Sinne.

The first is Sinne, which Saint Iohn doth define to be the breach of Gods law. A law so much vrged by the iustice of God, that our Sauiour Christ proclaimeth that heauen and earth shall passe away, but one iod or title shall in no wise passe from the law, til all be fulfilled. One Iod, which is but a letter amongst the He­brews, as the graine of Mustard seed, the least of all letters, but one point (.) of a letter. From whence the Rabines haue obserued, that God changing the name of Sarai to Sara, tooke one Iod from her name; which that it might not be taken from the Law, he added one Iod to Osheah, and called him Iehoshuah.

A Law so vrged that S. Paul repeates the sentence of God in a language of fear & trem­bling. Galat. 3. 10. Cursed is euery man that conti­nueth not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to doe them. VVe are ( bound), we are ( All) bound, all to ( Doe) to doe ( All,) all to ( Con­tinue) [Page 4] to continue vnder paine of a ( Curse,) a curse, which implieth, Esay 30. a riuer of brimstone, and the breath of the Lord to set it on fire.

This is the sentence of God against Sinne: against euery Sinne: against the least Sinne: whe­ther it be a sinne of Thought, or Word, or Act, or Degree, or Delight, or Desperation, or Omission. God hath concluded All Sinne to be the Roote of Death and destruction.

How iust then is the Complaint of In Enchi­ridio. S. Augu­stine? Vaepeccatis hominum quae sola inusitata ex­hauressimus: VVoe to the custome of sinne, that taketh away the sense of sinne, and causeth vs to feare none but vnusuall, monstrous, & pro­digious impieties.

Common ciuility keepeth many a man from rednesse of the eyes, the inheritance of the Drunkard: from rottennesse of the bones, the leprosie of the Adulterer: from Iezabells dogs, the sepulcher of the Oppressor. But Couetousnesse, Pride, Enuy, Detraction, Bri­bing, Flattering, Idle-Complementing, and Fashi­oning of our selues to all luxurious ambition, and foolish-vanities of the world, are now become Free-Denisons of Court, of Citty, of Coun­try, that challengeth the priuiledge of the vn­righteous [Page 5] Iudge, neyther to be afraid of the iu­stice of God, nor to be ashamed in the sight of men.

I doe confesse, that there are Essentiall, and Accidentall differences of sinnes: Some doe grieue, some doe resist, some doe quench the spirit of God: But yet euery sinne in the owne nature hath the sting of a Viper, and doth wound vs mortally.

Take a view, and you shall finde that Adam lost Paradise for eating of an Apple: Some say it was an Indian figge, an entising bait of sweet­nesse. You shall finde that God drowned the world for Imaginations. Gen. 6. 5. You shall finde that Homo▪ Iliadot. 6. [...], words of feathers, dalliances, chamberings, wantonnes, and the scumme of lasciuiousnesse shall make vs giue an account at the day of iudgement. Bernard. Sagitta leuiter volat, sed grauiter vulnerat: Idle words are as feathered arrowes, which flye lightly, but wound the soule deeply. Yea, you shal find that there are sinnes of Gesture, Quando cum oculis fabulamur: VVhen saith S. Augustine wee c De Doctri Christia. lib. 1. speake lewdly with our eies: which God so punished in Lots wife, that shee is a pillar of Salt vntill this day. These sinnes, so small in [Page 6] our estimations, so familiar to our corrupti­ons, so vsuall in our conuersations, so glued to our affections, they haue poyson in the roote, and the fruit of them is death. VVe read in Ec­clesiasticall history of Cassianus Prud. Pe­risteph. Hym. 4. a Schoolema­ster of Children, and a Scholler and Martyr of Christ, who by the commandement of the Tyrant, was stabbed to death by his Schollers pen-kniues.

VVe read in Scripture of Amasa, whose bow­els were shed out by the sword of Ioab. Of Sis [...] ­raes head gored with a nayle: we read of Acha [...] who was wounded in his breast with an ar­row. VVe read of Christ, whose side was pier­ced with a speare. All these did not wound a like deepely, but all did wound alike deadly.

Speares, swords, arrowes, nailes, pen-kniues, all instruments of the death of the body. Deeds, swords, lookes, gestures, thoughts, all causes of the death of the soule.

