a total perfection. Indeed, nullum peccatum retinendum est spe remlssionis. No sin is to be cherished in hope of mercy. But we must strive for every grace we have not, and for the increase of every grace we have. Quceren- dum quod deest honum, induk/endum quod adest. Let us make much of that we possess, and still seek for more, ' striving to the mark,' Phil. iii. 14. And yet when all is done, profectio hoec, non j^erfectio est ; we have made a good step forward, but are not come to our full home. But still, ' Lord, be merciful to me a sinner,' and ' enter not into judgment with us.' Now, since this gate stands in om* 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 little. [1.] Low. — Heaven is well called a 'building not made with hands,' 2 Cor. V. 1 ; for it difiers both in matter and fonn from earthly edifices. For matter, it is eternal, not momentary ; for manner, fabricked Vv-ithout hands. Great manors on earth have large answerable porches. Heaven must needs be spacious, when a little 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 himgry with good things, and the rich he hath sent empty awaj,' Luke i. 53. The rich in their own conceits, and proud of their owa worth, shall be sent empty from this gate. Zaccheus chmbs up into a svcamore 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 entertain 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 honour must be preferred before your honour. It is no discredit to your worship to worship God. [2.] Little. — Chi-ist calls it a * narrow gate,' Luke xiii. 24. They must be little that enter ; little in their own eyes, slender in the opinion of them- selves. ' Wliosoever 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 little 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. 11.] 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, ' fur we will not sit down till he come,' 1 Sam. xvi. 11. That httle 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 ct 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 iive churches on his back, to pass this little gate"? The bribing oflicerhatha 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 courts, for it must not come into the courts of heaven. Think, sinner; you cannot go with these oppressions, with these oaths, frauds, bribes, usuries, 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, CJiarilt/. [l.J Faith is the foundation. * Be ye gi'ounded and settled in the fiiith,' Col. i. 23. Crcdendo fnndatiir, saith Augi;stine. It is grounded in faith. All other gi-aces are (as it were) built on this foundation. Credimus quod speramus: quod credimus et speramm, dili;/imus : quod credimus, speramus, et diligimus, operamur. "What we hope, we believe ; what we believe 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 incrcditi : it is impossible to hope for that wo believe not to be. Charity on faith : why should a man give all to the poor, imless he believed an abundant recompence ? Repentance on faith : why else suffer we contrition for sin, if we believed not remission of sin ? Tem- perance on faith : why forbear we the pleasing vanities of the world, but that we behcve the transcendent joys of eternity, whereof these harlots would rob us ? Patience on faith : why would we endure such calamities with willing quietness and subjection, if we believed 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 fjiith, 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 rewarder of them that dihgently seek him,' Heb. xi. G. Faith is the passage-way to God ; not one of that holy ensuing legend entered the city of life 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 fi'om death to life,' 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,' Hob. X. 36. That when you have sufl'ered before the gates, 3*0 may enter the city. There be three enemies that assault the soul befoi'e she enter the gates — a hon, a leopard, and a fox. The lion is tlio de^'il, whoroareth with hideous cries and bloody jaws, 1 Pet. v. 8. The leopard is the world, 80 HEAVEN-GATE. [SeEMON LXIII. which, hath a gay spotted hide ; but if it take lis within its clutches, it de- vours us. The fox is our concupiscence, bred in us, which craftily spoils our grapes, our young vines, oui* tender graces. Cant. ii. 15. Patience hath therefore an armed soldier with her, called Christian fortitude, to give re- pulse to all these encounters. And what he cannot feriendo, by smiting, she conquers /t';-e«fZo, by suffering. Vincit etiam dum jMtitur. She over- comes, even while she suffers. Patience meekly bears wrongs done to our own person ; fortitude encounters courageously 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 wrongs, 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, Qucecumaliis non nocet, nee sibi nocetA- Wlaich as it wrongs not others, so nor itself. He that hurts himself, is not iimo- 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. Trhmiplms innocentice est non j^eccare ubi 2)otest.-\ It is the triumph of innocence not to offend where it may. No testimony is more sweet to the conscience than this : ' Kemember, Lord, how I have walked before thee in truth, and with a perfect heart,' Isa. xxxviii. 3. So Job, ' My heart shall not condemn me for my days.' I 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 injmies it cheers itself, ' Lord, thou knowest my innocence.' The wicked ' cover themselves with violence as with a garment,' Ps. kxiii. 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 removentur in oeternum. If they be moved, they are moved to a place from whence they shall never be removed. ' I will wash mine hands in innocency: so will I compass thine altar, Lord,' Ps. xxvi. 6. If innocence must lead us to the altar on earth, sure that must be our gate to the gloiy 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 loveliest countenance, and longest continuance ; for countenance, it is amiable ; aU 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, charity, than ut Deum de ccdo traheres, et Iwminem ad ccelum elevares ;'^ than that thou didst bring down God fi'om 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 fr'om 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 Charitatis. Rev. XXn. 14.] heaven-gate. 81 The Sum. — There is no entrance to the city but by the gates ; no pas- sage to glory but by gi-ace. The wall of this city is said to be great and high, Rev. xxi. 12. High, no climbing over ; gi-eat, no brealdiig tlirough. So Christ saith, ' No thief can brealc through and steal,' Matt. vi. 20. Therefore through the gates, or no way. ' Corruption doth not inherit in- corruption,' 1 Cor. xv. 50. This cornipted man must be regenerate that he may be saved ; must be sanctified that he may be glorified. Babel- builders may offer fair for heaven, but not come near it. The giants of oui" time, I mean the monstrous sinners, may, iinponere Pelion Ossa, lay rebellion upon presumption, treason upon rebclhou, blasphemy upon all, as if they would sink heaven with their loud and lewd ordnance, and pluck God out of liis 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, di'unkards, 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 bribeiy is rather a key to unlock the gates of hell. Let Rome sell what she list, and wan-ant 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 dreamed of no other gate but their own righteousness. Poor souls, they cannot find the gate, because they stand in their own hght. 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 grace is the gate. Per jjortam ecclesia; iiitramus ad 2^ortam Para- disiA' We must be true members of the church, or the door of life will be shut against us. Heaven is a glorious place, therefore reserved for gracious men. Admittt'ntnr ad spiiitus justonim, non 7iisi justL To thotjC '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 ^Tiitehall, the court of the high King ; none are entertained but Albi, such as are washed v/hite in the blood of Christ, and keep white then- own innocence. Ungracious offenders look for no dwelling in this glory. You that have so little love to the gates, are not worthy the ciiy. If you will not pass through the gates of holiness in this life, you must 'not enter the city of happiness in the life 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 bad the ' angel's reed wherewith he measm-cd 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 country of eai'th describe the glorious court of heaven ? ' Glorious things are spoken of thee, city of God,' Ps. Ixxxvii. 3. Glorious cities have been, and arc in the world. Rome was eminently famous ; all her citizens like so many kings ; yet was it observed, illic homines man, that men did die there. But in this city there is no dying. Mors non erit \dtra, * There shall be no more death,' Rev. xxi. 4. I will narrow up my discourse, 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. Ixxxvii. 1. So was Jerusalem * Aug. Serm. 13C de Temp. VOL. an ^ 82 HEAVEN-GATE. [SeRMON LXIII. seated on earth to figure this city ; built of the ' quariy of heaven,' Dan. ii. ; 'on sapphires, emeralds, and chrysolites,' Rev. xxi. There is a heaven now over our heads, but it shall 'wax old as a garment,' Heb. i. 11. It is corniptible, 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 oui* pavement. (2.) Its Society, — The king that rules there, is one Almighty God, in three distinct persons. He made this city for himself. ' In his presence is the fulness of joy, and pleasures 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. xii. 23. They are already in soul taken up, and made free 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, ' wi'itten in the Lamb's book of life,' Rev. xd. 27. Now, though we are not already in full possession, because our apprenticeship of this life is not out ; yet we are aheady 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, Lihertas; freedom from the law; not from obedience to it, but from the curse of it. Prastemtis quod j^ossumus : quod noii 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 creatures, do us service. ' Whether things present, or things to come, aU are yours ; and ye are Christ's, and Christ is God's,' 1 Cor. iii. 22. Secondly, Tutela imperii; the king's protection, 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 oui' 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 definiatur cuvi discriynine.' -'^ Since our 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, conferre fiduciam.' The consideration of the guard of angels about us, should put into our minds reverence, into our hearts devotion, into our souls confidence. . Thirdly, De/ensio Legis; the defensive protection of the law. Chiist is * Encliirid. cap. 59. Rev. XXII. 14.] heaven-gate. 83 our advocate. ' Wlio shall lay any thing to tho charge of God's elect ? It is God that justificth,' Rom. viii. 33. We are impleaded; Paul appeals to Cajsar, 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 overtln-own. ' If 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. We have now right to the city ; we shall then have right in tho city. We have now a purchase of the possession, shall then have a possession of the pm'chase. ' Father, I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with mo where I am, that they may behold my gloiy, which thou hast given,' John xvii. 24. This is oui* Saviom-'s will and testament, and shall not be broken. The company then adds to the glory 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 friends, 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 Glory. — Non viihi si centum lingua;. If I had a hundred tongues, I was not able to discourse thoroughly the least dram of that ' inestimable weight of glory.' 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, Beus hahet quod exhi- heat.'<' God hath something to bestow on you. If 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 /antes, nee fast idium : there is neither hunger nor loath- ing. Sed Deus habet quod exhiheat. No sooner is the soul within those gates but she is glorious. Simileni sihi reddit infjredientem. 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 e\il 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, j^ea, 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 ciying, nor any more pain,' Rev. xxi. 4. Death, with all his apparitors, that cites the whole world to his court, sorrow, cryhig, pain, shall be no more. ' They shall persecute you from city to city,' saith Christ, Matt. X. 23, till at last we come to this city, and then out of their reach. that this clay of ours should come to such honour ! Well may we sufler 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 till our years be out. When that day comes, we shall be free possessors of this city. * In Job. Horn. 3. t Acts xxii. 28.— Ed. 84 HEAVEN-GATE. [SeRMON 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 gloiy ; whither once entered, you shaU sing as it is in the psalm, Sicut aitdivimus, ita et vidimus: As we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our 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 glory ; but, behold, the one half was not told me,' 1 liings x. 7. You saw Jeru- salem before in a map, now you shall walk through its streets, and observe 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 ! Amen. MEDITATIONS UPON SOME PART OF THE CREED. I BELIEVE IN God. The first tiling in the order of eveiy building is to lay tlae foundation sure ; no architect intends to leave there, but he is no good architect that doth not begin there. First, let us be thoroughly gi-ouuded in the truth of reli- gion ; and then not be detennined 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 plam and sober truth. The contrivers of the poHcy of the Komish Church knew too well how the people would be earned with imagination. There- fore they demised such change of ceremonies, their poetical metamoi-phoses, transubstantiation, masses like masks, elevations like interludes, proces- sions like the measm-es of a dance ; their friars of so many colours, hke a painter's apron ; their legends of saints, like the tales of the Imight of the sun, or the queen of the fairies, all to please imagination. Their churches Uke theatres, their images hke motionless actors — a histrionical rehgion, yet pleasing to the eye, and taking the fancy. Their antipodes, the novelists, take the same course. The wholesome doctrine of the text, as too famiUar to common preachers, they often qmte 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 crudities oppress their Bouls, that so many fumes and giddy vapoui's fly up into their heads, that so many hot spu-its, 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 disciphne 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 fomidation, then. Without which gi-oundwork, errors will be admitted for truth, and the pride of supposed Icnowledge fortify the heart against knowledge. I know not whether, through the frequency of preach- 66 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 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, first, 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, symbolum, which may signify a sliot, 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 misHving, 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 manner. 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 Ihe doctrine of the new covenant, that it may be familiar to the weakest •capacity, and retainable by the fi'ailest memory. Not long, not obscure, ne dum 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 all the ensuing articles concerning both God and the church. Therefore credo must be applied to every article ; for fides est tota cojndativa, he that looks for good by any, must hold all. Faith is generally an acknowledgment 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 will always keep the warm side of the hedge, never windward. Christ is little beholden to that faith, and that faith shall be little beholden to Christ. Or peculiar to the elect, which is a supernatural 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 wrought in us. Let none be so sottish as to think the faith whereby they shaU be saved was bred and bom in them, for it is the fair gift of God. * I was born in sin,' saith David, 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 fi'om my heavenly Father. Secondly, supernatural ; not only above that nature wherein we were bom, but even above that nature wherein our first parents were made. Above corrupted nature, yea, 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 gi*ace taught in the new covenant of grace. Other gi-aces, in our conversion, are but renewed; our knowledge, love, obedience, aU renewed ; but this faith is not renewed, but in our conversion takes its first being. Thirdly, whereby we apprehend. This is properly an action of the hand, and faith is the spi- * Ambr. f Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 87 ritual hand of a Christian. Fourthly, the promise of life ; for if there were no promise tlicre could be no faith. Fifthly, and are persuaded of oui* o\vii salvation by Christ. This is no opinion, no atl'ection, but a persuasion, not of others' salvation (the devils believe that God will save some), but of our owTi, and that only by Jesus Christ. 1 believe. — /, not ice. 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 own only, Hab. ii. 4. Charity is of a great 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 faith can do me good, but mine own. I may be the better for an- other man's charitj^ ; 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 blind we are still in darkness. The Lord of life conversed wdth the Jews, yet wei'e 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. hi God. — There be three degrees or diti'erences of believing, credere Deum, Deo, in Deum.* First, To believe there is a God ; and no man possibly can thiiist this faith out of his heart. Secondly, To believe God ; that is, to acknowledge his word for tnith. Thus far go even reprobates, but this faith cannot save them. Not that it in Jidcs fwta (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 sufficient to save. Nor that it is Jides informis, because it wants charity, which the Romanists would have to be the foim of ftiith. Nor that it is extorta ct coacta, en- forced from the clear evidence of things ; for all faith is voluntary, if we believe St Augustine. f But a defective faith, because it applies 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 Paulmn ; but credi- mus Deo, et in Deum. I believe he is, I believe he is good, I believe he is good to me. Faith is a kind of thing infra scientiam, supra opinionem: scientia habet cor/nitionern, opinio dubitationem ; inter has duas Jides est media.X Faith is neither a certain science, nor a doubtful opinion ; but a middle natm'e between them, admitting neither of demonsti'ation nor hesitation. For better declaration of this heavenly gi-ace, faith, I refer you to that lively expression of St Paul, ' I am crucified with Christ, nevertheless I live : yet not I, but Christ liveth in me ; and the life which I now live in the flesh, I Hve by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me,' Gal. ii. 20. Of which w^ords, admit this short paraphrase, * I am cmciiied 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 Mount Calvar}'. Had he been there, he would rather have helped to crucify Christ than jnelded to be crucified with * Aug. t ^e Spir. et Lit. cap. 32. X Alex. Hal. Destruct. vitio., par. 6, cap. 32. 88 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. Christ. How, then, is he cnicified with Christ ? Not as a man consisting of body and sonl, but as a sinner canying 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 suffered 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 power of faith, that we 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 creatm-e. 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 Vv^as from my natural mother, but a new thing from my supernatm'al Father. Not whose I was : I was Satan's kennel, I am Christ's temple ; I am cracified 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 sous of men. The tree of life affords us a threefold antidote against this threefold death. First, the life of justification ; the righteousness of Chi'ist 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 vutue derived from Christ, infusing new principles. Thirdly, the life of joy and cheerfulness, which made Job exult and Paul insult over all calamities, as more than conquerors. So that we are dead to those sins which did kill 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 write, yet I am dead. Can a dead man perform these actions ? For a man to be dead, and to toll 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 hve.' This is a short death, that is so soon turned to life. Or is he both at once ahve and dead, dead and alive, at the same instant ? Yes, Paul is dead, and Paul lives ; peccant Paul is dead, believing Paul lives. Dead quatemts subditus 2^eccato, alive quatenus insitns 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 sti'ong by the strength of another ? or rich by the wealth his neighbom- 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 m 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, Principiuni vitce. He that begins not to take life from Christ shall never Hve ; he that doth MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. 89 shall never die. Now, he lives in ns hy 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 ho be in heaven and we on earth ? He lives in us as the root lives in the branches, as the head lives 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 soul, 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. Christ is that ' Sun of righteousness ' to our souls ; his absence leaves us dead, his presence revives us. The be- liever can never perish, unless life itself could die. ' Christ lives in me.' — But can we all say, Christ lives in us? Neither speak I of gi'oss sinners, not grafted 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 hfe 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 ? ^Vliy should we look unto Phai-phar, that have Jordan ? He that hath the U\ing waters of Jesus flowing in his heart, is mad if he stonp 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 bell}4'ul. I deny not oil, and wine, and recreation; but we must not hve 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, ottering their service, that philosophers could dine and sup -without them. How much more may the Chi-istian re- joice without a playfellow ? He hath holy meditations of the forgiveness of his sins, peace and reconciliation with God ; and to break ofl' this for the entertainment of vanity, is more absm-d, than for a husband to leave his fair and chaste wife, peerless for beauty and innocency, for the embraces of a black and stigmatical strampet. We have generous and noble delights, angelical pleasm-es ; what should discomfort us ? ' Jesus Christ hves in us.' 'And the life 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 hve in the flesh, is a dying life ; to live to the flesh, is a Hving death. By none of these hves tho beUever ; but by another, a better, a surer, which as he hath aliunde, from another place ; so he lives after another manner ; it is caVdus in- spirata, and so called coolest is vita: ' our conversation is in heaven,' Phil, iii. 20. Of moles of the earth, this makes us souls of heaven ; of snaUs, 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 chmb mountains, or for iron to swim. Yet this new life of faith doth naturalize these holy afiec- tions to us ; Christ working upon us, as the sun doth on the vapour ; of a gross, heavy, and squahd substance, it makes it hght and aerial, apt to 90 BIEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. ascend to the middle region. To outward duties go botli 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 run, disdaining all paces but the swiftest. He draws us, but with our wills. AUter trahitur claudus ad inandhnn, aliter reus ad supi^licium.'^ There is gi-eat 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 prmciple ; 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 ; like 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 hve 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 hved. 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 ; now, 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 glory. 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 all 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 secretaiy ; 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 liing, 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 coui't of heaven, faith waits upon her all the way ; but at the presence-chamber of gloiy, 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 believed 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 * Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 91 the door of faith, but the Son of God ; it belongs to the gospel. ' The law came by Moses, but grace and truth came 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 instrumeutally by faith, as by the spirits, which are the bond of soul and body. As the leg or ami lives by the proper sinews, veins, arteries, whereby it is united to the head, heart, and liver, those more noble parts, so faith 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), engi'ossing 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 kind 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 wtues, therefore of all virtues God most honoureth it : respexit Inanilitatem, as the blessed virgin sung, Luke i. 48. Love is more noble ; it is a meaner act to believe, 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. Maiy Magdalene had done much for Christ, washed his feet with her tears, and dried them with 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 ^ii. 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. * AVho loved me.' — The foundation of all good to man, is the love of God. A love without all in^^tation, 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 from 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, llahct in se Dciis quud (lilir/at, invenit in nobis quod puniat. God hath the matter of love in himself, the cause of punishment he finds in us. ♦Chr 8. 92 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. ' We were in worse 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 lay ; and that not one dram of sorrow was put into the potion more than we merited to drink oif. Secondly, Himself could never be in the like case, sitting in heaven, far enough out of the reach of misery and mischief; yet he loved us. ' Loved me.' — It may be so : Paul had good experience 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; teaching us to pledge him in that saving cup, wherein 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 imbelieving 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. cxhdi. 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 purchase 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 gi-eater 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 known : ' 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.' When 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. He that hath this faith, how JIEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 98 doth he vilipend the world's three gi'cat mistresses — profit, honour, pleasure ? The Lord gives many temporal benelits to reprobates ; sutlers a wicked Haman to be a great emperor's favourite; lets a Nabal wallow in his golden dung ; fills the belly of a profane Esau. But he gives Chi-ist to none but those whom in Christ ho loves for ever. By this that hath been spoken, we may well rehsh the sweetness of faith. Now take some useful directions about it. First, Learn to know God : ' How shall we believe on him we have not known ?' Rom. x. 14. It is not the bare rehearsal of the creed that can save a man's soul. ICnowledge 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 ahve 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 non ler/it, 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 fii-e,' with 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 know 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 buiy 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. Om* means is liberal, but we will not allow omrselves to know ; like those that have a free school in the town, yet never a one can say his cross-row. •-'= Or, if some can spell, yet ' understandcst thou what thou readest ?' Acts viii. 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 clifis 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 ? Secoiidh/, Let us acknowledge our unbelief. Though we little suspect it, there is none of us whose heart is not full of infidelity. There can be no greater indignity offered to God than not to take his word, which is not to believe him. How doth animated dust scom such a distrust ? They that lie for an advantage, scalding their mouths to beguile theu' customers ; they that promise what they mean not to perfoim, laying then- tongues to pawTi, without pui-pose to redeem them; they that are led with gain, as the butcher enticeth a poor lamb from its bleatmg mother, by a green branch in hia hand, to the house of slaughter ; — do they believe in God, that he ^^'ill sus- tain them here, and crown them hereafter ? Job thought God did him a good turn in taking away all ; his account being lessened, by abating his receipt. There be some that would 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 nms ; 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. O, but they have a good faith and a good mean- * The multiplication table. — Ed. 94 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. iBg! It is false; they have a bad faith, and a worse meaning, for they mean not well to themselves. We are all faithless by nature, dead in unbelief, not only with dimmed eyes, 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 ia no faith in us, till the Spirit of grace infuse it. Thlrdhj, 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 imkind, 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 pro\'iuces ; 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 trust 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. ' Lord, my hope is in thee ;' so long as hope holds the heart will not burst, but his hope shaU never vanish that is placed in God. Fourthly, Endeavom- we to keep our faith always waking and working, that we may feel it. Quod nonfit, non jMtefit: if faith be in us, it will 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 infinite mercy. As St Martin answered the devil, tempt- ing him to despair for his sins, Wliy, 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 Christ but with be- numbed hands ; hast life, and dost not believe thou hast it ; believest, and yet will 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 siclmess that is quite dead ; nor are we sensible of corruption, by corruption, but by gi'ace. 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 ordinary infirmities, faith feteheth out a pardon of course ; thy prayer in the morning cleansing thee from 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 all 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 every 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 many items in his books, knows what debts have been owing, but MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 95 withal he sees tbcm 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 Israelites stimg with serpents, some (likely) had dim eyes, some were far oft", yet by looking on the brazen serjjent 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 grieve they can be- lieve no better ; blessed are such, they do believe truly, they shall believe more powerftilly. 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 eveiy 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 undertaldngs, either through former ignorance or want of futui-e 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 chcumference, 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. Fifthhj, Let us continually be nom'ishing om- 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 own, 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 fi'om Christ ; that spite of aU 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 oui- life be holy days, the true manna that shall preserve us aUve for ever is set on our tables ; who can have such cause to be merry ? Do we complain that we want something which the world hath ? AVTiy, 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 believer will live more comfoiiably by it, than if all the monaixhs 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 own dinner out of this feast, a portion for myself out of this mfinite treasure, 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 maintain 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 pirates. 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 om- faith — God : described here by his name, number, nature, distinction. 1. Name. It is impossible that any name should express tJie 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 every plant a pen ; or were the heaven parch- ment, the air ink, and every star a pen, and every living creature a ready wi'iter, 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. Plurality of gods was the error of gentilism, and such an opinion as the wiser sort made themselves merry withal. Deiis, si non wms, nulliis.\ 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 mox-e gods than one, then smgly and apart each must have less strength, so much being wanting to one, as the rest had gleaned fi-om 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 religion in the next. One in the law till Christ came ; one in the gospel when he came. Those former St Paul calls ' beggarly elements,' Gal, iv. 9 ; the fu-st letters of the book to school the people of God. When the fulness of time biought 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 autichrist ; here a kind mother, there a bloody stepdame. Oiie 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 Tertiil. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 97 and there the idols of Babol, the sjTiagoguc of superstitious Baalites, at next door to the commuuion 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 he, 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 live, move, and have om* 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 compomided ; God is without composition of matter, form, 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 wis- dom, goodness, mercy, love, are infinite. Divers men and angels are called holy, wise, merciful ; hni,jirst, 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 naiTow 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 hke him — holy, good, merciful ; this is to ' partake of the divine natm'e,' Heb. xii. 10. Scrutari temeritas, imitari pietas 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 ; fii'st, generally, in the forefront, to propound God, and then to distinguish him into three sub- sistences — Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. They ai-e three in persons, not in natm-e ; one in nature, not in persons. Nature may be common to many ; as humanity, the natiu'e 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 Paul Peter, in unity of person. Let us conceive three persons in one essence, not divided but distin- guished, and yet not more mingled than divided. Think of one substance in three subsistences, one essence in three relations ; one Jehovah, begetting, begotten, and proceeding — Father, Son, Spirit. The path is nan-ow, 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 numcro, because they are created quantities, therefore separable. So Peter, Paul, John, have one universal foim, yet are not one man, but three men. But the divine nature being infinite, admitting nei- tlier composition nor division, three persons may subsist in it, yet they are not three 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 ai-e they also thi-ee distinct lights. The light of the sun being of itself, and from none ; the hght of the moon from the sun; and the light of the air from them both. But here only we can adore, and not conceive, we VOL. lU. o 98 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. 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 beheve one God in three persons, but there can be no faith of a thing utterly unknown. If barely to say, ' I believe in God,' were sufficient to save, heaven would be faller 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 maybe 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 Sanctifier ; 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. If we worship all three, and not as one God, we make three idols. If we frame to ourselves another fonn than God prescribes, we worship not him but ourselves. They that wait on the king loiow 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 unmannerliness which denies humble obeisance to so gi'eat a majesty. But, if the king make special laws, prescribing the form of his honour, every subject is bound to know that. Ignorantia juris wUl excuse no man, for he is bound to take notice. God hath set down the maimer, and defined the honour, which he will have, and how ; to this we are aU obliged, and must observe it. Thirdly, 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 ofi"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 our 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 mixtm'e 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 measm'e leamable ; 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 Trinity, 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 skiU ; 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 j believe in direct us, enable us, that we may do all ! The fii-st person is described. 1. By his title, 'The Father.' 2. Byj his attribute, ' Almighty.' 3. By his efiect, ' Maker of heaven and earth.' 1. The Father. — But doth not this seem to give the first person some prera- MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 99 gatlve above the rest, being set before the rest ? Answ. Ho 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 orif^inis,-''- as bemg the fountain of the Deity, jninciputm Deitatis.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. 20. Suppose three kings, equal in royalty, all God's immediate lieutenants, met in one place. They cannot all sit down fii'st, but one in the fu'st place, &c. Yet we cannot say he that sat first is the chiefost. 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 mysteiy. ' Father ' is a relative term, Paternitas supponit fiUationem, Mai. i. 6. This is sometimes imderstood 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 your father in heaven,' Matt, xxiii. 9. We have indeed earthly parents, but God is om- Father originally, Mai. ii. 10, man organically ; God the Father of our spirits, man only of our flesh, and he receives this honoiu* 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 Chi'ist and to us. — God hath one Son by generation, many by regeneration, innumerable b}' creation. (1.) In respect of Chi'ist, who is his Son, naturallj', singularly, consub- Btantially, coeternally. Therefore, it is the incommunicable propriety of the fii'st person to beget ; in this he is distinguished from the other two. Creatures do, indeed, also beget, but with a great diti'ei'ence. 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 natm-e, 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 Nostruvi, but Meum, etvestrum: alitcr 7neum, aliter vesinnn: meum natura, vestrum fjratia.\ Father of the angels. Job i. 6, Ps. Ixxxix. 6. These be the eldest of the created sons. Father of all men, Acts x-v^i. 28; making our bodies by natural and mediate generation, fonning our souls by immediate infusion, Heb. xii. 9. Father of magistrates ; they are called the * sons of the most High,' Ps. Lxxxii. 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, * Aquin. t Aug. X Aug. 100 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. 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. By 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 sauctification : '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 childi'en,' 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. 82, ' 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, xxiii. 15. ' The sons of death,' 1 Sam. xxvi. 16, Ps. Ixxix. 11, Filii mortis, ]}ro morti destinatis. ' Children of this world,' Luke xvi. 8. for such as are addicted to this world. Or, Luke xx. 34, Jilii seculi, for such as live according to the custom of the world. ' Children of Behal,' ' chikken of the devil,' for such as practise the works of the devil. Gen. v. 32, Filiiis quiugentorum annorum; 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 pojndi. The saints, indeed, have many fihal titles, but all in relation to God. Filii lucis, Job xii. 36, ' children of the light,' because God is the light. Filii pads, Luke x. 6, ' sons of peace,' because God is peace. Filii sa-pientice. 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 Jilii 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 j^dfemum fcedus. Filii thalami. Matt. ix. 15, ' children of the bridechamber,' such as the bridegroom shall admit to his glorious nuptials. ' Children of the resur- rection,' Luke XX. 36, because in the resm'rection this Father shall acknow- ledge them for his own children. The magistrate is a civil father, 2 Kings 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. He is a mean, but God is the main in this adoption. Christ is our * elder brother,' Rom. viii. 29 ; yet also om- father. Such was the pre-eminence of birthright, both under 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 primogenitm'e had such a privilege and precedency, by the rules of justice, among children of the same generation, much more may our Saviour challenge it by a higher right and title. Non timidt habere colice- 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 UPON THE CREED. 101 mercy, and manifeation of his glory. Christ is his Son by an eternal generation, not mado, but begotten ; a Son by nature, whereof all adoption is but an imitation, as the civil law speaks. It is a prerogative caso, that a fiither, having a natural son, may not assume a legal, adopted, or sup- ported son, because this latter help was invented and intended only for solace of the father's barrenness, or a supply in regard of the children's mortahty. ' 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 fountams, 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 furnish his scarcity, 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 grudging that more beside himself should call God Father. But as the whole store of Eg}'pt came through 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 i\xmine, 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 first effect of God's ordination, a mediator, in some sort, of God's actual choice, and our potential childship. But non 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 reconcihation of mercy and justice in om- heavenly Father's counsel, as in our heavenly Father's covenant. Let us be delighted with the prophetical declaration, more with the real exliibition, 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. 