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ID	Title	Author	Corrected Date of Publication (TCP Date of Publication)	STC	Words	Pages
A40393	LI sermons preached by the Reverend Dr. Mark Frank ... being a course of sermons, beginning at Advent, and so continued through the festivals : to which is added a sermon preached at St. Pauls Cross, in the year forty-one, and then commanded to be printed by King Charles the First.; Sermons. Selections	Frank, Mark, 1613-1664.	1672 (1672)	Wing F2074A; ESTC R7076	739,197	600

of dead mens mouths and shall not our Cities and Temples resound of it shall they tell the wonders of the day and we neither mind the day nor wonders of it surely some evil will befal us as said the Lepers at the Gates of Samaria if we hold our peace 'T is a day of good of glorious tidings and we must not lest the Grave in indignation shut her mouth upon us and the holy City bar us out Open we then our mouths to day and sing praises to him who made the day made it a joyful day indeed the very seal of happiness unto us Open we our mouths and take the cup of salvation as the Prophet calls it the cup of thanksgiving the Apostle stiles it and call upon the name of the Lord. Open our mouths now as the grave and he will fill them Open our mouths as the grave and be not satisfied give not over our prayers until he do Raise we all our thoughts and desires and endeavours to entertain him go which way he shall send us appear what he would have us attend him whither soever he shall lead us and when he himself shall appear he will lead our souls out of the death of sin to the life of righteousness our bodies out of the dust of death into the land of life both souls and bodies into the holy City the new Ierusalem where there shall be no more death neither sorrow nor crying nor any more pain but all tears shall be wip'd away all joys come into our hearts and eyes and we sing merrily and joyfully all honour and glory be unto him that hath redeemed us from death and raised us to life by the power and vertue of his Resurrection All blessing and glory and praise and honour and power be unto him with the Father and Holy Spirit for ever and ever THE THIRD SERMON UPON Easter Day PSAL. CXViii 24. This is the day which the Lord hath made We will rejoyce and be glad in it THis is the day which the Lord hath made And if ever day made to rejoyce and be glad in this is the day And the Lord made it made it to rejoyce in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as holy Ignatius a day of days not only a high day as the Iewish Easter St. Ioh. xix 31. but the highest of high days highest of them all A Day in which the Sun it self rejoyced to shine came forth like a Bridegroom in the robes and face of joy and rejoyced like a Giant with the strength and violence of joy exultavit leapt and skipt for joy to run his course Psal. xix 5. as if he never had seen day before only a little day spring from on high as old Zachary saw and sung never full and perfect day the Kingdom and power of darkness never fully and wholly vanquished till this morning light till this day-star or this day's Sun arose till Christ rose from the grave as the Sun from his Eastern bed to give us light the light of grace and the light of glory light everlasting And this Suns rising this Resurrection of our Lord and Master entitles it peculiarly the Lords making This day of the week from this day of our Lords Resurrection stil'd Lords Day ever since And of this day of the Resurrection the Fathers the Church the Scriptures understand it Not one of the Fathers says that devout and learned Bishop Andrews that he had read and he had read many but interpret it of Easter day The Church picks out this Psalm to day as a piece of service proper to it This very verse in particular was anciently used every day in Easter week evidence enough how she understood it And for the Scriptures The two verses just before The stone which the builders refused the same is become the head of the corner This is the Lords doing and it is marvelous in our eyes to which this day comes in presently and refers applied both of them by Christ himself unto himself in three several places St. Mat. xxi 42. St. Mar. xii 10. St. Luk. xx 17 rejected by the builders in his Passion made 〈◊〉 head of the corner in his Resurrection the first of the verses applied again twice by St. Peter Acts iv 10. and 1 Pet. ii 7. to the Resurrection For these doings these marvelous doings a day was made made to remember it and rejoyce in it as in the chiefest of his marvelous works And being such let us do it Let not the Jews out-do us let not them here rejoyce more in the figure than we in the substance they in the shadow than we in the Sun 'T is now properly Sunday this day ever since a day lighted upon on purpose for us by the Sun himself to see wonderful things in and as wonderfully to rejoyce in Abraham saw this day of Christs as well as Christmas St. Ioh. viii 56. saw it in Isaacs rising from under his hand from death as in a figure says the Apostle Heb. xi 19. saw it and was glad to see it exceeding glad as much at least to see Christ and Isaac delivered from death as delivered in to life Abrahams children all the faithful will be so too to see the day when ere it comes It now is come by the circle of the year let us rejoyce and be glad in it I require no more of you than is plainly in the Text to confess the day and express the joy Both are here as clear as day Dies Gaudii Gaudium Diei A day of joy the joy of the day Easter day and Easter joy A day made and joy made on it A day ordained and joy appointed God making the day we making the joy upon it Or if you please Ordo Diei Officium Diei An Order for the day and an Office for the day The Order for the day This is the day which the Lord hath made order'd and ordain'd The Office for it We will or let us rejoyce and be glad in it Exultemus laetemur An office of thanksgiving and joy ordained and taken up upon it The first is Gods doings the second ours And ours order'd to follow his our duty his day the Lords day requires sure the Servants duty Both together Gods day and mans duty make up the Text and must the Sermon But I take my rise from the days rising The Lords order for the day This is the day which the Lord hath made Wherein we have 1. The Day design'd 2. The Institution made 3. the Preeminence given it 4. The Institutor exprest 5. The ground intimated 6. The End annext This is designs the day Gods making that institutes it The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the The gives it the Preeminence the Lord is the institutor The ground is understood in the This this day when that was done that went before ver 22. and the End by the annexing joy and gladness to it Of these particularly and in order then of the

THE SIXTH SERMON ON christmas-Christmas-Day S. LUKE i. 68 69. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David T IS a Blessed Day our Blessed Saviours Birth-day and a blessed Text we have here for it both a Day and Text to bless him in A Text top-full of blessings and a day wherein they came Blessed Persons and blessed doings in the Text. Blessed Persons the Blessed God our Blessed Lord Blessed David and a Blessed People for a redeemed people are so Blessed are the people that are in such a case Blessed doings in it too God blessing and man blessing God visiting redeeming saving mightily saving Israel And one of Israel in the name of all the rest mightily blessing him for so doing to it All these blessings as well remembred as came in the day Never was Text so fraught with blessings never rose Day so fair with blessings never saw Israel such a one before never shall Israel or any people see such a Day again for blessings till we come into the land of blessedness All that can be said to dim it is that this is not the day that blessed Zachary gave this blessing in it may be nor was this the day that God gave this blessing neither Time it self runs upon such uneven wheels that we are fain to borrow hours and minutes to make up the reckoning of our years and days 'T is enough that we count near it 't were enough if it were a day only set apart by Holy Church to recount it in though it were nothing near it nothing near the day when the Lord God of Israel thus visited and redeemed his people Our business is not to be exact Chronologers of the days of our salvation but exact performers of our Duties our thanksgivings and praises for it Good Zachary does it here before this Redemption was fully wrought six months before this Horn of salvation did appear If we do it a few days before or after it matters not To bless God for it that 's the business Only we must be allowed a day to do it in either first or last But the Church having pitcht it generally every where much about this time We take it as we find it quarrel no more with the Church for doing it now then we do with Zachary for doing it then when he more forestall'd the time then we can possibly mistake it Being therefore come hither to day upon that account the account of blessing God and having here a day of blessing and a Text of blessing we shall divide the words into blessings too Gods blessing and mans blessing Gods blessing man and mans blessing God again I. Gods blessing hath in it these particulars 1. His visiting he hath visited 2. His redeeming us and redeemed 3. His saving or raising up a salvation for us That salvation 4. no mean or little one but a mighty salvation so one of our translations A salvation 5. with a horn to hold by a horn of salvation so the other a sure salvation For us 6. all of us the very people to hold by an universal salvation A salvation 7. raised up an eminent salvation Rais'd up 8. in the right house in the house of David a royal a glorious salvation Rais'd up lastly upon a right ground too David's relation to him his servant David or Gods goodness to his servants a singular and especial salvation for them above the rest This is Gods blessing man the first general with the particulars II. Mans blessing God is the second and that has these 1. An acknowledgment of Gods blessings and his blessedness visiting redeeming saving c. That blessings they are and His they are He visited He redeemed c. He therefore blessed for so doing 2. A particular applying and setting our selves to bless him for them a Benedictus a Hymn set and begun upon it 3. A desire that others even all would do so too for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 may have as well 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after it Benedictus as well sit as est to follow it for there is neither here so may be and is as well a Wish that others would as a Way that we our selves may bless him by This is all mans blessing God the poor pittances we bless him with acknowledgments endeavours and desires all that we can give him for all his blessings A very short return however to be given him such as it is And to Day however a Day set apart to do it in For all these blessings either rose upon us with the Sun to day or are to rise from us e're it rise to morrow Our Lords Nativity being the chief ground both of Gods blessing us and our blessing him To day it was he began to visit to redeem to save to raise up his horn and ours To day then sure we to raise up our voices for it in a Benedictus in Hymns and Praises All that is in the Text was on his part set on foot as it were to day No reason in the world but what is on ours should be so too That it may I shall first spread Gods blessings here before you so the better to stir up yours I. Mans blessing indeed it is that stands first here yet Gods it is that is so He first blesses before we bless before we either can or can think to do it But you must know it is a day and a business too where all things seem out of order at the first High things made low and low things high the first made last and the last first God made man and man God The very course of Nature out of order quite No wonder then that the words that tell us it are so too that our blessing should be set before Gods However this certainly it must teach us that the first thing we ought now to think or speak of is blessing God Yet the way to do that best is to understand His blessings first I shall take them in their order so his Visiting I begin with Indeed there they begin all 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that 's the rise of all Gods blessings His looking down upon us or looking over us so the word signifies before it comes to visiting is the source of all his mercies There is nothing else to cause them but that loving eye he hath to his poor creatures the pleasure he takes to look upon them That here brings him down to visit them For I must tell you now this visiting is a coming down down from heaven down from his glory down from himself a coming to purpose and down to purpose when he came so low as flesh and a visiting indeed when he came so near us He visited in former times but by his proxies by his Angels the ushers of his glory or by his Prophets or by a Cloud or

was so horrid to the Iew become his happiness which was the others great affliction the poor womans offering that it might sanctifie poverty to the poor and offer it henceforward as an acceptable service unto God That 2. the Christian might hence know what to offer gemtus turturum columbarum a sorrowful and contrite heart bewail themselves like Turtles that have lost their mates and mourn sore like Doves offer up chast and harmless souls the chastity of the Turtle and the innocence of the Dove That 3. we might no more hereafter censure poverty even when it falls to the great mans share seeing Blessed Mary and Ioseph of the seed Royal both are become so poor that they can offer no more than this nay though they should have no more to offer than their own sighs and moanings That 4. we might learn now that God will accept even the least and poorest presents two Turtles two Pigeons two Mites where there is no more with convenience to be spar'd Yet somewhat he will have offered be it never so little that all might acknowledge his right none at all excepted Thus this offering concerns us but how it concerns the Child Iesus is to be enquired The one Turtle could not possibly the sin-offering to be sure but the other might It was a burnt-offering that a kind of thanksgiving only for his safe birth as well as for his Mothers safe deliverance It was to have been a Lamb could the womans poverty have reach'd it though the sin-offering for no woman at her purification had been above a Turtle it may be to tell 'um that they are to give thanks both for themselves and their Child great thanks more than double though they offer but little and single for their own natural imperfections a Lamb for them both though but a Turtle for themselves The Child 's original guilt to be purged with another kind of sacrifice better sacrifices than those Yet besides he taking on him our persons the sin-offering might also so far concern him as he concerned us And if so the greater sure is our obligation to him that he would not only take on him the form of a servant but go also under the fashion of a sinner that he would be brought into so dishonourable appearance to be thus done for after the custom of the Law not only offered himself but himself offered for as if he needed an offering to cleanse him But so it was not for that it was not that he thus submitted to the Law of offerings but for these ensuing reasons and so we consider the reason of the doing 1. To avoid scandal not to offend the Iews to teach us to be very scrupulous how we offend our brother that we use neither but our own right nor our Christian liberty with offence 2. To teach obedience not to dispute commands nor plead priviledges too much against Laws and Customs 3. To be a pattern of humility not to exalt or cry up our selves or think much to be accounted like other men 4. To shew his approbation of the Law and that however he might seem yet indeed he did not come to destroy the Law but to fulfil it 5. That he might thus receive the testimony of Simeon and Anna and be made manifest from his very beginning who he was that he might appear to the world what before he did only to the Wise men and the Shepherds to be a light to the Gentiles and the glory of his people Israel and to be this day so proclaimed by the spirit of Prophesie in both the Sexes 6. He was done for according to the Law that he might redeem us from the bondage of the Law offered as the first-born as a son of man that he might thereby make us the children of God 7. He that needed no offering for himself was thus offered that we might with holy Iob suspect the best and perfectest of our works and though we be never so righteous not answer nor know but despise our selves and make supplication to our judge Iob ix 15 21 28. Lastly He was thus presented to God that so he might be embraced by man that Simeon not for himself only but for us might take seisin of him and we be thus put in possession of a Saviour For so it follows as on purpose Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God We have done with Christs offering Come we now to our receiving his Parents presented him to God Simeon received him for us And these the particulars of the receiving Suscipiens suscipiendi modus susceptionis Tempus suscipientis benedictio The Receiver Simeon he 2. The manner of taking or receiving him took him up in his arms 3. The time then when he was brought into the Temple 4. The thanksgiving for it and blessed God But our receiving takes me from Simeons I must defer his till anon till after ours only I shall glance at it as I speak of ours For which I would to God we were all as well prepared as he for his The same man was just and devout waiting for the consolation of Israel and the Holy Ghost was upon him ver 25. I would I could say so of us here this day Sed nunquid hos tantum salvabis Domine says holy Bernard Wilt thou O Lord save only such and answers it out of the Psalm Iumenta homines salvabis Domine Thou Lord shalt save both man and beast Us poor beasts too wandering sheep at best but too often as unreasonable as sensual as groveling downward as any beast dirty and filthy as Sows churlish as Dogs fierce as Lions lustful as Goats cruel as Tygers ravenous as Bears Accomplish we but the days of our purification purifie we our hearts by Faith and Repentance bring we this gemitus columbae sorrow for our sins though we cannot this simplicitatem columbae innocense and purity the mourning of the Turtle though we cannot the innocence of the Dove and notwithstanding all shall be well 'T is Candlemas to day so called from the lighting up of Candles offering them consecrating them and bearing them in procession a custom from the time of Iustinian the Emperour at the latest about 1100. years ago or as others say Pope Gelastus Anno 496. or thereabouts to shew that long expected light of the Gentiles was now come was now sprung up and shined brighter than the Sun at noon and might be taken in our hands let the Ceremony pass reserve the substance light up the two Candles of Faith and good Works light them with the fire of Charity bear we them burning in our hands as Christ commands us meet we him with our lamps burning consecrate we also them all our works and actions with our prayers offer we them then upon the Altars of the Lord of Hosts to his honour and glory and go we to the Altars of the God of our salvation bini bini as St. Bernard speaks as in

business Look not sad but chearful now to day I hope you have lookt sadly enough already in your Chambers upon your sins you may here put on another face Yet if you be somewhat perplext and troubled at your sins or afraid of your own unworthiness or your souls and bodies bowed down as low as can be in humility I shall say you are the fitter to receive your joys and to be made partakers of the Angels company which as the Apostle tells us are present in holy places and if ever there there more especially at so great a mystery as this which they themselves bow down themselves to look into and wing about us say the Fathers to assist the celebration all the while You will be the fitter too to receive the joyful news that this day brings us of Christs rising being only so cast down and prepared in all humility to receive it Yet learn we something from the Angels too as well as from the Women for behold says the Text as if it meant we should look upon them too and learn by their standing constancy and resolution by their clothing in shining garments purity and innocence and all good works whereby we are so to shine as to glorifie our Father which is in Heaven by their correcting the good womens errour to correct our own and not let our Brother either perish or go astray for want of good and timely admonition a prime work of charity which this business so requires by their advice no longer to seek the living among the dead no more to seek Christ for earthly profits or respects and by their so readily publishing the news of Christs rising to be this day ever telling it every day thinking of it and so living as if we believed a Resurrection So shall it come to pass that however we come we shall not depart perplexed but in peace not in fear but in hope not in sorrow but in joy and shall one day behold him risen whom we now only hear is and meet him with all his Angels in shining garments in the robes of eternal glory He who this day rose raise now our thoughts with these apprehensions raise our thoughts to the height of these heavenly mysteries make us this day partakers through them of his Resurrection by Grace and in his due time also of his Resurrection to Glory THE SECOND SERMON UPON Easter Day St. MAT. xxvii 52 53. And the Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose And came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many ANd this is the third day since the first of these was done since the Graves were opened and the first day that all the rest that the bodies of Saints arose came forth went into the holy City and appeared the blessed day of our Saviours Resurrection So we have both Passion and Resurrection in the Text and not amiss the one to usher in the other the Passion the Resurrection both comfortable when together to see the Passion end so glorious the darkness of so sad an Evening open it self at last after a little respite into so lustrous a Morning the most lustrous that Sun ever shone in the most joyous thus to meet the Grave and the holy City Christ and his Saints together This Day the very stones cry out and send forth the deceased Saints as so many Tongues to speak the glory of their Redeemer And if the graves open their mouths can we hold our peace If the dead bodies of the Saints appear to day in the holy City to celebrate the Day shall not we appear with our living bodies in the holy Mount to do as much The Grave cannot praise thee Death cannot celebrate thee says Hezekiah Isa. xxxviii 18. And the Dead praise not thee O Lord says David Psal. cxv 17. Yet here they do They thought then they could not we see now they do and shall not the living do so to The living the living he shall praise thee says Hezekiah and But we will praise the Lord says David that 's agreed on both hands that the living shall the Father to the Children make known the truth of this days great wonder declare it one to another from Generation to Generation keep the Day in remembrance throughout all Generations Indeed if we be not more senseless than the Day more silent than the grave the house of silence we cannot hold to Day up and arise we will and into the holy places to set forth the wonders of the day They that go down as the Psalmist speaks into the silence and into the Land where all things are forgotten who are either dead in trespasses and sins or are resolved to forget all that their Fathers have seen or done or has been done for them who are in the dark the darkness of ignorance or error departed from the Church out of the marvelous light into the Land of darkness they shew not of these wonders among the dead in their own Congregations nor tell of the loving kindness faithfulness and righteousness of this Day in that great destruction they have made But we will I hope we that are among the living stones in the Communion of holy Church will praise the Lord do as much as the Graves and now risen bodies wherever we appear For upon this Day hang all our hopes We were hopeless till it came hopeless when it was come till we knew it and no great hope of us if we forget it now it is This Day Christ rose out of the Grave If he had not risen had had no Resurrection there had been no hope of ours If nor hope nor Resurrection we had been of all men most miserable and if we do not thankfully remember both we are but miserable unthankful wretches no sooner the Day forgotten and such days put down but all our happiness put down with them we of all the Nations under heaven presently most miserable miserable times quickly after this happy Day with the rest of its attendants was unhappily voted to be forgotten So much does it concern our happiness with the Saints in the Text to solemnize it in the City if the City intend either to be holy or happy so much to make much both of all Texts and times that may bring it to our remembrance all days and words Texts and Testimonies either of Christs Resurrection or our own This Text then among the rest Wherein we have both a Testimony and Evidence of Christs Resurrection and a Pledge and Symbol of our own Two general Points which we shall consider in the words Or more particularly thus A Testimony of the truth of Christs Resurrection and an Evidence of the power of it A Pledge of the certainty of our Resurrection and a Symbol of the manner of it both of our Resurrection to grace and our Resurrection to glory The Testimony of the truth of Christs Resurrection 1. in the bodies of

Office Exultemus laetemur and in eâ Outward and Inward joy and our directing and spending both upon it But haec est dies the day designed is our first design This is the day This first is a sign of a particular God made all days all in general but this in particular Particular days are of Gods making as well as others God made such from the beginning all days in the week but the Sabbath in particular all days in the month but the New-moons in particular all days in the year but the Feasts and Fasts the Easter the Pentecost the Feast of Tabernacles the great Kipparim in particular to his service in particular among the Jews And among the Christians particular days may be observed too He that observes a day may observe it unto the Lord Rom. xiv 6. And upon particular order we have such Pascha nostrum immolatum our Passeover is slain and we must keep a Feast we have an Easter 1 Cor. v. 7 8. We have the Lords day thence Rev. i. 10. and we may be in the spirit upon it a first day of the week and we may break bread Act. xx 7. and make collections upon it 1 Cor. xvi 1 2. Panem frangere and Collectas facere make meetings and celebrate Sacraments upon it We have the Apostles at their Pentecost Acts ii 1. St. Paul after that making a journey to be at it Acts xx 16. the Spirit descending on it to sanctifie it particularly to Gods service to take it as it were away from the Iewish into the Christian Kalendar We have a hodie natus est a day for Christs being born taken up from the examples of an Host of Angels St. Luk. ii 10. by all Christian people for I can scarce call them Christians any of them that deny it ever since a Day of his Incarnation too whence the Christian Aera all Christian accompts of the year have since ever begun and run a proof sufficient to shew Christians have their observations of days as well as Jews particular Days and Feasts nay and Fasts too upon Christs in diebus illis jejunabunt his particular injunction of them St. Luk. v. 35. days all particularly made for his own service The fault that the Apostle finds with the Galatians Gal. iv 10. for observing Days and Months and Times and Years was for the observing the Jewish ones not the Christian for falling back to the beggarly rudiments of the Law as he there expresses it in the verse before as if the Gospel-Rites were not sufficient or that they being afraid to suffer for the Cross of Christ studied such poor compliances to avoid it Else some particular days have been always set apart to the more especial and particular remembrances of Gods benefits and Christs many of these days in the devoutest and purest times in the ancientest Kalendars This of Easter in particular among the rest So particular that generally all the Fathers and Interpreters pitch upon it as the day design'd and deciphered here Other secondary interpretations I confess they make some of them but this the prime though to some other upon occasion or by the by they apply it too To the day of the Incarnation first Then this stone upon whose exaltation this day is founded was cut out of the mountain without hands Dan. ii 34. Christs body fram'd without mans help 2. To the day of his Nativity Then factus est in angulum this stone was made made more plainly in little Bethlehem a corner of Iudaea 3. To the day of his Passion Then he was rejected by the builders the Scribes and Pharisees and people of the Jews Nolumus hunc take him who will we will not have him disallowed indeed then of men says S. Peter 1. Pet. 2. 4. 4. To the day of the Gospel the whole time wherein that glorious light displaies it self to all the corners of the world 5. To the weekly Lords day the Christians day of rest and joy the weekly Resurrection day that rose as St. Hierom speaks post tristia Sabbata out of the sad Iewish Sabbath after the sad Saturday of Christs Passion to the primacy over the other days 6. To the day of the general Resurrection when this stone elect and precious as St. Peter stiles it shall appear in its full brightness and glory to all the corners of the earth at which day we are bid by our Saviour to look up and lift up our heads S. Luk. xxi 28. that is to rejoyce and be glad when we see it coming 7. To Christ himself it is applied the day in this verse as well as the stone in ver 22. He is both Daniels and David stone Zacharies and Davids day-spring or day Ego sum dies St. Ambrose reads it for Ego lux I am the day and he that walketh in the day in me he stumbleth not St. Ioh. xi 9. Nay lastly we find it sometimes applied to any day of famous and notable mercies and deliverances wherein any great blessing has been given Thus to the letter 't is here applied to Davids coming to the Crown after his long being rejected by Sauls Party Thus in the Council of Constantinople under Agapetus for the blessing or election of Cyriacus a most learned and pious Bishop there But all these though they may be applications they are not so properly explications of this day To this of Easter it most fully points Then the stone so lately rejected by the builders became the head stone of the corner the head of the Church to unite both corners of the building Iews and Gentiles into one holy Temple then were the hearts of the Disciples fill'd with joy and gladness St. Ioh. xx 20. the Prophesie here fulfill'd the joys completed in the exaltation of the Son of David which the Jewish people here began for the exaltation of David but prophesied of Christs though perhaps they knew no more than Caiphas what they said The Incarnation the Nativity the Passion the time of the Gospel the Sunday or Lords day the day of the Universal Resurrection the particular days of Gods mercy to us are all days of Gods making and to be kept and clebrated with joy even the Passion it self with spiritual joy and gladness and Christ is the day that gives light to all these days enlightens all yet both day and joy and the Lords making of them to us can fit nor one nor all of them so properly as this day that now shines on us Easter day 2. Thus we have found which this day is what day it is that is here so particularly design'd and pointed out which in the Text is said to be made and now to be considered how or what 't is made Of common days 't is said only that they be or are so the evening and the morning were the first day Gen. i. 5. and the evening and the morning were the second day ver 8. and so of all the rest The Evening came

them 〈…〉 feet of the meanest Christian soul whom thou at at any time despoiled'st of them and either shrink away confounded with our glory or else be glad of a Resurrection as well as we Whilst those miserable wretches that thou so much courtedst and delightedst in and that thy Prince who rul'd and abus'd thee to all his lusts shall down together into eternal misery when those poor despised Christians whom thou so much maligned'st shall reign in glory Miserable they were not here maugre all the world could do against them they had that peace that joy that contentment still within which the world could neither give nor take away They found an unspeakable as well pleasure as glory in their very afflictions and bitterest sufferings being exceeding glad and counting all joy to be made so like their Master whose Ministers or whose Servants they were with him despising the shame and trouble of a contemptible and afflictive life or death for the joy set before them for the hope they saw at the right hand of the Throne of God Thus feeling nothing that could be truly or properly called misery whilst they took pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake as St. Paul professes he did 2 Cor. xii 10. whilst it all serv'd only to their contentment here and augment their happiness and glory hereafter they sure lost nothing then they are not miserable now who are so faln asleep And lift up your heads ye drooping Christians still they shall not be miserable that so at any time fall asleep but rise and live again and be yet more happy every one in their order every star their glory every star a different ray according to their hope and sufferings here as no men so little miserable here if all things be truly pondered so no men so happy hereafter as the Christians they of all men above all men souls and bodies both Pastor and People all that live and die under the glorious hope of a Resurrection by Christ who place not their hopes or affections in this life but in Him and in the other of all men they most blessed most eternally blessed To which blessed estate after this life ended He who is our Hope and who we hope will keep us in it He in whom we trust and I trust shall do so still not for this life only but the other too but for ever He of his mercy convey and bring us all every one in his due time and order even our Lord Iesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit be all praise and glory not in this life only but for ever and ever Amen A SERMON UPON Ascension Day PSAL. xxiv 3 4. Vho shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand up in his holy place Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour WHo shall ascend indeed if none must ascend but he that is clean and pure and without vanity and deceit The question is quickly answered None shall for there is none so dust is our matter so not clean defiled is our nature so not pure lighter the heaviest of us than vanity and deceitful upon the balance the best of us Psal. lxii 9. so no ascending so high for any of us Yet there is one we hear of or might have heard of to day that rose and ascended up on high was thus qualified as the Psalmist speaks of all clean and pure no chaff at all no guile sound in his mouth 1 Pet. ii 22. Yea but it was but one that was so What 's that to all the rest Yes somewhat ' t is He was our head and if the head be once risen and ascended the members will all follow after in their time Indeed 't is not for every one to hope any but such as are of his that follow him that belong to him 'T is a high priviledge that the Psalmist stands admiring at and therefore not for all yet for all that will for a who shall here is a who will set up for all that will accept of the condition Quis ascendet is who will as well as who shall They that will take the pains will do what they can to be clean and pure they shall His innocence and purity shall help out for the rest when they have done their best But if any man will ascend he must do his best must be clean and pure with Christ and through him or he shall not ascend and rise up after him 'T is the Lesson we are to learn from Ascension day to Whitsunday how to ascend after Christ into the hill of the Lord how to rise up in his holy place even to have clean hands and pure hearts not to lift up our minds to vanity or swear to deceive our neighbour to have our hands ascend and our hearts ascend and our minds ascend and our words ascend as into his presence all ascend after him The Psalm is one of them which the Church appoints for Ascension day and I see not but it may very well pass for a kind of Prophesie by way of an extatical admiration at the sight of Christs Ascension So it pass'd with the Fathers and with our Fathers too may so with us for never was it so fulfill'd to a tittle as by Christ and his Ascension He the only he of clean hands and pure heart and holy mouth and holy all he the first that entred heaven that got up the hill that entred into the holy place not made with hands Heb. ix 24 c. Not any doors so properly everlasting as those of heaven nor they ever open'd for any King of glory to come in as it is ver 7. but him I cannot tell how we should expound it otherwise without much more metaphor and figure Yet I will allow it too for the Prophets admiration at the fore-sight of the happiness of Gods peculiar people and their condition that God whose the whole earth is and all its fulness ver 1. should out of all its places choose Sion for his place he whose the World is and all that dwell therein as it follows there should choose out the Iews amongst all the dwellers to dwell among them only to serve him upon that hill that further this God whose all is should still of this all so particularly honour some as to give them the priviledge of his hill and holy place his solemn Worship and Service to go up first into his holy places upon earth and then afterwards ascend into the holy places the heavens for the words mean the one as well as the other Who are they What a sort of people are they that are so happy so much exalted upon the earth and over it 'T is worth the admiring worth the enquiring and we find it presently who they be even such as have clean

hands and pure hearts that lift not up their minds to vanity not their mouths to wickedness or deceit In Sum these are the only men that shall ascend those everlasting hills those eternal holy places that are only worthy to enter into Gods houses and holy places of the earth too obtain those admirable priviledges that are innocent and pure and just and true the only men worth the admiring as the Church and heaven the hill of the Lord and his holy place are the only things are worth it Heaven is for none but such and when we enter into the holy places we should all be such as none have right to enter them indeed but such Well now the business of the Text is in brief the way to Sion and to Heaven to the hill of the Lord and his holy place both that here and that hereafter where we have First the Condition of being admitted thither Then the Condition of them that are The first in the former of the two verses the second in the latter I. The Condition of being admitted or ascending into the hill of the Lord or standing up in his holy place what it is that is what or how great a business it is to be Gods peculiar people to be allow'd to enter into his Courts here and into Heaven at last what it is why 'T is 1. a priviledge some one not every one some few not all Who shall Is all shall not 'T is 2. a high one 'T is an ascent a rise 't is to a hill and the hill of the Lord who shall ascend who shall rise up Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord Who shall rise up 'T is 3. a holy one 't is to the hill of the Lord to a holy place 'T is 4. an admirable one the Prophet starts aside as it were from his discourse and wonders at it who it is should be so honoured 'T is 5. a glorious one For the hill of the Lord is not only an earthly hill his holy place not that only made with hands the words are as appliable to that of Heaven and Glory and so understood 'T is yet 6. hard to be come by 'T is an ascent hard and steep a high Hill no easie Plain raise and rouze our selves up we must to get it stand up to get and keep it And lastly that we may take in all the possible senses of the Text 't is Christs proper priviledge his prae aliis his first and above all others therefore delivered in the Singular Quis not Qui who is he not who are they that shall Though they others also shall yet they but by him he first they after he properly rises and ascends they more properly are rais'd and drawn after him II. The Condition now 2. of them that are so thus admitted to all these priviledges is 1. That they have clean hands That 2. they have pure hearts too That 3. they lift not up their mind to vanity That 4. they swear not deceitfully or to deceive The Priviledge we are to speak of is a real one a high one a holy one an admirable one a glorious one and though hard to be come by yet to be come by though through him The condition upon which we are to come by it 1. Innocency 2. Purity 3. Righteousness 4. Truth yet all too little without him He ascended to this purpose that we also might ascend after him that 's the Lesson we are now to teach you two parts it has the Condition of the Priviledge of the hill of the Lord and the Conditions of our Performance for it the one the Condition to be obtained and the other the Conditions to be performed the admission into the hill of the Lord and his holy place that the Condition to be obtained Innocence and Purity freeness from vanity and deceit they the Conditions to obtain it I now enter upon the first to shew what is the Condition we may ascend to what a great and glorious one it is to ascend into the hill of the Lord and to rise up in his holy place I. Several senses I intimated to you of the words 1. Some understanding by the hill of the Lord and his holy place the material hill and house of Sion and thence our Christian Churches 2. Others the spiritual house and building the faithful and true members of the Church 3. Others the eternal house of heaven the hill of Sion which is above Each of them is called Gods hill or holy place Sion Gods hill Psal. ii 6. and lxviii 15. The Temple his holy place Exod. xxvi 33. The Church the house of God not to be us'd like our own houses and therefore a holy place 1 Cor. xi 22. The Faithful the Temples the Dwellings the Buildings the House of God 1 Cor. iii. 17. 2 Tim. i. 14. 1 Cor. iii. 9. Heb. iii. 6. Heaven lastly is called Mount Sion Heb. xii 2. Rev. xiv 1. The holy place Heb. ix 12. The true Tabernacle and Sanctuary Heb. viii 2. Be it which of these it will or be it all to ascend into any of them is a condition worth the considering to be admitted into Gods House and Temple to be admitted into the Family of true Believers especially to be exalted so high as into heaven To be in any of these Conditions is to be in good condition a Condition which is 1. A Priviledge a peculiar favour not for every body to arrive at 't is a question who shall get it not every one says Christ. The faithful they are a little flock St. Luk. xii 32. A chosen Generation 1 Pet. ii 9. Few there are of such St. Mat. xx 16. only a parcel that Christ has given him by his Father St. Iohn vi 39. To you it is given says he himself St. Mat. xiii 11. to some it is given to some it is not So a priviledge it is to stand thus upon Mount Sion with the Lamb Rev. xiv 1. to be in the number of those that follow him whithersoever he goes And it will prove a Priviledge 2. to be of those that go up to the House of the Lord among them that keep holy day that is that go up to serve him there Now he has not dealt so with any Nation any but his own Psal. cxlvii 20. If I shall find favour in the eyes of the Lord then he will bring me again and shew me his Ark and his Habitation says David 2 Sam. 15. 25. And if a favour it be not to be debarr'd the House of God in Shiloh or Hierusalem is it less think we to be allowed the liberty of Christian Churches to praise God in the great Congregations St. Paul counts it a mercy 2 Thes. ii 1. this gathering together unto him much comfort in it as in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ which is there joyn'd with it Non omnis I am sure we find it all have not the Priviledge we are out of Gods favour

and rule these resolutions desires and endeavours two Lights he makes true rectified reason and supernatural grace to guide them what to do at all seasons days and years and many little Stars many glimmerings of truth begin then to discover themselves which before did not After all this 5. the sensitive faculties in their course and order bring forth their living creature according to their kind submit themselves to the command of the superiour reason And then lastly when the Spirit has thus totally renewed the face of the earth of our mind and affections is the new man created after the likeness and image of God in righteousness and true holiness This the course this the order of the Spirits coming He comes moving upon the waters of repentance and first enlightens the darkness of our souls he orders all our faculties and powers he makes us fruitful to good works he daily encreases divine light and heat within us he reforms our sense subdues our passions regulates our reason sanctifies them all comes in light comes in grace comes in truth comes in strength comes in power that we might in his strength and power come one day all in glory And now he that thus created the old World and still creates the new new create and make us new and pray we all with holy David Psal. li. 10. Create O Lord in us new hearts and renew right spirits within us Cast us not O Lord for ever though we are now full of errors from thy presence and keep not thy holy Spirit from us but let thy Spirit of truth come down and guide us out of our wandrings give us the comfort of his help again guide us again into the ways of truth and stablish us there with thy free Spirit and that for the merits and mercies of thine only Son who here promised to send him and this day accordingly sent him to guide us to himself from grace to grace from truth to truth from truth below to true happiness above Jesus Christ our Saviour To whom c. THE THIRD SERMON UPON Whitsunday St. JOHN xvi 13. Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all truth AND He this day began to guide has continued guiding ever since will go on guiding to the end began it with the Apostles continued it to the Church and will continue it to it to the end of the World Indeed he that looks upon the face of the Christian Churches now would be easily tempted to think that either the time was not yet come that it should be fulfilled or that it had been long ago and his promise come utterly to an end for evermore For so far are we from a guide into all truth that we have much ado to find a guide in truth false guides and false spirits are so rise so far from being guided into all truth that 't is neerer truth to say into all error as if this guide had quite forsaken us or this promise belong'd not at all to us Yet for all that to us it is For the truth is 't is not this Guides this Spirits fault but ours that this all truth is so nigh none at all He will guide still but we will not be guided And into all truth too he will but we will not we will have no more than will serve our turn stand with our own humour ease and interest that 's the reason why he guides not now as in the days of the Apostles the first times the times of old We will not let him we cannot bear it as it is in the verse before or worse we will not bear we will not endure it every one will be his own guide go his own way make what truth he pleases or rather what him pleases the only truth every one follow his own spirit that 's the reason why we have so little of the Spirit of Truth among us There are so many private spirits that there is no room for this Yet if into all or indeed any truth that 's worth the name of saving we would be guided to this One we must return to one spirit or to no truth There is but one Trurth and one Spirit all other are but fancies He that breaks the unity of the Spirit that sets up many spirits sets up many guides but never a true one chance he may perhaps into a truth but not be guided to it and as little good come of it where the analogie of Scripture and Truth must needs be broken by so many differing and divided spirits 'T is time we think of holding to one Spirit that we may all hold the same Truth and in time be led into it all The only question is Whether we will be led or no If we will not the business is at an end If we will we must submit to this Spirit and his guidance his manner and way of guiding By so doing we shall not fail in any necessary saving truth He will guide us into all truth Which that he may as I have heretofore out of the former words told you of his coming so shall I now by his assistance out of these latter tell you of his guiding for to that intent and purpose he came to day and comes every day came at first and comes still comes 1. to guide to guide 2. into truth 3. into all truth 4. even you and all into it yet 5. to guide only not to drive or force us to guide after his own way and fashion not our fancie of which lastly we need not doubt or make a question he will do it So that now the Parts of the Text will plainly rise into these Propositions 1. That though Christ be gone he has not left us without a guide but has sent Him that shall guide us still 2. That He that shall do it is He that very He that is the Spirit of Truth just before No other can 3. That guide therefore into truth he will no other will 4. That he will guide not into this truth or that truth only but into all 5. That he will guide even us too You and you and you us as well as those that were before us all 's but You. 6. That he will do it yet but after his own way and fashion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 after the way he comes after as he comes so will he guide set us a way to find the truth and guide us after that way and no other 7. That for certain so it is He will Howbeit he will though yet he has not though yet we peradventure will not or cannot endure to be guided yet when we will set our selves to it He will guide us into c. it shall be no fault or failure of his for he for his part will is always willing The sum of all is this to assure us 1. that notwithstanding all the errors and false spirits now abroad there is a Spirit of Truth still