Our sinnes in Scripture are compared vnto sands, which are very small considering them seuerally, and yet the greatest shippe is easily swallowed vp of quicke-sands. There is not a sinne of any nature, but is as big as one of He­rods wormes which deuoured Herods bowels. [Page 7] Noli despicere peccata tua quia parua sunt; August. nam et pluuiarum guttae paruae sunt. Despise not ( Augustine) thy sinnes because they are little; for the drops of raine are small, and yet they are the bottles of the heauen, and the foun­taines of the Ocean.

To conclude this point. No sinnes are lesser then the point of those thornes that pierced August. in Enchi. the head of Christ. Pro quibus abluendis sanguis Christi effusus: For the washing away of which Christ shed drops of bloud in the garden, and opened the spouts of bloud on the Crosse. So bitter a roote is sinne, that it could not be ta­ken away, but by the death of our Sauiour: And as sinne is a roote so bitter; so no better is the fruit, which the text calleth Death. The wages and guerdon of Iniquity.

The wages of Sinne is (Death.)

Death is the Fruit; but death as wages: For it [...]. is not a singular, but a plurall death. The least sicknesse in the stomacke, paine in the head, ache in the tooth, consumption in the lungs, winde in the belly, grauell in the kidneyes, are the harbingers of death, are the wages of sinne and iniquity. But to speake more distinctly. [Page 8] Death; saith S. Augustine is three-fold. First, De [...] Dei. 1 Quando Deus deserit animam volentem: VVhen God forsakes the Soule, that will be forsaken. Secondly, Quando anima deserit corpus: VVhen 2 the soule forsakes the body that would not be forsaken. Thirdly, Quando anima nolens tene­tur 3 in corpore: VVhen the vnwilling soule is manacled to the body. The first expressed in the young man. Matth. 8. 22. to whom Christ sayd, Let the dead burie the dead. A strange speach; for a man would thinke that the dead were more fit to be buried, then to burie: But therefore was it deliuered by Christ, that euery Christian man may know, That a sinners body, is but the breathing Sepulchre of a sinners soule. The second expressed in Lazarus: Iohn 11. 39. Lord, by this time he stinketh, for he hath bin dead foure daies. VVhose body in life is a beautifull caske of Iuory, within foure daies after the soules departure, is nothing else but a stinking and loathsome carrion. The third expressed in Diues, Luke 16. 24. Hee prayed to Father Abra­ham, therefore he had a Soule: He had a tongue to be cooled; therefore he had a Body.

That wretched man may know that this is euerlasting Death, when soule and body are [Page 9] coupled together with euerlasting chaines of sorrow, that they may be sensible of their end­lesse torment.

But howsoeuer these three deaths are the wages of sinne, yet there is a difference in the manner: For the death of the soule is the wa­ges of sinne, as an act of order: The death of the body, as an act of iustice: The death of soule and body as an act of proportion.

First, there is order in disorder. Mans disor­der: God doth order. You read Exodus 7. 13. that Pharaoh hardned his owne heart; before God hardned the hart of Pharaoh. Durities est hominis peccatum, obduratio iudiciū Dei: they are the words of Caluin, vpon the third vers, which I purposely alledge. Hardnesse of heart is mans sinne; hardening of the heart is Gods iudgement.

You read in 1 Sam. 10. 9. 10. that God gaue to Saul an other heart. 1 Sam. 15. 26. Samuel said to Saul, Thou hast cast away the Lord, & the Lord hath cast away thee. 1 Sam. 16. 14. The spirit of the Lord departed from Saul, and an euill spirit from the Lord troubled him. So you see that Saul first resisted Gods spirit, before God sent vpon Saul an euill spirit. In the very root of Repro­bation; Adam first sinned, and then God puni­shed.

[Page 10]It is the Conclusion of Augustine, which shal conclude this point. Ad bonum prior est voluntas Creatoris, ad malum prior est voluntas Creaturae.

Gods will in goodnes, is the first efficient.

Mans wil in wickednes is the first deficient.

Sinne goes before, and Death of the soule fol­lowes in order as the wages of sinne.