20. This faith hath its beginning 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 children, and cry, 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 honom* 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 Cfesars' families, nor of David matching into the house of Saul, which seemed to him no small prefennent ; we blazon not your anns with the mixture of noble ingressions, 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 coimsel in tliat 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; KS MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. SO, what vre know we declare. Do you ask no more : you need no more. To be made the sons and daughters of God, is honoui' amply sufficient. This dignity wUl 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 was an Hittite, the swarthy king of hell ; our 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 of the evening : antequam natl, clamnati ; adjudged to captivity before our nativity ; benighted in ignorance before ever we saw the sun ; Satan's prisoners, whom he pm-posed to bind in everlasting chains of blackness. We have read of hopeless foundlings entertained by miracle, as yotmg 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 David, 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 Ood ; this transcends all admiration. 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 : let all thoughts be held digressions, all occm'rents and meditations superfluous, ihat serve not to remember us of this ineffable and inestimable mercy. Comfort 2. This assures us that we shall never fall into destraction, for there is no mutability in this our Father. If now sons, sons for ever. Nee morihus nostris conrenit Jilium habere temporalem, 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 2Kirenti non 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 aff'ection is always dear and indefatigable, which Saint Bernard compares to the most tender mothers, springing up similitudes, as the falconer doth partridges ; and yet all shoit, as no natural parent can afford her brood such heat, such motion, such nom-ishment, 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 ; David musters his troops too ; but as he encourage th them with his eye, so he restrains them with his tongue : ' Deal gently with the young man Absalom, for my sake.' 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 hunts for his blood and crown. For whose cause should Absalom be pursued, if he be forborne for David's ? He was courteous to others, plausible to all the people, only cruel to Da\ad. He was not sure of the success ; the number was imequal. Absalom's forces doubled his, so that he might have been driven to say, Deal gently with Absalom's father. Yet, squaring the greatness of his hopes by the goodness of his cause, and granting himself the victory, he commands pity to the conspirator. A messenger comes. David's fii'st question is, not how fares the host, but MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 103 how fares Absaiom. Cushi 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, Absalom, my son, &c., 2 Sam. xviii. 33. Israel prized his life dear, worth ten thousand of theirs, j'ct he 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 Iving 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 ungi-acious, we are rebellious sons ; yet still doth our heavenly Father compassionate us. God needs not seek occasion against us ; every moment we provoke and deserve his WTath : 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. Still he chargeth his celestial annies, the blessed angels, ' Deal gently with my children.' ^STiile we lift up our arms against heaven, they hft 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 chm-ch, defraud his members, dishonour his name ; yet so kind is 'he, that he chargeth all creatures to spai"e us. Yea, even when we would not spare ourselves, he hinders us : as the nurse binds the hands of the unruly child, when it would do violence to its own face ; speaking to us, as Paul to the jailor, 'Do thyself no harm,' Acts x\i. 28. Here is a paternal mercy, past the comprehension of all finite capacities. A near resemblance of it was that of Da^^d, the deputy and type of Christ : ' Deal kindly with my son Absalom ;' ' would God I had died for thee, Absalom, my son.' But how far gi-eater was the love of our Sanom*, who said of us ^Tetched traitors, not. Would God I had died for you ; but, I will die, I do die, I have died for you. Oh ! love like himself, infinite ! whereat the angels stand yet amazed, wherewith the saints are ravished. So gi-ievous are our faults, that were the Lord other than a fiithcr, how could he pardon us ? And, being a father, he must needs beangi-y 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 Shimamite weep for her son ? yet parents are but the nm-ses of their children, God is the father ; and may not the father at his pleasui-e send for the child fi-om nurse ? Perhaps the milk of our breasts is not wholesome, our coimsel 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, transiting him to himself; he loved Abraham, whom he called his friend ; ho loved Jacob, loved him before he was, gave him the blessing ; he loved Joseph, prospered him in everv place — all Eg}-pt, all his brethi-en, witness it ; he loved Moses, called him his faithful senant ; he loved Noah, saving him from that general destruction ; he loved David, choosing him fi-om the folds ; loved Samuel, selected him fi-om 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 incomparable prince ; loved Mary, the blessed Virgin, ' she found favour in his eyes.' Christ loved Lazarus, wept for him ; loved John, sujBfering 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 aU these ' in the beloved,' Jesus Christ. Comfort 3. Toleration of wants. The good father doth not turn off the child for being \yeak and sickly ; but is so much the more indulgent, as his necessity requires succour. If his stomach refuse meat, or cannot answer it with digestion, will he put him out of doors ? No ; when the Shunamite'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 frame, considering that we are but dust,' Ps. ciii. 14 ; that our soul v/orks by a lame instrument ; and therefore requires not that of an elemental composition, which he doth of angelical spirits. The son is commanded to wi'ite out such a copy fairly ; he doth his best, far short of the original ; yet the father doth not chide, but encom-age him. Or he gives him a bow and an'ows, bids him shoot to such a mark ; he draws his utmost strength, lets go cheerfully ; the arrow drops far short, yet the s6n 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 buHets us, sec^^lar 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, filii vaUditas.* Thus we are taught in the fii'st words of that prayer compiled by Wisdom itself, 'Our Father,' admonens adoptionis divina;; 'which art in heaven,' peregrinationis kmnancB. 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, our Father, om' 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 returning 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 mcdis, est 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 : ' His grace is sufiicient 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 all our sufierings, I'aier vldet, Ps. xxxiv. 15. Will David undertake that monstrous giant ? Eliab will soon snib him for it : Get thee home, foolish stripling, to thy hook, to thy harp ; * Bern. MEDITATIONS UPOX THE CREED. 105 let swords alono to thorn that can iisc tliem. Saul looked for one as much higher than himself, as ho 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 armour, but witli God's ; with no sword but that of the Spirit, faith. All Israel looks on him with pity and fear; why is this comely youu" man sufiered to cast away himself upon such a monster ? why 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. x\di. 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 Phihstian champion, and the tciTor of Israel, at the foot of a shepherd. He that considers little Da\id grappling with gi-eat Goliath, and great Goliath groveUing under little David, must confess that we have a Father able to deUver us. Covifort 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, ability 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 '? privj' to imperfections, and would have them supplied ? Do we fear some judgment, and would be secured ? are we haunted with a temp- tation, and would be quitted? full of thanlvfulness, and would be delivered? We have the wan-ant of a Father, Pray, and be comforted. But let us bewai-e of sin, that will make us ran away from our Father, and hide ourselves. If we delight in sin, God will not delight in our prayers. He doth not hear malicious and deliberate sinners, Ps. Ixvi. 18, John ix. 81. It is a high pri^alege to come into the presence chamber of a mortal lung, and not seldom even great men want this prerogative. Yet the king's son may have free entrance ; no servant dares deny the son. Neither have we access only to the throne of gi*ace, but even of glory ; our prayers go before, ourselves shall follow. If he admit our petitions, he will not deny om- persons. The king gladly receives a letter from his absent son, how joj^ully 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 gi-im soever he looks, that he knows ^vill bring him to his loving father. Comfort 6. Provision of all good things. It is part of the Other's duty to pro\'ide for the family. Parents lay up for their children, not children for their parents. Shall God be defective in that he requires of us ? Quid pater neriabit filiia, qui hoc dif/natiis eat, vt 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. Ifi), 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 unkind, vexations instead of comforts. There is unchangeable compas- sion in this Father. Eng Edward the Fu'st, 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 must either kill my only son or disobey my heavenly Father ; though the conflict were grievous between natural 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. Be7ie fertur calumnia, cum acquintur corona. That celestial royalty makes large amends for aU. Do we want riches ? Pater novit, ' our heavenly Father knows that we have need of these things,' Matt. vi. 32. Non duhitetis affectum, x>ater est ; non duhitetis eff'ectum, novit quod indigetis.'-'- ' If ye, being e\i\, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give good things to them that ask him?' Matt. vii. 11, where is a threefold compari- son. 1. Dantis ad dantem, hetwixi the gi.Yers. God hath the better store. Man gives and wants. God's treasury hath never the less. WTio would travel far to a broken cistern, that dwells at next door to the fountain ? 2. Recipientis 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. Coi^poral things maintain but a corruptible life, spirituals preserve an incorruptible soul. Confer on thy son never so many honoui's, manors, jewels, orna- ments, yet he shall die. Our Father gives that shall keep us ahve for ever. Pater est, ergo vult ; in ccelis est, ergo p)otest.\ Our ' Father,' to signify his mercy ; ' 'in heaven,' to declare his all-sufficiency. Non denegabit petentibus sua, qui spo7ite obtulit non petentibus se. 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 afi'ect patreni rather than patrimonium, not so much desiring heaven itself, as the glorious presence of our Father there. Deus dabit 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 transgression his pardon ; for our misery his mercy ; for our affliction his compassion ; for our weakness his might ; for our indigence his indulgence ; for contempt in the world content iu 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 requires 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 hke 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 are his children, Kom. 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 childi-en, but ' in his own likeness.' Generation doth not more than regeneration, effectuate a * Chrys. t Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 107 similitude of the cliikl to tlic parent. Wc commonly know young ones, whose children they are, by their 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 congregation of God's children, cither 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 their furniture and feathers, and flash off a little powder ; or for company, like geese to the capitol. There is an humble heart and a teachable spirit ; this is rare to find. If we be not led by the SpLiit of our Father, what assui-auce have we that we are not bastards ? Duty 2. Let us be humbled for oiu' natui-al condition, and strive for this spiritual adoption. We had a worse fatherhood than that of corruption, Job x^^i. 14. No child is so hke its father as a man by nature is hke Satan, in his thoughts, desires, delights. None of us can cndm-c the ex- probration of a base parentage. Yet, if men's works be devilish, Christ's censure holds ; and to be the son of a hangman, of an harlot, is honour to it. Our Romish neighbom-s talk much of their miracles ; but all present wonders shall lose the reputation of strangeness, would 'you bless our eyes with this mu-acle, to see all become the holy children of a heavenly Father. The earth shall be filled with admiration, hell wdth distraction, heaven with acclamation, the chm-ch with exultation, every good heart with gladness, every ill one with madness, all A\-ith amazed looks, at such a con- version. Is the former Saul joined with the prophets ? the latter Saul with the apostles ? Do the childi-en of Nimi-od, hunters and oppressors ; the children of Lamech, fighters and swaggerers ; the children of Jubal, singers and pipers, all come in ? all made the children of God ? Sure, ' 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 ' runs to meet you,' Luke xv. He came once in his Son, he comes continually in his word ; and he will pro^ide 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. Until 3. Good children follow their father, and observe him as the copy of their Ufe. In case of injiuy, what doth my father ? ' He causethhis sun to shine, and his rain to fall,' Matt. v. 45, even on his enemies ; in this be the ' childi-eu 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. Ixviii. 5 ; so is his good Son, ' a Father to the poor,' Job. xxix. IG. I om- 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 gi'eat manor imder the broad seal, should grudge to pay the fees. He is unworthy to be a rich man's hen-, 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 gi-eatness, and be thankful for his kindness ; thus should a good son do. Many complain the unruh- ness of their children, forgetting how um-uly themselves are to their Father. It is just with God to punish the untowardness of his children, with the uutowardness of their children. While we fear not our 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. Children are like a looking-glass ; a very breath may defile them : 108 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. or as a stringed instrument, that 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 toward God. Dutii 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, qui inimicos Dei non oderit. ' Do I not hate them that hate thee? ' Ps. cxxxix. 21. My enemies I love, thy enemies I hate : non quatenus sunt Jiomines, sed quatenus sunt hostes. 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 construction, and many souls that lose their innocency by consortion. No poison is more violent, more virulent, than that is shot from the breath of such infectious serpents. Duty 5. Be patient under his corrections : blows from a stranger recoil upon him with quittance ; from a father they require patience. If two children be fighting, and a man parting them, lets the one alone, corrects the other, we conclude, the child whom he beats is his own son. God lets bastards escape, but chastiseth his children, 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 succour. 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 jiatreni non solum osculantem, sed et verherantem ; et in- dulgentem, et ohjimfanteni. Lord, thy very strokes are mercy ; if thou correctest us as childi-en, thou meanest to save us as a Father. Duty 6. If he be our Father, ' where is his honour ?' Mai. i. 6 ; and how can we honour him, but by our obedience ? Honom' thy temporal father, much more thy eternal. Shall an obstinate sinner say to God, ' My Father, thou art the guide of mj youth?' Jer. iii. 4. Shall we dissemble, whose Father is truth ? 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 wiU 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 faint-hearted bashfulness injure our own persons, the matter were less grievous ; but the common cause of God is wi'onged through his children's timorousness. Which of us hath not yielded an implied consent to God's dishonoui- ? which of us in our places is bold to rebuke corruption, 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 every place wound our Father's name ; which was able to make Croesus's yoimg and dumb son speak : while childi-en that are dumb should speak, we that can speak, are dumb and speechless. Shall we, hke those * That is, griping or niggardly. — Ed. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CBEED. 109 rulers, believe, and not dare to confess ? John xii. 42. Shall we usurp more in our fear and love than our Father ? Yet how hath this stolen courage from men's hearts, and men's hearts from tho Lord. Our forefathers stood against the torrent of the times for Christ, being prodigal of their bloods in that liery 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 ef sapiens audchit dkeve Fentheu;* ' Thou art the man.' I will 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' provided for ' fearful' men '? Rev. xxi. 8. Oh it is beyond aU imagination terrible for us to think, above all wonder honible for them to feel, what punishment belongs to such dastards, yea to such bastards, not childi-en of their Father. How will all their policies shrink, what a world of confusion will surprise their hearts when God shall say, ' Depart, I know you not.' Cowards you have been, none of my champions ; strangers you are, none of my children. I know there be some, that with monstrous tongues, bigger than their hands, can speak gi-eat words, play their prizes in empty fonns, and seem valiant ; non quia plus cordis, sed minus oris hahent: not because they have more courage, but less modesty. But far be it from us in the cause of our Father to hold our peace. Shame is the consequent of sin ; let us bestow aU our shame on our own sins ; and not think it a shame, but an honour, to stand for the glory of our Father. Duty 8. Seeing we have a Father so loving, and able to provide for us, let us banish all immoderate care, Matt. vi. 20, 32. In a family the father provides for all ; he that doth not, is worse than an infidel ; the chiu'ch 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 puiTcying for him- self, building, purchasing, proling, raking wealth together, we say, Sm-e his father is dead. If our care be set night and day on the things of this life, losing our repasts, breaking om* sleeps, wearing out om- bodies with la- bom-s, tearing our souls with distractions ; it argues, that either God hath cast us off, or we take him for no father of ours. Indeed if om- 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 be his children we shall be blessed. Almighty. — This consists in two things. First, he is able to do what he plcaseth, and that in all places, Ps. cxxxv. G. Next, he is able to do more than he pleaseth, able to tui-n ' 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, yei he did not, Matt. xxvi. 53, Able to have saved himself from death, and confounded his deriders, 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, will not. Thus God can do all that he will do, actually ; and more than he will do, potentially. There be three things that (di%dnes hold) God cannot do, without derogation to his ahnightincss : (1.) Such as bo 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 anjihing ; he cannot make * Uorat. 110 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. another God, another infinite. He ' cannot He,' 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. Miitare potest signum, non consilium. Whom he hath decreed to save, he cannot damn ; if he have promised mercy, he cannot throw to hell ; for he cannot do against his promise, against his pui-pose. These are the effects of impotency, signs of imperfection, which, if God could admit, he could not be God. Man can indeed lie and change, and sin, and repent, therefore is weak ; but God cannot, and because he cannot he is omnipotent. Dicitur omnipotens, faci- endo quod vult, non patiendo quod non vult.'^- (3.) Some think that he cannot do things which imply contradiction ; of a stone he can make a man, or turn 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. When we deny the Romish reality of Christ's body in the sacrament, they think to choke us with a potest Dominns, God can do this. But beside that a body hath dimensions, circumscribed, limited 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 ivill to can is a good argument, ' Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean,' Matt. viii. 2 ; not from can to will. But this is mii-aculous, say they. We answer, Christ wrought no miracle, but man's sense might appre- hend it to be a miracle. When he turned water into wine, made him see that was bom blind, fed thousands with a few loaves ; the sight, and taste, and sense being exercised, could testify these for miracles. 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 sujjra 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 afraid of thy judg- ments ; ' they little 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, Levit. x. 3, dead in displeasm-e, 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 desert, 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 would seem that the meaning is, ' He is called almighty from doing what he pleases, and from not suffering what he does not please.' — Ed. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. Ill not murmured at, not censured in others, but deprecated in ourselves. That which hath befallen any sinner, sinner, may befall thee ; there is the same might in him, if there be the same malice in us. Were his strength decayable with time, there might be some hope in reluctation ; but never did or shall man contest against God without coming short home. He is as almighty in the valleys as in the hills. Some fear the waters, are secure on the land, dread a clap of thunder, think themselves safe in a calm ; as if the earth could not swallow Korah, as well as the water drown Pharaoh ; as if Nadab were not slain with fire from heaven, when the weather was fair. One will not come to the temple for fear of dying in a crowd ; as if God could not find him out in his privacy, or the strayer from the di'ove might never foil into the hands of slaughter. Duty 2. Let this consideration humble us ; the pride of man and omni- potency of God will hardly stand together. The apostles contend for supe- riority, and presently Satan begs them, ' desires to winnow them,' Luke xxii. 31. A man thinks scorn to be censured a natural ; yet he is no sooner proud but Satan begs him for a fool, as none are begged of the king but fools and madmen. The sight of a proud woman made the good man weep ; fii'st, because she was going to hell ; secondly, because she was going faster than he could go to heaven.* All other sins lead a man to God, only pride brings him against God. ' God rcsisteth the proud ! ' 1 Pet. V. 5. ; good reason, for the proud resist God. Other sinners for- sake God, therefore God forsakes them ; but the proud resists God, there- fore God resists him.f All the capital sins are the daughters of pride, all odious ; how \'ile is the mother ? It degrees up itself hke rebellion. (1.) The fii'st act of rebellion is deny- ing of tribute : pride refuseth to pay God the tribute of praise ; all honour is too httle for herself. (2.) Rebellion disobeys the king's laws, pride will be bound to no law, thinks herself too good to be controlled. (3.) Rebel- lion sets up a new king, and pride sets up a new god : ' We will not have this man reign over us,' Luke xix. 14. Like Ahithophel, it sets up an Ab- salom against David, but at last despairs and hangs itself, (nt.) Rebelhon takes the field, and so doth pride ; ' Let us break their bonds asunder,' Ps. ii. 2. If their hands cannot reach heaven, they will dart out spicula lingua, ' setting then* mouths against heaven,' Ps. Ixxiii. 9. They wall blaspheme God, though they cannot imcro\\Ti him. All are fools by nature ; he that humbles not himself must remain a fool still ; for God reveals bis wisdom to babes, not to the proud. Christ doth not thank God for hiding these mj-steries from the wise, but for revealing them to the humble. Matt, xi. 25. As Rom. vi. 17, not that you were so, but that you are thus.* Alas, that poor dust should be proud when it considers the Aimighty ! He that desu'es to build high, and to seek the things above, must lay his founda- tion low in an humble heart. Quo minor est qnisquis, maximus est homimnn. Humility is schola, and scala cccli; to raise the humble is the delight of onmipoteucy, but rebels shall be cast do^\•n into hell. Vutij 3. Be patient under his afllictiiig hand ; there is no dealing with the Almighty but by prayers and peace-ollerings. ' I was dumb, and opened not my mouth, because thou didst it,' Ps. xxxix. 10. Not a word ! but there may be a silent tongue and a clamorous heart. A speechless ripen- ing § of the soul is the loudest ciy in God's ears. Heat gathered within, and wanting vent, is more llagi-aut. But David was dumb within, his heart was mute, he knew he should get httle by brawling with God. Aaron's sons * Pamp. in Socrat. f Greg. % Jcxom, g Qu. ' Eepining ?' — Ed. 112 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. perish, and he * holds his peace ;' if he breathe out discontent, he saw God able to speak again, even to him, in fire. Shimei curses, David looks higher, not to the barking of the dog, but to the master that set him on. He could easily stop the mouth of Shimei, he dares not grapple with the hand of God. The sin of Shimei's curse was his own, the smart of the curse was the Lord's. God wills that as David's affliction, which he hates as Shimei's transgression. That lewd tongue moved from God, it moved lewdly from Satan. Yet the patient king says, ' God hath bidden him curse David.' The event shewed that David could distinguish between the righteousness of God and the unrighteousness of a traitor ; how he could both kiss the rod, and yet charge Solomon to burn it. His eyes were fixed on the Al- mighty ; this was the strong motive of his submission, the acknowledgment of the original from whence these evils came. Let us leam, in the wrongs of an enemy, to see the hand of God; our hate of the instrument shall be swallowed up in the awe of the agent. There is no greater proof of grace than to smart patiently, with a contented heart, reposing itself in the wisdom and goodness of God, so far from chid- ing that we dispute not. The more a bird struggles in the net, the faster she is caught. The lion shews least mercy of all to the resisting beast. We all know that we do not meddle with our match, when we strive with our Maker. Yet nature is so forward that she still m-geth us to this dan- gerous quarrel, ' Cui'se God and die.' It is not only the master's charge, but the apostle's, and so the Lord's, to servants, that they ' answer not again.' When God either chides or smites, think of his omnipotence, and hold thy peace. When his hand is on our back, our hand must be on our mouth. Otherwise we shall fare the worse, as mothers whip their children so much the more for crying. Dati/ 4. Let us not extend our power to the utmost ; considering that the Lord is almighty, yet doth not exercise the fulness of his power against us. When we contemplate his might, we have cause to wonder at his patience. Bloody and cruel Marcion charged the God of the Old Testa- ment with blood and cruelty ; as his father the devil, even in paradise, a place full of love, would have fastened envy on his Maker. All this while he forgot his omnipotency, that gave him a tongue to speak, and head to invent such a devilish blasphemy. He that was able to sink him in the midst of this impiety, and did not, was no cruel God. If wicked men see fearful judgments, their heart is ready to charge God mth cruelty ; but he that spares them in mercy, who in their malice spare not him, is no cruel God. He needs no cruelty. Should he turn all things to nothing in a moment, by his almightiness, he might do it in justice, and his justice is a part of his goodness. Long, long doth he forbear us, that can find cause enough in his justice, and power enough in his omnipotence, to confound us. Himself calls punishment ' a strange work, a strange act,' Isa. xxviii. 21 ; as if every act of severity seemed strange to him. But for infiniteness, his patience would be tired out in the tedious expectation of our repentance, Exod. xxxiv. 6. His mightiness is contracted in a few words, his mercy hath a large description ; as if this had gotten the victory, and aU the weapons in the armoury of heaven were rainbows ; which is a bow, but without an arrow, and a bow full bent, but v/ithout a string, and a bow bent, but with the wrong side upwards, as if we shot at him, not he at us. If he should turn it, and charge it, and drav/ the arrow up to the head, yet repentance might get mercy to step in, as the angel did to Abraham. Thus able is he to punish, thus gracious to forbear and forgive. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 113 You that be magistrates at home, masters of famihcs, behold liere the patience of your IMaster, and the Master of all tlie world. You have power to punish, so hath he ; your power is limited, his infinite. Will you for- give no faults ? You shew him how to use yourselves. Examine your own conscience ; you have not gone at God's sending, not come at his caUing, not done your duty according to his bidding. Ho hath spared you ; be not ye without mercy, that stand in need of mercy. The apostle hath spoken it, and the day of Christ shall verify it : ' Judgment shall be without mercy, to him that shews not mercy,' James ii. 13. I know that correction is necessary for a servant ; but let it not be discharged like a piece of ordnance, that dasheth in pieces ere it reporteth. Let direction be multiplied upon direction, instruction upon instruction, here a warning, there a thi'eatening ; and when words cannot prevail, come not to blows without weeping eyes, melting hearts, yearning bowels. Use your power to the edification, not to the damnifying, of others. There is dift'erence betwixt apprentices and slaves : they are yours to teach a trade, to direct in the ways of godliness and civility ; not to abuse with over-burdenous labours and inhuman blows. If you extend yom* magisterial power over them, take heed, there is an almighty God able to revenge it upon you. Yo have children, may they not feel the punishment of such a father, in the rigom* of such a master? Think thou secst thy owti child in such a plight as thou hast left the child of thy neighbour. Say stripes be not common ; yet harsh language, un- comfortable checks, the discouragement of continual snibs, arc vexation enough. Should God thus rebuke thee for every fault, where were thy peace ? Let yom* beha\iour be so innocently impartial, that they may despair of pardon for their errors ; and yet so pardon theirs, as men that continually oftend. Beware of spleen in any chastisement ; passion and precipitation may make mental mu.rder of a just correction. Qualify your power by your pity, as God doth his might by his mercy, Luke vi. 36. Rather spare, where in equity you might have punished; than pmiish, where in mercy you might have spared. A forfeiture, in law, hath left the boiTower to thy mercy ; if thou wilt be extreme, and do what thou mayest do, look for the same measure at the hand of this Almighty. That thou wouldst do mischief, and canst not, thanks be to God ; that thou canst do mischief, and wilt not, next to the di^'ine grace, there is some thanks to thyself. He that can say with conscience, that he hath spared others, may hope with confidence that God will spare him. Diitij 5. Beware of presuming in sin by the Lord's forbearance. It is the greatness of mercy, not the want of greatness, that hath spared thee. And he is not more merciful to the repentant, than just in retribution of vengeance to the obstinate. Seeing the wicked impugn, one would think judgment were all this while omitted, as an unproper and impertinent busi- ness, scarce agi'eeable to the blessed natm-e of such a sovereign goodness, Eccles. viii. 11. The venturous swimmer may escape often, and yet at last be di'owncd in some churlish wave ; the rioter overcomes many surfeits, some one shall pay him for all. So doth the justice of God overtake sinners when they least suspect it, that have had many warnings of wrath, and would not pi'eveut it. Oh, that men would consider this almighty power, and how horrible a pit he hath provided for iniquity, whereinto he is able to put them in the act and article of their sins 1 In the night, a man passeth by some dangerous precipice, steeper than Dover clitTs, from whence faUing he were lost without hope. This as he escapes without sight, so ho goes his way without thanks. Bring him back in the day, shew him the VOL. III. H 114 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. peril, measure the downfall ; he trembles at it, and blesseth God for his deliverance. To let us go on in our errors, and perish, that were his justice ; to dehver us from the dangers we would incm-, this is his providence. Duty 6. Despair not of mercy upon thy repentance, for there is no sin beyond the Almighty's forgiveness. After 1600 years' obduracy of the Jews, * God is able to gi-aif them in,' Kom. xi. 23. Indeed, when a man is aged in sin, in blindness, unbelief, disobedience, it is only an almighty power that can convert him ; as to cure a man thirty-eight years bed-rid, or another bom blind. This is to * believe in God Almighty,' that he is able to pardon my sins, to supply my wants, to ease my sorrows. If we want not faith, he wants not power to give us all good things. An almighty Judge, so the devils believe him ; but an almighty Father, this is the faith of the saints. On these two foundations stands every Christian, the 'exceeding greatness of his power,' Eph. i. 19, and 'of his mercy,' chap, ii. 4. Indeed, the contrary power is visible everywhere ; Satan is strong to draw men to sin. In our unpacified contentions, we see the power of Satan ; in our covetousness, uncleanness, malice, is seen the power of Satan ; but in few do we discern the mighty power of grace. Men ' have a form of godliness, but deny the power thereof,' 2 Tim. iii. 5. Though he be almighty, he forceth no man to heaven against his will. If they will deny his power, he that is mighty to save them that believe, is as mighty to condemn those that will not obey. Satan is but his slave ; though he prevail mightily, it is but by permission. ' Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world,' 1 John iv. 4. As he is greater in himself, so let him be greater in us ; yielding to his grace, as we do to his truth, not only that it is great, but shall prevail in us. As you desire to leave a good testimony to the world, and to bear a good argument in your own souls, that you are the children of this omnipotent Father, let his grace be mighty in you, and shew itself mightily from you. Let that mighty word, which is preached by dust and ashes, be mighty in your lives, ' casting down the strongholds' of sin, every high fortification exalted against obedience, 2 Cor. X. 5. Let us see charity as mighty in you, as covetousness is in the world ; the love of God as mighty in you, as the love of riches is in them. When the power of your lust yields to ihe power of gi-ace ; the strength of corruption, to the strength of the Spirit ; the mightiness of your robustious wills, to the will of your almighty Father ; then we shall find comfort, you shall find comfort, the whole church be deUghted, the angels in heaven rejoice ; and that most mighty God, who here sanctifies us by his mighty grace, and shall raise our bodies by his mighty power, will at last mightily glorify us with his salvation. Maker of Heaven and Earth. — This appertaineth essentially to the whole Trmity, for the Father is not only a Creator, and almighty, but also the Son and the Holy Spirit, John i. 3, Heb. i. 2. The Son creates, Col. i. 16; the Holy Ghost, Gen. i. 2, Job xxvi. 13. The creation, in the mass of the matter, is attributed to God the Father ; in the disposition of the foi-m, to God the Son ; in the preservation of all, to God the Holy Ghost. The actions of God be of two sorts, outward or inward. (1.) The inward are immanent in the essence of the Deity by an act internal and eternal ; as the Father to beget the Son, and to communicate the godhead to the Holy Ghost. (2.) The outward are transient works, passing to the creatures by an act external and temporal ; these are works of nature, or works of grace. The works of nature respect her either qua est in fieri, or qua est in facto; the former are the works of creation, the other of conservation. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 115 These outward works be common to all the persons. Opera ad extra sunt indivisa, what one person doth all do; the Father createth, the Son createth, the Holy Ghost ci*eateth. Yet here must be observed a distinc- tion in the manner and order of working. The Father createth by the Son and by the Spirit, the Son createth from the Father and by the Spirit, the Spirit createth not by, but from, them both. Therefore is the first person called our Creator, because he makes all things, after a peculiar manner, by the Son and Spmt ; whereas they make, not by him, but from him. The Father may be said to be Causa movens, the Son operaxs, the Spirit alisolreus; the Father wills it, the Son works it, the Holy Ghost accom- pliahcth it. To order the method of our discourse according to the method of God's work, consider three things: — 1. His deteirmination to make the world; 2. His creation of it as he had determined; and, 3. Preservation of it as it is created. 1. The counsel or determination of God hath two properties: Eternity, decreeing all things before all time, Ephes. i. 4, 2 Tim. i. 9; and un- changeableness. Jam. i. 17, for such as God is, such is his decree. By vu'tue of this he set down with himself whatsoever he hath, doth, or shall bi'ing to pass, with all their circumstances of time, place, causes, so that not the least thing is left vmpurposed, undisposed. ' He worketh all things after the counsel of his own will,' Ephes. i. 11. There is nothmg out of the compass of his foreknowledge and forcappointment, neither of which must be severed. Impotens voluntas absque scicntia, inanis jjroiscientia absque voluntate. This is that counsel of the blessed Trinity whereby he pm-posed to make and govern the world. Christ is called his Father's Counsellor, Isa. ix. 6; and so the creation of the world is said to be ' in him,' Col. i. 7. (1.) In Christ, tanquam in exempJari, he being the image of his Father's under- standing. In the building of a house there is a double fi-ame, one in the architect's head, another in material being, built after the former conceived pattern. (2.) In him, as that head and foundation in which all other things should consist. He is our Creator ad esse, our Preserver in esse, our Redeemer ad bene esse, making us the sons of God, John i. 12. But if God decree and ordain all things, then sin. Ans. God decreed sin not properly as it is sin: quatenus habet rationem entis, non quatenns habet rationem dejectus, God converting that to his glory which the sinner commits to his own confusion. But he is a God iniquitatem non rolem, ' that hath no pleasure in wickedness,' Ps. v. 4. Ans. Voluntate permissiva vult, approhativd non vult. By his will of permission, but not by his will of approbation, he wills it. Thus by an unspeakable manner it comes to pass, ut quod est contra voluntatem Domini, nan estprmter roluntateni Domini,* that that is not beside his will which is yet done against his expressed will. His special will forbids it, hates it, punisheth it ; yet his general will suffers it, and ho honours himself by it. So, in respect of God, bonum est ut sit malum. Object. But if all comes to pass by his unchangeable decree, what need is there of means? to what end are sermons, sacraments, magistrates, laws? Let men work or play, wake or sleep, his pui-pose cannot be fi-us- trated. Ans. The same decree that ordained the end, ordained also the means to that end. The earth shall yield us com not unless we sow it ; if we would have hay, we must cut the gi'ass. Desire we some good things we want? "We must pray; prayer is the means to obtain them. Would we * Aug. 116 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. be forgiven*? We must repent ; remission is the end to whicli repentance is tlie means. Would we be justified by Christ's righteousness? We must beheve; faith is the means. Would Ave believe? We must hear. In vain he looks for recovery of his health that refuseth physic. They that content themselves with idleness and indevotion, must be content without salvation. 2. The Creation. — To create is to give a being where was none before, and that out of nothing, to make esse quod non erat. There is a difference between creating, generating, and making. Generation is to produce a hving sub- stance by a living substance, conferring the matter out of itself, as man by man. Making is to form a thing of something, as to make an image of a piece of wood or stone. Creation is to frame a being of nothing; this is a work of God by himself, generation is his work by nature. There have been many eiTors about the creation. (1.) Some held that the world was eternal. (2.) Some that if it were not eternal, it had a material beginning, it was made of something. (3.) Some that God made the superior creatures him- self, the inferior by angels. (4.) Some that the world was made by chance, by the concurring of bodies, as the epicures. (5.) Others conceived two beginnings, one to be the beginner of things corruptible, the other of incor- ruptible. Tha very first verse of the Bible confutes them all. ' In the be- ginning;' therefore, it was not eternal, it had a beginning. 