THis Epistle is one of the three, not unfitly styled the Hierar­chical Epistles, de statu Eccle­siastico compositae, as Adv. Marcion. l. 5. in fine. Ter­tullian speaks: being so many Rescripts Apostolical to Timothy, and Titus (the One desired by St. Paul to stay at Ephe­sus, Primate of Asia; the Other left in Creet.) Metropolitan of that, and Vide S. Hieron. in Catalog. Script. Eccles. the neighbour Islands;) directing them, 1 Tim. iii. 15. how they ought to behave themselves in the House of God, which is the Church of the living God. True and genuine Decretal Epistles; not like that coun­terfeit Ware, which Vide D. Blondelli Isidore Merca­tor, [Page 2] under venerable Names, hath had the hardiness to obtrude upon the World; Pseudo-Isidor. but of the right stamp, and alloy; and such, as St. Augustine saith, De Doct. Christian. l. 4. c. 16. a Bishop ought always to carry in his Hand, and to have before his Eyes.

The Verse, I have read to you, fol­lowing immediately upon the Salutation, begins the Body of the Epistle it self; and, like an ingenious, and well-con­triv'd Perspective, give us, from the ve­ry Front, a fair Prospect into the Con­tents of the whole. It is, as it were, a kind of Magical Glass; in which an Eye, not blind with Ignorance, nor blear'd with Passion, may see distinctly the Face of the Primitive Church, in that Golden Age of the Apostles; the Plat-form of her Government; the beautiful Order of her Hierarchy; the Original, and Derivation of her chief Officers, and their subordination both to one ano­ther, and to Christ, 1 Pet. 2. 25▪ the great Bishop of our Souls, in the last Resort; together with the Manage, and Direction of the most important Acts of the Government, both in point of Ordination and Iurisdicti­on toó. For here we have [...] Elders, that is Bishops (as shall be shewed in due time) dispos'd of City by City in every City One: [Page 3] these Bishops both ordained, and or­dered, constituted, and corrected; crea­ted, and governed by Titus alone; and so He, in right of the Premisses, no o­ther, than Vide Re­verend. Armachan. de Orig. Me­tropolis. pag. 71, 72. Metropolitan, or Arch-Bi­shop there; the Angel, or the Arch-An­gel rather of the whole Church of Creet. If you ask, who fix'd him the Intelli­gence of so large an Orbe; 'twas St. Paul himself, (You have that too in the Text) For this Cause left I thee in Creet. If yet higher, your Curiosity will needs see the Derivation of St. Paul's Power too; He opens his Commission, verse 1. and spreads it before You, styling him­self a Servant of God, and an Apostle of Iesus Christ, One sent abroad into the World by his Commission, acted, and assisted by his Spirit, to plant, and to govern Churches after this Scheme, and Model. So that my Text, like II. O. Ho­mer's Symbolical Chain, consists, you see, of many Links; but the Highest is tyed to the Foot of Iupiter's Throne: or ra­ther, like Iacob's Mysterious Ladder, the Foot of it stands below in Bethel, the House of God, Gen. xviii. 12. Versio. Lxx. [...], the Head of it is in Heaven, and God himself stands at the top of it, and Ib. v. 13. Vulg. Et Do­minum innix. um scalae. Lxx. [...] leans upon it, and keeps it firm; Angels Ascending and Descending upon [Page 4] it in the intermedial degrees; the Bi­shops of the Church, like those blessed ministring Spirits, incessantly bringing down the Commands of God to the Church in their Doctrin, and carrying up the Prayers of the Church before God's Throne, in their Holy Offices, and Intercessions. So that, you see, this holy Psal. cxxxiii. 2. Oyl, which without mea­sure was shed upon the Head of our great High Priest, Matth. xxviii. 18. (all Power being gi­ven to Him, both in Heaven, and Earth;) runs down in full stream upon the Beard, (for, Joh. xx. 21. As my Father sent me, saith he to his Disciples, even so send I you;) and so by, and through, them to their Suc­cessours, holy Bishops, and Presbyters, even down to the Skirts of his Garment: For in this comly and exquisite Order, we find it in my Text, For this Cause I (Paul an Apostle of Iesus Christ,) left thee (Titus) in Creet, that thou shouldest set in order (or, correct) the things, that are wanting, and ordain Elders in every City, as I had appointed thee.

In which Words we have these three Parts.

First, The Erection of a Power in the Person of Titus, a Metropolitical Power over the whole Island of Creet: I left thee in Creet.

[Page 5]Secondly, The end of this Institution, or the Use, and Exercise of this Power, in a double Instance, [...], to Order, and to Ordain; to Correct and Constitute; to make Bishops, and to govern them Theophyl. [...]n Hypoth. [...], as the Greek Scholia have it: For this cause— that thou shouldest set in order what was wanting, and ordain Elders in every City.

Thirdly, The Limitation of All to Apostolical Prescript, and Direction; both Ordination, and Jurisdiction too, the whole Office must be managed, [...], As I had appointed thee. These are the Parts.

Of which that I may so speak, and you so hear, and all of us so remember, and so practice, that God's holy Name may be glorified, and we all built up in the knoledge of that Truth, which is ac­cording unto Godliness; We beseech God the Father, in the Name of his Son Ie­sus Christ, to give us the assistance of his Holy Spirit.

And in these, and all other our Supplica­tions, let us always remember to pray for Christ' s Holy Catholic Church, i. e. for the whole Congregation of Christian People, di­spersed through the whole World; That it would please Almighty God to purge out of it all Schism, Error and Heresie, and to [Page 6] unite all Christians in one Holy Bond of Faith and Charity; that so at length the happy Day may draw upon us, in which all that do confess his Holy Name, may agree in the truth of his Holy Word, and live in Unity, and godly Love. More especially let us pray for the Churches of England, Scotland and Ireland: That the God of Peace, who maketh Men to be of one Mind in a House, would make us All of one Soul, and of one Spirit, that again we may meet together, and praise Him with one Heart and Mouth, and worship him with one Ac­cord in the Beauty of Holiness. To this end, I am to require you most especially to pray for the King' s most Excellent Majesty, our Sovereign Lord Charles, by the Grace of God, King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and Supream Governor in these His Realms, and in all other his Dominions and Countries, over all Persons, in all Causes, as well Ec­clesiastical, as Temporal: That God would Establish His Throne in Righteousness, and His Seed to all Generations. Also for our gracious Lady Mary the Queen-Mother, for the most Illustrious Prince, James Duke of York, and for the whole Royal Family: That God would take them all into His Care, and make them the Instruments of His Glory, and the good and welfare of [Page 7] these Nations. Further, let us pray for the Ministers of God' s Holy Word and Sacraments, as well Arch-Bishops, and Bi­shops, as other Pastors and Curates; for the Lords and others of his Majesties most Ho­nourable Council; and for all the Nobility and Magistrates of the Realm: That All, and every of these, in their several Cal­lings, may serve truly and painfully to the Glory of God, and the edifying, and well governing of his People, remembring the account that they must make. Let us also pray for the Universities of this Land, Cambridge and Oxford: That God would water them with his Grace, and still conti­nue them the Nurseries of Religion and Learning to the whole Land. Let us pray for the whole Commons of this Realm: That remembring at last from whence they are faln, they may repent, and do the first works, living henceforth in Faith and Fear of God, in humble Obedience to their King, and in Brotherly Charity one to another. Fi­nally, let us praise God for all those that are already departed out of this Life in the Faith of Christ, and pray unto God we may have Grace to direct our Lives after their good Examples; that, this Life ended, we may be made partakers with them of the glorious Resurrection in the Life Everlasting. For which, and for all other needful Bles­sings, [Page 8] let us say together the Prayer of our Lord, who hath taught us to say, Our Fa­ther, &c.

For this Cause left I thee in Creet, &c.

The Erecting of the Power, that's the first; I left thee in Creet. Where we have these Particulars: The Original of this Power, in Ego; the subject of it, in Te, Ego Te; the Conveyance in Ego Re­liqui; and the Extent, in Reliqui Cretae, or in Creta.

I. I left thee; I the Apostle of Iesus Christ (vers. 1.) left thee Mine: There's the Source, and the Stream; the Origi­nal and the Derivation of All; 'twas from our Lord, by his Apostle: I did it, his Commissioner.

(1.) And therefore, First, Not a Suf­fragan of St. Peter, as some of the Ro­mish Partizans would fain have it: Suar. adv. fect. Angl. l. 3. c. 12. f. Bel­larm. de R. Pont. l. 1. c. 11. f. c. 23. Magal. in l. Tim. Proaem. Sect. 11. & 13. Who, to serve the over-high pretences of that Court, are not content to Dogmatize, That St. Peter was the Prince, and Sove­reign of the Apostles; and his very Suc­cessors superior to the Apostles, that sur­vived Him; and That, they being once All Dead, there was never since any Power in the Church, but in Succession to him, and by Derivation from him; dare yet higher, and with strange confi­dence [Page 9] pronounce, That the Apostles them­selves were all ordained by St. Peter, and He alone by Christ: And That, when the Holy Ghost said Act. 13. 2. Separate me Bar­nabas, and Saul, for the work, whereunto I have called them; they were thereupon sent up to Ierusalem, to be ordained by St. Peter. Affirmations so very strange, that I know not what can be more; un­less this be that they should think them passable with us, upon the Authority of Hist. Act. Ap. c. 70. Petrus Comestor, the Scholastic Histo­rian, and those suspected Anacleti, Felicis I. Inn. I. Decretals of the false Merchant, I mention'd at the beginning. Whereas for the Imposition of Hands upon Barnabas and Saul (were it a Blessing, or were it As our Church seems to have deter­mined. See the Exhortati­on before the Litany in the Consecration of B. B. an Ordinati­on) 'tis plainly inferred, verse 3. to have been perform'd upon the Place by the Per­sons mention'd, verse 1. And St. Paul, for his particular, in the Front of every Epistle, enters his Protestation against all this, as if he had foreseen it; still quali­fying himself 2 Tim. 1. 1. an Apostle of Iesus Christ by the will of God; Gal. 1. 1. an Apostle, not of Men, nor by Man, but 1 Tim. 1. 1. by the Commandment of God our Saviour; Chap. 1. 11. v. 12. v. 15, 16. and accordingly you may see him contesting it to the height, both against Peter, and the rest, Gal. 1. and 2. Chapters through­out▪ That the Gospel he Preached was not [Page 10] of Man, the Apostleship he exercis'd was not from Man: but the one by immedi­ate Revelation, the other by Assignation from Heaven it self. So that, having re­ceiv'd his Mission thence, and his Instru­ctions too, he thought it unnecessary to confer with Flesh and Blood, v. 16. to apply him­self to any Mortal Man, for the enhan­cing of either. v. 18. He went up indeed to Ie­rusalem to visit Peter three Years after his Conversion; and yet once again Chap. 11. four­teen Years after, v. 1. he returned thither, v. 6. and had Conference with Iames, v. 9. and Cephas, and Iohn; but these Pillars added nothing to him; neither established his A [...]thority, nor advanced his Knowledge: And Titus himself was present at the enterview, v. 1. and so an Eye-witness, that in nothing he came behind the very chiefest Apostles; for they all gave him the right-hand of Fellowship, v. 9. far from exacting the right-hand of Prehe­minence: And so Paul an Apostle of Ie­sus Christ, not a Deputy of the Aposto­lical College, much less a Suffragan of St. Peter, or his Legate a latere, as was pretended. But,

(2.) Not a Disciple of Gamaliel. For there is a Disputer of this World, who having laid it down for a Principle with himself (indeed his [...]) That all pretence of Ecclesiastical Power, as from [Page 11] Christ, is but an Imposture, is thereupon obliged to give such an accompt of the Appearances of it in the New Testament, as may suit with this Postulatum: And accordingly, for the particular of Imposi­tion of Hands for Ordination of Elders De Synod. lib. 1. cap. 14. p. 509. &c. will have it only the pursuance of a Iewish Custom, which St. Paul learned at the Feet of his Master Gamaliel, under whom he Commenc'd Elder, before he was Christian, and thereupon, after, thought good to create his own Disciples to the same Dignity (according to Pag. 571. Vnusquisque ritè creatus potest Discipu­los suos ritè creare. the Law of those Schools) and Titus a­mongst the rest, whom he left in Creet, to do the like, and to Constitute his Scho­lars Elders too, in all the Cities, where he should Preach. A Discourse so loose, and incoherent, that 'tis not worth your while to stand by, and see it fall in pieces, which it would quickly do (were it not already done See Dr. H. H. Letter of Resolut. &c. Quer. 5. to our hands) upon a gentle Examination. I shall only remind you of what was said before upon the former Particular, and so leave it in Com­promise to any Indifferent; Whether St. Paul the Apostle of Iesus Christ, who so stoutly refuseth to Releve of St. Peter himself, or the rest of the Apostles, as owing his whole Commission to Heaven alone, would yet acknowledge to hold [Page 12] it of R. Gamaliel, the unconverted Iew, as Usher of his School, or Graduate in a Rabbinical Academy.

(3.) (Yet further, to vindicate our Selves) An Apostle of Iesus Christ, not a Delegate of the Civil Magistrate. For Advers. Sect. Angl. lib. 3. cap. 8. num. 12. Suarez, the Spanish Jesuite, that he may have something to confute in the English Sect (as he will needs call us) saith confidently, That the Power of Or­der with us is nothing else, but a Depu­tation of certain Persons by the Tempo­ral Magistrate to do those Acts, which he himself much more might do; made indeed with some kind of Ceremonies, but those esteemed Arbitrary, and un­necessary to the Effect, which would follow as well without them, by the King's sole Deputation. A Calumny, which the whole Business of this Day most solemnly refutes: a kind of a se­cond Nag's-Head Fable, a Fill of the same Race, both Sire, and Dam, begot­ten by the Father of Lies upon a slan­derous Tongue, and so sent post about the World, to tell false Tidings of the English; as credible, as that our Kings Excommunicate, or that Queen Eliza­beth Preached. Would they have been just, or ingenious, they should have laid the Bra [...] at the Physicians door, who [Page 13] was the Father of it: Not the beloved Physician, though his Name comes nigh; (Erastus, but not [...]) no, his Praise was not in the Gospel, but a Physician in Ge­neva, learned, and eminent enough. 'Tis remarkable, that, in the same Place, and much about the same Time (so unlucky an Ascendent hath Errour, and Mistake, upon some Persons!) should three Con­ceits be hatched concerning Church-Go­vernment, which, like three Furies, have vext the quiet of the Church ever since. For the Consistorial, and Congregational, Pretences were Twins of the same Birth; though the Younger serv'd the Elder, and, being much over-powred, sunk in the stream of Time, till it appeared again in this unhappy Age, amongst the Ghosts of so many reviv'd Errors, that have e­scap'd from their Tombs, to walk up and down, and disturb the World. And not long after this Physician too, would needs step out of his own Profession, to mistake in two other at once, Policy and Divinity, running a risque of setting ill-Understanding betwixt them, had not Abler, and Wiser Heads than He, stept in, and so evenly cut the thred, so ex­actly stated the Controversie, and asser­ted the very Due on either side; that there remains now no Ground, either of [Page 14] Jealousie among Friends, or, one would think, of Slander from Enemies. And yet, even some of our own too (which we have reason more deeply to resent) would needs bear the World in hand, when Time was, That the Claim of E­piscopal Power, as from Christ, and his Apostles, was an Assault upon the Right of our Kings, and tended to the Dishe­rison of the Crown. As if the Calling might not stand by Divine Right, and yet the Adjuncts and Appendages of it by Human Bounty: As if the Office it self might not be from Christ, and yet the Exercise of it only by, and under, the Permission of Pious Kings: Or, As if the Church might not owe the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven both that of Or­der, and that of Jurisdiction too (purely Spiritual, I mean, and without any Tem­poral Effect) to the Donation of Christ, and yet, at the same time, owe all the Coactive Power in the External Regi­ment (which is one of the Keys of the Kingdoms of this World, for the enfor­cing of Obedience by constrain [...]) to the Political Sanction. These things thus clearly distinguish'd, I cannot see why we may not with some Consequence in­fer the Apostolical, and [...], in Con­sequence thereupon, the Divine Right [Page 15] of our Ecclesiastical Hierarchy, how harsh soever it sounds, either at Rome or Geneva; and though the Hills about Vide Hist. Concil. Trid. lib. 7. Trent resounded loud with the Eccho of that Noise, and stiff Debate, which past upon that Argument within the Walls of that Council. However they like it, on this side the Hills, or beyond. St. Paul stands firmly by us and voucheth the Grand Charter of his Apostolate for all: Me me, adsum qui feci—'Twas I, the A­postle of Iesus Christ, that left Titus to ordain Elders in Creet; and what [...] will be found for this Argument? 'Twas the Holy Ghost, that made you Bi­shops, saith the same Apostle Act. xx. 38. to the Elders at Miletus; so that these are no Milesian Fables, but Acts xxvi. 25. the Words of Truth, and Soberness, a part of the Holy, and Divine [...], the real Acts, and Gests of the Apostles of Christ, nay the Act, and Deed of Christ himself by his Apostle according to that Rule of the Hebrews, [...] Talm. in Kidduschin. fol. 41. 2. Apostolus, cujus (que) est, ut quisque. And so much for the Original of the Power.

