grace of Christ shall be of Energy and Efficacy sufficient to save us St. Augustins Caution in the mean time for the Law of Nature cannot but seem very Poinante Adolet non abolet Naturam Gratia this Law from Sion this Law of Faith doth not disanul but Corroborate and confirm and actuate Natures Law And for the Law from Sinai however Christ by being made a Curse for us hath taken away the Curse thereof Gal. 3.13 yet as that was our School-Master to bring us unto him Gal. 3.24 so is he our Exemplary Guide to lead us to the fulfilling thereof I came not to destroy but to fulfil the Law Mat. 5.17 And this may you see to be the Apostles clear Determination after his most Solicitous Debate of the Point Rom. 3.31 Do we then make void the Law of God through Faith God forbid rather we establish the Law The drift of this Law is far from broaching or countenancing any Doctrin of such a Liberty of conscience as with the Saints of the new Calendar is no better then Licentiousness that Sanctification and Obedience is no less the scope of this then either of the former Lawes And therefore St. Peters Caveat in the 2. of his 1. Epistle to his scattered strangers you may see to be that they use not their Liberty for a Cloak of Malitiousness or wickedness for the word {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the Original equally importeth both but that by well-doing they put to silence the Ignorance of Foolish Men And St. Iames his peremptory conclusion it is in the 1. of his Epistle and 25. whoso looketh into the perfect Law of Liberty this Law of Faith is a Law of Liberty indeed but such an one as is far from taking off the Yoak of Obedience from our Necks and therefore immediately may you see to follow and continueth therein being not a forgetful Hearer but a Doer of the work that Man only shall be Blessed in his Deed Indeed it cannot be denied but that Christ beareth a great part of this Yoak for us that which may justly cause him to minde us that that part of the Yoak he hath left for us to bear Is easie Mat. 11.30 Howbeit {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} there are as the Apostle seasonably Itemeth his Colossians in the first of that Epistle 24. as after-sufferings so After-doings of his likewise to go thorough with in the weak Endeavours and Evidences of which poor Patience and Performance shall we at last notwithstanding all this our Book-learning prove defective or faulty so that if either our chearfulness in suffering after his example or promptness in Acting according to his commands shall not prove such as shall become this our Prime Book his glorious Gospel too just reason shall we at last finde for our Concluding and complaining as the Preacher Eccles. 12.12 There is no end of making and setting before us many Books and with Nero when he was sometimes to Signe a sentence of Death the mildest Speech that ever fell from so Bloody a Monster in extream Anguish of Spirit wish utinam nescirem Literas O! that I had never known Letter in a Book I can but turn over the Books in haste The second that shall be opened is Gods Day-book which yet hath two Tomes that serve to the making it up whereof the one is that of our own Conscience the other of Gods Remembrance For the first of these Annals and Diaries I finde thus distinguished by Tacitus that the former is a Register of the greater the latter of the less matters of State In this Diary or Day-book you shall be sure to meet with a Rhapsody of all sorts of matters both greater and less together not the works of your Hands only and the words of your Mouths but even of the most secret and recluse thoughts of your Hearts No sooner is there any Evil acted or Spoken or but conceived by us but that Inimici viri Domestici ejus our conscience which is our House-hold Enemy is ready accordingly as Iob sometimes wished in the 31. of his Book and 35. to write a Book So that for whatever sin of ours whether Manual or Vocal or but Mental our Conscience will still be present to put in Execution what the Lord sometimes gave in charge to his Prophet Esay 30.8 to note it in a Book And however a Malefactor here may have just reason to interpret his being put to his Book for a special Act of Mercy whence the old word amongst us of a mans being saved by his Book this Book-trial of all we shall in conclusion finde to be the most Severe for that this Great Judge himself shall at the time of our Arraignment without any just censure of Entrenchment or Usurpation assume the Ordinaries Place and will then without the least Extention of any favour to be looked for clearly and candidly publish and proclaim in the Audience of the whole Earth whatsoever he shall finde written In Libro Aperto in this Book when it commeth to be opened The first way of writing I ever read of was in Stone and the first Writer God himself who writeth the Law in two Stony Tables with his own Hand Exod 30.18 Conscience is not Ignorant of this way of writing but after the example of God himself whose vicegerent she is writeth as is Iudahs sin written Ier. 17.1 with a Pen of Iron with the Point of a Diamond the Characters of our several misdeeds in the Stony Tables of our Hearts Whose Thoughts therefore as the Apostle Rom. 2.5 shall at the last Day either Accuse or Excuse us After this another way of writing in Barks of Trees was found out whence our Books amongst the Latins still retain their Names Libri Barks or Books Nor is Conscience unacquainted with this way of writing neither A Book a Register-Book she keepeth of all our Enormities and Impieties whereof every Page shall appear filled with the sad Items of our Blasphemies our Perjuries our Debaucheries our Dalliances our Oppressions our Extortions our Murthers So that every one of us by way of an heavy Position shall have too just reason to bespeak our Consciences for all these as doth David the Lord by way of an anxious question for his Members Psal. 139.15 In thy Book are all these things written The Egyptians after this found out another way of writing by Hieroglyphicks strange and uncouth Characters and these impressed in Paper then made of Reeds as now amongst us of Rags And the Destruction of these Reeds the Prophet Isaiah seemeth to bewail as a dreadful part of Gods doom upon Egypt in the 19. of his Prophesie and 7. The Paper-reeds saith he by the Brooks shall wither and be no more And at this time of the standing up of the Dead Small and Great before this Righteous Judge of the whole Earth as we shall see the sign of the Son of Man Mat. 24.30 which even by the