to digest as well as tast there in the mouth is a kind of first digestion made Ruminate we then and meditate upon Christ when we have tasted him Let it be our business to spend much of our time and days henceforth in meditation of him that 's the way indeed to be filled with his Spirit while we thus digest him and chew upon him in our spirits Nor is 3. fire improper any way to bring to that holy Table The fire of charity is to kindle our devotion there to warm our affections and desires to it There 4. our tongues are to be warm'd into praises that they may run a nimble descant upon his benefits and move apace to the glory of his Name Thus are our tongues to be imployed and thus is the fire to be kindled in us that we may speak with our tongues This is the way to be filled with the Holy Spirit this blessed Sacrament the means to it Come thou therefore O blessed Spirit into our hearts and tongues lighten our understanding with thy heavenly light warm our affections with thy holy fire purge away all our dross burn up all our chaff renew our spirits separate our sins and evils from us unite us in thy love subdue us to thy self teach our hearts to think our tongues to speak our hands to act our feet to move only to thy will settle thy self in us hence forward and dwell with us so teach us with all our tongues and powers to praise thee here upon earth that we may one day praise thee with them in Heaven for evermore A SERMON UPON Trinity Sunday REV. IV. 8. And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come I Need not stretch the Text to reach the Time The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy Holy Holy in it is plain enough to teach the Trinity An Anthem sung here by the Angels and Saints in heaven done so here also by four of the chief Apostles and the Bishops of Iudea signified by the four beasts and twenty four Elders taken up after generally by the Saints on earth commended to us by the Church to day as our Epistle sent from heaven with a pattern in it for our Hymns and Praises to the blessed Trinity Lord God Almighty For 't is a part I must tell you of one of St. Iohn's Visions presenting to us what is done in heaven what Good would have done on earth and what should there be done ere long throughout it beginning at Hierusalem Glory and honour and thanks should be given unto God for the wonders he was doing for his servants for the deliverance he was working for his Church for the judgments he was bringing on their enemies as glory had been of old given him by his Saints and Prophets was now given him by his Apostles and Bishops so it should be given still by the whole Christian Church for ever as he himself was and is and is to come so was his praise and is and is to come we therefore all to learn to bear our parts in that heavenly Anthem against the time we come thither to bear them company Example you see we have here set before us to do it by and a form to do it in better we cannot wish the four Beasts or Cherubims Angels Saints and the Apostles there 's our Pattern for they rest not day and night saying it and Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts which was and is and is to come there 's the form we best do it in In each Part we shall observe a kind of Trinity or three Parts in each In the Pattern 1. the Persons 2. their earnestness and 3. their continuance 1. The persons praising God and saying it They the four beasts or living creatures as the words tell us just before 2. Their earnestness in it They rest not saying they cannot rest for saying it cannot rest without the saying it unless they say it say it over and over Holy Holy Holy cannot rest but doing it that 's their rest they take their praising God ● Their continuance at it day and night it is and without rest and pause is it they are continually doing it saying and doing all to his honour and glory In the Form of Praise we have a sort of Trinity too three things observable 1. The glory or honour given Holy Holy Holy 2. The Persons to whom it is Lord God Almighty Father Son and Holy Ghost yet all three in one one single Lord one only God one alone Almighty and no more so there 's the Vnity in Trinity into the bargain And 3. here are the benefits intimated we praise him for He was our Creator He is our Redeemer He will be our Glorifier So you see Trinities enough in the Text to make it Trinity Sunday in it to fill all the Trinity Sundays after it The sum is that we are all to bear our parts in this holy Doxology to give glory and honour and power to the blessed Trinity with the four beasts and four and twenty Elders from time to time for evermore and that which may here serve well to perswade us to it is the Company and with them we will begin And they c. But who are they The beginning of the verse tells us the four beasts or as it may more genuinely and handsomly be translated the four living creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but what or who are they That 's the question and a hard one too it seems by the variety of opinions probably to be answered rather by conjecture than resolution We shall take the likeliest of them and pass the rest 1. Some by the four living Creatures this they would have the four Cardinal vertues understood by the Lion fortitude by the Calf or Oxe justice by the Eagle temperance and by the Man prudence And then the sense will be that God is most signally prais'd and glorified by a vertuous life no way like that to praise him To do righteousness to walk wisely to live soberly to stand stoutly to God and goodness that 's the true way to give glory to the whole Trinity 2. Others by the four living Creatures apprehend the four chief faculties of our souls to be insinuated with which we are to praise him The irascible intimated by the Lion the concupiscible by the Oxe the rational by the face of man and the Spirit by the Eagle And here the Lesson is that we are to do it to praise God with all our powers set our affections and desires upon it be moved and angry at every thing that comes in to hinder it search all the means our reason can find out to perfect praise and raise up our Spirits upon Eagles wings to perform it to the highest pitch 3. Some by these four conceive the whole world consisting of the four Elements represented to us as praising God The fire by the Lion whose nature is hot

only that meek and merciful man St. Gregory that valiant Lion St. Ambrose that laborious Oxe St. Ierome that sublime Eagle St. Augustine as some please to fancy these four beasts or the four first Patriarchates as others have interpreted them but all the four corners of the earth have since profest it and with the twenty four Elders faln down and worshipt it The lustre and glory of that glorious mystery has shone thorow all the quarters of the World and all his famous mercies to his people and his judgments against their enemies are still daily celebrated and magnified in all the Congregations of the Saints This St. Iohn foresaw and here foretels the poor persecuted Christians then that how hard soever things went with them then they should ere long turn all their sighs and lamentations into Songs of praise for their deliverance and salvation This they should and 3. we should as much It was foretold of them they should it is commanded us we should Therefore glorifie him says the Apostle 1 Cor. vi 20. glorifie him in your bodies and glorifie him in your spirits glorifie him with the bodies that glorifie him and glorifie him with the Spirits that glorifie him bear them all company in so doing do it all the ways you can you can neither do it too many nor too much Put on the faces of Eagles in the Temple and raise your souls up there and praise him Put on the faces of men at home and let the holiness of your conversation praise him there Put on the appearance of Oxen in your Callings and let the diligence of your Actions and Vocations praise him Put on the appearance of Lions abroad in all places of temptations and let your courage in the resisting and repelling them praise him there Thus we truly copy out our pattern Yet to transcribe it perfectly well we must now secondly also transcribe their earnestness For here they not only give praise and glory unto God but they do it earnestly they rest not doing it they rest not saying that is 1. They cannot rest unless they say it And I will not suffer mine eyes to sleep nor mine eye-lids to slumber neither the temples of my head to take any rest till I have found out a way to praise my God till I have offered up the service of my thanks and added something to his glory must be the Christians resolution 2. They rest not saying is they say it and say it again say it over and over Holy Holy Holy 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is in some Copies nine times read Holy nine times repeated they think they can never say it enough No more it seems did David when he so oft repeated For his mercy endureth for ever in one single Psalm Psal. cxxxvi And hence it is the Church to imitate this holy fervour so often reiterates the Doxologie and inserts so many several Hymns and even either begins almost all its Prayers and Collects with an acknowledgment either of his Mercy Goodness and Providence or ends them with acknowledgment of his Majesty Power and Glory this both to imitate the glorious Saints and to obey the Apostles injunction of being fervent in Prayers and Praises 3. They rest not saying is they rest not but in so doing That 's their rest their joy their happiness to do so thus to be always praising God It would be ours too had we the same affections to it or the same senses of it We could not go to rest nor lie down to sleep could not sit down and take our rest till we had first lift up our eyes and hearts nay and voices too sometimes till we had first paid our thanks and given him praise for his protections in our ways and labours untill then 3. But to be thus eager and earnest at it is not all So we might be for a start and give over presently but 't is day and night that Angels and good men do it There is no night indeed properly with the Angels 'T is with them eternal day yet all that time which we call day and night they are still a saying it The Morning comes and they are at it the Night comes and they are at it still Let me go for the day breaketh says the Angel that strove with Iacob Gen. xxxii 26. And I must sing my Mattens adds the Chaldee Paraphrase as if he had said I can stay no longer I must go take my Morning course in the heavenly Choirs And in the depth of night we find them by whole hosts and multitudes at their Gloria in Excelsis Glory be to God in the highest St. Luke ii 13. The first fervours of Christian Piety were somewhat like this of the Angels You might have seen their Churches full at midnight all the Watches of the night you might have heard them chanting out the praises of their God and all the several hours of the day you might have found some or other continually praising God in his holy Temples as well as in their Closets Nay in the Iewish Temple they ceased not to do so Ye that by night stand in the House of the Lord Psal. cxiv 2. Praise him ye says holy David for indeed ye stand there to praise him and the Temple it self stood open all the day for all comers to that purpose when they would Therefore shall every good man sing of thy praise without ceasing says the Psalmist Psal. xxx 13. 'T is a good thing to do so Psal. xcii 1 2. To tell of thy loving kindness early in the morning and of thy Truth in the night season so good that David himself resolves upon it Psal. cxlv 2. Every day will I give thanks unto thee and praise thy Name for ever and ever prays also that his mouth may be filled with Gods praise that he may sing of his glory and honour all the day long Psal. lxxi 7. from morning to night and from night again to morning he would willingly do nothing else Nay be the night and day taken either in their natural or moral sense either properly for the spaces and intervals of light and darkness or morally for the sad hours of affliction and adversity and those bright ones of jollity and prosperity good men praise God in them both do not cease to do it if sorrows curtain up their eyes with tears and put out all their light of joy and comfort yet blessed be the Name of the Lord cry they out with patient Iob Chap. i. 21. Again if their paths be strow'd with light and the Sun gild all their actions with lustrous beams if Heaven shine full upon them they are not yet so dazell'd but they see and adore Gods mercy in them and in the mid'st of all their glories and successes they are still upon his praise and render all to him Neither the one night nor this other day make them at any time forget him A good item to us hence 1. not to suffer

our pleasures and vagaries our mirths and vanities our successes and prosperities to steal away the time we are to spend in giving God thanks and glory for them Nor 2. to permit our selves so much time to the reflection upon our griefs and troubles as to omit the praising God that they are no worse and that he thus fatherly chastises us to our bettering and amendment does all to us for the best Yet not to cease praising him day and night seems still to have some difficulty to understand it The Angels perhaps that neither eat nor drink nor sleep nor labour they may do it but how shall poor man compass it Why first Imprint in thy soul a fixt and solid resolution to direct all thy words and actions to his glory Renew it 2. every day thou risest and every night thou liest down Renounce 3 all by-ends and purposes that shall at any time creep in upon thee to take the praise and honour to thy self Design 4. thy actions as often as thou canst particularly to Gods service with some short offering them up to Gods will and pleasure either to cross or prosper them and when they be done say Gods Name be praised for them And lastly omit not the times of Prayer and Praise either in publick or in private but use thy best diligence to observe them to be constant and attentive at them Thus with the Spouse in the Canticles when we sleep our hearts awake and whether we eat or drink or walk or talk or whatsoever we do we do all to the glory of God and may be said to praise him day and night and not cease saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come And so I come to the second General The form here set us to praise him in In which first we have to consider the glory it self that is expresly given him Holy Holy Holy To speak right indeed the whole sentence is nothing else yet this evidently referring to that of Isai. vi 3. where the Seraphims use this first part in their Hymn of praise I conceive this the chief and most remarkable part of of it which may therefore bear the name before the rest Now this saying Holy Holy Holy is attributing all purity perfection and glory to God as to the subject of it himself and the original of it to others thereby acknowledging him only to be worship'd and ador'd So that saying thus we say all good of him and all good from him to our selves Thrice 't is repeated which according to the Hebrew custom is so done to imprint it the deeper in our thoughts and may serve us as a threefold cord which is not easily broken to draw us to it But another reason the Fathers give And it is 1. they say to teach us the knowledge of the holy and blessed Trinity Indeed why else thrice and no less or more Why follows Lord God Almighty three more words why 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 three yet again and yet but three who was who is who is to come Why do the Seraphims in Isaiah say no more yet say so too Why have we in the following verses Glory and Honour and Thanks ver 9. and Glory and Honour and Power so punctually thrice and thrice only offered to them How came it to be so universally celebrated throughout the World and put into all the Catholik Liturgies every where words fall not from Angels and Angelical Spirits by chance or casually The holy Penmen write not words hap hazard Nor is it easie to conceive so hard a doctrine so uneasie to reason should be so generally and humbly entertain'd but by some powerful working of Gods Spirit This may be enough to satisfie us that the blessed Trinity is more then obscurely pointed out to us here And 2. to be sure the Fountain of all Holiness is here pointed to us that we may learn to whom to go for grace that we may see we our selves are but unholy things that nothing is in it self pure or holy none but God And 3. it points us out what we should be Be ye holy as I am holy says God No way otherwise to come near him no way else to come so near him as to give him thanks for out of polluted lips he will not take them For in the second place the Lord God Almighty it is we are to give this glory to The three Persons here me thinks are evident however God the Father the Lord the Son and the Almighty Spirit that made all things that does but blow and the waters flow that does but breath and man lives that with the least blast does what he will Yet these three it seems are still but one one Lord and one God and one Spirit Ephes. iv 4 5 6. all singulars here nounes verbs articles and participles all in the singular number here 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that we might see though a Trinity there be to be believed yet 't is in unity though three Personalities but one Nature though three Persons but one God All the scruple here can but arise from the setting Lord the Son before God the Father but that 's quickly answered when they tell you there is none here afore or after other none greater and lesser than another and therefore no matter at all for the order here where all is one and one is all Lord God Almighty Yet now to encourage us the better to our Praises and Thanksgivings see we in the last place the benefits they here praise him for and they are intimated to us in the close of all Who was and is and is to come In the first we understand the benefit of our creation God it was that created us In the second we read the benefit of our Redemption the Lord it is that redeems us daily pardons and delivers us In the third we have the benefit of our Glorification still to come the Holy Spirit here sealing us and hereafter enstating us in glory In them all together we may in brief see as in a Prospect that all the benefits we have received heretofore he was the Author of them that all the mercies we enjoy he is the Fountain of them that all the joys or good we hope for he is the donour of them he was he is he must be the bestower of them all without him nothing he was and is and will be to us all in all And now sure though I have not the time to specifie all the mercies we enjoy from this blessed Lord God Almighty and indeed had I all time I could not and all tongues Si mihi sint linguae centum sint oraque centum I could not yet we cannot but in gross at least take up a Song of Praise for altogether say somewhat towards it Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty holy in our Creation Holy in our Redemption holy in our Sanctification Holy in Heaven holy in Earth holy under the Earth

way we might pretend it uncomfortable Should we want the quickning eyes of beholders we might fear to faulter by the way for want of encouragement were we to run through the furies of flames we might startle at the hardness of the employment or should we be commanded to disavow the pleasures of a convenient life for all the austerities of a poenitential rigour we might stand confounded at the task were the way full of circling Labyrinths we might fear our erring inevitable or were the Race voluntary not set before us we might then use the freedom of our choice or were it of an uncertain length not set out to run in infinitum we might account it vain or were there no Crown to run for despair might kill the life of our affections But having a guide and that from heaven a cloud to compass and defend us that nothing harm us not the Sun look too hot upon us and discolour us so great that the wandring eye cannot lose it so near encircling us that the weary step may almost rest upon it a cloud that cleaves it self into an ample theater where you find both company and spectators where by the examples of a world of Saints surrounded where by the steps of tender Virgins and little Children taught the easiness of the way where by the Crowns and Robes and Palms of Martyrs too transcendently glorious assured of our reward seeing we are to bid adieu to nothing but our misery and our sin to leave only the courting of our own damnation when it is no more than an easie run to heaven no studied torments in the way no tedious or eternal journey a plain certain way directed by him who will as well help us forward as command us what colour of excuse for the least remissness Say no more but that we had a guide a guide is not given to go alone and a guide from heaven deserves not so to be disrespected but guide and company both thence to be neglected what name shall I stile it by Run while you have the Cloud The time may come when we shall have no Habentes when we shall not dare to look upon this Cloud for shame when our sins shall stand so thick about us that we cannot look through them nor up for them when we shall strive to run and this weight and snares so hinder us we cannot stir when these Witnesses shall turn to be Witnesses against us when we shall desire this Cloud to cover us and it will not be when we shall not have so much as cum patientiâ left to help us but weary of our selves run from hill to dale to hide us and cannot run out of sight and were it not better now to run for something than then to run in vain Great certainly is the force of example will that do it 'T is here to the full Did the Iewish Saints who had not so clear a light to run by nor so clear or full promises to run for nor so skilful guides to run after nor so full a glory to run into chearfully fulfil their course And shall we whose knowledge as much excels theirs as theirs did ignorance who do not so much see as enjoy the Promises after so fair a Troop into so perfect glory move on heavily How oft have Royal Virgins met the terrors of a long and subtile death with the same countenance they would have met their Wedding joys and Children run to torments as to play How oft have Kings and Princes fifty of our own within the space of two hundred years chang'd their Kingdoms for the house and bread of poverty O blessed Spirits how lamely do we halt after you How do we dishonour your aged glories by us so often boasted of and scatter as it were your sleeping ashes in the wind by our degenerate Christianity How do ye even hide your selves in clouds and blush to see us call that Religion which ye would not have call'd by so honourable a title as prophaneness What if without example Is it not enough that God propounds it Had it been some greater matter ought we not have done it Will reward But why stand I upon any when we have all And may I not then well add therefore run We have set the Ideoque upon Nubem upon Tantam upon Habentes upon Martyrum upon Circumpositam upon Pondus upon Peccatum upon Circumstans upon Curramus upon Certamen upon all and being now at the end I shall leave it upon the last Propositum nobis the reward of our pains That when this Pondus mortale this body be laid aside and we have done our Race we may sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob where for this Cloud we may dwell in light for this sin put off be cloathed upon with long white Robes for that sin which did beset us be circled with Cherubims and Seraphims about us for this Deponeutes find a Depositum for laying off a Crown laid up and for this weight an eternal weight of glory And in that last great Day when for this casting away this earth also now about us shall then cast off its heaviness into lightness and agility shall we our selves be caught up together with these Saints in the Clouds to run and meet the Lord in the air where though to others it be a day of clouds and thick darkness yet shall this Cloud and we in it shine like the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father To which he bring us who going hence ascended up in clouds with triumph and shall one day come again in clouds with power and glory to dispel all clouds and darkness into an everlasting day Iesus Christ. To whom with the Father and the Holy Ghost be all Power and Praise and Honour and Thanksgiving and Worship now and for ever Amen A SERMON UPON St. Andrews Day St. MAT. iv 20. And they straightway left their Nets and followed him ' T Is well say I that Sundays and Holy days sometimes meet that 't is as well Sunday as Holy-day to day that so the Lord may be sometimes hallowed in his Saints as here followed by them Davids Praise God in his Saints for so 't is to be rendred Psal. cl 1. may by this means be sung still and preach'd yet sometimes in spite of that peevishness and malice that has so impudently and ungraciously un-sainted all the Saints Not so much as an Apostle allowed that Name Not a Saint left in the whole Christian Kalendar if I may call it Christian that so uses the Saints of Christ. Well though the course of the times has thus robb'd God of his glory in his Saints and the Saints of their honour and of if it could be their very rejoycing in their beds yet the course of the years as it were to confute that frowardness will bring it about ever and anon that the Master and the Disciple the Lord and his Saints shall rejoyce together upon a day and if they

Preached at St. Pauls 213 NEHEM xiii 14. Remember me O my God concerning this and wipe not out my good deeds that I have done for the house of my God and for the Offices thereof The First Sermon on the Day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin 226 St. LUKE ii 27 28. And when the Parents brought in the Child Iesus to do for him after the custom of the Law Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God The Second Sermon on the Day of the Purification of the Blessed Virgin 239 St. LUKE ii 28. Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God A Sermon on the First Sunday in Lent 250 2 COR. vi 2. Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of Salvation A Sermon on the Second Sunday in Lent 263 1 COR. ix 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a castaway A Sermon on the Third Sunday in Lent 276 ROM viii 21. What fruit had ye then in those things whereof ye are now ashamed For the end of those things is death A Sermon on the Fourth Sunday in Lent 286 1 COR. ix 24. So run that you may obtain A Sermon on the Fifth Sunday in Lent 296 1 COR. ix 25. And every man that striveth for the mastery is temperate in all things Now they do it to obtain a corruptible Crown but we an incorruptible A Sermon on the Sixth Sunday in Lent 305 DEUT. xxxii 29. O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end A Sermon on the Annunciation of the blessed Virgin Mary 317 St. LUKE i. 28. And the Angel came in unto her and said Hail thou that art highly favoured The Lord is with thee Blessed art th●● among women A Sermon on Palm Sunday Folio 329 S. MAT. xxi 8. And a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way others cut down branches from the Trees and strewed them in the way A Sermon upon Good Friday 339 1 COR. ii 2. For I determined not to know any thing among you save Iesus Christ and him crucified The First Sermon upon Easter Day 349 St. LUKE xxiv 4 5 6. And it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout behold two men stood by them in shining Garments And as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth they said unto them Why seek ye the living among the dead He is not here but is risen The Second Sermon upon Easter Day 359 St. MAT. xxvii 52 53. And the Graves were opened and many bodies of Saints which slept arose And came out of the Graves after his Resurrection and went into the holy City and appeared unto many The Third Sermon upon Easter Day 369 PSAL. cxviii 24. This is the Day which the Lord hath made We will rejoyce and be glad in it The Fourth Sermon upon Easter Day 379 St. MAT. xxviii 5 6. And the Angel answered and said unto the women Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus which was crucified He is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay The Fifth Sermon upon Easter Day 392 1 COR. xv 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable A Sermon upon Ascension Day 408 PSAL. xxiv 3 4. Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord or who shall stand up in his holy place Even he that hath clean hands and a pure heart and hath not lift up his soul unto vanity nor sworn deceitfully to his neighbour The First Sermon upon Whitsunday 416 St JOHN iii. 8. The wind bloweth where it listeth and thou hearest the sound thereof but canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth So is every one that is born of the Spirit The Second Sermon upon Whitsunday 427 St. JOHN xvi 13. Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all truth The Third Sermon upon Whitsunday Folio 443 St. JOHN xvi 13. Howbeit when He the Spirit of Truth is come He will guide you into all truth The Fourth Sermon upon Whitsunday 453 ACTS ii 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance The Fifth Sermon upon Whitsunday 463 ACTS ii 1 2 3 4. And when the day of Pentecost was fully come they were all with one accord in one place And suddenly there came a sound from Heaven as of a rushing mighty wind and it filled all the house where they were sitting And there appeared unto them cloven tongues like as of fire and it sate upon each of them And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost and began to speak with other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance A Sermon upon Trinity Sunday 473 REV. iv 8. And they rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come The First Sermon upon the Calling of St. Peter 481 St. LUKE v. 8. Depart from me for I am a sinful man O Lord. The Second Sermon upon the Calling of St. Peter 491 St. LUKE v. 5. Master we have toyled all the night and have taken nothing nevertheless at thy word I will let down the net A Sermon upon the Transfiguration 504 St. LUKE ix 33. And it came to pass as they departed from him Peter said unto Iesus Master it is good for us to be here and let us make three Tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias not knowing what he said The First Sermon upon All Saints 516 PSAL. cxlix 9. Such honour have all his Saints The Second Sermon upon All Saints Folio 526 HEB. xii 1. Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses let us lay aside every weight and the sin which doth so easily beset us and let us run with patience the race which is set before us A Sermon upon St. Andrews Day 542 St. MAT. iv 20. And they straightway left their Nets and followed him A Sermon Preached at St. Pauls 554 COL iii. 15. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts to the which also ye are called in one body and be ye thankful A Sermon Preached at St. Pauls Cross. Sir Richard Gurney being then Lord Mayor 566 JER xxxv 18 19. Thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Because you have obeyed the commandment of Ionadab your Father and kept all his Precepts and done according unto all that he hath commanded you Therefore thus saith the Lord of Hosts the God of Israel Ionadab the Son of Rechab shall not want a man to stand before me for ever FINIS * 2. * Grace is poured into thy lip● * therefore * So the Psal. begins and so the Sermon * For † A little * And hast crowned I. General ● That a false hope in Christ there is What is required to a true hope in Christ. The several kinds of false hope compared with true ones Mat. 9. 13. Psal. 119. 81. Rom. 15. 4. Isa. 28. 16. 1 Pet. 3 15. 1 Pet. 1. 21. Gal. 5. 5. Psal. 42. 5. Heb. 6. 19. Heb. 10. 23. Heb. 3. 6. Heb. 6. 11. 1 Thes. 1. 3. 2 Thes. 3. 5. 2. That hope in Christ in this life only is a false hope also and what it is 1 Cor. 15. 12 2 Tim. 2. 18. 3. The Effect of false Hopes Misery 1. Loss Los● of all good Heb. 11. 35. 2. Pain or sense of evil John 8. 24 4. The persons which are most miserable of all 1 Cor. 4. 9 10 c. S. Joh. 15. 19. II. General The Christians hope is not in Christ for this life only That the Ch●istian of all men is not miserable 2 Cor. 12. 10. Acts 16. 15. 2 Chron. 35. 10. St. Mat. ix 9. S. Mat. 4. 18. Acts 9. 3. Acts 10. 44. St. Luke 17. 34. St. Mat. 24. 41. Jon. 2. 1. Prov. 1. 3. Isa. 6. 2. * This. 1 Cor. 13. 1. The Cloud Isa. 44. 22 Why not a Star Why Nubem in the Singular Nubem not Nubeculam Ta●tam 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nubem martyrum Testium How Testium Why Testium What required to Testium Habentes our Company Habentes nobis Nubem impositam Circumpositam a 〈◊〉 The spectators Not Suppositam Not Superpositam Not Praepositam Application Ha●bentes Heabentes nobis Habentes circumpositam Impediments of running 1 Pondus 1 Quid P●c●a tum 2 Quare pondus 3 Quotuples The removal Both together A● jecto ponder● Deponentes pondus 2 Pondus Div●liarum Abjecto 〈◊〉 The first remove Abjecto pondere Abjecto pondere div●●ta●um Deposito R●po sit● 3 Depositis nonoribus Omni pondere non ●nere II. Impediment Peccatum circumstans Gal. 4. Acts 22. 16. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Curramus Certamen Cereamen justitiae Fidei Martyrii Certamen propositum Propositum nobis Per Pa●ientiam Quid. Per patientiam curramus Qu●modo cur●endum H●b 10. 2● Propositum nobis Th● Crown Ideoque

as they pleas'd Non ita sane non ita est says he It is not so indeed it is not so Hoc plane est quod evertit orbem universum 'T is this It is plainly this this false opinion or fancy that ruines all the world Behold the multitudes here going before crying and the multitudes following after answering them in their Hosanna to the Son of David all ranks of people the most secular so religious grown since Christs coming 'T is to be fear'd he is going from us or will be quickly if we omit our parts if we forget our duties if we once begin to think too much of bearing part or share in his Service either in the Congregation or out of it But 5. however they that pretend to go out to meet Christ to have more sense of Devotion and Zeal to it then others they above all surely will be easily heard in their Hosanna's or Benedictus The more devout we are we sing the louder the more earnest we be to meet our Lord the more welcome will we give him the higher gratulations and acclamations to him Whoever fail in their parts methinks such should not If we pretend to love him more then others then more prayers and praises to him then others if we love him more they will be more and we will not be ashamed to profess it in the multitude nor think much to be in the multitude among the meanest or poorest at it Surely not seeing 6. the Iews themselves think not much to do so seeing them so ready so eager so violent in giving honour to him can it be expected that Christians should be behind but they before and we not behind Too much it is that they before and we behind it should be rather we before and they behind though they got the start in time to get before us we should sure in measure get it go there before them Christ came to them and they go out to meet him He comes to us and we go from him He came to them at this time with a sad message of destruction and therefore weeps in the mount of his triumph to look upon the City and yet they entertain him with Hosanna's Blessed be the name of the Lord so come things to pass He comes to us with tydings of great joy such the Angels term it his Birth no other coming yet we think much to sing Hosanna's for it to keep a day of praise or a song of praise or a face and garb of praise the more unchristian they that do so less sensible of Christs favours then the very multitude then the Jew himself Rare Christians the while that think no better speak no better rejoyce no better at Christs coming at his greatest and most gracious coming I cannot say this multitude to the Letter and in the Story are any unanswerable argument for our Hosanna's Yet when a multitude does well 't is good to follow them but take it now 2. in the mystery and there needs no greater to perswade us The multitudes before are in the mystery the Holy Patriarchs and they that followed are the Prophets Now what the Patriarchs and Prophets have rejoyc'd at that must we Abraham says Christ himself rejoyced to see my day he saw it and was glad Yes your Father Abraham was glad He was glad to see Christ a coming S. Iohn viii 56. The Prophets are every where full of joyful expressions at the mention of the Messia's coming their eyes lookt and their hearts long'd for him and the Prophet Zachary calls to us to tell it out with Joy to the Daughter of Sion tells punctually even of this very joy and coming too Zach. ix 9. And what was written before time either by Patriarch or Prophet was written for our learning says the Apostle Rom. xv 4. We may do what they did what they would have us Or 2. The multitudes before in the mystery are the Iews the multitudes that follow are the Gentiles Both bidden by the Apostle to rejoyce Rom. xv 10. Rejoyce ye Gentiles with his people his people the Iews before and the Gentiles behind all shall rejoyce in his salvation for glory is now coming to the Iews glory to his people Israel and light unto the Gentiles to light them by his coming So sang old Simeon in his Song S. Luke ii 32. 3. The multitudes before is the Iewish Synagogue the multitudes behind the Christian Church a multitude indeed that cannot be numbred Revel vii 9. of Emperours and Kings and Princes Bishops and Priests Doctors Martyrs Confessors and Virgins all in their several Orders and Generations crying Hosanna to the Son of David the whole world gone after him Before indeed only Notus in Iudaea Deus God only known in Iury Psal. lxxvi 1. his coming only talkt of in Israel but after quam admirabile nomen tuum in universa terra Psal. viii 1. O Lord our Governour how wonderful or excellent is thy name in all the world All these multitudes the Iew with his multitude of Patriarchs Priests and Levites and Singers and Prophets with his Sacrifices of Bulls and Rams and Goats and Sheep of Types and Figures all crying out Messiah's coming The Christians Apostles Martyrs Confessors Doctors Virgins Bishops Priests and Deacons and all several Orders in their Choirs and Churches throughout the world crying out he is come all the corners of the earth resounding out Hosanna's and Allelujahs to him Vna est fides praecedentium at que sequentium populorum says St. Gregory all believing and professing the same he that cometh here they the Iews before crying he that cometh we the Christians crying he that is come or rather he that cometh still that every day comes to us by his Grace and through his Word and in his Sacraments Blessed is he that cometh still not a tense or tittle chang'd he that comes being the same for ever eternity and things eternal being ever coming never gone or going So now the Congregation is full what should we do but begin our Service when we have Law and Prophets and Gospel to countenance and bear us company in our Te Deum and Benedictus at our Prayers and Praises in our Joys and Festivals all of them crying nothing but Christ nothing but Christ blessed be he blessed be he and blessed be his coming and blessed be his day and blessed be his deeds the whole practice of all Christian Churches and Congregations that ever were gathered together in nomine Domini in the name of the Lord till these meer nominal verbal Christians that are afraid of the name of him that cometh of the name of Iesus of blessing it or bowing at it all Christians all that came before in the name of Christ till these pretenders that follow no body but their own fancies all agreeing in the same welcome to their Redeemer joyning in the same prayers and praises what should we do but add our voices and sing with them better sure

both it is A prayer to God to preserve and prosper him that he may have good luck with his honour and ride on and a prayer to God to save and deliver us by and through him or to him to do it Salva o●●cro O fili David O fili for filio Save us we pray thee O Son of David By this time you understand Hosanna to be both a prayer and a thanksgiving a short Collect and a Hymn both an expression of rejoycing for Christs coming with a prayer that it may come happy both to him and us Thus you have it in Psal. cxviii 24 25. whence this seems either to be taken or to relate This is the day which the Lord hath made We will rejoyce and be glad in it there 's the voice of rejoycing then follows 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Help me now O Lord O Lord send us now prosperity the prayer upon it 'T is an easie observation hence that our rejoycings are to consist in Prayers and Praises in Hymns and Collects no true Hosanna's to Christ no true blessing him but so no keeping Christmas or any Feast without them To spend a day in idleness or good cheer is not to keep Holiday To keep Christmas is not to fill our mouths with Meat but our lips with Prayers and Praises not to sit down and play but to kneel down and pray not to rest from work and labour but by some holy rest and retirement from temporal labour to labour so to enter into eternal rest The business of a Holiday is holy business Hosanna business of Christmas Christs coming so to be solemnized with solemn prayers and praises and thanksgivings And there is more then so in this Hosanna It was the close of certain Prayers and Litanies used by the Iewish Synagogues like our Libera nos Domine our Good Lord deliver us in our Litanies They first reckoned up the names of God God Lord King of Kings c. and to each Hosanna then his Attributes his Mercy Truth c. to each Hosanna then what they desired both in publick and private and for each Hosanna All resound Hosanna all eccho out Hosanna save and help and prosper us 'T is no new thing it seems or of Popish Original to use publick Litanies and Liturgies 't is but what the Church of God has ever had in use the way from the beginning it always serv'd him in The very Petitions of the Lords Prayer are all taken out of the Iewish Sedar or Common-Prayer-Book and if Christ himself who wanted neither words nor Spirit to pray thought fit yet notwithstanding to make use of received expressions and antient forms I conceive not why any that profess him should think themselves wiser then their Master and reject old and accustomed Forms of Prayers and Praise Yet indeed we cannot well expect they should keep a Form that will not keep a day to bless him for his coming We that resolve of this may be resolv'd of the other that no way like the old to do it in That teaches us to pray the Messiah that Christ may Reign that his Kingdom may prosper and be enlarged that we our selves may be of it and prosper in it that we may have Redemption and Salvation Grace and Glory sing Hymns and Songs of Praise to him both in his Kingdom here upon Earth and in his Kingdom in Heaven This the way of entertaining him at his coming to entertain our selves and time in blessing him for his goodness and desiring of his blessing And yet besides there is as much Faith as Devotion to be here learn'd from the multitude in this Hosanna There is an acknowledgment of his Office that he was Messiah They it seems believed it I suspect they that love not to have a day to mind them of his becoming the Son of David of his Nativity do scarce believe it If they thought his coming real we should have some real doings at it they would be as busie in it as the best Were filio David well grounded in us did we really believe him the Son of David we would also become the Sons of David who was a man of Prayer and Praise sons of Praise sing Hosanna's as fast as any 'T is only want of Faith that hinders Works we believe not in him as we should what e're we talk else we would do to him as we should accept all his comings even upon our knees at least with all thankfulness and such Devotion as time and place required of us And 2. we would raise our voices a note higher add Benedictus to Hosanna Blessed is he that cometh c. Bless God and bless him and bless his coming and bless his goodness and bless his power and bless his fulness and bless his work and bless his purpose desire God to bless him and man to bless him and also bless our selves in him for no less then all these is in the words Blessed first be God the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ Blessed be the Lord God of Israel that he hath visited and redeemed his people and hath raised up a mighty salvation for us in the house of his Servant David So old Zachary S. Luke i. 68. 69. Blessed be God the Father for the Son God the Father for the Son of David 's coming to us Blessed 2. be the Son blessed be he that cometh blessed be Our Lord Iesus Christ for his coming for to him is blessing due that he would vouch safe to come and bless bless the Father for sending the Son for coming blessing to them both for thus blessing us Blessed 3. be his coming all his comings his coming in the Flesh his coming in the Spirit his coming in Humility his coming in Glory his coming in the Flesh that 's a blessed coming for us whereby all other blessings come unto us his coming in the Spirit or by his Grace a blessed coming too and still daily coming his coming in Glory that may be a blessed coming to us too if we bless him duly for his other comings if we truly and devoutly rejoyce at his first and second coming no doubt but we shall also triumph at his last That he cometh came and will come unto the end is blessed news we therefore with these multitudes so bless him for it Blessed 4. be his goodness and that 's evident enough in his coming to us bless him for that he would be so good to come when all good was going from us when we our selves were gone away from him run away as far as well we could that he would come after us Blessed 5. be his power and authority for in the name of the Lord he comes not in his own name but in the Fathers that sent him S. Iohn v. 43. confess acknowledge submit to his power and authority that 's the true way to bless him Blessed 5. be his greatness and fulness of blessing blessed be his blessedness for he is full of blessings in him