I go on (II) to the Subject, and that is Titus: Ego. Te, I left Thee.

(1.) Thee first, mine Host, and of the whole Church. For, when the Iews, at Corinth, Acts xviii. 6. contradicted, and blasphemed the Doctrine, delivered by St. Paul, he [Page 16] shook his Raiment, and v. 7. departed into the house of one Justus (so we read it af­ter the Greek Copies) one that worshipped God, and dwelt by the Synagogue; v. 11. and there he abode eighteen Months. But the Syriack. Version saith, it was the House of Titus, (and so [...]. St. Chryso­stom seemeth, by his Preface to this E­pistle, to have found it in some Copies:) and the Vulgar Latine, and Arabick, re­conciling both, The House of Titus Justus, or of Titus the Son of Justus. If you give credit to this Tradition, thus fairly deri­ved; 'twill return you this Lesson; That no man serves God in vain; that none opens the Doors of God's House, nor the Doors of his own, to receive God's Church in, that loo­seth his Reward. Obadiah, that secured, and fed an hundred Prophets in Persecu­tion, received a Prophet's Reward, and Vide Munst. Vatabl. & alios in O­bad. (though but a Proselyte) was him­self made one of the Twelve. The House of Obed-Edom, the Gittite, and all that pertained to him, was blest, for the Ark of God's Sake, that occasionally turned in thither. And Titus, a Gentile, who re­ceived St. Paul into his House, not only gains thereby the Lights of Faith, and the Incomparable Advantages of Religi­on; but is himself introduced into the Church, which is the House of God, and set [Page 17] amongst the Princes there; being singled out to this special Honour from amongst the many, that attended St. Paul in his Journeyings. Hear this you Noble, and Generous Souls, who, in this time of Calamity, have spread your Wings over the persecuted Prophets of God, and had a Church in your House, when they made a Stable of the Church. Believe it, God, and his Church pay their Quarters, wheree're they come, and there is not One of you shall miss of his Reward.

(2.) Thee, who wert so exceedingly Dear, so highly Useful to me, 2 Cor. ii. 12. Ti­tus my Brother, Tit. 1. 4. mine own Son after the common Faith; two very endearing Titles: And then, so necessary to me; That 2 Cor. 11, 12, 13. when I came to Troas, to preach Christ's Gospel, and a door was opened un­to me of the Lord; I had no rest in my Spirit, because I found not Titus my Bro­ther: but taking my leave, went thence into Macedonia. Upon which place, with some others 2 Cor. 7. 6 St. Ierome Epist. 150. ad Hedib. qu. 11. hath sounded his Conjecture, That Titus was St. Paul's Interpreter to the Grecians. For though the Apostle understood the Greek Language, and wrote it too elegantly e­nough; yet Divinorum sensuum Maje­statem digno non poterat Graeci el [...]quii explicare ser­mone. S. Hie­ron. ibid. Vide & Baron. Tom. 1. Ann. 45. n. 32, [...]c. there might be some­thing of Uncouth, and Barbarous in his Pronunciation, which rendred it not so [Page 18] smooth, and passable to a common Greek Ear: (which Iosephus also, though Photius. [...]. a spruce Greek Writer, Antiq. l. 20. c. ult. [...]. complains of as both his own, and the general infe­licity of his Nation.) But, though Titus was so needful to St. Paul in this, or some such respect, and so Dear, and Pre­cious in many others; yet the Apostle, most resolvedly, leaves him behind in Creet; as He, who knew most chearfully to Sacrifice all his own Advantages, and the tenderest, and inmost of his Affecti­ons to the Benefit of Christ's Church, and the Interest of Religion Let us go, and do likewise.

(3) But Thirdly and principally; Thee, a single Person; not a Consistory of Pres­byters, or a Bench of Elders. But this Observation, together with the next Par­ticular, (III) The Extent of this Power, as it reacheth the whole Island of Creet, I shall have occasion to resume by and by; and so pass on at present.

There is nothing behind of the first Part of the Text, but (IV) the Convey­ance of the Power couched, or supposed, in Ego Reliqui. I l [...]ft Thee. A close Con­veyance, by a word, in which there may be much more understood, than exprest; viz. A Derivation, or Transmission of Power from St. Paul to Titus, inabling [Page 19] him for the Discharge of that Work, he was entrusted with. Reliquit vice suâ as Haymo In locum. well. As if St. Paul had said, I left thee in Creet, my Deputy, and Vice-gerent there, to water, what I had planted; to build up, what I had founded; to perfect, what I had begun. I left Thee, to reside in Creet, (as I be­sought Timothy to abide at Ephesus, [...],) to be Resident there, as fix'd, and ordinary Governour of that Church, while I went on still to preach the Gospel in other Regions, where the Name of Christ had not been heard. In fine, For this Cause was he left, that he should perform such special Acts, (ordain Elders, and reform what was amiss) and therefore cer­tainly left Commissioned, and Authori­zed after the Apostolical Guise, to do those Acts, viz. by Imposition of Hands, and Episcopal Ordination: which is a true Gloss, though of a Pseudo Ambrose In Titum. Titum Apostolus consecravit Episcopum: and back'd by Theophylact, and others amongst the Grecians, [...].

But it will best appear, what the Pow­er was in the Conveyance (and conse­quently what the Conveyance it self) by taking notice, what it was to be in the Exercise of it: II. and so I go on to the Se­cond [Page 20] Part of my Text, in which we find it designed to a double Act, to Order, and to Ordain; [...].

1. In the first there will be some Va­riety. For [...], being properly to Vide Sulteti Obss. in Tit. 1. c. 2. Correct, or make Strait that which is Crooked; (not that, which is wanting, to which it seems not to have so just a Rapport;) and [...], being, in the next Notion, those things which are wan­ting (and therefore not so aptly said to be corrected, as supplyed or added:) For the according of the Terms, I cannot see, why the Participle may not have as pow­erful Influence upon the Verb (to qua­lifie That,) as That upon the Participle; and shall therefore make this advantage of the Doubt, to take in the Considera­tion of both Senses, and suppose, that Titus is here commissioned, both to sup­ply, what was Wanting; and to correct, what was Amiss.

First, To supply, what was Wanting. And then the Nerve, and Emphasis of the Verb will lye in the Preposition; [...], to do something Additionally, and by way of Supplement to what was done before, but was not sufficient. [...], as S. Chrysostom Homil. 1. to fill up the Vacuities, and Defects, that were left, which probably were not a few, in [Page 21] Creet, especially, a Church, so lately Founded (but Vide Baron. Ann. 58. the year before) and in which S. Paul stayed so short a time, in which long Works could not be brought about. Neither let any Church, though of longer Continuance, flatter, and sooth up it self, with Laodicea, Apoc. 3. 17. as if it needed nothing. The Ship of the Church is never so perfectly rigg'd but something may be added. 'Tis seldom, or never, but some pin, or other is lack­ing, even in God's Tabernacle, while it sojourns here below, Just as in the Ma­terial Church; 'tis scarce known, but either the Roof is open, or the Pavement uneven, the Windows broken, or some part, or other of the Wall mouldring, and dropping away: So in the Spiritual, either the Light is not good, or the Wal­king is not answerable; 'tis well if the Foundation stands firm, and sinks not; but the Superstructions, most commonly, want something, that must be supplied. And therefore, methinks, the Inference is strong. There's need of a Bishop in e­very Church, that must Isid. Pe­lus. lib. 1. Ep. 149. [...] learn his Office in his Name, and look about him, be [...] (as Isidore Peleusiote appo­sitely) and, like a wise Master builder, have a careful Eye, ever awake, upon [Page 22] all parts, to see what is wanting, and to supply it. That's the first.

But Secondly, To correct what is amiss; Things, that are faulty, and defective, and want something, (sc. of their due Rectitude, and Conformity to the Rule;) for so perhaps the [...] may signifie, [...] and Hesychius Hesych. [...] Lege [...]. & [...]. shall warrant me that Gloss. Or else [...], things, that leave their Rank, and start out of their place; and so to be reduc'd and set in Order again. And of this sort also there was but too much in Creet. For, to say nothing of the evil Beasts with the nimble Tongues, and Tit. 1. 10. slow Bellies, we find also in this Chapter Iewish Leaven to be purg'd out, and as some Dr. H. Hammond in c. 1. 9, 16. have thought, Gnostick Impurity to be resisted, v. 10. unruly, and vain talkers, and deceivers, v. 11. Subverters of whole Houses; teachers of things, they ought not, for filthy lucre's sake; v. 16. Men that profess to know God, but in works deny him, being abominable, disobedient, and to every good work reprobate. So that, for ought we see, they might well enough deserve the black Character, the Proverb brands them with, amongst the [...], the three [...]— very infamous Na­tions, that began with C. for such a su­perfluity of Naughtiness. St. Paul here [Page 23] designs a proportionate Corrective, and sends Titus, and his Elders, amongst them to bring them into better Order, by a threefold Instrument, Vita, Doctri­na, Censura; all in this Epistle, and in this Chapter.

(1) Vita first, by the Example of his holy Life. Ch. 11. 7. In all things shewing thy Self [...], a pattern of good Works. For, as S. Ambrose Lib. 10. Epist. 82. ad Eccles. Ver­cel. excel­lently, In Episcopo vita formatur omnium; the Life of the Prelate is, as it were, a Form, or Mold, in which the Conversati­on of others is Shap'd, and Modell'd: Or, as Lib 1. Epist. 319. [...]. Isidore Pelusiot conceits it, like a Seal well cut, which stamps the com­mon Christians under his Care, as Wax, with the like Impressions. And therefore S. Paul, who well understood this twice within two Verses of my Text, requires it a Qualification in a Bishop, that he be blameless, Inaccusa­bilis: Caje­tan. [...], One that cannot be accused which yet Innocence it self, you know, may be; nay, but a Bishop must be void of Suspicion too, as well as Crime. Ay, that's the way to set all right indeed: For so fair a Copy, plac'd in so good a Light, teacheth it self; and every one, that runs by, will read it, and strive to write after it.

[Page 24](2) But Secondly, Doctrina; by speak­ing the things, that become sound Doctrine. Ch. 11. 1. For a Bishop must be able both Ch. 1. 9. to exhort, and to convince the Gainsayers: Ch. 11. 7, 8. In Doctrine shewing Uncorruptness, Gra­vity, Sincerity, sound Speech that cannot be condemned, that he, that is of the con­trary part, may be ashamed, &c.

(3) Censura, That must not be for­gotten, as being chief in the Eyes of the Text. No; the Garden of God must be weeded sometimes, or, like the Sluggard's Vineyard, Prov. xxiv. 30, 31. 'twill soon be overgrown with Nettles, and Thorns. Even Christ's Vine must be pruned too, or 'twill run out, and spend it self in fruitless Luxury. The Lamps of the Temple will burn faint, and dim, if they be not trimmed, and drest, and snuffed now, and then. And therefore, though the Tables of the Law, and the Pot of Manna be in the Ark; yet 'tis not a perfect Embleme of the Church, unless the Rod of Aaron be there too: and without Iurisdiction, and Discipline, we shall quickly find, the Word, and Sacra­ments will not have so powerful an In­fluence upon a loose, and a debauched World. Epiphanius Contra Haeres. lib. 1. c. 1. Contra Aerian. observes, That Moses was sent into Egypt, [...]. Some while after he instituted the Pass­over, and received the Law, and conse­crated [Page 25] Aaron, and his Sons, to the Priest-hood; but he carried the Rod of God with him in his Hand. No bring­ing up the Israel of God out of Egypt without it. And 'tis that Rod therefore, which S. Paul here puts into Titu's Hand, when he bids him Correct what is amiss, in the Text; and Rebuke evil do­ers [...]. sharply, and severely, v. 11. and Stop the mouths of such, as teach, what they ought not; v. 13. Nay, and Rebuke them [...]. with all Authority, not suffer­ing his Monitions to be slighted by any: Let no man contemn thee; Ch. 11. v. 15.

Nay, if Corrigas will not serve the turn, be a Word too low, S. Ierome, upon the place, and, after him, Cardi­nal Cajetan, have added a Cubit to its Stature, and advanc'd it into Super-corri­gas, which yet perhaps arrives not the full Altitude of the Greek. For [...] is a Decompound, and, if [...] be to make strait, or right, [...] is throughly to do it, and [...] to do it, not only exact­ly, but over and over again. S. Chryso­stom and S. Ierom In locum. both take notice of this Emphasis, and state it thus; ‘That, whereas S. Paul had corrected some Things, and so far; Titus should go on, where he left, and compleat what he had begun; bringing them yet to [Page 26] another Test, till they came forth, like Gold, more than once tryed in the Fur­nace.’

An Hint, which will perhaps be too greedily catch'd at by those, to whose Advantage it was never intended. A sort of Men, that are all for Super-corri­gas, but 'tis still on the wrong side, and of that, which is not amiss. The Re­formers of the World, and Syndios of all Christendom; Men but of yesterday, yet wiser, and better than all the Fathers, that Over-correct, and Over-reform every thing▪ correct Magnificat it self, before they be out of danger of the rest of the Proverb: Correct, not the Cretans, and their A­misses; but Titus, and his Elders, ser­ving all Antiquity, and Patterns of Pri­mitive Government, as [...]. Plut. in The­seo. Procrustes did his Guests, who still reduced them to the Scantling of his Beds. So these, either cutting them short, or forcing them out longer, till they apply to the just Model they have fancied to them­selves, and would impose upon others. Thus Titus must be screwed up into an Extraordinary, and so a Temporary Offi­cer, an Evangelist, or a Secondary Apostle, (as Walo Messalinus, and others not a fix'd, and Ordinary Governour of the Church of Creet, lest that come cross [Page 27] to their Designs: and, on the other side, the Elders of the Text must be degraded into common Presbyters, lest we should have Bishops here of S. Paul's Titus's own Creation: with how little reason in either, we go on to consider in.

11. The second Act, to which this Power is here designed, and that is [...], to Ordain Elders in every City.

Concerning which Elders, whether of the first or second Rank, I know well, what variety of Opinion hath past, even amongst my own Mother's Sons. Nor shall I be nice to acknowledge it; as counting it our Advantage, that we have more than a single Hypothesis, to salve the Phoenemena, and some choice of Ans­wers, each of them sufficiently securing us from the Contradiction of the Gainsay­ers: to whose Pretensions these Elders will be for ever useless, whether under­stood Bishops, or common Presbyters, al­ways ordained, and governed, either by the Apostles themselves, or by Bishops of their appointment, as they drew off. But, not to leave it wholly in the Clouds, I will not doubt to profess mine own sense too, with due Submission; That the Elders in the Text were very Bi­shops, [Page 28] appointed One for every City, and the Suburbicarian Region thereof.

1 For this is most agreeable, not only the Exposition of the Antient Church, (the best Comment, when all is done, upon doubtful places of Scripture.)

2 But to the Context also, which ex­presly calls them Bishops, in the seventh Verse. Were it not for this, and what follows in the next Particular, we were perhaps at liberty to leave the World at large in its general acception, as it takes in both Orders, both useful in every City, and so both to be supplied by Titus, in which Argum. in Tit. [...]. Oecumenius hath gone be­fore us, affirming, that Titus was left in Creet, to ordain Clerks in every City? But we are determined: For, though at present I demand not, that [...], wherever it occurs, in the New Testament, should signifie a Bishop; yet, that [...], doth so, I shall not doubt to affirm, till I see the Text produced, that attri­butes it to some Person, otherwise e­vinced to have been no more, then a single Presbyter.