The Unspotted HIGH-COVRT OF IVSTICE Erected and Discovered in Three SERMONS Preached in LONDON and other Places By THOMAS BAKER Rector of St. Mary the More in EXON. Jam. 5.9 Behold the Iudge standeth before the Door Ambros. l. 5. d. Fid. c. 8. Cum cuncta futuri Iudicii momenta nescimus semper tanquam in Excubiis constituti in quadam virtutis Specula collocati peccandi consuetudinem declinemus ne nos inter vitia Dies Domini deprehendat Printed for the Author 1657. THE EPISTLE To his justly honoured friend Jonathan Prickman Esq the happiness of this life and a better SIR THe diet of Ephraim in the Prophet cannot but by al that have tried it be interpreted and entertained for very spare and thin that is nothing else but what the Apostle disclaimeth the fighting with a poor blast of empty Aire That Ixion is in a very sorry condition that embraceth a cloud of such vacuity in stead of the Iuno of a well-furnished table Mine entertainment Sir by you from time to time hath been of another nature that have still every day more and more abounded in pregnant testimonies of your real favours towards me These poor labours which when preached you were pleased highly to approve of shall you but now vouchsafe to look upon in a dead letter where they cannot but lose much of their lustre with a favourable eye you shall every day more then other lay a strong obligation of a continued sacrifice of prayer still to be offered up before the Throne of grace for all manner of blessings both spiritual and temporal to be showred down upon you and yours by Sir Your most humbly devoted Friend and Servant T. B. The Epistle to the Reader Courteous Reader FOr for the general upon my late trial of thee by the three Sermons of mine lately published I finde thee to deserve no other compellation however some Magni nominis umbrae shadows of great names have winced and so upon the result professed themselves galled with a passage in the Epistle to the first of the Knaves every day turning beest thou Presbyterian or Independent wilt thou be but pleased to lay aside thy self-interest the less reason shalt thou have as Felix to startle at this theam of Iudgement Beest thou a right unbiassed Protestant Christian as with the Creature in the Apostle thou wilt find in the an inclination to a restless groaning till thou beest delivered from the bondage of corruption so withal a propension every day more and more to lift up thine head in a joyful assurance that the day of thy Redemption draweth nigh Beest thou what thou wilt leaving this following discourse upon the Text for thee to advise with that thou mayest so demean thy self that the sound of the last Trumpet may not affright thee is and shall be the assiduous prayer of Thine in our common Iudge and Saviour T. B. The first SERMON Apoc. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great stand up before God and the Books were opened and then another Book was opened which was the book of life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works NOt to look back for Cohaerence as but so far as the immediately preceding verses wherein our divine Evangelist acquainteth us with what he has discovered of Gog and Magog devoured by fire from Heaven and their great Lord and Master the Divel cast into a lake that is for ever to burn with fire and brimstone I shall for the present content my self with that Statutum est of the Apostle Heb. 9.27 for an Introduction to lead me into the Text it is appointed for all men once to die and after that the judgement Death is nothing else but as that adversary in the Gospel that delivereth us up to the Judge Or as an alarm for the awaking of us to prepare for a sharp encounter with judgement And then since death hath of late dayes especially and that for a long continued Tract of time been gallopping upon her pale horse amongst us not all-arming us onely but beating up our quarters yea bathing her footsteps in our blood nay and God only knoweth how soon she may be charging us with a fresh Cariere drereful Heralds unto us that it is to probable that ere long we shall be delivered up to this Judges Capital sentence yea that unless those two powerful Advocates a lively faith and hearty repentance shall seasonably interpose must needs doom us to irreparable destruction both of body and soul this sentence of judgement in all rational discourse may not seem strange or uncouth unto us Nay may that the Apostles argument upon his Romans he presseth for their speedier awaking out of sleep Rom. 13.11 pass for irrefragable that their salvation is now nearer then when they first believed of all hands can it not but be agreed upon that a strongerty for the contemplation of this Judgement must needs lieupon us that have far greater reason to say of our times then the Apostle of his above sixteen hundred years ago Cor. 10.11 that we are they upon whom the ends of the world are come then upon any Patriarch or Prophet before or under the Law yea or Evangelist or Apostle since the death or Sepulture thereof that had but a dim sight of this so considerable a spectacle by the glimering light of Prophesie or vision yea or Revelation as hath our divine Evangelist and Apostle here I saw the dead small and great stand up before God c. The Text then you cannot but see what just reason I shall have to term a lively Effigies and Representation of the great and general and unspotted High-Court of Justice that at the last day shall be erected in the Heaven of Heavens wherein I shall only point out unto your considerations these ensuing particulars the Prisoners to be arraigned the Iudge to pass sentence the Evidence to be given in the Legal proceeding of the Court the Infallible certainty of all The Prisoners to be arraigned you may see to be the Dead small and great The judge to pass sentence God The Evidence to be given in Recorded in Books The Legal proceedings of the Court appeareth clearly in that the dead without any the least distinction or discrimination are to be judged according to their works And the infallible certainty of all is conspicuously apparant by that our divine Evangelist and Apostle professeth that he hath been {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an eye-witness of all These the parts of these plainly briefly and orderly And first are we to take a view of the Prisoners to be arraigned which we see are the Dead small and great I saw the dead small and great stand up before God Not to mention those that shall alive be caught up with those that are dead to meet the Lord in the Ayre 1 Thes. 4.17 this mention of dead small and great hath ministred matter of
sharp dispute to Divines of no mean note in the Church about the stature of the dead that shall stand up in the judgement whether it shall be of all the same Not to distract your thoughts with an endless multiplicity of needless conjectures we shall look no further then S. Augustines summary determination of the point that at the day of judgement we shall not all appear of an equal stature for that this were with Procrustes to stretch out those of a shorter and to contract those of a taller Size yea indeed by extending and contracting of dimensions to take away the natural property of the bodies But of that stature shall we all appear Qua vel eramus vel futuri eramus in juvenili aetate which either we should have attained had we not been cut of in our infancy or had attainned and continued in had we not by old age out-grown it Of that strength and vigour that usually accompanyeth the age of three or four and thirty years of which age the first Adam is conceived and concluded to be when he was created the second when he was crucified And this conjecture is not improbably grounded upon that of the Apostle Ephes. 