Secondly, Bodily-death, when the soule is brea­thed out, as it was breathed in; when the body which was composed of dust, is resolued into dust, is the wages of sinne, as an act of Iustice. It is the sentence of God, Genes. 3. Because thou Non lege naturae sed merito pec­cati. Aug. de ciuit. lib. 13. cap. 15. hast harkned to the voyce of thy Wife, and hast ea­ten of the forbidden tree; thou shalt returne to dust, from whence thou wert taken. Because thou hast eaten, thou shalt returne to dust. Therfore if man had not eaten, he should not haue returned to dust. Gods power was as sufficient to haue trā ­slated Adam from Paradise, without death, as to take vp, Elias to heauen in a Chariot of fire. Let no Scotist, nor Andradian, nor Iesuit bewitch you with any Philosophicall speculation, as that of Plato, [...]: euery thing that is com­posed, In Tim [...]o. must be resolued. Nor with that of Da­mascen [...]: euerything that is made Ortho. fidei. De long▪ et breui. vitae. is subiect to be mard. Nor with that of Aristo­tle, [Page 11] that euery body composed of contrary ele­ments, disposed into contrary humors, must at length haue a naturall date of corruption. For S. Paul tels you, that death is not the dissol­uing of what God created, but the wages of sin, which man committed. VVill you know the reason? You see by experience that the same Sun remains in the same substance, and indiui­duall circle, but all sublunary bodies do conti­nue in succession.

If then Philosophers giue probable reason of this difference, because they say, Forma coeli tollit contradictionem materiae: The forme of heauen taketh away all contrariety, & pre­serues them in an euiternity. Shall wee thinke then that Afflatus oris diuini, that the breath of De resur­ca [...]nis. Gods owne mouth, as Tertullian calls the soule, had not a celestiall power in the creation, to haue eternally preserued a corruptible body from corruption? Againe, Diuinity hath made it plaine, Genes. 2. God created two sorts of trees in Paradise: All the common trees in the gar­den for eating, but one celestiall tree for pre­seruing. Reliquae arbores erant alimento, arbor Aug. de ci­uit. dei. lib. 13. c. 20. vitae erat sacramento: The other trees were for aliment, the tree of life was for a Sacrament.

[Page 12]Examine then the cause of naturall death, which is the decay of radicall humor: If then the eating of the tree of life, did not, as ordina­ry meate, onely refresh the body, but as a Celestiall cordiall, did repaire the naturall sappe of the body, then no question but the Angells sword that kept our first Parents from the tree of life, brought vpon them, brought vpon vs, Legem moriendi, as the Fathers speake, the Law of Death and destruction. This is Gods iustice, when man defaced Gods image in his soule, to take away the power of the soule. This is Gods iustice, when man eates of the forbid­den fruit, to forbid him to eate of the fruit of Life.

In the third place, the Death of Soule and Bo­dy is the Wages of sinne, by way of proportion.

For if any man shall wonder at the seuere iudgement of God, that extends his indignati­on to eternity, when the act of euery sinne is but short and momentary. If any man shall thinke that there is no proportion betwixt a finite time of sinning, and an infinite time of punishing: Let that man giue a reason of the iustice of man, and compare it with the iu­stice of God. VVhy is Theft by the Lawes of [Page 13] Man punished with Death? The time of stea­ling is but short, but the punishment is for e­uer. Tollitur de numero viuentium. A theefe, saith Lege, de ciu. dei. lib. 21. cap. 11. S. Austen is taken from the liuing, and shall ne­uer againe returne to life: Therefore though the act be temporall, the punishment is eter­nall. Againe, by the iustice of Man, euery de­linquent is pr [...]portionably punished, accor­ding to the quality of the party offended.

By the Lawes of the Romanes, a simple Mur­derer was crucified, but a Parricide was sewed in a sacke, with an Ape, a Cocke, and a Ser­pent, and flung into the Sea, that hee might neyther haue the light of the Sun, nor a breath of aire, nor any to pitty him, whilst he was a­liue; nor a Clod of earth, nor a leafe of grasse to couer him, nor any other creature to bury him when he was dead.

By the Law of Iulia, an Adulterer was behea­ded: But by the Law of the twelue Tables, an incestuous vestall virgin was buried aliue.