And Thirdly, and Lastly, most agree­able also to the Text it self, and the Di­stribution of these Presbyters by Citys, the Peculiar Seat of Bishops, according to the Scheme of the Antient Church, and [Page 29] the Method the Blessed Apostles thought good to use in the planting, and model­ling of it. For, that they preached the Gospel not only in Citys, [...] Act. xiii. 49. & xiv. 6, 7. but in the Countries adjoyning; yet planted Chur­ches in Cities still, and setled single Per­sons their Successors there, to govern both the Cities, and the Regions round about, (from whence a City, and a Church come to be equipollent Terms, even in the Apostolical Writings, and [...] in the Acts Act. xiv. 24 & xvi. [...], 5. the same with [...] in the Text) and yet further, That they left the Churches of inferiour Cities, and their Bishops in dependance upon the Metropo­les, which were the Chief according to the civil Division (and that the only true Ground of the Superiority of one Church above another) hath been rendred as manifest, as any thing almost in the Ecclesiastic Antiquity, against all Adver­saries (both those of the Hills, and those of the Lake too) by the Learned, and well placed Labours of those Excellent Persons in both Pages of the Dip [...]ychs, whom I shall not need to name, since their own Works praise them in the Gate. Now, I would ask the Question, If these be common Presbyters, why appropriated to Cities? Were there to be none of [Page 30] this sort in the Villages, or in the Coun­try about? Or, since limited to Cities, why should we not pronounce them Bi­shops? the City being the Bishop's proper Seat, and He the Star of that Orb; the Angel, and the Intelligence of that Sphere. A Truth so Visible, that Calvin, and Beza, and many others after them (so far may Persons otherwise of great Learning be Transported, [...]) to avoid the Inconvenience, were concerned to Translate [...] here Oppidatim, (Elders in every Town:) not, as some others, less Interessed Persons, may, perhaps, be thought to have done, to gain the advantage of that distribu­tive Termination, which no Adverb from Civitas, or Urbs, could afford them: but, See Mr. Hooker's Pre­face. I fear, for some other Design perhaps, to make the Interpretation of the Text (a practice too usual with them, and other) to lacquay it to the espoused Opinions, and to serve the [...], and so to whip Thealogie with Grammar's Rods; but so loosely bound up, that at the first stroke they fly in the Air and prove ineffectual; every Al­phabetarian knowing, well, that the La­tin of is Urbs, or Civitas: and Oppidum in the precise propriety of Language (which ought in such cases to be kept) [Page 31] [...] at the most, in middle state betwixt a City and a Drop; and in the antient Glosses Glos. Philox & Cy­rilli. no more then [...], Civitatula at the Highest.

And now, I shall not take upon me as some have done, to number the Ci­ties under Titas's Iurisdiction, 'Tis true, in Homer's Time Creet was [...], Centum urbium clar [...] fama. Plin. lib. 4. cap. 12▪ famous for its Hundred Cities: But in Ptolomy's Age they arose not to half the Number; and Pliny, having named about forty, saith plainly, that of the o­ther sixty memoria extat, nothing re­mained but the Memory. In the Times of the Greek Empire, they were about twenty Suffragan Bishops, under four Arch-bishops, as Magnius In [...] pag. 183. [...] reckons them up; but, at this day, under the Venetian, not half so many of either sort. So variable are these Proportions, according to the Fate of Citys, and the daily Change of the Civil Partition, Who would look now for the Throne of a Primate in Caer-Leon upon Usk? or rake in the Ruins of Carthage for St. Cyprian's- Mitre? He that should under­take a Pilgrimage to Creet, to visit Ti­tus his Metropolis, would in vain enquire for the once-Famous Gortyna, and not find so much of its Dust together, as would suffice to write its Name in. That [Page 32] renowned Septenary of Asia, of old, not only Episcopal, See the Learned Primates' s Ex­cellent Dis­courses of the Original of Metrop. and the Proc [...]nsular Asia. but Metropolitical Churches, where are they? Cities may fail, and Bishops Sees with them: Stars have their Vicissitudes; may rise, and set again: Candlesticks are moveable U­tensils, and may be carried from Room to Room: But [...] is the standing Rule, and fails not; a City, and a Bi­shop, generally adequate to one another. For as, on the one side, an Universal Bishop, with the whole World for his Iurisdiction, is a proud Pretence, and too vast for Humanity to grasp; so on the other side, Rural Bishops too is a poor, and a mean Design, and not only retrives the Italian Episc [...]pelli, so scorned at Trent; but worse. As he divided the Stream into so many Rills, that it lost its Name, and Being; so these, by a too minute Division would Cantonize the Dignity, and degrade it into nothing at the last; as the Roitelets, and petty Kings of Ivedo [...], do but diminish Maje­sty, and take it down into contempt▪ Concil. Laodic. Sar­ [...]ic. Tolet. 12. [...]. Non in vicis, aut villis, aut q. d. Non in oppid [...]. modica civita­te; No Bishops there, Ne viles­cat nomen Epi [...]copi. lest they gr [...]w contemptible, so run the Canons of the Antient Church, both Greek and Latine. And therefore the twelfth Council of To­ledo [Page 33] Ann. 716. unmitered one Convildus, for­merly an Abbot in a little Village, and dissolved the Bishoprick, which Or v [...]am­ba. Bam­ba, the Gothick King had violently pro­cured to be erected there; and that by Authority of this Rule of the Church, and the very [...] of my Text, Imprimis ex Epistola [...], ut Episcopes per civitates con­stituere debeat, praecepit. &c. Concil. Mer­lin. Tom. 1. pag. 135. [...]. which they actually plead in the Front of their Decree, to justifie their proceed­ings.

Amongst these so many Cities in Creet, Gortyna was then the Civil Me­tropolis, as Solinus, Cap. 17. Centum consti­pa [...]i vebibus quarum prin­cipatus est pe­nes Gor [...]y. who lived in that Age, informs us, and in the next Age, we are sure, the Ecclesiastical Me­tropolis too; there being still extant, in the Euseb. l. 4. cap. [...]. Church Story, the Inscription of an Epistle, that plainly infers it. For Dionysius, that renowned Bishop of Co­rinth, who flourished about the middle of the second Century, and stands so high­ly commended in Eusebius for his Ca­tholick Epistles, (seven of them being there mentioned) to several Churches, and their Bishops, or, as St. Ierom In Cata­lago S [...]ript. Eccles. hath it more distinctly, Ad aliarem Ur­bium, & Provinciarum Episcopos (some of them being written to inferiour Citys and Bishops, others to Mother-Citys, and their Metropolitans, and so to whole Provinces) amongst the rest sent two in­to [Page 34] Creet, the One of the former sort, to Pinytus Gnossioe urbis Episcopum, as S. Ierome, or as Eusebius, [...]. To the Gnos­sians, and Pinytus, Bishop of that Diocess only: the Other, of the later sort, and in a different Style, [...] To the Church about, (or, belonging to) Gortyna, together with the rest of the Diocesses in Creet, and in it acknowledgeth Philip their Bishop, that is, not on­ly of that Church of Gortyna but of all those Dioceses, ( [...], not [...]) whom therefore S. Ierom significantly qualifies Episcopum Cretensem, hoc est urbis Gortynae, Bishop of Gortyna, & eo nomine of all Creet too. Enough to make Evidence, that Gortyna was the Metropolis of Creet, even in the Christi­an Accompt, very early, and long be­fore the Councel of Nice, (whatever hath been pretended to the contrary,) and probably in the Epoch of the Text it self; since even then it was certainly such in the Civil Style, most confessedly the Ground of the Christian Establish­ment (for sure, it was not Chance, or Lottery, that produced a perpetual Co­incidence) both there, and elsewhere the World over.

[Page 35]And, now, let me lead you up to the top of Mount Ida, the proudest Height in Creet; from whence Geographers tell us, we may descry both Seas, and see all the Cities, like a Crown, in Circle about it. There let us make a stand a while, and look about us, and consi­der holy Titus, with those numerous Plantations, and Nurseries of Primitive Christianity, distributed, as it were [...]. Areolatim, like so many distinct Beds, and Knots in the Eden of God, planted, and watered, and drest by Apostolical Hands, all under his care, and custody. Consider him (by way of Recollection) under the Variety of Circumstance, wherein the Text hath hitherto presen­ted him to our Meditations, Consider him a single Person; no Collegues, no Compeers, no Co-ordinates. For, as our Lord promised the Keys, (and doubtless, so gave as he had promised them) not to a College, but to single Persons Matth. xvi. 19. Tibi dabo—& quodcunque (Tu) ligaveris: So the Apostles, at the next remove, St. Paul here, I am sure, for One entrusts all, not to Communities, and Consistories, but to Individuals; for so runs the Style, Ego Te-ut Tu sicut ego Tibi, all Personal, and Particular. Consider him determin­ed to a fix'd, and constant Residence, [Page 36] left, and settled in Creet, the Ordinary, and perpetual Governour of that Church. For we ought to have more regard to Reason, and the true Nature of things, than to pronounce him an Extraordina­ry Officer; who, for ought appears, is impowered to none, but Acts of Ordina­ry, and continual Importance to the Church: And more Reverence for the blessed Apostle, than to think, he would issue a Commission, full fraught with Rules of Perpetual Use, to a Temporary Dele­gate, who was perhaps next day to be exa [...]ctorated, and never to have any Ex­ercise of them. Consider him, yet fur­ther, invested with a Plenitude, and Suf­ficiency of Power (not only to Preach, and Baptize, and so to beget Sons to God, and the Church, which is the Pres­byter's, and, for ought I know, the whole of the Evangelist's Office; but al­so) both to Ordain Elders in all the Ci­ties under him, and so to beget spiritual Fathers too, as Epiphunius Contra Haeres. lib. 3. contr. Aerium. distin­guisheth; and then, (as, in the old Pa­ternal Dominion, they ruled whom they had begotten) to govern, and regulate whom he had thus ordained, even all the Bishops of those numerous Cities. Whence the Question of our Reverend and Learned [...] Iewel most naturally [Page 37] proceedeth, Having the Government of so many Bishops, what may we call him but an Arch-bishop? (And I add) of so many Cities, what but a Metropolitan? I say, Consider all this soberly, and maturely, and you will not disavow me, if, I say, That whosoever shall drive us out of this Creet, thus strongly Garrisoned by S. Paul, and his Disciples, and flight and dismantle so many Strengths, and For­tresses of the Episcopal Cause, as there were Cities in that Island, and extort out of our Hands this great Instance of so many Bishops, ordained and govern­ed by their own Metropolitan, so high in the first Age; will be a very Pyrgopo­linices indeed, Plaut. in Milite. qui legiones Spiritu difflat, and deserve the Sur-name of Cre­ticus, better than Metellus the Roman, that subdued the Island.

For our parts, we are not ashamed of our Conformity to so Primitive a Pattern; nay, we glory in so handsom, and inno­cent a Syncretism: For we are not better, then our Fathers; nor wiser, than the Apostles of Christ himself. And, had we been of their Counsel, who not long since pretended to reform us according to the best Examples, we might have be­spoke them, as once S. Paul did those over hasty, and unruly Mariners (who [Page 38] would needs put to Sea, when Sailing was dangerous, and thrive accordingly, being quickly forced to abandon the Helm, and to let the Ship Act. xxvii. 15. drive, being not able to bear up against the Wind Vers. 21. [...]. Sirs, you should not have par­ted from Creet in the Text, and so have gained Ibid. [...]. harm, and disgrace. If really you be in quest of the best Examples of modelling a Church, you may certainly find here as fair, and as pure Ideas, and as well worth your Imitation, as the more Modern Platform can afford you; which See Mr. Hooker's Pre­face. I have reason to believe the famous Author of it intended not at first a Pattern to other Churches, but an Ex­pedient to serve the present Exigent of his own, in a Iuncture scarce capable of any thing better, and which, I am per­swaded, the learnedst, and wisest, and most Pious of his Followers would glad­ly relinquish for something more Perfect, and Primitive; would the Necessities of their present Condition (which have no Law, but much of Excuse for those, that really lie under them) permit them the Happiness of so blessed an Exchange. Which God in Mercy send them.

[Page 39]And so much of the Second Act, to which the Power is here designed, and that is the Ordaining of Elders, together with the Distribution of them [...], In every City one.

I have but three Words to add of the Third Part of my Text, and that was, the Limitation of these Acts to the Apostles Prescription; All must be so done, even as he had appointed. So, in regard of the Variety of the Offices themselves, and their several Subordinations; So in re­gard of the choice of the Persons, and their requisite Qualifications; and so also, in regard of the Rites, and Ceremonies, and Manner of ordaining them: still, [...]. All, as I had appointed thee.

And now, if any demand, where these [...], these Constitutions Apostolical, are to be found; I shall not send them to Clemens [...]his Book, that bears that Name, but to the Universal Practice of the An­tient Church, in which they are still in great part Visible; and thence handed o­ver to Posterity by Tradition, and confor­mity of Practice; and by Degrees inserted into the Canons of the old Councels, as occasion was offered, and into the Ordi­nals of several Churches. Or, if a readier, and more present Answer be required, I know not where to design it you nearer [Page 40] hand, or more full to your satisfaction, than by dismissing you, to attend the great Action, that is to follow. In which you will see All so Grave, and Solemn; so Pious, and Devout; so Primitive, and Apostolical; and so exactly up to the Le­vel of the Text, and the [...] of S. Paul here: that I know not where to point you out so pregnant, and full a Comment upon my Text, nor what bet­ter Amends to make you for my own failings upon it.

And yet, having thus hastily run it o­ver, with all its Parts, and Branches; (Some few Sands still remaining of that Heap, the Bounty of your Patience al­lows me) I'le crave leave briefly to take a Second View of it in the Auditory it self, and read it over again in the Face of the Assembly. For the better part of it, your own Thoughts have already prevented me; and every Eye hath sin­gled out our most Reverend Titus, [...], a Genuine Son, and Successor of the Apostles, upon the very Act of Con­stituting [...], more, than a whole Province of Elders at once: Men, able to abide, and pass with Ho­nour the dreadful Test, that follows upon my Text, as being both, for Life, Blame­less, Sober, Iust, Holy Temperate; and [Page 41] in Doctrine Sound, holding f [...]st the Faith­ful Word, as they have been taught; not­withstanding all the Discouragements, they have met with, from the sad Condi­tion of our Common Mother.

But then for the rest; I wish it were not so easie a Task, to find Creet in England, with all its Want [...]s, and all its Amisses. For, to say nothing of those more innocent, and less important Re­semblances, in which we Symbolize; (both Islands lying in a kind of Magin. pag. 182. 38. Tri­gon betwixt three Points, or Promonto­ries; both styled The Happy Islands by Antient Writers▪ ( [...] Solin. cap. 17. and In­sulae Fortunatae Camd. Brit. pag. 3. ex Lycoph. Cassand. for the Temper of the Air, and Fertility of the Soil; both de­nominated from those white, and Creta, ab Insula Creta, ubi [...]elior est. Isidor. lib. 16. cap. 1. Chal­kie Cliffs, which bound them on one side, Magin. pag. 182. 38. Candia à Candidis, as Albion ab albis rupibus, both famous for their Iust Laws, and Ours no less to be valued, than those of Rhadamanthus, and Minos, had we but the Wisdom, to comport our selves to the Obedience of them, as we ought:) I say, to let all this pass, I wish we had not too much of Creet a­mongst us, whether Morally considered, in regard of their Vices; or Historical­ly, in regard of their Imperfect Conditi­on.

[Page 42]I would not be mistaken, as One, that delights to Libel a whole Nation at once, (especially mine own) but St. Chrysostome hath dress'd an Apology for St. Paul in this Particular, by distinguish­ing, In Tit. Hom. 1. [...]. He did it not to injure any, but out of Kindness, and pure Love to reform them: Just as our Blessed Lord [...], saith the same Father, a thousand times reproach'd the Scribes and Pharisees: not because they had wronged Him; but least they should harm and destroy others. And so St. Paul, with the same Affections a­bout him, cries Gal. iii. 1. O insensati Galatae! to one Church; Are you such Fools? and here, ‘ v. 12. [...].’