19. We cannot discern his track by reason of their tumultuous doings These are they that are to be prepared and stilled and quieted the Soul calm'd and laid and smooth'd that Christ may come into it But this is the way into which and not by which he comes The way by which he comes or we meet him is first the way of Faith Faith is the way by which he comes into the souls of men the way in which St. Paul worshipped the God of his Fathers Acts xxiv 14. in and by which we first come unto our Lord and worship him as did our fathers Prepare your hearts for it prepare them for him that when he comes he may find faith upon the earth in this earth of ours where e're else he miss it And here as Faith is the way so the several Articles of it may pass for the paths God grant we keep them right and streight and our selves streight to them in this perverse and crooked generation 2. The way secondly by which we meet him is the Law Mandata Legalia says another Not much distant from St. Paul's stiling it Schoolmaster to Christ the way to bring us to him The terrors and threatnings of the Law a good way to prepare us for his coming the Types and Figures a good way to lead us to him that we may see he is the same that was and is and is to come the Saviour of all that were and are and shall be sav'd the same the Patriarchs promised the Sacrifices prefigured the Prophets prophecied of the Iews expected the Apostles preach'd of the world believed on and all must be saved by With such thoughts as these then are we to set upon our preparation 1. To break our high and haughty spirits by the consideration of the terrors of the Law the curses due to them that break it and alas who is it that does not so to make way to let him in Then 2. by the Types and Figures to confirm our faith and make them so many several paths to trace out his foot-steps and know his coming 3. The third way by which we are prepared or which we are to prepare for him is Repentance The very way St. Iohn Baptist came to preach His Repent for the Kingdom of Heaven is at hand being the same with this Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight Those words of the Prophet the Text and his the Comment No way indeed to Christ but by this way No way but by Repentance to begin it Turn ye turn ye says the Prophet we are all out of the way God knows from the beginning If we will into the way again into the way of our Lord turn we must repent we must of our former ways and doings get us into better ways And then paths here will be the streight and narrow ways the rigours and austerities of repentance the streightning our selves of all our former liberties and desires making our paths so streight and narrow that no tumour of pride no swellings of lust no pack-horses or heavy carriages of the world or Devil may pass by that way any more nothing but Christ and his little flock of humble vertues such as can enter at the streight state none else henceforward to walk in it Prepare we repentance and all its parts and paths for the third way and its paths A fourth is Baptism the way St. Iohn Baptist came in too a way that nam'd him so the way that was always thought to lead all to Christ and his Kingdom that came there in any ordinary way Arise and be baptized Acts xxii 16. that 's the way to the Lord Iesus The way he sent his Disciples in to bring in the world unto him St. Mark xvi 16. whatever shorter way our new men of late have found for their Disciples The Articles and conditions of the Covenant of Baptism promised and undertaken by the baptized either in their own persons or by proxy are the title paths of this great way the several tracks that make it up the ways and paths we are to walk in if we intend ever to meet the Lord. The fifth way is Gods Commandments a way that we all must make ready for him his own way indeed drawn out by his own hands and fingers a way of which himself professes that he came not to destroy it as some vainly delude themselves but to fulfil it to perfect to exalt it to a greater height from the outward act to the inward thought from the lower degree of vertue to the highest of it from bare precepts to additional counsels from meer external performances to right and regular intentions in them And here as the moral Precepts are the great plain way so the Christian Enh●●sements of them to the highest pitch the regulations of them to right intentions and Christian counsels are the paths the narrow and straiter paths The sum and short is this Holy Christian life and conversation in all its parts according to our powers and capacities is the fifth way to be prepared by them that seek the Lord and expect to see his face And yet if there be room and leave for a private conjecture the way of Gods providence in his judgments and mercies towards Ierusalem the way of his mercy in saving the believing and destroying the unbelieving Iew now near at hand may come in for a sixth way of the Lord A way indeed past finding out in all its secret paths yet to be prepared for and more then pointed at by the Prophet Isaiah in that place whence the words are taken and by St. Iohn in this God there bids comfort his captive people for their deliverance from Babylon was now nigh at hand and their enemies near destruction calls to them therefore to prepare themselves for it to make ready and expect it And here S. Iohn Baptist tells the people the Kingdom of Heaven is now at hand S. Matth. 3. 2. which by comparing it with that wrath to come threatned to the Pharisees and Sadduces v. 7. with his exhortation to flee from it and by the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord mentioned by the Prophet Malachi iv 5. in the place where S. Iohn Baptists coming is foretold and the dreadfulness of it exprest Chap. iii. 2. where he is said to come to prepare his way before him but ver 1 c. S. Iohns inviting to repentance to divert or shun it can be no other than Christs coming in Judgment against Ierusalem to execute vengeance upon his enemies and deliver his faithful servants vengeance and deliverance the two great manifestations of his Power and Kingdom and sure no more then need to cry out to us to prepare and make right paths against that coming make way for his judgments to pass by us and his mercies to come to us Thus you have the way and paths observe them many several paths but one only way to Christ and Heaven

their own dreams and fond presumptions They know not when the Master of the house will come Whether at midnight or at the Cock crowing or at the dawning S. Mark xiii 35. for as a snare it shall come on all them that dwell on the face of the earth ver 35. of this Chapter It is enough for us to know there shall be a day of Judgment against which we must provide every day to make up our accounts lest that day come upon us unawares lest death at least hurry us away to our particular doom which will there leave us where the last judgment will be sure to find us in the same condition no power or tears of ours being then able to change or alter it So that the punctual time of this coming as Christ did not intend to declare so it matters not to know A then a time there will be of his coming 2. A time when they shall see him come They and who are they but all mankind but all the creatures Every eye shall see him they also that pierced him Rev. i. 7. They also that crucified him and condemned him S. Mat. xxvi 64. Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power says Christ himself to those who were his torturers and his judges Nay we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ Rom. xiv 10. None of us all must think to escape There we must give account what we have done amiss every action every idle word every vain and wanton thought every inward desire must we yield account of in the day of judgment Thy Crown and Throne O King cannot exempt thee Your Honours and Complements O ye Nobles cannot excuse you Thy Riches O thou son of Pelf cannot buy out thy absence Thy sleights O thou crafty Politician cannot evade it Thy strength O Souldier cannot defend thee from the Angel that will drive thee thither Your Learning O ye Learned of the earth can find no argument to keep you from it Nor can ye O ye Worms of the earth ye meanest find holes in it to hide you at this coming Come you must all together at this coming and see you shall the Son of man as he is coming The wicked eyes indeed though Christ comes in glory shall see nothing of his glory The Son of man they shall behold his Humanity but not his Deity They shall see the wounds their sins have made the hands and feet they have nail'd the side they have pierc'd the head they have planted with thorns all these to their grief and sorrow to see him their Judge whom they have so abus'd and wrong'd so trampled and scorn'd that he yet bears the marks of their malice and cruelty even in his Throne of Glory But the good mans eyes they shall see his Glory too they shall behold his glorious face which the eyes of the sinners and the ungodly are not able to perceive by reason of that veil of sin and darkness that covers them Both then shall see him these only the Son of man those the Son both of God and man in his Cloud and in his Glory Who are they then that think to hide themselves who live as if they never thought to come to judgment Did men certainly but seriously ponder that will they nill they they must one day see Christ they would use him better in his Members then they do better in his Church and Ministers better in his Worship and Service Do they not think you imagine they shall never see him that they can shelter themselves somewhere from his presence that dare use him thus contemptuously thus proudly thus sacrilegiously and prophanely Lay but this close every day to your bosoms as you rise that you must one day come to appear before him and all your actions will be more regular and your thoughts higher concerning Christ and all that is his or pertains to him and you the better able to answer them when you see him 3. For thirdly see him you shall not only hear your doom and pass away but see him pronouncing it When he came to Redeem the world the eye saw him Simeons and Anna's and all Iudea's many Greeks and Gentiles too He came then that all might see him But in his second coming when he comes to judge it then he comes that all shall see him every eye behold him The eyes that slept in dust before his first arrival the eyes that in the time of his abode could never see him for their distance the eyes that ever since have seen the world shall all then see him as well as they that pierc'd him nay as well as they who liv'd with him and daily saw him He might considering how unworthy the best of us carry our selves of that corporal presence which he once vouchsaf'd us considering how he was then misus'd and handled have for ever denied us any sight of his glorious Body but he forgets the injuries he met with and will once more shew himself to our bodily sight not so much to confound his persecutors as to manifest the justice of his judgment that the whole world may evidently see that he who came into the flesh then only to redeem us comes in the same flesh again to judge us that all may see our Faith in our Crucified God was neither vain nor unprofitable but by the evidence of their own eyes confess and acknowledge it the only true way to eternal happiness And if these eyes now must one day behold their Lord and Master how should we wash them every day and cleanse them from earthly defilements with our tears that they may be worthy to see that blessed object Wash your eyes ye wantons from unclean and lascivious glances Cleanse your eyes ye proud ones from scornful looks Wipe your eyes ye covetous minded from that yellow dust that blinds your sight Open your eyes ye ignorant and seduced souls that ye run not headlong to your own destruction hoodwinkt to Hell then only to unclose your deceived sight when you can see no comfort Remember you are all one day to appear before Christs tribunal where if you expect any comfort to your eyes you must come thither with them wash'd and wip'd and cleans'd and pure no spots no films no blemish no blood-shot in them Whether to your comfort or no see you shall That 's certain 4. Shall see Can we not shut our eyes then when this day shall come Can nothing lock up our eye-lids in eternal night no bar set before us but we must see this Son of man Can no Hills hide us nor no Mountains cover us Can we not sleep in dust and rest quiet in our confusion Can we not vanish into that nothing out of which we first arose or at least lie hid in that eternal pit from ever seeing any thing but the regions of everlasting darkness Must we needs rise out of our wretched Caves to see him who

after those things which shall come upon the earth what are all these together to them who are thus by those very things redeem'd out of all their troubles Saint Paul is bold to set up a challenge Who shall separate us from the love of Christ shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword Nay in all these we are more then conquerours through him this him in the Text that loved us Rom. viii 35. 37. And he goes on yet higher For I am perswaded says he that neither death nor life nor Angels nor principalities nor powers nor things present nor things to come nor height nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Iesus ver 38 39. And if thus nothing can ever separate us from Christs love what should trouble us at his coming whose coming is but to draw us nearer to himself Be not troubled be not terrified says he ver 9. but in patience possess your souls ver 18. for there shall not a hair of your heads perish ver 17. Others may fall and sink and perish but do they what they can against you those that hate you yet care not for it look up look up to me I am coming to redeem you lift up your heads and behold the glory into which I am at hand to lift you up The sum of all now is that in the midst of all your troubles all your amazements all your fears and dangers you first still lift up your heads and look to Heaven for comfort and fetch it thence by prayers and petitions 2. That in the midst of all calamities you yet remember your redemption is a coming and so lift up your heads with joy in the heat and fury of them all knowing that they are nothing else but so many forerunners of your glory Lastly that you look up and lift up your heads with thankfulness that he has thus accounted you worthy to see him in his glory and that your redemption is no further off That having thus begun to look up and lift up your voices in praises and thanksgiving upon earth he may lift you up into Heaven in soul and body at his coming there to sing Allelujahs with the Saints and Angels and the four and twenty Elders to him that sits upon the Throne and to the Lamb for evermore there to be partakers of all his Glory A SERMON ON The Fourth Sunday in Advent PHILIPPIANS iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand THE Text is a part of the Epistle for the day chosen you may conceive because the Lord that is the time of his coming is at hand A fit preparation thought by the Church for Christmas now so near to prepare us how to entertain the happy day the joyful news of our Lord Christs coming in the flesh To entertain it I say not with excess and riot but moderation not with rude tricks and gambols but softness and meekness not in vanity of clothes but modesty not in iniquity but equity somewhat departing from our own right and seeking occasions to do others right that all men may see and know we behave our selves like Servants expecting their Lords coming according to all the several senses of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated moderation in the Text but stretching further then any one English word can express it A word chosen by the Apostle to comprehend the whole duty if it might be of a Christian preparing for his Lord in the midst of much affliction and long wearied expectation back'd with an assurance that the Lord was now hard by a coming to deliver them The poor Philippians were somewhat sad or sad-like by the persecutions they suffered from the unbelieving Iews and Gnostick Hereticks that were among them many were daily falling off by reason of them ver 18. of the former Chapter and much hurt those dogs as the Apostle calls them ver 2. of that Chapter the concision that is those Hereticks had done or were like to do them But for all that says he Rejoyce and again Rejoyce in the verse before the Text rejoyce too that all men may see it see your joy in the Lord and in your sufferings for him yet so that they may see your moderation in it too that as you are not sad like men without hope so you are not merry like men out of their wits but as men that know their Lord is nigh at hand as well to behold their actions as to free them from their sufferings to see their patience and moderation as well as their trouble and persecution A perswasion it is or exhortation to patience and meekness and some other Christian Vertues which by examining the word you will see anon from the forementioned consideration A perswasion to moderation from a comfortable assurance of a reward the Lord at hand to give it A perswasion to prepare our selves because our Lord is coming A perswasion so to do it that all may know what we are a doing and what we are expecting that they may see we are neither asham'd of our Religion nor of our Lord that we neither fear mens malice nor our Lords mercy that we are confident he is at hand ready to succour and rescue all that patiently and faithfully suffer for him to take vengeance on his enemies and deliver his Servants out of all The time is now approaching even at the doors And if we apply this as we do all other Scriptures to our selves to teach us moderation and whatever else is contain'd under the word which is so rendred and draw down the Lords being at hand in the Text to all Christs comings in Flesh in Grace in Glory it will no way disadvantage the Text but advance it rather improve the Apostles sense and meaning to all Churches and times to prepare them all to go out to meet the Lord when or howsoever he shall come unto them And moderation must be it we must meet him with be the times what they will come the Lord how or when he please know we time or know it not be what will unknown our moderation must be known and yet his coming as unknown as it may be must be consider'd always in our minds it must be that the Lord is one way or other continually at hand Indeed I must confess the times were troublesom and dangerous when the Apostle thus exhorted and comforted the Philippians but the best times are dangerous danger there is as much of forgetting Christ in prosperity as of falling from him in adversity and as much need there is of moderation when all happinesses flow in upon us as when all afflictions fall upon us so the advice cannot be unseasonable And though we call'd the Text St. Pauls advice or the Christians duty in sad times and his comfort in them and so divide the words yet they will reach

civil and handsom terms gestures and carriage that we should carry our selves like men at least if we will not like Christians And for such times as the Text refers to 't is but seasonable 1. That the sufferers do not increase their sufferings with their own incivilities or corrupt or dishonour them by so doing and 2. That those that cause them to suffer do not enhance the others sufferings remembring that themselves also are but men and the spoke of the wheel as that Captive King observed which is now above may by and by be below again especially if it be true as true it is that the Lord is at hand his Chariot is coming after and the Mother of Sisera the greatest Captain need not ask why tarry the Wheels of it so long why is it so long a coming It will come and will not tarry 't is happy if it come not on us whilst we are ra●ting and railing against any whosoever 3. There is a third signification of the word for Modesty so the Latin renders it Modestia As fit a posture for sad times for any times be the Lord at hand or be he not as any whatsoever Not the peculiar vertue of women only though of them 1 Tim. ii 9. but of men too an especial way to win our adversaries to win Infidels to Christianity when they shall behold our conversation in all sweetness and composure our bodies comely and decently apparelled our gate sober our gesture grave our eyes modest our countenance compos'd our speech discreet our behaviour all in order when they shall see us merry without lightness jesting without scurrility sober without sullenness grave without doggedness compos'd without affectedness serious without dulness all our demeanour wholly bent to all Christian well-pleasingness at all times with all companies upon all occasions in all places and businesses This is nothing but moderation neither we may keep the English still moderation in our garb and habit and discourse and motion modesty that is moderation in them all 4. Yet there is a fourth acception of the word for that sweet and meek and gentle temper of the mind whereby we carry our selves patiently and unmov'd in persecution not rendring evil for evil to them that persecute us not vexing and tearing our selves upon it not studying revenge or returning mischief but on the contrary good for evil blessing for cursing prayers for imprecations committing our cause and our selves to God that judgeth righteously this is the true Christian moderation that to which we are called says S. Peter that of which Christ gave us an example suffered as well for that to give us an example of it as any thing else 1 S. Pet. ii 21 22 23. That to which belongs the blessing S. Mat. v. 5. from this Lord that is at hand 'T is the very vocation of a Christian the very design of the Christians Lord a blessedness there is in the very doing it when and whilst we so suffer we are blessed S. Mat. v. 10. even before that great reward in heaven bidden therefore ver 12. to rejoyce and be exceeding glad upon it bidden by S. Iames to count it all joy S. Iames i. 2. bidden by S. Paul in the verse before the Text to rejoyce and rejoyce again upon it Nay so exceeding joy it seems the Christian feels in it that he is fain upon the back of it in this very verse to call to us to be moderate in the expressing it to call to us for moderation in it lest we should even burst with it or overflow into some extraordinary effusions of it and so provoke more affliction by it Rejoyce the Apostle would have us in our sufferings for Christ but yet with moderation be meek and patient and contented and resigned in them yet not as we were sensless careless or desperate but discreet and moderate in them all neither so sensible of them nor anxious in them as to forget others and our respects due to any of them nor so sensless and careless to forget our selves and the care due unto our selves This the moderation most proper to the persons and time persons under persecution and in the time of being so the most seasonable advice and as seasonable to be given when the Lord is at hand moderation to be observed in the expectation of his coming They were not too hastily to expect it The Thessalonians were almost shaken in mind and troubled by so hasty a conceit that the day of Christ was at hand 2 Thess. ii 2. That Christ was just then a coming S. Paul was fain to stop their haste to moderate their expectation to tell them though the day was near it was not so near as they supposed it they must be content to expect a little longer some things were to be done first So necessary seems moderation in this point too lest expecting the Lord too soon and failing of him they should be shaken and fall away from him as if he had deceived them quit their Faith and Religion for want of patience and moderation Thus you have the four senses of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 four kinds of moderation Equity or Clemency Humanity or Civility Modesty or Sobriety and Meekness or Gentleness It follows next that they be shewed that we shew them all that we make them known Let your moderation be known For sufficient it is not always to do well we must be known to do it though not do it to be known yet be known to do it Indeed when we fast or pray or give alms or do any good work we must not do it that we may appear to men to do so St. Mat. vi 3 4 6 18. yet it must appear to men for all that sometimes that we do so Ye that is ye Christians are the light of the world and a light is not to be put under a bushel S. Mat. v. 15. but on a Candlestick to give light unto all that are in the house Let your light therefore shine before men ver 16. Shine so before them that they may see your good works see and glorifie glorifie God that has given such graces unto men glorifie him again by taking thence an example of such things to themselves There have been are still doubtless many that brag much of Faith and Holiness and Purity nay of Meekness and moderation too but if we call them to S. Iames his shew us them as he requires them by their works we may say as Christ said of the Lepers that were cleansed S. Luke xvii 18. There are scarce found one of ten that shew that return of Glory unto God if one they count him but a Samaritan no true Israelite for it though S. Iames says expresly Faith is dead where there is no such expression and for those other vertues the very action is so evidently outward that they must needs be known where they are they cannot be hid are not the vertues they pretend to if not

comfort and that such a one as he affords not to other Nations to give us by his word the knowledge of his Laws to reveal unto us his whole will and pleasure 6. 'T is a comfort to a miracle that he will yet draw nearer to us and draw us nearer to himself by the mysterious communication of himself his very Blood and Body to us No greater establishment to our souls no higher solace to our spirits no firmer hopes of the Resurrection of our bodies then by his thus not only being at hand but in our hands and in our mouths I speak mysteries in the spirit but the comfort never a whit the less the joy of the Spirit far the greater ever But all these comforts heapt together what comfort in the world like the faithful Christians all so great so certain so nigh at hand And yet if I take hint from the Churches choice of this Text for the front of her Epistle this day to her Children and say the Lord may be said to be at hand too because the Feast of his coming that coming which gave rise to all the rest the original of all the rest of his gracious comings is at hand to us I shall not strain much and to those that truly love his appearance that can really endure to hear of his coming any day that shall put 'um in mind of his being at hand must needs be a comfort a day of good tidings and this as well as any of the rest will afford us an argument to perswade to moderation to make it known to all men whatsoever at the time when the Grace of God appeared to all men whatsoever Which passes me over to the third general the connexion of the Christians Duty and his comfort or the perswasion to the duty from the comfort of the Lords coming And so many perswasive arguments there are from it as there are comings so many reasons to perswade moderation as there are ways of our Lords being at hand nay one more and it shall go first because it stand so The Lord it is we do it to to the Lord and not unto men let that go for the first reason 'T is to him and for his sake we are enjoyn'd it St. Paul thought it a good argument to perswade Servants to their duties Eph. vi 7. to do their service with a good will too and we all are Servants and here is our Lord. Here 2. and at hand on every hand We cannot go out of his presence Let that teach us righteousness and equity modesty and moderation to do all things as in his presence Would we but think this when we go about any thing did we but consider seriously the Lord was so near us heard us and look'd upon us our words would be wiser and our actions better We durst not look an immodest look nor speak an uncivil word nor do any iniquity or any thing out of order The Lord is at hand and sees what we are doing let all then be done with moderation 3. The Lord has taken on our nature and come nearer yet given us by it an example so to do to be so moderate as to wash even Iudas's feet to do good to be civil and modest and moderate even towards them that are ready to betray us who will do so the next hour have bargain'd for 't already he came so nigh us in our nature that we might so come nigh him in his Graces took up our nature that we might take up his example drew so nigh us that we might not draw off our affection from our brethren but serve them in love how ill soever they serve us he took hands and feet to be at hand to teach our hands and feet how to behave and moderate themselves towards others 4. He is at hand with his Grace to help us there is no excuse of impossibility By him I can do all things says the Apostle by Christ that strengthens me Phil. iv 13. Be it never so hard his grace is sufficient for us sufficient to enable us to all grace and vertue even the hardest and in the most difficult exigencies and occasions This he offers to us offers it abundantly more abundant grace Let us accept it then and walk-worthy of it in all modesty and moderation 5. He is at hand to our Prayers let us then desire the grace we just now spake of Deny us he will not do but knock and he comes presently To him that knocks says he it shall be opened Let us but come with meek and patient spirits in love and charity with all men forgiving them that we may be forgiven and speed we shall be merciful and moderate towards them so will God be merciful and moderate towards us moderate at least the punishments due to our iniquities The Lord is at hand always to hear such a mans prayers learn we therefore moderation 6. The Lord is near us in his word This is his command and will must therefore be performed If the will of the Lord be so that we must suffer for righteousness sake let every answer to our persecutors be with meekness and fear says S. Peter 1 Pet. iii. 15. for happy are you says he and therefore be not afraid of their terror neither be troubled ver 14. moderate your passions and your fears and esteem your selves happy by so suffering by so doing 'T is your Masters revealed will that so it should be 't is his way to draw you nearer to himself by working you to the image of his sufferings 7. The Lord is at hand the Iudge is coming At hand to reward us for all our sufferings all our patience and moderation all our modest and civil conversation all our righteousness and mercy Not one Sparrow not the least feather of a good work shall fall to the ground not one half farthing be lost not a hair of any righteous action perish he is at hand to take all up that nothing be lost At hand he is 2. to deliver us out of the hands of all that hate us if temporal deliverance be best to give us that if not to deliver us however over into glory At hand 3. to take revenge upon his enemies to repay his adversaries He came presently after this Epistle to do so to Ierusalem to destroy the incredulous Iews and Apostate Hereticks those persecutors of the Christian Faith came with a heavy hand that they fell to their utter ruine and desolation Thus he being at hand to reward and punish may well serve as an argument to perswade us to be patient for so short a while to be moderate both in our fears and desires in our words and in our actions to bear a while and say nothing to endure a while and do nothing for one there is a coming nay now at hand to deliver us to plead our cause to revenge our quarrel let us commit it to him He is the Judge of all the world and

judges right Let us do nothing but with moderation and not think much to shew it unto all when we are sure to be rewarded for it and those that observe it not are sure to be punished 8. The Lord is at hand in the blessed Sacrament and that is also now at hand but a week between us and it And moderation of all kinds is but a due preparation to it some special act of it to be done against it Righteousness and equity is the habitation of his seat says David the Lord sits not nor abides where they are not The holy Sacrament that is his Seat a Seat of wonder is not set but in the righteous and good soul has no efficacy but there Modesty and humility are the steps to it into the modest and humble soul only will he vouchsafe to come All reverence and civility is but requisite in our addresses unto it But moderation meekness and patience and sweetness and forgiving injuries is so requisite that there is no coming there no offering at the altar till we be first reconciled to our Brother Go be first reconciled to thy Brother says our Lord himself S. Mat. v. 24. so that now if we desire a blessing of the blessed Sacrament unto us if we desire the Lord should there come to us let our moderation be known to all men before we come Let us study the art of reconcilement let us not stand upon points of honour or punctilio's with our Brother upon quirks and niceties let us part with somewhat of our right let us do it civilly use all men with courtesie and civility express all modesty and sweetness in our conversation all softness and moderation patience and meekness gentleness and loving kindness towards all even the bitterest of our enemies considering the Lord is at hand the Lord of Righteousness expects our righteousness and equity the Lord in his body and looks for the reverent and handsom behaviour of our bodies the Lord of pure eyes and cannot endure any unseemliness or intemperance either in our inward or outward man the Lord that died and suffered for us and upon that score requires we should be content to suffer also any thing for him not to be angry or troubled or repine or murmur at it or at them that cause it At the Holy Sacrament he is so near at hand that he is at the Table with us reaches to every one a portion of himself yet will give it to none but such as come in an universal Charity with all the forementioned moderations Give me leave to conclude the Text as I began it and fix the last Argument upon the time The time is now approaching wherein the Lord came down from Heaven that he might be the more at hand Fit it is we should strive to be the more at hand to him the readier at his command and service the time wherein he moderated himself and glory as it were to teach us moderation appeared so to all that our moderation also might appear to all of what size or rank or sect whatsoever I remember a story of Constantia Queen of Arragon who having taken Charles Prince of Salerno and resolving to sacrifice him to death to revenge the death of her Nephew Conradinus basely and unworthily put to death by his Father Charles of Anjon sent the message to him on a Friday morning to prepare himself for death The young Prince it seems not guilty of his Fathers cruelty returns her this answer That besides other courtesies received from her Majesty in Prison she did him a singular favour to appoint the day of his death on a Friday and that it was good reason he should die culpable on that day whereon Christ died innocent The answer related so much mov'd Constantia that she sends him this reply Tell Prince Charles if he take contentment to suffer death on a Friday because Christ died on it I will likewise find my satisfaction to pardon him also on the same day that Iesus sign'd my pardon and the pardon of his Executioners with his Blood God forbid I shed the blood of a man on the day my Master shed his for me I will not rest upon the bitterness of revenge I freely pardon him Behold a Speech of a Queen worthy to command the world worthy a Christian indeed To apply it is only to tell you we may often take excellent occasions of vertue and goodness from times and days and bid you go and do likewis● The time that is at hand is a time to be celebrated with all Christian joy and moderation some particular and special act of Charity Equity Modesty Meekness Moderation to be sought out to be done in it or to welcome it The Feast of Love to be solemnized with an universal Charity the Lord at hand to be honoured with the good works of all our hands His coming to pardon and save sinners to be accompanied with a general reconcilement and forgiveness of all enemies and injuries of a moderation to be exhibited unto all Let your moderation then keep time as well as measure be now especially shewn and known and felt and magnified by all with whom we have to do that thus attending all his comings he may come with comfort and carry us away with honour come in grace and hear us come in mercy and pardon us come in his word and teach us come in spirit and dwell with us come in his Sacrament and feed and nourish us come in power and deliver us come in mercy and reward us come in glory and save us and take us with him to be nearer to him more at hand to sit at his right hand for evermore THE FIRST SERMON ON Christmas-Day ISAIAH Xi 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Iesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious AND in that day there shall be And in this day there was a root of Iesse that put forth its branch That day was but the Prophesie this day is the Gospel of it Now first to speak it in the Psalmists phrase truth flourished out of the earth now first the truth of it appeared Some indeed have applied it to Hezekiah and perhaps not amiss in a lower sense but the Apostle who is the best Commentator ever upon the Prophets applies it unto Christ Rom. xv 10. There we find the Text and him it suits to more exactly every tittle of it and of the Chapter hitherto than to Hezekiah or any else He was properly the branch that was then to grow out of old Iesse's root For Hezekiah was born and grown up already some years before thirteen at least He 2. it is whom the Spirit of the Lord does rest upon ver 2. upon Hezekiah and all of us it is the Dove going and returning Upon him 3. only it is that the Spirit in all its fulness with all its gifts wisdom and

receiving in the Text with the receiving in the day receive we him and his fulness him and his graces him with all thankfulness reverence and devotion Set we our selves to do it to draw waters out of these wells of salvation Isa. xii 3. by the hand of Faith and bucket of Humility out of these Fountains of our Saviour So the Latin reads it whose side runs out blood and water full streams of grace and pardon and all the gifts of the Holy Spirit if we will but come hither to draw or drink them We call it a receiving and so it is the most signal receiving that we have a receiving him full and whole Body and Blood Flesh and Spirit really though not corporally both let us therefore receive it Open we but our mouths wide and he will fill them open we our mouths to beg and we shall receive open them wide and full and we shall be fill'd with fulness too to day at this full table a table at this time full of all heavenly delicates and dainties Yet as we must open our mouths so we must open our hands too our mouths to receive our hands to give We receive of Christ 't is fit we give somewhat out of our receipts we receive of his fulness 't is but proportionbale that we give out of our fulness to those that are not full that our abundance may be the supply of others want as Christs fulness is of ours 'T is a day of fulness and all would be full the poor as well as the rich that all mouths might this day be filled with his praise 1 Cor. xi 20. This is not to eat the Lords Body for one to be full I give it the easiest word another to be hungry the poor must have their share they that have not says the Apostle that is the poor 'T is a Communion and all must communicate one way or other poor and all 'T is a feast of fulness both in the Church and in the House all must communicate of this days fulness one way or other in one sort or other and surely when we have filled our selves with the fulness of this house we cannot but fill others with the fulness of ours And yet there is one more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 another fulness to which this grace and fulness leads us to be filled henceforward with goodworks to be filled with the fruits of Righteousness and all the knowledge of Christ. For this it is that this fulness is received that this grace is received that this Grace-cup the cup of Salvation is received that all gifts and graces are received that we increase in grace go on in goodness proceed in all kinds of holy vertues till we come to the fulness of Christ to the fulness of his grace here and of his glory hereafter Send down thy Grace O heavenly Father that we may all receive this fulness at thy hand empty us of our sins empty us of our selves that we may henceforward be only fill'd with thee fill us this day with the plenteousness of thy table and reject us not though too unworthy fill us every day with the plenteousness of thy Grace and leave us not to our own weakness that we may go on from grace to grace from strength to strength from vertue to vertue till we come to be filled with the plenteousness of thy house to the fulness of joy and pleasure and grace and glory for evermore Amen Now to the God and Author of all this fulness all our receipts all good gifts and graces to the Father that gives to the Son that purchas'd to the Holy Ghost that conveys them to us be all the fulness of thanks and praise and honour and glory for ever and ever THE FOURTH SERMON ON Christmas-Day 1 TIMOTHY i. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Iesus came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief THis is a faithful saying And this is the day that made it so faithful and true wherein it could first be truly said that Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners for which both Text and Day are well worthy of acceptation Turn the whole Scripture over you will find no saying there more faithful that speaks God more faithful more to have kept his promise than this that tells us that Christ Jesus is come into the world He in whom all his promises are fulfilled And run through the year you will find no day more faithful than this that presents us the ground of all our Faith Christ Iesus come to save sinners Worthy of all acceptation too they must needs be both both Text and Day that brings salvation above all to sinners of which ye are a part and the Preacher chief I cannot but with gladness preach it nor you but with joy and attention hear it especially to day the day he came in in a time accepted in the day of salvation when Text and time so happily meet The day makes the Text seasonable The business of the Text makes the Day acceptable The necessities of poor sinners make both comfortable God make the Sermon profitable too and we have all we can desire to day The Text to be sure promises fair and St. Paul himself finds so much comfort in it by his own experience of the truth and sweetness of it in the former verses 12 13. that he here commends it to us as a saying worthy all the respect that we can give it worthy to be preach'd worthy to be believed worthy to be laid hold on worthy to be laid up faithfully and remembred That Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners After which saying nor he nor we have any more to say then that we are the chief of them so particularly to apply it And that I hope we will to day For the whole end both of the saying it self and S. Paul's saying it is but to dispose and move us worthily to accept Christ now he is come for whose coming the Church and we have been this month preparing And the sum of it to put us 1. in comfort first that how sadly soever things look'd with us before his coming by his coming now we may be sav'd for Christ Iesus came to save sinners and to put us secondly in the way how we may by believing 1. this faithful saying for a truth by accepting it 2. for a word worthy all acceptance by confessing lastly our selves the most unworthy of it yet the chief that need it Thus you have the full sense of the Text and both the Doctrine and Vse of Christmas in it The Doctrine that Christ Iesus came into the world to save sinners the Doctrine of Christmas The Vse of it to take it every one of us to himself take himself to be the quorum primus the chief of the quorum concerned in it the chief of sinners and therefore chiefly interessed in Christs coming This

to anoint the Humanity with the Deity without which he could not have been the Saviour could not have made satisfaction for so infinite a mass of sins Gods blessing meerly it was his meer goodness and blessing so to contrive salvation to us to enable the Manhood with the Godhead to go through the work of our Redemption God so loved the world that he sent his Son into the world in our mortal nature thus enabled thus beautified thus filled that we might all be partakers of his fulness 4. Yet in the fourth place though Christ as meer man could not deserve this grace and beauty yet when once the Manhood was united to the Godhead then he deserv'd the second blessing Then propterea therefore God hath blessed him is as true a rendring as the other then when being found in fashion as a man he humbled himself and became obedient unto death then comes in St. Paul's therefore or wherefore rightly Phil. ii 8 9. Wherefore God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name above every name that at the name of Iesus every knee should bow that we should bow our selves in humility and thankfulness unto him that every tongue should confess all tongues bless him and bless God for him that we might praise him in the Church in the midst of the Congregation For a double blessing has Christ purchas'd to himself a blessing upon his Person and a blessing upon his Church By his Grace and Beauty he has first purchas'd to himself a name and then a Church a glorious one too Ephes. v. 27. made himself the head of it For it pleased God that in him should all fulness dwell it pleased him also by that fulness to reconcile all things to himself to make him the head of all the Saviour of them all to bless him in the ordinary stile of Scripture where children are called the blessing of the Lord to bless him with an everlasting seed a Church and people to the end of the world do the gates of Hell what they can against it 5. There remains nothing now but our Benedixit to answer God's our blessing to answer his We to bless him again for all his blessings For to that purpose is both Christs grace and Gods blessing all his blessings therefore fulness of grace in him that it might be diffus'd and poured out upon us therefore diffus'd and poured out upon us that we might pour out something for it Bene fecit for Benedixit some good works or other at least Benedixit for Benedixit good words for it blessing for blessing Indeed 't is but Benedixit here with God but dixit fecit he said and it was done saying and doing are all one with God should be so with us if we would be like him our deeds as good as our words our piety as fair as our pretences that 's the only truly blessing God And the likest too to last in secula to hold for ever Good words and praising God in words is but the leaves of the tree of blessing and leaves you know will wither the stock and trunck is blessing God in earnest by good works by expressing the diffusions of this grace in our lives and actions by imitating and conforming our selves to the beauty of this beloved If he be so fair as you have seen it how can we now but love him if his lips so full of grace how can we but delight to hear him to hear his word If blessed how can we less then strive to be partakers of his blessing If for ever how can we but desire to be ever with him perpetually attending him If his beauty was Gods blessing let us humbly acknowledge ours comes all from him If the grace of his lips were the blessing of Gods let us know we are not able of our selves to speak so much as a good word as of our selves If again he was therefore blessed because he was so beautiful and so diffus'd his grace us'd both his beauty and eloquence to bring about the children of men to become the children of God let us so employ those smaller glimmerings of beauty and gifts of grace we have to the service and glory of God and his Christ. We dote much upon worldly beauties we think we talk we dream of them our minds and affections are ever on them wholly after them Why do we not so on Christ and after him he is the fairest of ten thousand Solomon in all his glory not like him none of all the Sons of Adam comes near him Why do we not then delight to look upon him to discourse with him to talk of him to be ever with him What 's the reason we do not season our labours our recreations our retirements our discourses with him We are easily won with fair words and gracious speeches Lo here are lips the most eloquent that ever were why do we not even hang upon them why do we not with the Spouse in the Canticles desire him to kiss us with the kisses of his lips to communicate his fulness to us Indeed I can render no cause at all but that we are so immerst in flesh and earthly beauties that we cannot see the true heavenly beauty of Christ or we do not believe it And yet this Jesus is every where to be seen his Ministers his Word his daily Grace preventing directing and assisting preserving and delivering us the creatures plainly and evidently enough discover him daily to us But to day we have a fairer discovery and sight of him This Iesus that is so fair this Iesus so full of grace this Iesus so blessed of God for ever is this day presented to us in his Blessed Sacrament there is he himself in all his beauty all his fulness Say we then to him Come in thou blessed of the Lord come in we have made ready and prepared the house for thee and for thy Camels for thy self and those consecrated elements that carry and convey thee Get we our vessels ready and shut the door to us as the poor Widow did shut out all worldly thoughts and wandring fancies that he may pour out his oyl his grace into them till they be full And pour we out our souls before him in all devotion and humility in all praise and thanksgiving Is not the cup we are to take the cup of blessing in the Apostles stile take we it then and bless him with it taste and see how gracious the Lord is see and behold how fair he is how amiable and lovely and be ravish'd with his beauty and sweetness and never think we can be satisfied with it with seeing or hearing or blessing him but be always doing so for ever So shall he make us fair with his beauty good with his grace happy with his blessedness bring us one day to see his face in perfect beauty and so see his grace poured out into glory there to bless and praise and magnifie him for ever