If then the quality of the person against whom wee sinne, doth proportionably in­crease the quantity of the punishment: Man sin­ning against the infinite maiesty of God, deser­ueth by proportion an infinite torment. Goe a [Page 14] little farther. Enquire at the barre of Heauen, why sinfull soules are harried to eternall sor­rowes? VVhat did God giue? Did he not cre­ate man in perfection? Did he not giue a pow­er to liue for euer? Therefore saith Anselmus. Factus est malo dignus aeterno, qui inse peremit bo­num quo potuit esse aeternus: VVas not he wor­thy by proportion of eternall death, who lost in himselfe, and by himselfe the power of eternall life?

Let no bastard-brood of Origen deceiue you with pretence that the immortall worme shall dye, that the euerlasting fire shal be quenched.

You read in the 25. of Matth. 46. The wicked shall goe into euerlasting punishment; The righte­ous into euerlasting life. From hence S. Augu­stine hath most grauely obserued. Heere is Death euerlasting, & Life euerlasting; both equall. Therefore, Aut vtrumque cum fine diuturnum; Aut vtrum (que) sine fine perpetuum: You must make either both to haue an End, and then no Eterni­ty of Heauen: Or both to haue no End, and then there is an Eternity of Hell.

I doubt not therefore but that it is sufficient­ly cleered by way of explication, that the death of the soule, of the body, of soule and body, are [Page 15] the wages of sinne, by an act of order, of iustice, of proportion. But as these things are suffici­ently cleered, so I beseech you suffer them to be effectually enforced.

For first. If the Death of the soule be feare­full, and therefore more fearefull because lesse sensible; as Physitians speak of Hectique feauers, which are neuer discerned perfectly till they kill mortally.

VVe can behold a Lazar at Diues gate, & be sensible of his sores. VVe can see [...], the mouing rubbish of men, as Nazian. stiles them, and be sensible of their sorrowes. But could we behold a Lazarus and Leprous soule, whom the dogs of hell will not licke; could our eye-balls fasten vpon so loathed an obiect, we would exclaime with S. Bernard: Si meipsum non inspicio, meipsum nescio: Si inspicio meipsum ferre non queo: If I looke not into my selfe, I am like vnto a franticke man that know not my owne madnesse; If I looke into my selfe, I am like a desperate man, that cannot endure [...] owne vildnesse.

VVee may learne from euery Coarse [...]hat is buried, what the daughters of Israell [...]ere to learne from CHRIST crucified: [Page 16] Weepe not for mee, but weepe for your selues.

Plangis corpus quod deserit anima: Non plan­gis Chrysost. animam quam deserit Deus? Thou dost be­waile a body forsaken of the soule, and dost not bewaile the soule forsaken of God.

S. Austen confesseth that in his youth (as ma­ny wantons doe) hee read the Loue History of Aeneas and Dido with great affection: And when he came to the death of Dido, hee wept for pure compassion. But, O me miserum, (saith the Father) I bewailed (miserable man that I was) the fabulous death of Dido, forsaken of Aeneas, and did not bewaile the true death of my soule, forsaken of her Iesus. How many vn­hallowed teares are sacrificed to the idolls of our eyes, which yet are as dry as Pumises in re­gard of our soules!

I will conclude this meditation with S. Au­stens deuotion. Nihil est miserius, misero non mi­serante seipsum: Nothing is more miserable, then a miserable soule that doth not compre­hend her owne misery.

Againe, is the Death of the Body the Wages of sinne? This also is a fearefull thing.

[Page 17] In the preparation: For all our Life is but a consumption vnto Death; sorrowes of mind, and sicknesses of the body, are but the harben­gers of the graue.

Search the Gospell, you shall find one blind, another deafe, another lame. One Lazar ly­ing at Diues gate, another at the poole of Be­thesda, a third at the beautifull gate of the Tem­ple. You shall find heare a Leaper crying, there a woman with an issue of bloud adoring. Here the house vntiled by the sicke of the Palsey, there the graues haunted by men possessed of Diuells. Nescias vtrum apelles vitam mortalem an mortem vitalem: VVee cannot (saith S. Austen) tell what to call our Life, whether a Dying Life, or a Liuing Death, when euery day our houses of clay doe crumble to corruption.