That Poet was, I think, a Prophet in­deed (otherwise, than St. Paul meant him) and sang of us too: and in that Verse the present Age may see its Face, and Blush. I appeal to your better Ob­servation, if we have not outvyed the very Cretans themselves in the first Par­ticular; and in a worse kind too lyed for God's Sake, and Jo [...] xiii. 7. talked deceitfully for him. What pious Frauds, and holy Cheats? What slandering the Footsteps of God's A­nointed, [Page 43] when the Interest was to Black­en Him? What false accusing of [...] our Bre­thren, ay, and of our Fathers too? That we might devour the Man more righteous than our Selves? Pliny Lib. 8. cap. 58. hath observed it. Nullum animal maleficum in Creta; and Solinus Cap. 17. adds, Nec ulla Serpens: But they should have excepted the Inha­bitants; for they were [...] (and v. 13. this Witness, I am sure, is true;) not on­ly Evil Beasts, as we translate it, but Venemous too: and I wish there were no other Island could shew Vipers too many, that have eat out the Bowels of their Common Mother, and flown in the Face of their Political Father, without whose benigner Influence their chill and benum­med Fortunes had not Warmth enough, to raise them to so bold an Attempt. 'Tis unwillingly, that I go on to the rest of that Character: but your own Experi­ence shall justifie me, if I say, that the [...], that remains, hath been since exemplified in some other Sense; and our Idleness, and Fulness of Bread, those Sins of Sodom, have, I fear, long since, proclaimed it to our Faces. And now I cannot wonder, if it be observed from the Records of History, (as In Tit. ii [...] 1. Grotius assures us, who knew them well) that the Cretuns were (and I wish, there were [Page 44] no other such) a mutinous, and a seditious People; and had but too much need to be put in mind by Titus, to be subject to Principalities, and Powers, and to obey Magistrates: For Jud. ix. 27. the Men of Sechem eat, and drink, and (then most naturally go on to) curse Abimelech; (Ay, and David, they would have done, had they lived in his Time, and the Flagon held out) for when our Bellies, and our Heads, are full, then Wo be to our Go­vernors; and Wealth, and Ease, and ha­ving nothing to do, makes us ripe for any thing, that is Evil. There were, amongst the new Converts of Creet, some false Brethren v. 10. of the Circumcision; for the stopping of whose Mouths, as some have thought, and St. Chrysostom amongst the rest, St. Paul in chief designed this Epistle. And I should be glad to be assured▪ that there are not some amongst us, who though they love not to Bleed, yet I am afraid, are too prone to Iudaize in some other Instance, and to retrive some other part of the Mosaical Paeda­gogie, which perhaps, suits no better with that Gal. v. 1. Liberty, to which Christ our Lord hath called us, and in which we ought to stand fast. 'Tis with much Reluctance (could I balk it so full in my way) that I shew you the Cretan Labyrinth, that [Page 45] not long since, I am sure, was amongst us (God grant it be not still) that in­extricable, and endless Maze of Errors and Heresies, that every day opened it self into new Paths and Allies; dividing, and subdividing into never ending Mi­stakes, till they had abased, and almost destroyed Religion with abominable He­terogeneous Mixtures, and left the little Semblance of Christianity, was left a­mongst them, an hideous Monster, or Minotaur, Semibov [...]mque virum, Semi­virumque bovem:—Jerusalem, and Rome, party per pale; with Geneva, and Gra­covia, if you'll have it quarterly, Ay, and Mecca too, I fear, in chief, to em­bellish the Scutcheon.

But, is there no Theseus, no gene­rous Heroe, to attaque this Monster? No courteous, and charitable Ariadne, that will lend a Clew, and help us to disentangle the ruffled Scain, and to e­vade these perplexed wandrings? Hath our Creet no Dictamnus in it to expell the Arrow, which so long hath galled our sides? No Counter-poison for so ma­ny Mischiefs? Or rather, in the Pro­phetical Scheme, Jer. viii▪ 22. Is there no Balm in Gilead? Is there no Physician there? Yes; there is: And therefore let us hope well of the healing of the Wounds [Page 46] of the Daughter of our People, since they are under the Cure of those very Hands; upon which God hath entailed a Miraculous Gift of Healing, as if it were on purpose to raise up our Hopes into some Confidence, that we shall owe one day to those Sacred Hands, next under God, the healing of the Church's and the People's Evils, as well as of the King's. Blessed for ever be that God, who hath restor'd us such a Gra­cious Sovereign, to be the Isa. lviii. 12. Repairer of the Breach, and the Nursing Father of his Church: and hath put it into the King's Heart, to appoint Titus, as this Day, to Ordain Elders for every City, to supply all, that is wanting, and to cor­rect, whatever is amiss. Blessed are our Eyes, for they see that which many a Righteous Man (more Righteous, than we) desired so much to see, and hath not seen It. And Blessed be this Day, Jo [...]. iii. 4. (Let God regard it from above, and a more than common Light shine upon it!) in which we see the Phoenix arising from her Funeral Pile, and taking Wing a­gain; our Holy Mother, the Church standing up from the Dust, and Ruins in which she sate so long, taking Isa. lxi. 3. Beauty again for Ashes, and the Gar­ments of Praise, for the Spirit of Heavi­ness; [Page 47] remounting the Episcopal Throne, bearing the Keys of the Kingdom of Heaven with her, and armed (we hope) with the Rod of Discipline; her Hands spread abroad▪ to Bless, and to Ordain, to Confirm the Weak, and to Reconcile the Penitent; her Breasts flowing with the sincere Milk of the Word; and girt with a Golden Girdle under the Paps, tying up All by a meet Limitation, and Restriction to Primitive Patterns, and Prescripts Apostolical. A sight so Venerable, and August, that me thinks, it should at once strike Love, and Fear into every Beholder, and an awful Ve­neration. I may confidently say it, 'Twas never well with us, since we strayed from the due Reverence, we ought to Heaven, and Her; and 'tis strange, we should no sooner observe it, but run a Madding after other Lovers, that ruin'd us, till God Hos. [...]i. 6, 7. hedged in our way with Thorns, that we could no longer find them, and then we said, I will go, and return to my former Hus­band; for then was it better with me then now.

Well; Blest be the Mercies of God, we are at last returned; and Tit [...]s is come back into Creet; and there are Elders ordaining for every City. But, [Page 48] Hic Rhodus, hic Saltus. Reverend Fa­ther, this is your Creet, adorn it, as you can. The Province is hard, and the Task weighty, and formidable, even to an Angel's Shoulders. That we mistake not; Titus was not left behind in Creet, to take his Ease, or to sheep out the Storm, which soon after over­took St. Paul at Sea; he might well expect a worse at Land (Naufragium terrestre) and a more tempestuous Eu­roclydon. Believe it, a Bishop's Roab is Tunicâ pu [...]ire molestâ; Juvenal. Sat. 8. Tunica molesta (as the Vide Baron. Tom. 1. Ann. 66. n. 4. Martyrs pitch'd Coat was call'd of Old) and sits, perhaps, more uneasie upon the Shoul­ders. The Miter is not [...], to render invisible, or invulnerable; but rather exposeth to Enemies. The Rot­chet, and the Surplice, Emblems of In­nocence indeed, but Marks of Envy too: and 'tis in those Whites, that Malice sticks all her Darts. And therefore St. Paul was fain to entreat Timothy into this Dignity; 1 Tim. [...]. 3. For this cause besought I thee, to abide at Ephesus: for there were Beasts to be fought with there; and the Apostle had tried them, 1 Cor. xv. 32. both Tooth, and Paw. So that I cannot won­der, if our Bishops say, Nolo Episcopari, in good Earnest: and if any of our Genes. xxxviii. 28, 29. Zaras thrust forth a hasty Hand, and [Page 49] be laid hold on, and the Scarlet Thread cast about his Finger; 'tis not strange, if he draw back his Hand, and refuse the Primogeniture; chusing rather to lye hid in Obscurity, quàm vinctus Purpurâ progredi, as the great Cardinal Baron. E­pist. ad Papam Clem. viii. T. 7. wit­tily, alludes. As in Creet new Founded, so in England new Restored, there must needs be many things wanting, and much amiss, not so easily to be supplied, or a­mended.

When the Lord turned again the Cap­tivity of Sion, they made their thankful acknowledgments, and said in the Psalm, Psal. cxxvi. 3. The Lord hath done great things for us already, whereof we will be glad. But then it follows immediately in the next Verse, v. 4. Turn again our Captivity, O Lord, as the Rivers in the South. It seems their Captivity (I am sure Ours) is still to turn again, even after 'tis retur­ned. For there are Reliques of it still behind, and the sad Effects remain, (an Age will hardly be able to [...] Efface them;) and, which is the saddest of All, we are still, I fear, in Captivity to the same Sins, that occasioned that; and they are able to bring upon us Ten Thousand Captivi­ties, worse than the former. Plainly, there are Riddles in our Condition, (and whose Heifer shall we plow with Judg. xiv. 18. to [Page 50] unfold them?) Returned, and not return­ed: Restored, and yet not so [...]ully resto­red: —in fine, with them in the Psalm, Psal. cxxvi. 1. We are like to them, that dream. With St. Peter, Act. xii. [...], &c▪ the good Angel hath rouzed us, indeed, and our Chains are fallen off; we have bound on our San­dals, and begin to find our Legs again; and we are past the first, and the second Ward: But, methinks, the Iron Gate, that leads to the City, is not over-apt to open to us of its own accord, so that we wish not well, if it be True, and Real, that is done by the Angel; still apt to think we see a Vision; still like to them that dream. We have Ierusalem ('tis true) and the Hill of Sion in our Eyes: Yet many look back to Babel, and mul­titudes sit Captives still by those Wa­ters encreasing them with their [...]ars. If any have taken down their Harps from those Willows, they are not strong, nor well in Fune: and we scarce find how to sing the Lord's Songs, even in our own Land.

[Page 51]And therefore let me advise you, now, in the Close of All; Give not over, but ply your Devotions still; and whenever you sing▪ In Convertendo Dominus, in the midst of those Doxo­logies, forget not to insert one Versi­cle of Petition, Converte, Domine, Con­verte: Turn again, what remains of our Captivity, and perfect our faint begin­ings. Ay, that's the way, if we would succeed; Vot a dabunt, quae bellae negârunt. For God will hear the Prayers of his Church, especially for his Church; as he did those of David, Psal. cxxxii. V. 9. Let [...] thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness; that's the Petition: And what saith the Answer of God, a few Verses after. V. 16. (I my self) will cloath her Priests (with Righteousness? Ay, and) with Salvation (too) Let the Saints shout for joy; saith the Psalmist: Her Saints, saith God, Shall shout aloud for joy: So that there's more granted in both parts, than was asked. St. Paul knew well, that this was the Method: And therefore, before he took forth his Son Titus, the great Lesson of my Text, he first imparts his Apostolical Bene­diction; V. 4. To Titus, mine own Son Grace, and Mercy, and Peace from God the Father, and the Lord Jesus Christ, [Page 52] our Saviour. St. Chrysostome, and Theophi­lact have observed it to my hand, that he bestows upon so great a Bishop the same common Blessing that he is wont to give to All ( [...]) Grace, and Mercy, and Peace: Ay, and no Man, as they go on, hath more need of it, than He, Not of Grace; for who hath more Burthens, to bear? More Difficulties, to go through with? Not of Mercy: For who in greater danger of offending either God, or Man? Not of Peace; having so many Enemies on all sides, and so many Troubles of eve­ry sort. Only In [...]ocum. St. Ier [...]me adds, that here's no Multiplicitur, as in other 1 Pet. i. 2. 2 Pet. i. 2. Apprecations. Common Christians may have their Peace multiplied. Peace within, and Peace without; Peace with God, and Peace with Men too; But Titus's Peace is sine Multiplicatione. The Bishops, and Governours of the Church must look for none, but Peace with Heaven, and their own Consciences; (and for that single Pearl, Matt. xiii. 4 [...]. likewise Merchants, they sell all, that they have;) As for the rest, [...] 2 Cor. vii. 5. that's their Lot, and that's their Motto too: They must look for Fightings without St. Paul, in that Divine Valedictory to the Bi­shops of the Province of Ephesus (Act. xx.) though, as he saith, for the space of three years together he had not ceased [Page 53] to warn every one of them, night and day, with Tears (as knowing well both the burthen and the danger, they stood under;) yet (a tender Affection ha­ving never said enough) he resumes the Argument (verse 8.) Take heed to your selves, and to all the Flock; For I know, that, after my departing shall grievous Wolves enter in amongst you ( [...] he had almost said [...] Weet-Wolves, Loups-garons. Mankind Wolves) that will neither spare the flock▪ nor You; but, by a witty and compendious Malice, attaq [...]e the Shepherd first, that the Sheep may be seattered, and so gleaned up at [...]leisure. And therefore, Take heed to your selves in the first place, in whose Welfare that of the Flock is so closely bound up. And yet, after all these Caveats, and very seasonable Advertisements, he cannot yet believe them safe, unless he leaves them under a better Guard, than His, or their Own: And therefore, in fine, he kneels down, and prays with them, and for them all, recommending them to God▪ and to the Word of his Grace. And I know not where better to leave you, than in the Practice▪ and actual Exercise of a Duty so fairly re­commended: And shall therefore desire you, to turn your wearied Eyes from [Page 54] Me, and lift them up to Heaven (from whence every good, and perfect Gift de­scends) to seek from thence the Smoo­thing of all Difficulties, the Solving of all Doubts, the Calming of all Ani­mosities, and the Uniting of all Affe­ctions: And to beg of that Father of Mercies, and God of all Consolations, That he will (every day more, and more) Turn again our Captivity, like the Rivers in the South; that they, who sow in Tears, may reap in Ioy: That he would send forth his good Spirit, to move upon the Waters of our Massah, and Meribah, to digest that Chaos, and Confusion, and Strife of Opinions into one beautiful, and Harmonious Composure: And final­ly, That He, who, by the hand of his holy Apostle, founded this Church of Creet in Titus, and his Elders, in a meet, and decent Imparity, and Sub­ordination, would maintain his own Ordinance amongst us also▪ and justifie his Institutions to the utmost against all Gainsayers; That the Rod of Aaron may again bud, and blossom, and bring forth fruit amongst us; That his Urim and his Thummim, may be with his Holy Ones; That he would bless their Substance, and accept the Work of their Hands, and smite through the Loins of them, that [Page 55] hate them, that they rise not again: That so there may never want a Succession of Holy Bishops, and Priests, to shine as Lights in the World, holding forth the Word of Life; till we all come in the Unity of the Faith, and of the Know­ledge of the Son of God, unto that Per­fection and Fullness of the everlasting Kingdom: To the which, God in Mer­cy bring us all, through the Merits of his dear Son. To which most blessed Father, and Son, with God the Holy Ghost; be ascribed by all the Creatures in Heaven, and Earth, Blessing, Ho­nour, Glory, and Power, both now and for evermore AMEN.

THIS Chapter with the two next before, and that which follows, are all four parts of the same prophetic Sermon, (as appears by those words so often re­peated in them, In that Day, fixing and de­termining All to the same Epoch, and Period of Time;) belong All to the same subject Matter, sc. the Destruction of Iudah and Ierusalem, whether by the Babylonians, or the Romans, or both. So that the Earth (or as we may rather translate, the Land, Ver. 1. &. 3. or the Country) wasted, and utter­ly spoiled, and turn'd upside down, Chap. xxiv. is doubtless the Land of Iewry: And the World that languisheth, and fa­deth away, Ver. 4. of that Chapter, not much wider; that, and the neighbour­ing Regions, with whom the Iews had [Page 50] commerce, [...] & [...], & [...] and intercourse of Peace and War, Moab, and Aegypt, and Babylon, in a word, the Iewish World; (for so both the Hebrew and Greek words usually translated the Earth and the World, are often in Scripture-language contracted and limited by the Matter in hand:) And consequently the City of Confusion, which is broken down, a City turn'd Chaos again, as the Hebrew imports, Chap. xxiv. 10. the City turn'd into a Heap, or a Ruine, nay, in tumulum, as the Vulgar Latine, or [...], as LXX. translate it, into one great Sepulchre to it self, buried in its own Rubbish, Chap. xxv. 2. The lofty City laid low, even to the Ground, and abased in the very Dust, Chap. xxvi. 5. The City desolate, and forsaken, and left Wilderness, and desert all over, Chap. xxvii. 10. are but so many variations of the Phrase, and signifie all the same thing, the burning of Ierusalem by Nebuchadnez­zar, or Titus, or (as some will have it) by both.

This sad Devastation the Prophet first beholds in speculo prophetico, sees it from far in his prophetic Telescope, as clearly, and distinctly, as if it were before his Eyes, and describes it here and there the whole Sermon throughout, but chief­ly, Chap. xxiv. in so lofty a Language, [Page 61] that many have mistaken it for the End of the World, and the Consummation of all things. But then to sweeten so sad a Theme, he assures them, it shall not be a [...], God will not make a final End now: No, a Remnant shall be left, as the shaking of an Olive-tree, and as the Gleaning Grapes, when the Vintage is done, Chap. xxiv. 13. Nor shall they be only preserved, Lacryma [...] Vulg. but restored too; The Lord God will in time wipe away every Tear from off all Faces, and at last, swallow up this Death too in Victory, Chap. xxv. 8. Hee'l turn their Captivities, and rebuild their City, and their Temple too; and all this shall be as it were Life from the Dead, Rom. xi. 19. as the Apo­stle calls it, so miraculous a Re-establish­ment, at a Juncture so improbable, when they are destroyed out of all Ken of Re­covery, that it shall be a kind of Resur­rection; Ezek. xxx▪ [...] Dan. xii. and so like the great One, that 'tis described in the very proper Phrases of that, both by the other Prophets, and by Ours too a little below the Text, Thy Dead shall live again; Ver. 19. My dead Bo­dies shall arise: Awake and sing ye that dwell in the Dust, &c. And then (which is of nearest Concern to us, and to ou [...] present Business) the Prophet directs the Remnant that should escape, how to be­have [Page 62] themselves under so great a Desola­tion; and he contrives his directions in­to a threefold Song (that they may be the better remarkt and remembred) tun'd and fitted to the three great Moments of the Event.