by a Fire Here it was first he visited in person 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was but a looking down from heaven till now a looking on us at a distance and that was a blessing too that he would any way look upon such poor worms as we it could not be construed visiting properly till this day came Now first it is so without a figure Yet is not good old Zachary too quick Does he not cry out 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 too soon our blessed Saviour was not yet born how says he then the Lord hath visited and redeemed his people Answer we might the good old man here prophesied 't is said so just the verse before and after the manner of Prophets speaks of things to come as done already But we need not this strain to help us out Christ was already really come down from heaven had been now three months incarnate had begun his visit had beheld the lowliness of his handmaid says his Blessed Mother ver 48. The Angel had told her twelve weeks since Her Lord was with her ver 28. of this Chapter Blessed Zachary understood it then no less than his Wife Elizabeth that proclaimed it ver 43. though he could not speak it As soon as he could he does and breaks out into a Song of Praise that was his prophesying for this new made Visit this new rais'd Salvation That word slipt e're I was aware comes in before the time But 't is well it did you might else perhaps have mistaken visiting for punishing so it went commonliest in Scripture till to day It does not here This business has alter'd it from its old acception And yet punishing sometimes is a blessing too 'T is a mercy we oft stand in need of to bring us home to God But it is infinitely a greater when he comes himself to fetch us home as now he does Shall I shew you how great it is Why then 1. It is a visit of Grace and honour that he made us here he visited us as great and noble persons do their inferiours to do them honour Hence Whence it is to me says St. Eliz. that the Mother of my Lord should come unto me c. ver 43. She good soul knew not how to value such an honour nor whence it was Whence then is this O Lord that the Lord of that Blessed Mother my Lord himself should come unto me That 's a far higher honour and no reason of it to be given but that so it shall be done to those whom this great King of Heaven and Earth delighteth thus to honour 'T is a blessing first this that we speak of by which God owns and honours us 2. It was a visit of Charity He visited his people as charitable men do the poor mans house to seek some occasion to bestow an Alms. He went about doing good says S. Peter Acts x. 38. As poor as he was and the Apostle tells us poor he was he had a bag for the poor S. Iohn xii 6. and for our sakes it was he became poor says S. Paul 2 Cor. viii 9. emptied bag and himself and all to make us rich His visit now 2. is a blessing that makes us rich 3. It was a visit of Service too He visited us as the Physician does his Patient to serve his necessity to cure and recover him The innumerable multitudes of the sick and lame and blind and deaf and dumb and Lepers and possessed that he daily healed and cured will sufficiently evince he visited them also as a Physician So 't was a blessing 3. that cures all diseases makes all sound and whole again 4. His visit 4. was a visit of brotherly love and kindness He visited us as David did his Brethren to supply their wants carry them provision and take their pledge 1 Sam. xvii 17. He did so and much more becomes himself by this visit our Provision makes his Body our meat and his Blood our drink and himself our pledge supplies all our defects and wants and enters himself body for body and soul for soul to make all good This a visiting no brother could do more no brother so much 5. His visit 5. was not of petty kindnesses but great mercies abundant mercies too He visited us as holy David says he does the earth Psal. lxv 9 11. Thou visitest the earth and blessest it thou makest it very plenteous Thou waterest her furrows thou sendest rain into the little Vallies thereof thou makest it soft with the drops of rain and blessest the increase of it He not only furnishes our necessities but replenishes us with abundances makes us soft and plump and fat and fruitful by his heavenly dews and showers This 5. a visit of abundant superabundant mercies 6. His visit 6. was a visit of Friendship and that 's more yet He visited us as blessed Mary did her Cousin Elizabeth came to us to rejoyce and be merry with us So acquainted has he now made himself with us by this visit that he now vouchsafes to call us friends S. Iohn xv 15. he eats and drinks and dwells and tarries with us makes it his delight to be among the sons of men This is a visit I know not a name good enough to give it And yet lastly his visit was not of a common and ordinary friendship neither but of a friendship that holds to death He visited us as the Priest or Confessor does the dying man When health and strength and mirth and Physicians and Friends have all given us over he stands by and comforts us and leaves us not till he has fitted us wholly to his own bosom A visit of everlasting friendship or an everlasting visit was this visit in the Text. Thus I have shewed you a seven-fold visit that our Lord has made us made Gods first blessing into seven A visit of Honour a visit of Charity a visit of Service a visit of Kindness a visit of Mercy a visit of Friendship and a visit of everlasting Love All these ways he visited his people and still visits them all the ways he can imagine to bless them and do them good And yet I should have thought I had forgot one if it did not fall in with the blessing we are to consider next Redeeming For he visited us also as he is said to do the children of Israel Gen. l. 24. to bring us out of the Land of Egypt out of the house of bondage He visited us to redeem us or visited and redeemed 2. Now if redeem'd Captives it seems we were And so we were under a fourfold Captivity To the World to Sin to Death and to the Devil The World 1. that had ensnared and fettered us so wholly taken us that it had taken away our names and we were called by the name of the World instead of that of Men as if we were grown such worldlings that we had even lost our natures and our names even the best of us the Elect are sometimes called

so too To redeem our honours and us thence God sent his Son says S. Iohn iii. 17. and he chose us out of it St. Iohn xv 19. Sin 2. that had made us Captives too chain'd us up so fast that the best of us cannot but cry out sometimes O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me Rom. 7. 24. And none but this visitour could or can God through Iesus Christ so S. Paul presently adds upon it and would have us thank and bless him for it Death that had also got dominion over us for no more dominion Rom. vi 9. signifies it had it once and kept us shrewdly under Rom. v. 17. But Christ Iesus by his appearing they are the Apostles words has abolish'd death 2 Tim. i. 10. Made us free from sin and death Rom. viii 2. The Devil 4. he took us captive also at his will 2 Tim. ii 26. But for this purpose was the Son of God manifested says S. Iohn that he might destroy the works of the Devil 1 S. John iii. 8. And as high as the Fiend carries it he will bruise him under our feet Rom. xvi 20. Now to be delivered from such masters as these is a blessing without question All the question is how either Zachary could say so long before our Saviour's Birth or we so presently upon it he hath redeemed when S. Paul says 't was by his Blood Col. i. 22. S. Peter through his death 1 S. Peter i. 19. Why very well both the one and the other At his Birth was this Redemption first begun the foundation laid at his Death 't was finished In his Incarnation and Nativity he took the flesh that died and the blood he shed and we might truly have been said to be redeemed by his Blood though he had not shed it and by his Death though he had not died because he had already taken on our flesh and blood and from that very moment became mortal and began to dye or to speak a little plainer He brought the price of our Redemption with him at his Birth He paid it down for us at his Death The Writings as it were and Covenants between God and Him about it were agreed on at his Birth were engrossing all his Life and seal'd by him at his Death So 't is as true to day as any day He redeemed And had not this day been first in the business the other could not have been at all or first or last O Blessed Day that hast thus laid the foundation of all our good ones O ever Blessed Lord who hast thus visited and redeemed us what shall we do unto thee how shall we bless thee 3. Nay and yet 3. thou hast sav'd us too That 's the next blessing to be considered And 't is worth considering For redeem'd indeed we might be and yet not saved Redeem'd and yet fall again into the same bad hands or into worse redeem'd from evils past and yet perish by some to come 'T is this salvation that makes all safe Where 1. we are saved from our enemies and from the hand of all that hate us ver 71. every thing that may hereafter hurt us as well as we were redeemed from all that did Nor life nor death nor height nor depth nor any thing can separate us now from the love of God in Christ Jesus Rom. viii 39. all things shall continually work for good ver 28. all work henceforward for our salvation Especially seeing he saves us 2. from our sins as the Angel tells us S. Mat. i. 21. Does not redeem us only from the slavery of our former sins and the punishments we lay sadly under for them but preserves and saves us from slipping back into the old and from falling into new ones 'T is a continual salvation Nay 3. 'T is an eternal one too he saves us with He the Author of eternal salvation Heb. v. 9. There we shall be safe indeed All salvations here may have some clouds to darken them some winds to shake them something sometimes to interrupt them somewhat or other to tarnish or soil their glory New enemies may be daily raised up to us Sin will be always bustling with us here we had need to be sav'd and sav'd again daily and hourly sav'd but with this salvation once sav'd and sav'd for ever Well may we pray with holy David Psal. cvi 4. O visit us with this salvation And well may we term it now as our Translation does a mighty salvation 4. And mighty sure we may justly stile it For it required a mighty Power a mighty Person a mighty Price and mighty Works to bring such mighty things to pass And it had them all 1. A mighty Power Almighty too No created Power could do it Horse and man and all things else but vain things to save a man to deliver his soul from the hand of Hell Psal. xxxiii 17. lxxxix 47. 2. A mighty Person the very God of might I the Saviour and besides me none Isa. xliii 11. No other person able to effect it 3. A mighty price it cost No corruptible things says S. Peter 1 Pet. i. 18. Nothing but the blood of the Son of God the precious Blood of Iesus Christ no less could compass it 4. Mighty works lastly and mighty workings to work things about Miracles and wonders good store it cost to accomplish the work of our salvation such as he only who was mighty before God and all the people St. Luke xxiv 19. could bring to pass And this adds much to the glory of this salvation that it was done by such great hands and ways as these But not the works only that wrought it but the works it wrought speak the salvation mighty too Mighty for certain which neither the unworthiness of our persons nor the weaknesses of our natures nor the habits of our sins nor the imperfections of our works nor the malice of our enemies nor any power or strength or subtilty of men or Devils were able to hinder or controul but that maugre all it spread it self to the very ends of the earth carried all before it A salvation we may trust to we need not fear in this mercy of the most highest we shall not miscarry 5. For 5. we have here gotten a good Horn to hold by A horn of salvation the original gives it a salvation not only strong but sure Salvation that is a Saviour too one that we may confidently lay hold on one that neither can nor will deceive or fail us For 1. He is a King so the Horn signifies in the Prophetick phrase Dan. vii 8. The four and seven and ten Horns there so many Kings and it stands not with the honour of a King to deceive or disappoint us 2. And he is not a King without a Kingdom He hath a Kingdom 2. and power to help us The Horn signifies that too in the stile of Prophesie because in the Horn lies the strength and power and dominion

c. THE SEVENTH SERMON ON christmas-Christmas-Day 2 COR. viii 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich FOR ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ. And do you know any grace of the Lord Jesus Christ like this days grace the grace of Christmas any grace or favour like that grace and favour he this day did us when he so grac'd our nature as to take it on him surely whether this grace be his becoming poor or our making rich never was it seen more then this day it was Never was he poorer then this day shew'd him a poor little naked thing in rags Never we rich till this day made us so when he being rich became poor that we being poor might be made rich And rich not in the worst but in the best riches rich in grace but above all grace in Christmas grace in love and liberality to the poor the very grace which the Apostle brings in the poverty of Christ here to perswade the Corinthians to See says he that ye abound in this grace also ver 7. For ye know the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ. He was so full of it that though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor made himself poor to make us rich that being made rich we might be rich To the poor bestow some of his own riches upon him again some at least upon him who gave us all supply his poverty who enricht ours be the more bountiful to the poor seeing he is now become like one of them that as through his poverty we were made rich so even in our very poverty we might abound also to the riches of liberality So the Macedonians did ver 2. So would he fain have the Corinthians too here in covert terms so he would be understood and so are we to understand him Christs poverty here brought in as an argument to perswade to liberality A grace so correspondent to the pattern of the Lord Iesus so answerable both to the purport of Christmas and the purpose of the Text that 't is hard to say whether the Day better explains the Text or the Text the Day For whether we take the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ towards us downward or the grace of the Lord Jesus in us towards him upward whether for the grace he did us in becoming poor for our sakes or for the grace we are to shew to his poor members for his sake again for his becoming poor and making of us rich I see not how or where I could have chosen a better Christmas Text a Text for the Day or a Day for the Text. For here is both the Doctrine and Vse of Christmas the Doctrine of Christs free Grace and the free Use and Application of it too The Doctrine That our Lord Iesus Christ though he was rich yet for our sakes he became poor that through his poverty we might be rich The Vse That we are to know it and acknowledge it know it for a grace and favour yea know the grace know it for a pattern too For ye know it that is to that end ye know it to take pattern by it to return grace again for grace to shew grace to his for his grace to us to supply his poverty in his members for his so gracious supplying ours to answer the riches of his grace with being rich in this grace also in the grace of love and charity to the poor the best way to be rich and to abound to the riches of his glory But more to appropriate it to the Day you may please to take it in these particulars Christs Birth The Christians benefit The evidence of both The Inference upon all 1. Christs Birth Egenus factus when he became poor 2. The Christians benefit Propter nos it was for your sakes it was ut vos divites That ye through his poverty might be rich 3. The evidence of both Scitis no less then that of Science ye know it 4. The inference upon all scitis enim For ye know it for what for a grace and favour Scitis gratiam the first And ut vos divites essetis that we might be rich in the same grace he was Then secondly that ye may do answerable to your knowledge for propter nos it is for our sakes he became poor that for his sake we might look the better upon the poor for that he made us rich that we might be rich in good works for that he made us rich by the way of poverty that we might know our riches have a near relation to poverty are given us for the poor as well as for our selves These are the parts and of all these the sum is that Christs Birth is the Christians benefit the knowledge of which ought to stir us up to Christian Charity or nearer the phrase of the Text that our Lord Jesus Christ though he was rich became poor to make us rich rich in all good gifts and graces but especially in this of love and mercy to the poor came down in grace to us to that purpose both in the Text and in the Day the whole and business of them both I shall prosecute it in order and begin with those words in the Text that seem to point us to the Birth of Christ egenus factus and if that were the original the factus would be plain for his being made man But as it is 't is plain enough he could not become poor but by becoming man I. For there is not so poor a thing as man indeed no creature poor but man no creature lost its estate and place and honour thrust out of doors and turned as it were a begging abroad into the wide world but man Other creatures keep their nature and place to which they were created man only he kept nothing first lost his clothes his robe of innocence in which he was first clad was then turned naked out of his dwelling out of Paradise only his nakedness covered a little with a few ragged leaves fain upon that to work and toil and labour for his living to get his bread forc'd to run here and there about the world to get it all the creatures that were lately but his servants stood gazing and wondering at him and knew him not would no longer own him for their Lord he look'd so poor so despicable when he had sinn'd they that before were all at his command by the dominion he had received over them now neither obey'd his command nor knew his voice so perfectly had he lost the very semblance of their late great Master so perfectly poor was he become The Devil kept a power and awe and Principality though he lost his seat got a Kingdom though he lost his glory But man lost all glory and grace riches and honour estate and power peace and ease shelter

the lowest price a man could be thirty pieces of Silver So poor he could scarce speak out Non clamabit says the Prophet he shall not cry he did not says the Evangelist S. Mat. xii 18. It was fulfilled You could scarce hear his voice in the streets ver 19. In a word so poor that he was as I may say asham'd of his name denied it as it were to him that called him by it S. Matth. xix 17. Why callest thou me good when yet he only was so Lastly poor he was in his Death too betray'd by one Disciple denied by another forsaken by the rest stript off to his very skin abus'd derided despis'd by all died the most ignominious death of all the death of Slaves and Varlets And can you now tell me how he should become poorer or can you tell me why we should think much at any time to become poor like him or not rather cry out O Blessed Poverty that art now sanctified by Christs putting on How canst thou but be desirable and becoming since Christ himself became poor If God become man what man would be an Angel though he might If Christ the eternal riches think it becomes him to be poor who would make it his business to be rich Give me rags for clothes bread for meat and water for drink a Stable for a Palace the earth for a bed and straw for a covering so Christ be in them so he be with them so this poverty be his so it be for him I will lay me down in peace and take my rest upon the hardest stone or coldest ground and I will eat my brownest bread and pulse and drink my water or my tears with joy and gladness now they are seasoned by my Masters use I will neglect my body and submit my spirit and hold my peace even from good words too because he did so I will be content with all because he was so The servant must not be better than his Lord nor the Disciple than his Master Our Lord poor our Iesus poor our Christ poor and we striving to be rich what an incongruity The Camel and the needles eye never fitted worse Poverty we must be contented with if we will have him poor at least in spirit we must be ready for the other when it comes and when it comes we must think it is becoming very much become the Disciple to be like the Master the servant wear his Lords livery For our sakes he became poor and we must not therefore think much to be made so for his be it to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the extreamest Especially seeing poverty is no such Gorgon no such terrible lookt Monster since Christ wore it over his richest Robes even chose to be poor though he was rich would needs be poor and appear to be so for all his riches Indeed it was the riches of his grace that made him poor had he not been rich superlatively rich in that in grace and favour to us he would never have put on the tatters of humanity never at least have put on the raggedest of them all not only the poverty of our nature but even the nature of poverty that he might become like one of us and dwell among us And it was the riches of his glory too that could turn this poverty to his glory What glory like that which makes all things glorious rags and beggary what riches like his or who so rich as he that can make poverty more glorious then the Robes and Diadems of Kings and Emperours who so often for his Religion sake have quitted all their secular glories plenties delicates and attendants for russet coats and ordinaty fare and rigours and hardships above that which wandring beggars suffer in the depth of Winter Christianity no sooner began to dawn into day but that we find the professors selling all Acts iv as if they thought it an indecency at least to possess more than their Master did though they were rich they became poor because their Lord became so though he was rich But when men of rich become poor the case is much different yet from that of Christs men cease to be rich when they come to poverty but not so Christ he is poor and rich together 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 being rich he yet shewed poor Prov. xxii 2. The rich and poor meet together never truer any way then here utriusque operator est Dominus the Lord is both himself as well as worker of them both in others For in this low condition of his it is that S. Paul yet talks so often of the riches of Christ the riches of his grace Eph. i. 7. the riches of his Glory Eph. iii. 16. the riches of the glory of his inheritance Eph. i. 18. the exceeding greatness of his power Eph. i. 19. the exceeding riches Eph. ii 7. the unsearchable riches of Christ Ephes. iii. 8. Christ he in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge Col. ii 3. his very reproach and poverty greater riches then all the treasures of Egypt Heb. xi 26. So Moses thought and reckon'd says the Apostle when he saw his riches but under a veil saw but a glimpse and shadow of them at two thousand years distance too So rich is Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the only rich so great are his riches Indeed the riches of the Godhead that is all riches indeed dwell all in him though he became man he left not to be God our rags only cover'd the Robes of the Divinity his poverty only serv'd for a veil to cover those unspeakable riches to teach us not to boast and brag at any time of our riches not to exalt our selves when we are made rich or when the glory of our house is increased but to be as humble notwithstanding as the poorest and lowest wretch to teach us 2. that riches and poverty may stand together as well in Christians as in Christ the riches of grace and the poverty of estate and again the riches of estate and poverty of Spirit To teach us 3. not to put off the riches of grace for fear of poverty not quit our Religion or our innocence for fear of becoming poor by them to teach us lastly that we may be rich in Gods sight In truth and verity how poor soever we are in the eyes of the world how needy and naked soever we appear He that being in the form of God thought it no robbery to be equal with God even whilst he was so made himself of no reputation of as low a rank as could be and being the brightness of his Fathers Glory the express image of his person and upholding all things with the word of his power veils all this glory darkens all this brightness conceals all this power under the infirmities and necessities of flesh and poverty yet only veils all this great riches hides and lays it up for us that through his poverty we might be

desires or place our affections upon earthly rubbish not to precount our lands or houses our clothes or furniture our full bags or our numerous stock and daily encrease our riches but to reckon Christ our riches his Grace our wealth his reproach our honour his poverty our plenty his glory the sum and crown of all our riches and glory For if you know the grace of the Lord Iesus Christ this you know also that 't is worth the seeking that 't is riches and honour and glory how poor soever it look to the eye of the world The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ it is only that makes us rich and poverty his way to enrich us by contrary to the way of the world and this ye know says the Apostle 'T is so plain and evident I need not tell you it for ye know it The third point the evidence of all that has been said 3. For ye know it for ye know nothing if you know not this It was a thing not done in a corner all the corners of the world rang of it from the utmost corners of Arabia to the ends of the earth The wise men came purposely from the East to see this poor little new-born Child tibi serviet ultima Thule sang the Poet the utmost confines of the West came in presently to serve him the whole world is witness of it long ago Nor were ever Christians ashamed either of this grace or poverty until of late It was thought a thing worth knowing worth keeping in remembrance by an anniversary too Indeed were it not a thing well known it would not be believed that the Lord of all should become so poor as to have almost nothing of it all But we saw it says St. Iohn i. 14. the word made flesh this great high Lord made little and low enough heard it saw it with our eyes lookt upon it and our hands too handled it 1 St. Iohn i. 1. had all the evidence possibly could be had the evidence of ear and eye and hand know it by them all And not we only not St. Iohn only but all men know it For this grace of God that bringeth salvation that is the true grace of our Lord Jesus Christ hath appeared unto all men says St. Paul Titus ii 11. So that they either know it or if they know it not 't is their own fault for it has appeared and has been often declared unto them so that 't is no wonder that the Apostle should tell the Corinthians that they know it they could not be Christians without knowing it nor it seems men in those days neither that knew it not And yet as generally as it was known it was a grace to know it one of the most special gifts and graces the knowledge of the grace of Christ. For ye know the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ and that ye know it is his grace You could not know it without it none but they to whom it is given can know it as they should 4. That we may know it so as well as they we are now in the last place to consider what the Apostle would infer upon us by it what should be the issue of this knowledge 1. The acknowledgment of the grace and then 2. the practice of it For ye know the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ that though he was rich yet he so lov'd the poor as to bestow all his riches freely upon them upon us that were poor and naked and miserable and being thrust out of our first home never since could find any certain dwelling-place And therefore we 2. after his example being now enricht by him should be rich in our mercy and bounty to the poor for if his grace was such to us when we were poor we should shew the like to the poor now we are rich But that we may be the readier to this we must first be sensible of the other throughly sensible of the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ acknowledge it for a grace a thing meerly of his own good will and favour that he would thus become poor to make us rich Know we and acknowledge many graces in this one grace A grace to our humanity that he would grace it with putting on A grace to poverty that he would wear that too A grace to our persons as well as to our natures that it was for our sakes he did it A grace to our condition that it was only to enrich it Know we then again and acknowledge it from hence 1. That poverty is now become a grace a grace to which the Kingdom of God is promised St. Mat. v. 3. poverty of spirit Nay the poor and vile and base things too hath God chosen saith St. Paul 1 Cor. i. 28. the poor are now elect contrary quite to the fancy that the Iews had of them whose proverb it was that the Spirit never descended upon the poor answerable to which it was then the cry Can any good thing come out of Nazareth any Prophet or great good come out of so poor a place as that 2. Know we again that Christs poverty above all or poverty for his sake is a grace indeed for to you 't is given given as a great gift of grace and honour to suffer for his name Phil. i. 29. And 't is a part of our calling says St. Peter 1 S. Pet. ii 21. a specialty of that grace 3. Know we 3. that our Riches are his Grace too In vain we rise up early and go late to bed all our care and pains and labour is nothing to make us rich without his blessing The blessing of the Lord it is that maketh rich 4. Know we however these may prove the riches of Christ can prove no other All the vertues and graces of our souls all the spiritual joy fulness and contentment are meerly his they the proper Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ no grace above them no grace near them nothing can render us so gracious in the eyes of God as they they are above Gold and Rubies and precious Stones These and all the rest being acknowledged in the Text we may well acknowledge that there was good reason to put an Article an Emphasis upon 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the grace Yet to make all up all these graces you must know all the several graces outward and inward come all from this one grace of Christs becoming poor being made man and becoming one of us To this it is we owe all we have or hope to the Grace of Christ at Christmas and therefore now are to add some practice to all this knowledge to return some grace again for all this grace Gratia is thanks let 's return that first thank God and our Saviour for this grace of his whence all grace flows and for all the several graces as they at any time flow down upon us Gratia Deo thanks to God 2. Gratia is good will and favour let 's shew

that to others Good will towards men 3. But good will is not enough good works are graces let 's study to encrease and abound and to be rich in them 4. Yet Gratia is in St. Pauls stile in this Chapter ver 1. and elsewhere bounty and liberality to the poor rich in this grace especially we are to be 'T is the peculiar grace of Christmas hospitality and bounty to the poor 'T is the very grace St. Paul here provokes the Corinthians to by the example of those of Macedonia and Achaia ver 1. who to their power and beyond their power he bears them witness were not only willing to supply the necessities of the Saints but even entreated him and them to take it By the example 2. of Christ who both became himself poor that we might be the more compassionate to the poor now he was in the number and made us rich that we might have wherewith to shew our compassion to them Now surely if Christ be poor and put himself among them who would not give freely to them seeing he may chance even to give to Christ himself among them when he gives however what is given to any of them he owns it as to himself S. Mat. xxv 40. What ye d● to any of the least of these my brethren ye do it unto me And can any that pretends Christ be so wretchedly miserable as not to part with his mony upon this score Can any be so ungrateful as not to give him a little who gave them all shall he become poor for our sakes and we not shew our selves rich for his it were too little in reason not to make our selves poor again for him not to be as free to him as he to us Yet he will be contented with a little for his all that we should out of our abundance supply the want of his poor Members He is gracious Behold the grace of our Lord I in this too in complying with our infirmities not commanding us as he might to impoverish our selves with acts of mercy but to be only rich and abundant in them to which yet he promises more grace still the reward of glory Come ye blessed of my Father ye who supply and help my poor ones come inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world where ye that have followed me in my poverty or become poor for my sake or have been rich in bounty to the poor as it were to a kind of poverty shall then reign with me amidst all the riches of eternal Glory THE EIGHTH SERMON ON christmas-Christmas-Day PSAL. viii 4 5. What is man that thou art mindful of him and the Son of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower then the Angels to crown him with glory and worship BUT Lord What is man or the Son of man that thou didst this day visit him that thou this day crownedst him with that glory didst him that honour so we may begin to day for 't is a day of wonder of glory and worship to stand and wonder at Gods mercy to the sons of men and return him glory and worship for it For Lord what is man that the Son of God should become the Son of man to visit him that God should make him lower then the Angels who is so far above them that he might crown us who are so far below them with glory and honour equal to them or above them It was a strange mercy that God should make such a crum of dust as man to have dominion over the works of his own hands that he should put all things in subjection under his feet that he should make the Heavens the Moon and Stars for him and the Psalmist might very well gaze and startle at it But to make his Son such a thing of nought too such a Quid est that no body can tell what it is what to speak low enough to express it such a Novissimus hominum such an abject thing as man such a cast-away as abject man as the most abject man bring him below Angels below men and then raise him up to Glory again that he might raise up that vile thing called man together with him and restore the Dominion when he had lost it is so infinitely strange a mercy that 't is nearer to amazement than to wonder And indeed the Prophet here is in amaze and knows not what to say Both these mercies he saw here but he saw not how to speak them Gods mercy in mans Creation and Gods mercy in mans Redemption too What God made man at first and to what he exalted him when he had made him What God made his Son for man at last what he made him first and last lower then the Angels first higher then they at last that he might shew the wonders of his mercy to poor man both first and last But if David did not see both in the words he spake the Apostle did for to Christ he applies them Heb. ii 6 7. And that 's authority good enough for us to do so to bring it for a Christmas Text especially Christ himself applying the second verse Out of the mouths of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength as spoken in relation to himself St. Matth. xxi 16. And that 's authority somewhat stronger Yet to omit nothing of Gods mercy to do right on all hands to Prophet and Apostle and Christ too we shall take them in both senses To refer them to man the plain letter with the whole design and context of the Psalm is sufficient reason To understand them yet of Christ he himself and his Apostle will bear us out And though the Text be full of wonder it is no wonder that it has two senses most of the old Testament and Prophesies have so a lower and a higher a literal and a more sublime sense Thus out of Egypt have I called my son Hos. xi i. Rachels weeping for her children Jer. xxxi 14. I have set my King upon my holy Hill of Sion Psal. ii 6. all applied to Christ or his business and affairs and yet spoken first to other purposes of Israel or David I should lose time to collect more places 'T is better I should tell you the sum of this that it is the Prophet Davids wonder at Gods dealing towards man and his dealing towards Christ that he should deal so highly mercifully towards man and so highly strangely towards Christ so mercifully with man as to remember him to visit him to make him but little lower then the Angels and crown him with glory and worship So strangely with Christ as to make him a Son of man and lower then the Angels first then afterward to crown him with glory and worship Things all to be highly wondered at And the Text best to be divided into Gods mercy and Davids wonder I. Gods mercy manifested here in three particulars 1. In his dealing with man What is man

by the mouth of the Holy Spirit of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 God himself now quitted of injustice and want of bowels of compassion You have a witness of it undeniable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 my eyes have seen it Salvation clear even to the sense and to the certain'st the sight The eye may see it 2. Viderunt oculi he might have added contractaverunt manus me● and his hands handled it but if the eye see it we need not sue to the hand for certainty 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 these eyes No longer now the eyes of Prophesie those are grown dim and almost out Isaiah indeed could say is born is given so certain was he of it but never viderunt oculi for all that be never liv'd to see it one degree this above the infallibility of Prophesie Time was when this Salutare tuum was inveloped in clouds It was so till this day came a mystery kept secret since the world began lockt up in Heaven so close that mine eyes have wasted away with looking for thy saving health O Lord sighs David and the Church answers him with Vtinam disrumperes coelos Break the Heavens O Lord and come down O utinam O would thou wouldst But now as we have heard so have we seen thy salvation Nor need we any extraordinary piercing eye to see it so plain and manifest is the object that eyes almost sunk into their holes eyes over which the curtains of a long night are well nigh drawn eyes veiled with the mists of age eyes well near worn out with looking and expectation the dimmest aged'st sight may see it Mine eyes old Father Simeons Nor need the Manichee strain his eye-sight to discern it He need not as is usual when we look on curious pieces close one eye that the visual spirits being contracted we may see those things which else by reason of their curious subtilty scape the seeing 'T is no such aiery phantasm but that we may with open face and eyes behold it he may see it with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 both his eyes without straining without that trouble But if our senses should play false with us yet my eyes the eyes of a Prophet a holy man inspir'd and detain'd a prisoner in the flesh on purpose for this spectacle cannot possibly deceive us Especially if you add but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That he did not perceive it only as a far off Balaams sight or had a glance or glimmering of it only but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 saw it plain so plain as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to know it too Saw it in his arms and lookt near it nay into it by the quick lively eye of a firm faith for with both eyes he saw it the eyes of his body and the eyes of his soul the Saviour with the one Salvation with the other the child with those the God with these And what greater evidence then that of sight what greater certainty then that of faith If all this be yet too little if viderunt be to seek and oculi fail and mei be deceived yet parasti cannot but list it above the weakness of probability put all out of question It was not only seen but prepared to be seen It came not as the world thinks of other salvations by chance but was prepared Parasti Thou hast prepared it prepared by him that prepared the world Higher yet parasti thou hast prepared done it long since the preparation began not now had a higher beginning a beginning before the face of all people before the face of any people before the face of the waters before the face of the world appeared Chosen us in him says St. Paul then chosen and prepared him for us before the foundation of the world Ephes. i. 4. But this parasti is not the blessing of this day Parasti ab aterno so to the Patriarchs too but in conspectu before our faces made manifest in these last times manifested in the flesh that 's the blessing we this day commemorate A body thou hast prepared me that prepared then lo I come he will be born presently Christmas out of hand Parasti now compleat this day he was first made ready and drest in swadling-clothes And prepared So it came not at mans entreaty or desert Nay when he thought not of it When Adam was running away to hide himself then the promise of the womans seed stept in between and when Religion and Devotion lay at the last gasp ready to bid the world adieu then comes he himself who had been so long preparing and fulfilled the promise This a degree of certainty higher then our imaginations can follow it that relies wholly on Gods own parasti without mans uncertain preparation Yet something ado there was to bring this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this salvation to be seen A long preparation there was of Patriarchs Moses and the Prophets of Promises Types and Figures and Prophesies for the space of four thousand years This long train led the triumph then comes the Saviour then Salvation Sure and certain it must needs be to which there are so many agreeing witnesses This then so variously typified so many ways shadowed so often promised so clearly prophesied so constantly so fully testified so long expected so earnestly desired This is the Salvation prepared for us Whoever looks for any other may look his eyes out shall never see it This Name the only Name by which we shall be saved the Name of Iesus Yet notwithstanding all that 's said or can be said 't is but parasti still 'T is not Posuisti prepared for all not put set up for all as if all should be saved No posui te in casum set for the fall of many those that will not turn their eyes up hither that care not for viderunt neglect this sight slight this salvation But however this dismal success often comes about Parasti it is that cannot be lost and in conspectu omnium populorum for all it is prepared for all in general none excluded this parasti he that put parasti into this good Fathers mouth put in omnium populorum too Not only the certainty but the universality of this salvation that 's the third part of the Text and thither are we come Before the face of all people Prepared that 's a favour and for the people that 's an ample one and one step to an universal People are men a great company of men and for men and a multitude of men it is prepared nusquam Angelos not for Angels in no wise for them not one of them No they are still the Sons of darkness no day-spring from on high to visit them For men and not for the better or more honourable part of men alone but for the people too the meanest sinfulest men in more favour with God then the Apostate Angels And not to some few of those people neither