Bodily Death is Fearefull in the Separation. For it is not a Law written in letters of incke, but of blood, bred in the marrow of our bones, and centred in our bowels: That skinne for skin, and all that man hath for the safegard of his Life.

Neuer was there a great cry in Aegypt, till there was a great slaughter in Aegypt: And then Magnus clamor, a great cry and Lamen­tation.

[Page 18]Neuer was Bethlem in woe, vntill Herods sword was bathed in the bloud of infants. And then vox audita, A voyce was heard in Rama, Rachel would not be comforted.

There was nothing but carousing to the gods of gold & siluer in the feasts of Baltazar, till the hand-writing appeared vpon the wall; but then Mutatus est vultus, the Kings coun­tenance was changed, his ioynts were dissol­ued, his knees failed, his heart fainted.

The Soule and the Body are olde friends, so enchased one into another, that they cannot part without sighing. Bos bouem requirit, saith Hierome: If an Oxe doe bellow at the losse of his yoke-fellow; questionlesse then there is a naturall, and fearefull Horror, when the soule is rent from the bodie.

And yet behold, wee are prodigall of our liues, to spend them vpon Harlots, as the young-man in the Gospell, who after his surfetting with his droues of Harlots, could not any way be satisfied amongest the heards of Hoggs.

In the 5. of Iohn, verse. 3. There lay a multi­tude of impotent folk at the poole of Bethesda: Some blinde, some halt, some withered. So [Page 19] many sicke, so many sinners. It is plaine by Christs words: Sinne no more, least a worse thing come vnto thee. Sinne no more: Therefore hee sinned before: therefore he sickned, therefore Iezabell died, therefore all the world shall be dissolued.

It is the wicked mans curse, that Hee shall not liue out halfe his dayes. VVhy, doth God alter his decrees? Surely no; But man hauing a generall period of Life, by naturall constitu­tion, that if sicknesse within, and casualties without doe not take away life, hee may at­taine to the yeares of his Fathers. But wicked men pull vpon themselues ordinary rottennesse, and extraordinary iudgements: They liue not out halfe their dayes.

To conclude. Why will you die, O you house of Israell?

No man is so fearefull at his Death, as the Carnall man that is Prodigall of his life. But if this were all, the Epicure would doe well enough. Hee would say of his Death; Quando mors est, nos non sumus, quando nos su­mus, mors non est: VVhen Death is, wee are not; VVhen wee are, Death is not. There is therefore another Death which imprisons [Page 20] a damned soule in a tormented body. VVhere Death is, and Man is. Vbi anima est non viuendi causa sed dolendi: VVhere, saith S. Austen, the soule is not to giue comfort of life; but to giue the sence of eternall Death. The apprehensi­on of which Death, hath drawne water out of rocks, and clouen iron hearts in sunder. It is the excellent speech of Luther. Qui nouit quid sit certare cum formidine aeternae mortis, in sancto­rum fletibus nullos excessus reperiet: Hee that knoweth what it is to striue with the feare of eternall Death, shall finde no strangenes in the affected passions of the Saints of God.

You read of Peter that he wept bitterly. Of Ieremy that he was drunke with wormewood. Of Mary that washed Christs feete with teares. Of Dauid, that he caused his bed to swim. Of Ionas, that hee cried out of the belly of hell. Their hearts whilest they sinned, were like frozen snowballs: when they melted with ap­prehension of eternall fire, they thawed out at their eies, and caused a flood of teares.

It is obseruable in Christs prayer, Luk. 13. 34. Father, forgiue them, they know not what they do. In the Conuerts prayer, Act. 2. Men and brethren, Quid faciemus, what shall we do? VVhen they [Page 21] crucifie, they know not what they doe: when they heare they haue crucified, they know not what to doe.

I will conclude this point, with another pas­sionate meditation: That a sorrowfull soule apprehending the wrath of God, and the in­finit punishment due to sin. Such a sinner goeth to heauen by the very gates of hell; his sighes, Luther. as pillars of smoake perfumed with myrhhe, ascend vp into the presence of God, to implore mercy, being fully assured in the middest of all his feares, that howsoeuer Eternall Death is the wages of sinne, yet that the Gift of God is eter­nall life through Iesus Christ our Lord.