The first, to the time of the Ruine it self, Chap. xxiv. where having set before their Eyes the sad prospect of the holy City, and House of God in Flames; When thus it shall be in the midst of the Land, saith he, there shall be a Remnant, and they shall lift up their voice, and sing for the Majesty of the Lord, saying, Glorifie ye the Lord in the Fires, V. 15. And this is [...] a Song of Praise.

The second is [...] a Song of Degrees or Ascensions, fitted to the time of their Return, when All shall be re­stor'd and rebuilt again; and that we have Chap. xxvii. 2. In that Day sing ye unto her; A Vineyard of Red Wine: I the Lord do keep it; I will water it every moment; lest any hurt it, I will keep it Night and Day.

The third (of which my Text is a principle strain) belongs to the whole middle interval between the Ruine and the Restauration, in this xvi. Chap. In tha [...] Day shall this Song be sung in the Land of Iudah, We have a strong City; [Page 63] Salvation will God appoint for Walls and Bulwarks, &c. As if he had said; Though our City be Ruin'd, yet God is still our dwelling place; our Fortresses dismant­led, and thrown down, but Salvation will he appoint us for Walls and Bul­warks; Our Temples in the Dust, but God will be to us himself, Ezek. xi. 1 [...]. as a little Sanctuary. And this is [...] a Song to give Instruction, teaching them, and in them us, how to demean our selves, while the Calamity lies upon us: sc. to make God our Refuge, ver. 4. to wait for him in the Way of his Judg­ments, ver. 8. and in this 9. ver. ear­nestly to desire him from the very Soul in the Night (in the Darkest, and Blackest of the Affliction;) to seek him early, when it begins to dawn towards a bet­ter Condition; and in the mean time, as 'tis in the Text, to improve all this se­vere Discipline, as he intends it, for the advancing us in the knowledge of Him; and of our selves, and of our whole Duty; For when thy Iudgments are in the Earth, the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness.

A Text you see; that supposeth Judg­ments in the Earth, or upon a Land (as its Occasions) and so suitable to our sad Condition: A Text too, that pro­poseth [Page 64] our Learning, as its End and De­sign, and so suitable (one would think) to our Inclination too. The Character, and Genius of the Age we live in, is Learned: The pretence at this day so high, and so universal, that He is No-Body now, who hath not a new Systeme of the World, a new Hypothesis in Na­ture, a new Model of Government, a new Scheme of God's Decrees, and the greatest Depths in Theology. We are many of us acute Philosophers (that must not be disputed us;) most of us grand Politics and Statesmen too; All of us (without exception) deep Divines: —will needs be wiser than our Neigh­bours, but however wiser than our Teachers and Governours, if not wiser than God himself. A kind of Moral Rickets, that swells, and puffs up the Head, while the whole inner Man of the Heart wasts and dwindles. For like the silly Women, 2 Tim. 3. 6, 7. Disciples to the old Gnostics, while we are thus ever Learn­ing (pretending to great Heights, and Proficiencies) we come never to the Know­ledge of the Truth (the Truth which is according unto Godliness;) In fine, amongst so many Learners they are but few that learn Righteousness:—And therefore, God himself here opens us a School; [Page 65] erects a severe Discipline in the Text; brings forth his Ferulas, when nothing else will serve the Turn. For he hath indeed four Schools, or rather four di­stinct Forms, and Classes in the same great School of Righteousness; the last only (that of his Judgments) express in the Text, but the rest too suppos'd at least, or covertly implied.

For whether we look upon the latter Clause of the proposition. The Inhabi­tants of the World will learn;—We find our selves there under a double For­mality; As Learners, and as Inhabiters. As Learners first, and so indued with 1 Faculties of Reason; Powers of a Soul capable of Learning, what is to be learn­ed; stampt, and possest with first Prin­ciples, and common Notions which deep­ly search'd and duly improv'd, and cul­tivated, might teach us Much of Righte­ousness. And this is Schola Cordis in Do­mo interiori, the School of the Heart, God's first School in the little World with­in us. Secondly, as Inhabitants of the 2 great World, which is God's School too, as well as his Temple, full of Doctrins and Instructions; Schola Orbis, in which, He takes us forth continual Lessons of Righteousness— Seque ipsum incul­cat, & offert, Ut bene cognosci possit; and [Page 66] that both from the Natural World, and from the Political; whether Schola Regni, or Schola Ecclesiae. Or if we return to the former Branch of the Text, When thy Iudgments are in the Earth. This when they are, supposeth another time, when they Are Not in the Earth, and that time is the Time of Love (as the Prophet speaks) the Season of Mercy; Ezek. xvi. 8. 3 So that, Thirdly, here's Schola Miseri-cordiarum, the School of God's render Mercies inviting us, gently leading, and drawing us with the Cords of a Man, Hos. xi. 4. with 4 the Bands of Love: And lastly, when nothing else will serve, here's Schola Iu­diciorum, the School of God's severe Judg­ments driving us to Repentance, and compelling us to come in and learn Righ­teousness. A provision (you see) every way sufficient, and abundant for our Learning, were not we wanting to our selves.

But alas! We may run by the Text, and easily read in it these three things, as so many very Natural Deductions, and 1 Emanations from it. First, our own Ignorance and Stupidity; Born like a wilde Asse's Colt, Job. xi. 12. as Zophar speaks; and then to our Natural we add affected Ignorance too: So that we are much to seek, and to learn Righteousness it must [Page 67] be taught us. Secondly, God's infinite 2 and inexpressible Grace and Mercy to us: that when we had blurr'd the Origi­nal, defac'd the first Traces of Righte­ousness upon our Souls, he was pleas'd to provide Expedients to teach it us again the second time, that we might be renewed unto Knowledge after the Image of him, Col. iii 10. Ephe [...]. iv. 24. that created us in Righteousness, as the Apostle speaks. And Thirdly, Our 3 indocible and unteachable Humour, our foul and shameful Non-proficiency under so plentiful a Grace. For though the Text indeed speaks of our learning Righ­teousness, when God's Judgments are up­on us; yet (if the Appearances of the World abroad suggested nothing to the contrary) 'tis introduc'd here in the Text too, as the Effect of the last Form in God's School, in exclusion of all the former as ineffectual; his utmost Me­thod not to be used but at a pinch, when all the rest are baffled, and prove impro­sperous upon us: And then 'tis exprest in the Original, and learned Versio [...]s with so many Limitations and Aba [...]e­ments (as we shall see by and by) that we may well give it up as the sum and up-shot of all, that our All-merciful God omits no Means or Methods of our Improvement; but we (supinely [Page 68] negligent, and prodigiously stubborn as we are) render them all ineffectual.

That we may do so no longer, but rather make good the profession, with which we have dar'd to appear this Day before God, of humbling our selves un­der his Almighty Hand; Let us, before we pass on any further, lift up our Hands and our Hearts to Him in the Heavens, beseeching him by the Power of his Mighty Grace so to sanctifie to us All, both the Sense of his present Judgment, and all our Meditations and Discourses thereupon, that by all we may be pro­moted in learning Righteousness.

THe Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness or Iustice: What's that? Is there such a thing in the World? Or is it a Name only, and a glorious pretence? Is it not only another word for Interest or Utility, and so nothing just, V. Lactant. lib. v. but what is profitable; Carneades his infamous Assertion retriv'd and own'd with open face by Christians? Is it not the taking of a party, or the espousing of a Faction, and appearing for it with heat and animosity; and a savage con­demning and destroying All that are not of it? Is it not the Profession to believe such a Systeme of Opinions, what [Page 69] life soever is consequent thereupon? An airy invisible Righteousness, that never embodies or appears in our Actions, but hovers in the Clouds, in speculations and fancies, where no Man can find it?

The Truth is, there is no piece of Unrighteousness more common in the World, than thus to weigh Justice it self in an unjust Ballance; while every one contrives his Hypothesis, so as to salve the Phaenomena, so declares his Notion, as may best suit and comport with his own unrighteous practices. But the Righteousness we are to learn in God's School, must not be a self-chosen Righteousness: We must not pay God our Soveraign, the Tribute of our Obe­dience in Coin of our own stamping; it must be such as will abide the Touch-stone of his Word, and the Ballance of his Sanctuary. To make short, Righ­teousness or Justice, though elsewhere a single Vertue, yet here 'tis virtually All:— [...], and said the Prophet; and the Phylosopher af­ter him, [...], not a part, but all Vertue: And so often but in Scripture, and Fathers, com­prehensively all Religion, Theogn. Ethic. v. the whole Duty of Man, [...], saith St. [Page 70] Chrisostome: Omnes Virtutum species uno Iustitiae nomine, saith St. Ierome. Not a particular Star, nor a single Constellati­on, but a whole Heaven of Vertues, an entire Globe of Moral and Christian Per­fections; an Universal Rectitude of the Will, consorming us in all Points to God's Righteous Law, Hom. 12. in S. Matth. the Rule of our Righ­teousness, Or if you will in two words, 'tis Suum cuique to give every one his Due; Suum Deo first, and then Suum proximo; give God his Due, and your Neighbour too: These are the integral parts of it. So that Righteousness, as the great Rule of it, hath two Tables, or, if you will two Hemispheres, the up­per and the nether: Both so vast, that we cannot measure them in a Span (the Span of time allotted me;) I shall there­fore contract them to the occasion, and give you only some of those particular Lessons of Righteousness, which this present Judgment of God upon our Land seems most clearly to take us forth, both into relation to God himself, and to our Neighbours; and then call you, and my self to a serious Scrutiny, how well we have learn'd them, and so an end.

And first we begin (as we ought) in giving God his due; in rendring to God the things that are Gods. To limit [Page 71] this wide Universality too, and render it more proper, and peculiar we may reduce all to that first of Esai's three Songs mention'd at the beginning, Glo­rifie ye the Lord in the Fires; C. xxiv. 15. giving him upon this sad Occasion the Glory of that great Trinity of his Attributes; the Glory of his Power, and Majesty; the the Glory of his Iustice and Equity; the Glory of his Goodness and Mercy.

Give him the Glory of his Power 1 and Greatness; which the Prophet calls, Singing for the Majesty of the Lord, Chap. xxiv. 15. or Beholding the Majesty of the Lord, when his Hand is lifted up, in the verse after my Text. How great and glorious our God is, who is in himself incomprehensible, appears best by the glorious greatness of his Works. If he builds, it is a World, Heaven and Earth, and the Fulness of both. If he gives, it is his only Son out of his Bosom, the Brightness of his Glory, and the express Image of his Person. If he re­wards, 'tis a Crown, 'tis a whole Heaven of Glories. If he be angry, he sends a deluge; opens the Cataracts of Hea­ven above, and breaks up the Fountains of the great Deep below, and pours forth whole Flouds of Vengeance: Salvian. Or else he rains down Hell out of Heaven, [Page 72] and in a moment turns a Land like a Garden of God into a dead Sea, and a Lake of Brimstone. If he discover him­self by any overt expression of his Pow­er, though the Intention be meer Mercy, and loving Kindness, Mortality shrinks from it, and cannot bear it. When his Glory descends on Mount Sinai, the People remove, and stand afar off, and Let not God speak with us (say they) lest we die: Ex. xx. 18, 19. And Depart from me, O Lord, saith St. Peter, Luc. v. 8. amaz'd at that miracu­lous draught of Fishes: How much more should the Inhabitants of the World tremble before him, when his great and sore Judgments are in the Earth: Ps. cxiv. 7, 8. Tremble thou Earth, the presence of God (saith the Psalmist) even when he improves the hard Rock into a Spring­ing Well: Much more when a fruitful Land he turns into barrenness, Ps. cvii. 34. or a state­ly City into Ashes, for the wickedness of them that dwell therein. Ps. cxix. 53. I am horribly afraid, saith David, for the ungodly that forsake thy Law; Hebr. xii. 21. and I exceedingly fear, and quake, said Moses, at the giving of it: But when our Lord shall come again to require it, The Powers of Hea­ven shall be shaken too; Mat. xxiv. 29. the Angels themselves (as St. Crysostome interprets) though pure and innocent Creatures [Page 73] shall tremble ( [...]) to see the severity of that Judgment. Hom. 77. in Matth. How much rather ought we, wretched Creatures that we are, conscious to our selves, of Dust, and sin, to tremble and quake at the Wrath of this dread Lord of the Uni­verse; at whose Voice alone, the great Emperour Caligula runs under the Bed, Sueton. l. v. n. 51. Dan. v. 6. and the mighty Bel-shazzar's Lions are Loosed, and his Knees knock one against another, when God but writes bitter things against him on the Wall.

It were a vain Affectation, to attempt a Description of the greatness of our late horrible Devastation. This were to be Ambitiosus in Malis, to chew over all our Wormwood, and our Gall again: This were Rogum ascipolire, which the xii. TABLES forbad, to carve and paint the Wood of our Funeral Pile. I shall only call back your thoughts to stand with me upon the prospect of that horrid Theatre of the Divine Judg­ments, Ps. xivi. 8. and say, Come hither, and behold the Works of the Lord, what Desolation he hath made in the Earth; and then who will not joyn with me to say up­on so convincing an occasion? We hum­ble our selves under the Almighty Hand of God, the Lord of all the World; We adore his Power and Majesty in [Page 74] lowly prostrations; before whom all the Nations of the World are as a Drop of the Bucket, Isa. xl. 15. the Globe of the Earth, as the small Dust of the Ballance, and who taketh up the Isles (even our Great Bri­tains too, as we call them) as a very little thing. Apoc. xv. 3, 4. Great and marvelous are thy Works, O Lord God Almighty! Who would not fear thee, and glorifie thy Name, when thy Iudgments are thus manifest? Thou hast brought them down that dwell on high, and laid the lofty City low, even to the Ground; the Ioyous City of our Solemnities, the Royal Cham­ber, the Emporeum of the World, the the Mart of Nations, the very Top-Gal­lant of all our Glory in the Dust. Even so Holy Father, Matth. xi. 26. for so it seemed good in thy sight. We say not to our God, What do'st thou? Wherefore hath the Lord done thus to this great City? We re­ply not, we answer not again: The Lord hath spoken; let all the Earth keep silence before him. We acknowledge thy Hand in it, O our God; we submit to thy good pleasure in it; we wait for thy Comfort, and thy Salvation in it. We meekly kiss the Rod that strikes us: Heb. xi. 21. With dying Iacob we desire to wor­ship [...], with perfect Re­signation as we are able, leaning and re­posing [Page 75] upon the top of this thy severe Rod. For shall we receive Good at the Hand of our God, Jo [...]. ii. 10. and shall we not re­ceive Evil? 'Tis the same Blessed Hand that distributes and strikes; and with equal Reverence and Affection we adore it, whether he opens it wide in Bounty, or contracts it close in severity: The one the Divine Rhetoric to perswade us to learn Righteousness; the other his more irrefragable Logic to convince and constrain us. And therefore, we charge not our Maker foolishly; but meekly accept the punishment of our Iniquity. And having thus ador'd his Power (which was the First) we go on in the next place to acknowledge his Justice too; saying with holy DAVID, Ps. cxix. 137. Righteous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy Iudgments: The second part of God's Due.

Give him the Glory of his Iustice al­so; and if you learn no other Righte­ousness in his School, at least learn His, and frankly confess it too. For though God's Judgments may be secret, yet they cannot bee unjust: Psal. xxxvi. 6. Like the great Deep indeed, an Abyss unfathomable; But though we have no Plumb-line of Reason, that can reach it, our Faith as­sures us, there's Justice at the Bottom. Clouds and Darkness are round about him, Ps. xcvii. 2. [Page 76] saith the Psalmist; but, as it follows, Righteousness and Iudgment are the Ha­bitation of his Throne: So much we may easily discern through all the Veils and Curtins that invelop him, that Justice stands always fast by his Judgment-seat. And therefore though it be a nice, and a delicate point to assign the par­ticular sins, for which God hath thus sorely afflicted us; yet must we declare (as we are waranted by sacred Autho­rity) That God hath laid his heavy Iudg­ment upon us All, The King's Declaration. as an Evidence of his Displeasure for our Sins in general.