'Created' argues that it was made of nothing. ' God,' this excludes angels from being creators. Lastly, ' God made all;' therefore, there is but one beginning of all creatures. For the creation in general I will touch upon seven circumstances : the matter, the manner, the harmony, the goodness, the time, the space of making, and the end. (1.) The matter and first beginning of all creatm'es was nothing; God made something of nothing, and of that something all things. It is the praise of us men if where we have matter we can give fashion ; lay us stones and timber, we can raise a house, and if it be handsome we look for commendation. But God made the matter which had no being ; he gave a form to that matter, a glory to that form. With us not so much as a thought can rise without some matter, but here all matter arises from nothing; nothing negatively in the creation of the fii'st mass of all things, nothing privatively in the second creation of things out of the first chaos. This miraculous work may soon drown our thoughts, who cannot conceive of eternity, what it was before the world was. How can plants judge of sense or beasts judge of reason? Little doth the horse know what his rider's soul discourseth ; so unfit is reason to judge of eternity. But let this [1.] humble us all. Wliy do we stand upon our ancestors? Could we derive ourselves by a known lineal descent from Noah, yet he was the son of Lamech, who was the son of Methuselah, who was the son of Enoch, who was the son of Jared, who was the son of Mahalaleel, v/ho was the son of Cainan, who was the son of Enos, who was the son of Seth, who was the son of Adam, who was the son of dust, which was the son of nothing. Man was made of earth, but what was the earth made of? Nothing. Foohsh dust, to be proud of nothing! [2.] Comfort and confirm our faith. How easy is it for God to repair all out of something, that could fetch all out of nothing ? How should we distrust him for our resurrection, who hath thus approved his omnipotence in our creation ? Our remainder after death can never be so small as our being was before the world ; ashes is more than nothing. It is a greater wonder to make the least clod of MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. ] 17 nothing than to multiply a world. Thou that didst make mc in time, {Recording to thy o^^^^ decroe heforc time, wilt revive me from dust, fetch me a second time fi'om the earth, to live with thyself when time shall he no more. (2.) The manner of God's creating things, was most freely, most easily. Freely ; without an}' necessity compelling him to it, fecit, quomodo rcfccit, but ' of his own will he doth regenerate us,' James i. 18 ; therefore of his o^vn will he made us. That which is not, cannot give any cause why it should be ; we could not desen'e to be made, nor did God need us to do his work for him. Easily ; without any labour, motion, or mutation of himself ; without any defotigation in his works, but the very bidding it ' be done,' was the doing of it. His will was his word, and his word was his deed. Our tongue, and hand, and heart, are different ; the tongue often promises without the heart, the tongue and heart are resolved, yet the hand comes short of performance. All these are one in God, who is simply one and infinite. Fiat, et factum est, Ps. xxxiii. 9 ; ' He spake the word, and they were created,' Ps. cxlviii. 5. There is rerbimi annuutiatnm, ennntia- inm, and operativwn. [1.] The substantial Word, which is Chi'ist, 6 7.Cyog, John i. 1 ; that excellent word, from whom eveiy divine truth comes. In- deed, by this Word was the world created ; but. Gen. i. 3, the Son is not meant. For that word was in time, but the Son is before all times. He is not a vocal word, formed by the tongue and air, but before any sound or ail' ; the mental Word of his Father. Vcrbum, von sonus aurihus strepens, sed imago mentihus innotesccns .■>' That was the word of the three persons equally, whereas the Son is the Word of the Father only. [2.] The sound- ing or wi'itten word ; but it is not likely that God did speak more humane, when he made the world, [3]. The operative word, which is the good pleasure and will of God. Ipsum Dei vcUe, gave omnibus esse. He needed no helps, no instruments ; we cannot build a house without tools, but there needed no tool, nor hand to the Omnipotent. His arm is not shortened with time, his word is still equally effectual. Die verbum tantum, ' Say the word only,' Matt. viii. 8, and my soul shall be made new again. He that created me when I was not, by his word, can as easily by the same word restore me, that have brought myself to worse than nothing. ' Say the word,' Lord, and my heart shall be turned from iniquity. ' Say the word,' and my body shall be repaired from death. Say, ' Let there be light,' and my inward darkness shall vanish, 2 Cor. iv. G. How penitent, humble, holy, should we all depart hence, that came in sinful, proud, pro- fane, did God give but his fiat ; for all things obey him. that man, whom God made to command the creatm'es, and to obey himself, would not, by the defect of his obeying, lose the pri\dledge of his commanding ! We that must necessarily yield to the word of his counsel, why do we not voluntarily yield to the word of his command ? Thus easily did he make us, and quickly did we mar om-sclvcs ; our reparation cost him dearer, the blood and, deMh of his only Son. We that owe him all we are for our crea- tion, what shaU we give him for om* redemption ? (3.) The integrity and excellency of the work : the matter doth not more praise his power, than the foi-m his wisdom. ' How manifold are thy works, in wisdom hast thou made them all,' Ps. civ. 24. How admirable is the beauty, the order ! What beauty in the work, what order in the working ! If we can finish a slight and imperfect matter, and that by a foi-mer pattern, and that with much labour ; it is the height of our skill. But to begin that * Aug. 118 mf:ditations upon the dreed. which never was, whereof there was no example, whereto there was no in- clination, wherein was no possibility of that which should be; this is proper only to the infinite power of an infinite Creator. It pleased God to work this by degi'ees ; at first he made nothing abso- lute, but heaven and earth in their rude and indisposed matter. As the cup and the cover, as in an egg the yolk and the white, as in a cii'cle the centre and the circumference. ' The earth was without form, and void,' Gen. i. 2. Here was matter, but it wanted form ; called toliu and holm, emptiness and vacuity. Not that tolm was the materia j^rima, which the philosophera da-eamt of; and bohu, forma nondum appUcata. There was yet neither day nor light ; but presently he made light and day. First, things that should have being without life, then those that should have being and life ; then those that should have being, life, and reason. So we ourselves, in the ordinary course of generation, first live the life of vegeta- tion, then of sense, of reason aftei'ward. Such were the steps of God's proceeding; he that could have made all perfect in an instant, chose to do it by degrees. That which moved him to create, is reason enough why he did create thus ; his own will. How vainly do men hope to be perfect at once ! as if one instant could make thee an absolute Christian, whom many years have scarce made an absolute man. By degrees hath God made this world fit for us, and by degrees he will make us fit for the world to come. (4.) The goodness ; all that God made was good, himself much more good; they good in their kinds. Gen. i. 31, he good in himself. This goodness was the perfect state of the creature, made conformable to the mind of God. For it is not first good, and therefore approved of God ; but because God approved it, therefore it was good. Some curiously have observed, that in the works of the second day, this approbation is omitted, ' God saw that it was good.' The Hebrews say, because Gehenna, hell, was that day made, and that day the angels fell. Jerome says, because two is the beginning of division ; but this division was good, which reduced the creatures from confusion. Indeed, the work begun on the second day was finished in the third ; but all were good, there flowing in the creation a goodness to eveiy creature. This goodness stands in three things. [l.J In the comeliness and beauty of the creature ; a rare glory shining forth in the form and constitution of it. [2.] In the excellency of the virtue infused to it ; as every one was made for some special end, so endued with special virtue to accomplish that end. [3.] In the harmony of their obedience to God, and the commodious and delightful benefit of them all to man ; when no herb, no flower was Avanting ; whether for ornament or use, for sight, or scent, or taste. How pleasant have some gardens appeared, made by men ; yet all the world cannot make one twig, one leaf, one spire of grass. How profitable for matter, how admirable for form, how delectable for iise, must that be, made by God himself. All were good indeed. Satan, as he is a devil; and sin, that came by his suggestion; and death, that came by sin; are none of God's works. What is Dvil is a nothing; mali nulla natura est, seel amissio honi accepit nomen mali.'^ Mall essentia in eo j)osita est, quod essentiam non hahet.\ From God nothing but good. Ita confert bona, quod non infert mala.\ When we see any ataxy or deformity in the creatures, let us look back to the apostasy of our parents, and confess in the sorrow of om- hearts, that our wretched sins * Aug. t Greg. Nyss. % Arden. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 119 have defiled heaven and earth, and drami a curse upon the whole fabric of nature ; whatsoever imperfection is in it, we, we have caused it. As a man lets a well furnished house to a careless and sluttish tenant, whoso unclean- ness defiles it. So in all the beauty of it, we read our Maker's goodness ; in all the deformity of it, our own badness. Now, ho that hath made all things good for us, make us also good for himself! (5.) The time when the world was made : ' In the beginning.' Ho that is without beginning gave a beginning to time, and to the world in time. In time, with time, in the beginning of time. The exact computation whereof is set down by Moses and the prophets unto Christ, and we have it from Christ to the present day. This chronology God would have kept and observed. [1.] To confute the Egyptian atheism, which talks of a succession of their kings for seventy thousand years, and reckons, since they fii'st learned astrology, a hundred thousand years. [2.] That the cove- nant of gi'ace might be known, for the time of donation, renovation, and exhibition. ' When the fulness of time was come, God sent his Son,' Gal. iv. 4. [3.] To shew that the w^orld was not made for the eternal God, but for man. God dwelleth nowhere ; wo all dwell in him : 7to)i Dominns in domo, sed domus in Domino. If any object, that ho ' made all things for himself,' Prov. svi. 4, 1 answer, this is meant, for his glor}% not for his neces- sity. [4.] That our hearts might not be set on the w^orld, 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 ho was making many little worlds, w^hich he as suddenly desti'oyed 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 ccssando torpuit, nee operaiido lahoravit ■ he was neither idle nor weary ; not more happy, but more known to be happy, by making 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 leisure, non ex neces- sitate, sed ex voluntate. Such was the creature's disability, that when God had prepai'ed 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 ovra iufu-mity, us 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 riderentur,]- 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, without heat, dews, or influence. Fouiihly, To teach us a serious dchberation in all our luidei-taking. When perfection itself was content to take leisure, 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'ces, that our thoughts, * Aug. t Ambr. 120 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. after liim, 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 own 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 pro%adence, that he prepared the table before he in\dted the guests : ' Come, for now all things are ready,' Luke xiv. 17. Yea, he made the house ready for the tenant, before he made the tenant that should have the house. He created beasts, but first he made herbs and grass to feed them. He created man, but not till aU things were made fit to entertain and sustain him. By his providence, we that are born should not distrust to be kept ; that provided whereby 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. Q-od could have done all sooner, for he works not as the creatures do. Natm-e works by degrees, little by little, as the heavens mature things on earth : art helps natm-e, by watering, manm-ing, warming. Angels work more suddenly, they have wings for their speedy expedition. God works in an instant, by his Jiat, ' said,' and ' done ;' so Christ turned water into wine. But it is one thing what God can do by his greatness, another what he will do in his goodness. (7.) The end v^^hy all is made is for the glory of the Maker. Not ex additamento, as if God would purchase a glory he had not before ; sed com- municative, to manifest that glory to us, which was and is ever infinite. 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 v/orld 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 our use. They of the old v/orld built an ark to save Noah, not tiiemselves. Skilful workmen made the sanctum 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 by them that dwell in it, so he made it. St Augustine would have thi-ee things declared : quis fecerit, v/ho made the world ? how ? and why ? If we demand, iclio ? it is God; if how? by his word; if ivhy? because he is good.* Ncc enivi est. author excelleniior Deo, nee ars cfficacior verho, ncc causa melior bono.\ Moreover, he would have four things marked : by the perpetuity of the creatures, intelUgitur Creator ceternus, we understand the Maker to be eternal ; by the magnitude, omnipoiens, almighty ; by the order and dispo- sition, sapiens, most wise ; by the government and pro\idence, homis, most good. He that is good made all good, for om- good, that we should be good and do good, to the glory of his goodness. TJutij 1. God must be glorified in all creatm-es, because he is the Maker of all creatures : ' Thou art worthy of honour and glory, for thou hast created all things,' Eev. iv. 12. When we behold some rare piece of a skilful workman, we are not satisfied till we knov/ 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. Let us not stick in the fabric, but look up to the Architect, honoui'ing him who for his honour made them. It is the argument of a dull and * De Civit. ' 1" lu Joan. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 121 non- intelligent man, to see an excellent work without minding it ; as negli- gent readers run over books, and never think of the author's art or tho printer's. Noii amat artifices, qui turn iutcllifjit arlrs. There is no greater disgi-ace to tho statuary- than for men to pass by a famous statue without casting eye upon it. Ubi mca legem, me agnosce, was but a rcasonablo request. ' Consider the works of God,' Eccles. vii. 13. Ho meant them not to be shghted ; meditation is the means to give the Maker gloiy : ' The invisible things of God are understood by the visible,' Rom. i. 20. Ho that had no other book but this, shall be condemned at the last day for a non legit. Thus we may know God ad extra, by his effects ; though non ad intra, in his essence: ex jiostero tergo, licet non ex antica 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 reflects upon us the beams of infiniteness. Secidttm 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 onlj' li-om the cedar to the hj-ssop, but even from the angel to the worm, that the same hand made both, nee sujierior in illis, nee inferior in istis. 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\idence w^hich ordained bread for man. But there is one day of seven distinctly separated, that this exercise may be distinct^ pei'foiined. Qui Sahhatizavit cl crcando, docct nos Sabba- tizare in mcditando. Duty 2. Let none of the Creator's glory be misplaced upon the creatures : ' AVe have nothing, but what we received.' Have we strength ? we received it ; wisdom ? we received it ; riches ? w^e received them. Wc made not ourselves wise, strong, or rich ; shall we glorj'' in alieno, tanquam in joro- jyrio .' Let not tho ' strong, wise, or rich, gloiy in his strength, wisdom, or riches ; but in this, that he laioweth the Lord,' Jer. ix. 2-1 ; Icnows him to be strong, wise, and rich ; strong m making, wise in foiTuing, rich in fur- nishing the woi'ld. 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 seimon. Quadam specialiter pronuntiata, generaliter sapiunt.* But ' most men will proclaim their own goodness,' Prov. xx. 6. liegiim nobis iuduimus aniinos;\ everyone bears tho 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 feai' belongs to mortal emulation. "Wliat 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 sapient es facit, yea and 'confounds the wisdom of the wise.' Is power reverenced ? Quam j)otens ille, qui 2)otentes 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 in these things, without trembling before him whose they are. * Tertul. t Sen. 122 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. Wliy should we do, or speak, or think, but to the praise of our 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 carriage ; 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 bound to nothing else, because he was made for nothing else ; whose tongue speaks his praise, whose hand works to his praise ! In the last psalm, the Rabbins have found out thirteen Halleluiahs, answering those thirteen properties of God, Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7. So he begins, so he ends ; every verse, every sentence hath his Halleluiah. 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 lips, and our 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. Nonfacilius 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 fearfully and wonderfully made,' Ps. cxxxix. 14. Many a one may say, I am fearfully and wonderfully destroyed. If we repent not of our corruption, God will repent of our creation ; and woe to the man of whose making God shall shew himself sorry. Hence it comes, that we abuse the other creatures, because we forget ourselves to be creatui-es ; and that is violated which was made for man, even by that man which was made for God. Dm'st we sur- feit to the utmost stowage and capacity of our bottoms, if we knew ourselves accountable creatm'es, and accountable for the creatures ? Duty 4. Let us serve God with all, because he made all. The curious smith will not brook to have his files exercised upon stones ; nor the mathe- matician lend his engines for wasters and bandies. There is no ai-tist 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, every instrument must be used to its own purpose. Let the tongue praise God ; he made it for that purpose. As man is a little world in the great, so his tongue is a great world in the little : Grande homim, or grande malum.--'- It is either the trumpet of God's praises, 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 errand. 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 afiection 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 in vengeance, whose word was not answered in obedience. Duty 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 THE CREED. 128 to make God. Almighty men, that can make their I\Iaker ; that whereas God hy his word made them, they by their word can make God ; he made them of nothing, they him of a piece of bread. AMiat natiu'ian 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 Dciis nihil fecit : now ho 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 efiect ; imposing such works on their creatures as cannot stand with the honour of God. Sins are offices for the dc\'il ; while they so employ them, they use them 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. Couifurts. — That God, who did manifest such power in our creation, wiU 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 ho made ; there is no man but favours the efi'ect of his own worth. Let man imderstand, whether is gi'eater, juntos crcare, or inijnoti justijleare ;■■'■- to create righteous creatures, or to justify the unrighteous. Certainly, si aqualis sit utrumque potcntiic, hoc est majoris misericordicc ; if both be of equal might, this last is of gi*eater mercy. The former was ojnis dir/iti, this opus brachii , that of his word operative, this of the Word incarnate. 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 tlie 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 phable clay, frame a vessel to his mind ; let it be once hardened and deformed, it is difficult to mend it. Therefore the terms 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 creatm-es, 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 £y.'t gi'acious ? j\L\KER OF 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, fishes in the sea, fowls in the air, stars in the sky. Here we imderstand not only heaven and earth themselves, but all the creatures which they contain in their distinct places. In this gi-eat machine, most fitly, most wisely 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, j-et earth is nearer. I will therefore first consider the place where we are, then arise to the place where wc would be. The earth is the centre of the world, created fiiTu. Eccl. i. 4, not to bo 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, * Auft. 124 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. the receptacle of all the lees and dregs of nature. Yet how admirable is it, both for that we see on it and we may find in it. Every lineament of her face yields m^nj wonders ; an innumerable variety of beasts, worms, herbs, flowers, seeds, plants, fruits, appear. What pile of grass is there wherein we may not read the finger of Grod? '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 agreeable 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 woi'ld) leaves more unkno^vn 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 our purses is far short of their observation to our minds. Our heart is too narrow to admire sufiiciently 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 Egyptian king, and after him of Darius, that they would have cut the earth, and joined the Nile and the Bed 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 effected 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 pro\ddence, that hath so disposed it. The waters rage, foam, swell, as if they would sv\ralloTvr 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 nature) confineth his waves. 2. For motion. Why it moves for- ward, why it retires, is to us above all reason wonderful. He only that made it knows why he made it so ; and by its ebbing and flowing keeps it from overflowing us, that so wrestling with itself we might live. 3. For the mnumerable creatures in it. Great whales, like living 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 man to subdue this monstrous creature. Hell only hath a Leviathan more terrible than the sea. The same God teach us and help us to overcome him by our faith. Such uncountable numbers, strange shapes, various forms, 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. //?s«. se natnra vincit vionerosis mocUs.]- 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 Kin- MEDITATIOMS UPON THE CREED. 125 vast sea. There is yet a shorter passage than this, which is by the con- tempt of them both, especially in regard of that which follows, which is Heaven. — This contains generally all that is above the earth. In this high and stately building be three stages, all called heaven — Ai-remn, Sido- reum, Empyr;enm. The first is the space from the earth to the fu-mamcnt. So we read of the fowls of heaven, the windows of lioaven. 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 souls are gathered. The lowest is for fowls, vapoui's, meteors ; the next for stars and lights ; the third for saints and angels. As in the division of Solomon's temple, thi-ee com-ts : the first is open for all ; the second is the body of that illustrious house, wherein those radiant caudles arc continually burning ; the uppermost is the holy of holies. In the fii'st is mutabihty and trouble, in the next constancy and hannony, in the highest blessedness and gloiy. The first we feel, the second we sec, 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 vrhich excels another in place, excels it also in honom* — 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 empj^'eal heaven, the glorious seat of Christ. First, let us pass through the meanest region of heaven, and nearest to om* senses, the air. Even here we find cause of admhation and praise. What variety of fowls fly up and down this heaven with then* lighter 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 they call upon him.' How can we be mute when w^e hear the Uttle 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 heai* 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 then- 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- rahst could ever prescribe ? Yea, that these wateiy sponges should be turned into furnaces, venting their sudden fii'cs 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 broach 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 circles, flashings in tho 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 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. ' Fire and snow, storm and tempest, fulfilling his word,' Ps. cxlviii. 8. Let not us forget him. The next heaven we consider hy its height, hugeness, glory. For its height : the Hebrews, by drawing this ascending line forwards on a plain, have found it to be five hundred years' journey to the starry sky ; Aratus will have it but of thirty days. Curious calculators, how are they troubled to deceive themselves ; the one making it too httle, 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 way. 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 ? Art teaching that the orbicular compass must be proportionable to the height. How huge a curtain hath the Maker dravra 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 starry heaven with these corporeal eyes, the whole earth would 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 sun 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 drawn 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 ? By that we see without, we are taught to admii-e and desire the treasures and pleasures within. Thus high are our thoughts raised : conceiving ourselves fij-st to have passed an earthy and watery voyage, observing 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 morrdng and evening, ascended to the stars, and conversed with those fixed and yet moved fijres ; 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 om* peraiutation ; difiering like infancy and perfect stature. Travellers called the imdis- 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 amval 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 fair 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, pm'chased by Christ of his Father. He that can rrake ready his fine and his rent, which is faith and a good conscience, shall be instated in a per- petuity, domus ccternitatis, an inheritance never to be lost. MEDITATIONS UPON THE 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 iiiith they see him that is invisible, and enjoy him that is immense ; and so begin that heaven, which the clear vision and unchangeable fi-uition shall consimimate in the heaven of heavens. Proportionable are God's works to himself; maf/num mafjiia decent. Kings do not build cottages, but magnify their royalty in sumptuous palaces; bow glorious is that which the King of gloiy hath built for himself ! If the lower side of that pavement, which the feet of the saints shall walk upon in heaven, 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 parlom-s 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 temporary use, not everlasting society. Raise us up as far above them, now in desire, hereafter in place, as they are yet above us ; that w^hen 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 Eugubinus, 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 fixucy, that they were both made of equal light in the beginning, and that the moon, en\ying the light of the sun, was brought into subjection, and made recipient of her hght from him ; and of the beams, whereof the moon was deprived, God made the lesser stars. But the sun is a gi*eat celestial body, found by mathematicians to exceed the earth one hundred and sixty-six times in bigness ; whereas the stars of the fii'st magnitude (whereof they reckon but fifteen) exceed it but eighteen times, lieason 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 gi-eater. And if it ■were 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 greater to us, and less to the Indians. Whereas herds of cattle afar ofi", shew hke ants ; and a ship may be discovered so fai- on the sea, till it appear no bigger than a dove. The other great 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 thirty-nine times, and the least of all the stars but Mercmy. Moses calls it a great hght, according to the vulgar capacity, 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 distingiiish 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 would be hissed out of almanacs. 53. To serve for signs and seasons. 4. To give influence, by their heat and 128 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CBEED. motion, to these inferior parts. But to calculate nativities, to ground pre- dictions, to find things lost ; to make stars «?/rts heneficas, alias maleficas; whereas God made all good ; this study is for them, who, so they may know something of heaven while they live, are content to take another place when they die. Let not us be ambitious to know, vfhat we cannot learn, our destiny in the stars ; but to learn v/hat we may know, our names written in the book of life. The heaven itself were but a fonnless 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 darlmess ? 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 jom'ney on earth ; himself is the light of om- 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 creature, as the workman upon the matter which he is about to fashion ; the sun is carried 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 be many opinions. Some take it not for a natural, but a spiritual, hght;* but not truly; for it made a visible difi'erence 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 great pond we see the banks filled, we see not the springs fi'om 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 creatm-e. What light it was, where placed, how it moved, how long it continued, are fiaiit- 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 o\va 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 our everlasting hght,' Isa. Ix. 19, 20. One day again we shall have light without the sun, Ps. Ixxxiv. 11. Here we sometimes darken him to ourselves, but in heaven there is no echpse. 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 mado a sun for us, there ho will make us 'like suns,' Matt. xvii. 2. The sun shall bo ' 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 day 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 tho 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 light was called into the com- pass of one sun. So shall all his chosen be congregated to one glory. Our souls and bodies are mado to come to him, why should our desires be scattered from him? Why do we not settle our aflections upon his Christ, and shew oiu'selves to be of the communion of saints ? Tho 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 pcq^etual ; ho would not, that it might be more gi-ateful. There is nothing but God himself, whereof man would not be weary. The manna was that sweet rehsh to every palate which the palate desu'cd, yet was Israel satiate with it. Even the things which we most affect 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 uniform the more perfect. Yet so pleasing is the vicissitude of things, that the less worthy give us more content in their intercourse than better do in their perpetuities. To walk or sit or lie continually seems a pain not tolerable. We are sick with l^'ing, therefore rise ; sick with v^'orking, 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 measiu-e of resemblance, to be here as we shall be there. Let us dispel the clouds that darken our internal light, that our souls may have a continual day. If any fog be gathered in our lives, any mist arise in our consciences, let us labour, Uke the moon iinder an eclipse, to get out, abhorring the intei-position of lusts between the light of our salvation and our souls. Let us walk in the hght 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 of 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 etenial, 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,' Hcb. xi. 10. Therefore it was made. Nor is it to purpose to say. It hath always been the place of the eternal God, therefore it is an eternal place ; for the 'heaven of heavens cannot contain him,' 1 Kings viii. 27. He may there VOL. Ill, I 130 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 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 every\vhere ; 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 ordain a certain place for the manifestation of his glory to the elect angels 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 their 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, tmmatchable for beauty ; the former 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 provided 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 chrysolites,' Rev. xh. 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 eternal 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 mil forbear a dish that he loves, upon the physician's warning, for the one ; he wiU scarce forbear a sin, upon God's warning, to save the other. Fond man ! this house shall be taken from 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 sins by repentance, hate the vice that may stop thy passage to bliss. Flatter not thyself with a treasure of conversion in thy own 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 undergo his burden, 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. the different 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 liberty ; 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 dwelling so often, that knew a country 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, 80 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 sure to ourselves a MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 131 dwelling m these glorious heavens ; many mansions there he, John xiv. 2, we have not provided ourselves one. Did wo truly value it, ahove all cities, crowns, kingdoms, pleasures, inheritances, comforts, how could wo but set our hearts upon it, or rather upon him that bought it for us, and us for it ! Wo would then say with David, ' Woo is me that I must remain in Meshek ;' with Simeon, ' Now let thy servant depart ;' with Elias, ' I am weaiy 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 diy our eyes, and end all om- labom's. ' Our light momentary affliction worketh for us a far more exceeding and etei-nal weight of glory,' 2 Cor. iv. 17. A superlative, transcendent phrase, not to bo 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, where their sorrows leave them. Believing and remembering this, why should we either so mourn for our departed fi-iends, or fear for our departing selves ? Jacob thought some evil beast had devoured Joseph, while Joseph was alive, and triumph- ing in Egj'pt. Those saints are not lost, but gone before us to the joys of this heaven : they may praire, not perire. Let us long to be with them, more than scholars do for hohdays, apprentices for freedom, spouses for marriage, labourers for their wages, husbandmen for harvest, heu's for their in- heritance, or princes for their kingdoms. I could wish to hold yom- thoughts longer in this blessed court ; whither, you are not so unkind to your- selves, as not to wish your own anival. 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 gi-eat and solemn day of our death, when Satan will be busiest, and om'selves weakest. then let us think of these unspeakable com- forts ; how our souls leave a broken and ruinous cage, the keeper unlocking 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 firma- 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 dchghts which know neither measure nor end. The Ceeation of Man. — The world is a gi-eat man, and man is a httlo world. QitantiUum dominum posuit Deus in tantvm dominium? a httle lord over a great lordship. I will discourse of him first in general, then of his special parts. Hominem, adhominem, de homine loquentem, doceat factor hominimi. The points be six. 1. The preparation to his facture. 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 simy\c fiat ; 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 on 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 purposing, 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 bo the crown of God's works on earth, as the angela are in heaven. 132 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. 2. The form after wliich man was made is the image of his Maker. Other creatures are made in several shapes, hke to none but themselves : man after the image of God. He that made all things would have some- thing somewhat to resemble himself. Wherein 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 like that nature which Christ was to assume ; but Christ took our likeness, not we his. Thirdhj, Some understand it for the soul's immortahty ; Damascene, for the free will ; Chrj^sostom, for dominion over the creatures. Fourthhj, Others, because as all things are originally in God, so by partici- pation in man ; he partakes with the stones in being, with the plants in grooving, with the beasts in moving, 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 all men had theu* 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 still. Thirdly, Dens non damnat imaginem suayn ;■•' 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 crowned. Fourthly, that image of God which man received in his creation, he utterly lost by his transgression, 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 resurrection. Now there needed no repairing, if there had been no impairing, nor decay ; nee restitutio seqneretur, 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 conformity to the will of God. God is alone, after his own singular manner, simple, infinite, glorious. It is impossible that any creature should be hke him in his proper being, be- cause it is a creature. What is finite to infinite, mixed to simple, weak to omnipotent? There can be no perfect resemblance of God; yet of all visible creatures man comes nearest to it. Most creatures are all body, angels are all spirit, man is body and spirit. Nor yet is this correspondence in his natm-al faculties, but in his divine graces. Wisdom and holiness was the first copy fi'om which they were di-awn. So long as we were wise 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 disgi'ace to what he was ; the better we * Ambr. t Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREEtl., 133 were, wc are the worse, as the sons of some lavish cr taintcci ancestors tell of the lands and lordships that once were theirs, or as hlind 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 gi'acious- ness of his mercies, seeking to redeem what we have lost, to recover in Christ what we have lost in oui'selves. If our damage turn not to our benefit, the second fault is ours. We may be better in the second Adam than ever we were in the first, stand surer in grace than wo 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 contemj^lation. 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, lit 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 dwell 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 children. 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 Je\\ish 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 fii'st opened his eyes he saw a glorious heaven above him, a steady and pleasant earth vmder 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 gi*eat house of this world and furnished 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 mcasm-es his gift by his own goodness, so beautified this world 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 CBEED. (1.) For pleasure. Such was the Maker's bounty, not only extending to life, but to the happiness of hfe. Every part of earth would yield fruits 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 ; their solace was his care, so well as their being. Not only competency, but abundance, may stand with innocence. That vita vitalis requires a confluence of many good things. They are too rigid and austere that forbid lawful delights. 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 service ? Not for God, but for BaaL I cannot believe that God will ever give a papist thanks for whipping him- self. Our lawful pleasures are his pleasures, and our (unbidden) wrongings of our own selves are his injuries. That is a superstitious worship which makes the worshippers miserable. God delights not in our blood, but when the witness of his glory calls for it. The world hath ways enough to vex us ; we need not be our own tormentors. It is no credit to a man's holiness that he condemns all recreation. Let me look to please God, and then know that he hath made the world to serve me. Men may eat and drink even to honest delight, so withal they worship the giver, Ps. xxii. 29, and do not like Esau, who ' did eat and drink, and rose up, and went Lis way,' Gen. xxv. 34, never minding the author; no grace, but full, rose up, went his way. I (2.) For labour. Paradise was not only to delight his senses, but also ±0 exercise his hands ; as bees love to be in gardens, yet must there work out ilieir honey. In every pleasure there is some labour ; the hunter's sport <Joth oft bring him home weary. All Adam's delights could not make him iappy 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 Lis nature or command over the creatures. 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 delight in dressing gardens and planting 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 things 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 first 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 : ' Work out your salvation with fear and trembhng,' Phil. ii. 12. ' Work:' this is arjere, to do ; 'work out,' be instant, constant in it : this sat agcre, to do sufiicient; 'your salva- tion,' keep the right course : this is hoc agere, to do the best. Our labours end with our lives, our rewards end not with our 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 natural use, these a spiritual ; they were Adam's sacraments. The ' tree of life ;' not because it was able to give immortality, or to pre- serve fi"om 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, Aqiiin., Perer. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 135 Bonaventura, by a supernatural foculty. But, indeed, by eatinp; its fniit it could do neither ; no food that is cormptible can make the bo(h' incor- ruptible, for neither the fruit could nourish without its own comiption, nor maintain life without nourishment. If man had not sinned ho had not died ; but for this immortality ho was beholden to his creation, not to the tree. And without sin he had lived ; eat what fruit ho would, saving only one. It is called the tree of life, not effective, but sifjni/icatire ;* not for operation, but signification ; being a figure of that true immortality which man should have enjoyed from God, continuing in his obedience. So the Scripture expounds it, symbolically, Prov. iii. 18 ; Kev. ii. 7. This was one sacrament, to assure Adam continuance of happiness, upon his perse- verance in holiness. Albeit God, that ordained the end, immortality of life, did not appoint this fruit the effectual 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 theii* loss. But it was another sacrament ; to shew man that, if he transgressed 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 tho life of the soul : the tree of knowledge, and the tree of hfe, 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 Ufe he should have, the other what knowledge he should net wish to have. But 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 proJiihitam, amisit concessam : by taking that was prohibited, he lost that was allowed. Yet he that drove him from the visible tree promised him that invisible tree, whereof the other was a symbol or sacrament, Christ. So now at once he perceives his own death by the sense of reason, and apprehends his future life by the eye of faith. All our tastes ai"e too much seasoned with the forbidden fniit, nitimur in vetitum, aipimusqite vef/ata. There is a tree of hfe, 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. Wo 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 our 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. Ho 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 clignity of man ; ' Thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honour,' Ps. viii. 5. Paulo inferiorem amjelis, multo superiorem reliquis. 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 divinity appearing in Christ, Peter cries, Beccde; ' Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, Lord,' Luke v. 8. How pleasant is the tranquiUity of soul arising from the assurance of pardon ! How inconceivable was that delight 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,' G-en. ix. 2 ; so that they neither durst nor could rebel against man. While he served his Creator, he was feared of every creature. More than this, he had a patent of dominion over them. Gen. i. 26. He that made man and all the rest, jjrceposidt, 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 chair 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. Wherein he might admire his Maker's bounty, behold his own excellency, exercise his own authority, and, lastly, shew his wisdom ; — Which was great. (1.) In natural things, for the name was given ac- cording to the nature ; therefore he understood at fii-st the propriety of every creature. But it is objected that ' Solomon was wiser than all men; none like him before, none arose like him after,' 1 Kings iii. 12. And he understood the nature 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 born 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 life, 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 nature 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 memory ; but now to denominate them himself, was the approval of his judgment. At the first sight he perceived their dis' positions, and so named them as God had made them. He at first saw all- their 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 their first homage, and to acknowledge their temire. Thus did God honour man, before man did dishonour God and himself. The lions 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 eiTand, 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 nature, without compulsion or resist- ance. Here I find cause to condemn tlirce 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 imtm craiit, non ad esinn. The killing of beasts, on what occasion soever, whether for food, for know- ledge, or pleasure, belongs unto the bondage of coiTuption, which sin brought with it. 'I have given you the herb, the tree, the frait,' Gen i. 29; finiit, not flesh. Homo immortalis vivebat ex fntctibus, homo moiiaUs vh-it ex mortihns.\ The beasts should not have died for us, if we had not been dying in om'selves. 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 om* authority fi'om unmerciful tyranny ; it was sin that made us butchers, and taught the master to eat the sen'ant. (2.) The anabaptists, from that general gi-ant. Gen. i. 20, would fetch their confused community, and teach eveiy son of Adam to challenge a free use over all the creatm-es ; as if, because the fishes of the sea be common, therefore also the fishes in every pond. But it is a gi'oss 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 o^^■n kine ; wear the wool of sheep, but of our own sheep, or Buch as oiu" money hath bought and made our ovm. . These men have robbed the decalogue of the eighth commandment, as the papists have of the second. An en-or that hath in it, we know not whether more impotence or impudence, so barbarous that the best con^-iction is the magistrate's bastinado. He that will steal a horse by a counterfeit warrant out of the Scripture, is well worthy to be confuted with a halter, (3.) Those that have wTung blood out of the nostrds of reason, in fram- ing arguments to the dishonour of man, thinking it the credit of their wits to vilify whom God doth thus dignify— man. Tully, prince of the acade- mics, was transported with such a fuiy, 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 honoui'cd man, and yei who but man could thus dis- honour the Lord ? There be such degenerate men, content to proclaim themselves bastards that they might disgi-ace 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 all creatures whom he meant to make the best. Here, as David speaks, ' If the enemy had only reproached me,' Ps. Iv. 12, if the wrong were only man's, we might be silent ; but God is injured in his workmanship, et per lateni homimim petitur Creator homimim.\ Let me propoiiion a censure fit for these ccn- Burers : Ne praferantur briitis, qui bruta prafcrunt ; 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 our nature, superior to the angels in the advancement of our nature, assumed by the image of his o^vn person, Jesus Christ. • Basil ; Perer. f Greg. % Lactant. de opific. Dei. 138 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. 6. Plato and some of the Hebrews thought that Adam was created at first both man and woman, and was afterward divided into twain ; or that they were both at first made together, but joined by their sides, hke concoi-porate twins, and after parted: they have too many such fables and fooleries. So the poets came in with their apish fictions : Hesiod with his Pandora, whom Vulcan made, all the gods adoring, adorning, and contributing to her; Venus gave her beauty, Pallas comehness. Mercury wit — whereupon she was called Pandora ; which, opening the lid of the tun, divided care and gi'ief to men who lived before without. They would beUeve Hesiod of hi« Pandora ; not Moses, nor God himself, concerning his Eve.* The woman hath many adversaries that disdain her competition with man. Some will 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'inding at the mill,' ducB, two women, so is it originally ; ' one of them shall be saved,' Matt. xxiv. 41. Though Christ honoured 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 wdcked women prove the most wicked sinners, yet the worst and greatest 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.' AVoman was the principal in killing the first Adam, himself being accessory. 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 three things : man's necessity, God's bounty, and the woman's conveniency. (1.) Man's necessity. A whole world to use, and so many millions 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 necessity 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, Refrigerium, a refreshing to her husband. When he comes from his labour abroad, Latahitur sub vite sua, is his wel- come home. Secondly, For the propagation of the world, she is a ' fi'uitful vine,' which is one means of her salvation, as one end of her creation ; if they be fnictus nativitatis sucb, liberi, not sjmrii : children, not bastards. Thirdly, To increase the church of God, and by replenishing the earth, to supply and stort the kingdom of heaven. Fourthly, That fi-om her might come that ' promised seed ' which alone doth savo as all. Therefore it was God's charge, ' 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 fall of reproaches. Misliking all their former answers, they now say. 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 marry, but to multiply by marriage ; therefore * Orig. ad Cels. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 139 they will have it only an institution of nature and promise of fecundity. But here they fight with their own shadows, for wo do not say that it is a commandment binding all, but a liberty granted to all ; in the bairing of which liberty lies their sin. ' When you are persecuted in one city, flee to another,' saith Christ ; yet he sinueth not that flicth 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 Uve 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, mari'iage was in bene- Jicium, now also in remedium. And though, in some respects, Felicior cmlibatns, single life is more happy; yet matrimonium tntius, always mar- riage is more safe. Moses was a married man, Elias avii'gin ; Elias called fire from heaven, Moses obtained manna from heaven. Elias was a wag- goner iu the air, mounted through the clouds in a chariot ; Moses was viator in marl, a traveller through the sea : God honoured them both alike. The smell of the floiuishing vino drives away sei'pents and venomous creatures : the love of the wife, seasoned vnth. the fear of God, is a supersedeas 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 leism-e nor cause to complain. Should he beg of God a companion, this had been to disesteem the happiness of his condition, to gnidge at his Maker's goodness, and uuthankfuUy 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 iu a creatwe beside him, that had enough in his Creator above him. And rather than his innocence shall want a companion, God win begin a new creation. Before we can see om- defects, God forsees them, and is then pro\'iding 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 ho supply our necessity that thus stores us with superfluity ? When he effected this, he did cast Adam into a ' deep sleep,' Gen. ii. 22, that neither his sight might be offended, 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 cheerfully. But as Adam knew not while himself was made, so he shaU not know while his other self is made out of him. God will so magnify his goodness, that he shall receive his happiness before ho expect it ; that his joy in it, and thankfulness for it, may be the gi-eater. 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 hen, of hanah, to build. Man in marriage is said rcparare latus suum, to repair his maimed side ; and repetere costam suam, to require his o\mi rib. And the woman is thither reunita, unde tublata, reduced to her first place. The inscription she bears, is donum and boniim, the gift of God ; ' he brought her to the man,' it was his new- world's gift, the like whereof was not to be found in all the riches of nature. 140 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. (3.) The woman's convenieucy 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 necessary and substantial parts, or a superfluous and super- numerary 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 usefid and convenient, and those that be necessaiy. 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 hkeness, 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 afterward have been upbraided with her dependency and obhgation. Now she owes nothing but to her Creator. Adam can no more challenge aught from her for his rib, than the earth can challenge fi'om him. From a rib to a helper, was an happy change. "Who was ever a loser by God's alteration ? Whatsoever we have is his. When he taketh from us his own, 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. — When we see the heavens, the sun, and stars, we have good cause to say, ' 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 Jiat, man by consultation ; they at once, man by degi'ees ; they in shapes hke 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 quarries 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. Why should we do anything else but honour God, seeing he hath made us only able to honour him ? Think, man, why thou wert made, and do not dishonour thy Maker. Let us cast ourselves down at his footstool, with MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 1*1 our knoos on the ground, and from the ground of our hearts say, All honour and praise, all thanks and obedience, be to God, our Creator, for ever. Thus of man in general. Other visible creatures are ^vholly coqDoral ; the invisible are vvhoUy sph-itual. Man is both corporal and sensible in his Tod spiritual 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 ouUv^i^ly in her best prime, when the spring hath decked her over mth Lgi-ant and beauteous flowers ; yet they are but dull m regard of tlie face of man, whose coloui'S are more lively and pleasing like drops ol b ood unon beds of snow. Or inwardly, he hath veins for her mines, bones for her'ocl muscles for her quames. Heaven hath a swift motion, yet the fma 'inatiin of man far outstrips it. Their motion is contmua man s mind i^m^ortal. For the plants and grass of the earth, man ^ath -•c,.»..»^a ornamenta, his hairs. For the sun and moon in heaven, man l^a Ur e es to mve his body light. Yea, there is more m this htlle man than m the Teat-orld; as the philosopher was more confounded in the small fly, Sns derhicr her parts, than in the great elephant with his members. Now et's consider hL ik his parts ; and herein fu-st of Ins ^o^J^ ^^^no^^^ soul. Concerning his body, I consider four cu'cumstances , the matter, the honour, the order, and the wonder. ^ r ,. ^ ,„.i>r^T, 1 The matter of it. « God foi-med man of the dust of the ground. Gen. u 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 f 7\P^^V 1 ! oT W Man was at fii-st of that element composed, unto which he shal be a ast resolved • this was dust. ' Dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt return a-ain,' Gen. iii. 19. Certainly, his was a more excellent constitution than fl^y other creature's ; a temper fit for the instrument of such a soul. (1.) Others, by reason of their cold and gi-oss humours gi'ow over : beasts with hairs, fowls with feathers, fishes with scales Man is smooth and clear ; God shining upon him as the sun upon a plam 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-emmence. Iheir laces are set to look downward ; man hath an erected and exalted countenance ; ad sidera tollere vultm. And in the majesty of this carriage, he makes a demonstrance of his dominion over the rest. . , , ., ^ (^) Thoucrh they may excel him in the quickness of some sense— the eade in seefng, the dog in smelling, the mole in hearmg, the spider m eehng^^and for^'strengthrthe horse is most powerful,-yet man can better discern and iudge of the outward sense, make more nobfe use ot it , and wharexcellency of either strength or sense is in the rest, he adds to himself, and makes his own by reducmg it to his service. ^n,nv-.nl nr It was fittest that his body should be made of a terrene, not ethereal or celestial matter, because he was to live on the earth ^ body capable of sense, by which the soul, being sent into it as a naked table, might gather experience, and by experience knowledge. And howsoe^-er it was mortai, • considered in itself, as compounded of contraiy 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 wo glory in our greatness? When that father stood by the tomb ot ^-'^'^J^ll tears ho exclaimed, Ubi nunc pukhntudo Ccisam? Where is now the 142 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. glory of Ca3sar ? Where 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 hac omnia ? Quo ahiit magnificentia tua ? Why do we covet ? ' 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 ! Why put we confidence in man, whose life is nothing but a little breath ? Isa. ii. 22. Stop but his mouth and nostrils, and he is a dead man, A very shuttle ; no sooner in at one side but out at the other, Job vii. 6. Sickness is often without a name, nan publico morbo nomen fatetur. Death is always kno\vn, and known inevitable, in what shape soever it appears, nan medicina contra mortem. Why do we reckon upon fourscore ? Quantu- him est quod riviviiis ! Wliy do we fear what we cannot shift ? If we be in Christ, it is the gate of life. It is said, tempiis communis medicus, 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 crus sentit in nervo, cum maims 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 likeness in other respects. Yea, though the body cannot be like a spirit, much less a finite body to an in- finite 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 Boul 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. Thirdly ; Wlien 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; Our body is the example of that world which was in God from all eternity. As he purposed and formed it, so with a summary abridgment in man he expressed it. Fifthly ; There is few of our members but be (in a metaphorical sense) attributed to God. By our eyes he signifies his knowledge ; by our ears his regard to praj'ers ; 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 Uke a candle in the lantern, which makes the horn transparent, and diffusive of the light. The soul knows, not the body ; yet the soul com- municates her laaowledge 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 our 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. vi. 19, it is a temple for the Lord. Let us not so defile it till both the soul and the Lord be weary 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 di-uukenness, * Tertul. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 143 making it a swinc-sty, by unclcanness a brothel, by workllincss a dunghill, by oppression a lion's den, by voluptuousness a boar's fnuik, by niulice 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 exemplary 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 professions) break with too much custom, little think how they make that body the devil's pinnace, which God built an ark for himself, a good ship to transport the soul to paradise, till at last they become no longer God's, but the chirurgeon's creatures. Not to speak of those external violences and inward disturbances which many contract to their own bodies, some setting the house on fire by wrathful passions, others untiling it and break- ing down the windows by intemperance, even sordid nastiness makes it odious to God. For, howsoever Christ prefers puritatcm cordis puritati cutis, the pm-e heart is best ; yet seldom doth a clean soul dwell in a slut- tish body. As that of the philosopher is held to be trae, that the outward complexion inclines the inward disposition, so the unhandsomeness of the cover disgraceth the contents of the book, and through the chinks of an unhighted 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, Rom. xii. 1. 3. The order. The head, as it is nearest to heaven, so hkest to heaven, both for roimdness of figure, globular, resembling the finnament, which is a perfect circle and circumference, and for situation of divine graces in iL 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 beauty, the throne of majesty, an external figm-e of the mind, the rehsh 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 life of the face's comeliness moves there ; it is the model of all the other gi-aces united. God set two gi'eat lights in heaven, so two living glasses in the midst of om* visage. By these are remote and nnreachable 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 instniment 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 heart of man ! It can discom'se of heaven and earth, things -s-isible and unseen, manifest the thoughts of the mind, persuade the soul with arguments. It is called the gloiy of man, because it best expresseth the glory of God. Those instru- 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 lies still. The neck is small and sine%vy, the arms long to extend, the hands active to do, the thighs and legs hko marble pillars to support, the feet to transport and move the body according to the will of the mind. Every part is so disposed, with power, proportion, and conveniency, 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. If one be bom with a defective, superfluous, or misplaced limb, we call him a monster, a prodig}', yet is he so besides his will, even of God's making. But we have 14.4 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. monsters of their own making. Man's face hath an outward reference to heaven. Other creatures gi-ovel down to the earth, all then- 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. What 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 suhjccisti, ' 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, subjicl suhjecto, for man to put his heart under that which God hath put his feet ? Yet, if then* bodies were answerable to their affections, incederent quadnipcdes, 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 om' eyes should be too much bent on what they should not, the}^ 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 om- 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 om- knees have a facihty 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 fi'owus and fur- rows of wrath. Our faces are the seat of majesty, let us not make them the snares of iniquity. Om* eyes are the body's light, let them not purvey for the soul's darkness. Our tongue is the instrament of music and melody ; it is never in tune, but when it sings the praises of God. The God of order requires that every part keep the order of God. Lord, thou hast made om- 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 offices of life, like the wheels of a most cm-ious 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 Uver 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 nom'ish 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 ! Linumerable are these marvels, if the naturalist would consider them ; but I am not physician enough to reckon them. Only thus much I say, ' I am MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 145 fearfully and wonderfullj made,' Ps. cxxxix. 14 ; wonderfully in the con- ception, more wonderfully in the completion, most wondei-fully in the inspira- tion. God made us, and wo 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 ; let us serve him, and glorify his name for ever. Conchmon. — Man being made in so goodly a proportion, and so far excelling all other creatures, how comes it to pass that ho 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, treble the age of man. He only can understand, and ho is kept fi-om impi'oving it, by the shortness of his time. Let mo 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 frame, but they were jocund and meny. But yet they knew not their emplojonent, and therein desire to be satisfied. The ape went fii'st to know his office. It was answered, that he was to serve man ; to skip and play, and make him sport, in sundry 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. Ho 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, canyiug bui'dens, bearing stripes, and not seldom wanting his suste- nance ; and the term of this service was also thii'ty years. Discontented with this long slavery, he desires Jupiter to take oft" some of his time, and to bestow it on those that desired it. This was granted, and he was like- wise eased of ten years. Then comes the dog ; and his ofiico was to run a-hunting, to kill hares, but not to eat a bit of them ; when he was weary, 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 gi-antcd, and ten years cut oft". Last comes the ox, to know what he should do ; which was also to serve man, in drawing the yoke and other cai'riages 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 Uving 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, usufi'uctuary lord of all the world, a potent prince in so fair a dominion, he demands his office, which was to serve his Maker in a cheerful obedience. He hkes it well, but how long was he to five ? Jupiter answers, that he had detennined to every one thirty 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 granted, but with this condition, that, ha\ang first lived his own tluiiy years, he should enjoy the rest in their order. First, the life of the ape, full of fancies and wanton imitations ; then the life of the ass, moiling and toiling, carrying and recarrying, labouring for the riches of this world, but withal, eating httle pai-t of his own gains ; so till fifty. From that to sixty, the hfe of the dog, snarling at one, barldng at another, hunting about for preys, and scarce eating a morsel of them, but, in a foolish covetousness, leaving them all for others. The remainder, like the ox ; lazy, unwieldy, full of pains and VOL. in. K 146 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. aches, till at last death comes to take him out of the 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 hve but for a time, and then perish ; whereas after this short life 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 Wliat 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 difference, 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 principal 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, spu-it, 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 Scrip tm-e. First, For the whole man ; ' The soul that sinneth, shall die,' Ezek. xviii. 20 ; the soul, totus homo, the whole man. ' Tribulation upon eveiy 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 pai-t 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 animam, that is vitam, ' he giveth his life.' The life of the beast is the soul of the beast,' Gen. ix. 4 ; the blood being the seat of hfe, 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 liver, 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 a-nd acts in the body. In MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 147 ccstacics, if the spirit Lo comforted, the soul is comforted ; if the spiiit be Buiibcated, 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 life, and he became a living soul,' Gen. ii. 7. His body lay senseless on the gi'ound, till a soul was breathed into it bj' its Maker. Secondly, 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 ; he 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 li^•iug soul,' living, not quickening. Fifthhj, 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 diflerence in the making of our bodies ; at first 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 jmrticida dlvince aura:, breathed into the flesh by himself. In- J'midendo creatur, et creando infunditur; 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 om* parents, nor from the essence of God ; but is immediately formed 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 om- 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 li\ing spirit, breathe again upon us aU, and give us his Holy Spirit I 3. When it takes beginning. Etsi cum corpore von definit, saltern aim corpore incipit ; though it do not end with the body, yet it begins with the body. In the making of the first man, God first instrumentahsed a perfect body, and then infused a lively soul. Now the body is made by ordinary generation in the womb, and the soul is inspired into it, before it see the light, or di-aw breath. ' The children struggled in Rebecca's womb,' Gen. XXV. 22 ; which proves not only infantum animas, scd et purjnas ;* they seem not only to have souls, but even afl'ections. ' The babe leaped in Elizabeth's womb for joy,' Luke i. 14 ; hi motus fjaudia vestra, says Tertulhan to pregnant mothers, that you may be assured your unborn infants have souls. This string I the rather touch, because some natmians 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 CEEED. her for a homicide, qua coy^ceptxmi in utero deleverit, that destroys the fruit of her own womb ; and if abortion, after life, be caused, murder is com- mitted ; God's law, man's law, and their own conscience condemns it ; therefore the soul is inspired before the birth. Yea so precise were the Sorbonnists, 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 qualibet parte, whole in every part. But this truth we afl&rm, 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 in the comfort and peace of God. Our soul sleeps not in a living 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 sxiii. 43. Corpus resolvitur, anima absolvitiir ; quod re- solvitur in terram suani, nihil sentit; qucB absolvitur, in (Eternum 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, Uving 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 ahve, Jacob is ahve. Now their bodies be dead, therefore their souls live. ' We shall go to them, they shalt not retm-n 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 mihappiness, 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 first 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 spirit, 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 hodij, 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 wisdom, 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 foeulties ; j'et these three are hut one souh 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 imago 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 caimot be imaged. No man can make a picture of the soul. G. 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 universality, and hath virtuiinn ad infinita; nature hath set no limits to the thoiights 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. Dum vivijicat, aiiima: dum vult, animus: dum scit, mens; dum recolU, memoria: dum indicat, ratio : dum spirat, spiritius: dum sentit, sensus.-^- Quickening, it is the soul; willing and knowing, the mind ; recollecting, the memoiy ; judging and discoursing, reason ; breathing, the spirit ; and as sensitive, the sense. Here is not a dillcrence of substances to the diflerence of names ; for all these are but one soul. As the earth can have no heat nor nourishment but fi'om 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 with the sun and stars. But why doth it not work so powerfully at its first infusion ? Answer. Not that (according to some philosophers) it is more or less in substance. And for diminish- ing of the qualities, 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 quaUty, 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 vii'tue, 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 di'owns 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 corpus pro anima: nee corpus in anima, sed anima in corpore sita est.\ 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 was 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. Exteniiil works be eftected 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 Clirys. de Recup. laps. 150 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. her cage ; but she flies most and highest when she is at liberty. Set the soul once at freedom, she will then most cheerfully sing the praises of her Maker. Yet the common coui-se is to fortify this prison, and to boast in corporal abilities. But qui gloriatur in viribus corjwris, gloriatur in vinbiis careens. I do not approve the sullenness of that soul which wrongs the body : but I worse like to have the body wi'ong the soul, to have Hagar tricked up in Sarah's garments, and set at upper end of the table. If the painted popinjay, that so dotes on her own 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 uppermost. 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 their infusion, aud infused them in theii- 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 from the glory 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 fell asleep,' Acts vii. 59. When he had uttered such excellent words, and •with such a resolute spirit, and m such a reverent manner, giving unto Ood the life of his soul, and forgiving men the death of his body, he sweetly fell asleep. Christus pro nobis hominem induit, Stephaims pro Christo hominem exidt.-' Christ became man for Stephen, and Stephen became no man for Christ ; as cheerfully putting ofi" his flesh as the sleepy man puts off his garments. ' Lord, into thy hands I commend my spirit, Ps. xxxi. 5 ; 1 Pet. iv. 19. how willingly doth that man send up his soul, that be- lieves the God who inspired it will graciously receive it. 3. Seeing the soul is immortal, and cannot be extinguished, let us neglect the body in comparison of it. Most men are all 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 three things in that comparative bai'gain : terminus primus, gain of the world ; terminus secundus, loss of the soul ; aqui- lihium, which is weightier ? Yet how many lose the jewel to keep the box, spill the wine to preserve the vessel, make more of the shell than the kernel. Now few men's soids stand them in so much as any one part of their bodies. The coverings of their heads, their very shoes, cost them more in a year than their souls. We will not trust an unskilful coachman, a rude waterman, with our bodies ; any minister will serve for our souls. Do we call them from their injustice, "from sacrilege, from uncharitableness ? Alas ! men will have their wills, whatsoever become of theii- souls. Every soul in itself is of greater price than the whole world ; thy soul to thyself should be of greater account than a million of worlds. Seek goodness to thy soul, other goods will come in without seeking. When Solomon begged wisdom, riches and honour came unasked for. Monica prayed that her son Augustine might turn 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. 161 Boul, and save all ; lose that, and lose all. Howsoever it go witli thy goods or good name, bo sure to look well unto thy soul, that whether thou die for the Lord, or in the Lord, thou mayest with comfort resijTn it to the Lord. But alas ! our souls are kept like slaves, and our bodies like gentlemen. Wo desire a good servant, a good child, a good field, a good fi'ieud ; 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 ni^i teipsum.'^- Thy body hungers, thou wilt give it food ; thirsts, and thou drinkest ; is wcaiy, and thou goest to rest. Thy soul may starve, without seeking spiritual manna ; it may cry out Sitio, and not be brought to the living waters ; wearied with lusts and the troubles of conscience, and yet thou seckest no peace. If we be fallen 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, overwhelming 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 crv. 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 covetousuess 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 thfim. There is only one thing that can fiU the soul, and that is God ; as nothing can limit it, but that is everywhere, so nothing can satisfy it, but that is infinite : an infinite nature can fill an infinite desire. 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 om- bodies upward, and not om* bodies draw them down- wards. 3. TJie divine providence. — This is that most free and powerful action of God, whereby he disposeth all things ; that universal art, whereby all the ufiairs 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 Jiominem ; then a will, resolving to do according to that purpose ; then an effect succeeding it, working * Aug. de Temp. Ser. 145. 152 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. according to that will, and an tiniversal 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 shipwright builds the vessel ; the merchant owns it, the pilot guides it, the sea bears it, the wind drives it, the rocks split it, and the shipwi'ight 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, worms 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 curious 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, fu-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 sundry sects, so divers opinions concern- ing 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, Cailestia causis naturalibus, inferiora vi steUarum per infiuentias : 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 starry 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 solUcitat f Ans. This is a poor reasonless conceit of God ; as if rest itself could be weary, or peace itself be disturbed ; whereas the heavens are not weary of moving, nor the mind of thinking. It is a pleasm'e 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 laboui-. God is infinite and impatible, seeth all things without eyes, does all things without hands. Our wars cannot disturb him. The thunder of the air may trouble the earth, the vapours of earth trouble the air, the quarrels of two nations disquiet a neighbouring 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 hke God, in theu* folly they would make God hke 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. Kings do not stoop to take up every 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 circle of the moon ; and that his knowledge would become vile, if it were abased to take notice of trivial objects and occurrents. Ans. This doth not disparage his wisdom, but honours it. How many a man hath been ambitious to count the stars, 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 ho foolishly attempted. Nan vilitatein argiiit, sed perfect ionem. Is the glass vile, because it presents deformities ? or the sun defiled, because his beams Ml on muddy places ? If God could be afflicted or infected with our corruption, it might bo 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. Ohjection 3. They allege Scripture against it. 'He that increaseth know- ledge, incrcaseth son-ow,' Eccles. i. 18. Ans. : Solomon speaks there of a human knowledge, which is always attained with labour, often retained with gi'ief. Ivnowledge in man is varied. We linow 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 bobus ? * 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 w\as not made for oxen's sake, but for ours. ' Thou shalt not muzzle the mouth of the ox treading out the corn,' 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 in that law he hath chiefest respect. Arctiore providentia com- plectitur liominem, 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 live by his labom-ing, would have a minister live by his preach- ing. Deo est cum de bobits vestris, vobis non est cura de predicatoribus suis. God hath care of your beasts, you take no care of his ministers. Objection 4. 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 coimsel. 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 fortuita, qu(E apud Deum consulta. God made fortune his slave, let not us make fortune ovu* 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 hurly-bm-hes, what order, what provi- dence ? Ans. : The gi-eater ; as to rule a headstrong horse is more than to ride a tame one. Indeed, this world is the deril's walk, and he is a lord of misrale ; 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 indiflerent, to enrage the lewd, to turn all upside down. These things are, by the providence of God, not eifective, 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. Ohjection 6. But the means are visible by which all things be wrought 154 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. and presei-ved, 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 suffer most injuries, and the world runs merrily with men of the worst conscience. What providence is in this ? Bona malis, and mala bonis ? By rule of order and equity, the godly should flourish and the wicked perish. Ans. : Many a good man hath been troubled with this temptation, but was never sent away without his resolution. Read 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 believer will gather it even from thistles. We prescribe not a physician, by what medicine he shall help our body ; and shall we set down our heavenly Physician a course, 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 Egypt, than bypassing the penurious deserts of Arabia, 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 your 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 creature 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 momentary 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 burn incense to the queen of heaven, we had plenty of victuals, were well, and saw no evil,' Jer. xli. 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. Fijst ; 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 ia 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 termed it a well never drawn dry ? How comes it to pass that he diied it, and left it so poor, that it had not water to quench his thirst, or to pay another tax? Fourthly; If this be a true mark, why is not ours allowed for a true church, which these threescore years hath enjoyed so much peace, that they fret their heartstrings, and envy 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 THE CREED, 165 state, but the purity of our doctrine, and honesty of our practice. Christ did not confute the devil by a miracle, but by an oracle. Matt. iv. 4. We 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 aifront us ; they shall not affright us. Uiu/untur anices, a quo infer untur.'- Crosses be rough and smarting; but wc 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 sufler, 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 fi'om Scriptm'e, experience, conscience, consequence, conference, and sense. 1. The Scripture is copious and punctual in this magnifying of the divine pi'o^idence ; 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 lotteiy 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 lions and young ravens.' They write of the raven, that, finding her young to be of a whitish colour, imlike herself, she leaves them, as if they were none of hers. Lo, then doth God's providence sustain them ! ' 'Who pro\'idcs for the raven his food, when his young ones cry unto God ?' Read Job xxxix. ' The verj' hairs of your head are nvun- bered,' Matt. x. 30. Quid vilius cadit de homine? Quid moncro concipi minus potest? But Sapientia ejus non est nwnerus, Ps. cxlvii. 5. To lots, so was Canaan divided, albeit foimerly 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, v/hom 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 first 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 famUy there is order ; some rule, some obey. A city consists of many well-governed families, where the gi-ave senators guide the r(jst. 