4.13 till we all come to a perfect man unto the measure of the stature or as it is in the Margent of the age of Christ But shall we compare this place with 19. of this Book 18. where the Angel giveth a Commission to the fowls of the Aire to eat the flesh of all men both bond and free both small and great we shall easily be induced to believe that by those small and great shall be intended a commensuration of men not by their statures so much as their stations not so much by their dimensions as conditions So that the result shortly shall be that Princes aswel as Peasants rich as poor bond as free shall all stand up before this judgement seat We say that as death leaveth us so judgement findeth us yea indeed death and judgement deal with us alike impartially So that Pallida Mors as death visiteth all times the Pallaces of the mightiest Potentates as well as the cottages of the poorest Mushroms shufling both King and Pawn into one bag as soon as the game of our life is ended so shall the summons of judgement equally attach us Cum suis Plato adducetur discipulis Potentissimi quondam Reges nudo latere palpitabunt Plato shall be brought forth ranged in the same form with his the meanest Schollars and those mighty Potentates whose very names but even now struck terrour into the hearts of all about them shall now divested of all their Robes of State and titles of Honour stand naked trembling before this dreadful Tribunal Nor can this tidings of judgement seem strange to any that is not a meer stranger to reason Even the Moralist hath written a purposed Book whose summe is this Problem debated Quare bonis eveniat malè wherefore the most Religious Persons have not seldome the worst end of the staffe in this life whose Positive resolution we finde to be that things are thus ordered by providence that the good may be still kept in hope and the evil in fear of another life Indeed it not seldome fareth with the righteous and the Reprobate in this case as with Isaac and his Brethren Gen. 25. They have certain gifts given them and are sent away whilest he hath the entire Inheritance reserved for him The Reprobate here may have certain gifts of the Highest left hand of success of advancement of wealth of Honour in a liberal measure heaped up upon them but then without the least hope or expectance of any further testimony of Gods love or favour for the future they are sent away to their own places whilst the Righteous in the mean time meanly gratified with present Boons have an Inheritance reserved for them even an Inheritance incorruptible that fadeth not away in the highest Heavens As with Manasseh and Ephraim Gen. 48. of which however Manasseh as the elder be placed by Ioseph at his Fathers Right hand and Ephraim as the younger at his Left yet is the case immediately after altered by the good old mans deliberate transposition of his hands he laying his Right upon Ephraim his Left upon Manasseh The Reprobate here in this life may by Ioseph which soundeth increasing by the encrease of their wealth and substance as Elder brothers be set down at the right hand of Honour and Power whilest the Righteous like the Younger may be left at the left of neglect and contempt But in the life to come the God of Iacob that leadeth Ioseph like a Sheep shall dispose of them in a far diverse yea contrary posture placing as his true harmless and serviceable Sheep the Righteous at his right hand but leaving the Reprobate as unprofitable Goats at his left As with the Teeth and the Feet whereof the former whilest they are sound we contentedly allow an eminent place in the body and for that we finde them of great use for its health carefully preserve and serve with all manner of dainties but when they begin to rot we pluck out and cast away as fit for nothing but the Dunghil or Fire the latter whilst they are sound we leave not only to their low and despicable site but expose to all manner labour and travail and employ in the most vile and servile offices which yet if by any casualty they shall come to be ill affected we carefully and charily plaister and binde up The Reprobate here like the Teeth may be seated in the most Eminent place of the body politick and may appear certainly for such to appear they desire very serviceable for its advantage though it be all this while indeed but to eat up Gods people as if they would eat bread Psal. 14.8 and upon either score may not only be heeded tenderly for point of preservation but served with all manner choise and rare provision but when putrefaction and rottenness shall scorn to seize them shall be scronfully cast away as fit for nothing but the Dunghil of neglect and contempt in the memories of men or the fire of Hell in Satans territories Whilst the Righteous like the feet after that for the whole term of their life they have not only been left in a lowly and base condition but exposed unto all manner labour and travail and anguish and that both of soul and body and have been surbated and bruised with all manner Tribulations and Persecutions are at last with all manner tender care bound up in the bundle of life To say no more as with Cattle kept for several purposes the one for store the other for slaughter whereof the one feedeth in green and fat Pastures the other are kept upon bare commons The Reprobate here may have the seeming happiness at least of feeding in the green and pleasant Pastures of all manner of plenty and prosperity but then in conclusion
Bello acies saith St Chrysost. as we use to set an Army in Battle-aray against an enemy before us what things we have done I have sometimes heard of an harsh answer that an hard-hearted chuffe made a poor man when he begged an Alms of him that if the day of judgement were at hand he would not give him a Penny To whom the poor man maketh no other reply but this that did he but believe that that day were at hand he would give him a Penny Doubtless the most flinty-hearted amongst us would be far from shutting up the Bowels of his compassion against his distressed Brother much less would he what is the worlds present guise for the general trample upon him and tirannize over him nor would any of us ruffle in Pride revel in excess dally in wantonness roar in Blasphemie mask under the visour of Hypocrisie as more then a good many of us familiarly do did we but duly contemplate with our selves that this great day of Judgement may be at hand nay did we but entertain a certain perswasion that there will be a day of Judgement And therefore those Arms wherewith Gideon furnished his Souldiers for their encounter with the Midianites Every one an empty Pitcher a burning Lamp and a Trumpet in his hand Iud. 7.16 will be proper for us still to have in a readiness in our thoughts for our encounter with the Hellish Midianites an emptie Pitcher even the apprehension of the brittle Pitchers of our bodies empty of strength and life of a burning Lamp a Lamp still lighted by a stream of Fire and Brimstone in the Infernal Tophet and a Trumpet which we know not how soon shall rouze us out of our Graves to try our strength Integrity before this Judgement seat Without all peradventure it is that the Midians or Jerichoes term them which you please shall never be able to stand or hold out shall they at all essays be surrounded with the due recognition of this Trumpets sound as a Signal for the opening of the Books Which might fitly bring me to the view of the third particular I commended to your observations the evidence to be given in which we see here is recorded in Books But I fear that I have already exceeded the limits both of my time and your patience Leaving therefore what remaineth for some other Days Essay beseech we the Almighty to grant that the words we have this day heard with our outward Ears may through his grace be so inwardly graffed in our hearts that they may bring forth in us c. The Second SERMON Apoc. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great c. Mat 24.44 Be ye also ready for in such an Hour as you think not the son of man commeth Abbas Elias Ego tres stimeo una est quando egressura est Anima de Corpore aliam quando occursurus sum Deo tertiam quando adversum me proferenda est sententia Apoc. 20.12 and the latter part of the Verse ANd the Books were opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of life and the Dead were judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works The whole Verse when I first undertook it I termed and that perhaps not unfitly a lively Effigies and Representation of the Great and General and Unspotted High-Court of Justice that at the last day shall be erected in the Heaven of Heavens Wherein having given you a summary view as of the Prisoners to be arraigned the Dead Small and Great and the Judge to pass sentence God we are now according to our proposed Method to heed the Evidence to be given in the equal proceedings of the Court and the Infallible certainty of all And first the Evidence to be given in offereth it self to our considerations which we see is Recorded in Books And the Books were opened What cannot be denyed of any what ever Judge of this supream Judge of Heaven and Earth must needs Ex abundanti be granted and confessed that he is Lex loquens a speaking Law yea Quicquid libet licet as that gross Parasite sometimes to the King of Persia so exact a Rule of Law is his will that to question the equity of what ever he willeth were Crimen laesae Majestatis no other then an height of Rebellion And then Books for the information of the understanding and so guidance of the will of this Judge may justly seem superfluous But he that is the Fountain of Justice and would therefore by his own Exemplary practise prescribe a course of unerring Justice unto all that under him will needs lay claim to any Judiciary Power as in the first piece of justice he did upon our first Parents though taking them {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in the very Act he doth not presently without further enquiry pass sentence upon them but first calleth man to the Bar Adam where art thou Where man appearing he apposeth him with a question which yet hath the nature of a smart charge Hast thou eaten of the Tree whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldst not eat Yea and then what Nicodemus now boldly alledgeth in the behalf of his Mr. Iohn 7.51 whom in the preceding verse for fear he sought In tenebris by Night with patience he heareth what this guilty Person can say for himself before he giveth him his Doom so here for the making up the exact complement of his Justice in the last Judgement that the most clamorous Delinquent may have no just cause of exception against his just way of proceeding he passeth sentence not as many a Brain-sick Enthusiast preacheth without Book but out of Books and these known Books of Law and those opened And the Books were opened For the number of these Books I know no Penman of holy Writ so proper and present to acquaint you as this our signally Divine Evangelist and Apostle St Iohn who here giveth us an intimation of three at least which he here professeth and that by Revelation to have seen And I saw the Books opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of life For their Titles if you please to take them amassed into one great volume you may stile them all collectively by the name of Gods Doom-day Book If in several pieces you may not unfitly stile the first Secundum quem the second Ex quo the third In quo the first his Statute-Book the second his Day-Book the third his Book of Records And every of these Books shall we see opened when we come all both Small Great to stand up before this Righteous judge of the whole Earth I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The first of these his Statute-Book is made of three Tomes in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion For the first of these the Law of
Nature we shall content us with Melancthons definition thereof that it is a knowledge of certain principles and of conclusions thence naturally deduced agreeable to the Eternal Rule of truth directing him to live well and to worship his Creatour The very Oratour can say of this Law that it is Non scripta sed Nata quam non Didicimus Legimus Accepimus Verum ex Natura Arripuimus Hausimus Expressimus that it is not a written but an inbred Law and such as we have not learned or read or by Tradition received but such as we have derived and drawn and sucked out of the very Entrails of Nature Easie it were by a particular Induction to evince that not only the most eminent Divinity-Maximes as that Tithes are to be paid as may clearly appear in the History of Melchizedeck and Abraham Gen. 14. that some Places are above other sanctified by Gods special Presence as the Place of Iacobs repose in his journey to Haran where God appeareth to him Gen. 28. that some Persons are more then others dedicate to his service as the First-born of every Family Exod. 13. of which by the way you shall do well specially to take notice that they were every one {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} Cohen Princes and Priests in one Person but that every particular Precept of the Moral Law hath from the beginning been and still is by this Laws meer instinct imprinted and engraven in the hearts of those that are meer strangers to the Israel of God and Aliens from the Covenant of promise St. Pauls word Rom. 2.14 you may safely take for the whole summe the Gentiles saith he having no Law i. e. no Law written as the Iews in Tables of stone do yet by nature the things contained in the Law and so are a Law unto themselves And the Maxume therefore Verse 12. he premiseth cannot but be entertained for irrefragable As many as have sinned without Law shall also perish without Law So that even of such as these just reason shall we have to say in this case what the same Apostle of the same Gentiles clearly convinced of a Godhead by those things that are seen from the creation of the world Rom. 16. that they are {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} without all manner of Excuse For the second the Law from Sinai you know by whom and how it was given By Moses yet God still dictating with lightning and Thunder and as is this judgement to be auspicated with the sound of the Trumpet yea and this seconded with a curse far more dreadful then either Lightning-flash or Thunder-clap Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the Book of the Law to do them Gal. 3.10 Nay to make sure that this Curse want not its proper matter of sin to work upon Lex subintravit ut abundaret delictum the Law was given that sin might abound Rom. 5.20 Not that the Law is sin as the Apostle glosseth himself in the 7. of the same Epistle and 8th but sin taking occasion by the Commandement is his own ingenuous confession of himself wrought in me all manner of concupiscence So that then such an occasion of and Incentive unto sin is the Law Sicut fraenum equo indomito saith Paraeus upon the words as is a Bridle of a young Horses fierceness which whilst we use as an Instrument for the taming him by accident it makes him the more untamed Sic ego Torrentem quâ nil obstabat eunti or as a Bank or Rock to a Torrent which whilst they strive to Bound they enrage the more and so occasion it to bear and break down all before it with the greater violence Nitimur in vetitum to long for things forbidden is the current we know our desires all naturally run which is the reason saith the Oratour why Solon would by no means be drawn to hear of a Law to be enacted against Parricide veritus ne si legem de eo tulisset magis incitaret Homines quam reprimeret fearing saith he lest such a Law might rather spur men on unto then restrain them from so unnatural and horrid an act So that then so little advantage God wot is this Law likely to afford us at our last standing up before this High-Court of Justice when we are at such