Not to engage in that Common Theme; we may clear it a little by the Light of our own Fires (the particular Instrument of our Calamity) in two or three Reflections upon that. God spake his Righteous Law at first out of the midst of the Fire, Exod. xix. 18. And he shall appear from Heaven again in flaming Fire, 2 Thes. i. 8. taking vengeance on them that obey it not, saith the Apostle. Now as the Prophet Amos argues from another circumstance of Terrour, wherewith the Law was given, the sound of the Trumpet, the first Trumpet certainly, we over read of, in any Record in the World, 1 Cor. 15. 52. as the last Trumpet (the Apostle tells us) shall be that of the Arch-Angel to summon us to ac­count [Page 77] for it) Shall a Trumpet be blown (and so say I, Amos iii. [...]. shall a Fire be kindled) in the City (nay, a whole City become but one great Fire) and the People not be afraid; We not reflect upon our own Guiltiness before God, who came at first with a Fiery Law in his Right Hand to teach us our Duty, Deut. xxxiii. 2. and shall come again at last with Fiery Indignation at his left to devour all those that perform it not? Heb. x. 27▪ Again, Fire and Water are the two great Instruments of God's double Vengeance upon the World of the Ungodly: The One long since past recorded for our Instruction; the other yet to come, the Matter (it ought to be, I am sure) of our continual Terror. 2 Pet. iii. 6 [...]7 [...] The World that then was, perished by Water (saith St. Peter) and the World that is now, is reserv'd unto Fire: In the mean time, Fire and Water, things of com­monest Use with us, are also the stand­ing Metaphors almost in every verse of Scripture, to express God's Judgments of all sorts: Is it not on purpose to re­mind us, when ever we hear the sound, or make use of the things, or feel the smart of either, to reflect upon the hea­vy wrath of God against Sin in his so solemn expressions of it? Once more, Fire is the Tyrant in Nature, the King [Page 78] of the Elements, the mighty Nimrod in the Material World. God hath given us this Active Creature for our Servant, and we degrade him to the meanest Offices, to the Drudgery of the Kitchin, and the labour of the Furnace. But God can infranchize him when he pleases, and let him loose up­on us; and for our sins, of an useful Ser­vant, make him to us a rigorous, and a Ty­rannical Master. You saw him the other Day, when he escaped from all your Re­straints, mock'd all your Resistance, scorn­ed the Limits, you would have set him: Wing'd with our Guilt, he flew trium­phant over our proudest Heights, waving his curl'd Head, seeming to repeat us that Lesson which holy S. Austin taught us long since, That the inferiour Crea­tures serve us Men, only that we may serve him, who made both us and them too. If we rebel against Heaven [...], Wisd. v. 20. saith the Wiseman; The World shall rise in Arms upon us, and fight with him against the Unwise. Even the Holy Fires of the Altar too, though kindled from Heaven on purpose to pro­pitiate an angry Deity, prov'd often through Men's provocations the Instru­ments of his Fury; the Mercy-seat be­came the Arsenal of Vengeance, and from the presence of God himself went [Page 79] forth those Flames that devoured his Ad­versaries? And all to teach us this Les­son, That 'tis Sin puts the Thunder into God's Hand, and turns Flames of Love into a consuming Fire.

And therefore dream no longer of Granadoes or Fire-Balls, or the rest of those witty Mischiefs; search no more for Boutefieus or Incendiaries, Dutch or French: The Dutch Intemperance, and the French Pride and Vanity, and the rest of their Sins, we are so fond off, are infinitely more dangerous to us, than the Enmity of either Nation; for these make God our Enemy too. Or if you'l needs find out the Incendiary, look not abroad; Intus hostis, intus pe­riculum, saith St. Ierome. Turn your Eyes inward into your own Bosoms; there lurks the great Make-bate, the grand Boutefieu between Heaven and us. Trouble not your selves with Planetary Aspects, or great Conj [...]nctions▪ but for your own Oppositions direct and Diametrial to God, and his Holy Law. Fear not the Signs of Heaven, but the Sins on Earth, which hath made a seperation between you and your God. 'Tis injurious to the sweet Influences of the Stars, to charge them with such dire Effects, as Wars, and [Page 80] Pestilences and Conflagrations: Divinae Iustitiae opera haec, sunt (saith the Fa­ther) & humanae injustitiae. These are the Products of God's Righteousness upon our Unrighteousness. Wherefore glorifie we God in these our Fires, say­ing with the Prophet, Dan. ix. 7. Righteousness be­longs to thee, O Lord, but unto us con­fusion of Faces, as it is this day, be­cause of our manifold Trespasses that we have trespassed against thee.

If yet it be expected I should be more particular, in assigning the very Sins that have occasion'd this heavy Judgment, 'tis a slippery place, and hard to keep firm footing in it. The mysterious Text of God's Holy Pro­vidence (as I said before) is dark and obscure; and so much the more, because there are so many Interpreters, (for though there be no infallible Judge of the Sense of it, yet all Fingers itch to be doing;) their Conjecture so various, and full of contradiction, so tincted and debaucht with private prejudice, that they do but [...], wrest it unskil­fully, as they do the other holy Text, Convertunt in mentem suam (as the Aethi­ [...]pic turns that place in St. Peter) tor­ture, 2 Pet. iii. 16. and torment it, till it confess their own Sense. As for the many spiteful [Page 81] and unrighteous Glosses upon the sad Text of our present Calamity (on which every Faction amongst us hath a Revelation, hath an Interpretation;) I will not mention, much less Imitate them. P. o. xviii. 17. Iustus Accusator sui, saith the Wise-man. 'Tis a righteous thing for every Man to suspect himself, to look first into the plague of his own Heart, and to be ready to say with the Dis­ciples, Master, is it not I? We are all over-apt to charge one another foolish­ly enough; to take St. Peter's coun­sel, [...], to be kind and favoura­ble to our selves in our Interpretati­ons and Censures; but God methinks, at present seems to accuse us All.

When a Judgment is particular and reacheth but a few, we have a savage promptness in condemning the Sufferers, with, This is God's just Iudgment for such a thing, which we, it seems like not, though perhaps God himself doth. So long as the Thunder-bolt flies over our own Heads, we hug our selves, and All is well; 'tis our dear pastime, and a high voluptuousness to sit and censure others, and flatter our selves, that we are more righteous than they. To meet with this ill Humour, God hath reacht us now an universal stroak that comes [Page 82] home to every Man: So that 'tis as our Prophet states it in the beginning of this Sermon, As with the Prince aud the Priest, Cap. xxiv. 2. (for [...] is both) so with the People, as with the Master, and the Mi­stress, so with the Servant, as with the Buyer, and the Borrower, so with the Seller and the Lender. In fine, He is no Englishman that feels not this Blow: And therefore as the Judgment is Uni­versal, let us give Glory to God, and confess, that the Sin is so too; saying with the good Nehemiah, Cap. ix. 32, 33. Thou art just, O God, in All that is brought upon us; on our King, and on our Princes; on our Priests, and on our Prophets; on our Fa­thers, and on all thy People; For thou hast done Right, but we have All done Wickedly. God give us Grace to take every one the shame that belongs pro­perly to himself, and to joyn heartily together in a full Chorus at the last, repeating that excellent Exomologesis of holy David, with which I began this point, and shall now conclude it, Righ­teous art thou, O Lord, and just are thy Iudgments. But there is another yet behind—. 3.

Lastly, S. Ambrose, Suo jure omni­bus Dei op [...]ri­bus super ingre­ditur & super­natat. give God the Glory of his Mercy too; that must in no wise be forgotten. 'Tis the priviledge and pre­rogative [Page 83] of Mercy, that it mixeth it self in all God's Works; even in Justice it self too. Psal. cxxxv. 7. He sendeth forth Lightnings with the Rain (saith the Psalmist) he bringeth the Winds out of his Treasuries. Strange furniture, one would think for a Treasury, Storms and Tempest! But there is so very much of Mercy even in God's Judgments too, that they also deserve a place amongst his Treasures, ay, and amongst ours too. For he licenseth not a Wind, or a Storm, lets not fly a flash of Lightning, or a Ball of Fire, but a Mercy goes along with it; comes fly­ing to us (if we miss it not by our Neg­ligence or Inadvertency) upon the Wings of that Wind; and discovers it self to us even by the Light of those Fires. And therefore turn not away your Eyes in Horror, but study the late Conflagration: And even in the Dust and Ashes of our City, if we sift and examin them well, we may find rich Treasures of Mercy hidden.

Mercy first, that God spar'd us, and 1 preserv'd us so long. For without his Divine Manutenency, our strongest Fa­brics had fallen immediately upon their very Builders, He that made all things at first, by preserving makes them still; new makes them every Moment; and [Page 84] for his Will's sake alone they were and are created. He carries Nature al­ways in his Bosom, fostering and che­rishing her; and that not only as she came out of his own hand, and bears the Impresses of his Infinite Wisdom and Power; but as we have transform'd and disguis'd her by our petty skill; as she is fettered and shackled by our silly Artifices: Even the World of Fancy too, the Poor Attempts and Bunglings of Art, our Houses of Dirt and Clay (which we call Palaces and so please our selves in) would quickly fall asun­der, and moulder all into the Dust they consist of, did not an Almighty Hand uphold them. If we keep not the House and the City, in vain the Builder builds, and the Watchman wakes, and the Cen­tinel stands perdu. And therefore give we him the Glory of his Mercy, saying, Thanks be to the Lord, Psal. xxxi. 23. who so long shew'd us marvelous great Kindness, I say not with the Psalm, in a strong City (though the strongest without him is weakness) but in a very weak One: A City in the Meanness of the Materials, the Old­ness of the Buildings, the Streightness of some Streets, the ill Scituation of others, and many like Inconveniencies, so expos'd to this dismal Accident, that [Page 85] it must needs have been long since in Ashes, had not his miraculous Mercy preserv'd it, who, so long as he pleaseth (and that is just so long as we please Him) continues the Fire to us useful and safe, serviceable and yet innocent, with as much ease as he lays it asleep, and quite in the Bosom, of a Flint.

Mercy again, That he afflicts us at all; 2 that we are yet in his School; Ps. xciv. 12. that he hath not quite given us over, and turn'd us out as unteachable and incorrigible. Felix cui Deus dignatur irasci, `H [...]. saith Ter­tullian; in David's Language, Blessed is the Man whom thou ch [...]stnest, O Lord, and teachest him in thy Law: send'st him thy Judgments, and learn'st him thy Righteousness. But to sin, and not be punisht, is the sorest punishment of all, saith St. Chrysostome. Psal. lxxxi. 13. Dimisit eos secun­dum desideria Cordis, He suffer'd them to walk after their own Heart's Lusts, that's a dreadful portion: Let them alone, Isa. i. 5. Why should they be stricken any more? Prov. i. 32. That's the prosperity of Fools that destroys them, Psal. xi. 6. as Solomon; or as David phraseth it; This is for God to rain Snares upon the ungodly: A horrible Tem­pest indeed! As he there calls it, and worse than the Fire and Brimstone in the same Verse.

[Page 86] 3 Mercy too, That he afflicts us him­self, keeps us still under his own Disci­pline, and hath not yet given us over unto the Will of our Adversaries. The hand of an Enemy poysons the Wound: Ps. xxvii. 14. His Malice or his Insolence doubles and trebles the Vexation. The Malignity of the Instrument may invenom a Scratch into a Gangrene. But the Blessed Hand of God, even when it strikes, drops Balsom. His very Rods are bound up in Silk and Softness, and dipt before hand in Balm: He wounds that he may heal, and in wounding heals: Una, ea­demque Manus Vulnus, opemque—And therefore may we never be beaten by the hand of a cruel and insulting slave: But let our Righteous Lord himself smite us, Ps. cxli. 5. and it shall be a kindness; let him correct us, and it shall be an excellent Oyl. O let us still fall into the Hands of God (for great are his Mercies) but let us not fall into the hands of Men. 2 Sam. xxiv. 14.

4 Mercy lastly in the Degree of the Af­fliction; That he hath punisht us less than our Iniquities deserve; afflicted us in measure; corrected us in Judg­ment, not in his Fury, for then we had been utterly brought to nothing: That we have had our Lives for a Prey, and are as so many Fire-brands pluckt out of [Page 87] the Burning. And therefore, why should a living Man complain? Say we rather as Abraham did in the Case of Sodom, when he had that horrible Scene of Venge­ance now in his Eye, Gen. xviii. 27. We are but Dust and Ashes. Not only Dust in the course of ordinary Frailty, but Ashes too in the merit of a far sharper Doom; de­serve, that God should bring us to Dust, nay, even turn us to Ashes too, as our Houses. Lam. iii. 22. It is of the Lord's Mer­cies, that We our selves also are not con­sumed, because his compassions fail not; that any part of our City is still remain­ing; that God hath left us yet a holy Place to assemble in, solemnly to ac­knowledge (as we do this Day) his most miraculous Mercy: That when all our Wit was puzzl'd, and all our Industry tir'd out, when the Wind was at the highest, and the Fire at the hot­test, and all our hopes were now gi­ving up the Ghost, Then He, whose season is our greatest extremity; He, who stayeth his rough Wind in the Day of the East-Wind, Ch. xxvii. 8. as 'tis in the next Chapter; He, who alone sets Bounds to the Rage of the Waters; restrain'd also on the suddain, the Fury of this other merciless and unruly Element, by the Interposition of his Almighty Hucusque, [Page 88] hitherto shalt thou go, and no further. Ay this deserves indeed to be the Mat­ter of a Song, Joy in the Lord upon so great an Occasion, upon so noble an Experience, sits not unhandsom on the Brow of so sad a Day as this is. It shall be said in that Day, Cap. xxv. 9. (saith our Pro­phet, and let us all say it; say it with Triumph, and Jubilee too,) Lo, this is our God, we have waited for Him, and He hath saved us; This is the Lord, we will be glad, and rejoyce in his Salvation: —The Third and last part (we shall mention) of God's Due, the Glory of his Mercy.

2 And now having thus clear'd and se­cur'd the Fountain of Righteousness, in the Discharge of some part of our Duty to God (where regularly it must begin;) it remains, Ut ducatur Rivus Iustitioe de fonte Pietatis, as St. Gregory speaks: It must not be a Fountain seal'd or shut up within it self; (Religion is not, as some would have it, a Supersedeas to common Honesty; the performing our Duty to­wards God, no Discharge of our Duty to Man:) In the next place it should run Down like a River, Amos. v. 24. in mighty Streams of Righteousness to all our Neighbours round about us; the other great Branch, the second Table, or (if you will) the [Page 89] other Hemispere in this great Globe of Righteousness. And here, Ecce novas Hyanas, aliumque Oriona—So many new Asterisms and Constellations of Vertues appear, that the time will not give leave to number them, or call them all by their Names: I can only touch light­ly the greater Circles, some of the more comprehensive Lines and Measures of them in these few Generals, and so pass on.

'Tis Righteousness Indefinitely First, 2 and so Universally. So that 'twill not be sufficient to take forth some part of it in God's School, a line or two, it may be, of our great Lesson, and neglect the Rest; to study some one Page or Paragraph, and tear all the Book be­sides; to break the Tables (to far worse effect than Moses did) and content our selves with some sorry Fragment: No, Whatever goes under the common Style of Universal Justice; whatever falls with­in the large Bosom of that comprehen­sive Epitome, into which our Lord him­self abridg'd the Law and the Prophets, All things whatsoever ye would that Men should do to you, Matth. vii. 12. do even so to them; Whatever comes within compass of that [...], as St Iames calls it, the Royal Law, Jam. ii. 8. (the latter part of the holy [Page 90] Institutes, the other Tome of the Chri­stian Pandects, the second great Command­ment like the first, as our Saviour Styles it) Thou shalt love thy Neighbour as thy self; Matth. xxii. 38, 39. Even all the Offices and Instances of Duty between Man and Man; (Re­verence and Obedience to our Superiors, Courtesie and Humanity to our Equals; Kindness and Condescention to our In­feriours; Gratitude and Thankfulness to our Benefactors; Justice and Upright­dealing towards All; Truth in our Words, and Faithfulness in our Trusts, and Constancy to our Promises, and Candor, and Sincerity and Honesty in all our Actions: And yet further and higher, for 'tis a Righteousness improv'd and heightened, or at least interpreted by our Lord into Love, and so obligeth us beyond the strict Measures of Com­mon Justice, and not only renders, what is legally due, but gives and forgives beyond it;) Equity and Moderation to those, that are any ways obnoxious to us; Mildness and Gentleness to those that have any way offended us; Sympa­thy and Compassion towards them that suffer; Mercy and Bounty to them that need; Goodness and Peaceableness, and Charity to all the World: These are all parts of this great Lesson, and whatever [Page 91] else may help to denominate us The Righteous Nation that keepeth the Truth (as 'tis in the second verse of this Chap­ter) or the City in which dwells Righte­ousness.