This is the Tree of life, the Roote whereof is the Grace and gift of God by Iesus Christ: The Fruit eternall Life, and happinesse.

Of these the time will not permit to speake largely; and yet no Tongue can speake suffi­ciently.

In the Roote, we may first obserue that it is a Gift. Death is wages, no Gift. Life is a Gift, and no Wages. Wages supposeth Demerrit. Gift supposeth no Merit. If it bee a Gift, then is it not deserued. If it bee Deserued, then is it no Gift. In one word S. Bernard hath concluded [Page 22] it. Sufficit ad meritum scire, quod non sufficiant me­rita: It is sufficient to know of Merits that there is no sufficiency of our Merits.

A Gift then it is: but not euery Gift. A gift it is, but not euery way a Gift. For first; It is Donum Dei, the Gift of God; to make a distinction from mens Gifts. And next it is per Iesum Christum, by Iesus Christ, to distinguish it from the common Gifts of God. First: It is the Gift of God; not the Pharises Gift. Math. 28. They gaue large gifts to the Souldiers, to equiuocate & lie artificially: Say that whilst wee slept his Disciples stole him a­way. But the Gifts of God are not giuen to cor­rupt vs, but to amend vs. It is no Pharises Gift. Neyther is it Dionysius Gift, to rob the temple, that they may build an Hospitall. The price of Christ was such a Gift to buy the Potters field to burie strangers, but it is the Field of Blood vntill this day.

God takes not life from one, that hee may giue it to another. Our Saluation is not builded vpon the Angels Damnation: But in the due order of causes, hee would haue all to be saued.

It is not Iacobs Gift, for feare of Esau, to pacifie Esaus wrath. For whether we liue, we liue vnto the Lord, or whether we die, we die vnto the [Page 23] Lord; whether wee liue therefore or dye, wee are the Lords, Romanes 14. 8.

It is not [...], as the Greeke Orator speaks, the Huksters Gift: who looke for more, for the reward of their gift, then the price of the gift: For our liuing for euer, addes nothing to Gods blessednesse, but to our happinesse.

It is not any mans gift, which is subiect to re­penting, for the vnthankefulnesse of the receiuer: For the gift of life in the Saints of God, hath this power, that as it giueth Happinesse, so it wor­keth thankfulnes. He that is not thankfull to God, hath not yet receiued the first fruits of Grace.

All these wayes is it distinguished from the gifts, of Men: But aboue all these, it is per Iesum Chri­stum, by Iesus Christ; and so it is aboue all the gifts of God: For without Christ the Sunne riseth vpon the iust and vniust. Without Christ; Esau hath the fat of the earth; Naball his Flockes of sheepe; Nimrod his Heards of beasts; Na­buchadnezzar his pile of wonderment; Herod his robe of starres. But Eternall life, as it is Gods gift, so it is Christs purchase, not of gold, but of Bloud; not of the bloud of Goates, but of the pre­tious bloud of Iesus Christ.

[Page 24]Looke in euery linck of the chaine of Hea­uen: How are we predestinated to the Adopti­on of Children? By Iesus Christ, Ephe. 1. 5. How are we called to Glory? By Iesus Christ, 1 Pet. 5. 10. How are we iustified? In Iesus Christ, Rom. 4. 26. How are wee sanctified? In Iesus Christ, Ephes. 2. 10. In what is our Hope? In the resur­rection of Iesus Christ, 1 Peter 1. 13. In whom is our Peace? In Iesus Christ, Rom. 5. 1. VVho is the Mediator of Redemption? Iesus Christ, 1 Timothy. 2. 5. VVho is the Mediator of In­tercession? Our Prayers are offered vpon a goulden Censure by the Angell of Couenant, which is Iesus Christ, Reuel. 8. 3. Hee maketh continuall Intercession for vs, Romanes 8. 34. VVho hath conquered Death? Iesus Christ, 1 Cor. 15. 37. By whom attaine we eternall salua­tion? By Iesus Christ our Lord, 1 Thess. 5. 9.

Our Praedestination, Calling, Iustification, San­ctification, Hope, Peace, Redemption, Intercessi­on, the Conquest of Death, our Purchase of Life; All come vnto vs by the Merits of Iesus Christ.