' um For our viderunt must not end when the Eucharist is past when we depart this sacred place I will take the cup of salvation says the Psalmist there it is do that here But I will rejoyce in thy salvation do so both here and at home Et exultabo and let me see you do so Let not your joy be stifled in your narrow bosoms but break out into expression into your lips into your hands Not in idle sports excess of diet or vain pomp of apparel not that joy the joy of the world but the joy of the Holy Ghost It is salvation that you have heard and seen and are yet to see to day what 's our duty now If it be salvation let us work it out with fear and trembling It is salvation to be seen some eminent work let us then confess we have seen strange things to day A most certain sure salvation it is let not a sacrilegious doubtful thought cast a mist upon it It is prepared let us accept it prepared for all let us thank God for so fair a compass and not uncharitably exclude our selves or others God has enlarg'd the bowels of his mercy let us not streighten ' um It is a light let us arise and walk after it It is a glory let us admire and adore it Was our Saviour seen so should we be every day in the Congregation was he prepared to day let us be always shod with the preparation of the Gospel of peace Does he enlighten us O let us never extinguish or hide that light till this light be swallowed up by the light of the Lamb till this day-spring from on high prove mid-day till Gentium and Israelis be friendly united in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and no darkness to distinguish them no difference between light and glory till the beginning and end of the Text meet together in the circle of eternity till viderunt oculi meet with gloriam till our eyes may behold that light which is inaccessible that light and glory which know no other limits but infinite nor measure but eternity To which he bring us who this day put off his glory to put on salvation that by his salvation we might at length lift up our heads in glory whither he is again ascended and now sits together with his Father and the Holy Ghost To which three Persons and one God be given all praise and power and thanks and honour and salvation and glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON St. Stephens Day ACTS vii 55 56. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God And said Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God YEsterdays Child is to day you see become a man He that yesterday could neither stand nor go knew not the right hand from the left lay helpless as it were in the bosom of his Mother is to day presented to us standing at the right hand of God in the glory of the Father he whom earth yesterday entertained so poorly and obscurely heaven here this day openly glories in Now the horn of our salvation is raised up indeed the Church thus shewing us plainly to day what yesterday we could not see for the rags and stable that it was not a meer silly creature a poor child or man only that came to visit us but the Lord of Glory so making him some recompence as we may say to day for the poor case she shew'd him in yesterday But that 's not the business Yesterday was Christs Birth-day to day St. Stephens for Natalitia Martyrum the Birth-days of the Martys were their death-days call'd they then first said to be born when they were born to execution A day plac'd here so near to Christs that we might see as clear as day how dear and near the Martyrs are to him they lie even in his bosom the first visit he makes after his own death was to them to encourage them to theirs The first appearance of him in heaven after his return up was to take one of them thither And yet this is not all Christs Birth and the Martyrs Death are set so near to intimate how near death and persecution are to Christs Disciples how close they often follow the Faith of Christ so thereby to arm us against the fear of any thing that shall betide us even Death it self seeing it places us so near him seeing there are so fine visions in it and before it so fair glories after it as St. Stephen's here will tell you And if I add that Death is a good memento at a Feast a good way to keep us within our bounds in the days of mirth and jollity of what sort soever it may pass for somewhat like a reason why St. Stephen's death is thus serv'd in so soon at the first course as the second dish of our Christmas-Feast Nor is it for all that any disturbance to Christmas Joys The glorious prospect of St. Stephens Martyrdom which gives us here the opening of Heaven and the appearance then of Gods glory and of Christ in glory may go instead of those costly Masques of imagin'd Heavens and designed Gods and Goddesses which have been often presented in former times to solemnize the Feast We may see in that infinitely far more ravishing and pleasing sights than these which all the rarity of invention and vast charges could ever shew us Here 's enough in the Text to make us dance and leap for joy as if we would leap into the arms of him in Heaven who stands there as it were ready to receive us as he was to day presented to St. Stephen I may now I hope both to season and exalt our Christmas-Feast bring in St. Stephens story that part of it especially which I have chosen so full of Christ so full of glad and joyful sights and objects that it must needs add instead of diminishing our joy and gladness And yet if I season it a little now and then with the mention of Death it will do no hurt I must do so that you may not forget St. Stephens Martyrdom in the midst of the contemplation of the glory that preceded it That must not be for the day is appointed to remember it And though we shall not designedly come so far to decipher it having no more then the praeludium of his death before us we will not so far forget it but that we will take it into the division of the Text in which we shall consider these four particulars 1. His accommodation to his Death His being full of the Holy Ghost that fitted and disposed him to it 2. His preparation for it He looked up stedfastly into Heaven so that he prepared himself for it 3. His confirmation to it He saw the glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God that

will not slip the collar will not deny any thing of what he has said or done disclaim any thing that he believed desert him whom he had trusted but preach him to his death and die upon it And now the heavens being open 't is good to make what haste we can to enter it Moneta a famous Doctor of Bononia upon the hearing these words Behold I see the heavens open preacht soberly upon that they would be quickly shut if men made no more haste to enter betook himself presently says his Story to a Religious Order I say nothing to that particular but yet must tell you the words are strong enough if we would look as stedfastly into them as St. Stephen did into Heaven to perswade to a Religious Life Heaven will not always be open to us Patet atri ja●ua Ditis 'T is Hell that stands continually wide ope We are told by Christ himself that the Bridegroom comes and the doors are shut there will be a time if we continue in sin and negligence when Heaven it self nay Christ himself will not let us in Take we then our time whilst Christ stands at the door Heaven has this day been strangely open to us and Christ stood there in a glorious manner though our eyes did not our Faiths I hope did see him there 'T is good taking this opportunity to get in we know not whether we shall live to the next opening Prepare we then our selves with St. Stephen here by stedfast looking upward into Heaven by disdaining and scorning all things below by vehement earnest longings after things above by setting our selves attentively and constantly to our Devotions and our Prayers by holy Charity and praying for Friends and Enemies by constant resolutions to live and die to Christ by a bold profession of our Faith and continuance in it by making it our Christmas work our Holiday business our Festival delight And then though I cannot promise you Visions here while we live below I dare promise you the blessed Vision hereafter above where we shall see Iesus standing at the right hand of God and there stand round about him with this blessed Martyr Stephen and all his Saints and Martyrs in the Glory of God for evermore A SERMON ON Innocents Day St. MATTH ii 16. Then Herod when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise men was exceeding wroth and sent forth and slew all the Children that were in Bethlehem and in all the coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the Wisemen THE Text needs no Apology 'T is for the Day The Day is that of the poor Martyred Innocents and the Text the Story of it Yet what does Day or Story here to day How does the relation of one of the saddest murthers that the Sun ever saw suit with the news of the gladdest Joy that day e're brought forth How do the cries and screeches of slaughtered Infants keep time or tune with the Songs and Hymns of Angels An hellish crue of murtherers to day agree with the heavenly host we heard of three days since What does Herod so near Christ or Childermas in Christmas Do not both Day and Story want an Apology though the Text does not Neither of them they come well now to season our Mirth and Jollities that they run not out too lavishly For we find too oft there are sad days in Christmas too days wherein we play the Herods and kill our Children and our selves by disorders and excesses for want of some such serious thoughts story and day stand fitly here to mind us of it But besides they are well plac'd to teach us that we must not look only for gaudy days by Christ he says himself he came to send a sword St. Mat. x. 34. Sent it to day amongst the little ones sends sword and fire too sometimes amongst the great ones in the midst of all their pleasure and we must expect it commonly the closer we come to him Nor Christianity nor innocence can excuse us We therefore not to think it strange when it so falls out reckon it rather a Christmas business the matter of our rejoycing to suffer with these Infants for Christ though we know not why no more than they never to think much to lose our Children or our selves for him at any time and so bring them up that they may learn to think so too These Meditations I hope are not unseasonable no not in Christmas Yet for all that I ask again Is it possible that there should be such a thing in truth such a wantonness in cruelty as to kill so many thousand Children so barbarously in a time of peace is it probable that men should raise up fears and jealousies of their own and make such innocent Lambs pay for it 'T is Gospel you see so true as that Such a thing there was in the days of Herod and we have seen so much like it in our own that we may the easier believe it Children and innocents slain and undone for nothing but because some men with Herod here thought they were mockt when disappointed of their projects when Christus Domini the Lords Christ or Anointed had escap'd them and the Wise men came not in to hinder it so they grew exceeding wroth upon it and make poor Bethlehem and Rachel all of us still rue sorely for it Well then the Text being so true in it self so pat to the time and not disagreeable to the times of late so profitable besides we 'l now go on with it by Gods blessing and see what we can make of it 'T is the Martyrdom I told you and I have the word from S. Cyprian and S. Austin of a company of little innocent babes And we have in it these particulars 1. Their Persecutor or Murtherer Herod 2. The occasion of their Martyrdom Persecution or Murther His thinking himself mockt When he saw he was mocked of the Wise men c. 3. The cause of it Wroth he was exceeding wroth infinitely angry to be disappointed that 's the reason he fell upon them 4. The little Martyrs themselves All the children that were in Bethlehem and all that were in the coasts about 5. Their Martyrdom Slain they were men were sent out to kill them He sent forth and slew them 6. The extent and exactness of the cruelty observed in it all the children from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the Wise men These are the Parts that make up the History And if in the pursuing it I shew you a mystery now and then shew you there are more Herods and more martyred children then we see in the letter of the Text that the story is acted over still every day by our selves you will be content I hope to take it for an application that brings all home And it will not do amiss even now at Christmas to mind us of

the matter and speak home Is this doing any other than only one particular way of praising glorifying and magnifying of the Name and are not all the Scriptures expressions so for doing that and for declaring it and is this any more How ordinary are the phrases of exalting and blessing and praising and sanctifying of his Name and making of it to be glorious of a glory due to his Name Psal. xxix 2. of the honour of his Name to be sung forth Psal lxvi 2. And sure the Scripture knows how to speak And though the Name of Iesus be not I confess directly and immediately meant in those places but the Name of God yet thus much we have certain thence that 1. the honour done to his Name be it by words or any expression else for all our outward expressions have the same ground and reason are duties of the Text And that 2. the Name of Iesus being now the Name of God it can be no superstition to do the same to that Now the Jews I must tell you never mentioned the Name of God without an adoration and a Benedictus when ever they mentioned it they bowed themselves and added always Blessed for ever or blessed for evermore as you have St. Paul Rom. i. 25. 2 Cor. i. 3. Ephes. i. 3. 1 Pet. i. 3. 2 Cor. xi 21. 1 Tim. vi 15. nay doing no less to the Name of Christ Rom. ix 5. mentioning him there with the same words after it So that it is but reasonable to suppose the Christians should do as much to the Name of Iesus thereby to possess themselves that he was God and to possess others against those rising Heresies that were then starting up to rob him of the honour of his God-head And I cannot but fear that such as obstinately deny this worship to it do as inwardly grudge at that Article of Faith that believes him to be God and are little better in their hearts than old Arians or new Socinians or well looking towards them But I add no more only remember you that we daily cry out in the Te Deum We worship thy Name ever world without end and if we do not why do we say so But say that or not say good of it however I hope we will and as David's phrase is speak good of his Name omnia bona dicere say all the good speak of all the good we receive by it Say good of it and make others 3. say good of it not give others occasion to speak ill of it to blaspheme that holy Name by which we are called not blaspheme it our selves neither by our words nor by our actions not blaspheme it by Oaths and Curses not blaspheme it by our evil lives not use it irreverently not speak of it slightly not cause others to say Lo these are your Christians these your professors to worship Iesus men that cannot so much as speak well of his Name which they pretend to be saved by Carry our selves we will I hope as men that have a portion in Jesus a share in salvation Praise his Name 4. and give thanks to it that sure no body will deny him praise and thanks for what he has done by it And 5. love his Name we must too love to think of it love to be speaking of it 'T is reported of the holy Ignatius that the Name of Iesus was so frequently in his mouth that it was even found written in his heart when he was dead found written there in golden Characters And 't is affirmed by good Authors Oh that this sweet Name were written in our hearts too while we are living that it were daily meditated upon and heartily lov'd by us as it should We would then 6. call upon it oftner than we do be ever calling on it We have a promise to be heard for whatever we ask in it St. Iohn xiv 13 14. And we have an authentick example Christs first Martyr so to do Acts vii 59. Be we not afraid then of the tongues of foolish men but open we the morning and shut in the evening with it begin and end our days with it in our months Nay lastly begin and end all our works and actions with it do all in the name of the Lord Iesus Col. iii. 17. whatsoever we do in word or deed says the Apostle there we can neither begin nor end better How sweet is the Name of Iesus or a Saviour at the on-set of our work to save and keep us from all miscarriage in it How sweet is it again when we have done if we can say Iesus again that we have sav'd by it been saved in it and shall one day be saved through it that Iesus runs through all with us So then remember we to begin and end all in Iesus the New Testament the Covenant of our Salvation begins and ends so The generation of Iesus so it begins and come Lord Iesus so it ends May we all end so too and when we are going hence commend our spirits with St. Stephen into his hands and when he comes may he receive them to sing Praises and Allelujahs to his blessed Name amidst the Saints and Angels in his glorious Kingdom for ever THE FIRST SERMON ON THE EPIPHANY St. MAT. ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe A Day this of the luckiest Aspect a Text this of the happiest success that ever Travellers met with Never had Journey better success never pains more happily bestowed than in the Text and on the Day Christ the end of all our travel the full reward of all our pains was here this Day found by the Wise men after a twelve days Journey And what wise man would not think himself well paid for all his labour were it not so many days but years not so many years but ages so that after all he might bless his eyes with this happy sight Well may these fortunate Travellers in thankfulness fall down and worship and offer presents Wise men could do no other and we if we be wise will do no less For ordinary and common blessings we bend our knees and present our offerings to the Father of our Lord Iesus Christ but for the Lord Iesus Christ himself 't is not bending but falling down not offering of all praises only but praises and offerings of all our selves and all we have which can any way look like a thankfulness correspondent to so great a benefit This is a mercy not to be forgotten this Day especially so falling out affordeth us by its double holiness as our Lords Day and our Lord Epiphany an invincible occasion to remember and praise him in it Double holiness said I trebble I may say and more Three Epiphanies the Church reckons upon this Day Christ three sundry and divers ways

faithful soul is Christs Mother as well as blessed Mary conceives and brings him forth and nourishes him as well as she the soul spiritually as she naturally to find I say Christ thus conceived and brought forth in our own souls this Child in our own arms too Christ with us is that indeed which makes this finding worth the finding this sight worth seeing Should we only know Christ after the flesh though amongst the first that knew him had we no more than an outward sight did we not see him with his Mother in a mysterious sense in the soul and spirit born in our souls they also made his Mothers as all that believe and do Gods will he himself calls so St. Mark iii. 34 35. unless we thus see him our success will be but lame and poor no better than those Iews that saw and perished 4. Yet the success here is one degree beyond it They saw the young Child and Mary his Mother Mary signifies exalted to see him with his Mother Mary as to see his exalted Mother the soul exalted by his presence his Power and Kingdom exalted in it to see this King in his Kingdom to see Christ reigning and ruling in us this new-born King triumphing in our souls our understandings wills affections and all our faculties subjected to him and this is a good sight where e're we see it This is then the sum of the success we shall find of our travel after him 1. The perfect sight And 2. the easie knowledge of him 3. Our union with him 4. Our exaltation by him He will reveal himself to them that seek him discover himself betimes to them that carefully search for him unite himself and be with them that follow after him and set up his throne and excellency in them that find him 2. Indeed this now secondly is worth the seeing worthy the beholding They saw it 1. they saw it and admired it their seeing him it was the Lords doing and could not but be admirable in their eyes They could not certainly but admire and wonder to see the Star had pointed out the Child so poor a Child a King in rags so glorious a Child so blessed a Mother in so poor a plight Saw it and fell down say the next words fell down in amazement and astonishment it may be as well as any way else to see so great a mercy so strange a sight 2. Yet saw it secondly and believed saw by the eye of faith as much as by the eye of sense believed presently it was the Child they sought and therefore fell down and worshipped which certainly they would not have done had they not believed Indeed the strange guide that conducted them the resolution for the place at least Bethlehem by name which they met with at Ierusalem the new return of their lost starry Leader as soon as they were got out of Ierusalem the very standing and fixing of it self which all the while before was in perpetual motion over this very place where they found this Child might sufficiently assure them that it was his Star that he was the Lord whom this Star attended so that they might not only believe out of credulity or an impatient desire to be at their journeys end or at home again but out of prudence as it became wise men who lay all together e're they fix their Faith Saw and believed that 's the second 3. Saw it and were glad too that 's a third adjunct of seeing such a sight If the seeing of the Star again in the former verse made them to rejoyce with exceeding great joy which could only confirm their hope to find him how exceedingly exceeding great joy gaudio valde valde magno must it needs be they rejoyced with when they found him 4. Saw and worshipped that should be a fourth but it is the third and next part of the Text which the time and season now forbids me to look into Only this to recapitulate the rest and apply it home 1. Behold we first and admire this sight the mercy and goodness of our Saviour thus for us to become a Child to take upon him the infirmities and inconveniences of our nature even from its first weaknesses to make himself so accessible to us so easie to be approacht to vouchsafe to be daily conceived again and born in our souls and spirits to take upon him besides the rule and guidance over us to set up his throne in so poor a place as our unworthy souls amidst so much frailness and unpreparedness souls more filthy and stinking when he first comes to them than the very Stable he was born in amidst the dung and ordure of the Beasts Behold and see if there were ever goodness like this goodness see and admire it 2. See secondly and believe it too The most incredulous among the Apostles St. Thomas when he once saw he soon believed See but how the Star moves and fixes and even points us to him how readily the Wise men entertain the sight and fall down and worship see how all the Prophesies concur and meet in this young Child see how the world is overspread with this Faith and has so many hundred years continued it notwithstanding so many persecutions and I shall not need to perswade you to play the Wise men too and upon so many testimonies and evidences believe the same 3. Yet I exhort you 3. to see it and be glad Heaven rejoyced at it and the Earth was glad Angels sung proper Anthems for it The Shepherds joyfully tell it out The Wise men here scarce know how to carry themselves for joy open all their treasures and fling about their gifts to express their gladness only Herod and the Iews Herodian Iews Hierusalem Iews men addicted wholly to the pomps and pride and vanity of the City are troubled at the birth of so humble a Saviour It is a Day of rejoycing this 'T is the Lords Day the day which the Lord hath made let us rejoyce says the Psalmist and be glad in it 'T is the Day of shewing himself to us Gentiles who sate in darkness and the shadow of death 'T is fit therefore we should be glad for so great a blessing 'T is the Day he was Baptized in and that ever useth to be among us a joyful day great joy and feasting at it It is a Marriage Day the Day he wrought his first Miracle upon when he turned Water into Wine on purpose to make us merry the water of tears into the wine of joy So many blessings together so many good tidings in one day so many glorious things so bright a Star so glorious a Child so blessed a Mother so miraculous a Baptism so chearful a Miracle so triumphant a Resurrection all together on one day must not cannot be found out cannot be seen of Christians so much concerned in them all without perpetual Songs of gladness and rejoycing I should leave you here but that we must needs

in the Christian Dypticks And you see to day we have revived the Custom here 3. But 't is not a meer remembring them for honour but also a real remembring them and them that do them for a blessing all sorts of blessings So that would I commend to my dearest friend a Trade to make him rich and happy it should be doing good to the House of God 'T is an old Jewish saying Decima ut dives fias Pay thy Tyths if thou wilt grow rich Build God a House say I and he will build thee one again Do good to His House say I and he 'll do good to thine and a wicked Son shall not be able to cut off the Entail For 't is worth the notice that when God promised David a House upon this account he tells him that though his Son commit iniquity he would not utterly take his mercy from him I know there are that to be excused talk much of unsetled times This is the way to settle them When God and man shall see we are in earnest for the House of God and the Offices thereof all your Sects will cease to trouble you and vanish Some cry the State must be setled first Why Fundamenta ejus in montibus Sanctis says the Psalm the foundations of Hierusalem are upon the Holy Hills Lay your foundations there and you shall never be removed God of his goodness will make your Hill so strong No better way to fix the House of the Kingdom or your own than to begin with His. Others to get loose tell us of the decay of Trade Why how can it be other says God Hag. i. 9. You looked for much and it came to little and when you brought it home and 't was scarce worth bringing home I did blow upon it blew it into nothing And why was it says the Lord of Hosts Because of my house that lieth waste and ye run every man to his own house You dwell in Cedars and you lap your selves in Silks and Silver and you have all neat and fine about you but the House of God that lies in the dust and rubbish But is it time for you O ye says he for I know not what to call you to dwell in cieled houses and my house lie no better Did God think you make Gold and Silver Silks and Purples Marbles and Cedars for us only and our houses and not for himself also or his own Or do you think to thrive by being sparing to it or holding from it No says God from the day that the Foundation of the Lords Temple was laid consider it from this that day will I bless you Hag. ii 18 19. And prove him so say I for he bids so himself Mat. iii. 10. and see if he will not pour you out a blessing Indeed he has been before us with it He has brought us home and stablisht our Estates and restor'd our Religion done more to us and to our houses than we durst desire or hope and is it not all the reason in the world we should do good to his again Hang up our remembrances upon the Walls pay our acknowledgments upon his Altars and bless all the Offices of his house for so great blessings God will remember you again for what ever it is If you would yet more engage him to you know God loves the Gates of Sion more then all the dwellings of Iacob Psal. lxxxvii 2. must needs therefore love these most that most love them And I doubt not but we shall find many here that do so many too that will so express it Yet not according to what a man has not but to what he has says our St. Paul does God accept him We cannot expect that all that love most can express most Yet according to their abilities they will do it A cup of cold water I confess to a Prophet in the name of a Prophet shall not lose the reward no more shall a single Mite to the house of God as his Every one however may do somewhat towards it They that cannot give much may give a little they that cannot pay may yet pray for it And to wish it well and to rejoyce in the prosperity and welfare of it the repairing and adorning of it are two mites that any one can give and God will accept where there can be no other Only where there is most we must present it with humility as David did 1 Chron. xxix What am I O Lord that I should be able after this sort to offer thus to do it And where there is but little we must present it with a regret that we can do no more Will God remember and accept us remember and pardon us remember and bless us with blessings of the right hand and blessings of the left remember us in all places both at home and abroad in all conditions both in the days of our prosperity and in the time of trouble in our goings out and in our comings in in our Persons and in our Estates in our selves and in our Posterities with them shall remain a good inheritance and their children shall be ever within the Covenant And when all earthly glances shall be forgotten that which we have done to the House of God shall be still remembred when our bodies shall lie down in dust our names shall live in heaven when a cold stone shall chill our ashes our bones shall flourish out of their graves when time shall have eaten out our Epitaphs our righteousness shall not be forgotten God will remember it for ever And though the general conflagration shall at last calcine these glorious structures into ashes we shall dwell safe in buildings not made with hands eternal in the heavens where the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb shall be the Temple and we sing the Offices of heaven with Angels and Archangels and all the holy Spirits with joy and gladness for evermore To which glorious House and Office God of his mercy bring us in our several times and orders through c. THE FIRST SERMON On the Day of the PURIFICATION OF THE Blessed Virgin St. LUKE ii 27 28. And when the Parents brought in the Child Iesus to do for him after the custom of the Law Then took he him up in his arms and blessed God AND when That When was as this day When the days of the blessed Virgins Purification according to the Law of Moses were accomplished forty days after Christs Nativity this day just then they brought him to Ierusalem to present him to the Lord ver 22. Then blessed Mary and Ioseph brought then devout Simeon and Anna blessed and if we be either Maries or Anna's Iosephs or Simeons holy men or devout women we too will this day bless God for the blessing of the day For this day also of his presentation as well as those other days of his Birth Circumcision and Manifestation Candlemas-day as well as Christmas-day New-years-day or Epiphany is a day

to him but so they receive it back again with greater comfort we lose nothing that we give to God we do but bring it to him only for a blessing to it and depart with both The Parents never can be surer of the Child then when they first give it unto God Fathers and Mothers may learn by these good folks thus to sanctifie as it were their Children from the breast Both Parents agree here nor the tenderness of the one nor the austerity of the other think much of Gods demands though it seem to entrench much upon their right their very natural right Nature it self must veil and submit where God pleads interest even that eternal and inviolable law of preserving our selves and ours is circumscribed within the limits of Gods prerogative and we must do neither but with submission to his pleasure to dispose of us and ours Yet Parents here under the notion of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 seems very strange Ioseph having no part in his geniture yet so the law sometimes calls both the Step-father and Step-mother No wonder then to hear Ioseph so entitled who in the eye of the world and term of law that reaches not extraordinaries nor provides words for miraculous conceptions was counted father in the very proper acception Only this to be said Common fame may be deceiv'd and names affix'd where not deserv'd And titles often to be accepted too rather than venture an harsh and untimely censure upon our selves or them that are very near us by the discovery of an unseasonable truth Truth it was that Ioseph was not his Father that both Ioseph himself and the Evangelist well knew Yet would the one speak after the vulgar language rather than cross received terms at the first in the recital of a story which might lose its credit by so early a discovery of a mysterious truth but might with little offence be corrected in the progress nor would the other proclaim himself no Father lest that most pure and immaculate Virgin should run the hazard of lewd tongues and the great wonders of the most high be blasphemed and his Son dishonoured with a name which these late sons of Hell only durst belch out Call we them both then still if we think good the Parents of this Child However a Foster-father Ioseph was and by that relation had a title to this presentation and we by it another lesson to take care of those we undertake for as for our own to present and offer them also to God to consecrate them also betimes to Gods service Seasonable words hence remember we ever to observe 2. not upon every hint to cross the road of speech 3. To conceal a while unseasonable truths 4. To take care of the same and honour of others 5. To perform our duties with all tenderness to our charges and however dedicate them to the disposal of the Almighty Thus much we may learn by the Presenters and their title and our unhappy times make us the readier to make another note to take notice of this happy juncture where both Parents agree about the Child both bring him Our divisions are so encreas'd upon us that those whom God has nearest joyn'd are so wide separated in this business that the unfortunate Child is kept from being presented unto God God deprived of his right and the Child of the benefit by the perverseness of the one or other of the Parents the Child neither brought to the Church nor God done for neither according to Law nor Custom but debarr'd Christianity denied to God at first and in danger to be denied by him at the last through the division of the Parents in Religion and Sect. A joyful sight it is methinks to see them here united for the Child 's good the more for that our dissentions of Parents look so ugly and are so deeply prejudicial to Gods honour and the Child 's both benefit and right which it has to be presented to God in holy Baptism It may yet prove worse in the education if the difference still continue between the Parents and the Child which unbaptized cannot be conceived to have any greater assistance of inward Grace than the Child of a Heathen or a Iew being both by nature and 't is to be feared by the Parents irreligion yet further punished by a leaving it meerly in that state proner far to evil than good to error than truth Such a Child it cannot be expected in reason but that it should adhere to the worser part and as it lost its Baptism at the first so at the last miss its Religion too God being denied it when he would have it and calls for it to have it brought to him we can have no great confidence that he will at another time accept it when it is grown out of that number of little ones whom he calls become greater in its corruption and the first-fruits of his age dedicated to another Master God send better agreement among Parents say I be it for the Childrens sake that they may be presented to the Lord. A Child it is that is presented in the Text and in the day and the Child Iesus such a Child is both example and authority enough for us to bring ours also to the Lord whilst they are such unless we think our Children are holier than he want less than he can be without God better than he more above the Law than he But he calling for them himself Suffer little children to come unto me St. Mat. xix 14. It seems to me both ingratitude and impudence to keep them from him to say nothing of the infidelity in so doing as if we believed him not that he meant it when he called or we thought he could do them no good if they came or that he would not or that they were as well without him as with him without his blessing as with it It may be they will tell us he call'd them indeed but not to Baptism did not Baptize them when they came Poor silly men would they have him Baptize the Children before their Fathers before they themselves were fitted for it by whom only the Children have right to it or Baptize them when they were not brought by them to that purpose Is it not enough that Christ desires and accepts the Children that are brought to him that come to him And how come they now to him but by Baptism How has the Universal Church from that day to this brought Children to him Has it not been to Baptism in all Catholick Doctrine and Practice to this day Have we now at all found any better way to bring them to him None at all alas and is that better Their Children forsooth are holy because their Fathers are alike I think that is under the bondage of corruption their Fathers holy I would we could see it once But suppose them so were there no holy Fathers among the Jews that their Children must all receive the Sacrament

day as Simeons arms with the Child Iesus with the Lords Christ. This work is never unseasonable Christ may at all times be taken so with reverence into our mouths or arms or hearts or any part about us Yet he has a proper time besides and that is when he is presented in the Temple after his Circumcision and his mothers Purification At such a time as that when our hearts are purified by repentance and faith when the devout soul which like his Mother conceives and brings him forth has accomplished the days of her Purification and offered the forementioned offerings of the Turtle and the Dove and we circumcised with the Circumcision of the Spirit all our excrescent inclinations exorbitant affections and superfluous desires cut off we may with confidence take him into our arms But till then 't is too much sawciness to come so near him at least presumption to conceive we have him truly in our arms that he is truly embraced by us whilst we have other loves other affections which cannot abide with him already in our arms and too ready in our hands Prophane we him not therefore with unhallowed hands nor touch this holy Ark of the Covenant with irreverent fingers lest we die Many that have done so says the Apostle for so doing are sick and weak upon it and many sleep that is die suddenly in their sins whilst the hallowed meat is yet in their mouths 'T is as dangerous as death and damnation too to take Christ with unpurified and unprepared hearts or hands Take him not then till you are prepared Yet 2. if prepared take him when you can and as soon as you can when he is offered to you whilst you may To day if you will 't is offering day with him yet any day too when he is offered and whilst he is so for he always will not be so 't will not be always Candlemas he will not be offered every day There is a time when he will go and not return when he will not any longer strive with flesh when we shall stretch out our hands and he will not come nor hear nor see us neither To day if you will do it do it you are not sure of your selves to morrow much less of him To day if you will if not I know not what day to pitch nor will you find it easie to meet another if you at any time neglect the present This day then whilst it is called to day lay hold of him if you be wise and would not be put off by him with a Discedite hands off I have nothing to do with you nor you with me it is too late Many are the times and days as well as means and ways wherein Christ is offered to us but this day he has been thrust into our arms put into our hands and we have taken him Yet say I still take him up in your arms and I say it without either tautology or impertinence or impropriety Into our hands we have taken him and I hope into our arms into our bosoms into our hearts besides take him yet up higher and higher into our affections the very natural arms of our souls more and more into them nearer and nearer to us closer and closer to our hearts embrace and hug him close as we those we most affectionate-love and hold him fast that he may no more depart from us but delight to be with us as with those that so love him that they cannot live without him Thus 't is no impertinence to wish you to take him still though you have taken him Thus you are every day to take him or this days taking him will come to nothing or to worse If you go not on still taking him nearer and nearer deeper and deeper every day into your bosoms and hearts as you have this day into your hands and mouths you will be questioned in indignation by him Why have you taken me into your mouths Why have you taken me up in your hands seeing you now seem to hate me are so soon grown weary of me and put me from you and even cast me behind you Take heed I beseech you of doing thus of drawing back your hands so soon drawing back at all For after this favour whereby you have been made partakers of him whereby he has so infinitely condescended from himself as to be received into so unclean and filthy and extremely unworthy hands and souls to be embraced by such vile Creatures what can we render him sufficient for such goodness 'T is but this O man that he requires a poor thing O man that he requires at thy hand for this vast infinite favour and thou hast Simeon here doing it before thee blessing God And he took him up in his arms and blessed God Indeed we can do little if we cannot bless bless him that blesses us benedicere speak well of him say he is good and gracious loving and merciful unto us tell and speak forth his praise tell and declare the great and gracious things that he hath done for us the wonderful things that he this day did for the Children of men Came and took their place and was presented and accepted for them who were but reffuse and rejected persons were fain to send Bulls and Lambs and Rams the very beasts to plead for them glad of any thing to stand between them and their offended God even the heifers dung and ashes to make atonement for them and as it were her skin to cover them Numb xix 2. till this day when this holy Child was presented for all and all those former poor shifts and shelters at an end no need of those dead offerings more being fully reconciled by this living one for ever Bless we him and praise him and speak good of him for this Bless we him yet more for vouchsafing us the touches of his sacred Body for so kindly coming into our arms our own children do not sometimes do so but come often with much frowardness and crying reluctance and unwillingness This Child Iesus comes of his own accord slips down from Heaven into our laps when we are not aware is in our arms e're we can stir them up And that this Son of God should so willingly leave his Fathers bosom the true and only seat of joy and pleasure for ours the perfect seat of sorrow and misery and rest himself in our weak arms who have nor rest nor shelter but in his that he should thus really infinitely bless us and yet require no greater a return than our imperfect blessing him again How can we keep our lips shut our tongues silent of his praise But having this day seal'd all these favours and blessings to us by the holy Sacrament the pledge and seal of this love wherewith he loved us having so really and fully and manifestly and fast given himself into our arms we cannot sure but bless him both with our tongues and hands with holy Simeon make an

same Chapter the perswading us not to receive this grace in vain ver 1 of this the time certainly wherein we may thus be reconciled thus accepted to salvation is worth the seeing worth a Behold and a Behold worth laying hold on too a time to be accepted being a day of salvation And now is the time says the Text we are fallen upon And now is the Time say the Days we are faln among Times of reconciliation both Days of Salvation both Indeed the whole Time of the Gospel is no other Yet the Apostle applies it here to the Age he wrote in We may draw it down to ours we live in But the Church more particularly yet applies it to the time we are now in keeping the holy time of Lent a time wherein the Office of Reconciliation is set open to receive sinners in a time when the Embassadors for Christ as the Apostle stiles us ver 20. of the foregoing Chapter we that are workers together with him ver 5. are more earnestly to beseech the people and the people more especially to bestir themselves by the works of mortification and repentance to reconcile themselves to God a time when in the Primitive Church notorious sinners were put to open penance and punished in this world that their souls might be saved in the day of the Lord says our Church in the Commination and she her self by making these words part of her Epistle for the First Sunday in Lent she cries out to us as it were Behold now is the accepted time behold now is the day of salvation this very time make much of it and lay hold upon it I shall give all their right take in all the time we can that seeing an accepted time there is a day of salvation to be had still to be had we may be sure not to miss it 'T is no idle trivial business this We cannot be too careful for it General and particular days and times all to be taken and all little enough to obtain salvation not to be thought much of though it were much more so we may but compass that at last I shall not therefore spend so precious time to study curiosity in a business so serious or to torture the Text into nice Divisions It shall suffice to shew you in these particulars 1. That an accepted time there is some time above others wherein God is most ready to accept us 2. That this accepted time is a day of salvation too wherein we shall not only meerly be accepted but accepted so far also as to salvation one or other Now is the day of c. 3. That Now is the Time this is the Day It is before us it is in present we need look no further 4. That God himself here points us to it bids us behold it sets an Ecce a mark upon it a red Letter as it were upon the Day that we might mark and mind it mind it above all other days besides 5. That we are therefore to do accordingly Behold and behold it now and again behold it again and again and so behold it as to accept it and apply us to it bring all ends of the Text together that we may find Salvation in the end 'T is an accepted Time we therefore to make it so as well as count it so make it perfectly accepted by accepting it These shall be the Particulars and of them all this is the sum That God in his goodness allowing us time to repent to receive his grace to reconcile our selves to him and lay hold upon salvation giving us daily deliverances and salvations too nay shewing and setting and pointing us out here a time to accept and save us in It is certainly our duty to take notice of it even now to do it even as soon as may be to accept his goodness and not neglect the day of salvation And That we may not but both accept and be accepted we shall shew you first that such a time there is wherein we may A time 1. still wherein we may find acceptation that God has not shut up the day and shut us out A time 2. wherein God is readiest to accept us readier than at other times That there is a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as well as a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a season as well as time for it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to a seasonable opportunity when it will be the easier done The accepted time A time 3. yet so confin'd and limited that for ought we know there may be none beyond it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it is not always the season holds not ever And Now is the Time says in effect anon perhaps it will not be for this time in the next words is expounded into a day and we know the day spends and night will come on apace So that a time a ready time a limited time there is for our repentance and Gods accepting us These three make up our first Particular we are now to begin with And 1. that God still allows us time is worth a note He does not owe it us He might snatch us away in the height and fulness of our sins with as much justice as he does it not in mercy But he deals not with us after our sins nor rewards us according to our wickedness says Holy David Psal. ciii 10. Twelve hours of the day there are St. Joh. xii 9. and every one of them God is not only ready to receive us but goes out to seek us St. Mat. xx 3. and so on And at what time soever a Sinner doth repent so it ran of old and when he does so it runs now and both the same he shall save his soul God will accept him Ezek. xviii 32. 2. Yet for all that .2 all times are not alike We will not always find admittance at the same rate with the same ease As he will not always be chiding so he will not always be so pleasing neither We may knock and knock again and yet stand without a while sometimes so long till our knees are ready to sink under us our eyes ready to drop out as well as drop with expectation and our hearts ready to break in pieces while none heareth or none regardeth We should have come before or pitcht our coming at a better time God is in bed as it were and at rest with his Children cherishing and making much of them he is not a● leisure to open to such strangers We must knock hard and importunately too to get him to open to us We are out of time But is he who is no accepter of persons become now an accepter of times Or would he have us turn observers of them Is there ever a star in heaven that can bring us into favour with the Father of lights Any so lucky an aspect there that can guide us up into his presence Can any or all the Planets in Sextile Trine or Square or any position else make us

time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing to refrain from all wanton and loose embraces and pour out our selves wholly into the arms of our Blessed Iesus 9. 'T is a time to get and a time to lose to get Heaven by violence and lose Earth our worldly goods so the worldling counts it upon Alms and Charities to cast away Earth to purchase Heaven 10. 'T is a time to keep and a time to cast away to keep all good resolutions and cast away the bad ones 11. 'T is a time to rent and a time to sew to rent and tear off all ill habits and to begin good ones 12. 'T is a time to keep silence and a time to speak to keep silence from bad words all idle ad wanton and scurrilous language and give our selves to good discourses 13. 'T is a time of love and a time of hate to love God and hate our selves or love our souls and hate our sins 14. 'T is in a word a time of War and a time of Peace to make war against all our ghostly enemies the flesh the Devil and the world and reconcile our selves to God our Neighbour and the Church To all these purposes serves the time of Lent for them 't was instituted at first and for them it is continued and can any Christian now think it should not be accepted upon such a score as this or are any days liker the day of salvation than those that are spent thus or it is our own fault if it be not or is any time more fit to be stil'd an accepted time than this that is the very comprehension of all times a time every way fitted up for all the designs of salvation for calling publick offenders to accompt for putting notorious sinners to open penance for reconciling penitents and receiving them again into the Church for promoting piety and vertue for admitting Proselytes to holy Baptism at the end of it for preparing all of us for the Blessed Eucharist all the way by solemn prayers and preaching more than at other times by fastings and watchings and holy retirements and strict devotions and every way conforming us to the image of Christ the fasting and dying and rising with him that we may so also be accepted by him These were the practices of Lent in the Primitive Church of Christ wish'd and call'd for too in Ours in the Epistles and Collects for it and the Commination that begins it And by the afflictions and necessities and distresses and labours and watchings and fastings and pureness c. that follow immediately upon the Text things all so answering to this time I cannot say but the Text may stand as an In diebus illis a kind of prophetick designation at least of this time of Lent has caus'd the words I am sure to be so applied by many of the Antients and made a part by us also of the Lent Office But this very time so dilatory are we and so ready to put off holy duties is yet perhaps too large and these forty days too many to close us to our work Nay the day has many hours twelve says Christ to walk in And if we may guess from our ordinary guise and custom we are like enough to defer all to the last hour I must set an accent therefore upon this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this Now. Now Lent or not Now fast we or fast we not Now is the very time we must begin our reconcilement look to our salvation that though the name of Lent should be distasteful as too much it is yet however we may not slip our time 'T is the only sure part of time we have the present the only day of salvation for peradventure e're the next moment we are gone and clearly cast without the confines of it Not only then to day whilst it is called to day but even Now whilst it is called Now is the sure Now of salvation To all these Now 's God here points us by an Ecce Behold now is the c. IV. And indeed it is no more than needs that he should point and set us out some time even to accept our own salvation Time and times pass over us and we think not of it A piece of Land a Wife a yoke of Oxen are more thought upon every day than that We our selves do but little mind it I am sure we live as if we did not much The Church cannot get us to it with all the Fasts and Feasts she sets us Our Ministers the Embassadours that are sent about it perswade little with us we had need of Prophet and Apostle too to say it over and over again unto us and 't is so in the verse we have the Text in The Lords day it self did it not bear his name upon it would as easily vanish into a neglect as all other Holy days 'T is only the opinion that he himself commanded or appointed that which keeps it up a while above the rest whether so or no we dispute not now It is not to the Text. These things I shall tell you are there without dispute 1. Set days and times are there times set apart for the promoting of our salvation particular ones too Ecce nunc tempus nunc dies Times 2. that are so set are so far from hindering that they are even the very days of salvation Times 3. may so still be set by the Apostles or their successors they have the power to design them with St. Paul here to put the nunc upon them Times lastly so set have an Ecce upon them somewhat more upon them than other days are to be observed to be accepted Do we therefore now accordingly says my last particular Behold them and accept them Behold now is the c. V. Behold 1. and take notice such a time there is such a day as we have been speaking of Christ himself was anointed to preach and publish it St. Luke iv 19. the acceptable year of the Lord. The Apostles were sent with the like Commission ver 19. of the former Chapter of this Epistle and they beseech us to take notice of it ver 20. whilst they pray us in Christs stead to be reconciled upon it Behold therefore 2. and again behold it that is not only take notice of it that may be perhaps a little by the by but consider it There 's a double Ecce upon it take notice of that and sit down and lay it to your hearts and chew it over and and over say thus within thy self God has been gracious to me from time to time expected me long from day to day proffering me grace proffering me salvation even beseeching and entreating me to accept them Lord what is man Lord what is man that thou shouldest be thus mindful of him that thou shouldest so regard him that thou shouldest thus follow him from one end of the year unto another from one accepted time to another from Feast to Feast