a natural Antipathy against it that the more it laboureth to reclaim us the more we recoil and rebel against it that for any ground of comfort we can herein meet with too just reason shall we have as the Disciples to our Common-Master in the Gospel Luke 18.26 to cry out Domine quis Salvus erit Lord who can be saved Especially seeing that as St. Peter sometimes to the Jews Acts 15.10 we cannot but be tenderly sensible that this Law putteth such an heavy Yoak upon our Necks as neither we nor our Fathers are able to bear For the last the Law from Sion the Law of faith as Rom. 3.27 it is stiled as it is so far from being Contra-distinct to either of the former Laws but hath in it rather the summe and substance and Pith of either as hath the Intellective of the vegetative and sensitive souls so is Christ the main scope of all they all looking toward him as did the Cherubins towards the Mercy-seat Exod. 37.9 In either of the former he discovered himself but as through the Lattice as it is Cant. 2.9 In this latter he doth not only present him clearly to our views but so graciously and affectionately offer him to our embraces that we have now the happy opportunity and advantage of laying such fast hold of him as not to let him go as it is Cant. 3.4 The former either of them holdeth us to Hard-meat as we say making us a proffer of Heaven indeed but upon very unfeisable yea indeed impossible conditions Fac hoc vives as our Saviour to the Lawyer Luke 10.28 Do this and thou shalt live The latter tendereth us a Bargain in our apprehension at least much easier to compass Crede Salvus eris as Paul and Silas to the Jaylor Acts 16.31 and now little question to be made but that as the Jew of the Almighty Rom. 2.5 there is more then a good many amongst us will be present to make our Boast of this Law that having the advantage both of Jew and Gentile in times past to turn over a new Leaf from the Law of Nature the Law from Sinai unto this Law of Sion the Law of Faith we shall not need to distrust but that we shall be sped of an happy Acquital and Discharge when we come to stand up before this dreadful Tribunal Our Pulpits now for a long time have resounded with no other Doctrin but those revived Reliques of an old Heretical Maxime that we shall need to act nothing our selves in order to the accomplishment of the great work of our Salvation a bare naked Faith apprehending the free
shall not be Judged 1 Cor. 11.31 no such way shall we finde for the Prevention of that heavy vengeance which in that Day will otherwise too surely overtake us as to take a Private and Early Revenge upon our selves making us our own Accusers Judges Executioners Putting in Execution the severe Sentence of unfained Repentance and Mortification for all our sins that so these sins of ours may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come from his gracious Presence And for whatever time in this valley of Tears we may have remaining our wisdome shall be to improve our utmost care and Study for the writing of whatsoever we shall Enrol in this Book with the fair hand of Integrity and Innocency No soul for the present can conceive the comfort that our Hearts in that Day shall be sensible of if at the Bar of this Judicatory we shall be able fearlesly to justifie our Handwriting as upon the Bench did Pilate sometimes his Quod Scripsi Scripsi what I have written I have writen And yet have we not thoroughly Surveyed this Judges Library There is yet his Book of Records remaining of which we shall only take a Cursory view and so Claudite jam Rivos shut up for the present And another Book was opened which was the Book of life What the Preacher sometimes of Making Eccles. 12.12 no less just reason shall we have to say of Reading There is no end of Reading many Books Multitudo Librorum destruit Animum saith the Oratour A Multitude of Books doth rather puzle and perplex then furnish and inrich the understanding and Memory Nay it fareth with the Readers of Books as with some Travailers of Countries which they only Cursorily run through a superficial account may they give of their Names and Sites but unless they Stay and Sojourn in them for some time little use or Fruit will there appear of all their Travails Nay of the reading of any Books but those we have here now before us and God knoweth how soon we shall see opened whether History or Philosophy or Philology much more of Romances of Pasquils of Play-books or whatever other Pamphlets what St. Augustin sometimes of works that are not grounded upon Faith in Christ that it is Cursus celerrimus preter viam a pretty kinde of Course for the passing away of time but still besides the way Nay the most Studious and Solicitous reading of all such as these unless as our Divine Apostle sometimes it be for the unbending the Bows of our Minds and loosing their strings for a time that may the more vigorously and chearfully return to them we shall in Conclusion finde to be but as that Bread of deceit in the wiseman Pro. 20.17 such as shall fill the Mouth yea the Stomack with nothing but Gravel and so shall leave a Man in an imminently perishing Condition So that then when we have proved our selves Helluones Librorum such exquisite Cormoants of all these kinds of Books as to appear to have sucked out and swallowed down all their Marrow and Quintessence yea so as to be able to make our Discourses Centoes of them perhaps yet at last when we have thoroughly examined our selves too just cause may we finde for the bemoaning and bewailing us as doth the Prophet himself in another Case Isaiah 49.4 I have laboured in vain I have spent my strength for nought Yea when all these shall appear to be no other but as small Straws and Sticks and Sand gathered up by a whirle-winde making a strange shew and Noise for a time but immediately vanishing into nothing of those other shall we have only reason to say in comparison of these what David sometimes of Goliahs Sword 1 Sam. 21.9 There is none like unto them for that these only we shall finde to prove unto us as Eliahs fiery Chariot 1 Kings 2.11 the only present means to convey us to Heaven and therefore only of true use indeed for the making up of a Christian Library Two of these Gods Statute-book and his Day-book his Statute-book made of three Tomes in the first whereof is the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion his Day-book of two whereof the one is that of our own Conscience the other of Gods Remembrance we have already taken a Summary view of the third his Book of Records we are now as far as will consist with the dull Edge of our Mortal Eysight at least with the practise of our Christian Modesty to look into And then another Book was opened which was the Book of life And this Book as Zanchy. L. 5. c. 2. Q. 3. de Nat. Dei hath will observed is of a twofold nature The one is that wherein the Church registreth those for the Sons of God that by an outward Profession of their Faith whether in their own Persons or their Delegate God-fathers and God-mothers are received into her bosome notwithstanding that many of them afterwards appear upon Trial to be Impostours and Hypocrites And of this Book is it that St. Augustin interprets those passages of Holy Writ that seem to import an Apostaticall falling away of some after Grace received It is impossible saith the Author to the Hebrews for those that were once Inlightned and have tasted of the Heavenly gifts and been made partakers of the Holy Ghost if they shall fall away to renew them again to Repentance Heb. 6.6 upon which words the same