But then as 'tis Righteousness indefi­nitely, 2 the (Commandment exceeding a­broad, Ps. cxix. 96. as David speaks, wide in the Ex­tension; so it is also as deep in the In­tention,) 'tis Righteousness Internally and Spiritually too; as being a Righte­ousness taught us by God's, and not by Man's, Judgments only, and consequent­ly must have an Effect proportionable: 'Tis when thy Judgments are in the Earth, Men will learn—As the Iews, while their Fear towards God was taught them by the Precepts of Men, drew near to him, and honoured him with their Mouth, only, but removed their Hearts far away from him, Isai. xxix. 13. Upon the same Ground, our Righteousness will never exceed the Righteousness of Scribes, and Pharisees, Hypocrites, must needs prove Noise, and appearance on­ly, a meer and vain Semblance, if we learn it in no higher School than Mans; take it forth from the XII. Tables only, not from the Two, and have no other Tutor in it than Solon, or Lycurgus, or Iustinian. For the Derivation can re­turn [Page 92] no higher than the Fountain-head; and what is taught us only by the Sta­tutes of Omri, or at Caesar's Iudgment-seat, will never come up to what the perfect Law of God requires. While we are under this lower and external Disci­pline only, if we can but skulk and shift, and play least in sight, and seem to be righteous, though we are not so; Recti in Curia, though not upright in Heart: Or if we be discovered and impleaded too, if we can, whether by Power or Artifice, break through the venerable Cobweb, and run under the miserable shelter of a Temporal Indem­nity at these lower Bars: Why, All is well; Prov. 30. 20. with Solomon's Wanton we wipe our Mouths, and are suddenly very Virgins again, not only safe, but inno­cent too. But though Humane Laws exact only outward Compliances, as­sume not to themselves to judge the Heart, because they cannot discern it, nor take Cognizance of secret Thoughts and Purposes, further than they are de­clar'd by overt Acts: Yet God is a Spi­rit, and a Discerner of the inmost Thoughts and Intentions; and his Law Spiritual too, and given to the Spirit; and the Righteousness taught in his School, is not a Carcass, nor an Out­side [Page 93] only, but a living Soul, and a Spi­rit of Righteousness: and by conse­quence it stays not in the outward Act, (the proper Object of Human Laws and Provisions;) restrains not only open violences (such as the Judgment-seat of Man condemns, and the Schaffold, or the Gibbet take notice of;) not only smooths and polisheth the outward Garb, to render that plausible in the eyes of the World: But goes yet further and deep­er, even to the Heart; composeth the whole Inner-Man too, and labours to ap­prove that to the Righteous Judge, who sees not as Man sees; and, in fine, calls us up to that glorious height of the Primi­tive Christians in Iustin Martyr, who o­bey'd indeed the Municipal Laws of their Country, but out-liv'd them too, and sur­mounted them far, [...], as he speaks; they contented not themselves with so scant Measures, but flew a higher and a nobler pitch, aim­ing at a more refin'd and perfect Righte­ousness, the worthy Effect of God's Judgments, and not of Mans only; taught in his School alone, and not at our Tribunals. And then,

Lastly, 'Tis Righteousness Positively and Affirmatively too. For though the Decalogue is almost all over Negative in [Page 94] in the Style and Form of it; yet, our Lord, by reducing all the Precepts of it to one Affirmative (Love,) and also by his Affirmative Glosses or Additions to it in his Sermon on the Mount, seems to have authorised the Rule of their Expo­sition, receiv'd generally by Christian Divines, That the Negative still infers the Affirmative, and that there are many Yeas conceal'd in the Bosom of every such No. So that however 'tis indeed a part of our Duty, not to Murther, and not to Slander, and not to Cover, and the like, (an Obligation consequent up­on God's prohibition; and he takes it well, when for his sake we abstain from the Evil we are inclin'd or strongly sol­licited to, and so accepts graciously our very Nothing, as I may call it, our not doing amiss; thus giving us leave to in­close, as it were, a part of our Waste, and to raise some Revenue upon it:) Yet this is so much short of the Height of the Lesson we are to learn in God's School, that 'tis only the unlear­ning something that might obstruct it; so far from making us truly Righteous, that it can only Style us Innocent, and set us Extra vitia rather than Intra vir­tutem. We must not then content our selves with a Negative Righteousness; [Page 95] nor confine, and limit it within the sor­ry bounds of the Pharisaical Boast, That we are not, Luc. xxiii. ii. as other Men are, Extortio­ners or Unjust: In some Cases he is unjust too, Ps. cxii. 9. Isai. lviii. 7, 8. that gives not his own, as well as he that takes away what is anothers: In the Sacred Dialect, Alms-Deeds are Justice too; Even Acts of Mercy, and Bounty to those that need them, stricti Iuris, a part of our Righteousness sometimes so indispensable, as not to be omitted without Sin. And therefore glorifie thy self no longer, that thou do'st harm to no Man: ‘—Cum dicis stultum, Iuvenal. [...] xiv. qui donat Amico; Qui pauperaqtem levat, attoli [...]q [...]e propinqui, Ét spoliaré docés—’ could the Heathen Poet say: He robs his Neighbour, that relieves him not: He spoils his Friend, that in some Cases doth not supply him. 2. Cor. vii. 2. And though 'tis well (a good Decree) if we can say with S. Paul, I have wronged no Man; yet he only is perfectly blameless in this kind, Qui ne in eo quidem ulli noceat, quo prodesse de­sistat, Lib. 1. Epist. 14. ad [...] as St. Ierom excellently; who doth not this Evil to his Neighbour, that he omits to do him all the good he can. Thou didst not burn thy Neigh­bour's [Page 96] house (a strange piece of un­couth Righteousness!) But do'st thou receive him into thy own, now he is harborless? Thou hast not opprest, or impoverisht thy Brother; 'Tis well: But is thy Abundance the supply of his Want in this present Exigent? Thy Su­perfluity the Ransom and Redemption of his extream Necessities? If not, re­member, that Dives is in Torments, not for robbing Lazarus, Matth. xxxv. but for not relie­ving Sin: And the dreadful Decretory Sentence proceeds at the last Day, not for oppressing the Poor, but for not feed­ing, not cloathing, not visiting them: A reflection very common indeed; yet never more proper or seasonable then at this time, when God presents us an Ob­ject of Charity, the greatest, I think, and the most considerable that was ever offer'd to this Nation, and when Heaven and Earth expect, that something extra­ordinary should be done.

I have now opened the Book, and laid it before you, and given you a short Draught of this very important Lesson: a Lesson so considerable, that our Wise and Good God thinks it worth his while to rout Armies, and sink Navies, to burn up Cities, and turn Kingdoms upside down; to send Wars, and Plagues, [Page 97] and Conflagrations amongst us; to set open all his Schools, and ply all his se­verest Methods to teach it us the more effectually. Think now, that he looks down this Day from Heaven to take Notice of our Proficiency; to see how far we are advanc'd by these his Judg­ments in learning Righteousness. And is it possible, we should stand out any longer? Can we still resist so powerful a Grace? Are not the parts of the Text by this time, happily met together? And the Truth of it accomplisht, and exempli­fied in us to the full?—God's Judgments on us, and his Righteousness in us? Who would not think and hope so? But as St. Ierom complains of his Age (which was indeed very calamitous) Orbus Romanus ruit, & tamen Cervix nostra non flectitur: The World sinks and cracks about our Ears, and yet our Neck as stiff, and the Crest of our Pride as lofty, and as erect as ever. How few are they that repent in Dust and Ashes, even now, that God hath laid our City in Dust, and our Houses in Ashes! Look we first upon the Text, and then upon our Selves▪ and we must ingenuously acknowledge, that whatever Abatements or Diminuti­ons to the Height of the design'd event of God's Judgments upon us the Text, [Page 98] or any Version of it note, or imply, our wretched evil Lives do but too plainly express and justifie. For—

1. Who are they that are said here to learn Righteousness in the Text? Not always the Afflicted themselves, it seems; but some others that stand by and look on. For 'tis not to be omitted, that the Phrase manifestly varies in the parts of the Proposition: Iudgments in the Earth, or upon the Land, some particular Country; and the World at large, or some few in it learn Righteousness. Thus Tyrus shall be devour'd with Fire, saith the Prophet: Zach. ix. 4, 5. Ashkelon shall see it, and fear; Gaza and Ekron shall be very sor­rowful: But not a word how Tyrus her self is affected. God forbid it should be so with us! May it never be said, that any of our Neighbours make bet­ter use of our Calamities, than we our Selves! Have we any so hard-hearted a­mongst us, that can look upon so sad a Spectacle, as if they sate all the while in the Theatre, or walkt in a Gallery of Pi­ctures; little more concerned, then at the Siege of Rhodes, or the Ruines of Troy? Shall any Neighbour-City say wisely— Mea res agitur, jam proximus ardet Ucalegon—? Shall our Enemies themselves (the sober and [Page 99] the Wise amongst them, at the least) tremble at the Relation, and we conti­nue stupid, and senseless? Shall Con­stantinople and Alexandria resent it, and we not regard it as we ought? Nay, shall China and Peru (it may be) Surat and Mexico, both the Indies hear, and be affected with it, and we our selves insensible? Shall the Inhabitants of the World abroad warm themselves at our Fires, with kindly and holy Heats; while in the mean time our Repentings are not kindled, nor our Charity inflam'd, and our De­votion as cold and frozen as ever? Shall our Mountain (which we said in our jolly pride should never be removed) be fulminated, and thunder strook, but the blessed shower that follows, the In­struction, that descends after, like the Rain, slide off to the Vallies, to Others, that are round about us? Our Lord wept over Ierusalem, Luc. xix. 41. because she knew not then (at forty years distance) the time of her Visitation; for the Days will come, saith He, when there shall not be left one Stone upon another: But Wo is me! Our Day is come already, and our Visitation now actually upon us; and yet I fear, we will not know it, as we ought. For,—

[Page 100]2. Reflect a little upon the Tense of the Verb, how that varies too in the parts of the Proposition: The Judg­ments Are in the Earth, and the Inhabi­tants Will learn—(So the Vulgar La­tine and the English:) 'Tis still per ver­ba de [...]futuro. For we li [...]t not to hand­fast our selves to God Almighty, to make our selves over to him by present Deed of Gift; but would fain, forsooth, bequeath our selves to him a Legacy in our last Will and Testament. Ay but In necessitatibus nemo Liberalis: 'Tis not a free or a noble Donation, which we bestow, when we can keep it no longer our selves: For such a Bequest we may thank Death, rather than the Testator, saith St. Chrysostom. But we are all Clinicks in this point; [...] Hom. xviii. in Ephes. would fain have a Baptism in Reserve, a Wash for all our Sins, when we cannot possibly commit them any more. Like Felix the unjust Governour, Acts xxiv. 25. when St. Paul reasons of Righteousness, our Heads begin to ake, and presently we adjourn, with, Go thy way for this time, [...], (as he pretended) when we have Time and Opportunity, and convenient Leisure, (which we read not, that he ever found) in plain English, when we have nothing else to do, or can do nothing else; then [Page 101] wee'l take forth this Lesson;—Learn Righteousness, as Cato did Greek, Iam Septuagenarius, just when we are a dy­ing; —Begin then to con [...]our part, when we are ready to be hist off the Stage, and Death is now pulling off our Properties. But take we heed in time: He may prove a false Prophet, tha [...] pro­miseth himself to die the Death of the Righteous, when he hath lov'd, and pur­su'd the Ways, and Wages of Unrighte­ousness all his Life long: Who thinks if he can but shape the last faint Breath he draws into a formal pretence of forgi­ving all the World, and a sly desire of being forgiven; Upon these two hangs the whole stress of his Righteousness, he goes out of God's School upon fair Terms, and thinks to render a plausi­ble Account of himself. No, no; the great Lesson of the Text is harder and deeper than so: 'Tis that we must sweat for, 'tis that we may bleed for: 'Tis all that Adam lost, and All that Christ came to recover: 'Tis the Business of our whole Life, and 'tis desperate Folly and Madness to defer to learn it till Death, when God now calls us to ac­count for it. Though the Verb in some Versions be Future (as I said) yet still 'tis Discent Habitatores, we must [Page 102] learn it while we dwell here in the World, and who can secure us that be­yond the next moment? When once we remove hence, there's no School be­yond: The Platonic Eruditorum in ORIGEN (a place under Ground, I know not where, in which separated Souls are suppos'd to learn what they mist of, or neglected here) as very a Fable as the Platonic Purgatory. Eccles. ix. 10. As there is no Work, nor Labour; so no De­vice, nor Knowledge, nor Wisdom in the Grave. The Schools are all in this World: All beyond is Prison, and Dun­geon, and place of Torment, for such as learn not their Duty here; Fire with­out Light, and utter Darkness.

3. Again, They did learn (so the Sy­riac, and the Interlineary Latin) when thy Iudgments were in the Earth: For there is an Ellipsis in the Original of the former clause, and the Verb Substantive may be supplyed either way, when thy Judgments Are or Were in the Earth: And the Conjunction may seem to stand fair for the latter [...] in quantum, or juxta quod; [...] (as R. David glosseth it) qua mensura, aut modo; and so the Syriac, Qualia Iudicia, talem Iustitiam dedicerunt: So much Judgment, so much Justice; Righteousness they did [Page 103] learn, just while God's Rod was over them, and no longer. Thus while God's Plagues lay heavy upon Pharoah, even that stiff neck bow'd, and that hard heart was softned; As Iron in a quick Fire relents and melts; but take it out of the Furnace, and it grows hard again, nay worse, Churlish and Unmal­leable: And so he, When he saw that there was Respite, saith the Text, or a breathing time, He hardned his Heart, Ex. viii. 15. And do not we all the same? Like teeming Women, while the pangs are upon us, Joh. xvi. 21. we have sorrow; when some great Affliction give us a smart Vi­sit, strikes home, and deep, we seem to be a little sensible, Ay but the Throws once over, [...], saith our Lord, the Woman remembers them no more; and so we, If but for a little Space Grace be shewed us, if God gives us but a little Respite in our Bondage, like Israel newly returned from Babel, we streight forget his Commandments; which made the good Ezra ashamed, and blusht to lift up his Face to Heaven; Ezra, Cap. ix. Verse 8, 10.

Happy We, Lib. 7. Ep. 27▪ if, as Pliny adviseth his Friend Maximus, Tales esse sani perseveri­mus, quales futuros profitemur infirmi; if we continue such in Health, as we [Page 104] promise to be upon our Sick-Beds. But alass! Ps. lxvi. 14. C [...]uit; Mansit, ut ante. How few with David pay the Vows which they speak with their Mouths, when they were in Trouble? Do not the en­gagements on the sick Bed vanish, like the Dreams of the Sick, forgotten, as if they had never been? I appeal to your own Bosoms; though affected at first with this late dismal Accident, doth it not prove to you a nine-days Wonder, and your Thoughts though much start­led at first, by degrees reconcile to it? Do not your Devotions begin to grow cold with the Fires; rak'd up, like those dying Sparks in dead Ashes, and buried in the Dust;— Ignes [...]ppositi Cineri doloso? Just as our Prophet states it here, While thy Iudgments were upon them, they learn'd; But as it follows immediately, Verse 10. Fiat Gratia Impio, Let Fa­vour be shewed to the Wicked, the least Intermission or kind Interval, and he will not learn Righteousness, saith the Text expresly; he soon lays by his Book, and gives over. But,

4. Lastly, What is it that we learn? Or, to what good end or purpose? The Chaldee Paraphrast interposeth here a very Material and Opera­tive word, Discent Operari, they will [Page 105] learn [...] to do, or to work Righteous­ness. And this Addition shews us ano­ther of our Defects; cuts off, I fear, above half the Roll of our Learners at once. We live (as I said) in a learn­ed Age: But in all this Croud and Throng of Learners, how few put them­selves in good earnest into God's School? And of them that do, how much fewer yet take forth their Lesson aright?— Learn any thing else they will, but not Righteousness; and if that, any thing, but to do it? But this is not [...], rightly to divide; this is to mangle the Text, and to saw Isaiah asunder again. Would learning or talking, or pretend­ing serve the turn, We might find Righ­teousness enough in the World: We can define it, and distinguish it, criticize upon the Word, and dispute of the Thing without end: We stuff our Heads with the Notion, and tip our Tongues with the Language, and fill the World with our pretences to it: But Little Children, saith St. Iohn (O ye World of Learners) Be not deceived (Let no Man seduce you into this piece of Gnosticism, 1 Joh. iii. 7. as if to learn, or to know, were sufficient; No,) [...] ▪ He that Doth Righteous­ness, he is Righteous. Non forti [...] loqui­mur, sed vivimus, saith St. Cyprian; [Page 106] The life of Religion is Doing. What we know, Phil. iii. 16. we must practice too; Whereto we have already attained, we must walk in it, saith the Apostle. They, that fol­lowed Christ, Acts xi. 26. were first indeed call'd Dis­ciples, that is, Learners (for there we must begin;) But they soon after commenc'd Christians at Antioch, Anointed to Acti­on, as the word implies; and this Name sticks by them still, as the more essential. Their Oyl must not be spent all in the Lamp, In Schola Sapientiae, that they may shine by Knowledge; they must do their Exercises too, In Gymnasio Iustitiae, be anointed to the Agon, and to the Com­bat (as the Champions of old;) and if they expect the Crown of Righteousness, must not only learn Righteousness; but learn to do it.