O then disconsolate soule, whosoeuer thou art, that art tossed with woes, confounded with feares, amazed with the terrors of eter­nall [Page 25] Death. Heere is Baulme of Gilead, drop­ping from the Roote of lesse: Be not disquie­red (O blessed soule) trust in God; it is his Gift, not thy Merit.

Trust in Christ, it is his Purchase, not thy Price. Trust in God, the fountaine of Mercy. Trust in Christ the Fountaine of Merit: And they will deliuer thy soule from the broaken Cesterne, from the water-lesse pits, from the windy Clouds, from the withered reeds of thy owne imperfections.

God so loued the world that bee gaue his Sonne.

Christ so loued the world that he gaue himselfe.

He is the Lambe of God that taketh away the sinnes of the world. Mentitur Iohannes fiest pec­catum mundi, quod non tollit Agnus Dei: It is the plaine speech of S. Hierome, that S. Iohn the Euangelist had told a lye if there were any sin of the world, which the Lambe of God had not taken away.

The Grace of God by the sole Merits of Christ is the sacred Roote of Eternall Life and Happi­nesse.

But of the goulden apples of eternity how shal I speake? It is the confession of Philosophy, [Page 26] that our vnderstanding of heauenly things, is [...], as the eyes of Batts and Owles, that cannot behold the Sunnes glory.

It is the Profession of Diuinity, that these ioyes were neuer perceiued of the eye: Neuer receiued by the eare: Neuer conceiued by the heart of man, 1 Corinth. 2. Yet, as the Apostle speakes, Videmus per speculum, we see in a Glasse; as Elias, wee see vnder a Mantell, the glory and happines of heauen.

For what is more glorious on earth then a Kingdome? A Kingdome is promised, Luke 12. Feare not little flocke, it is your Fathers pleasure to giue you a Kingdome. VVhat is the honor of a Kingdome, but a Crowne? A Crowne is promi­sed, yea an incorruptible Crowne of Glory, 1 Co­rinthians▪ 9.

VVhat is in a Crowne more precious then the massinesse of Gold, and lustre of Iewells? And these are promised. Aeternum pondus glo­riae: An eternall waight of glory, 1 Corinth. 5. And our Bodyes to be like the starres in beauty, 1 Corinthians 15.

But what speake I of Starres? The Scripture [Page 27] saith, that our Bodies shall be like to the Bodie of Iesus Christ, whose glory is shadowed out with the comparison of Angells. Matth. 28. 3. The text speaketh of the Angell, that his coun­tenance was like Lightning, and his Raiment like Snow. Matthew 17. 2. The text speaketh of Christs transfiguration, (the glasse of his glo­ry) that his Face did shine as the Sunne, and his Garments▪ as the Light.

Our glory shall not be like to the Angells, light­ning, and snow; but to Christ the sun and light of heauen. So that at the day of iudgement, Leah shall not arise with bleare eyes; nor Mephibosheth with lame feete; nor Ehud with a withered Arme.

But the Bodyes of the Saints shall arise, as so many glorious Sunnes, from the Horrizon of Earth, to the circumference of Heauen.

I am swallowed vp in contemplation, and must conclude with the history of the Queene of Sheba, vnto King Salomon, 1 King 10. 6. Shee said vnto the King, It was a true report that I heard in my owne land of thy Acts and Wisdome: Howbeit I beleeued not, till I came, and mine eyes had seene: and behold the halfe was not told me.

First, we are farther from Heauen, then the [Page 28] Queene of Sheba from Salomon.

Secondly, we heare of Heauen, as the Queene of Sheba of Salomon.

Thirdly, our report is true of Heauen, as their report of Salomon.

Fourthly, you doe not beleeue our report of heauen, no more then the Queene of Sheba the report of the Wisedome of Salomon.

But when your eyes shall see God, and enioy Heauen, you will confesse, that not halfe the Glory was reported in Earth, which you finde in Heauen.

VVhen the Queene, that is the Church, shall stand on the right hand of the Lambe, glorious in diuers colours, in the infinit, incomprehen­sible varity of happinesse.

To this Kingdome, this Crowne, this Eternall weight of glory, good Lord bring vs, for the infinite Mercies, for Iesus Christs infinite Merits. Amen.

Laus Deo.