Father hath well observed that there are more then a good many Temporizers that assume unto themselves the Shapes of true Believers that seem to have received the Grace of the Holy Ghost but have nothing less then so And from this Grace it is not possible only but ordinary to fall away Which Grace yet in the mean time is no more true Grace then a Falling-Star is a true Star of the Firmament They went out from us saith our Apostle because they were never of us in the 1. of this Epistle cap. 2. v. 19. Let them be wiped out of the Book of the living is the Kingly Prophets dreadful Execration against the Blood-thirsty Enemies of his son and Saviour Psal. 69.29 and not be written amongst the Righteous i. e. saith the above praised Father since they are Formal Hypocrites Personating true Professours unmask O Lord their Hypocrisie and make them appear in their genuine Shapes that so whatever counterfeit Shews and Semblances they have hitherto made as their Names were never written in the Calendar of Saints in the Church-Triumphant rase them out likewise of the List of the Church-Militant Saints The other Book of life is that certain and immutable Foreknowledge of God whereby from all Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and ordained to be Heirs of Everlasting Life The one of these is as a Cornfield overspread with Tares as well as Wheat The other
as the time of Harvest to make a separation between them The one of them is as a Mass of Gold and Dross blended together the other as a Fire to distinguish and divide them asunder The Letter of the former may scarce be of a visible impression the Character of the latter is indeleble Be our names never so fairly written in the former they may yet afterwards be obliterated but once Recorded in the latter they can never possibly be Blotted out I cannot stand here at large to exagitate the Malepert Humours as of those Chymick Spirits that will needs be preproperously drawing the Elixir and Quintessence of a Church out of a Church whereinto none shall be received but Saints of their own Canonization Qui vult ante egressos Angelos c. saith St. Greg. They that will be separating the Reprobate from amongst the Righteous before it shall please the Lord to send forth his Angels to that purpose he neither understandeth the Scriptures nor his own Bounds or Limits so neither of those Finde or rather Make-faults that will needs be Quarrelling with the Paper of this Book as if it were not able to bear Ink certainly not to preserve the Letters of those Names fair that are therein Registred Exegi Monumentum AEre perennius No Monument of Brass so Retentive as the Paper no Characters therein engraven so Lasting as the Letters of this Book Which therefore that they be not Blurred or Sullyed by any bold or prophane Hand that may prematurely offer at the opening of this Book are to be kept close and Shut up until the Day of our Common standing up both Small and Great before God And yet this Book which this Great Judge hath designed not to be locked up within his Archives only but there laid up and that clasped yea Sealed yea and that with no less then seven Seals in the 5. of this Book and 1. for the Concealment of the Contents from the discovery of the most Curious piercing and Searching Eye there want not yet uncommissioned Inquisitors that will not only be breaking open but will be therein Impudently Enrolling and Cancelling what Names they please In the 12. of Daniel where the Prophet heareth of a Time and Times and half a Time for which the wonders foretold him shall â—ast he presently groweth Inquisitive O my Lord saith he what shall be the end of these things But the Answer he receiveth is no less Sharp then Short Go thy way Daniel for the words are closed and Sealed up until the time of the End When we hear of a Book wherein this Great Judge of Heaven and Earth hath Registred the Names of his chosen ones we presently with the Prophet have an Itch in our Fingers for the searching of the Records Yea and not only so but a restless pain in our Tongues They stretch forth their Mouth unto the Heavens saith the Kingly Prophet and their Tongue walketh through the Earth Psal. 73.9 until we have published and proclaimed yea not seldom fained and fabled the Contents We Saints of the last Edition and our own Canonization have our Names only written in this Book and have therefore exclusively Title not for the future only to Heaven but to Earth for the present Whereas all the men of the World besides are left out as Reprobates and so divested of all manner of Interest whether in Temporal or Eternal Inheritance Which distinction yet either for Number or Names of Persons much more may in no wise be expected shall come to any Mans Cognizance until the Dead Small and Great Arising to stand up before God this Book with the others come to be Opened Certainly this Book is yet so fast shut up and Sealed until the last Day that whoever he be that shall arrogate to himself a Faculty of the Knowledge of the Contents and in the mean time much more assume a Power of publishing the Names therein recorded of such an one and that with modesty shall I have reason to say that he speaketh without Book And now then how well will it become us in this Case {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} to bewise unto Sobriety Mollia sunt Parvis Prata terenda Rotis to be wary how we adventure upon the Plowing up of Deep Lands with slight and slender Carriages Certainly it will be wisdome as Charity enough in every one of us to look to one There is none so lawful none so useful a Scrutiny as leaving others to Stand or Fall to their own Master to make a diligent enquiry every one of us for our Particular Names whether they be Enrolled in this Book or no And in this Scrutiny this Enquiry in no wise can we better satisfie our selves then I say not by breaking open the Seals of this Book but by looking into the other books whereof each we are to look upon but as an Index to this See we that our Conversations be as far as Humane Frailty shall enable us with a Capacity composed unto the Dictates of the Law of Nature the Law from Sinai the Law from Sion being such in one word as in the word of the Apostle Phil. 1.27 may become the chief of these Books the Glorious Gospel of Christ See we every one that in the Book of our Conscience and the Book of Gods Remembrance the Blots of all our sins whatsoever may as in a Table-Book appear written Spunged out by the precious waters of unfained Repentance be now henceforth be all over written with the fair Characters of Righteousness and Holiness And then shall we not need to distrust but that we shall appear clear when we shall come to be Judged out of those things which shall appear written in these Books according to our works Which might fitly bring me to the survey of the two last remaining Particulars the Equal Proceedings of the Court and the Infallible certainty of all but for that their but Cursory view would take up more time then for the present can be well afforded leaving them for a competent Argument which may well take up our next Days entire Perusal beseech we the Almighty in the mean time to grant that the words we have this Day heard with our outward Ears c. The Third SERMON Apoc. 20.12 I saw the dead small and great c. Iohn 5.27 And shall come forth those that have done Good to the Resurrection of Life and those that have done Evil to the Resurrection of Damnation Justine Martyr Quemadmodum omnibus Corporibus à Deo procreatis hoc insitum est ut Vmbram habeant sic Deum quoque qui Iustitia praeditus est tum iis qui virtutem sibi colendam proposuernut tum iis qui vitium amplexari maluerint pro cujusque Merito Praemia Poenasque tribuere consentaneum est Apoc. 20.12 I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God and the Books were opened and then another Book was opened which was the Book of Life and