come upon us and hurry us hence before we are aware into the horrors and miseries of everlasting darkness 4. By this time you understand this ecce is not to set us a gazing up into Heaven or observing days and months and times and years but to retrive our months of vanity as holy Iob calls them and fill the days we live with more acceptable employments For God having so late accepted our persons and our complaints and prayers and tears or rather us indeed without them and desiring only of us that we would but accept and employ those mercies and all others of his to our own salvation we should be me thinks the most unreasonable of men to be so unkind to God as either not to receive his grace or receive it still in vain Worthy it is of better usage for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 here is the same with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 1 Tim. iv 9. Accepted here the same with that worthy of all acceptation there The very time says our Apostle is such what then is the salvation of it that surely much more Accept we it therefore and the time of it with all readiness with all thankfulness with all humility Take we all the opportunities henceforward of salvation look every way about us and slip none we can lay hold on This ecce ecce reiterated is to rouse us and to tell us that our ecce should answer Gods Ecce tempus says he ecce me or nos say we Behold the time behold the day says God Behold us say we O God our hearts are fixed our hearts are fixed our hearts are ready our hearts are ready to accept it Ecce adsum says Abraham behold here I am Ecce venio says Christ Lo I come to do thy will O God Behold thy servants are ready says David to do whatsoever my Lord shall appoint And behold we are coming we are here we are ready with thee according to thy heart these are the returns or Eccho's we are to make God back again Nor is it time to dally now Time is a flitting Post Day runs into night e're we are aware this Now is gone as soon as spoken and no certainty beyond it and no salvation if not accepted e're we go hence There are I know that cry to day shall be as yesterday and to morrow as to day all things continue as they were since our Fathers fell asleep And this thing you call Religion does but delude us and our Preachers do but fright us this salvation they talk of we know not what to make of it if there be such a thing indeed the day is long enough we may think time enough of it many years hence Such scoffers indeed St. Peter told us we should meet with But I hope better things of you my beloved and such as accompany salvation And I have told you nothing to fright you from it I have not scar'd you with the antient rigour nor terrified you with primitive austerities I have only shewed you there is such a thing as salvation to be thought of and 't is time to set about it You cannot fast you 'l tell me you are weak and sickly it will destroy you You cannot watch you say it will undo you you cannot give Alms you have no moneys You cannot come so oft to Prayers as others your business hinders you But however can you do nothing towards it towards your own salvation can you not accept it when 't is offered can you not consider and think a little of it If you do but that I shall not fear but you will do more When you have business you can spare a meal now and then to follow it and nothing's made on 't when you are at your sports or play you can sit up night after night and catch no hurt for a new fashion impertinence or vanity you can find mony and time enough at any time for any of these I desire you would but do as much nay half as much I am afraid I may say the tenth part so much to save your souls spend but as much time seriously upon that as you do upon your dressing your visits your vanities not to require any thing so much of you upon that as upon worldly business and dare promise you salvation you shall be accepted at that day at that day when our short Fasts shall be turned into eternal Feasts our petty Lents consummate into the great Easters when time it self shall improve into eternity this day advance into an everlasting Sun-shine and salvation appear in all its glories Accept us now O Lord we pray thee in this accepted time save us we beseech thee in this day of salvation that we may one day come to that eternal one through him in whom only we are accepted thy beloved Son Christ Jesus To whom with thee and thy Holy Spirit be consecrated all our times and days all our years and months and hours and minutes from henceforward to whom also be all honour and praise all salvation and glory for ever and ever Amen A SERMON ON THE Second Sunday in Lent 1 COR. ix 27. But I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others I my self should be a castaway DVrus sermo A hard Text you 'l say a whipping Sermon towards that begins with castigo and ends with reprobus that is so rough with us at the first as to tell us of chastning and keeping under the body and so terrible at the last as to scare us with being castaways unless we do it And that too cum aliis praedicaverim the greatest Preachers the very Apostles themselves after all their pains no surer of their Salvation than upon such severe conditions If the Preacher will needs be preaching this tell us of disciplining our bodies talk to us of being castaways Quis cum audire potest who can endure him who can bear it Well bear it how we can think of it what we please be the doctrine never so unpleasing it must be preacht and bear it we must unless we know what to preach better than St. Paul or you what to hear or do better than that great Apostle And 't is but time for us to preach for you to hear it Men daily fool away their souls by their tenderness to their bodies and their salvation by the certainties they pretend of it 'T is time to warn them of it And this Time as fit a time as any can be to do it in the holy time of Lent A time set apart by the holy Church to chasten and subdue the body in And the opportunity is fallen into my hand among the rest and vae mihi si non I cannot excuse my self if I do not take it if I neglect the occasion to do my utmost to keep my self and you from being castawaies I know people do not love to hear on 't and the Preacher shall get

there too late they begin to talk like men to speak reason The Christian penitent after he has run the course of sin and is now returning talks somewhat higher calls it a Prison the Stocks the Dungeon the very nethermost Hell thinks no words bad enough to stile it by We need not put any such upon the rack for this confession they go mourning and sighing it all the day long they tell you sensibly by their tears and blushes by their sad countenances and down-cast looks by their voluntary confessions their willing restraints now put upon themselves their pining punishing afflicting of their souls and bodies their wards and watches now over every step lest they should fall again that never were any poor souls so gull'd into a course so vain so unprofitable so dishonourable so full of perplexities so fruitful of anxieties so bitter so unpleasant as sin has been nor any thing whereof they are so much asham'd No fruit of all you see even our selves being judges And yet I will not send you away without some fruit or other somewhat after all this that may do you good For methinks if sin have no better fruits if wickedness come no better off we may first learn to be asham'd and blush to think of it be ashamed of sin We may 2. learn to beat it off thus at its first assaults What thou sin thou lust what fruit shall I have in thee what good shall I reap of thee Do I not see shame attend thee and death behind thee I am asham'd already to think upon thee away away thou impudent solicitress I love no such fruit I love no such end And if 3. we be so unhappy as to be at any time unawares engaged in any sin let us strike off presently upon the arguments of the Text. For why should we be so simple to take a course that will not profit to take pains to weave a web that will not cover us to plant trees that will yield no fruit to range after fruit that has no pleasure to court that which has no loveliness If we can expect nothing from our sins as you have heard we cannot why do we sweat about them if they bring home nought but shame why are we not at first asham'd to commit them if they end in death why will ye die O foolish people and unwise Lastly you that have led a course of sin and are yet perhaps still in it sit down and reckon every one of you with himself what you have gotten Imprimis So much cost and charges Item so much pains and labour so much care and trouble so much loss and damage so much unrest and disquiet so much hatred and ill-will so much disparagement and discredit so many anxieties and perplexities so many weary walks so much waiting and attendance so many disappointments and discouragements so many griefs and aches so many infirmities and diseases so many watches and broken sleeps so many dangers and distresses so many bitter throbs and sharp stings and fiery scorchings of a wounded Conscience so much and so much and so much misery all for a few minutes of pleasure for a little white and yellow dirt for a feather or a fly a buzze of honour or applause a fansie or a humour for a place of business or vexation sum'd up all in air and wind and dust and nothing Learn thus to make a daily reflection upon your selves and sins But after all these remember lastly 't is Death eternal Death everlasting misery Hell and damnation without end that is the end of sin that all this everlasting is for a thing that 's never lasting a thing that vanishes often in its doing all this death for that only which is the very shame of life and even turns it into death and surely you will no longer yield your members your souls and bodies to iniquity unto iniquity but unto righteousness unto holiness So shall ye happily comply with the Apostles argument in the Text and draw it as he would have you to the head do what he intends and aims at by it and by so doing attain that which he desires you should make your selves the greatest gainers can be imagined gain good out of evil glory out of shame life out of death all things out of nothing eternal life everlasting glory Which c. A SERMON ON THE Fourth Sunday in Lent I COR. ix 24. So run that you may obtain THat Christianity is a Race and Heaven the Goal and we all of us they that are to run is an ordinary Allegory in Scripture and Sermons which you have none of you but heard And that in this Race all that run do not obtain no more than they do that run in other Races every one sees and every one can tell you Not every one we told you the last day not they that run only with their tongues run they Lord Lord never so fast not many others that run further than so you will hear anon and too common experience can inform you But how so to run as to obtain is not a piece of so common knowledge Hic labor hoc opus est This is the Apostles business a business ordinary Christians are not sufficiently skill'd in 't is to be fear'd or if sufficiently skill'd in not so practised in but that they want a voice both behind and before them to tell them this is the way they are to walk in This is the way walk in it so and so run that you may obtain Were we to run in those Olympick Games which St. Paul here seems to allude to they who were practised in those sports and exercises were fittest to instruct us how so to run as to be conquerours there But being now to run the true Olympick that is the heavenly Race the true Race to heaven that true Olympus which that Poetical did but shadow this our Apostle that great wrastler not against flesh and bloud though in another sense against that too but against Principalities and Powers against the Rulers of darkness and spiritual wickedness whose whole life was nothing else but a continual exercise of all the hardships in the Christian course who so gloriously fought the good fight and finished his course can best teach us how to do so too With this Prerogative too above the cunningest of those Olympick Masters that they cannot so instruct their Schollars that they shall be sure of the prize they run for though they run never so accurately to their Rules many there running and but one obtaining but here by St. Paul's direction we may all run and all obtain For to that purpose only we are invited and directed to run that we may obtain Yet true it is as we may all obtain so we may not and it will be but a spur to us to fear it one spur to hasten and quicken us in our course St. Paul had such a one now and then to make him run He had run

cry'd out openly We fools we fools indeed how have we cheated our selves of Heaven the glorious Kingdom whilst the poor Lazarus's these poor contemptible things crept in and we with all our pride and riches and vaunting quite shut out ver 8. And now I may read the Text another way as an assertion not a wish and I find it read so Thus Si saperent intelligerent providerent If men were wise they would both understand and consider all these things without this ado They would presently turn considerarent into providerent too and so the word is rendred by the vulgar and provide now for their latter end And the provision will not stand us in much nor shall I stand long upon it Three ways to do it and you have all The Son of Syrach's 1. Remember thy end and let enmity cease says he Ecclus. xxviii 6. Let us not spend our wits our courage our estates any longer in feuds and enmities seeing God has now at length so strangely brought us all altogether The 2. way shall be his too with a little alteration Ecclus. vii 36. Remember thy latter end and that thou never henceforward do amiss I know 't is read remember and thou shalt not but 't is as true if read remember and thou wilt not if you consider it as you should you will also provide you sin no more To make all sure make the provision our Blessed Saviour would have you for a third Provide the bags that wax not old St. Luke xii 33. friends that will not fail you make them to you out of the Mammon you have gotten make the poor your friends with it That when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations S. Luke xvi 9. And consider lastly for the close of this part of the Text and I am almost at the close of all that all this is Gods desire He wishes it here he wishes it all the holy Text through Oh that there were such an heart in them Deut. v. 29. O that my people would hearken to it Psal. lxxxi 14. O that men would therefore Psal. cvii. four times in it II. And yet the second general of the Text tells you he does more wishes it so heartily that he complains again complains they answer not his wishes And wisht he has so often that he may well complain How often have I says he St. Luke xiii 34. so often nor they nor we can tell it Only so often Noluistis as often as he would so often they would not All the day long he had stretched out his hand unto them sent to them by his messengers early and late to desire them visited them with judgments courted them with mercies and yet they would not disobedient and gain-saying people that they were And therefore complain he does that do what he can he must give them up though with a Quomodo te tradam Hos. xi 8. with great regret and sorrow give them up for fools men of neither understanding nor consideration men that like fools throw away Gold for baubles men that are so far from understanding or considering that they live as if they car'd not whether they went to Heaven or Hell But I love not to lengthen out complaints in this case I should ne're have done and 't is time I should And the Text only insinuating not enlarging Gods complaints gives me an item to do so too Only give me leave in brief to sum up all Every wise man before at any time he begins a work sits down and considers what he has to do and to what end he does it O that we would be so wise in ours that we would retire our selves some minutes now and then to consider the ill courses at any time we are in or entring on And when we are got into our Chambers and be still thus commune with our selves What is this business I am about to what purpose is this life I lead this sin this waste this vanity Am I grown so soon forgetful of my late sad condition or so insensible of my late rebellions and of the pardon God has given me as thus impudently to sin again Is this the reward I make him for all his mercies thus one after another to abuse them still or is it that I am weary of my happiness and grown so wanton as to tempt destruction Is it that I may go with more dishonour to my Grave leave a blot upon my name and stand upon record for a fool or worse to all posterity for ever Is it that I have not already sins enough but I must thus foolishly still burthen my accompts Is it that I may go the more gloriously to Hell and damn my self the deeper Is it that I may purposely thwart God in all his ways of mercy and judgment cross his desires scorn his entreaties defie his threats despise his complaints anger him to the heart that I may be rid of him and quit my hands of all my interests in Heaven for ever Why this is the English of my sins my profaneness and debaucheries the courses I am in or now going upon and will I still continue them This would be considering indeed and a few hours thus spent sometimes would make us truly wise And let us but do so we shall quickly see the effect of them God shall have his wishes and we shall be wise and we shall have ours too all we can wish or hope and no complaining in our streets All our former follies shall be forgotten and all ill ends be far off from us and when these days shall have an end we shall then go to our Graves in peace to our Accompts with joy and passing by some of us perhaps even the gates of Hell come happily to the end of all our hopes the salvation of our souls have our end glory and honour and immortality and eternal life where we as Daniel tells us the wise do shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as the Stars for ever and ever Whether he bring us who is the eternal Wisdom of his Father Jesus Christ to whom with the Father and the Holy Spirit three Persons and one Eternal Immortal Invisible and only Wise God be all Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honour and Glory and Blessing for ever and ever A SERMON ON THE ANNUNTIATION OF THE Blessed Virgin Mary St. LUKE i. 28. And the Angel came in unto her and said Hail thou that art highly favoured The Lord is with thee Blessed art thou among women THe day will tell you who this Blessed among women is we call it our lady-Lady-day And the Text will tell you why she comes into the day because the Angel to day came in to her And the Angel will tell you why he to day came in to Her she was highly favoured and the Lord was with her was to come himself this day into her to make her the most blessed among women sent

him only before to tell her so to tell her he would be with her by and by himself This makes it Annunciation day the Annunciation of the Virgin Mary as the Church calls it and the Annunciation to her as we may call it too The Annunciation or announcing and proclaiming of Christ unto her that he was this day to be Incarnate of her to take that flesh to day upon him in the womb which he was some nine months hence on christmass-Christmass-day to bring with him into the world And 2. the Annunciation or announcing that is proclaiming of her blessed among above women by it by being thus highly favoured by her Lords thus coming to her A day upon these grounds fit to be remembred and announced or proclaimed unto the World Indeed Dominus tecum is the chief business the Lord Christs being with her that which the Church especially commemorates in the day Her being blessed and all our being blessed highly favoured or favoured at all either mens or womens being so all our hail all our health and peace and joy all the Angels visits to us or kind words all our Conferences with heaven all our titles and honours in heaven and earth that are worth the naming come only from it For Dominus tecum cannot come without them He cannot come to us but we must be so must be highly favoured in it and blessed by it So the Incarnation of Christ and the Annunciation of the Blessed Virgin his being incarnate of her and her blessedness by him and all our blessednesses in him with her make it as well our Lords as our Ladies day More his because his being Lord made her a Lady else a poor Carpenters Wife God knows all her worthiness and honour as all ours is from him and we to take heed to day or any day of parting them or so remembring her as to forget him or so blessing her as to take away any of our blessing him any of his worship to give to her Let her blessedness the respect we give her be inter mulieres among women still such as is fit and proportionate to weak creatures not due and proper only to the Creator that Dominus tecum Christ in her be the business that we take pattern by the Angel to give her no more than is her due yet to be sure to give her that though and that particularly upon the day And yet the day being a day of Lent seems somewhat strange 'T is surely no fasting work no business or occasion of sadness this What does it then or how shall we do it then in Lent a time of fast and sorrow Fast and feast too how can we do it A Feast it is to day a great one Christs Incarnation a day of joy if ever any and Lent a time of sorrow and repentance a great one the greatest Fast of any How shall we reconcile them Why thus The news of Joy never comes so seasonable as in the midst of sorrow news of one coming to save us from our sins can never come more welcome to us than even then when we are sighing and groaning under them never can Angel come more acceptably than at such time with such a message as All Hail thou art highly favoured blessed art thou 'T is the time that Angels use to come when we are fasting So to Daniel Dan. ix 3 21. So to Cornelius Acts x. 30. the time when we best hear a voice from heaven and best understand it with St. Peter Acts x. 13 15 16 20. the time when God himself vouchsafes to spread our Table as he did there of all kinds of beasts and fowls to St. Peter all heavenly food and mysteries 'T is the very time for gratia plena to be fill'd when we are empty the only time for Dominus tecum for our Lords being with us when we have most room to entertain him So nor the Church nor we in following it are any whit out of order Dominus tecum Christ is the main business both of our Fasts and Feasts and 't is the greatest order to attend his business in the day and way we meet it be it what it will Though perhaps it seem stranger too to hear of an Angel coming into a Virgins Chamber at midnight as is conjectured and there saluting her But no fear of those Sons of God if they come in unto the daughters of men Angels are Virgins may be with Virgins in the privatest Closets are always with them there to carry up their Prayers and to bring down blessings No strange thing then to hear of an Angel with any of them whom God highly favours with whom himself is too no wonder to hear of an Angel or Ave to any such The only wonder indeed to us will be to hear of an Ave Mary Indeed I cannot my self but wonder at it as they use it now to see it turn'd into a Prayer 'T was never made for Prayer or Praise a meer Salutation the Angels here to the blessed Virgin never intended it I dare say for other either to praise her with or pray unto her And I shall not consider it as such I am only for the Angels Ave not the Popish Ave Marie I can see no such in the Text. Nor should I scarce I confess have chosen such a Theam to day though the Gospel reach it me but that I see 't is time to do it when our Lord is wounded through our Ladies sides both our Lord and the mother of our Lord most vilely spoken of by a new generation of wicked men who because the Romanists make little less of her than a Goddess they make not so much of her as a good woman because they bless her too much these unbless her quite at least will not suffer her to be blessed as she should To avoid both these extremes we need no other pattern but the Angels who here salutes and blesses her indeed yet so only salutes and blesses her so speaks of and to her as to a woman here though much above the best of them one highly favoured 't is true yet but favoured still all her grace and blessedness and glory still no other meer favour and no more and Dominus tecum the Lords being with her the ground and source and sum of all Virgin and Day both blessed thence The better to give all their due Angel and Lord and Lady and you the better understanding of the Text the scope and matter and full meaning of it we shall consider in the words these two Particulars The Angels Visitation and the Angels Salutation I. His Visitation or coming to her in these words And the Angel came in unto her II. His Salutation to her or saluting her in these Hail thou that art highly favoured The Lord is with thee Blessed c. In the Visitation we have 1. The Visitor 2. The Visited 3. The Visiting The Angel the Visitor He. The blessed Virgin this the Visited Her And

all these Titles The first is Grace Gratiâ plena 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that always the ground of Gods favour and all our blessedness So she tells us in her Hymn Respexit humilitatem It was the humility of his Hand-maid that God in this high favour of the Incarnation of his Son respected in her Humility the ground of all grace within us all grace without us of Gods grace to us of his graces in us the very grace that graces them all too Humility makes them the most lovely pride disgraces them all be they never so many though indeed they can be truly none that are not founded in and adorned with humility The second ground of blessedness is in the Text too Dominus tecum the Lords being with her From Christs being with her and with us it is that we are blessed From his Incarnation begins the date of all our happiness If God be not with us all the world cannot make us happy much less blessed From this grace of his Incarnation first riseth all our glory So that Not unto us O Lord not unto us but unto thy Name give the praise must she sing as well as we and they do her wrong as well as God that give his glory unto her who will not give his glory to another though to his Mother because she is but his earthly Mother a thing infinitely distant from the heavenly Father Nor would that humble Hand-maid if she should understand the vain and fond and almost idolatrous stiles and honours that are given her some where upon earth be pleased with them she is highly favoured enough that her Lord and Son is with her and she with him she would be no higher sharer You may see it in the last particular the bounds and limitations of her titles and blessedness For first how full soever she be of Grace 't is yet but grace and favour 't is no more Gods meer favour so exalted her respexit only his respect to her his free looking on her no merit or desert 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he hath highly favoured her indeed but he has done done it in the praeter before she could conceive or imagine it 2. The salutation here except the titles given her by the Angels is not much more than what he gave to Gideon or what Boaz to his Harvesters enough to make the Papists afraid one would think of those extravagant at least if not blasphemous titles they give her of their closing their Books and Studies with Laus Deo Virgini Maria joyning her in partnership with God as if they were as much beholding to her as him I am sure they learn'd not this from the Angel he brings no divine but humane titles and salutations to her And he knew how to give titles though not flattering ones as Elihu speaks in Iob. 3. All her honour and blessedness is from Dominus tecum the Lords being with her He is her Lord as well as ours More indeed he is with her than with us or with Angels either plus tecum quàm mecum as some gloss it but he is her Lord still for all that and she is content so to acknowledge it and leave us a penn'd Hymn in witness of it to give him the sole honour of her magnifying and being magnified Lastly Though it be Benedicta 't is but inter mulieris among women all this is and they are but creatures a creature-blessedness a blessedness competible to the creature All to shew us that when we exceed this way of honour to her or this way of blessing her we are all out in our Aves we know not what we say And 't is well for some that their ignorance excuses them that they understand not what they speak Give we her in Gods name the honour due to her God hath stil'd her blessed by the Angel by Elizabeth commanded all generations to call her so and they hitherto have done it and let us do it too Indeed some of late have over-done it yet let us not therefore under-do it but do it as we hear the Angel and the first Christians did it account of her and speak of her as the most blessed among women one highly favoured most highly too But all the while give Dominus tecum all the glory the whole glory of all to him give her the honour and blessedness of the chief of Saints him only the glory that she is so and that by her conceiving and bringing our Saviour into the world we are made heirs and shall one day be partakers of the blessedness she enjoys when the Lord shall be with us too and we need no Angel at all to tell us so Especially if we now here dispose our selves by chastity humility and devotion as she did to receive him and let him be new-born in us The pure and Virgin Soul the humble Spirit the devout Affection will be also highly favoured the Lord be with them and bless them above others Blessed is the Virgin Soul more blessed than others in St. Paul's opinion 1 Cor. vii blessed the humble spirit above all For God hath exalted the humble and meek the humble Hand-maid better than the proudest Lady Blessed the devout affection that is always watching for her Lord in Prayer and Meditations none so happy so blessed as she the Lord comes to none so soon as such Yet not to such at any time more fully than in the Blessed Sacrament to which we are now a going There he is strangely with us highly favours us exceedingly blesses us there we are all made blessed Maries and become Mothers Sisters and Brothers of our Lord whilst we hear his word and conceive it in us whilst we believe him who is the word and receive him too into us There Angels come to us on heavenly errands and there out Lord indeed is with us and we are blessed and the Angels hovering all about to peep into those holy mysteries think us so call us so There graces pour down in abundance on us there grace is in its fullest plenty there his highest favours are bestowed upon us there we are fill'd with grace unless we hinder it and shall hereafter in the strength of it be exalted into glory there to sit down with this Blessed Virgin and all the Saints and Angels and sing praise and honour and glory to the Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever Thus by being full of grace and full of those graces we also become Maries and the Mothers of our Lord so he tells us himself he that so does the will of my Father he is my Mother Let us then strive to be so that the Angels may come with heavenly errands to us our Lord himself come to us and vouchsafe to be again born in us and so bless us fill us with grace receive and set us highly in his favour and fill and exalt us hereafter with his glory and with this Blessed

Virgin and all the Saints and Angels we may sing praise and honour and glory to him Father Son and Holy Ghost for ever and ever A SERMON ON Palm Sunday St. MAT. XXi. 8. And a very great multitude spread their Garments in the way others cut down branches from the Trees and strewed them in the way THe branches in the Text point you out what day it is St. Iohn calls some of them at least Palm branches St. Ioh. xii 13. and the Church calls the day Palm Sunday Dominica Palmarum the day wherein our Blessed Lord riding as Lord and Bishop of our souls his Visitation to Hierusalem upon an Ass was met with a kind of solemn Procession by the people a very great multitude of them says our Evangelist and had his way strewed with boughts and bespread with cloths the best they had as is usual in Princely Entertainments and Triumphs and Processions And 't is both a day and business worth remembring wherein we see the triumph of humility whereby we are taught both humility and its reward Christs mercy and mans rejoycing in it Christs way of coming to us and our way of going out to him to meet and entertain him Things worthy consideration All that was this day done were so but they are many and though they all concern us much yet our own duty concerns us most to know with what dispositions which way and how to meet and receive our Lord come he never so meanly never so slowly to us upon Horse or Ass by Mountain or Valley gloriously or humbly to us though come he how he will it will be humbly the greatest imaginable condescension even to come unto us I shall stir out neither of the Text nor time to mind us of our duty in the way of receiving Christ nor desire more matter to spend the hour than the words will give me Only I must take both the Letter and Spirit of them If we look to the History and Letter many remarkables we shall meet with If to the Mystery and Spirit more and more punctually to our purposes By both we shall be abundantly fitted against Christs coming to us and for our due receiving him the Sacramental within few days now at hand not excepted nay the Spirit of the words may be as fitly applied to that to the Sacramental receiving him as any other to teach us how to receive and meet him there as well as any where else Consider we the words then under both Notions what they did as to the Letter what we are taught to do by the Mystery and Spirit In each these three Particulars I. The Persons that go out to meet Christ and entertain him The multitude A very great multitude II. The Ceremony and respect they meet him and entertain him with Some spread their Garments in the way others cut down branches from the trees and strewd them in the way III. The Way and Place they meet and entertain him in both the one and the other in the way There they met him so they there entertained him so many hundred years ago in the literal sense in the same way and manner in the spiritual sense are we to entertain him every year and all our years and days to come And by thus canvasing the Text and taking both senses of it we shall plainly see we have good reason to remember a Palm Sunday the Church so to entitle it so to prepare us both to the Passion and the Resurrection by spreading still before us these branches of Palms and Olives by insinuating this way unto us as the properest to entertain our Saviour in to usher in the thoughts of both the Passion and Resurrection both his and ours and fit us for them both I begin with the Persons of the day and them I find the multitude A multitude for their quality a very great multitude for their number The multitude for their quality are the common people And Interdum vulgus rectum videt says the Poet Sometimes it seems the Common People see what is right No people of so low or mean understanding but may come to the knowledge of Christ and understand the ways of Salvation The Rabbins had a Proverb that Non requiescit Spiritus Domini super pauperem The Spirit of the Lord rests not upon the poor And the Pharisees had taken up somewhat like it when they give the people no better stile than 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 than of cursed and such as know not the Law St. Ioh. vii 49. Their blessing then comes by Christ it seems so they may well honour him upon that score 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to the poor the Gospel is preacht is one of the tokens he sends St. Iohn Baptist to evidence himself the true Messiah quite contrary to the Pharisees Hic populus qui non novit this people that knoweth not the Law The Gospel the Law of Christ the far better Law is preacht it seems to the poor by him and spiritus is now joyn'd with pauperes The Spirit and poor together we find in his first Sermon and first beatitude the poor in Spirit St. Mat. v. 3. and a while after Quam difficile c. How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the Kindom of God St. Mark x. 23. The condition altered the poor advanc'd the rich deprest a good reason why the multitude should follow and respect him and a great testimony of our Saviours mercy and humility so to honour mean things Yet 2. that the multitude may not forget themselves as they are too prone to do to ride you know whither when they are set a horse back they may remember Christ would not commit himself unto them St. Ioh. ii 24. He needed not their honour he knew what they would do in a few days hence cry as many Crucifies as they did to day Hosannahs as fast to crucifie him as now to bless him Indeed they are easie to be seduced and led away by any wind of Doctrine new Teachers and Seducers We have found it so of late Christ and his Church and his Religion more dishonoured by the madness of the multitude than he was honoured here They have stript himself and his Church of all the Garments and Ornaments to cloath themselves instead of stripping themselves or spreading their own Garments to honour him Yet for all that of such giddy pieces as these Christ does not always refuse to be honoured that we may know he does not deal with us after our sins nor reject us for our weaknesses much less condemn or damn us for them before we have committed them Nay perhaps 3. he accepts this honour from this multitude that he might shew us what all worldly honour is how fickle how inconstant how vain it is to puff up our selves with the breath of men to feed our selves with their empty air They that are now ready to lick the dust of some great mans feet and spread not their Garments

gall to drink when he most needed comfort and refreshment to be mockt and scofft at in his sorrow too derided by his enemies forsaken by his friends as he hung to have the weight of all the sins of all mankind upon him to have God as it were leave him to struggle under them without the least glimmering of his presence to see in his soul all the horrors of all the sins of men to feel in his body all the torments that a body so delicate beyond the bodies of the Sons of Adam by reason of its perfection must needs feel beyond all others and groan and die under the fury of an angry God now visiting for all the iniquity that were before or after should be committed by the world To know all this and by this no sorrows like his sorrows is at least to sit down and weep at it however not to pass by regardless of it And know we 4. the end why all this was even to redeem us from all our sins or as it is in the Chapter before this ver 30. That he might be made unto us wisdom and righteousness and sanctification and redemption that by his blood we might have entrance into the holy of holies into Heaven it self Heb. x. 19. This you all know as well as I every one will say he knows it all Yet I must tell you you do not know it as you should if you sit not down and sometimes determine your thoughts upon it unless you sadly meditate and thankfully think upon it unless you value the meditations and discourses of it above all other thoughts all other talk unless you set by other business ever and anon to contemplate this To know in Christianity is to do more than fill the brain with Scripture notions 't is to fill the heart too with devout affections therefore we read in Scripture of an understanding heart and wisdom is said in the holy phrase to be seated there And when the heart evaporates it self into holy affections and desires Christ then we are only said to know him But to know Christ Iesus crucified is more than so 't is in St. Paul's meaning to be crucified with him Gal. vi 14. to take up our cross and follow him to make profession of him though we be sure to come to execution by it to go with him as St. Thomas exhorts though we die with him to be willing to suffer any thing for him to deny our own wisdom and repute and our selves for his service to be content to be counted fools for his sake our very wisdom and preaching foolishness if we may save any by it to count all as nothing so we may know him and be known of him We cannot think much sure to be crucified with him who was crucified only for us to suffer something for him who suffered all for us if we but know and consider who it was was crucified and for whom he was so the Son of God for the Sons of men the most innocent for the greatest sinners the most holy for the most wicked for such who even deny him after all he has done for them This speak we this preach we this profess we this determine we upon with St. Paul to know to think to speak to teach to preach to profess this and nothing else ever crying out to him with that good old Father Deus mens omnia Deus meus omnia This crucified Iesus is my God and all this Christ crucified is my God and all all my thoughts all my hearts all my knowledge all my profession he is all in all I know nothing else I value nothing else I know him though never so disfigured by his wound I will acknowledge him though in the midst of the Thieves I am not ashamed of him though full of spittle and reproach I will profess him though all run from him alas I know not any thing worth knowing if they take him away And yet to know him has one degree more when our understanding knows any thing it does says the Philosopher become the same with it So to know Christ then is to become like him to know Christ to be anointed is to be anointed like him also with holy graces to know him Iesus a Saviour is to be a Saviour to the poor and needy to deliver the widow and fatherless from the hand of the oppressor to know him to be crucified is to crucifie our affections and lusts Thus we know him as he is here and by so knowing him here we shall at last come to know him hereafter where we shall know him perfectly know him glorified for here knowing him crucified and all things then with him for now not knowing any thing but him know God and happiness and eternal glory and our selves partakers in them all THE FIRST SERMON UPON Easter Day St. LUKE xxiv 4 5 6. And it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout behold two men stood by them in shining Garments And as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth they said unto them Why seek ye the living among the dead He is not here but is risen ANd to day the day it came to pass This the day wherein this great perplexity both rose and was resolved It rose from the not-seeing the body of Iesus in the Grave ver 3. It was resolved by the hearing here he was risen thence Thus rise the greatest perplexities still and thus they are resolved From the miss of Christ which way soever truly or falsly conceived by us they come and at the very hearing of him again they vanish To be sure they stay not at all after he is risen and we hear it and God will not let it be long before we hear it he will not suffer those to be long perplext that seek Christ heartily affectionately and devoutly though with some error in their heads as here poor souls they had if they have no wickedness in their hearts and Spices and Ointments good Works and Charity in their hands Some Angel or other shall be sent to them ere long to pacifie their troubled thoughts to disperse their fears and raise up their drooping heads Mary Magdalen Ioanna Mary the mother of Iames with other women found it so to day ver 10. And to day also and from this day now forward shall we so find it too if we seek our Lord but with that affection that holy fear that humility as they so humbly bowing down our faces so afraid to miss of him so perplexed when he is from us This is a a day when perplexities cannot stay fears cannot tarry with us our heads cannot long hang down the news of it is so full of gladness of comfort and of joy At the rising of this days Sun of righteousness our perplexities pass away as the clouds before the Sun our tears melt as the dew before it and we turn up our heads like flowers to the