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 ruhng the good, and oven-uling the bad, that all shall tend to his glory. Herbs and grass are for cattle, cattle serve men ; the heavens above, for them that arc beneath ; * Bern, 156 KEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. and all the creatures, above or beneath, serve for God : all 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, yea, 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 he never rests till, by prayers and tears, contrition for it, and resolution against it, he hath made his peace with God. Now, ' if om- own heart condemn us, God is greater,' 1 John iv. 20. That the very falling into some extraordinary sin should often occasion a man's good. Who could work this but the providence of our Father? The thought of it is so terrible, and the guilt appears so irksome to him, that many days he bleeds for one hour'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 all his life after, so that he answers the next invitation to such excess with the dear remembrance of his former sorrows, what it cost him to recover his peace. Thus out of transgression doth the divine providence work sanctification. 4. If a supernatm-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 ? What 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 art, nothing ia 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 born, 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. What are some centu- ries of years to the ' ancient of days ? ' What a perfect record is there of all names in the rolls 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 specially 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 very causes have yet no hope of being. No tongue, Lord, but thine could declare it, no hand but thine accom- plish it. 5. By comparison. Man doth his business with prudence and circum- spection ; and shall not God be more provident over his work ? It is a pro- verb in Pindarus, homines etiam triduanum prainoscunt ventum, 'Who 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 j)rovidus conderetur a Deo non j)'>'ovido ? ' 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 very ants have a providence. As if they foresaw a dear year, they gather more greedily, and fiU their gar- ners fuller. * The stork, turtle, and crane know their appointed times,' Jer. viii. 7. Who endued them vnth such a sagacity but a most provident God ? Some wi'ite of the mice, others of the spiders, that ncinam domus prcesentiunt. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 157 They foresee the rain of a house, and get them gone ere it fall. How do the hirds build their nests with secrecy and cunning ? the foxes and hares make and keep theii* muses and burrows ? Lord, they all acknowledge thy pro\'idence, ' in whose hand is the soul of every hving thing, and the breath of all mankind,' Job xii. 10. 6. My last argument is fi"om the feeling of eveiy man. Let him that receives not good from this providence deny it. Bonum est quod omnia appetunt* It is undoubted in speculation, experimented in action. Wo 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 lucido, and lumen in diaphano. Now, so generous an offspring must needs argue a divine pai'ent ; 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 treasuiy. His goodness extendeth her sweetness, no less than his omnipotency doth her power. As no man hves that enjoys not the light and heat of his visible sun, so no man continues li^ing 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 imiversally 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 thing sympathiseth with another. What is poison to one is another's food. Things bad to us were not from 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 ? W^e know not why frogs or flies or wonns 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 quaiTel with God's providence. Yea, is not his goodness ravished and misused to the encouragement of our badness ? Do we not convert his bounty to our im- penitency, his forbearance to our hardness ? Do we not wilfully offend him, while (we must confess) he doth gi-aciously 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 little do we acknowledge his good- ness towards us, that we make use of it to our own ill. There be milhons of causes why we should honour God. It is hard if this one cannot pre- vail vnth. 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 Duminus! If the multitude of his mercies could be numbered, or their greatness mea- * A list. t Aug. X Bern. 158 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. sured, when we recollect our own sins we liad cause to despair. But see- ing our sins may be numbered and measured, and his 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 retui-n he receives us. While we linger he prevents us. So above measm-e, Lord, art thou good to us. Make us in some measure good to thee. Thus in general of the divine providence. Now, God governs the world with means, or without means. Without, so he made heaven and earth without an instrument, trees to grow 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 martyrs ; seas and rivers shall forbear their wonted coorses ; rocks shall pour out waters ; the prophet's cloak shall divide Jordan ; iron shall swim ; the sian shall stand still for Joshua, go back for Hezekiah ; five loaves shall feed thousands. Above nature, against nature, can our Maker effectuate his wUl. With means ; such are rational, as angels and men ; or irrational, which is the course of nature, 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 imiversal providence. * He maketh his sun to rise on the evil 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 creatures. The world without it were like a fair house without a window, or a goodly person without an eye. It is admirable and effectual. (1.) For extension of heat ; every creature receives warmth from it. Therefore the philosopher calls ii principium generationis: general hominem homo et sol. Naturally, no life can be received or preserved without heat; now, ' nothing is hid from the heat thereof,' Ps. xix. 6 ; therefore it may be called universalis miindi ignis. But some countries are exceeding cold ; how then doth this sun extend his heat to all ? To all, but not to all aUke : 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 furthest climates it sends 80 much warmth, as they must perish without it. (2.) For communication of light ; God in the creation drew together all that light he had made, and gathered it to the body of the sun, that from that treasury all the world might be enriched. Therefore it may be called universalis mundi ocidiis, 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 mufiled Egyptians, and such as now live in disconsolate dimgeons, can sufficiently prize. The best thing that ever came to mankind is called * the light,' John ix. 5. Our bodies were bhnd heaps of earth without the sun, our souls dark shadows without Christ. (3.) For distinction of times ; that we may know the term of time, fi'om the beginning of the world to the end. The computation of the year depends upon it ; by it spring is discerned from summer, autumn from winter. In the accomplishing 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 Egypt run wnth 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 theii* kingdoms, ' The sun stood still in Gibcon.' When he prolonged the days of sick Hczekiah, ' the sun went back on the dial of Ahaz.' At the death of our Savioiu', the sun was totally eclipsed, the moon being then in the full ; which caused a great^astronomer to say, Vel Dens naturie jmiitur, vcl mwuU viachina dissolvUur* At his coming to judgment, the sim shall be darkened, and the moon turned to blood. For the ordinaiy works of nature, as ploughing, sowing, planting, &c., ordinary signs are sufficient. So the sun may be called universale mundl horolog'mm, the gi-eat clock or dial of the world. It is a creature that continually looks upon us, and we look upon it, yet forget to read the goodness of our Maker in it. Let us not worship it, like sottish Indians ; but worship God for it, Like good Christians. 2. Facit solcm suum, he maketh His sun to shine ; the sun in the firma- ment is God's Sim, not ours. * The world is mine, and the fulness thereof. The earth is the Lord's,' Ps. 1. 12 ; his, not om-s ; wo 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 seals his, he made it,' Ps. cvi. 17 ; and he made it devour his rebels. The sea will shew the Egyjjtians that it regards the rod of Moses, not the sceptre of Pharaoh, Exod. xiv. 2G ; 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 wiU not be divided for the continuity of it ; the earth is dry 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 conspu'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 marvel that the waters opened, no marvel that they did shut again; for their ebbing and flowing is natural. A marvel that the earth opened, but a greater 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 diiven back,' Ps. xiv. 3. The waters Imow their Maker : when Christ wag 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 dry. As if a sinew were broken, it recoils to both issues, and stands in admiration of its commander. What a sight was this to their heathen enemies, to see the waters make both a lane and a waU for Israel ! Neither do they run hastily thi'ough this sti'ange 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 CKEED. waves, shews the sea to be his, and every creature observant to him. He could have made Jordan Uke some sohd pavement of crystal for their con- veyance ; but this had not been so magnificent, every great frost can con- geal the water in a natural course. But for a running stream to stand still, to give back, and mount to heaps, till it become a hquid wall, is for nature to run out of herself, to do homage to her Creator. how glorious a God do we serve, to whom aU 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. Ixxiv. 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 rans back like a coward. Mortal men boast of their lands, of theu' 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 from the Maker to the creature, but rather let every creature direct us to the Maker. 3. Facit, He doth make his sun to rise ; not only hath at the beginning, but still doth. By virtue of his providence, the sun shineth, the earth fructifieth, everything retains the ingrafted power. ' Hitherto my Father worketh, and I work,' John v. 17. He did not leave aU to be governed by others, neither by intelligences 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 light and heat is from his maintenance, that God may be all in aU. You will say. We are not heathen, to doubt these things. Nay, the very heathen should not have doubted these things. The whole world is a hai-p, every string whereof cannot be moved and touched in so sweet a haimony without an infinite God ; yet as some little children call every man they see their father, so those blind naturals mistook everything for their maker. As -ffidipus, 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 unwilhngly slew ; so mufiled pagans know there is a God, but not what this God is. Therefore, while they do not diligently seek him, they ignorantly 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 regit 2^1'ofessores, professors of that great King, preachers of his divinity ; and the name of being they bear is thus -wi-itten, ' The Providence of God.' This is a witness of such dura- tion, that no time can obliterate it; yea, time itself remonstrates it, and eternity shall more clearly explain it. Had God written the book of his providence as he did the book of his law and gospel, mth pen and ink, it had been understood 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 every man's tongue : ' Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, Cretes and Ai-abians, &c., all hear in their o^\Ta tongues the wonderful works of « Clirys. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED, 161 God,' Acts ii. 11. Critics would have been as busy in corrupting the ele- ments as they are 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 \ailgar tongue. Our atheists had then been heretics, and, turning over nature's text, would have interpreted it by the devil's comment. But this book of universal pro\-idence 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-mament sheweth his handiwork,' Ps. xix. 1; his handiwork, not only the manufactm*e but manutenancy of his hand. These things we do not deny, but we do not mind ; the creatures be always in our eye, often in our hand, in our mouth, in our sense, when God is not in our 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 mo and thee hath set me here to dii-ect thee to himself, that all glory might bo his. If we shall honom- 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 enricheth the world, the rain. Calidmn ct humidum are the two piUars of om* life. The sun is called jmncijnum generationis, jnvpter calorem ; the rain, propter humorem : the one, ratione agentis ; the other, ratione materice. Without heat, moisture would di'own; without moisture, heat would parch. Without the sun, the world would be sick of a dropsy; wdthout rain, it would be sick of a bm'uing fever. Either of them severed would destroy it ; both together do presence 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 reUeve it. Winter is like an old man, cold, but fi'oward, pettish, testy enough; summer like a young gallant, hot and fiery. These two would never agree 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 drop fatness, and the httle 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 eutrusteth to neither angel nor seraphim, 'I will give you rain in due season,' Deut. xi. 14; I, not the Bun, 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 fruits 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 like a father, the earth a mother, the children they bring forth are firuits, and these are for us. For God ordained not the heavens for their own Bakes, but for ours ; and it is a treasury whereof himself still keeps the key, opening and shutting it at his pleasure. ' Canst thou loose the bonds of VOL. lU. 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 pom-ing 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 ahnanac 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, whereby to gather what God wiU 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 natural 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 inclines the wiU ; there- fore, the stars incline the will. J This is like the drunkard's argument : He that drinks well sleeps weU, 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 dweUing at twelve signs ; an anatomy they call it, as if he were to be dissected by twelve chirurgeons. Butchers deal better (as a reverend divine* wrote in his younger days), for they join head and purtenance together ; but these divide the head, heart, and lungs to several owners ; saving that the liver, one of the most noble parts, hath no governor. Perhaps in old time men had no livers. When crows part among them a dead sheep, every 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 part of the thigh, and Aquarius the upper part of the leg, both which together make up the knee. X Fond men ! how 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 stand still ; but what they imagine to find in the heavens, I am sure 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 found there ; here be those oppressors and covetous defrauders, serpents, and hydras, and dog-stars, and dog-days. There is no Taurus nor Capricornus, no Aries nor Leo, above ; here be those bulls and goats, persecutors and unclean livers, lions rampant, and rams assailant. Only we may believe that Libra is in heaven, for justice and her even weights and scales are y__scarce to be found in earth. The famines and wars, plagues and ruins, are not caused by the stars, l^or to be read there ; no constellations produce those dire effects, 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 fomis 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. G. We fear no constellations, we fear our ti'ansgi-essions. We dread neither Jupiter's corruption, nor Mars's fever, nor Saturn's inflammation, nor Mercury's madness ; only, God of heaven and earth, let us fear thee and nothing else. Seeing the proAddeuce 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 founders,' 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, try him with a third ; but if he slight this also, hold thy hand. God hath given us thousands ; if we hold oiu' mouth from praising him, he will hold his hand from prospering us. If the seiwant bur}' 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 unworth}' 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, praclndit danda. If men do not bless God for earthly things, he wall not trust them with heavenly things. K 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 hght 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 our 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 glory. 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 suflers it, and partly works in it. First, ia 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 e^^l ; because the subject of evil is good, and hath in it regards of goodness. Secondly, and the form, which is 164 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED, 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 will good, affections good, the fruit good, all from God. But his using these 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 lustfol look sinful. The hand striketh ; the motion is from God, but the injury 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 purpose, 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. 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 con-ection 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 fi'eer from guilt or punishment, for that end and hand which the holy God hath in tiieir offensive actions. When David said, * let him curse,' he meant to give a reason of his own 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 conspiring hand moved from God, it moved conspiringly from Satan. When the brethren sold Joseph, and their posterity killed Jesus, neither did other than God pui'posed ; neither meant to fulfil God's pmpose 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 muj'der. God so useth evil instruments, that he is free from the evil of the instruments. When he useth good instrumeiits, 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 coiniption 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 inflio- ter. Thus he is said to blind the eyes, and to harden the heart, Exod. vii. 18 ; Isa. xix. 14 ; Rom. i. 28 ; and so must all such places be understood, 2 Thess. ii. 11. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 165 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 ho ordained for our practice. Now, these he governs sustinendo, that they decay not, and pro- movendo, by driving them to their own particular ends. Let us learn here in what awful reverence to hold the divine providence, which makes that is good to be good to us, and keeps what is evil from us. Therefore we pray, Libera nos a malo ; d malo homine, a malo dccmone ; from evil men, from evil spirits, from evil works, from our own e\'il selves. The devil is hke a Saul, bent with a javelin against us : wicked men like Shimei, gnashing their teeth at us, desirous to crush oui* bones. We have Absaloms and AJaithophels, affections and opinions, the children of our own bosoms, and counsel of our own brains ; all conspire against us feeble Davids, yet the Lord deUvers us from them all. ' They compass us like bees,' Ps. cxviii. 12. Many are the e^^ls 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 providence never sleeps, whose hand of governance never rests, doth still defend us. Satan is such a maUcious and potent evil that, let God give him but leave, he would destroy us in a moment ; the world would sink us in the invindation of 6in. 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 divine providence 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 otherwise lie in them dead and unprofitable. He governs the world per oixovo- fiiav, as a monarch in his kingdom: xar luboxiav, 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 /xiTo, ouyx^u^ridiv, by concession, as he grants victories to Turks against Christians, and makes the wicked fortunate. 'All things (are said to) consist in God,' in 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 from their captains. 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 first made ever ceased, and the very singu- lars of every sort do consist in individuo ; and for co-operation, all following his manuduction and rule. Thus, there is no creature 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 famine, Gen. xii. 10. This filling is (not according to the insatiate desii-e of lust) sufficient to satisfy nature, not to 166 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. Qontent humour ; not what man's folly may expetere, require, but what God's wisdom sees erpedire, convenient. But his hand is open to ail. Keprobates 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 they have it, they never inquire unde, from 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 the substance, must pay Satan thy soul for the circumstance, hke him that will hire his house of one, and pay his rent to another. Acknowledge his goodness, or thou shalt feel his justice. His special providence 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 Christians ; not only as them in whom his image was once created, but as men in whom this image is again renewed. His general providence communicates good to all, that in him they ' live, move, and have their being.' His special to his childi-en, gives them the hfe of comfort, the motion of gi-ace, the being of happiness. Others have the blessedness of life, these have the life of blessedness. He often fills others' bones with marrow, their barns with corn, their purses with money, their bellies with his hidden treasures ; but he fills the ' hearts' of his chosen ' with gladness.' Ps. iv. 7. When 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 spirits into the outer parts, to give more scope of delight and enjoyment. Though this providence do such good to the wicked, that their table stands full of delicates, and their cups of wine, Dan. v. 6 ; yet ' even in laughter the heart is soiTowful, and the end of that mirth is heaviness.' But to the faithful, 'His blessing maketh rich, and he addeth no sorrow with it.' If wealth could give content, why should rich men ever be sad ? If honours, why cannot croAvns keep our cares ? No, man's triangular heart can never be filled with this globular world ;. but some corner will be empty, still there will be room for more. Only the three persons of the infinite Deity can replenish it with sweet satisfaction, to the utmost capacity of it. This special care of the church is in Jesus Christ, ' in whom consist all things,' Col. i. 17. 1. Because he is that atonement which keeps the world fi-om 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 chui'ch keeps the world up to this day, which being once complete, it should not stand one hour. Thus ' all 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 con-ection, death itself for the way to perfection. By what tenure do we hold all ? By deed of gift. In whom gi-anted ? In Christ. * Grace, mercy, and peace, from God oui- Father, and Jesus Christ our Lord,' 1 Tim. i. 2. Vt Deiis scit, ut Pater vult, ut Dominus potest, ut Noster debet Jesus Salvator in hoc. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 167 ChrisUts imctiis ad hoc. ' I am, saith the Lord,' Exod. iii. G ; calling him- self so, he is the God of all ; ' The God of Abraham ; ' so he is the God of his elect in Christ : ' I am thy God, Israel ! ' Our God. (1.) Ours, ob sjjccialem cultiiin, we servo him. (2.) Ours, ob sprcialcm ciiram, he pre- serves us. (3.) Oiu's, ob specialcm incrcedcm, he will give us his own in- heritance. Benjamin's mess exceeds the rest. Gen. xliii. 34. All Jehoshaphat's chikh'en 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 his jewels. He gives common persons enough to make them happy for this world ; ho enricheth his children with the blessings of the world to come. 1. Seeing this eye of providence is every^vhere, and no work, no thought is hid from it, let us wallc as in his presence. If the king had an eye to see every act, an car to hear every 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 ho doth often in spite of the husband. ' Will he force the queen before my face,' saith Ahasuerus ? Esth. vii. 8. The servant will not steal from his master looking on ; yet men rob God to his 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 cognitioncm, aut eff'iir/iat potcstatem.*- He that stands on the bank, sees only the water mnning by him ; but fi*om 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 intei-positiou of the earth keeps him fr'om 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 neighboui''s niin ; a thousand 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 he seems now to connive, j'et he will 'judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ,' Rom. ii. IG. Men may by their sins hide God fr-om themselves, they can never hide themselves from God. We are never out of his sight ; therefore let him see us so live in gi-ace, that we may live 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 fr-om the act done, yet wo see the act more clearly than his pro^•idence. 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 liberty; I deny not that thou shouldst look on these miseries, and in those sorrowful cha- racters read thy own deserts ; but TAdthal, behold the hand that sent them. These be like shavings, to make us smooth aud sti-aight; if God pare us to the quick, it is because we should feel it; that so being sensible of the smart, we might amend the fault. If this act of providence can efiectuate our patience ; then as the stars do shine in the night that be hid all day, so our Christian courage, that lay obscm-e in the sunshine of prosperity, by the night of affliction shall appear more glorious. 3. Let us beheve that God will provide for us ; this is a main strength * Aug. 168 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. of tliis article. This was Abraham's faith; Dominus providebit, Gen. xxii. 8. We desire and have not, because we ask not ; we ask and have not, because we beheve not. Never man wanted provision that trusted in this providence. God lacks neither wiU, nor skill, nor power to help us. We call him ' almighty,' therefore beheve that he can ; ' our 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 gracious, 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 perform ; or out of his falsehood, what he will not perform. God can, for he is rich; knows, for he is wise; wiU, for he is faithful that 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. xxs. 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. When Stephen was fallen under 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 martjr was to encounter death for his name, he stands up, hke a champion vowing to revenge his own quarrel. * Lord, let thy mercy light upon us, as we do put our trust in thee;' ' Lord, in thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded.' There be three sorts of men not rectified in their faith concerning God's providence. First, Some will not believe 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. Thirdly, 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 first 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 errors 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 prince thought, God must needs ' make windows in heaven,' 2 Kings vii. 2, and rain bread, or else that prophecy must fail. But as he heard it with his ears, and would not believe 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 trusts him with means, it is no faith at all that ties him to means. Let us bind aU means to God's providence, bind his providence to no means. How often did that unfaithful Israel distrust their known God for un- MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 169 known means ? Merciless Pharaoh is behind them, a not more mcroilesfl sea before them ; and now they cry out, as if God knew not how to save them. Lo, his mercy is beyond tlicir 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 distrusted 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 trust 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 hked their moisture, but abhorred their relish. Lo, God sweetens the waters ; will they yet trust 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 possibihty of the thing, as visibility of the means, they cry out with less hope than they that gather rehef for prisoners do at the doors of usurers ; bread and meat ! God, to try them further, and to magnify his own power, gives them what they ask, and no more. They desire flesh, and receive quails ; they beg bread, and have manna. Had it been the coarsest flesh, and the basest pulse, himger would have eaten it vdthout 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 ordinaiy 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 80 afirighted them, ere their eyes beheld them, that they were likely to say in distrust, How shall we scale those in-vincible fortifications ? what engines can batter such towers? God prevents their unbelief ; tmdidi in maman tuam, ' I have delivered them into thy hand.' Were their 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 treasury digged those piles of stones ? "Who gave them art, strength, and lime 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 walls 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 our faith in this providence. The gates of hell are stronger than the walls of Jericho ; yea, we do not besiege Satan, but Satan besiegeth us ; the fortifications of sin are to nature utterly in- vincible. Yet by means that appears contemptible to the world, they shall r70' 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, yet even by these doth the unlimited 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 all 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 leisurely pro- vidence ? were sowers, mowers, millers, bakers employed in it ? No ; we are under these means, God is above them. ' Can he furnish a table in the wilderness?' Ps. Ixxviii. 19. Yes, even in the places of extremest, scarcity. The fowls shall come in 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 groat Housekeeper of the world, when he sees such provision in 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 iu 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 still stuTeth up one heart or another, by one means or another, to comfort the poorest. The Israehtes never fared so well as when they were at God's immediate finding, and in the morning expected their 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 ? What if we have no bread left in the evening, when he gives us ' every day oru: daily bread ? ' We are taught to beg bread for the day, not that this day's bread should last us the whole year. While om* 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 still 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 gi'eater miracle. If he does not turn water into wine, yet he turns our sorrow 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 sermon; as great a miracle. If he does not open the corporeal eyes of one bom blind, yet he enlightens the understanding that was born blind to spiritual things ; no less a miracle. Still he cleanseth lepers, casteth out devils, raiseth the dead, straightens cripples, stops bloody issues ; in a spiritual manner ; no less miracles. Why do we not trust him without a miracle, who will work miracles from heaven rather than we shall want provision MEDITATIONS 'UPON THE CEEED: 171 upon earth ? Why do wc not repose upon his mercy ? Lord, thy hand is not shortened to give, let not ours be shoi-tened or shut to receive ! Why do ye not wait on him, whom wo have found so powerful, so merciful ? We set the mercy and love of God upon a wrong last, while we measure it only by our present sense. Nature is jocund and cheerful while it prospercth : let God but withdraw his hand, no sight, no tnist. Many can praise him for a present favoiu-, that cannot depend upon him in the want of means for a future. We are all never weary of receiving, wo are soon weary of attending. 5. Let us use ordinate means, but not trust unto them. So must we accept the means, that wo rely on his pro\adence ; and so rely on his pro- vidence, that we do not neglect the means. Man hath two apprehensive instnimeuts, his hand and his heart ; and there lie before him two objects, the divine providence and ordinaiy means ; this natural, that supernatural. Now, if he shall misplace these, and lay hold on the wi'ong object, his error is fearful ; 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 from 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 ^-ictor}', while he fights never a stroke ? No ; but ' let the praises of God be in thefr mouth, and a two-edged sword in their hand,' Ps. cxhx. 6. So Joab : ' Let us play the men, and the Lord do what seemeth him good,' 2 Sam. x. 12. How did our Saviour 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 vnth 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 believe than they can hve that neither eat nor drink. As we say of a false friend, wheresoever I see him I will trust to myself; so 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 om' expectation and desires. Be- cause God doth not at once ' consume that man of sin,' shall we suspect our own religion ? 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 gi-ace, and our holy faith forbid it. Because God doth not send them present deliverance, nor present likelihood of dehverance, shall we think he dishkes the cause, X12 HEMTATIONS UPON THE CREED. and so grow cool in our devotion at home, as if he neglected it abroad ? Canaan was the Israelites' own land, long before they enjoyed it ; being lineaUy 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 arm soldiers ; but took a nearer way ; his angel making in one night, one hundred eighty-five thousand dead corpses, Isa. xxxvii. 36. To satisfy the pro- phet'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, with their 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 honour. He will not be wooed with multitudes, when he means to fight himself. When 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 aU 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 all. 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 httle to all the world ; yet these seven thousand have peopled heaven with armies of martyrs, flocks of lambs, saints without number, and replenished those places of glory, depopulated in the fall of angels. Rev. vii. 9. Still God bath his ' remnant,' and out of that remnant he will make up the whole garment, Rom. xi. 5. Often do we continue a sioful course of Ufe, drown the holy graces in our hearts by habitual practices of naughtiuess, fall asleep in our uncleanness, or covetousness, or intemperance, to the very forgetting of all devotion in God's service ; and if we do hear, it is sleepily ; if pray, perfunctorily. When we are roused from this spiritual 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 creature of us ; and from that little beginning we are brought to a modest, but infallible, assiu-ance 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 gi-eater works ; but in the least, he brought them to acknowledge the finger of God. The finger, that was enough ; the arm of God, the hand of God needs not ; for what he will do, his finger is suf- ficent. Some rabbins held, that the devil could not make any creature less than a barley corn. As with men, it is harder to make a little clock, a little picture ; Homer's Iliads in a nut-shell ; anything in a little than in a larger form. Because it is so with men, they dreamed it to be so with Satan. But we that are apt to admire gi'eat works in small forms, why do HEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 173 we not believe that God will do great works with small means ? Let this stay and pacify 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 mahce of persecutors, the sufl'erings 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 o^Ti glory. ♦ 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 the divine providence. That old Chaldean superstition is devolved to us ; we ' sacrifice to our nets,' Hab. ii. IG, to our wits. A sin 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 victory, Deut. \'iii. 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 grants us peace, we applaud our own power and policy. Preferment comes, then the plotting of our brains, the goodness of our friends, the success of our good fortunes, are only mentioned. Then, we are bom under a lucky planet, we rise ofi" our right sides ; anything hath the honour, rather than he that owns it. It was the error of Israel to Aaron, faclto nobis deos, ' make us gods to go before us ; ' but they were not so impudent as to say, facito nos deos. make us ourselves gods to go before others. We are apt to erect images,, and dress altars to ourselves : though Saturn be turned out of his kingdom, Plutus be confined to hell, and Phoebus have resigned his chariot. We do not call Paul Mercurius, and Barnabas JupHer ; we ourselves will be Jupiters and Mercuries, new earthly deities. From the worship of the pontificjil ' beast,' many are relapsed to a new ido^aliy ; in- stead of the pagan idols- siin and stars ; instead of the popish idols, saints and angels ; they 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 Piome, ransack tbeir temples, break dov<Ti their altars, and deface their image? : and there is indeed the glory of a church like the glory of a play-house, wbeie every man is courting Jiis own mistress ; you need not tell tbem. These be no gods, they can do j'oa no good. No; take a shorter jouiney, run to yourselves, and your own heails. Let us tell them, neither our ovni luck, nor our owa wit, nov oar own laboin*, hath brought us the good things we possess ; we are all miserable sinners, and worthy of nothing but toiinents. It is the di^•ine providence that hath hedged in our estates, set us in seats of honouv. filled our barns, fields, shops, houses ; it is this, not the sea. that hath wa'led in our land, and so long kept out invading war. It is this, not the clouds, that hath given us plenty ; this, not ovt policy, that hath preseiTcd us in peace and truth. Without which, our meat aud di'iuk could no moie nourish us, than the stones in the wall. The Lord hath given us wealth and happinesS; the same God give us a'so content and thaukfiTlncss ! 8. This discovers a main impostuie, aud received vanity of our days, th£ foretelling of future things; wli'ch attempt is a presumptuous iujuiy 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 foiiune -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 CEEEI.. , 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 Imow ye are gods,' Isa. sli. 23 ; this is only God's art, wiU you make yourselves gods ? ye shall prove yourselves fools. ' He frustrateth all their tokens, and makes the diviners mad,' Isa. xhv. 25 : God shall destroy them ; then let not us believe them. The prognosticator tells us that he believes 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 tuna 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 all the wheels have the swifter or slower motion, and keep their course ; 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 concerniog 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 wiU 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- trary. For when there are but two ways, cold or hot, wet or dry, good or bad (to shew how God laughs them to scorn firom 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 aH 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 all 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 : give me that, there is none like it. Why ? for the metal's sake, or for the strength's sake ? No, other MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 175 might bo as sharp, as strong ; but for the Lord's sake, of whoso mercy ho had so good experienco by that sword. Why else was Israel commanded to build altars and erect pillars in their passages, but that they might stand hke trophies and holy memoratives of the Lord's mighty mercies in those places ? So God bids Moses ' take tho rod wherewith ho smoto the river,' Exod. xvii. 5 ; not simply naming tho rod, but with a description. Wliy ? Be- cause with that rod he smote the river, and turned it into blood, Exod. vii. 20. Now his faith might well expect, that tho same rod, by tho same ap- pointment, should as well tm-n the stone into water, as it did turn water into blood, and tho sea into a pair of walls. This latter wonder was easily credible to him, that had tried the rod to bo so miraculous. Nothing more animates us to present affiance, than tho recognition of favom's past. The same rod that brought plagues to Egypt, brings blessings to Israel ; by 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 wo may never want confidence, as oui" blessed Maker doth never want providence. 10. Let us imitate his providence, which is tho way to approve ourselves his children. Do good to all ; why ? Your heavenly Father doeth so, Matt. V. 45 ; without this demonstration of love, 3'ou have little proof that you are not bastards. But such a one doth me harai, shall I do him good ? No man can so oflend thee as the sinner oflends God : yet God doth him good ; he lives by his pro\'idence. To love him that loves us, is the pubh- can's charity; it is common to dnmkards, w^horemongers, usm'ers, and is no more in effect but self-love. Non tarn diUfjit socium, qudm in socio seip- sum. Thus far the children of hell go, shall not the childi-en of heaven go further ? 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 diflerence, 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 unthankfully to wrong God in them. They are sent to nourish us, sent to serve us, sent to teach us ; sent ad salutem, not to bo usedrttZ imaitiamA- The veiy 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 light of the sun invites us to that everlasting light in heaven ; the winds in their airy regions, of that sacred Spirit which blows and sanctifies whore he pleaseth ; tho running streams summon us to that crj'stal river, and fountain of living waters ; tho earth, when it trembles, remembers us of the world's final dissolution. There is no page in the book of nature unwi'itten on ; and that which may not be a teacher to inform us, will bo a witness to condemn us. It is the voice of all creatures to man, accipe, redJe, cave ;f to which let me add, projice, parce, vale. 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. Eedde, remember to be thankful ; he that * Bern. t Uug. de S. Victor. 176 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED, gives thee all, commands thee to return him somewhat ; it is hard if thou canst not thank the great 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. Prqfice, 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 farther 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 projice, so use us, that thou mayest be the better for us. Parce, yet somewhat spare us ; do not play the tyrant with us, delight not in our torment ; let our death satisfy thee, without a merciless vexa- tion; do not satiate and gorge thy appetite with our groaning service. 