the Dead were Iudged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works A Sight have you had as of the Prisoners to be Arraigned the Dead Small and Great of the Judge to pass sentence which though for the Judgement of Principal Authority it shall be every Person in the Trinity for which cause we finde this Day Signally stiled Gods Day 2 Pet. 3.12 Looking for saith he and hastening unto the Day of God yet for the Judgement of Promulging and Pronouncing of sentence it shall be the second Person in that Trinity and that in regard of his Humane Nature The Father saith our Apost. hath given Power to the Son to execute Iudgement because he is the Son of Man Iohn 5.27 So of the Evidence to be given in Recorded in Books and those three principals whereof the first is Gods Statute-Book made up of three Tomes in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion the second his day-Day-book made up of two whereof the first is of that our own Conscience the second of Gods Remembrance the last his Book of Records and that you have seen to be of a two-fold nature the one that wherein the Church Registreth those for the Sons of God that by an outward Confession of their Faith are received into her Bosome notwithstanding that not a few of them prove afterward Impostours and Hypocrites the other that of his Eternal Fore-knowledge whereby from all Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and Ordained to be Heirs of Eternal Life The Equal Proceedings of the Court and the Infallible certainty of all remain only for the present to be discussed And first are we to examine the equal Proceedings of the Court whose impartial Judge shall Examine the whole World upon the works whether Good or Evil they have done And the Dead were Judged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works It is the Lords own word to his People Isa. 55.8 My wayes are not as your wayes And this difference of wayes between him and them the same Lord no less justly then precisely may you hear Contesting with them in point of Equity Ezech. 18.29 Are not my wayes Equal saith he and yours Vnequal Betwixt Heaven and Earth there is not so great a Distance as there is Difference between God and more then a good many Men in the exercise of Judiciary Power The Law which the Civilians say is Sanctio Iusta Iubens Honesta Prohibensque Contraria a Just Constitution commanding things that are Honest and Forbidding the Contrary is in the Court of Heaven reputed the only straight Rule whereunto the subjects of that court are to conform their works ways for their Deviation and Declination from its Rectitude are only punishable For which cause our Evangelists description of sin is that it is the Transgression of the Law in the 1. of his Epistle the 3. Chapter and 4. V. And therefore that word of that other Apostle just reason that it obtain with us the Credit of an Oracle Rom. 4.15 where there is no Law there is no Transgression So that then that word of that other Apostle yet 2. Pet. 1.19 for the word of Prophesie our parts it shall be to conceive directed unto every one of us for the Law that we shall do well to take heed thereunto as unto a Light that shineth in a Dark Place No otherwise then you may observe some careful Mariner for the better guidance of his Ship in a Dark Night to heed a Light which from some Eminent watch-towr may discover it self The Conduct of which Light therefore whose Beams every one of us may clearly discern as the Pilot his Light from the Tower darting out from Heaven upon him for the better steering him a course through the surges of this world shall he not heed no marvel if Straying from the right Path of Justice he wander in Darkness and in the shadow of Death The Proceedings of too too many a Man that assumeth unto himself a Power to Execute Justice not seldome runneth a clean contrary Bias to this They say as those in the Wiseman Wisd. 2.11 Our will is the Law of Iustice And therefore take unto themselves a liberty of Proscribing Imprisoning Condemning yea Executing too whom they please though guiltless of the Transgression of any Law Nor shall the Law be the Rule whereby to examine the work of supposed Dilinquents but their causeles fears and Jealousies shall make Delinquents whomsoever they shall please Whilst themselves in the mean time notwithstanding that they are dipped in as deep a Dye of villany as the blackest Fiends of Hell must yet have Precedence of all the Apostles nay the Virgin Mary her self in Saintship as long as did Saul with an Image in stead of David 1 Sam. 19.13 they can impose upon the purblinde World with empty Shadows and semblances in stead of the true and real Body of Religion and what AEschines sometimes objected to Demosthenes {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} can New-dip Extortion Oppression Perjury Tyranny Sacriledge Murther yea very Atheisme with the fair and specious Names of Reformation Beloved As this Great Judge is far from being so Sophistical as to impose upon us with a Fallacy of Non causa pro Causa and so not so Rigid as to Condemn us without the least transgression of any of his Laws so neither may we conceive him to be so Facile and Easie as that he shall be wone to accept of a bare Shew and Profession of Saint-Ship for a perfect observation of this Law of his That Rule of this great Judge By their Fruits you shall know them Mat. 7.16 holdeth as true for all manner false Pretenders as Prophets They are the Fruits of good works only and not the Leaves or Blossoms of vain Ostentation or Profession that shall Acquit or condemn us at the last Day And the Dead were Iudged out of those things which were written in the Books according to their works But how The Dead to be Judged according to their works Durus est hic Sermo this is an hard saying and who may abide it What hope of Salvation then shall the most Righteous have to entertain Yea and then as is St. Peters passionate Quaere in the 1. of his Epistle Chapter 4.18 Where shall the Vngodly and the Sinners appear So that then well may David Holy David deprecate this manner of Trial before God Psal. 143.2 Enter not into Iudgement with thy Servant O Lord for in thy sight shall no Man living be Iustified He that hath found no stedfastness in his Servants but hath charged his very Angels with Folly how much more then Man which dwelleth in an House of Clay whose Foundation is in the Dust Alas As the Priest