Sun beams 'T is a day the fullest of all good tidings as the seal and assurance of all the good news we heard before it The Angels fly every where about to day even into the grave with comfortable messages Why Weepest thou says one Fear not says another St. Mat. xxviii 6. Why seek you among the dead says a third What do you at the Grave He is risen says the whole Choir He whose rising is all your risings who is your Saviour now compleat and the lifter up of all your heads and go but into Galilee and you shall see him But this only hearing of him must for this time content us we shall one day see him as he is till then if we hear of him with our ears and feel him in our hearts and see him in our conceits if so hear as to believe him risen and our hearts listen to it for the heart has two ears as well as the head nature has given to it such a form as has been observed in the dissections to teach us that our hearts within us as well as our ears without us are to give ear to him that made to him that saves 'um if they do we need not be the least perplexed for not visibly seeing him All believers that then were did not see him so five hundred indeed we read of all at once but they were not all that were then believers Not to all says St. Peter expresly but unto witnesses chosen before of God Acts x. 41. There is a blessedness and it seems by the manner of speaking somewhat greater for them that have not seen and yet have believed St. Ioh. xx 29. Be we then content to day to hear that he is risen with the first news and tidings of it From a good mouth it comes to good souls it comes in good time it comes From the mouths of Angels to good women and very seasonably when they were much perplexed much afraid and much cast down for want of such a message And though we cannot here see Christ as we desire yet be we pleas'd to see our selves our own sad condition upon the loss of him in these womens perplexities fears and down-cast looks our way to seek him humbly with our faces down as not worthy to look up reverently with fear and trembling as afraid to miss him solicitously much perplex'd to want him as they were in the Text. And that we may not give up our hope be afraid or cast down for ever look we upon the bright shining garments of the two Angels here for these men are no less 't is a joyful sight and rejoyce at the good success that always follows them that so seek him Angels and good news The women found it here heard the good news from the Angels lips You must be content to hear it from mine yet you know who says it Angelus Domini exercituum est the Priest is the Angel or Messenger that 's enough of the Lord of Hosts too much for me poor sinful wretch But look not upon me but upon them that here first told the news and see in the Text these three Particulars I. The sad condition for a while of those that either are without or cannot find their Saviour Christ in three Particulars They are perplexed they are afraid they bow down their faces to the earth they go all the while with down-cast looks II. The only ready way to find him after a while by being here perplexed for his loss and absence by being afraid to miss him by looking every where up and down to find him or nevvs of him going poring up and dovvn looking vvhere vve lookt before and casting down not our faces but our selves also to the earth in all humility to search after him III. The good success at last of them that thus diligently reverently and humbly seek him in three points more to see Angels to be directed right and be made partakers of the joyful news of a Resurrection of Christs Resurrection by them who is both the ground of ours and the first fruits of them that rise The sum of all is this That though it sometimes fall out to us that we lose Christ or cannot find him for a while and so fall into perplexities and fears and go up and down dejected with down-cast looks yet if we so seek him with a solicitous love a reverent fear and humble diligence we shall meet Angels after a while to comfort us and bring us news of our beloved Lord and find him risen or rising in us ere we are aware And the close of all will be our duty and the duty of the day 1. to make our selves sensible of the perplext and sad estate of those that are without Christ who have lost him in the Grave or know not where he is or how to find him and thereupon 2. so set our selves to seek him that we may be sure at last to hear of him and be made partakers of his Rerection 'T is a glad day I confess yet I begin with the gloomy morn that seem'd to usher it in to these poor women their sadness upon the imagined loss of their dear Lord truly representing to us the sad condition of those who are deprived of Christ or think they are so The glory of the day will appear brighter by this morning cloud the news of the Resurrection will be the welcomer when we first see what poor troubled frighted dejected pieces we are without it we will have the higher thoughts of him now risen when we feel how disconsolate a thing it is to be without him even without his body here though dead and buried And it came to pass says the Text that they were perplexed thereabout and it will quickly come to pass that the best of us all will be perplexed to lose any thing of our Lords much more his body if we love him They were good souls such whose devotion and affection death it self could neither quench nor alter that were so here that we might know even devout and pious souls may both err concerning Christ and sometimes want him too seek him sometimes vvith these here vvhere he is not vvhere vve falsly imagine him to be and not find him presently neither vvhen vve look him vvhere vve left him No vvonder they here poor vvomen vvere so perplext Men the great St. Peter knevv not vvhat to say to it ver 12. departed wondring Indeed it seems a vvonder at the first that such vvho love Christ so dearly seek him so early should yet miss of him that such too should be in so great an error about him as to think the Lord of life could be held in death but so poor a thing is man that as such he is perpetually subject to error and mistake and may thereupon easily lose the sight and presence of his Lord. The Spouse in the Canticles complains her Beloved had withdrawn himself and was gone she sought him but could

5. two of them together not one single comforter alone but comfort upon comfort deliverance upon deliverance spiritual and temporal one at the right hand and another at our left But lastly hereafter to be sure we shall meet them in full Choires when we rise out of our Sepulchres then like young men indeed both they and we then to be always so never die again never grow old nor our garments neither but have them always shining The next point of the good success is to receive direction from them Two parts of it there are first to recal us from the wrong and then secondly to set us right Why seek you the living among the dead he is not here that 's the correction of our judgments and affections He is risen that 's the setting them to the right For a Traveller when he is out of the way to be told he is so is a thing any of us would take well and when we are stragling out of the way to Heaven going out of that safe and fair and happy way into the bogs of the world and mires of lusts and ditches of Hell to have an Angel one of a thousand as Iob speaks but a messenger of the Lord of Hosts to call out to us that we are wrong is certainly a happiness if we understood it and such God sends always to them that seek him truly if they will but turn their heads at the call and look after him Well but what says he that so calls out to us Why why seek you the living among the dead what 's that I. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation by the Law of Moses long since dead and buried II. They seek the living among the dead that seek it by the works of nature by the power of them Nature without Grace is dead Verebar omnia opera mea says holy Iob there is not in us one poor work to trust to III. They seek the living among the dead that seek salvation that think to be sav'd by a meer outward holiness by the outward body of Religion without the inward life by forms of godliness whether they be meerly ceremonial performances of Religion or great shows and pretences of godliness without the power of it in their lives and conversations They lastly seek the living among the dead that seek Christ upon worldly interests that take up their Religion upon by-respects that do it for carnal or worldly affections But say the Angels He is not here Christ is not here Christ the Saviour is not that is our salvation is not to be found in the Law of Moses or by the Law of Works or in meer external performances or great pretences or in worldly and carnal hearts they are but Graves and Sepulchres all which we too much and too often bury our souls in and stand weeping by and are much perplexed at if we cannot find it there but must be forc'd from thence to a new search as here are the women are to leave these kinds of seeking all of them and betake us now to think of him as risen thence For so the Angels say he is He is risen And in this he both tells us what to conceive of him and at the same time to put off all our perplexities and tears and sorrows to rejoyce with him He is risen Risen and not rais'd others indeed have been rais'd from death the Sareptans Child the Widows Son one of these Mary's Brother Lazarus but none risen but he he rais'd himself they did not so he rais'd them all must raise us all too will raise us by his Resurrection For Risen that is 2. his Body risen that is we members of it to have part also in his Resurrection for if our Head be risen the Members also will follow after Must 3. in the interim follow him so raise our thoughts above the earth as to seek him now above to seek those things which are above that 's it the Angel directs us to by telling us he is risen so pointing us where now to fix our thoughts to leave the Sepulchre to bemoan it self to cast off all the ways and paths of death to throw off all worldly perplexities fears and sorrows or in the midst of them to take a ray at least from their shining garments and put on the looks of joy and gladness This both the direction they give us and the joy they make us partakers of To tell us he is risen whom we seek he is alive whom we bemoan for dead he that is our head our hope our love our life our joy our comfort our crovvn of rejoycing he in vvhom vve trusted vve may trust still hope still joy in him still for he is risen and alive That 's the close vve are novv to make to day that the ansvver vve are to give to the Angels speech that the application of the Text to make it full run vve once more over it Grovv vve then first as sensible as we can of our sad condition vvithout Christ hovv the Grave the last place of rest from all troubles has nothing in it vvithout him hovv our souls cannot be at quiet vvithout him hovv our hearts cannot but tremble vvhen he is gone our spirits faint our faces look sad and heavy dull and earthy vvhen he is from us Let us upon this ●it dovvn and vveep and be troubled and tremble at it that we may not at any time give him occasion henceforvvard to desert us or leave us comfortless at the Grave but send his Angels thither to direct and to conduct us to his joyful presence When we are thus made sensible what we are without him we then secondly certainly will make after him with all care and reverence all earnestness and diligence all humility and devout repentance troubled at his absence fearful of our own unworthiness and truly humbled for our sins that drove him from us perplext to lose him fearful to offend him vigilant to seek him that so at last we may recover him for you see he is recovered from the Grave and may again be by us recovered to our souls This the duty both our own necessities and the opportunity of this great day require of us The business we are next to go about exacts as much We are with these women come here to seek the Lords body and I shall anon give you news of greater joy than here the Angels did the Women They say he is not here but he is risen I say but he is risen and is here will be here by and by in his very Body Your eye cannot see him but your souls may there see and taste him too Lift up then your heads O ye immortal gates and be ye lift up ye everlasting doors that the King of Glory may come in Look up and lift up your heads for your salvation draweth nigh Bow down your faces no longer to the earth neither look here as to an earthly

stench and worms and rottenness then any dead body whatsoever full of infamous and stinking sins worms of conscience and worms of concupiscence rotten resolutions and performances continuance in sin is the sleep of death Holy purposes and resolutions are the rising out of it Walking thenceforward in the ways of righteousness is going into the holy City and the letting our righteousness so shine before men that God may be glorified is the appearing unto many And the order is as like our justification or spiritual Resurrection well resembled by it God first for the merits of Christs Death and Passion breaks ope the stony heart looses the fetters of our sins and lusts all worldly corruptible affections in us opens the mouth of it to confess its sins then the soul rises as it were out of its sleep by the favour of Gods exciting grace and comes out of sin by holy purposes and resolutions resolves presently to amend its courses then next it goes into the holy City by holy action endeavour and performance so goes and manifests its reconcilement to the Church of God and at last makes its Resurrection repentance and amendment evident and apparent to the world to as many as it any where converses with that all may bear witness to it that it is truly risen with Christ now lives with him This the order this the manner of our first Resurrection from the death of sin to the life of Grace Our second Resurrection to the life of Glory is but this very Resurrection in the Text acted over again As soon as the consummatum est is pronounced upon the world as soon as Christ shall say as he did upon the Cross all is finished the end is come the Arch-Angel shall blow his Trumpet the Graves open the earth and Sea give forth their dead and the dead in Christ shall rise first then they that be alive at his coming For if we believe that Iesus died and rose again even so them also that sleep in Iesus shall God bring with him 1 Thess iv 14. and they shall come out of their Graves and go into the Holy City the new Ierusalem that is above and there appear and shine like stars for ever Indeed the ungodly and the wicked shall arise too and appear before the great Tribunal but not like these Saints for into the holy City they shall not come Rise and come forth they shall but go away into some place of horror some gloomy valley of eternal sorrow some dark dungeon of everlasting night some den of Dragons and Devils never to appear before God but be for ever hid in the arms of confusion and damnation As for the godly the holy City is prepared for them for us if we be like them Saints and Angels are the inhabitants of this holy City no room there for any other if our bodies then be the bodies of holy Saints then into the holy City with them and not else no part in the new Ierusalem if no part in the old no portion above if none below no place there with Angels if no communion here with Saints no happiness in heaven if no holiness on earth They are the bodies of the Saints you hear that go into the holy City they that rise from the sleep of sin and awake to righteousness that rise from the dust of death to the rays of glory And this now may hint us of our duty to close with them for the close of all It has been shewed before what is the first Resurrection without which there is no second namely a life of holiness a dying to sin and a living unto God And this is a Resurrection we are not meerly passive in as in the other We must do somewhat here towards our own Resurrection at least to finish it We must open our mouths which are too often what David stiles the wicked mans throat even open Sepulchres and by confession send out our dead our dead works confessing our iniquities we must awake out of our sins and arise and stand up by holy vows and resolutions rear up our heads and eyes and hearts and hands to heaven seek those things that are above if we be risen with Christ get up upon our feet and be walking the way of Gods commandments walking to him get us into the holy City to the holy place make our humble appearance there express the power of Christs Resurrection in our life attend him through all the parts of it all our life long This the great business we are now going to requires of us more particularly to come to it like new rais'd bodies that had now shaken off all their dust all dusty earthly thoughts laid aside their Grave-cloths all corrupt affections that any way involv'd them and stood up all new all fitly composed for the holy City drest up in holiness and newness of life thus come forth to meet our new risen Saviour and appear before him This the way to meet the benefits of his Passion and Resurrection for coming so with these Saints out of their Graves Christs Grave also shall open and give him to us the Cup and Patine wherein his body lies as in a kind of Grave shall display themselves and give him to us the Spirit of Christ shall raise and and advance the holy Elements into lively Symbols which shall effectually present him to us and he will come forth from under those sacred shadows into our Cities our Souls and Bodies if they be holy and his grace and sweetness shall appear to many of us to all of us that come in the habit of the Resurrection in white Robes with pure and holy hearts Here indeed of all places and this way above all ways we are likeliest to meet our Lord now he is risen and gone before us this the chief way to be made partakers of his Resurrection and the fittest to declare both his Death and Resurrection the power of them till his coming again And to declare and speak of them is the very duty of the day the very Grave this day with open mouth professes Christ is risen and gives praise for it that it is no longer a land of darkness but has let in light no longer a bier of death but a bed of sleep But shall thy loving kindness O Lord be known in the dark or shall the dead rise up again and praise thee yes holy Prophet they shall they did to day and if his loving kindness shall not be known in the dark the dark places shall become light now the sun of righteousness has risen upon them But shall the dead rise up again and praise him and shall not we shall the graves open and shall not our hearts be opened to receive him nor our mouths to praise him for it Was it the business of the dead Saints to day to rise to wait upon their Lord and shall not the living rise to bear them company shall the whole City ring of it out

and the Morning came light and darkness succeeded one another so the day came no making else But of this 't is punctually said that it was made something in it or in the making more than ordinary Made 1. that is made famous by something done upon it death and hell and all the terrours of darkness this day put to flight for ever by Christs only Resurrection Made 2. that is appointed and ordained for something So Deus fecit Dominum Christum God is said to have made our Saviour Lord and Christ Acts ii 36. and of Christ that fecit nos Reges Sacerdotes that he made us that is ordained us Kings and Priests as God had him both Lord and Christ and upon this day both so that 't is no wonder if the day too be said to be made made or ordained and appointed to be remembred Made 3. to be celebrated too to be kept aniversary as a solemn day of joy and gladness of Praises and Thanksgivings Thus facere diem Sabbati Deut. v. 15. Pascha facere St. Mat. xxvi 18. is to keep the Sabbath and the Passeover what is there in Latine to make the Sabbath and the Passeover in our English is to keep them to make up or make out the day in Gods Worship and Service When God is said to make a day 't is for himself and we can make none but to him mar days we do when we spend them upon any thing or any else they are never made but when on him The greater sin theirs then that unmake the days that are thus made that both unsaint the Saints and unhallow the days and prophane both that make them for all but him all business but his as if the holiness of the Holiday were the only offence of it that which made the day or for which the day was made the only reason to them to unmake it 3. But however it pleases some to mar what God has made yet made days there have been many are and shall be Themselves are not yet so impudent to deny us all not the Lords days yet which yet are but so many little models of this great day But of made days all are not alike some high days some not so high though the one and the other made and constituted for Gods service Of made days this is the highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The day so we told you out of Ignatius so we now tell you out of St. Augustine Principatum tenet 't is the prime As the blessed Virgin among women so this blessed day among the days says he The most holy Feast of Easter the good Emperour Constantine calls it four times in one Epistle to all the Churches Solenne nostrae religionis festum a little after the solemn Feast of our Religion by which we hold our hopes of immortality the very day of all our Religion and our hope Illa videtur dies clarior illuxisse sings Lactantius The fairest day that ever shone The Sun which so many hours withdrew its light and hid its face in sable darkness went down sooner into night at our Saviours Passion and to day rose so much sooner restored those hours to lengthen or encreased it beams to enlighten this glorious Day in the opinion or else Rhetorick of Chrysologus Eusebius and St. Augustine If so it was The Day indeed none like it ever since but if not There were two Suns rose to day to enlighten it the Sun of Heaven and the Son of God who is also stiled the Sun in the strictest spelling The Sun of righteousness needs must it be a glorious day indeed which is gilded with so much light so many glorious Rays All days were night before nothing but dark clouds and shadows under the Law of Moses nothing but a long unevitable night under the Law of nature nothing but a disconsolate night of sorrow under the power of sin and darkness this was the first bright day that dispell'd all darkness quite A kind of spring of day or glimmering twilight there was abroad from the first preaching of the Gospel but men could scarce see any thing not the Disciples themselves their eyes were ever and anon held not fully opened till the grave it self was this day opened and gave forth Christ to open the Scriptures to them by the evidence of the Resurrection 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this is the day when all this was done when this marvelous light shone forth to enlighten all the world The day of all the days before or since 4. And now 4. it may well be so when the Lord made it All his works are wonderful all perfect and complete deserve Articles and Notes to be set upon them But when he sets the Note himself and gives the Article then to be sure 't is somewhat more than ordinary somewhat he would have us to observe above the rest And when he entitles himself to it or challenges it unto himself day it self is not more clear than that such a day must be observed Things that are exceding eminent and full of greatness wonder or perfection are commonly attributed unto God This day is such at least because 't is said God made it a peculiar work and Ordinance of his more than the common Ordinance of day and night and if God made it what is man that he should mar it or the son of man that he should unmake it Or how dares man or Son of man make little of that which God made so great So great as to call it his so great as to make it the mother of one and fifty daughters of all the Lords days in the year besides This is the Lords doing indeed None could alter the Sabbath into the Lords day but he None put down that and set up another abolish the Seventh and set up the First but the Lord of all and may do all what he pleases in heaven and earth Lord it every where how he will Herein he shews he is the Lord and this day the Lady of the year from whence so many little weekly Easter days take both their rise and name All the former days God made the Lord made this the Lord Christ the ground and Author of this day Christs rising raising this to that height it is Now God or Christ is not only said to do or make that which they do immediately by themselves but that also which they do by those to whom they have committed such authority So Christ tells us St. Luke x. 16. He that heareth you heareth me he that heareth his Apostles his Church his Ministers heareth him himself their commands are his their orders his so long as they are not contrary to his word And thus we may evidently without much labour deduce the day to be his making From the Apostles times it came Palicarpus that Angel as is conceived of the Church of Smyrna Rev. ii 8. kept Easter saith Ireneaeus with St. Iohn and with the

rest of the Apostles Euseb. l. 5. c. 26. The great difference about the time of keeping Easter between the Eastern and the Western Churches was grounded upon the different keeping of it by the two great Apostles St. Peter and St. Iohn St. Iohn keeping it after one reckoning St Peter after another St. Iohn keeping it after the Jewish reckoning upon the fourteenth of the month Abib St. Peter much after the accompt as now it stands upon the Sunday following but all the controversie was about the time not about the keeping it none denied or questioned that but Aerius none left it at liberty but the Cathari both registred for Hereticks about it So confident were they 't was from the Lord. And that from him at least by the Apostles Constantine in Eusebius is direct 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Which day says he ever since the first day of his Passion we have kept untill this present We have received it of our Saviour says he a little after And again which our Saviour deliver'd to us Thus Dominus fecit then indeed And that so it was either from his own command or from his Apostles the whole practise of the Church is ground enough in all Ages still observing it even in the hottest times of persecution some in Caves and some in Woods and some on Shipboard and some in Barns and Stables and some in Goales keeping it as they could says Eusebius so scrupulous were they of omitting that day upon any hand that the Lord had made them and the great contentions about the time of keeping it shews as plain they thought it more than an humane institution they might else have easily ended all the Controversie and laid down the day But they had not then so learned Christ had not learned the trick of lightly esteeming days and places and things and persons and offices dedicated to Gods service which God had made or were made to him 5. Especially made upon such an occasion as this day was This day What day is this The day wherein the Stone that was disallowed by Men was approved of God and exalted to the head of the corner Wherein the chief corner stone of Sion was laid and Sion begun to be built upon it when we had ground given to build upon and stones to build with by Christs Resurrection that 's the ground and occasion of the day And a good one too For had he not risen we had had no ground to build upon we had perish'd in our sins been swept all away like so many houses builded upon the sand We had had neither place for faith nor ground for hope nor room for preaching our preaching vain your faith also vain all vaine all come to nothing His being delivered for our offences had been nothing if he had not been raised again for our Iustification as it is Rom. iv 25. 'T is to this day we owe our Justification 't is from this day we are made just and holy from this Stones being made the head stone of the corner we made lively stones built up into a spiritual house or building as St. Peter speaks 1 Pet. ii 5. From his becoming this day the chief corner stone it is in that we now have confidence as St. Iohn speaks and creep not into corners to hide our faces that we dare boldly look up to heaven and come unto him and that we call not to the Hills to hide us or to the Mountains to cover us from the presence of God or the face of man or devil Our faith and hope our souls and spirits are all raised by this days raising we are all made by this days being made we had else better never have been made for we had been marr'd and undon for ever 6. But by this day it seems we are not for this rejoycing and gladness that now follows close upon it shews what a kind of day it is for what 't is made even to be glad and to rejoyce in a Feast or Festival God is no enemy to the Churches Feasts whoever be calls to us to blow up the Trumper for Feasts as well as bid us to proclaim a Fast. Indeed he more properly makes the Feast and we the Fast for he only gives the occasion of the one and we of the other he benefits and we sins Deus nobis haec otia fecit So no wonder that the day that he has made be a good day a day of good things such as we may well rejoyce in a Festival Yea and a set one too His making you heard was an appointing or instituting it Though God would sometimes have free-will Offerings he will not always trust to them If he leave all to the wills of men the fires will oft go out upon his Altars his house stand thin enough of people and his Priests grow lean for all the fall of his Sacrifices if he come once to the mercy or courtesie of men They would quickly starve him and his Religion out of doors But set Feasts he always had set Services and offerings would not leave himself or his Worship to mans devotion for he knew what was in man He made this day made it a Feast a day of joy and gladness Let us now therefore to our Office to rejoyce and be glad in it that 's the second General thither now are we come Three Points we told you we would consider in it Exultemus laetemur and in eâ Three parts in our Office rejoycing gladness and the right ordering both Outward expression inward gladness and right placing them Both words I confess 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the Septuagint e●ultemus laetemur in the Latine have something outward in them yet exultemus is more for the outward laetemur somewhat more within a joy of the heart with some dilatation only of it Laetitia quasi latitia a stretching out the heart and sending forth the Spirits exultatio of saltatio a kind of skipping or leaping for joy the Spirits got into all the parts and powers ready to leap out of them for joy Being thus both involv'd one in the other I shall not trouble my self to distinguish them but only tell you hence that first The joy that God requires in the things that he has made or any time makes for us is not only inward it must out into outward acts Out into the mouth to sing forth his praise in Psalms and Hymns and spiritual Songs Eph. v. 19. Out into the hands to send portions to the poor for whom nothing is prepared Nehem. viii 10. Out into the feet to go up to the House of God with the Posture as well as the voice of joy and gladness to go up with haste to worship with reverence to stand up chearfully at the Hymns and Songs of Praise Our very bones as David speaks to rejoyce too the very clatter'd bones to clatter together and rejoyce all the parts and powers of

the body to make some expression in their way and order But not the powers of the body alone but all the powers of the soul too Praise the Lord O my soul and all that is within me praise his holy name Psal. ciii 1. Our souls magnifie the Lord our Spirits rejoyce in God our Saviour our memory recollect and call to mind his benefits and what he has done for us our hearts evaporate into holy flames and ardent affections and desires after him our wills henceforward to give up themselves wholly to him as to their only hope and joy 'T is no perfect joy where any of them is wanting 'T is but dissembled joy where all is outward 'T is but imperfect gladness where all is within It must be both God this day raised the body the body therefore must raise it self and rise up to praise him He this day gave us hope he would not leave our souls in hell fit therefore it is the soul should leave all to praise him that sits in heaven He is not worthy of the day or the benefit of the day worthy to be raised again who will not this day rise to praise not worthy to rise at the Resurrection of the just who will not rise to day in the Congregation of the righteous to testifie his joy and gladness in the Resurrection of his Saviour and his own He is worthy to lie down in darkness in the Land of darknes who loves not this day who stands not up this day to sing praises to him that made it And now I shall give you reason for it out of the last words In eâ in it In it and for it As short as they are they contain arguments and occasions as well as time and opportunity to rejoyce in Rejoyce first in it because this day it is a particular day of gladness and rejoycing Let us do what the day requires 'T is a day of joy designed for it let us therefore rejoyce in it Rejoyce 2. because the Lord made it All the works of the Lord are matters of joy to the spiritual man even sad Days too much more glad days such as this Rejoyce 3. because the Lords people have ever made it such God has always made them to rejoyce in it to contend and strive who should do it best or nearest to the point Be glad 4. for the occasion of it the Resurrection of our Lord and Master and the hopes thereby given us of our own all benefits of Christ were this day sealed unto us all his promises made good all so hang upon this day that without it we of all men says the Apostle had been most miserable none so fool'd so wretched so undone so miserable as we Rejoyce 5. because God bids us 't is an easie and pleasant Precept If we will not be glad when he commands us certainly we will do nothing that he commands us especially when he gives us so great occasion of joy when he commands it Rejoyce 6. because the very Jewish people do it here They had but little cause of joy compared to ours they saw but a glimmering of this joy at most saw the Resurrection but afar off and yet you hear they cry out We will rejoyce and be glad in it And is it not a shame that we Christians who see it clearly and pretend to believe it fully should not as much exceed them in our joy as in our sight in our gladness as in our faith Clearly so it is Rejoyce 7. because it is a good thing to rejoyce to rejoyce in Gods mercies and favours to us in Christs Crown and glory in his day and way The very Angels themselves put on this day the white garments of joy and gladness we find them in them St. Luke xxiv 4. Rejoyce lastly to day because this day is the first of all our Lords days ever since We count them feasts and days of joy and we meet together upon them to rejoyce in to give God praise and thanks and glory 'T is a piece of worse than non-sence to say we are to do it upon these days and not on this from which only and no other they had their rise and being All that we commemorate or rejoyce in on every Sunday is more eminently and first in this this the great yearly anniversary of that weekly Festival the time as near as the Paschal circle can bring it to the time that the Resurrection fell upon For these and for this day so made to mind us of all these let us now take up the resolution of these pious souls We will rejoyce and be glad in it in the day and on the day and for the day that 's the very work and business of the day opus diei in die suo the proper work of the day in the day it self And here is now a way particularly before us to rejoyce in Laetari is taken sometimes for laetè epulari To rejoyce is to eat and drink before the Lord in his House or Temple so Deut. xiv 26. And thou shalt eat there before the Lord thy God and thou shalt rejoyce thou and thy houshold Here now we are before him the Table spread and our banquet ready let us eat drink and be merry and rejoyce before him only rejoyce in fear and be glad with reverence This is the day which the Lord made and all Christians observed for the celebration of this holy Banquet and Communion Never let the day pass without it excommunicated them that did not one day or other of or about Easter receive the blessed Sacrament the greatest expression of our Communion with God and Christ and all his Saints and our rejoycing in it You may see this people in the Psalm within one verse blessing him that cometh in the name of the Lord blessing the Minister that comes with it wishing him and all the rest that be of the House of the Lord good luck with their business Gods assistance in his Office and Administration And in the next verse calling out aloud God is the Lord which hath shewed us light Bind the Sacrifice with cords even to the horns of the Altar God has shewed us light and made us a day let us now bind the Sacrifice the living Sacrifice of our souls and bodies with all the cords of holy vows and resolutions even to the horns of the Altar and there sacrifice and offer up our selves even unto our blouds if God call to it all our fat and entrails the inwards of our souls our hearts and all our inward spirits the fat of our estates our good works and best actions the best we have the best we can do all we have or are even at the Altar of our God with joy and gladness glad that we have any thing to serve him with any thing that he will accept that we have yet day and time to serve him that he has not cut us off in the midst of our days but

let us all live to see this day again and have the liberty as well as occasion yet to rejoyce in it Upon this comes in David now presently with Thou art my God and I will thank thee Thou art my God and I will praise thee O let us do so too cry out one to another as the Psalm concludes O give thanks unto the Lord for he is gracious and his mercy endureth for ever Turn all our rejoycings into thanks and praise make it a day of praise that so rejoycing worthily this day we may be thought worthy to rejoyce in that day opening and dilating our hearts and mouths with joy to day in this day of Christs particular Resurrection we may have them fill'd with joy and gladness at the day of the general Resurrection this day of the Lord convey us over happily to that these our imperfect joys be advanced or translated into everlasting ones into a day where there is no night no sorrow but eternal gladness and rejoycing for evermore THE FOURTH SERMON UPON Easter Day St. MAT. xxviii 5 6. And the Angel answered and said unto the women Fear not ye for I know that ye seek Iesus which was crucified He is not here for he is risen as he said Come see the place where the Lord lay BVt is He not here What do We then here to day Come see the place where the Lord lay Why 't is not worth the seeing now 'T is but a sad place now He is gone No place worth the seeing or the being in if He who is our being be not there Old Iacob's descendam lugens in internum is all that we can look for we must go down with sorrow to the grave But fear not though Our Lord indeed is gone but risen and gone away himself they have not stoln him away He 's past stealing He 's risen and alive Nor is he gone so neither but we may find him anon again in some better place Had we found him here in the grave to day it had been sad indeed He had been lost and We had been lost and both lost for ever He is risen He is not here are the words that disperse the clouds and clear up the day make it so clear that Videtur mihi hic dies caeteris diebus esse lucidior says St. Augustine Sol mundo clarior illuxisse astra quoque omnia elementa laetari Never any day so bright The Sun the Stars and all the Elements more sprightful and glorious to day than ever they even dance for joy The Angels themselves to day put on their glorious Apparrel bright shining Robes to celebrate this glorious Festival at the grave ver 3. A place where they this day day strive to sit sent thither to dispel our fears and disperse our sorrows and raise our hopes and advance our joys And indeed it was no more then needed when this day first arose no more then what needs still to those who seek Iesus which was crucified who go out with these tender hearts to the grave to weep They need comfort and encouragement direction and other assistance too They lie open to fears and troubles to errors and mistakes often in their seekings They had need of an Angel to guide them and the news and certainty of a Resurrection to support them and by this we find here shall so find it if they truly seek him This is the business both of the Text and of the Day The whole business of the Angel here and of his speech to the women that sought Iesus that was crucified In which when I have shewn you I. The Persons the Angel speaking it and the women to whom it was spoken I shall shew you then II. In the speech Somewhat 1. to disperse the fears Somewhat 2. to approve and encourage the endeavours Somewhat 3. to correct the search Somewhat 4. to inform the judgments Somewhat 5. to confirm the faith of those who here seek or shall at any time hereafter set themselves to seek Iesus which was crucified For 1. Fear not ye says the Angel there our fears are disperst 2. I know you seek Iesus which was crucified there our endeavours are approved of or encouraged 3. He is not here There 's our search corrected 4. He is risen as he said there 's our judgement informed 5. Come see the place where the Lord lay there 's our faith confirm'd All you see plain and orderly in the Text both the Particulars and the Sum of it I shall go on orderly with the Particulars and so shew you first the Persons both the speaker and to whom 't is spoken The Angel is the speaker and stands here first I shall begin with him And an excellent speaker he is The tongues of Angels above all the tongues in the world besides You will say so anon when you have heard his speech examin'd In the mean time a word of Him St. Matthew mentions here but one St. Mark no more St. Luke two St. Matthew's Angel sate upon the stone which was rolled away from the mouth of the Sepulchre ver 2. St. Mark 's sate on the right side of the Sepulchre within Chap. xvi ver 5. St. Luke's Angels stood by the women as they stood perplexed in the Sepulchre St. Luke's xxiv 4. And St. Iohn speaks of two Angels more the one sitting at the head the other at the feet where the body of Iesus had lain St Iohn xx 12. And yet in all these diversities no contradiction The story runs smoothly thus These pious women mention'd here come early to the Sepulchre to embalm their Masters Body whilst they yet stood without for fear this Angel in the Text that sate before the door upon the stone he had rolled away invites them to come in where they were no sooner entred but they saw a second Angel sitting who entertain'd them almost with the same words and is he remembred by St. Mark when they had a while perus'd the bowels of the grave and found nothing there but the desolate linnen in which their Lords body had been wrapt being somewhat perplexed at the business they were comforted by two other Angels which immediately appear'd to resolve their doubts and sent them to the Disciples to tell the news and are those spoken of by St. Luke whereupon away they hast only Mary Magdalen returns again with St. Peter and St. Iohn who having lookt and entred into the grave away they goe but she stands still without and weeps till two other Angels as St. Iohn relates shew forth themselves to stop her tears and divert her moans and shew her her Lord standing at her back Thus we need no Synechdoche's no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 no strein'd figures to make things agree But thus you see Angels are all ministring Spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation as the Apostle tells us Heb i. 14. They stand by us when we think not of them They

in raiment white garments as the Angel does ver 3. or a long white garment as St. Marks Angel Chap. xvi 5. That 's neither a fashion nor a colour to be afraid of for any that seek Iesus which was crucified or hope to see the face and enjoy the company of Holy Angels though some now a days are much scar'd with such a garment when the Angels or Messengers of the Churches appear in it But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fear it not 'T is but an innocent Robe no more hurt in it than in the Angels that wore it 'T is the Robe of Innocence and the Resurrection No reason to fear it Fear not ye not this bright appearance No nor 2. that black one neither of the ghastly countenances of the amazed Souldiers They alass are run and gone There was no looking for them upon him they had crucified They indeed had reason to be afraid that the earth that trembled under them should gape and swallow them that the grave they kept being now miraculously opened might presently devour them that he whom they had crucified now coming forth with power and splendour might send them down immediately into eternal darkness for their villany Nay the very innocent brightness and whites in which the Angel then appear'd might easily strike into them a sad reflection and terror of their own guilt and confound them with it and I am afraid when the Angels long white Garment does so still 't is to such guilty Souls and Consciences as these Souldiers that it does so such who either betrayed their Lord to death or were set to keep him there Such I confess may fear even the Garments of Innocence that others wear But they that seek Christ crucified may be as bold as Lions Non timent Mauri jacula nec arcus nec venenatis gravidas sagittis Christe pharetras Thy Discirage ples O B. Iesu now thou art risen will fear nothing nor Darts nor Spears nor Bows nor Arrows nor any force or terror any face or power of man whatever And ye good innocent souls ye good women fear not ye your own innocence will guard you these Souldiers shall do you no hurt their shaking hands cannot wield their weapons nor dare they stand by it they are running away with all speed to save themselves So 2. Fear not them Nor fear 3. the quaking earth that seems ready either to sink them or sinks under them 't is now even setling upon its foundation The Lord of the whole earth has now once again set his foot upon it and it is quiet and the meek such as seek Christ they shall now inherit it But though the earth were mov'd and though the hills were carried into the midst of the Sea yet God is our hope the Lord is our strength and we will not therefore fear says David Psal. xlvi 1 2. No though the waters thereof rage and swell and though the mountains shake at the tempest of the same do earth what it can to fright us God is a present help in trouble Why then should ye be afraid Fear not No not lastly the very grave it self that King of Terrors That is now no longer so to you Though Tyrants should now tear your bodies into a thousand pieces grind your bones to power scatter your ashes in the air and disperse your dissolved atomes through all the winds no matter this Angel and his company are set to wait upon your dust and will one day come again and gather it together into Heaven Nothing can keep us thence nothing separate us nor life nor death says the Apostle Rom. viii 38. Fear nothing then at all Not ye however For ye seek Iesus which was crucified that 's an irrefragable argument why you should not fear And such give me leave to make it before I handle it as an encouragement of our endeavours an encouragement 1. against our fears before I consider it as an encouragement to our work And indeed Ye who dare seek Iesus that was crucified amidst Swords and Spears and Graves of what can you be afraid He that dreads not death needs fear nothing He that slights the torments of the Cross and despises the shame of it He that loves his Lord better than his life that dares own a crucified Saviour and a profession that is like to produce him nothing but scorn and danger and ruine He cannot fear Illum si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae The World it self though it should fall upon him cannot astonish him Nothing so undaunted as a good Christian as he that truly seeks Iesus that was crucified And there 's good reason for it He that does so is about a work that will justifie it self He needs not fear that He whom he seeks is Iesus one who came to save him from his sins he needs not fear them This Iesus being crucified has by his dying conquer'd death O death where is thy sting He needs not fear that And though die we must yet the Grave will not always hold us no more than it did him He is not here nor shall we be always here not always lie in dust and darkness no need to fear that Nay he is risen again and we by that so far from fear that we know we shall one day rise also For the Chambers of Death ever since the time that Christ lay in them lie open for a return are but places of retreat frome noise and trouble places for the Pilgrims of the earth to visit only to see where the Lord lay Thus is every Comma in the Text an Argument against all fears that shall at any time stop our course in seeking Jesus that was crucified And having thus out of the words vanquisht your fears I am now next to encourage your endeavours For I know ye seek Iesus c. I know it says the Angel That is I would not only not have you be afraid of what you are about as if you were doing ill but I commend you for it for 't is well that you seek Iesus which was crucified you need not be afraid you do well to do it Yea but how dost thou know it Thou fair Son of light that they seek him Alas 't is easie to be known by men and womens outward deportment whom they seek Let us but examine how these women sought and we shall see 1. The come here to his Sepulchre they not only follow'd him to his grave a day or two ago the common office we pay to a departed friend but to day they come again to renew their duties and repeat their tears Nor do they do it slightly or of course They 2. do it early very early St. Mar. xvi 2. as if they were not could not be well till they had done it So early that it was scarce light nay while it was yet dark says St. Iohn they thought they could not be too soon with him they loved They 3. came on with courage

and joyful Resurrection But Christs grave 2. or Sepulchre has more in it than any else There sit Angels to instruct and comfort us there lie cloths to bind up our wounds there lies a napkin to wrap up our aking heads there is the fine linnen of the Saints to make us bright white garments for the Resurrection You may now descend into the grave with confidence it will not hurt you Christs body lying in it has taken away the stench and filth and horrour of it 'T is but an easie quiet bed to sleep on now and they that die in Christ do but sleep in him says St. Paul 1 Thes. ix 14. and rest there from their labours says St. Iohn Revel xiv 13. Come then and see the place and take the dimensions of your own graves thence Learn there how to lie down in death and learn there also how to rise again to die with Christ and to rise with him T is the principal Moral of the Text and the whole business of the day In other words to die to sin and live to righteousness that when we must lie down our selves we may lie down in peace and rise in glory I have thus run through all the Parts of the Text. And now I hope I may say with the Angel I know ye also seek Iesus that was crucified and are come hither to that purpose But I must not say with the Angel He is not here He is here in his Word Here in his Sacraments Here in his poor members Ye see him go before you when ye see those poor ghosts walk you hear him when you hear his Word or read or preacht You even feel him in the blessed Sacraments when you receive them worthily The eyes and ears and hands of your bodies do not cannot but your souls may find see and him in them all Some of you I know are come hither even to seek his body too to pour out your souls upon it and at you holy Sepulchre revive the remembrance of the crucified Iesus yet take heed you there seek him as you ought Not the living among the dead I hope Not the dead elements only or them so as if they were corporally himself No He is risen and gone quite off the earth as to his corporal presence All now is spirit though Spirit and Truth too truly there though not corporally He is risen and our thoughts must rise up after him and think higher of him now then so and yet beleive truly he is there So that I may speak the last words of the Text with greater advantage then they are here Come see the place where the Lord lies And come see the place too where he lay go into the grave though not seek him there Go into the grave and weep there that our sins they were that brought him thither Go into the grave and die there die with him that died for us breath out your souls in love for him who out of love died so for us Go into his grave and bury all our sins and vanities in that holy dust ● Go we into the grave and dwell there for ever rather than come out and sin again and be content if he see it fit to lie down there for him who there lay down for us Fill your daily meditations but now especially with his death and passion his agony and bloudy sweat his stripes and wounds and griefs and pains But dwell not always among the Tombes You come to seek him seek him then 1. where you may find him and that is says the Apostle at the right hand of God He is risen and gone thither And seek him 2. so as you may be sure find him Not to run out of the story seek him as these pious women did 1. Get early up about it hence forward watch and pray a little better he that seeks h●m early shall be sure to find him Seek him 2. couragiously be not afraid of a guard of Souldiers be not frighted at a grave nor fear though the earth it self shake and totter under you Go on with courage do your work be not afraid of a crucified Lord nor of any office not to be crucified for his service Seek him 3. with your holy balms and spices the sweet odours of holy purposes and the perfume of strong Resolutions the bitter Aloes of Repentance the Myrrhe of a patient and constant Faith the Oil of Charity the spicie perfumes of Prayers and Praises bring not so much as the scent of earth or of an unrepented sin about you seek him so as men may know you seek him know by your eyes and know by your hands and know by your knees and feet and all your postures and demeanors that you seek Iesus that was crucified let there be nothing vain or light or loose about you nothing but what becomes his Faith and Religion whom you seek nothing but what will adorn the Gospel of Christ. You that thus seek Iesus which was crucified shall not want an Angel at every turn to meet you to stand by support and comfort you in all your fears and sorrows nor to encourage your endeavours nor to assist you in your good works nor to preserve you from errors nor to inform you in truths nor to advance your hopes nor to confirm your faiths nor to do any thing you would desire You shall be sure to find him too whom your souls seek and He who this day rose from his own Sepulchre shall also raise up you from the death of sin first to the life of righteousness and from the life of righteousness one day to the life of glory when the Angel shall no longer guide us into the grave but out of it out of our Graves and Sepulchres into Heaven where we shall meet whole Choires of Angels to welcome and conduct us into the place where the Lord is where we shall behold even with the eyes of our bodies Iesus that was crucified sitting at the right hand of God and sit down there with him together in the glory of the Father To which He bring us who this day rose again to raise us thither Iesus which was crucified To whom though crucified to whom for that he was crucified and this day rose again to lift us up out of the graves of sins and miseries and griefs be all honour and power praise and glory both by Angels and Men this day henceforward and for ever Amen THE FIFTH SERMON UPON Easter Day 1 COR. xv 19. If in this life only we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable ANd if this Day had not been we had been so Miserable indeed and without hope of being other If Christ had not risen there had been no Resurrection and if no Resurrection no hope but here then most miserable we Christians to be sure who were sure to find nothing but hard usage here tribulation in this World and could expect no other or no better