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 shaU be all in all unto thee. The Fall of Man. — The nest part of the Creed concerns Jesus Christ, directing our faith how to beUeve in him. Wherein he is set forth as a Saviour, 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, bom of the Virgin Mary,' &c. Therefore, by order of conveniency, before we come to look upon our Redeemer, we are first to look upon our own need of a redeemer. Our lifting up grants that we were once down. For connection 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 efficient 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 accordiug to the gross 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 serpent. But why did Satan make choice of the serpent ? Answer, First, for subtilty, wherein his usefulness was no less than his Ukeness. He is subtile to recover his dimmed sight by the juice of fennel ; to cast off his winter coat, subtile to stop his ears to charms, subtile to insidiate man, Gen. xlix. 17. Secondly, For aptness in carrying the business : the ser- pent was fit for insinuation, he could wind in and out and never be seen of Adam. Thirdly, Had he fi-amed a voice in the air, Eve would not hav4> granted so familiar a conference. Fourthly, Had he appeared in human MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. 177 shape, there beinfj 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 ditlercnce betwixt the faculty of beasts and power of angels ; but being transported with the fair promises, she did not so much mind uncle, from whence they came, as qitales, 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 afi-aid to talk with a seiijent ? Not because the sei-pcnt had a beauteous face, countenance like a virgin ; as you have heard of mermaids, vmjo j'ormosa mipcnic, 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 seqieutine heart in a whore. But because, during the state of innocency, no creature was loathsome to man. Serpents and beasts had the same form and shape before, but not the same terribleness and nocent powers. Wicked atheists deride this story, yet beheve their poets, that a river saluted Pythagoras, an elm Apollonius, that Jupiter's bull did speak in Eliodcs, 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 our parents, Eccles. vii. 29. Freedom of will is fourfold : libcrtas ad solum malum ; adsohoiihonum; restricta, partim ad lonum ; absoluta ad honum vcl malum. 1. Freedom to only e^^l, 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 nature, in the angels by gi-ace. 3. Freedom restrained, partly to good, but not without touching upon evil ; this is in militant saiuts. 4. Freedom absolute to good or evil indifierently ; 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 unto it, he permitted it for divers reasons. 1. To make the most excellent creatures sensible of their own infii-mity, 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, mercv 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 reseiTcd 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 posse pctseverarc si vellet: non dedit telle jierseverare 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 sinat.--- 6. He might justly sufler this e\il, because he knew how to turn it into good. It was not prater voluntatem Dei, that were to make a lame providence ; not contra voluntatem Dei, that were to make a weak omnipotence ; but Jujcta voluntatem Dei, iu part he ordained it ; not as it * Aug VOL. in. M 178 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. was a sin to ruin tlie 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 former, 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 pui-pose was to be like God, God's to manifest his own glory. But God decreed it, therefore man could not EToid it. Answer: In respect of God's decree, it was necessary ; in respect of Adam's will, 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 Avill 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 : cor/it clauclum por- tare, non cor/it 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 v/ills, 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, the}^ get more by the second Adam than they lost by the fii'st. ' the depth,' &c., Rom. xi. 33. The manner was by temptation ; which was partly subtile, partly mah- cious, all devilish. Satan's malice was high and gi'eat : high, in that he meant this mischief at God himself, whose infinite majestj^ 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 seipent, a thing so like him for craft, that it is stiU his emblem. Every sei'pent is (as it were), a young devil, and the devil is called an ' old serpent.' 2. For his insinuation to the place : who would look for a serpent in paradise ? Wliat wonder is it, if our corruption finds him in om- closet, among om- bags, in our beds with his unclean suggestions, on our boards among our many dishes and fall cups ; whenas our parents, being holy, found him in paradise ? 8. For his use of the time. He is not sooner got in, than he falls to work. He lays hold on the first 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 hobgoblins, harmless devils. 4. For his choice of the tree. There Avere many trees in paradise ; you find him about none but the forbidden. There was no danger in the rest ; here grew the fi'uit 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, hohness and wisdom, MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 179' 3'et lie outvied her, and she lost the game. He keeps his old trick still ; when be would peiTcrt 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 abscnte vim, 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- eheba 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 infers this conclusion, Niim dixit Dcus ? 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 sure, and dischargeth as at a dead mai'k. ' 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 kill 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 tallc with 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 unhappy referees, the devil's wit and man's will. 9. In his protestation of safety, and promise of glory. ' Ye shall be as gods;' stent, 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 stern, or a blind cripple in a house on fire. 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 fi'uit, as if he kept it for his own tooth. AVhy this tree ? sm-e there is some more dehght and goodness in this tree than in all the rest. How many thus lose the comfort of their own estate, by envying the bettemess of another's ? How foolish is he, that wiU 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 e%-il.' Now they knew nothing but good ; and what gets a man by the knowledge of e-\-il ? '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 put!" do am- bitious men, hke boys about a bubble, catch at ? AMiat 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 cry 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 ! A cunning dev'il ! that sends a man to seek for light in a vault, his own glory in the dishonour of his Maker. 12. In his ambiguity of speech ; every word being capable of a double 180 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. construction ; as lie used afterwards 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 their 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 om* 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 ciirsed 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, betwixt 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. Tarn ininime cautum est, d quo miserrime casum est.-'< Consider thy soul in Adam's stead, concupi- scence is like 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. corrupt man, God doth not blame us so much that these thoughts come, but that they are sufiered to tarry. They may knock at our door, we may choose whether we will let them in. Their intrusion is not, their entertainment is,- our fault. Think betwixt the cup and the Up ; 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. Obs. 2. Satan still works by his factors ; he would be too abhorred in his own shape, therefore comes in like concealed ware, and the more plausible his artillery, the more terrible his battery. Poison goes the more unsus- pectedly dowTi in a pleasing goblet. The devil presumes, like the Philis- tines, that Samson will deny Delilah nothing. Mischievous politicians 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 fii-e. 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 ^vill be for him that will be uxorious to his wife to be injurious to his God. ® Beru. MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. 181 Ohs. 3. 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 deserved society of devils. When he tempted Judas to that unnatural treason, he shewed him the silver, not the halter. When ho 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 glory of them,' Matt. iv. 8 ; ho presented him with the glory, not with the vanity : while he magnifies the pomp, he hid the vexa- tion. If there bo any pleasure, majesty, bravery in the world, where should wo find it but in the courts of princes ? There be the rich jewels, em- broidered robes, sumptuQus 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 like shadows to sub- lime places, Satan hides out of the way ; nothing is left visible, but what may allure. When ho assaults any poor soul, he sufiers 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 serpent is unseen. 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 giief 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 ocuU eonnn, ' 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 true horror. Sins are light in the common balance of flesh and blood, but bring them to ' the measure of the sanctuary.' Adulterous acts are unla'W'ful, e.v con- fc'sso ; 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 as it is under water, is white ; being got above the water, it waxcth hard and red. Our sinful works in their own element, seem soft, and fi^ir, and harmless ; being brought into the open air, they appear red and bloody. Lines may be so ■WTitten with the juice of a lemon that no man can read them ; heat the paper against the tire, you read them easily. The charac- ters of our flagitious lives are so kept from us that we read no ill : let us bring them to the fiery trial, this shall make all our works and words, yea the secrets of our hearts, legible. Sorrows and woes are reserved for the fiirewell of sin ; that they may bo 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 gi-andmother's ill, that wo deceive Satan of that trick whereby ho 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 thii-d circumstance is the time, and I will not spend much time 182 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. about it. Some would have Adam to continue in paradise about three and thirty years, because Christ lived 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 his creation, upon the day of rest. But it is not hkely that upon a day of joy God would execute a work of soitow, nor curse in that which he had blessed. Others say upon the eighth day, that day sevennight after his makmg ; 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 confirm this opinion. 1. Satan fell presently after his making ; non stetit in veritate, ' he abode not in the trath,' 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 ' mm-derer from the beginning.' This could not be fi'om the beginning of the world, or of time, then he had none to kill, it must be from the beginning of man ; therefore in man's beginning Satan did set upon him. 3. His implacable malice 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 confirmed him in obedience, and enabled him to persist ; therefore that very day. 4. Adam had not j'et tasted of any fruit; 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 very 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 known 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 caUed the ' rest of Christ,' Heb. iv. 10, that enjoyeth a cessation from all the works of sin. Therefore he fell before the Sabbath, and that must be the very day. 7. Wliat became of lions and such creatures, whose natural suste- nance is flesh? They did not feed upon grass, 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 psalm says, ' Adam abode not in honour,' Ps. xlix. 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 aggregation of the creatures, their nomination by Adam, Eve's temptation by the serpent, the man's seduction by the woman, God's conviction and cm-se of them all, be de- spatched in so few hours ? 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 off 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 accomphshed. But what is all this to MEDITATIONS UPON THE CRllED. 183 US, to Icnow when he fell, so long as wo feel too sensibly that ho is fallen ? Yes, this point is not barren of use, it tcacheth us two things. Consideration 1. The fickleness of all temporal things. If innoccncy itself could not keep this world, no, not one whole day, how brittle hath 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 fall into perdition ; but this we havo common with him, and from him, that we cannot but fall into transgi-ession. In saying the liord'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 thy own legs ; ' let him that thinks he standcth, take heed lest he foil ;' Paul himself hath his buffets, 2 Cor. xii. 7 ; the bladder that is full of wind nmst have a prick to let it out. ' I sent to know your laith, 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 fii-e 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 snufl'ers 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, greater his safety, his command greatest of all ; yet this potent, safe, happy king lost all in a moment. 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 usui-pers, 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; nwic mea, nunc hiijus, sed postea nescio aijiis ? happy man, who neither loves the world, nor the world him; both being dead, either to other! D urn alter altitnim non appctit, quasi mortuus mortuum noti aUendil. 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 grows gi-een in our affec- 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 dinidge ; we subject ourselves to it, as Israel did to the Egyptians. It proflered them sernce, and might not be entertained ; we proffer it ourselves, and request it to entertain us. They could not be caught with its sweetness, we doat upon the bitterness of it. Scquiniur fuf/ieiitcm, qucin illi sprcrenint scqurntem. 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 grov.n stark naught, if we tinist it, we ai'e 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 de\'il lost none of his time ; he that would not forbear innocency one day, will assault corruption every 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 2nignanclum, et tu dehilior ad repugnan- dum. If, as Samson lost his strength with his lock, that angel had lost his wisdom with his goodness, we were safer in the wide world, than Adam was 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 its be as far from security, as he is from ignorance or charity. Ille nan cessat discere tentando, nos discamus nan cessare cavendo. Give a serpent a wound, he will turn again ; every good deed gives that old serpent a wound ; let us look for his malice, be sure he will tm'n again. He is ever busy, but worst at last, discharging his shot thickest when it is almost night ; recompensing hrevitatem temporis, gravitate tentationis. 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 lies ; 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. TJie 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 grievous rebellion ; not one single sin, but many in one ; as Leah said of Gad, 'Here comes a company;' simplex p)omwn, multiplex pieccatum. 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 was 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 ofi'ended in heaven. ' Against thee, 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 in porno, quot mala in peccato. In one fact we find ten several sins. (1.) Incredulity. They did not believe God's word to be true : he says. *Eat and die;' they hope to eat and not die. Howsoever other sins speed, unbelief is sure to smart. He deserves no mercy of God, that will not take his word. This indignity we still ofi"er him, inore 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 non moriemini they believe. Let the devil charge the God of truth with falsehood, the God of love with envy ; yet to this they subscribe. Is it a small sin to reproach their Maker ? (3.) Curiosity, in afiecting greater wisdom than the God of wisdom saw fit for them. Satan flatters them with some strange operation in this fruit : this they long to find : to their own woe they found it. What great evils MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 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 worso than Sodom. That curiosity sent home Dinah deflowered ; she would but see the virgins of the land, and left her o^\^l virginity behind her. Her idle ciu'iosity bred all that mischief ; upon this she wanders abroad, u])on her wandering follows ravisliment, upon the ravishment murder, upon the murder spoil. It is holy and safe to be jealous of the first occasions of evil. Curious Lot's wife lost herself, curious Dinah lost a city, curious Helena lost a kingdom, curious Evo 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 ho wanted none which earth could yield him, while he had a heaven within him. Had it been gold, why all was his o\vn already, and how basely would he have esteemed the most shining metals who had no use of coin, no fear of want ! If 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 o^vn 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 sen-iceable 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, j'et she would hazard all for one apple. This was the amphfication 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 ingi-atitude 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 o-mi 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 CEEED. G-od 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, fears 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 strav\^, the bricks, the servitude, children haled from their mothers' breasts. The bitterness of sin is alv/ays 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 devil 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 fruit 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^dng,' 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 Idlled us all. Therefore, that Adam might see he had begot a son in his own image, their first-bom child was a murderer. 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 aU too like 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 shaU find chaff when you reap it. Goodness may be repahed in ourselves, it camiot be propagated to ours. That Adam was an elect saint there is no question ; he had two elder sons, perhaps twins, yet how contrary are their estates, their dispositions. Had nature any remaming privilege, the first- born child of the world had not been a reprobate. Now, the elder was a murderer, the younger a saint. The elder had his impiety from natm-e, the younger his sanctity from the free grace of God. Our hatred of the sei-pent and his seed is from God ; then- hatred of the holy seed is from the sei-pent, 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 serpent. The woman gave him to be a brother; the serpent, to be a MEDITATIONS UPON THE CBEED. 187 firatricide. Yet here is the comfort, the father shall not answer for the son ; he is never the further from heaven, though he cannot bring his children along with him. As the better cannot carry up the worse to heaven, so neither shall the worse pull down the better to hell. (9.) The easiness of the commandment makes the transgi'ession more heinous. You say it was but for eating an apple that ho 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 ofl'ending 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. What if the Lord had commanded him some great matter? Say he had charged him to fast forty days, and that in pai-adise, as the second Adam did in the wilderness ? Had he begotten a son in innocency, and been charged to offer him up in sacrilicc, 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'cater difticulty 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 fr'uits, certainly quo facilius 2'>ra;ceptum, eh granus i^eccatum, 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 will more hardly part with his son at his Maker's bidding. He that grudgeth a cup of cold water will more stick at a cup of wann blood for Christ. Peccare in mininio, jjec- catuvi non viinimum. Saint Augustine =;= brings in Eve thus disputing of the tree. Si bona est, quare non tmnjo? Si mala est, quate in jJciradiso? 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 little,' Luke xix. 17. Fidelis in modico. But this seems to be a little commenda- tion, to be faithful in a little? Indeed, if we place modicum in Jidelitate, httle in faithfulness, it is a diminution ; but JideUtas in modico, faithfulness in a little, is a commendation. He that cannot nile a little boat must not bo 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 ai-e 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 all creatures, innumerable kinds were foimed, so from this one sin, the seed of all evil, what a multitude of sins have been derived. The sins of one man are beyond all numeration; how infinite are the sins. of all the world! Question 1. ^Vhat was the first sin in the world ? The Romish 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 difference 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 fell without a seducer, man not but by his seduction. Therefore man found mercy, they reap nothing but judgment. Man is restored by a Saviom*, they must perish for ever. Man, quantd fragilior in natura, tantb facilior ad vcniam.% *• In Ps. Ixx. f rrospor. t Aug. 188 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREE1>. 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- movens. ' 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 infidelity upon pride. Here let us take notice that unbelief was the first sin of the Avorld, 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 ? Kather 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 materially deceived ; their sudden and violent affection 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 coi-poral, and the sanctity of grace wei'e 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 offence. Now, repentance is an effect 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 figm'e 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 ,{h.exQ is no likelihood that the root of all mankind should perish, or that God would damn the first image of himself that ever he made on earth. Hilary acknowledgeth Adam confessum, et Venice reservatum. 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 greatest sin of the world or no ? We have considered it very great ; but Bellarmine says it was the greatest of all. (1.) Propter facilitatem ohedientia, he had sufficient grace to keep the law. (2.) Propter simplicitatem prcecepti, he had but one command- ment. We that have less power of obedience have a gi-eat 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 Httlc purpose. (4.) For propagation, his sin redounding to the hurt of all tho 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 murder 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,' Rom. 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 children 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 tyranny ; Saul's partiality ; Judas's treachery : all these were worse than Adam's apostasy. Thus it was not the greatest, ratione vel genere 2'>eccati. 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 gi-eater fervency ? Question 4. Whether was Adam's sin or Eve's the greater? St Ambrose doth aggi-avate 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 gi-eater sinner. Answer : But the same sci-pent tempted them both. Eve was set upon single, Adam by a couple of tempters ; his, there- fore, was tho 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 vroman did not hear the precept from God's o^vn mouth, as did Adam ; therefore he is the gi'eater offender. Answer : The sei-pent 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 fii'st punished. (4.) Tho 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 di%'ine 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. % Lombard. 190 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. also tempted the man ; and liad now learned so mucli of the devil, as to do his office. Not that she gave it him on pui-pose, lest, if she died, he might have taken him another wife, 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, Vir peccavit in se taiilitm, et Ui Deiim; mulier in se, Deum, et vutritujn.-'^ Adam only harmed himself, she WTonged both herself and her husband. Thirdly, The greatness of the sin is com- paratively seen by the punishment ; but the woman was more punished, therefore she more ofiended. Over and above man's penalty, she hath an addition of sorrow in travail. This the order of their punishment demon- strates. First, the serpent is cursed, as the first seducer; next, the woman, as being in the second degi-ee of oflence ; the man is reserved to the last and least punishment. Fifthly, The plain Scripture a^-ers it : ' The man v/as not deceived, but the woman was deceived, and was in the trans- gression,' 1 Tim. ii. 14. Not that Adam was not deceived at all ; but, first, he was not first deceived ; the woman sinned before him. Secondly, Not immediately deceived ; Satan had tempted her to tempt him. Thirdly, He was not so deceived, as to become the author of seducement to others. He sinned either scienter, wittingly ; or pei- errorem incogitationis, not by ignorance, but through want of confidence. Aaron sinned against his judgment in making the calf, and Solomon, in giving a toleration for idolatry : their sin was greater than Adam's. Fourthly, Eve's sin is so amplified, as if the man's fault, compared with hers, were scarce counted a transgression. Viro imilier, non mnlieri vir, author erroris.\ So easy is it for a man to be seduced, quadam amiculai benevolentia,l by her that lies in his bosom. This, then, be the conclusion, resolved by Thomas. § The sin of Adam was greater, equal, less than the woman's, in difierent respects. First, greater, in regard of the perfection of his person ; his dignity being more, so was his iniquity. Adam phis p)eccavit, quia omni bono ahundaiit. He had the more excellent graces, and greater strength to resist. Secondly, equal, quantinn ad genus pieccati, both fell in one thing ; the same infideUty, in not belie\'ing God more than the sei-pent ; the same concupiscence, in coveting fi-uit forbidden ; the same ambition, in desiring a better state of perfection : these were alike in them both. Thirdly, less, quantum ad speciem siqierbia; ; in the woman was a greater pride, and her sin was tem- pered with a greater measure of unbelief and ambition. Adam gave credit to Eve, but Eve to the serpent. He was inductus, she inducta, et inducens. Therefore, the woman's was the greater sin. This doth not hold still, 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 vvoman. But where that sex takes to be evil, it is exceeding evil. Many men had one de^dl a-piece, one woman had seven devils. Wickedness in them doth not so easily take, as fire is long before it be incorporate with ii'on ; but when once it does, it is hardly driven out. But I will no longer compare them ; both are bad enough ; the Lord have mercy upon us all ! App)lication 1. To make some good use of this evil, is to take notice of our own frailty. Adam fell, fell in his innocency, fell from his iunocency, fell with his knowledge, fell by one temptation. We are not innocent, but guilty in him. That guilt proclives 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 paradiso, * Aug. t Chrys. } Ambr. § Summ. II. 2, qu. 1G3, art. 4. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 191 quid nos in sterquilinio? 0, the wretched security of the world ! Fateor patre))i deception, non sentio me decipiendimi.-'' Against the stream of the world, a man is made ex deleriore melior, of worse better ; but with the full torrent ex mcliore delerior, of better worse. Is the unguarded treasure safe in the house with thieves ? a sohtary 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 bamcaded and fortified, as to withstand mortal invasions ; but what doors or bars can keep out the devil ? especially when he hath a friend 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 jom-ney together. Each chose an attendant ; Hope, Securihj ; and Life, Jcalomij. \\lien Hope would take rest. Security 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 Doubt (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 Wisdoin, who discovers the error, at whose approach Doubt and Danger fled ; Hope and Life recovered. Dut to pre- vent the like mistaking hereafter, Wisdom bound Secmity to Hope, Jealousy to Life ; and in every wise man they still so continue. Ut ilia certantes foveat, et ista torpentes j)UHr/at.-\- If 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 p)r(Esentia Divinitatis. In Christ's College ? No ; there Judas fell, in Schola Salvatoris. Si non in ercmo, si non in CoUerfio, si non in Faradiso, si non in ccclo, multb minus in mundo.\ 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 to. dXXa, Post alia nccessaria. Wlien the}'^ had tilled the gi'ound, and wrought out bread, planted trees, and gathered fruits, built houses for shelter, and found other things to sustain life there, Itum est in viscera terror, they iiimmage the bowels of their mother earth. Antiquiora sunt necessitatis inventa, qudm voluptatis. Gold and silver are centred in the entrails of the earth ; nearer to hell than heaven. Their orb is among pagans, not Clu'istians. ]\Iethinks, when I see a man look big because he is rich (and such are not sca^t), he is like 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 gi'ave. Can glories ? Alas, they were at first but like the shadows of high towers, now the sl^iadows of pigmies, and that at noon ; and at the best, but * licni. f Grcgor. J Do.vn. 192 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. shadows. Glories, like glow-worms afar off, shine bright ; corae 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 Bun 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 difficulty 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. AjypUcation 3. This gives us cause to bewail om* 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 Aveep ; 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'OAvned 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 v/hen 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 'toe 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 brealvfast will not be digested till doomsday ; it was but a little meal, even for one man, yet the whole world took a surfeit 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 (;ase and a smile. Saul is not troubled for seeking of David's blood, David is troubled "MEDITATIOKS UPON THE CREED. 198 for cutting Saul's garment. Consciences are like stomachs : one surfeits with the lightest food, and grows sick of dainties ; another turns over tho hardest morsels, scarce edible in their natui-e. But here is the difference : this may be called a good stomach, but the sample of it is a' bad conscience. Everv' 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 hazai'd ourselvos 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 courses ; 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 first entrance to evil. If Hezekiah admit the Babylonians to see his treasmy, 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 opgn 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, j^e cannot be safe,' Acts xxvii. 31; but let me say of your sins. If they do abide in you, ye cannot be saved. He is a rai'e David that hath not some Absalom, some dai'ling 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 Athaliah, and it will in time come to be king over us. Weigh the efl'ect 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 effects oi that eating, the fruit had hung on the tree to this day, untouched for him. Application 5. Admire 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 ajjpoiuts angels to guard our journey. They that were employed for his expulsion are ministering spirits for our admission. There was a fieiy sword to defend the garden from invasion ; not tonida zona, the parching countiy under the equinoctial;- not a wall of fire, not purgatorj'.f But a sword, which by its shaking seemed to glitter as a flame of fire ; not improbable, some fieiy in- flammation in the likeness 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. J There is no terror to keep us from approaching that celestial paradise ; but * we are come to Mount Zion, to the city of the Uving God,' &c., Heb. xii. 22 ; all amiable, peaceable, delectable. Thus Adam's strength offend- 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 mercy. His justice came to reckon with Adam * in the cool or evening of the 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, ' AVhere art thou, * TflrtuL t Lyran. Huport. % Junius. VOL. I*- 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 be the earth for thy sake ; now, blessed is the world for my Son's sake. Then, in sorrow shall the woman bring forth ; now, there is joy to all nations by him who was bom 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, graciously do we all live again in Jesus Christ, Original Sin is the effect of Adam's fall ; both a fruit of it, and a punishment for it. It is the daughter of the first sin, and the mother of aU the rest. Yet this distinction must be observed : quod j^nus in j^ntre, pos- ter im in jprogenie ; et in illo erat 2^osterius, quod in nobis estprius. In Adam first was actual sin ; 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 ingrafted in our nature, wherein we were conceived and born, and hath two parts. Fu'st, a real communication of the sin of our first parents to us ; every man that came, by ordinary course of nature, 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 in eating the for- bidden fruit, was my sin. Though I were then unborn, yet it is mine, and I must answer for it, unless Christ answer for me. He was then a pubUc 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 aU his posterity. When guiltiness and corruption fixed into 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 born. Answer : We grant 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 till 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 all good, and prone to all evil. All naturals are depraved, all supematurals are deprived. It makes the youngest child hateful to God, as the young wolf or serpent is to man, an issue corrected by grace, 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. U. 5 ; not meaning any particular MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 195 sin of his parents in the act of generation, for he was begotten and bom in lawful marriage ; but his hereditaiy sin, whereof he was guilty in his mother's womb. The manner of this propagation is hard to define. As the mother said to her childi'cn, * 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 he knows that formed it,* whether he 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 laiow from whom we had it ; we know not definitively how wo came by it, wo Imow not how to be rid of it. There be two select and most received opinions ; take your choice. 1. That in the instant of mfusion 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 iu us is but a due punishment of that actual sin in him. Primo homini qiuxl erat pfTua, nobis jit natura.\ 2. That the corruption of the body is derived fi-om the parents, and the corruption of the soul fi-om the body, as sweet oil pom-ed into a fusty vessel loseth 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 tho body till tho soul come ; and iu the soul it is not, because that is imme- diately created pure of God ; therefore, unless 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 peccatiim hominis, a sm of the whole man ; and the man consists of both. It comes fi'om 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 pui'e, continues not in that state one moment, being made in the midst of an imclean 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. Anthropos 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 muliercmde viw factum ;^ or because if man had not sinned, mankind had not been corrupted. The truth is, that original sin came from 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 our adversaries. Saint ♦ Aug. t Aug. X Aug. § Lombard. 196 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. Augustine infers upon it, Per duos Jiomines transisse peccatum. Both, saith Ambrose, Parentes ut generis, sic et erroris. This is agi'eeable to the law of nature ; Partus sequitur ventrem : if a free man get a child 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 male dispositos. 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 children as they are men, not as they are holy men. Sanctus general, non regenerat Jilios carnis,-''' By generation they derive to them their nature, they cannot derive their grace, which is above nature. We give them what our earthly parents gave us, not what our heavenly Father infuseth into us. Take the finest wheat, winnow it, fan it, skry it, leave not a chaflf 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 you shall find as much chaff 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 graft : it naturally 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, usque 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 nature 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 Christ, in taking our nature, should also contract sin, and so himself need a redeemer. It cannot be the faculties of the soul, the understanding, will, afiections : 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 conniption of the whole body and soul. The natural appetite is vitiated, from 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 like a dai'k 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 similitude of Adam's transgi'ession', 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 adulteiy * Aug. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 197 or uncleanness ? Besides, many in the world never heard of Adam's transgression. What shall we say then ? Doth God give men souls answerable to their corrupt bodies, as to other creatiu-es, 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, marriage itself were also sinful. And if it were granted a sin, yet only that particular sin can bo 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 wei-e 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 dioTozog, the mother of God, because her son was God and man ; yet was he her son no further than he was a man : ho was bom only as a man. 3. But if the flesh only be 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 toius homo ex toto hotnine 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 concurring in that natural act. Thus original sin proven it ex came causaliter ;* yet is in the soul subjective et formaliter. Sickness comes of corrupt 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 sulUed with unclean hands. They that live in a smoky house must needs be smutched, and contract soma of the blaclyiess. Put the whitest wool into the dye-fat of woad, it will come out blue. This, then, is an hereditary disease ; as a leprous fether begets a leprous son : otten ccecus caciim, and claudus 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 ; ho 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 x)f original justice, and the want of this makes man culpable, though not culpa actuali, qu<B est supfositi, yet culpi oriyinali, qua; est naturoi. But also a pravity and deformity of all the powers of man ; the efiicient cause whereof was the pervcr.scness 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 orirjinaJe orir/inans. And passively, for the natural corniption raised in Adam's oflspring, by his transgression, termed Ori/jinale originatum. The eflects are three. First, Participatio culpa; ; when he sinned, we * Lyran. 198 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. sinned. Secondly, Depravatio naturcE, a deformity wherein dwelleth no good thing. Thirdly, Imputatio reatus, which subjects us to wrath and death, both temporal and eternal. Bellarmine says that this infection is malum, non j^eccatum ; an evil, not a sin. 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 j^eccati, 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 voluntary, therefore no sin. Ans. : That which was voluntary in our transgi'essing parents, is become necessary in their cor- rupted childi-en. Object. : But it was not a sin 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 in 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 within us. We have a serpent in our own bosoms : concupiscence, to tempt us. Their innocency 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. * If 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 liar. ' Let not sin reign in your 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 from the guilt of all evils, not from the evils themselves. Nunquid caret ignorantioi malo ? Is not the evil of ignorance still in him ? Now, concupiscence is worse than ignorance, and ignorance is a sin. In ii$ qui intelligere noluenmt, peccatum : in iis qui non potuerunt, pecna peccati : this evil that remaineth in us, being not Substantia, seel vitium substanticB : Dei gratia nos regenerante, non est impu- tandum : Dei gratia adjuvante, franandum : Dei gratia coronante, saiiundum. 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 evils done in the flesh ? Shall not we ? It is not om- merit, that God's grace in us doth resist ; but it is our fault, that om' flesh doth rebel. There were certain heretics called Ophitce, of the serpent, whom they did reverence, saying that he brought first into paradise the knowledge of 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 EspencaBus, a grave writer of theirs, urgeth that of St Cyprian, that no man escapes the biting of the serpent without hurt, which is lust. Nee quisquam ex illo vidnere sanus abit.\ It breeds sin, it brings forth death. Thus far I have gone : if any inquire or require fui'ther, 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 inquire how it began : Tace lingua, succure manu ; hold thy * Contra Julian lib. vi. 6, 5. f Propert. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 199 tongue, and bring tby bucket to quench it. St Augustine compares it to one fiilleu into a pit : whilo the passenger stands wondering bow be fell in, bo repUes, 2\i coijita quomodo hinc me Uberes, non quomodo hue ceciderim qmiras : never examine bow I fell in, till tbou bast fii'st belpcd me out. The patient would be impatient to bear bis cbirurgeon stand questioning bow be came by bis wounds, before be liatb stancliud tbe blood, and bound tbem up. It is tbe tree of knowledge tbat undid us, tbe tree of life can only recover us. Conclusion 1. In every man are all sins, because original sin is tbe material of all. Tbis is not in some men more, in some less, but in all equally, as all are equally tbe cbildren of Adam. Tbere is in eveiy man a want, not of some, but of all, inclination to goodness ; a proneness, not to some, but to all, evil. The seeds of all sins are witbin us ; I do not say tbe practice, but tbe seeds. But some are Icind, otbers cruel ; some mild, otbers furious ; some civil, otbers licentious. Answer : Tbis difl'crence arisetb not from more or less corraption, but fi'om more or less limitation. God restrainetb nature, but tbat is no thanks to nature. Something we 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 gi-ace of God, tbat corrects nature from running into divers sins. Without which, any man would commit any sin, even the most horrid tbat ever tbe world brought forth. Tbat some are not so angry, so wanton, so drunken, so covetous as others, it is not from their own natm-al goodness, but tbe super- natural goodness of God. Tbere is not tbe same eruption in all, there is in all the same corruption. Some be not kites, otbers hawks, and tbe rest eagles, from one and the same eyrie. But tbat God is pleased, for his church's sake, for order's sake, for the world's sake, for man's sake, for bis ovs-n gloiy's sake, to repress and stint natm-e, there would be no society among men. Nor be these seeds in tbe worst only, but in the best-natured men. So tbat, make choice of tbe best man, and the worst sin ; and the worst sin is to be found in that best man, tbe seminale principium is in him. This every man that knows himself knows to be trae. I appeal to the con- science, especially of a good man, whether he find not in bis 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 unnatm'al murder in kilbng his brother, and went to bell for his labour ; we bate such a villainy, yet is tbe 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 bis body, we are as immediate heirs of his guilt. Sodom bad found out an unnatui-al way of lust, and was destroyed with unnatm-al fire for it ; we have tbe gi'ace to detest it, j-et, let our pride hear, the root even of that sin is within us. Sennacherib blasphemed the living God ; Julian, both lining and dving, 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 wo read that Judas betrayed his Master, that Pilate condemned the innocent, that tbe Jews crucified their Sanour, we bless ourselves ; were Christ now liA-ing on earth, we could not use him so for all tbe world. But let us better consider of tbe matter: we are the children of Adam as well as they, and were bom with as much of bim in us as they were ; bo tbat, naturally, 200 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEE1>. there is malice enough in us, were he now among us, with Judas to hetray 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 in 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 heU. 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 fi:iends to-day, to-morrow foes ; now civil, presently outrageous ; all their life kind comforters, on a sudden desperate murderers. 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 horrible sins of the world, let us look homeward, and confess that any of these might have been our sins, had not gi'ace prevented us. Conclusion 2. Thi'ough this sin we are all by nature 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, weU- 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 nature. And to this common grace that qualifies corruption, beseech him to add that saving grace 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 wrath of God are inseparable. The curse under which we are all bom is threefold — of sin, of death, of hell. (1.) Sin, which is a bondage under Satan. A Spaniard over his galleys, a Tm-k over his slaves, are good masters compared with this. There, only men's bodies be captivated and subjected to labours and stripes, their mind is free ; but here, man's best part, his heai't, conscience, soul, is under the king of cruelty ; whose law is injustice, whose service is sin, and his hire confusion. Many 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 grace 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 all their provision be spent, what lamentable shifts they make to protract a famished life ; one tearing a piece of stinking veiToin out of another's throat ; a mother ready to devoiir the fruit of her own body, reforcing 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 wounded husband, dying with him with whom she may not live ; the rage of a merciless enemy, ' kill, kill ;' the impotence of the sufibrers, ' 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, lives, and such tem- poral things do there perish ; but hero the souls of men are murdered, massacred, captivated. One is set to scrape together wealth, whereof ho 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 church, 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 dry 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 onginal within us. (2.) Death, and this in itself is a temble curse ; the very gate of hell, the portal of damnation. To the ^vicked it is the end of glor}% and the be- ginning of shame ; the epilogue of their comforts, and the first 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 spurn 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 Ai-phad, and Sepharvaim ? ' 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. Where 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 v,ith him as the gi'eyhound with the badger ; sometimes he follows lair 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 nature is changed, and this horse shall but cany us over Jordan to the land of promise. The quartan ague is called the shame of physic ; but death indeed befools aU natural skill and valour. There is a disease we call the king's evil ; 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- formeth 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 blessing. 202 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. (3.) Hell. The wrath of God is the curse of all curses, and hell the com- pletion of all torments. Death is pale, but his ' follower ' (Rev. vi. 8) is a black fellow. 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 kind of pain, but the whole vials 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, \\ hich 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 spkits, 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 torments of heU, which are called ' the second death.' AVhen the spmtual court of man is breaking up, every office dis- charged, the eye from seeing, the tongue from speaking, the foot from walking, only tlae sense is not yet past feeling, violent convulsions rending the veins and sinews, an ai-my of pangs assaulting the heart-strings ; when a man lies betwixt life and death, having no hope to live, and jet 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 curse of God due to the first sin of man. The first is a spu'itual 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 degrees of sin. 1. A guiltiness of Adam's disobedience. 2. The taint of original and universal corruption. 3. A pollution by many actual offences. 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 slavery of Satan, is continued by death, and accomplished by damna- tion. This is the misery of our natural estate, for which we have all cause to be thoroughly humbled, seeing, if God should take us away without 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 Remedy finds the next place in our meditations. We see by de- monstration, and should not see without shame and sorrow, our natural 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 simple in the garden of nature that hath this virtue? No, non est mcdicamen in hortis. 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 heU ; 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 gaye over thundering till that blessed shower came, Ps. Ixxii. 6, wherein MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 203 God rained down his own Son from heaven. Is there, then, no hope of Hfe, no hfe of hope, remaming? Is our evil past all remedy? Must we needs perish? No. Behold the day hreaks, 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 ivorj', drawn hy swans and doves, simplicity and innocency. Thousands of angels wait upon her, those celestial voices make her melody ; the sun calls his heams to do her reverence, the moon and stars how low to her; the obedient clouds part to give her way, the earth springs to welcome her; the sea cm-Is his waves, the floods clap their hands for joy ; the birds sing in the air, the beasts skip in the pastures. There is a universal holida}' all over the world ; only hell trembles, and the infernal spirits be struck with melancholy. Trath 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 wrath. My sister. Love, hath prevailed with your oflended 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 fi'ame of nature triumph ! Peace be with j-ou, for God is reconciled unto j'ou. 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. ■\ii. 19. We desire to enter into heaven : the apostle tells us of a wi-ong door and of a right. The law was a ■nTong 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 chowning the claps of thunder, and the voice of God outsoimding the trumpet. The cloud inwrapping, the smoke ascending, the thimder ratthng, 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 glor}' of heaven turned into teiTor. Is there any hope that law should save the world, that did thus terrify 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. WTien he destroyed the old world, there were clouds raining, without fire ; when he destroyed Sodom, there was fire raining, without clouds. But here were fire 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 requu'ing ? 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 tnunpet 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 light 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 little less than death in the delivering, where shall they appear that are guilty of the transgressing ? What shall become of the breakers of so fiery 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 terrifying ; the fire wherein it shall be required is consuming ; the fire wherein the breach of it shall be tonnented is everlasting. happy men that are delivered from that law, which was given in fire, and in fire shall be required ! Fire will continue long in bells 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. What are our terrors of conscience, stingings and gripings 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 fire, 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, biit hide their faces at the glory of the sun. At fii'st they were mortales, dying ; after Christ's victory, mortucE, dead ; now they are mortifercs, deadly. Some have called the legal priests cocos gloriosos, magnificos laniones, glorious butchers ; none but evangelical priests bring the saving health. Circumcision prefigured Christ : it is necessary that it should cease post adventnm, quod prcesignificavit adventum. All their sacrifices were figures of Christ's sacrifice ; why should beasts any more die upon altars, when Christ hath died upon the cross ? Paul calls legal ceremonies ' beggarly rudiments ;' such are the popish, like a beggar's cloak, fiiU of patches. When the debt is paid, it is unjust to keep back the bond : Christ being come, and having discharged all, it is injurious to retain the bond of cere- monies. Li 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 fraits 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 aflections 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 hfe which those things had was from that Saviour whom now we have. ' But the bringing in of a better hope did.' In the law moral there was no hope ; in the law tj'pical there was a little hope ; in the law evangelical there is a ' better hope.' This doth both absolve the former, and dissolve the latter. Moses had a vail on his face when he brought the law ; yea, MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 205 God had a vail on his own 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, tliat succeeded Moses, speaks to us bare- faced. "What a shame is it if there should be a vail upon our hearts, 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 we 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 cometh 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 ' di'aw nigh uuto God ; ' and good reason, for ho 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 ofi" 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 approved us. Such tenns 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 misciy : ' 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 gi'ace, 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 Chiist is given to them that believe,' Gal. iii. 22. Sin be- longs to all men, the promise onl}' to the faithful. There hath always 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 gi'ace 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 hie foil 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 SO 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 serpent'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 beheves not, con- sents not, therefore he is not of the covenant. That doctrine 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 worse : ' 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 totwn munclum ex toto mundo, 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. First, 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 once sacrificed in act, always in potentia, in efiect and validity 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 "\drtue 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 sin in the evening, they after us at very 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 depositary 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 dry ; the Jews want the church, and the Gentiles have it. Swarthy Africa 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 trafiic. God grant them to become more rich by ours than we have grown 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 curatu^ quam febniosus. 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 cm-es all — close-fisted covetousness, or open-handed profuseness ; the costive usui'er, or the laxa- tive rioter ; aspmng presumption, or dejected despair ; the cunning phari- MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 207 see, or the impudent publican ; proud affoctedness, or sordid 'nastiness ; natural impurity, or unnatural cruelty; blind ignorance, wilful malice ; envy, idolatrj-, blasphemy ; there is no sin so desperate but this physic can euro it. Noah's drunkenness. Lot's incest, David's uncleanness, Solomon'a defection, Peter's denial, Mary Magdalene's prostitution, Zaccheus's oppres- sion, the Ephesians' superstition, Paul's persecution — aU are pardonable by this satisfaction. Whatsoever sin may be repented, may be remitted. (4.) For subject, no sort of men excepted. ' The gi'acc of God brings salvation to all men,' Tit. ii. 11, that is, all sorts of men. The servant as well as the master ; the king in his robes, the beggar in rags ; rich Abra- ham and poor Lazarus ; the commanding magistrate, the obeying subject ; the bondman in fetters, the freeman in his liberties : ' There is neither Jew nor Greek, bond nor free, male nor female : for ye are all one m Christ Jesus,' Gal. iii. 28. There be distinctions of men : in respect of nation, some arc Jews, and some Gentiles ; in respect of condition, some are bond, and some free ; in regard of sex, some are male, some female ; yet all these are taken away in Christ, in whom all arc one. There be foiu' times and regai'ds which take away all difference. 1. Sleep ; wherein the wise man diflers not from the fool, the turbulent is as tame as the innocent, the lawyer is as silent as his paper. 2. Death, 7uors dominos servis : gentleman and labom^er, landlord and tenant, are distinctions upon the earth ; in the earth, in the grave, there is no such distinction. The fairest lady makes no better dust than the Egyptian bondwoman; Menippus, there, cannot tell Mercmy which was Alexander and which the potter. All difl'erences are shuffled and tumbled together in the charnel-house. 3. The resurrection ; those that lie in tombs and monuments rise no more gloriousl}' than such as slept in their forgotten sepulchres. The angel that calls us out of the dust will not stand to survey who Ues naked, who in a coffin ; who in wood, who in lead ; who in a tine, who in a coarser, shroud. When 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 Christ shall rise first,' the king's own servants be more gi-aced than the rest ; yet these altogether. And for the wicked there shall not be such difl'erence in appearing as was in oflending ; not such in their rismg as was in their lying down. 4. The redemption : Chi'ist was not only made poor to save the rich, but he will be also rich in mere}' to save the poor. He was not whipped to save beggars, and crowned 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 tenns of equality ; 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 bo of infinite price. Saint Paul useth aU these phi-ases ; sometimes, Christ gave himself * for you,' which is vox sjm, a word of hope ; sometimes * for me,' which is vox Jidei, a word of faith ; sometimes * for us,' which is vox iinitatis, a word of unity ; sometimes ' for all,' which is vox charitatis, a word of chaiity. 2. But are 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. All that called on the God of Israel were not the Israel of God, Rom, ix. 6. Though salvation were within that church, yet many ia that church were without salvation. ' But have they not all heard ? 208 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED, Yes verily, their sound went into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world,' Horn. x. 18. ' Ye shall be witnesses unto me, both in Jerusalem, and unto the uttermost 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 great part of the world hath been discovered since, which neither professed nor knew Christ. When Augustus's decree went foi-th, that all the world should be taxed, this decree and tax went not to the Indies ; yea, it is likely that, in all the flourishing 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 oflered 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 efiec- 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 necessary that every one that hears should believe. Salvation is offered to many that do not offer them- selves to salvation. Some hear and believe not ; many say they believe, 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 required faith, and answerable life. In a covenant di-awn, there is no confirmation by seaHng on one side, if the other refuseth. Now, he that beUeves ' hath set to his seal,' John iii. 33 ; but he that believes not hath not sealed. So a man may live within the circumference of the gospel, and have no benefit by it- Canaan was a land flowing with milk and honey, yet a man might live in Canaan, and taste neither milk nor honey. ' I pray not for the world,' saith Christ, John xvii. 9. There be two main parts of his mediatorship — his redemption, and intercession. Now, he excludes the world from his intercession, therefore from his redemption : for whom he does not pray, he did not die : he did not open his side, if he will not open his mouth for them. Let not men bear themselves too bold upon their acquaintance with Christ, when their affection hes another way. Those merchants are blessed that sell all the world to buy Christ, not they that sell Christ to buy the world. This covenant is too good for them that shght 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 grace is all our tenure ; and as that assurance can never be taken fi-om 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, Dent. vii. 8. The same may be said of all God's chosen : election hath no cause but dilection ; dilection hath no cause at all. To seek for a reason why God ' loved Jacob ' before he was, is to search for the beginning of eternity. Why 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 dilexit: because he loved them. Why did he love them ? This is a vain Qucere : there is no cause of the first 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 fruits : ' the earth shall hear the corn and wine,' Hos. ii. 22. Why doth the earth afford MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 209 them ? Because the heavens give it their kindly influence : ' the lieavena 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 rehf^onsly ; hut why hath God ordained it ? To ask this is a presump- tuous iblly. 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 Quare, where can be given no Quia. 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 Clirist, nothing better in Christ than love, no love better than to give, no gift better than himself, no way to give himself better than in sacrifice. Other graces are spoken of God in oblique : God of mercy, God of peace, God of comfort ; but love absolutely, in abstracto, ' 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 Chi'ist he performed it. We may conceive this done by way of contract and maniage : 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 firom the high 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 fii'st 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 chiirch. This was the second time of asking, and none forbade it. 3. In the church of the Jews, and that at so fomous 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. 1-i ; 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 mamagc, and once at the mamage. 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 nature of man : the Lamb of God, of the parish of heaven, on the one part ; and the nature of man, of the parish of earth, 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 fi'om heaven and earth. The angels and a multitude of the heavenly host, sang, ' Gloiy to God in the highest, on earth peace, good will toward men,' Luke ii. 14 ; so from heaven. ' Hosauna, 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. in. o 210 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. sacred knot was tied, was the body of the virgin 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 our 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 Spirit 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 marriage 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 gracious performance. 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- figuring, the other performing and exhibiting, this reconciliation. There- fore Christ, immediately before his death, fu-st celebrated the passover, then instituted his supper ; first ending the law, then beginning the gospel. The law and the gospel, like Jacob and Esau, had both one Father; yet how they differ. Esau hath the right of nature, the law was elder; Jacob hath the right of gi-ace, the gospel is sweeter. Yet, Jacob's hand was bom before Esau's heel. Gen xxv. 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 terror : Jacob smooth and mild ; the gospel full of beauty. Jacob and Esau strove in the womb, and began their war betimes ; the law and the gospel are at strife in 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, like 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 grapes, and * bare it between two on a stafi"' upon their shoulders, Num. xiii. 23, he that went before knew he had it, but he that came after saw it. Now, eveiy man looiirf 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 ofi" thy worldliness ; 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 THE CREED. 211 the poor, in equity to the clmrch. No; fjospel, I thank you, I will not buy you so dour! Thus they look to have the iiiheritauco, 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 be given to the meanest servant it hath, to the lowest part of the lowest servant. Qiiam speciosi pedes, ' How beautiful are the very feet of them that bring this tidings?' ' Blessed bo the Lord that sent thee, and blessed be thou that hast kept mo 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 wTitteu '? If Elias be hungry, he will not despise the meat that is brought by a homely messenger. Lideed, he that teaches good and does good marries the graces and muses. But the gospel is the gospel ; and w'hosoever 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 fii-e, though the dead feel it not. Observe them that do cai'efully 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 countryman knows not the price of a jewel, therefore stands by the buyer and the seller, hears what the chapman bids and what the merchant refuseth ; so he gets it. You will say that it is an occasion to make some men worse. It is true of one and the same word that it hath diflerent eflects, in heartening the good to the service 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 honoiu' that which doth honom* us ; cause to cherish that which doth enrich us; cause, if need require, even to die for that which gives us eternal life. 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 known God our friend, and God would never have known us for other than his enemies. I wnll 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 voluit ; he is not boimd 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 obserA'ations concerning the name Jesiis.-^ Some of the first letter, which, among the Hebrews and Greeks, in sua fjente denarii numeri 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 afiected diflu- 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 won-ied 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 CREED. attained the first two words, Ave Maria, and could never come to Ch-atia j)lena. He died, and upon the top of his grave grew out a fair flower, whose leaves were natm-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- mensitatem in virtute. The argument of this discourse I take from Matt. i. ^1. ' Thou shalt call his name Jesus; for he shall save his people fi*om 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 little did Joseph conceive in his mind what Mary had conceived in her womb. He would hardly have thought of a name expressive enough of so great a person. God informs him what, and he performs that, calling him Jesus, therein ac- knowledging his reputed Son to be his true Saviour, and him that took flesh of his wife to be the God of all the world. Though we place not religion in names and titles, yet the wiser devotion is deliberate in this holy action. Fu'st, 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 presumption 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 absurdity to give them ridiculous names, the very rehearsing whereof causeth laughter. There be certain afiectate names which mistaken zealchooseth for honour, but the event dis- covers a proud singularity. It was the speech of a famous prophet, Non sum melior patribiis meis, ' I am no better than my fathers ;' but such a man will be sajnentior patribiis suis, wiser than his fathers; as if they would tie the goodness of the person to the signification of the name. But stfll 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 om- country, prove as gracious saints as any Safe deliverance, Fight the goodjight of faith, or such like ; which have been rather descriptions than names. The name is given at our holy baptism, in the awful presence of God, of the blessed angels, of miUtant saints, at the child's admission into the church ; ' In the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost.' All which 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 kindred called by this name,' Luke i. 61 ; intimating that the memoiy 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 Benoni, Phinehas' wife's Ichabod; 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 enlar<7e his family. Or for evil to come ; as Lo- ruhamali, one that Lath not obtained mercy, llos. i. 0. 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.' Jesus is a name of great honour. Nonten Jesu prccdiccUiim hicet, recopita- tum pascit, in»ocalum salrat.^ God gave him ' a name above all names ;' it was not enough to exalt his person, but also his name. What is his nativity without an epiphany ? Why are things exalted, but that they may be in view and apparent ! so was the brazen seipent 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 aU names, except his own.' But indeed, this is one of God's own names. ' I am a Saviom-,' Isa. xhii. 11. How is it then given him, when he had it before ? Accipit ut homo, quod hahehat ut Deus: He received that as a man, which was his own as God ; he took with his nature iiis name, and the chief of all his names, the name of a sa\iour. 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 bo magnified above all his works ; and indeed the greater mercy, the greater glory, 2 Cor. iii. 9. We read among those atti-ibutes 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 all names for om* 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 httle good, and demerited so much evil, that in it there had been small comfoi*t 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 all ; in the depths of all distresses, when the body and soul can scarce hang to- gether, the one vexed with sickness, the other pei-plexed with conscience, how do we then implore him ? We beseech his mercy by the nsime of Jesus, even adjure him by that, to make good his own name, not to bear it for nought ; but as he is a Sa\'iour, so to save us. This is our comfort, that God will never so remember our wretched sins, as to forget his o^\•u blessed name. But that as of all other he most loves it, so of aU other he will least forget it. That he will interpose Jesus whom he loves, betwixt his wTath and our sins, which he hates. Thus, as suprema lex, solus, so supreinum 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 honom-able for its author ; God gave it; honourable for its nature, » Bern. 214 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CRBED. 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 shall do ; ' Save.' (2.) Whom he shall 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 true 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 Chi'istians 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 sure 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 fraud, ' 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 perjm'ies, his regicides, witness his simplicity. They can no ways challenge this name, but by the contrary ; as mons a non movendo, lucus a -non luceiido, so Jesuita a Jesum persequendo. For the other Jesuses, they had all need, and were glad to lay hold on the skirts 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 willing to resign it up to him, that he may bear it with a main difference from them all. For saviours, other things, indeed, have been so called, Obad. 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 King's broad seal ; it is the liing that grants the tenure, the writing doth but convey, the seal doth but confirm it. Ministers are called saviours. ' 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, Lord,' or we shall never be turned. He bids Ezekiel raise up dry bones, Ezek. xxxvii. 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, 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 little to Jesus himself. For aU that is sacri- legiously detracted from him, which is superstitiously given to saint, angel^ MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 21 5 man, work, merit, or any creature. Against all sncli self-cozened and self- condemned idolaters, his jealousy shall one day hreak out like tiro, and say, AVhat 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 either 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 corporis sid, von alieni, another's body cannot hve by thy soul ; aniwat suum. The shepherd keeps his own flock, the master provides for his o^vn family. I'ut how could thev 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, ejc pretio mnrfui)iis. All are not his. Suum is a possessive and peculiar. Mine is the speech of a proprietary. Mi/ house, mt/ land, ))ij/ child, these be proper to me, not common to all. If all people were saved by him, how is he called the Saviom- ' 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 7 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 believe not. Belike, then, man's will must overrule God's will, whereas it is the common rule of Scripture and nature that actus primer causer ordinnt actum secundcc causce. 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, thei'e might be some hope of their salvation. Men are deceived to think, when they lose themselves, that God losetli 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 still. Cut otf a channel fi-om the sea, it misseth it not. Clu*ist hath no loss though men fall awa3\ Therefore, qui vult vixere in capite, oportet esse de corpore, 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 acceptalile enough to save ns 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 horned crescent, and drowned 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 h^ingiy ! Such tidings to fixmished Samaritans savoured sweetly even from the mouths of lepers, 2 Kings vii. Or to save us from a raging pestilence, how welcome is that wind which can cleanse our infected air, and blow away the plagiie ! Oi to save us from death — divers diseases are veiy painful, but death is fear- ful ; nature will endm-e much ere it yield to die — how welcome is that doc- tor who, shewing his vial, says, This shall cm'e 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 UPON THE CEEED. 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 fiiends. 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 corporal plagues that ever flesh and blood groaned under in this world, and the full pimishment 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 hm't 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 without sin ? The world's obloquy is the honour of innocency. How did all the reproaches of Christ tm-n to his gloiy ! 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 little 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 eflects and wages of sin ; therefore tolle peccatum, tolle omne vialum, take away sin, and there remains no e^il. But the devil is om* malicious adversary ; give him but leave, and he will not leave one man alive. Hell 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 tonnenting 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, quod 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 torment, and make himself merry with his own fire. What abundance of benefits are here in one word. There is no evil incident to man, but it ceaseth to be e\il when sin is gone. Blessings fall down like gracious 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 UPON THE CREED. 217 such noxious things. So that when Jesus takes away sins, he doth bless our very blessings, and sanctify our alUictions. He fetcheth peace out of trouble, riches out of poverty, honour out of contempt, Hberty out of bond- age ; pulls out the sting of death, puts out the fire of hell. Which should dii'ect our estimate of sin, to think worse of it than of its punisliment ; 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. Duti/ 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 sake ? The heart is indeed primum mobile, but that queen walks not abroad without her train. This God requires principally, 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. scv. 6. We begin our htm-gy with this invitation. Shall we ever say it, and never do it ? How ready be the Roman knees to bow to their Baals, which God hath forbidden ! How stifi" be ours to bow to Jesus, which he hath commanded ! God hath bound this duty by an oath, shall we offer to make him forsworn ? Ilom. xiv. 11; giving him no more reverence than the seats that hold us. Not that this is required to the sound, but to the sense ; heai'ing his name, let us have mind on him. It is the signification, not the pronunciation, that requires our reverence. The novelist objects, that spii-its, 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 om* own duties, and not trouble our brains about theirs. To us hath God spoken it, and oS. us he requires it. But this form hath been supei'stitiously abused. So hath every sacred thing in religion. Shall we pull down our 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, idolising 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 well as Jems ? (1.) CItri.'it is not the name of God ; God cannot be anointed ; but Jesus is the name of God, and that wherein he principally delights. (2.) Christ is communicated to others ; princes are called Christs ; but Jesus is proper to him ; there is no Sa^^our but he. (3.) Christ is anointed ; to v.'hat end? To be a Sa^•iour. 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 veiy name exacts our reverence. Our Saviour's person is in heaven, but his blessed name he hath left upon earth. WTiat intei'est have we in himself, if his name finds not reverence in our hearts ? If the Icnee 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 lilEDITATIONS 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. Duty 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 will 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 all ? No ; but sinners in sense and conscience, that mourn for their sins, and gi-oan to be delivered ; that find sin their torment, not that make it their sport ; that be ' braised and broken-hearted,' 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 deliverance, while libertines are reserved for vengeance. They that think they see, must remain still blind ; they complain their own blindness, whom he makes to see. It is the storm of despair, the sense of anguish, that makes men cry, * Lord save us, we perish,' Matt. viii. 25. A formal acknowledgment of Jesus is common ; but how is a physician known and approved, but by a fi-equent resort of patients ? In the days of his mortal flesh, to cure their bodily diseases, how did they flock to him from all coasts ? Yet he came not so much to heal the body, as to save the soul. When that bed-rid wretch offered himself to the new-stirred waters, still somebody stepped in before him, John v. 7. But whensoever we seek Christ, none shall thrust 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 true that many worthy saints have been somebodies with God. He was pleased with Enoch ; so did he grace 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 ' fi-iend of God.' He was pleased with Jacob, surnamed 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 him, are said to reject God himself. He was pleased with David, called ' a man after God's own heart.' Pleased with Solomon, whom he crowned with wisdom and honour. Pleased with Elijah, 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, calliag himself 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 Mary, the virgin- mother ; ' she found grace 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 truth with their 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 only in Jesus ; through and for the sake of the Messiah, the heir, the son of MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 219 his desires and good pleasure, in whom ho hath heaped up the fulness 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 meelmess of Moses accepted, the faith of Abraham was accepted ; the zeal of Phiuehas, the justice of Solomon, the patience of Job, the humihty of Paul, all were accepted ; all the good works of faithful Christians are accepted ; but all are accepted * in the beloved.' Still it is in Jesus that God is pleased wnth us, and with what wo 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 priest alone. Prophets, at their mission, as was Elisha. This was figurative 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 gi'ace, the oil of gladness, and that ' above his fellows,' Ps. xlv. 7 ; neither w-as 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 w\as not a king. Da\id 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 calhng. (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 differs fi'om all others. (1.) For the matter ; they with oil, he with grace ; that was oleum consecration, 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 Chi-ist, both in measure, number, and degree. For ' God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him,' John iii. 34. They have plenitudinem sufficienti(t, he super- abundanticB. 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 effect ; theii' oil was limited to their own persons, it had no virtue to work upon others. But Christ's grace is so diffusive of itself, that it derives hohness to us, ' running down from the head to the skirts,' Ps. cxxxiii. 2, to all his members. He was not only anointed himself, but our anointer. Therefore it is called ' the oil of glailness,' because it rejoiceth our hearts, by giving us spiritual gladness, and peace of conscience. 220 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. There is unguentum prceparativum, wlierewith the impostumed member is fomented, suppUed, and prepared for lancing. Unguentum refectivum, oil that makes a ' cheerful countenance.' Unguentum sanativiini, such oil as the good Samaritan poured into the wounds of the robbed traveller. Un- guentum consecrativum, with which kings are confinned in their thrones. Unguentum odonfenim, which fills the room with a fragrant 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 transfigui-ation, 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 gi-aces 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 from 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 office. 1. He was anointed to be our priest, to ofier up that propitiatory, expia- tory sacrifice for all our sins. Legal priests oflered many sacrifices, the Lamb of God was ofiered up once for all. 