such good-works which may become Newness of Life as that we have any thing of Abomination or defilement about us for the keeping us out the last v. of the last Chap. of this Book And therefore however for the work of our Justification God may say unto us as to the two Blind-men Matth. 9.29 According to your Faith be it unto you yet if now upon this foundation of our whatever Faith we shall be so far from building up the Gold or Silver Superstruction of Pious and Religious works as that we shall lay on nothing but the Hay and Stubble of all manner of vanities yea Impieties and Enormities so far shall such a Faith be from saving us that most woful must our condition needs appear when we shall all come to stand up before God to receive our sentence either of Acquital or condemnation according to our works Every Mans works shall be made manifest saith Saint Paul for the Fire shall try every mans works of what sort it is 1 Cor. 3.13 where by Fire will we hear St. Augustin and diverse others of the Antients We are to understand either the Fire of all manner of Temptations and Tribulations and Persecutions which as Fire are to try and prove sound Doctrin and reduce to nothing the Hay and Stubble of Humane Invention When the Lord shall wash away the filth of the Daughter of Sion by the Spirit of judgement and Fire saith the Prophet Isa. 4.4 or the Fire of the Holy Ghost He shall Baptize saith the Baptist with the Holy Ghost and with Fire Matth. 3.11 or our Saviours appearance at this Day of Judgement either for the brightness of his Presence Who is the true Light that lightneth every one that commeth into the world Iohn 1.9 or for his consumptive quality that as is the same Psalmists Prediction Mat. 3. â—2 is to burn up the Chaffe with unquenchable Fire So that then finde we in our selves some ability for the bearing of Tribulations and Persecutions Some eminent graces of Gods Spirit Some Light of Illumination of our understandings for the discerning of those things that are Excellent Some consumption of the Hay and Stubble of all manner of Corruptions within us Upon these and no other Terms just reason shall we have to conclude that we are truly justified by Faith in the free Grace of Christ and so shall be counted worthy to stand before this Son of Man as himself speaketh Luke 21.36 Let then the Light of our Faith so shine before Men that they seeing our goods works may thereby be induced yea enforced to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven Let not our Lean Profession of Faith devour and swallow up the Fat of all manner of good works amongst us But let the Pomegranats of all manner of Fruits of Gods Spirit every where appear in the Coat of our Christianity as well as the Bels of our loud Profession of Faith Let Faith which commeth by hearing be as Mary conversant about one thing the Hearing of the word whilst the other as Martha is careful for many things the entertaining of Christ in all his needy Members Let Faith sing the Plain-song and Good-works the descant for the making up of a Melodious Harmony in the Ears of the Highest Let Faith and good works in every of us prove as Rachel and Leah fruitful for the building up of the House of our Christian Profession That so being Justified by Faith and having good works for the Justifying of this Faith of ours in the End of our Days we may receive the End of our Hopes the Salvation of our Souls when this great God of Heaven and Earth shall judge the Dead Small and Great out of those things that are written in the Books according to their works And thus far shall it serve to have examined the equal Proceedings of the Court which clearly appeareth in that the Dead Small and Great shall without any further distinction or discrimination be thus as you see Judged I shall only give you a short glimpse of the infallible certainty of all that which is irrefragably evident in that our Divine Evangelist professeth himself to have been {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} an Eye-witness of all I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God The Poets word it is Segnius irritant Animos The objects of Hearing make not so sudden an impression upon the Ear as those of seeing do upon the Eye And the reason hereof given by the Phylosopher cannot but be concluded to be very pregnant for that those things we see saith he come to the Eye {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} in a direct Line but the things we Hear to the Ear {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} {non-Roman} oblickly and as we say on every side Had our Apostle by Hear-say only by Tradition from others acquainted us with the Dead Small and Great standing up in this wise before God and yet this same Evangelist of our Ears conceiveth but even such a Relation to be Edged with Authority sufficient what we have heard saith he declare we to you in the 1. of his 1. Epistle and 5. the less strange might it seem did we appear to distrust the Relation not only for that our Age to palpably aboundeth with Lies much more then Truth but for that much more the greatest part of us that have led the Lives of Infidels would gladly cry down this Christian Truth rather for a Fabled Romancee then a Divine Oracle Sed cum certissimus Index Eplicuit presens oculus quem Fabula nescit But now what the greatest Sceptick can in the least measure question the Truth of this Report which so Authentick an Author as this our Evangelist reporteth himself to have seen and this by so unquestioned away as this of Revelation I saw and that with mine own Eyes and that by so unerring Evidence as Revelation the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Indeed I am not Ignorant that there are Revelations that may to justly be stooped to draw in the same Yoak with Dreams Hearken not to your Prophets is the Lords own word to the King of Sidon of Tyre of Moab and Ammon nor to your Diviners nor Dreamers Ier. 27.9 Every even the meanest of us hath for a long time as the Corinthians of old in the 1. of those Epistles 14. and 26. hath a Revelation an Interpretation of his own Of every of which therefore far greater reason shall we have to Quaere then those Philosophers sometimes of our Apostle Acts 17.18 what will this Babbler say But when we meet with a Testificemur quod vidimus as from this our Evangelist Iohn 3.11 we Testifie that which we have seen and that no Prophesie of Scripture is of Private Interpretation but Holy Men of God spake still as they were moved by God 2 Pet. 1.20 that Sceptick must needs be concluded to be above measure Sceptical that shall distrust the Credit of such a Relation I saw the Dead Small and Great stand up before God Let it then be the careful Provision and Circumspection of every one of us that his dreadful sight of the Dead Small and Great standing up before a most impartial Judge and of the Books made up of three volumns in the first whereof is written the Law of Nature in the second the Law from Sinai in the third the Law from Sion the second â—is day-Day-book of two whereof the first is that of our own Conscience the second of his Remembrance the third his Book of Records and this of a twofold Nature the one wherein the Church Registreth those for his Sons that by an outward Profession of their Faith are received into her Bosome notwithstanding that many of them afterwards prove gross Impostours and Hypocrites the other that immutable Fore-knowledge whereby from Eternity he hath and beyond all Tract of Time will acknowledge those for his whom he hath Predestinated to the Adoption of Sons and ordained to be Heirs of Everlasting Life let this spectacle I say what the Lord sometimes to his People of the Book of the Law Ioshua 1.8 depart never out of our Mouths but meditate we therein Day and Night And let it be the Hing of the same Care of ours to consider that we shall be saved or condemned not by the Leaves or Blossoms of faire Shews or Semblances but by the Fruits of Good-works And then having laboured as much as in us lieth to conform us to his Example that is the Resurrection and the Life when he which is this Life of ours shall appear just reason shall we have to become confident that we shall also appear with him in Glory with the Lustre of which Appearance in thy good time O Lord irradiate every one us for thy Mercies sake c. FINIS