Rom. x. 2. without knowledge and spirit without holiness for the Spirit of the Prophets is subject to the Prophets 1 Cor. xiv 32. much more to the God of the Prophets to his time and order And yet there is another disposition to be observed in those upon whom the good Spirit lights to make either instruments of glory to the Church or Piety to God 'T is sitting and expecting if you mark it till the day or days of Pentecost be fully come and accomplisht souls willing to keep a holy-day or holy-days to the Lord neither to be scar'd from the attendance of their Master and their Devotions nor to be shortned and interrupted in their pious course of faith and piety by the now so terrible scare-crows of set Feasts as Iewish legal and superstitious observances as the new zelots are so wise to term them because they understand not terms or times The spiritual man if they be what they boast discerns the things of God though hidden in darker mysteries knows better to distinguish Iudaism from Christianity Piety from Superstition and is not only content but studies to wait upon his Lord upon any day glad to get it too Passover or Pentecost makes use of them all and turns them fairly from their old Iudaism and consecrates them anew to his Masters service and this doing the very Spirit himself authorizes and abets whilst he thus seems to pick out the time for his own coming at the Iewish Pentecost so to sanctifie a new Christian Pentecost the Christian Whitsuntide to all Christian Generations by this solemn glory of his benefits to day to be remembred for ever Thus we have the disposition he vouchsafes to descend upon unanimous uniform peaceable orderly expecting souls Such as set apart and keep days to God with faith and patience and in obedience and order the contrary tempers are too rough lodgings for the Spirit of meekness order and peace be we so prepar'd and he will come II. Now see we how he comes the manner of the Holy Spirits coming Double it is to the ear and to the eye To the ear first and that 1. suddenly from Heaven secondly 3. like a sound thence 4. the sound of a rushing mighty wind that 5. filled all the house yet 6. the house only where they sate thus to the ear Then 2. to the eye in the appearance of tongues cloven tongues tongues of fire tongues sitting and lastly sitting upon each of them We take first what came first the sound and that first was sudden suddenly says the Text yet as sudden as it came go it shall not so not without a note or two Suddenly then it came to shew the freeness of Gods grace so far above desert that it is also above apprehension it out-runs that and is upon us ere we are aware so little probability have we to deserve it that we commonly have not time to do it and when we have yet so suddain does it fall that we may well see it comes not from our selves so dull a piece as earth and sin has made us To shew 2. the readiness of his goodness beyond expectation readier far to give than we to take comes commonly upon us sooner then we expect or wish prevents us with his goodness as the Psalmist observes to us Psal. xxi 3. and runs very swiftly Psal. cxlvii 15. flying upon the wings of the wind Psal. civ To shew us 3. the vanity of men who think it comes with observation It does not says Christ St. Luke xvii 20. 'T is not at our command The Prophets themselves could not Prophesie when they listed 't was cecidit Spiritus the Spirit fell upon them the common phrase in Scripture and then they prophesied till that fell and fall it did but at times what times it pleased the motions of the Prophet were but as other mens Indeed I remember Elisha willing to prophesie to Iehoshaphat the King of Iudah 2 King iii. 14 15. calls for a Minstrel and it came to pass that while the Minstrel play'd the hand of the Lord came upon him Not that either the Spirit was at the will and under the power of the Minstrel or the Prophet but to shew the disposition that the holy Spirit vouchsafes soonest and suddenest to come to a sweet and tunable soul dispos'd to accord to love and peace and unity And by the way you may take notice Musick and the Spirit are at no discord as the late spiritual men forsooth would have us to believe the Prophet you see thought it the only way and medium to raise his spirits into heavenly raptures to make himself capable of new Inspirations to call for an Instrument of Musick and as it were to perswade the heavenly Spirit down by some grave and sober Musick which may make us wonder how these great pretenders to the Spirt and gapers for it should be so furious enemies against the Church Musick so ever employ'd and approv'd both by God and his Prophets and Apostles for singing with melody says St. Paul too Ephes. v. 19. to fit and sweeten and raise our dull and rougher spirits to the service of Heaven and the entertainment of the heavenly and gentle motions of the Spirit in those holy performances But all this while this is but to dispose our selves the Spirit it self is at its own disposal for all this and when he comes comes on a sudden Even to awake 4. and rouse us up We are drowsie souls to Heaven-ward want some sudden change to startleus things that come leisurely will not do it It must be a sudden turn that will turn us out of our selves or from our follies or so much upward And sudden 5. it is again to shew the activity of the Spirit of God how wonderful he is among the Children of men that he cannot only turn the world upside down when ere he please but assoon as he pleases does but blow with his wind and the waters flow casts but a sudden glance of an eye at St. Peter and out run the waters out of his he that was but just now afraid of the voice of a silly girl fears not presently the lightnings and thunders of the greatest Tyrants Nox ut tetigerit mentem docet solumque tetigisse docuisse est Mam humanum subito ut illustrat immutat affectum abnegat hoc repente quod erat exhibet repente quod non erat S. Greg. He does but touch the mind and teaches it shines into it and changes it together forgets immediately what it was and is what it was not All the quickest ways of men must have time and leisure be it but to cast an eye but O qualis est artifex iste Spiritus But how wonderful an Artist is thy Spirit O Lord that knows not the least hinderance or delay 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it comes so suddenly there is no appearance often of its coming not so much as a whiff or shadow before it to give us

Houses and Buildings nay rends the Mountains and breaks in pieces the Rocks before it 1 Kings xix 11. But never did Wind so tear up Foundations by the roots never did so strong Buildings fall before that tumultuous vapour as this rushing mighty Wind that this day came down from Heaven hath cast down before it All the high things of the earth Wisdom and Learning and Might and Majesty have faln as easily as so many Paper Turrets at its breath all have given up themselves and thrown all prostrate at the Word of this Spirit so that the whole World stood wondring and amaz'd to see it self so turn'd about by the meer words of a few simple Fishermen without force or eloquence or craft to see it self so tamely submit its glory to the humility of Christ its greatness to his littleness its majesty to his baseness its wisdom to the foolishness of his Cross its ease pleasure to the pains and patience of it But manus excelsi fecit hoc 't is the hand of the most Highest that has done it such a wind could come from none but God such a Spirit can be none but his none but he could do it and it is marvellous in our eyes his power as marvellous as his mercy both of them above any created ones whatsoever Well may such a Wind as this now fill the house as it follows in the fifth Consideration And yet commonly the wind fills the open air and not the houses Common winds do so indeed but this peculiar Wind fills the house and every corner comes in even when the doors are shut or else opens and shuts them as it pleases a sign 't is more than air or airy spirit 't is he only that searches the hearts and reins that can glide so into these close rooms of ours and 't is our happiness it is so that he thus blows into the house of his own accord and power For give me a Ship says St. Chrysostom with all its tackling sails and anchors spread all in order too and let the wind lie still let there be no gale stirring and all its furniture and men are nothing no more is the soul with all its preparations without the blowing of the Spirit nay no more is all our eloquence all our arguments and perswasions the subtilty of our understanding the richness of our conceipt and notion the sweetness of the voice the rhetorick of words the strength of reason the whole tackling and furniture of the Orator or Preacher unless the Spirit come and fill the sail and stretch the canvas and so drive on the Vessel 'T is this implevit we must hold by 't is his filling our empty house our lank and lither sails that blows comfort to us And 't is the enhancing of the benefit which is the last considerable in this similitude of the wind that it fills the house only where they are sitting It is no ordinary or common favour that God vouchsafes in filling our houses with the Spirit he hath not dealt so with any other Nation with any other people than the Christian people It is the Church only and the souls of Christians in it that this mighty wind as rushing and mighty as it is does content and contain it self in All other houses and places stand empty cannot get this Tenant 'T is the property of this Wind and no other to blow where it lists in this house and no other within doors all within the Church none without at all or the sound of it only passes out to call others in that they may see and wonder at the things that are come to pass this day that Iews and Proselytes Cretes and Arabians Parthians and Medes and all Nations under Heaven may bea● witness of the wonder and if they come in in some sort partake of it too of the wind though not of the tongues of some graces of the Spirit though not of the other Only come in they must into the Church of Christ which is his body before their veins be filled with this Spirit before they feel any motion of it Of the Wind I say such a portion of the Spirit as may breath into them the breath of life but tongues of fire are for those only who were sitting there before fitting as Governors of the Church to whom that baptism of fire was promised who were bid to tarry and expect it and when so enabled to go abroad then and use their tongues and blow the flames of divine love and charity through the World I should now proceed to these miraculous tongues the second representment of the Holy Spirit And me thinks I am unwilling to leave them unspoken of to which we ow our speech But your ears are already filled with the wind yet I hope 't is the proper wind of the day and the sound of it shall not vanish as the wind as ordinary winds and sounds nor my words as the soft air So much the rather in that this Point of the wind comes more home to us than that other of the tongues Tongues were for them that believe not says the Apostle but the Wind the rushing mighty Wind from Heaven to cast down all the strong holds of Sin and Satan for them that believe even for us all The fiery tongues concern the Apostles as a miraculous enabling of them to the work of the Apostleship to the preaching and divulging the Gospel of Christ but the breath and blowing of the Spirit concerns all Christians whatsoever under every notion To that our proper tenure is from this Wind nay so much the more because it is the breath of the Spirit not the tongue that makes us Christian the wind like that in Ezekiel quickens our dead bones into the life of Christ and by it we live to our own Salvation by the tongues only to anothers So having gotten our share already in this Wind from Heaven we may the easier bear the deferring of the discourse of the tongues thence And truly if we can now get the Spirit to blow upon these dead elements and quicken them to us into the body and blood of Christ we shall quickly by the vertue of that blood of the Vine speak with new tongues the Spirit will give utterance and we shall sing the praises of the Lord. That should be indeed the whole business of our tongues to day to be as loud as the loudest wind in our Thanksgivings O ye winds of God bless ye the Lord say the three Children in the fire O ye Children of the Lord bless ye the Lord in the Wind say I in this mighty rushing Wind acknowledge his goodness admire his power confess his praise who thus blows the sparks of grace up in us who clenses our souls from all impure airs and vapours who scatters the clouds of sorrow shews us the fairest face of Heaven who cools and refreshes and revives and purges us and wafts us to our heavenly Countrey by this holy

may not be allowed their several Feasts will yet sometimes feast together be remembred together as St. Andrew and his Lord to day do what they can to hinder it For this day as it now falls out is solemn both for Lord and Saint And amongst the Saints St. Andrew is the first in order for here the Christian Church begins her Festivals I know not what or whose Church to call it that has none and fitly too does she begin with him who was the first that followed Christ from Galilee says St. Iohn Chap. i. 41. Fit sure that he should lead the rank that there begun it that brought the great St. Peter as his second ver 42. though afterward for that excellent Confession of his St. Mat. xvi 16. made the first Yet just certainly it is that St. Andrew too should have his Primacy and so the Church has given it him to begin the Army of Saints and Martyrs in her Kalendar that we may see no man shall lose any thing by his speed to Christ the more haste to him the more honour for it I shall not yet this day though it be the first of Advent much meddle with that or primarily or very particularly set my self to speak of Christs Advent or coming I shall be content because we are not like to meet many such opportunities as this day in conjunction brings us to speak this day of the Disciple and only glance at his Lord. We shall have many occasions to speak of the Master few now a days to take notice of the Disciples Yet for all that cannot we well speak of the one without the other The honour of the Servant will redound always to the glory of the Master It is for that that we commemorate the Saints that we may so magnifie the King of Saints both by acknowledging his greatness and goodness in them and by doing gloriously to the honour of our Master by their examples And indeed we cannot separate them and as the Text falls out it ends as all the praises and commendations of his Saints should end in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And it begins with a conjunctive Particle which will refer us to him And with an also or an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which to make the Text to be understood will make us look back to an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ver 18. This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this And to another And this their following to Jesus walking this And they left and followed to And Jesus walking and calling them to follow in the two immediately foregoing verses We shall then for the full sense of the Text and the honour of the day not quite separate the Lord and his Saints but joyn the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 together speak somewhat of Christs co●●●ing as well as of their following though more fully of this it being ●xpresly in the words the other but implicitely or implied yet referring this wholly to the glory of that their following here to Christs coming before St. Andrews exite to Christs Advent joyn them both as the day does for us For in the words are both though just as in the day the one swallowed up by the other the Holy-day in the Sunday only with this difference St. Andrew's Feast in the Advent in the day the Advent in St. Andrew's in the Text. The day more evidently for the Lords day the Text for St. Andrews We will forget neither but must follow the Text where we are to consider two Particulars The one exprest the other implied 1. St. Andrews Festival and 2. the Feast of Advent or the grounds of each the ground of St. Andrews Festival expresly his leaving his Nets and following Christ. The ground of Christs Advent implicitely that it was straightway done that is presently upon Christs coming and calling to him You see Sundays and Holy-days are at no such variance but they can stand together their grounds too both Scripture grounds both from the same Text too Our new Reformers may as well deny the one as the other and no doubt if they stand but in their way a little they will too Only some day must be kept up a while to preach the cause when that is done Ye observe days and months and years will be as good a Text against the Lords day as his Saints But not to trouble you with the Division of days we will afford you another Division of the Text. I. St. Andrews and together with him his brothers obedience express They straightway left their nets and followed him II. The ground of it in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first words and the last intimated and implied Jesus came first and walked by the Sea and lookt upon them and spake to them And and what then And they straightway followed Followed Whom Him says the Text. Who 's that One that was worth all their nets one that would make them fishers indeed Jesus ver 18. for him it is they leave their nets and him they follow In their obedience there are three particulars 1. The readiness 2. The sincerity 3. The rightness of it 1. It was straightway there 's the readiness 2. It was to the leaving of their nets their very life and living all the poor living they had there 's their sincerity 3. It was to follow him there 's the right placing and bestowing their obedience In the ground of it we shall see their obedience was not groundless for that it was 1. Not without a just and lawful call Jesus call'd them first and then they followed and not till then 2. Not without a powerful effectual and enabling call which so soon and suddenly could make and enable them to leave their whole course and means of life and very straightway follow him 3. That it was not any but Christ not any thing or hope or interest but only Iesus the true Messiah him they followed whom you shall see anon they had good reason to conceive was worth all they could leave or do The ground of their obedience was neither rash nor light nor sinister It was discreet and wise upon just call it was powerful upon a strange sudden powerful change of their affection●● and it was right and due to him they paid it Iesus the Christ. I begin with the express parts of the Text with St. Andrews and his Brothers great and ready obedience to Christs Command and Call which is the Lesson you are to learn upon St. Andrews day that which you are to learn now particularly from him as upon the days of other Saints their particular vertues and graces which is or should be our Holy-day business and if it had been but so taught and learnt we had never seen prophane Kalendars for Christian these unhallowed days or our holy-days unhallowed God deprived

negligence or ignorance sometimes of the Managers or the slie cunning of an undiscerned or unminded Adversary or the peevishness of a Party been often thrown into a confusion and almost brought to desolation If we love the Church and we pretend it nay if we love our selves and that we commonly do too much we must agree together We cannot hope our houses shall escape if the City be all on fire at every corner Or 't is but a poor comfort when we see Polyphemus devour our fellows to think only we shall be the last And a vain confidence it is to suppose when a mutiny is once begun that we can stop it when we please Diseases and ill humours once let loose run insensibly through all the parts we cannot retrive them as we list or fix them when we will Our very hopes of a recovery are lost in a moment we have betrayed our selves by opening the way to confusion by our own contests and the whole body drops into a carkass and all is gone If we would but consider our own bodies and learn thence from our own senses as the Apostle would have us in the fore-cited Chapter we could not be so stupid so senseless to draw on our own ruines by our Divisions Methinks I cannot speak more sensibly to all the purposes of Peace nor you understand them more feelingly than by this Metaphor of the body and the members Yet the Argument is much advanced by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by our being called into it by the favour that God has done us in bringing us into it 4. That God has brought us into the Church made us to be a body of Christians is a blessing we too seldom think of yet 't is a great one and a great motive too to be at peace with our own happines and not disturb it No man would divide his happiness who may enjoy it whole much less divide it when he must lose it whole divide from it and divide it from himself least as for the divisions of Reuben Judg. v. 15. so for this there should come nothing of it but grief of heart Again 2. we are called into one body says the Text certainly not to make it two or tear it asunder into more we are call'd into one to keep in one to love and live and die together this one is an argument to hold unity I may raise a third Argument if I read the words exactly as they are without the indulgence of construing 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 into 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 read it as we do in one body ye are called called all at a lump all in a body at once However it was with the Colossians whether called altogether or by parcels I am sure with us it was lately in uno corpore the whole body of the Nation were called into one at once Our happiness came all at a clap and shot from East to West from North to South like lightning in a moment The Land came not in by pieces was not won in as Lands are by Conquest one Town or Country after another And will we then now tear off our selves by pieces into our late Confusions Who has bewitched us that we should think to do it If we add for a fourth as we may do well in a reflexion upon our selves that we were called who a little before seem'd cast away call'd into a body who durst not for many years before appear in any called into one who were then scatter'd into many call'd into one Church into one Government under one head then too when we scarce had any name but by-names to be called by and had made our selves unworthy of any by our sins to be then called and so called as we were was even a calling us out of worms and dust out of nothing to an anticipated Resurrection And can we so far forget our selves as to undo our happiness and divide again Have the miseries of our late Dissensions so clearly slipt out of our memories or are the squadrons and divisions of armed troops so blessed a sight within our Quarters If so God has done us an injury to call us into one to cease our wars and bring home peace and safety to our doors and we do as good as tell him so whilst we either run our selves into divisions raise them or continue them For unthankful 5. miserably unthankful too as well as foolish and inconsiderate we must needs be thus to contemn to throw away our peace 5. And shall we add unthankfulness to the bulk of our transgressions I trow not And yet we shall if we oppose the rule of Peace To be thankful is to return somewhat answerable to the favour that is received Now what more answerable to peace than peace it self to the peace of God than peace with our brethren And he that returns not this returns nothing He can no more have peace with God than love to him whom he has not seen if he have not peace with his brother whom he has seen To be sure he cannot be thankful that kicks Gods favours back again into his face and unmannerly bids him take them again he cares no for them And yet we do no less when we despise and cast away the peace to which he has call'd us we say plainly enough it is not worth the having whilst we do not think it worth the keeping Nay and all the blessings of peace all Gods calling and recalling us first and last out of sin out of misery out of confusions and destructions the very name of Christians and the uniting us again under one King and Church are certainly no blessings in our judgments and opinions if we thus wilfully and contemptuously tear all in pieces rather than peaceably submit to their determinations for unity and order where we have nothing to object but that they are in in things indifferent which is in all mens reason else the greatest reason we should comply with them And no man that truly thanks God for them can do otherwise I am loth to say what I must needs say now in the last place too that they must needs be churlish and sullen as well as unthankful no 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at all in them in the other sense neither no mildness or softness who aft●● all St. Pauls Arguments for peace and union will not be perswaded unto it For when God that here calls us unto peace shall one day call us to an accompt how gracious and thankful we have been for his calling us to it what we have done or not done towards it consider I beseech you whether you think seriously in your hearts that it will there pass for true endeavours for peace to answer thus Lord we have been all for peace and we petitioned for it but we could not have it upon our own conditions We would have agreed for a Publick Service but we could not have it of our own making We could well

to digest your pleasures into order to enjoy your honours and estates and to dispose them to keep your selves from being oppressed with too many enjoyments whether these valiant Rechabites may not yet deserve a third commendation for the Constancy of their Obedience This Omnia these all you see expresly kept If there were more some lighter Precepts as certainly there were All of them too 't is not Omnia h●c but Omnia indefinitely All whatsoever were commanded them Their Obedience is yet compleater not only All the Precepts but Omnino prout just according to them Not all for Substance only but all for Circumstance too Omitted not a Ceremony God as he loves not blind so loves not lame Sacrifices nor blemished And if it once be arbitrary for any one to neglect a Ceremony to dispute an inconvenience perit obedientia farewell Obedience According to all was the Rechabites was good doctrine then hath been ever since till these unhappy days And they gain'd by the hand Gods Approbation of the Punctuality of their Obedience They fail'd not in a tittle no more must we if we look either to Dicit Dominus what he says or what he commends And he truly is commended not whom men but whom the Lord commendeth But though God said it and commended them for it now we draw it home we had best prove it good 1. 'T is that then which God requires of your Children to you Children obey your Parents in all things Col. iii. 20. Of your Servants Servants obey your Masters in all things ver 22. Of all Subjects to every ordinance of man 1 Pet. ii 13. Indeed so it may be that the Ordinances are not just If so then if the power be you have a Passive obedience to supply you Submit willingly to the Punishment but do you must not All other must be done Yet I must confess while we dispute how far our Governours are to be obey'd in what whether God or man it oft comes to pass we obey neither That God must be obeyed not man when he commands an evil is too plain to make a question But this is a true Rule too Unless you are certain 't is truly evil you are commanded you ought to obey If you be only doubtful I should think in reason as you would answer God for doing your uttermost you should more rely upon his wisdom under whose command you are than on your own or any private engaged judgment Especially if it seem to carry any thing that contradicts your private liberty or interests in which case we are seldom competent judges If indeed you are fully certain of his ignorance or general indisposition to all honesty and goodness whom you are to obey you are not debarred from better counsel but the surest and that you ought to look to is men of the like authority and condition at least of no known contrary resolve no private discontented engaged affections of whose wisdom and honesty and care too of your souls you are as justly confident as of the others malice and indiscretion Else I cannot tell you but any other may as well misguide your private respects as much mislead both them and you and you be left with less excuse Whereas the condition that God hath set you in the authority under which and in that the gift of Government for certainly such a thing there is which may be excellent sometimes in the worst men may plead something for you at your last Accompt You may pretend liberty but they that promise you it by Disobedience are themselves the servants of corruption 1 Pet. ii 19. You may pretend Conscience but it will prove Pride And does it not appear so For while you determine that in something you must in other you may chuse is it not as if you thought you only knew what were best Your Fathers they old doting fools You pretend wisdom but every Ordinance says S Peter is for no other cause for that he gives ver 11. to put to silence the ignorance of foolish men They only are against it And there are too that pretend the Spirit These are they that go so far upon their own heads that at last they separate themselves and what are they for it Sensual having not the Spirit says St. Iude ver 19. Where 's now the Spirit you so much boast of All Precepts therefore must be our Rule to walk by All though harsh and hard ones All and more than All sometimes more than Law will give them Ne offendamus is Christs Rule lest we should offend them Them and others too by teaching them by our example at other times to disobey St. Paul stretcheth it further Dicto obedire Tit. iii. 1. To obey at a word speaking a command by word of mouth when it is not express Law For when all is done something will still be left to the interpretation of the Lawgiver in the breast of the Judge to which we must submit We are not yet at the uttermost All is not enough unless our Obedience be according to all Omnino prout says Tremellius just as they would have it to a tittle in every circumstance You find this requisite in your several Corporations where the omission of a punctilio draws after it intolerable defaults The hedge is easily passed through where but one bush is wound aside and the breach of one Circumstance is but the disposition to another Things that in themselves seem of no considerable moment within a while appear considerable by the neglect As the error that appears not at the first declining Line of the workman a while after manifests an irrecoverable deformity According to all that 's the surest Rule to go by You know it your selves in your own Corporations You know it in your own Families if you know any thing Give an inch they 'l take an ell is your own Proverb And cannot you judge as equally for the Church I am sure not there where had this Rule been kept we had never met these distracted times But so long have some omitted this some that that all at last is thought Innovation One likes not this another not that another not something else so 't is come at last they like nothing Rubricks and Canons have been so long plaid with to please the people or I know not who that nothing but the ruine of the whole will now content them I would we saw it not by the misery of these however some call them truly sad distressed times Yet take this Caution with you Quae praecepit Not according to every humour what this or that man fancies decent but according to all that is commanded Now Two things there are which have the force of Precepts Laws and Customes 1. Laws and they according to the Letter not the equity that 's for no private power to go by A Priviledge indeed sometimes for the Supreme Law-giver and the Judge 2. Customs that they bind like Laws and Precepts

you may find all for ever You study to make all as sure as you can Gods Promise is the best assurance and here it is Do what he here commands and you shall not fear what man can do unto you The Lord of Hosts is on your side Else I cannot but tell you All may fail you The wine and delicates you eat and drink the houses and stately Palaces you Lord it in the Lands and Possessions the Riches State and Pomp you have to this day triumphed in your Wives and Children all you think so everlastingly to enjoy by rising up so much to defend them may in a moment vanish and your high flown thoughts die before you You have no assurance from heaven so to settle your estates and fortunes no Dicit Dominus for that This is only Gods way for thriving by Obedience Nay and the Religion you so much seem to contend for against Innovations by the greatest Innovations in Church and State tumults riots and prophanest usages that also will for ever fail you You want men to stand before God for ever and instead of them find men to stand before you Micah's Levites do what seems good in your sight not in Gods so stand before you as to hinder you from standing before God stand in your sight and blind you from seeing the right way to heaven Thus you will want your old honours profits liberties Religion all But if you will return and hear and hearken and submit to your ancient Fathers your King and Church your Magistrates and Clergy observe and keep and do your ancient Laws and Customs I dare warrant you what God promises to the Rechabites he shall perform to you Your City shall flourish your places be renowned your Liberties encrease your persons rise up in honour your estates prosper your affairs succeed your children be famous your Posterity happy your Religion display the glories of her first primitive purity and all go on successfully for ever And when this Ever shall have swallowed up the days of time you shall stand still immovable immortal glorious before him in whose sight is the fulness of joy where you shall one day meet your Children and stand all together Kings and Subjects Priests and People Fathers and Children before your heavenly Father see him face to face in the beatifical vision for ever and ever To which He bring us through his eternal Son who was obedient unto death to teach us obedience of life unto life Iesus Christ to which Two Persons with the Holy Ghost be all Praise and Glory Obedience and Worship for evermore Amen FINIS A Table of the Texts of Scripture handled in the fore-going SERMONS A Sermon on the First Sunday in Advent Folio 1 St. MAT. xxi 9. And the multitudes that went before and that followed cried saying Hosannah to the Son of David Blessed is he that cometh in the Name of the Lord Hosanna in the highest A Sermon on the Second Sunday in Advent 13 St. MARK i. 3. Prepare ye the way of the Lord make his paths streight A Sermon on the Third Sunday in Advent 23 St. LUKE xxi 27 28. And then shall they see the Son of man coming in a Cloud with Power and great glory And when these things begin to come to pass then look up and lift up your heads for your redemption draweth nigh A Sermon on the Fourth Sunday in Advent 33 PHIL. iv 5. Let your moderation be known unto all men The Lord is at hand The First Sermon on Christmas-Day 45 ISA. xi 10. And in that day there shall be a root of Iesse which shall stand for an Ensign of the People to it shall the Gentiles seek and his rest shall be glorious The Second Sermon on Christmas-Day 53 St. LUKE xi 7. And she brought forth her First-born Son and wrapped him in Swadling-clothes and laid him in a Manger because there was no room for them in the Inn. The Third Sermon on Christmas-Day 63 St. JOHN i. 16. And of his fulness have all we received and grace for grace The Fourth Sermon on Christmas-Day 73 1 TIM i. 15. This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation that Christ Iesus came into the world to save Sinners of whom I am chief The Fifth Sermon on christmas-Christmas-Day 85 PSAL. xlv 3. Thou art fairer then the Children of men full of grace are thy lips because God hath blessed thee for ever The Sixth Sermon on christmas-Christmas-Day Folio 97 St. LUKE i. 68 69. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel for he hath visited and redeemed his people And hath raised up an horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David The Seventh Sermon on christmas-Christmas-Day 109 2 COR. viii 9. For ye know the grace of our Lord Iesus Christ that though he was rich yet for your sakes he became poor that ye through his poverty might be rich The Eighth Sermon on Christmas-Day 119 PSAL. viii 4 5. What is man that thou art mindful of him And the Son of man that thou visitest him Thou madest him lower than the Angels to crown him with glory and worship The Ninth Sermon on Christmas-Day 129 St. LUKE ii 30 31 32. For mine eyes have seen thy salvation Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people A light to lighten the Gentiles and the glory of thy people Israel A Sermon on St. Stephens Day 143 ACTS vii 55 56. But he being full of the Holy Ghost looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw the Glory of God and Iesus standing on the right hand of God And said Behold I see the Heavens opened and the Son of man standing on the right hand of God A Sermon on Innocents Day 151 St. MAT. ii 16. Then Herod when he saw that he was mocked of the Wise men was exceeding wroth and sent forth and slew all the Children that were in Bethlehem and in all the Coasts thereof from two years old and under according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the Wise men The First Sermon on the Circumcision 163 2 COR. v. 17. Old things are past away behold all things are become new The Second Sermon on the Circumcision 172 St. LUKE ii 21. His Name was called Iesus The First Sermon on the Epiphany 182 St. MAT. ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their Treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe The Second Sermon on the Epiphany 192 St. MAT. ii 10. When they saw the Star they rejoyced with exceeding great joy The Third Sermon on the Epiphany Folio 202 St. MAT. ii 11. And when they were come into the house they saw the young Child with Mary his Mother and fell down and worshipped him and when they had opened their Treasures they presented unto him gifts Gold and Frankincense and Myrrhe A Sermon upon St. Paul's Day

Worms and Fowl Kings and People Princes and Iudges Young men and Maidens Old men and Children all Sexes Degrees and Ages Men and Angels and all kind of Beings does he call on to praise and bless and magnifie their Creator Indeed the whole Creation is blessed by this Visit so 't is but just they should bless God for it Yet how should all these things we mentioned do it many of them have no tongues to say many no sense to understand it Why they do it yet The Sun by day the Moon by night may become torches to light his servants service The Earth brings forth her Corn and Wine to furnish out his Table the deep gives up her Riches and brings home Golds and Silks to adorn his Holy Altars the Earth brings Stones and Minerals the Hills and Mountains Trees and Cedars to his House the fire kindles Tapers for it all the meteors of the air and all the seasons of the years do somewhat every wind blows somewhat towards it The very Birds and Swallows get as near the Altar as they can to bless him the Snow and Cold and Ice crowd as near Christmas as they can to bear a part in this great Solemnity in our solemnest thanksgivings Only he that has no need of this visit no need of Christ or his Redemption that cares not to be saved needs keep no Christmas may stand out or sit or do what he will at this Benedictus But sure when all things else thus come in throngs to bless him and even Ice and Snow come hot and eager to this Feast and willingly melt themselves into his praises we should not methinks come coldly on to bless him but come and bring our Families and Children and Neighbours with us to make the Choire as full as possibly we can Tell one another what Christ did to day what he every day does for us how he visited us to day how he still visits us every morning how he redeemed us to day how he does day by day from one ill or other how he began to day to raise up salvation for us and will not leave raising it for us till we can rise no higher Tell we our children next how in this God had respect to David his anointed and that they must learn to have so How he had regard to David his Servant will have so to them if they be his servants let them therefore be sure they be so fit them thus to sing their parts betimes in Hymns and Anthems and praises to their God that they that cannot speak may yet lisp it out and when they can speak out sing it loud and shrill that the hollow Vaults and Arches may eccho and rebound his praises not your Children only but stones also be thus rais'd up for children unto Abraham 'T is in the power of your hands grave Senators Fathers and Brethren to make the stones cry out of the wall and the beam out of the timber to answer Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power to him that has rais'd up to us so great salvation I look upon this great Solemnity of yours as a meer design of blessing God and the Torches that light you hither as so many lights set up to make the light of your good works shine the greater You have not only these blessings in the Text but millions more to invite you to it Not to repeat the blessings and deliverances I have told you all blessings and salvations else you owe to this days Visit of the Almighty to this Horn he raised up for us Let us bring them also into the roll and thus bless him for them Some of you he has delivered out of trouble bless you him for that Some of you he has recovered lately from a sickness bless you him for that Some of you he has delivered lately from a danger bless you him for that You he has visited in distress visit you his Temples his poor and needy servants and bless him so You he has redeemed of late from the gates of death redeem you the time hereafter walk circumspectly and soberly and for the rest of your life serve him better and bless him so You he has sav'd out of the hands of Hereticks and Seducers save you your selves henceforward from that untoward generation and come no more among them Pay him visit for visit redemption for redemption one salvation for another and bless him so You he has rais'd to some honour and preferment raise you up some pillar of thanksgiving for it You he has rais'd to an estate raise you up some memorial to him out of it You he has rais'd out of nothing you out of a desperate condition your house and family out of ruines help you God again to raise his house and he will say you bless him for it Let there be some token of gratitude set up here as God set the Rain-bow in the Clouds Gen. xix 15. that he may look upon it and remember and save you in the time of need with his mercy for it In a word God has signally and strangely visited us of late years with his salvation redeemed us from our enemies and all that hate us those Horns that like those in Daniel pusht down and scattered all before them that threw down our Temples took away our daily service set up the abomination of desolation in these holy places Horse and Foot and Arms and all the instruments of desolation and stampt upon all holy things and persons he has rais'd us up a mightier horn to make those horns draw in theirs a horn in the house of his servant David restored our David his anointed to us kept him his servant returned him as he went safe and sound in the principles of his Religion restored him and his house us and ours kept them at least from utterly pulling down O that men would therefore now praise the Lord for his goodness and declare the wonders he has lately done for the children of men As many Scarlets now as you please to adorn your gratitudes as many Torches now as you please that we may see them what solemn processions now as you judge fit to make to evidence your blessings to the Lord God of Israel for what he has done for us for either our souls bodies or estates So shall God again bless all your blessings to you the poor shall bless us and the Church shall bless us and these walls shall bless us and the children yet unborn shall bless us and all our blessings be continued to us we shall be visited and redeem'd and sav'd upon all occasions in all necessities on every hand and at every turn till he bring us at last to his eternal salvation to sing eternal Allelujahs everlasting Benedictus's Hymns and Praises with all the Blessed Saints and Angels to God blessed for evermore To this glorious blessing he bring us all who this day came to visit us that he might Jesus Christ. To whom