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 sacrifice of righteousness,' Ps. iv. 6. Let thy heart be the altar, the fire chanty, the hand faith, the knife that ' sword of the Spu'it ;' make a whole bm-nt-ofiering of thy sins ; let not a loose thought, nor a straggling desire, escape this holy combustion. Then ofier 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 lift- ing up of my hands as an evening sacrifice,' Ps. cxli. 2. This should be om* 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 with our prayers, which should come first unto God ; as Ahimaaz ran with Cushi, who should come first to David. We cannot look for a blessing without prayer, we cannot pray faithfully without a blessing. (3.) Thanksgiving. ' Whoso oflereth 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 ' odom'S in the vials of the saints,' Rev. v. 8. But, alas ! we esteem our blessings as Solomon did the brass given to the temple ; it was so much that he never stood to weigh * Katber, " and sacrificed his beast." — Ed. arEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED, 221 it : tlioy arc so common, we forget to ralue thom. The Run 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 from us. Christ's bounty j^erit hujrnto, but then peril imjratxis : the unthankful man loscth it, but then ho 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 charity, 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. Superflua diviti, necesmria pnuperi ; qui Imc retinet, detinet alienn. The best grace 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. Nee des tua, et detineas te ; nee des te, et detineas tun. Give not to the Lord thy goods, withholding thyself ; nor give him thyself, withholding thy goods. But many, instead of filUng the hands of the poor with these sacrifices, do fiill their own hands with the sacrifices of the poor. So, while they should ofier to God the sacrifice of a charitable devotion, they ofi'er to the devil the sacrifice of unjust oppression. Popish priests turn the niins of the poor to the church ; our sacrilegers tm-n the ruins of the church to themselves. ' With such sacrifices God is not pleased.' (5.) Repentance. ' The sacrifice of God is a contrite spmt, a broken heart he will not despise,' Ps. li. 17. If mart}Tdom do not call us to sacri- fice our bloods, yet let contrition work us to sacrifice our tears. The sacri- fice could not be ofiered, but it must bleed ; Christ in his sacrifice was slain for us ; nothing in our sacrifice is to be slain but our sins. ' Mortify your earthly members,' Col. iii. 5, your lusts. There is one mortification to cast oui-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, performing the will of God, and informing us. Wisdom indeed ; not only according to his nature and eternal generation, the inward and essential Word ; but also in regard of his prophetical office, sweetly disposing the ways of man's salvation. 'In him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge,' Col. ii. 3 : the fountain of all spiritual understanding, as all the senses are in the head. Thus was he anointed to teach us ; he was always a preacher ; lining, he took all occasions to instruct them that were to in- struct his flock. Dying, FAiam crux Christi pendentix, cathedra fuit 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. that I had so deep an insight in • Aug. 222 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. this divine wisdom, that I could Hmn it out to you in its trae beauty ! But a lame man may point you out the right way ; in a dark night, we had better have a Uttle boy with a candle lighted, than a great man with an ex- tinguished torch. Yea, a superior may lean on an inferior, as a great torch may be lighted at a small taper. So the very angels learned of the church the mystery of the incarnation, Eph. iii. 10. That gi-eat 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. 68. This shall make you wiser than your fathers, wiser than your teachers, wiser than your enemies. Without con- sultinff these oracles, were we wiser than the childi'en of the east, the day of judgment will find us fools. How murderous is that policy of Rome, to wi'ap up the oracles of this our 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 childi'en 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. xvi. 19. There must be a scire facias before there can be 2l fieri facias : the blind seamster will never sew true-stitch. They that will never seek what they should know, will never Imow 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 itself with a very httle measure of this study, which should admit of no bormds but the common bounds of mor- tahty. This is one cause why God is so iU served, for that can be no true worship of him which is separated from knowledge : the ' sacrifice of fools ' is not accepted. He requkes rationalem cidtinn, 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 wise ; 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 natm-al 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 nearest the matter, who stand farthest off in opinion from the world. There is a great deal of wisdom in the world, yet but a few wise men. When alms is divided among beggars, prizes among soldiers, lands or goods among legators, every one is discontented, and thinks he 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 contentus 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 will answer to the name of another craft or mysteiy. But at the proclamation, ' Oyez, all that be wise come hither;' who comes not ? never was such an appearance in any court. But alas ! are all wise that so think themselves ? Nay, is any man wise that applauds his own wisdom ? It is s&id ' 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 CREED. 223 nature is out of his 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 en-or and ignorance, only optimus ille qui minimis urgetur ; that is best which hath fewest. We call ourselves Christians : it were a shamo not to yield ourselves to be taught of our Master. Christ came in sii/no ad Abraham, in lege ad Moseni, in came ad Mariam, in gratia ad eicctos, in evangelio ad omnes ■ the church is his school, the gospel his doctrine. On eai-th let us be his disciples, that after om* removal we may be admitted to a new fomi 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 like 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 fsither 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, \'isible 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 Ilex was ' Crucify him ;' and the Head of the church had not a place to rest his head on. But a spu'itual, 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 CfEsar,' Jolm xix. 14 ; we say the contrary, ' We have no Iving but Christ.' "WTiat is said of Michael (Rev. xii. 7), is meant of Christ : the battle and victory is his. We need no angelical, that have an evangelical. Head. Well, if he be our King, let him rule us : no Divisum impcrium cum. Jove mundus habet: his throne brooks no rivals. If we divide his regiment, we divide ourselves 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 o'wu lust or pleasure to-moiTow. 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 oui- king smell of mjaTh, 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 holiness. Cant, i, 3 ; and of our own lusts be it said, ' Their place is no more found,' llev. 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. Icings over our muti- nous and rebelling lusts, to subdue and punish them : Farcere suhjixtis, et debeUare sui)erbos. The glory of a king is not to exercise dominion over men's bodies, but to be a king of hearts. "Wlien a Christian can master his own aflections, this is regale imperiuin. 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 wTestled with the 224 MEDITATIONS 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 Christ hath made us kings, why do we live like beggars ? Our diet is manna, the bread of angels ; our apparel out of the rich wardrobe of God's own Son ; our dwell- ing (for this is but our pilgrimage) is that glorious court above the starry fii'mament ; our revenues be those immortal gi-aces from 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 mystery ; but to eagles of the same eyrie 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 children ; for, ' fii'st 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 birds, worldlings, stand amazed, and look strangely after them, because they are ignorant that these are of a higher generation. Conclusion. — This blessed Christ 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 swaddling bands of the child Jesus. Abraham, Moses, Joshua, Samson, David, were all renowned, yet are but meant on the by ; Clu'ist 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 Phosphoiis, 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 life, 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 glory, whom his father promised to marry unto mankind ; and ' when the fulness of time was come,' Gal. iv. 4, he performed it. Lo ! now, all those stars drew in their borrowed light when that sun arose. To whom, instead of all the rest, Moses and Elias did homage on Mount Tabor, as to the accom- plisher of the law and prophets. The best things of the world may be 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 liquors ; 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 MKDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 225 make up an idea of him. Ho is life and light, the sun and the sum, the founder and the finisher of all perfect blessedness. Chrislus in iino, Cliri.stiis in sumino ; 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 fi'om sin, and in the world to come from damnation, nothing but Christ. As for God, ho 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 i.ian, whether imputed or infused, so much he is in God's books. Out oi that boundless treasury he 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, instruct us ; as he is om- 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 ho 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 a Patrc ; not the same species with the Father, but the same individuum. 2. The manner : this is neither by flux, as water is derived fi-om 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 anew stock; but by an unspeakable communication of the whole essence fi'om the Father to the Sou. Which is no more a diminution of the Father's godhead, than the lighting of one torch doth take from another. Lumen de lumine, saith the Nicene Council. 3. The time ; which hath neither beginning, middle, nor end, but is eter- nal. Before mountains, or fountains, or the world, ' the Lord possessed me,' Prov. viii. 22 ; now before the creation was nothing but eternity. But the person begetting must needs go before the person begotten ? An- swer : There is a double priority, of time and of order. In the generation of creatures 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 confijm 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 arrogate this title, to be called God, but was made the exemplary spectacle of a miserable man. Our first parents credited the de\'il, that they should be as gods. What became of it, but the ruin of us all ? Herod did not exact it, but only ac- cept it ; he took without refiising, 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 contusion 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 robbery,' and was glorified ; therefore he is God. How should this gospel, which is more contrary to natm-e, 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. ui. p 226 IMEDITATIONS 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. xhii. 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 first. Thirdly, We were all lost, and there was need of remedy. What shall 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 mercifal as not to disannul his justice, and so just as not to forget his mercy : salvo jure jus- titid, parare locum misericord IcB : both to appease his wrath, that his 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 off'er God the world for satisfaction ? It is his own before. Should angels tender themselves ? They are engaged to him for theii* 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 ail ; 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 fi'ee us ; man to become mortal, God to overcome death ; man to die for his fi-iends, 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 militant ; the top reacheth heaven, his divine nature is one with the Father, to bring us up to the church triumphant. How inconceivable was this mercy, how doth it swallow up all human comprehension ! If all the goodness of all the men in the world were contracted into one, and all the badness quite thrown out ; yet were not this man worthy to kiss the 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 Ivnow not what to say. Suppose a subject hath done some capital oiience against his sovereign, and the king's wrath is so incensed that nothing but the ofi'ender'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 suffer 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 will the father suff"er it ? What king will give his only son for his slave ? There could be no cause in us why either Christ should interpose himself, * Qu. 'Mediation?'— Ed. MEDITATIONS UPON TUE CREED. 227 oi" God should admit such an interposition. Loath would man be to givo his own son for his own sin ; yet God gavo Jilium suum pro jieccalo iion 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 Deiis in Filio, jjhmmoa in uniycnito: so that now he is the ' fii'st 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 chikken to know liim ; by his care and providence for their education, by telling them his will and commands ; how they may please, how displease him ; and if they swerve from these niles, she gives them correction. Om* Father is imisible ; in his w^orks only we see him, in his word we hear him ; this is voluntas Fatris, our Father's will ; the church teacheth us to obey that doctrme. 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 ho is taught ; doctiiue transfoims him into itself. Now the true mother will teach us the true doctrine of our Father ; and if we bo true 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 nan-ow heart of man rightly to comprise this inestimable jewel: his sw^eetness is so far beyond the faculty of our taste, his beaut}' beyond the apprehension of om* 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 gi-asps Mammon ; but embrace him with both arms of love. Ordinary objects are well satisfied with an ordinary measm-e of oui" aficction ; but such a love will not content Christ. All the little 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 liberality says. Enough is a feast ; but M'hen 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 dominus factotum of the world. * A feast is made for laughter, and wine maketh meny, but money answereth all things,' Eccles. x. 19. Money is the master ; religion, at best, but the master's mate. That can buy in offices, buy out offences, dignify peasants, magnify mushrooms ; what not '? This is the world's Pandora, the Diana, the trump that beai's the game, the queen of hearts, the mistress of men's affections, upon whom mistresses themselves must wait. Christ is put out of his lodging when this great lady must be entertained. 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 ? If 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 afford 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 coffers and mines of refulgent metals ? Why then 228 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. do we not sell our nothing to purchase Christ ? What he our 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, Numnius regnat, nummus vincit, num- mus imperat,''^- which Charles the Great well turned into Christ : * Christ reigns, Chi'ist overcomes, Christ commands.' It is impossible to gain him unless we despise all 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, 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 aU the world, finds him her Jesus. He will be wooed, in the first place, with the prime of our loves, joys, services ; he is the Alpha of our grace, the Omega of our glory ; 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 veiy 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 servant,' and that was lower ; even to wash the feet of his own servants ; 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 fair, an honest, an easy death ? No ; the bitter- est and the most shameful death of all. To be born, and so to be born ; 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 aU ; yea, he is Lord also as mediator. Jesus Christ is the Lord ; a blessed conjunction, that Jesus, who is a Saviour, should also be Lord ; that not a fleecer, not a flayer, but a Saviour hath the place. When lord and tyrant meet in one person, the people rue it, Prov. xxix. 2. Power and mahce 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, with one swoop of his tail, drew stars from heaven, and by his malice 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 our happiness. Jesus is the Lord. Christ, one that cureth unctione, non punctione, with anointing, not with searing and lancing ; he is Lord. There be many on earth called lords ; but they ai'e lords of earth, and those lords are earth, and those lords must retmn 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 quahfied ; not of such a bai-ony, county, signiory, but Lord, in abstracto ; of universal extent. Lord of * Eeusner. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED, 229 heaven, to glorify ^hom he please ; Lord of earth, to make high or low, whom he please ; Lord of death, to unlock the grave, Rev. i. 18 ; Tiord of hell, to lock up the old dragon with his crew, Rev. xx. 3. He keeps the key, that shall let all our hodies out of their earthy prisons. A great Lord ; whither shall we go, to get out of his dominion ? To heaven ? there is his 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 purgatoiT, or some of the limbos ; that tn-ra iiicof/nita is not mentioned in Christ's Lordship. The pope may keep the key of that himself. But for the rest, ho is too saucy ; advancing his universal lordsjaip, and hedging in the whole world for his diocese ; stretching his ami to heaven, inrabricking what saints he list ; 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 bo ' 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 an}-thing from him, Ps. xcv. 6, to do it on their knees. Wlien 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 gi-acious 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 glorj'. Those Uttle engines are nimble enough in our own occasions ; they run like the plummets of a clock when tlie catch is broken. But in our public devotions, Amen is scarce heard among us. The Amen of the primitive church was like a clap of thunder; and their HaUeluiah as the roaring of the sea.-= How do they convince our silence ! All must do honour to this Lord ; they in heaven, willingly, * casting their 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, shall fall backward, and end their days in Julian's desperateness. Vicisti : they shall confess him, though sore against their wills. He must be honoured ; if we be his ser- vants, by us ; whether we will or no, upon us. Either we must confess him singing, with saints and angels ; or howling, with devils and damned spirits. God will bo 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. Ho is a Lord to command. We like Saint Peter's Lord well ; to succour and save us, when we are in any * Hieron. 230 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. danger ; lie 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 theu- obedience. "When we would have him do us good, then ' Lord, help us ;' but when we should do him sei-vice, then ' who is Lord over us ? ' Ps. xii. 4 ; we have no Lord, then. A young rich man came unto Christ ; ' Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal hfe?' 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 coffers 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 iu 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. ' Wliy 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 spirit can aclaiowledge 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 Uves, 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 fiJleth all things ;' good reason he should fill our hearts. If he be our host, our cup shall overflow ; if he be our physician, our wounds shall never rankle ; he 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 liicens, 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. W^hat should dis- temper us, if our SaAiour be in us ? We are full 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 ho be not the object of our knowledge, our wisdom wall end worse than did Herod's oration, in odious ruin. To hope or tnist in God, and MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 231 not only through Christ, is a wikl naturian faith, a Jewish, ungrounded confidonco. Patience without him is a base stupidity ; fortitude, a despe- rate presumption; temperance, a drauken sobriety; all virtues, but either natural qualities of the constitution or moral habits of education, neither acceptable to God nor profitable to ourselves. If Christ bo not their foiin, they are all misshapen ; he is the grace of all graces, as sugar sweetens all confections and musk perfumes all cordials. We may flatter ourselves with our good works, but if they be not dyed in the blood of Christ, 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 own hearts and pleasing themselves ; but without Christ, they are far from pleasing God. All our gi'accs 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. "Wlio runs to the pack when the warehouse is open, or fetcheth water at the cistern when he may have it at the spring head, nearer hand, and better cheap? ' Without Chi'ist we can do nothing,' John xv. 5. The bird can sooner fly without wings, the ship sail without wind, the body move without the soul, than we do any good without Christ. 0, that om* 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 bo 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 crucif}' him again before your eyes, by preaching his 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 leai'ning, or anytlmig but Christ, we had better have held our peace. Wo lay our foundation on this Rock; and if we should not, the rocks would ciy 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 novices for talking of Christ and his gospel, and not of the rules of Saint Francis and their own order. Christ is our seiTnon, let Christ be our contemplation. Why 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 our eyes we might behold him; to bread and wine, that we might not make a meal without him ; to the door, that 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 shaU find none) but in Jesus Christ. Use 2. Let us glorify his name that hath purchased glory for us. Let him not sutler the world's indignity through our impiety. ' Holy and reverend is his name,' Ps. cxi. 9; and as we tenn him our Lord, let us use him so. But w^e may weep to speak it. Oui* unseemly beha\aour, 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 unbeliever 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, ' respectfully.' — Ed. 232 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. ougM we to bear ourselves 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 Christ on earth who we look should glority us in heaven. Yea, whether we eat or drinlj, 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 own names, in- viting honour to ourselves. This is to hunt counter, to take gi'eat pains to no purpose ; the more cost, the more lost. Such pharisees may, for their charity, go to the devil, themselves and their moneys perishing together; whereas the least beneficence done for the love of Christ shall have a sure reward. Then be our alms accepted, when the love of Christ constrains us, when his eye is more encouragement than all the world besides, if, when good is done, the thanks and sole honour of the deed redound to him. ' I laboured 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 from himself, and reflects it carefully upon his master; as Joab, when he had fought the field and gotten the day, sent for David to carry away the credit of the victory. Far be it fi-om us to lurch any of his praise. Let all our works be done in. the name of the Lord Jesus; begun with his allowance, performed with his assistance, and concluded to his glory.. We can desire no better a paymaster ; 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 court-figures, adulations and hj'perboles, 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 virtnti laus 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, Trm-uni 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 will, we are angry if he do not om'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, mui-muring. Here it does not shew as if he were the Lord, and we to do his will; but as if we were lords, and he to do our will ; he to serve om* turns, and when he fails of that, to be turned out of his sovereignty. Men will 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 liath joined together let no man attempt to put asunder. Use 4. ' Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,' Rom. xiii. 14. Saint Paul * A list. -f Bern. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 233 socms to borrow this plirasc from the custom of those tliat wore baptized in his days, who, comin<:j to that sacrament, did use to put off their chithcs, 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 Christ, Gal. iii. 27, is to express him in our conversation. He is an excellent robe. Some -write that Pilate, wearing the seamless coat of Christ, did pacify the angry Cajsar ; but Christ is a garment that can appease God himself. They that wear gorgeous apparel arc in princes' courts, they wait on kings. Whosoever arc 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 w\as woven, in his per- secution it was fulled, his life being ground in the mill of sorrows. Then was it dyed in gi'aiu, 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 resurrection 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 spu-itually taken, and continually worn of the elect by a faithful appU- cation ; a robe large enough to cover us all. Thus Christ, like the silk- woiTQ, 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 ; Christ 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-brealdng 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 nan 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 ho 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 own most blessed merits ! Amen. The Inc.vrnation. — ' The Word was made flesh.' Verbum, quid suh- limius 1 Cam, quid suhmissius 1 Factum, quid mirahilius 1 In the Word, there is eternity; injlcsh, temporality; in wat/e, personality. The Word is a creator, the flesh a creature, itiade a creation. Flesh, finitum ; Word, infinitum; made, 7<jh7hw. Ihcxe'i^ dirinum,humanum, axid vinculum. In these three words, have been found above three hundred mysteries. 1. ' The Word.' The person incaniate is the Son of God: he that is eternal, before all time, was made man ' in the fulness of time.' ' In the 234 BIEDITATIONS UPON THE CKEED. beginning was the Word.' In princlpio, tliat is, in princvpatu, as some expound it, taking a^'x/j to be not only ordinativum, but potestativum, as princes are called a^y^ov-sg, Rav. xix. 16, Or 'in the beginning,' that is, 'in the Father.' Pater est principium sine principio, filius principiitm de princijno.-'' ' I am in the Father,' as the river in the fountain ; ' the Father IB me, 'as in his engraven image, John xiv. 11. Or in principio, rather that is, in cctcrno ; the creatures were /rowi the beginning, the Word in the beginning, before there was a beginning. Jam turn 2)citris erat sanctum et vencrahile verbiim.f God made the world, he made not the Word. He had his being before any creature took beginning, Prov. viii. 22. Erat, not fuit ; fuit is given to that is not, fuimus 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 ; union, one substance, not umis, one person, in a plural verb, ' are one.' Semper cum patre, semper in patre, semper apud patrem, semper quod 2'>ater.\ 2. 'Flesh.' Why is his humanity expressed by this word y?^s7i, 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 uno individuo ; the true dimensions of a body, the true affections of a soul, yea, the infir- mities of our sinful flesh, but quite separate from the sin of our flesh. He did partake of every state of man. Fu'st, Of innocence, wherein he had immunity, yea, impossibility 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 infirmities of nature, a nature of infirmities. He had all fulnesses, numerositatis et copice ;§ yea, also of infirmities. But these be distinguished, j)assibiUtatis, or inordina- tionis ;\\ there are infirmities painful without sin, or sinful with pain; he took those, not these. He was in the reality of flesh, Heb. ii. 17 ; but only in the ' similitude of sinful flesh,' Rom. viii. 3. Infirmities be either natural or personal ; natui'al, 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 muiistry. His body, doubtless, was of a most excellent form, a staiTy brightness sparkling in his countenance, such as made his disciples follow him for love, and his apprehcnders 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 miracle, is more perfect than that which is made by art or nature : as when Christ made wine of water, it was tke ' best wine.' That body which the Holy Ghost had shaped for so pure a soul, separated from sin, united to the Son of God, proportioned in most equal sjonmetiy, was not dis- figurpd nor distempered with diseases. He lay not swollen with a dropsy, nor Tame of the gout, nor languishing of a consumption. He took infirmi- ties, not diseases. He took afi'ections, not sms. Thou art covetous, Christ took not this ; he was made flesh, not covetous flesh ; he was covetous of nothing but his * Auk. + Ambr. || Bonav. t Pallad. g Chrys. % Hieron. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 235 Father's glory and onr salvation. I am stained -with sin, Christ had neither sin nor stain : that Israelite was without guile, that Lamb without blemish. He took the weaknesses of natural llesh, not of personal flesh : ' the seed of Abraham ; ' that is, the nature of Abraham, not the person. I know that he took our sinful inlinnities too (for whatsoever in man was not somowaj' assiuned, 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 oui' Samson, who (we expect) should foil the Phihstines — death, sin, Satan, hell — sufler his hair to be shorn, his self dispowered, by taking flesh ? yea, rather, ' Put on strength, arm of the Lord,' Isa. li. 9. But Christ, not so much with his strong arm as with his holy aim, hath gotten himself the victory. Damona non armis, sed morte snhcijit. Satan little suspected in human flesh a power to overtlirow his kingdom. 8. ' 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 robbeiy, Christ is by right. Natura sinnpsity non prccsumpsit superhia.'''' Made flesh; not by conversion: sicut rerbum induit vocem, et non transit in voceftn: sic Verhum aitentum imluit car- nem, et non transit in carnem : not as water is turned into wine, there is no mutation of God ; not by confusion, as divers sorts of gi'ain 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 : nnturam sus- cipicndo nostram, non mutando siiam. His di^■inity was no whit consumed when his humanity was assumed. lUe manet quod semper erat, quod non erat incipiens. Homo Deo accessit, non Dens a se reccssit.] He w'as ' 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 hujus ex his ,-§ the fi-aming of a third thing out of diverse parts imited ; but hujus 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 incoi'porated into iron, or as the same man is both a lawyer and a physician, or as a scion ingrafted to a tree, is one with the stock, yet still retains its own nature and fniit. 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 finiit 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 haheret ex- empluin, non essct singulare ; si ratione ostcndi posset, non mirahile.\\ 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 cuiious inquisition, shall find tlie sweetness of this mystery. Object. 1 . Eveiy person is the whole divine essence ; therefore if any person of the Deity be incarnate, the whole Deity is incarnate. Ans. : Dcus incamatus, non Deitas ; God is incarnate, yet not the Godhead, but the * Aup. X Euseb. Ew. | Aug. t Prud. § Durand. 236 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 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 every 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 coviinunis, non terminative. The incarnation stands in two actions : the creation of a nature to be assumed, the assumption of it being created. The former was common to all the three persons equally ; the latter is the limiting 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 terminus unionis was in Christ. Object. 3. Why not the Father or spirit incarnate, but the word ? Ans. : It was not fit for the first person ; for so he should have been the son of a creature, which is the Father of a Creator : the father of him that is by nature immortal God, should be the son of herthat isbynature amortal 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 nature, and the third by grace. It was fittest for the Son. First, "WTio so fit as the Son of God, to make us God's sons ; as the Son by nature, to make us sons by grace ? Secondly, The inheritance was his ; who so fit to divide it with us ? he may dispose his own at his own 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 like created resemblances of himself, we had made ourselves resemblances of Satan ; lo, he that is so like God, that he is God, confiimeth 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 foolishly afi'ected 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 mercy. See, said God, ' man is become as one of us,' Gen. iii. 22 ; we say thankfully, ' See, God is becone like one of us,' Acts xiv. 11. Verbimi cavo 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. Three 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 caAdlling Jew to his hai-p : there be three things together ; art, the hand, and the string; yet but one sound is heard. Ars dictat, manus tanr/it, chorda 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 nor Spirit, but only the Son is made flesh. Sonum sola chorda reddit, carnem solus Chistus indiiit. The operation belongs to three, the sound to one ; ad solum, chordam soni redditio, ad solum fHium carnis susceptio. * Ausr de Incar. MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. 237 There is a fourfold coming of Christ ; in came, fide, morte, et retrihutione. In the flesh, John i. 14. In faith, Rev. iii. 20. In death, Mark xiii. 35. In judgment, Luke xxi. 27. Accordhig to these four comings, the church celebrates four adventual Sundays, eflcctually to prepare our hearts for the meditation of them. The whole world had been left had ho not come in the flesh. Bo much of the world is still lost, to which he docs not come in the Spirit, in faith. The world would be secure were he no more to he expected, therefore he will ' come to judge the quick and dead.' If eveiy 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 pai'ticular man hath his day, and there is one universal day for all. Erga Iwminem, intra hominem, supra hominem, contra ho)ninem. 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 accurately and exactly set down ; that they may be as apparently certain to us, as they are excellently wonderful in themselves, quanta accuraiiur in describendo Veritas, tantb j)e^'suasior in recipiendo jidcs. We cannot doubt of this truth, and be saved. The incarnation of God is that history and mystery whereon the faith and salvation of the world dependeth. Noluit nos nerjligenter audire, quod ille voluit tain diligenter enarrarc.^ Conceived of the Holy Ghost. — For the explanation of this article, my discourse shall walk in the evangelist's steps, following the passages and cii-cumstances in theu' due order. Luke i. 28, ' The angel came in unto her, and said, Hail, 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, Galilee. 2. The time, the sixth month after John's conception. 3. The messenger, an ai-changel. 4. The salvation, ' Hail, thou that art gi-aciously accepted,' &c. 1. The place was obscm-e ; 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 ai-iseth no prophet ;' so the pharisees took up Nicodemus, ver. 52. Do we look for a king, where is not to be foimd 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, nan tantuin a Galiiaa siirgit propheta, sed Domiims jirophetarum. 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 Gahlee. Many noble dames and great ladies were in that metropolitan city ; honom* and pleasure there kept theii* courts ; it was once * the joy,' is still the fame of the whole earth. Yet how doth God overlook her stately turrets, and pass by her proud damosels, directing his angel to Galilee '? As Ehas 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 gracious, 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 bo with a saint at Nazareth than Avith a sinner in the court of Jerusalem. The place doth not honour the person, but the person honours the place, as the hea- vens do not make God glorious, but his presence glorifies the heavens. Be * Hicrom. 238 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CEEED. content with thy obscure Galilee ; thou art as near to present mercy, and to futiu'e glory, as temporal advancement can make thee. Yea, it is in thee to make thy shed a palace. God, that filleth all places, makes no dif- ference of places. Sapientis jycitria est iibicunque saplt,'^- the wise man's home is wheresoever he is wise. Credenti coelmn est xibicunque 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 the holy virgin. Where can devotion serve the Lord, and the Lord not observe her '? The good conscience may think itself solitary, yet is never without company. God and good thoughts are within it, blessings and good angels are about it. Honoui* waits at the door of humility ; and though dogs and devils were barking to disgrace it, will not av/ay till 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 corner 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 bravery 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 honitatem in tuf/uriolo more than celsitatem in palutio. ' 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 con- 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 affects the head; and if one tread on the toe, the head complains, Why do you tread on me ? They that think themselves lowest are most respected by him that is the Highest. In vain doth a man himt after his shadow, he shall never overtake it, for aU 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 gloiy, 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 found out by his mercies. The angel salutes Maiy in Galilee. Galilee, some say, signifies a transmigration ; fit to shadow out his con- ception, who ' went forth from the Father, and came into the world,' John xvi. 28. There is one transition. Who left his own people, that left him, and off'ered himself to the gentiles. There is another transition. In GaU- lee, yet in a city of Gahlee. 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 gi'ace, the strong- holds fortified by his righteousness, asd the perfection of it is his glory. 2. The time must be considered in a double relation. Quoad statum popidi, 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 run thi'ough many troubles, manj' hurly-burlies, many alterations, yet the sacerdotal line was not inter- rupted. That order endured above eleven hundred years. It was God that reserved his owti worship. No thanks to them. They that were so apostated from holiness would not have stuck to deprave his ser^ace. Yea, the pharisees had so blended it with then- own traditions, that thousands among * Sen. MEDITATION'S UPON THE CREED. 239 them knew not which was God's word, and which the pharisecs'. They had lost hoth purity of doctrine and piety of hfe. If Home have lost these, her personal succession is hut a poor argument. While the Jews crucified their Saviour, no man denies that they kept the succession of priesthood, no 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- ahle church which hath lost the truth, though it have many priests ; as at the last day, there shall he ' little faith ' in the world, yet abundance of Christians. In this exti-emity of evil God produceth the gi'eatest good. When things were at the worst, he began to mend them. Those times were fit for Christ, and Christ was fit for those times. In the most des- pei'ate declination of Israel came the most glorious salvation of Israel. I deny not but there were some holy in those degcnenxte 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. Elias thought himself singular ; God tells him of seven thousand partners that defied Baal. He hath some holy clients in the midst of the foulest depravations. Tho Jesuits, with all their familiar devils, shall not bring all into the Inquisition that worship Christ under their noses. God disposeth of all times, of all 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, Marj', Joseph, Anna, Simeon, Nathanacl, these were his attendants. It is fit, when the I^ng of all tho 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 oAvn 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 born in the solstice. John Baptist was conceived in September, so called quasi scptimus imher, in the autumn, full of the leaf, or declining of the year. Christ was conceived in March, the spring or rise of the year. ' He must increase, and I must decrease,' said John, Jolm 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 fi-om Christ in the spring, and Christ received his life fi*om the world in the spring. Qui dedit, accepit, sub eodcm tempore, vitam. 3. The sun doth then return to us, difiusing his beams and influence with a more powerful operation. Christ is our Sun of righteousness. He was never far from 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 squalid winter. Stillabunt monies didcedincm. ' The mountains drop sweetness, the hills milk and vnne, and rivers flow with cheerful waters,' Joel iii. 18. The gi'ound looks with a new face, hath new hairs to her head, new clothes to her back ; the sun seems to have new eyes, the trees put out new arms, 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 blyth 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 bemg past the equinoctial point. Under the law they had short days and long nights ; some glimpses and small iiTadiations of tho light, but quicldy clouded with the mists of obscmity. Under Chi-ist wo have 240 MEDITATIONS UPON THE CREED. long days and short nights. After the glimmering 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 Barnaby'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 within us. Our immortaUty shall be clear, for there ' is no night at all 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 Grod could have no less a re- porter than the angel of God. Even the conception of his precursor 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 with 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 ; Christ was a wonder, and a worker of wonders. (2.) An angel. The vision of those celestial spirits was never common ; rarely they appeared, 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 shall come in the form of man, before his Son come to them in the nature of man, (3.) The angel's name is specified : Gahnel, he whose name signifies the ' strength of God,' shall bring news of the God of s