AND therefore (to shut up All, and to inforce it a little upon such To­pics, as the Text, and the sad Face of things amongst us suggest;) Let us no longer trifle with God Almighty, now we find to our cost, that He is in good earnest with us. Be not deceived; God, I'me sure, is not mock'd. 'Tis not our fa­sting and looking demure a little, and hanging down the Head, like a Bull­ [...]ush for a Day; 'Tis not a few Grimaces [Page 107] of sorrow, a sad word or two, or a weep­ing Eye will serve the turn:—Our Hearts must bleed too, our Souls must be afflicted, and mourn for our old Un­righteousnesses, and forsake them too, and renounce them all for ever; and yet further, take forth new Lessons of Righ­teousness in all holy Conversations and Godlinesses, 2 Pet. iii. 11. as St. Peter speaks, even in all the Instances of Piety, and Justice, and Charity, ye heard of even now, or all this holy Discipline of God is lost, and spent in vain upon us. Cap. xxvii. 9. For this is all the Fruit, saith our Prophet, to take away sin: If that remain still in us, Ad­versity is a bitter Cup indeed. To keep our sins, and hold them fast, even when God's Judgments are upon us for them, this is with Copronymus, to pollute the Fountain that should wash us, to defile the salutary Waters of Affliction, to pro­phane the holy Fires of God's Furnace, and to pass through the Fire to Moloch, to some reigning and domineering Sin, some Tyrant-lust, or Mistress-passion. Correction without Instruction, this is the Scourge of Asses, not the Disciplin of Men, nor the Rod of the Sons of Men. To suffer much, and not to be at all the better for it, 'tis certainly one of the sad­dest portions that can befal us in this [Page 108] World; if not the fore-boding and prog­nostic of a far sadder yet to come, the very beginnings of Hell here▪ the Fore-tasts of that Cup of bitterness, of which the Damned such out the Dreggs.

And wilt thou after all this hide the sweet Morsel under thy Tongue, when thou sensibly perceiv'st it alrea­dy turning into the Gall of Asps?— Still long for the delicious portion, consecrated, and snatch it greedily from God's Altars, though thou seest thy. Fingers burn, and thy Nest on Fire with it?—Still retain the old Complacence in thy sparkling Cup, though thou feel'st it already biting like a Serpent, and stinging like an Adder? Prov. ix. 17.—say still. Stoln Waters are sweet, though like those bitter Ones of Jealousie, thou perceiv'st them carry a Curse along with them into thy ve­ry Bowels? 1 Cor. x. 22. Dare we thus provoke the Lord to Iealousie? Are we stronger than He? Job. xxviii. 3. Gird up now thy loyns like a Man, thou stoutest, and gallantest of the Sons of Earth. Isa. xxxiii. 14. Hast thou an Arm like God? Or canst thou thunder with a Voice like him? Wilt thou set the Briars and Thorns of the Wilderness against him in Battle Array? Rom. ii. 4. Or canst thou dwell [Page 109] with everlasting Burnings? Or despisest thou the Riches of his Goodness and For­bearance; 2 Pet. iii. [...]. not knowing (refusing to know) that the Long-suffering of our Lord is Salvation, and that his Goodness leadeth thee to Repentance? If not, know assu­redly, that thy Hardness and Impeni­tent Heart, do but treasure up for thee, yet a fiercer, and a more insupportable Wrath.

And therefore let us not flatter our selves, nor think that God hath now emptied his Quiver, and spent all his Artillery upon us; Let us not come forth delicately with the foolish Agag, 1 Sam. [...]v. 32▪ saying, Surely the Bitterness of Death is past: No, the Dregs of the Cup of Fury are still behind; God grant we be not forc'd at last to drink them, and suck them up. Great Plagues re­main for the ungodly, saith the Psalmist. Vae unum abiit; Psal. xxxii. [...]. Ecce duo veniunt. One Wo is past, but behold there come two Woes more; for the rest of Men that were not kill'd by the former Plagues, repented not, Apoc. ix. 12, 20. When God's Rods and his Ferulaes (the Dis­cipline of Children) are contemn'd, he hath a lash of Scorpions to scourge the obstinate. When the ten dreadful Plagues are spent all upon a stubborn Aegypt [Page 110] without effect, there's a Red-Sea yet in Reserve, that at last swallows all: And if our present Afflictions reform us not, that we sin no more; take we heed, lest yet a worse thing befal us. Remember, that when the Touch of God's little Finger did not terrifie us, he soon made us feel the stroak of his heavy Hand. If the more benign, and benedict Medicines will not work, nor stir us at all, he can prepare us a rougher Receipt, or a stronger Dose; retrive and bring back his former Judg­ments in a sharper Degree, or else send upon us new ones, which we never dream of.

The Devil of Rebellion and Disobe­dience, which not long since possest the Nation, rent and tore it till it fom'd again, and pin'd away in lingring Con­sumptions; that cast it oft-times into the Fire, and oft-times into the Water (Calamities of all sorts) to destroy it; is now through God's Mercies cast out, and we seem to sit quiet, and sober at the Feet of our Deliverer, cloath'd, and in our right Minds again. But yet this ill Spirit, this restless Fury (this unquiet and dreadful Alastor, the eldest Son of Nemesis, and Heir appa­rent to all the Terrours and Mischiefs [Page 111] of his Mother) walks about day and night, seeking rest, and finds none; and he saith in his Heart I will re­turn some time or other to my House from whence I came out. O let us take heed of provoking that God, who alone chains up his Fury, least for our Sins he permit him to return once more, with seven other Spirits more wicked than himself, and so our last Estate prove worse than the for­mer.

The Sword of the Angel of Death, which the last year cut down almost a hundred thousand of us, may seem to have been glutted with our Blood, and to have put up it self into the Scabbard. Jer. xivii. [...]. Quiesce & [...]ile, as the Pro­phet speaks: God grant it may rest here, and be still. But, as it follows there, How can it be quiet, if the Lord give it a new Commission against us? Methinks I see the Hand still upon the Guard, and unless we prevent it by our speedy Repentance, it may quickly be drawn again more terrible than ever, new furbisht, and whetted with the keener edge, and point, our wretched Ingratitude must needs have given it. The Sun of Righteousness was ready to rise upon us, with healing in his [Page 112] Wings, to clear our Heaven again, and to scatter the Cloud of the last years unhealthiness. But yet, methinks, this slow-moving Cloud hangs still o're our Heads, hovers yet in view, with God knows how many Plagues and Deaths in the Bosom of it: And without our serious Amendment we have no Rainbow to assure us, that we shall not again be drencht in that horrible Tempest. Though the best Naturalists say, Di [...]merbr. de p [...]ste Noviomag. That great public Fires are a proper Remedy for the Plague, Yet God, if he be Angry, can send a ruffling Wind into the very Ashes of our City, blow them into the Air, and turn them as those of the Egyp­tian Furnace, into a Blain, and a Botch, and a Plague-sore upon us. Exod. ix. 8, 9.

Nay, even out of those dead Ashes, can He raise yet a fiercer Flame, to consume what still remains. As the Lightning comes out of the East, saith our Lord, and shineth even unto the West, so shall my coming be (sc. to de­stroy Ierusalem,) and where ever the Carcase is, will the Eagles be gather­ed together, Matth. xxiv. Fire is the Eagle in Nature; nothing in the Ele­mentary World mounts so high to its place, and stoops so low to it's prey: [Page 113] The two properties God himself ascribes to that Bird, Iob xxxix. 27, 30. And if we still refuse obstinately to be ga­thered, like Chickens under our Lord's Wing, he can again let loose this Bird of Prey, this Eagle of Heaven upon us; and from the East, where it be­gan before, flie it home like Lightning [...], even to the utmost West, to seize, and to devour where ever there is the least Quarry remaining.

Or if this move us not, let us re­member that we have another City upon the Waters, a floating Town of moveable Forts and Castles, the Walls and Bulwarks of the Nation; stronger than those of Brass, the Fable speaks of. As we desire that God would ever fill their Sails with prosperous Gails, and still bring them home with Honor and Victory, and good Success, Let us take heed that we fight not against them too. Our Sin, like a Talent of Lead, may sink them to the Bottom; our Lusts, and Passions, and Animosities may fire them; our Drunkenness, and deep Excesses may drown them; our Vollies of Oaths and Blasphemies may pierce them; nay, our Seditious Murmurings, and Privy [Page 114] Whisperings may blow them over. For God is Piorum Rupes, Reorum Sco­ [...]ulus; a Rock to found the Just upon, but a shelf to shipwrack, and confound the Unrighteous.

And yet all these are but the com­mon Roads, and ordinary Instances of God's Displeasures: But he hath also, besides, and beyond all these, unknown Treasures of Wrath, vast [...] stores of hid­den Judgments (for who knows the Power, Psal. xc. ii. or the extent of his Anger?) laid up in those secret Magazines where his Judgments are, when they are not in the Earth, reserv'd as his dreadful Ar­tillery against the time of trouble, against the day of Battel and War, as he speaks himself, Iob xxxviii. 23. Oh let us take heed of treasuring up to our selves Wrath against that day of Wrath, Rom. 1. 5. and the Re­velation of his Righteous Iudgments.

And now what shall I say more, if all that hath been said hitherto, prove ineffectual? [...], &c. The Text affords yet one Expedient as the Chaldee Para­phrast may seem to have understood it: Because thy Iudgment, saith he (not [...] as in the Hebrew, but [...] or [...] as the Iews call it, and St. Iude from them, [...]ude 6. The Iudgment of the [Page 115] great Day) because that Judgment, though not as yet in the Earth, is yet fixt, and appointed, and prepared for all the Earth [...] in the Hebrew it self too, for rather than in the Earth) therefore most certainly, if at all, or for any thing, the Inhabitants of the World will learn Righteousness.

But if they put far from them this evil day too, as if they had made a Covenant with Death and with Hell; if they finally refuse to come under God's Discipline, and to take forth to them­selves Lessons of Righteousness here, they shall then be made themselves great Lessons, and dreadful Examples of God's Righteousness to all the World. If they will not glorifie God in these Fires, as they ought, nor walk in the light of them; let them remember that there are Fires with­out Light, where none glorifie him, but by suffering the Eternal Venge­ance of their Sins. There must they learn by saddest experience, who ob­stinately refuse the more gainful Me­thod, [...], That 'tis a fear­full thing to fall into the Hands of a living God. For our Enemies here must die, and our storms at last blow [Page 116] over, and our Fires, you see, though never so great, in time go out and vanish: But God lives; hath a Worm too, that dies not (for those that live not as they ought) and a Fire that is not quenched: The Babylonian Fur­nace, seven times hotter than usual, a cool walk to that; all our Vulcans and Aetnas, our Heclas and Andes faint Types and shadows of it; the great Conflagration, we so lately trem­bled at, and still bewail, but a spark to that infernal Tophet, but a painted Fire to that dreadful Mongibel; even Everlasting Burnings. From which, God of his tender Mercy deliver us All; and give us Grace in this our Day, (the Day of his Judg­ments) so to learn Righteousness, and so to do it, that at the last, and great Day of Judgment, when he shall come again to Account with us for all our Learning, and for all our Doings, we may through his Mercy receive the Crown of Righteousness, for his sake alone, who so dearly bought it for us, even Je­sus Christ the Righteous: To whom with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be ascribed by us, and all the Crea­tures [Page 117] in Heaven and Earth, Blessing, Honour, Glory and Power, henceforth and for evermore. Amen.

A SERMON PREACH'D To the House of Peers.

WHat St. Hierom observ'd long since concerning this Book of Psalms, Titulos esse Claves; that the Title is usually the true Key of David, to set open the Psalm to us, and to let us into the true Understand­ing of it; he learn'd probably from a [Page 122] former Author (with whose Writings he was in his younger years much de­lighted) Origen I mean: Orig. Philo­cal. p. 59. Who in his Tomes upon the Psalms, discoursing of some Obscurities in Holy Scripture, and the proper Remedies thereof, gives us yet a more ancient Tradition, which he re­ceiv'd (as he saith) from a learned Jew; That the whole Body of Scripture is like a great House, in which are seve­ral Appartments, and therein many Rooms shut up, and in them again ma­ny Cabinets, and Boxes lockt down: Nor hangs the proper Key at every Door, but they lie scatter'd here, and there, and counter-chang'd; so that it requires some pains, and skill to find them out, and apply them aright. Thus the Key of the Prophetic Scrip­ture lies in the Historical, where we often find both the Occasion of the Prophesie, and the Event too; and that proves usually the best Interpreter. Thus the Acts of the Apostles, which contain the Peregrinations, and Gests of St. Paul, are a great Master-Key to open his Epistles, and to unlock to us many things, hard otherwise to be understood in them. And thus in the present Instance, David's Hi­story is the proper Key to David's Psal­ter; and so the Books of Samuel, the [Page 123] Kings, and Chronicles, the best, and most authentic Commentary upon the Psalms.

For this now before us, lest we should mistake, the Spirit of God hath hung the Key at the Door, or at least poin­ted us whence to fetch it: And while the Title dates it from the Cave, we are plainly directed to 1 Sam. xxiv. There we find the holy Man in a great streit of Affliction; wandring like an Exile, or Bandito in the Wilderness of Engedi; the few Men he had, straggling, and shifting for themselves upon the Rocks of the wild Goats; implacable Saul in the mean time with five times his Number so closely pursuing him, that he is forc'd to take shelter in the Cave: And there being shut up from the Sight of Heaven, and Light of the Sun, and as it were buried alive in that obscure Dungeon, surrounded with Danger on every side, and little Hope left him of escaping with his Life; 'tis then that he sighs out his Al-taschith (as this, and the two following Psalms are entitled) Oh destroy me not utterly (so the Word signifies) but let me live to praise thy Name; 'tis then, that by a vigorous Faith he flies to the tender Mercies of God, as to his only City [Page 124] of Refuge: And reposing himself in the Bosom of the Divine Goodness by Acts of Faith, and Devotion, and of Perse­verance in both, he doth exactly, and precisely that which We all are enjoyn'd to do this Day: He implores the Mer­cies of God in the Protection of him­self, and in him of those that belong to him; Be merciful unto me, O God (saith he) be merciful unto me, for my Soul trust­eth in thee; yea, in the shadow of thy Wings will I make my Refuge, until these Calamities be overpast.

So that, the proper business of this Day being visibly stampt in great Letters upon the Fore-head of the Day, and that by the Hand of Sacred Authority it self; and the Lines of the Text too running so parallel all along, and so commensurate to those of the Day (upon which Ground the whole Psalm was ve­ry pertinently selected as one of the pro­per Psalms for the Office of the Day:) I may hope in some Degree to discharge my Duty to both of them, by treating of those two things; What God's Pro­tection is; and What we are to do, that we may be qualifi'd, and prepar'd aright, successfully to implore the Mer­cy of that Protection. In Order where­unto, I will consider the Text in a two­fold Reference.

[Page 125]I. As it looks down from God to us­ward in gracious and powerful Protecti­ons: And so it speaks our great Honour, and Happiness, the high, and glorious Privilege of pious Kings, and their Kingdoms, that they are under the Sha­dow of God's Wings.

II. As it looks up in another Aspect from Us to God again; and so it con­tains our necessary, and indispensable Duty; and calls aloud for our suitable Deportment; which is resolvedly to put our selves under the Divine Protection, or to seek, and make our Refuge under the Shadow of his Wings.

I. I begin with the high and glorious Privilege of all holy Souls, but espe­cially of pious Kings, and their King­doms; They are under the shadow of God's Wings. The expression frequent­ly occurs in Scripture, and may seem to speak these three things, or some of them; which together will give you, I think, the full extent of the shadow of God's Wings, the adequate Importance of this illustrious Metaphor.

(1.) Safeguard and Defence from Ca­lamities, that they come not. Or,

(2.) Speedy Help, and Deliverance out of Calamities, when they are come. Or however.

[Page 126](3.) Comfort in the mean time, and Refreshment in Calamities, while they are upon us.

(1.) The Privilege of Safety, and Protection from Calamities stand first in our Method; intimated here in a three­fold Expression; A Refuge, a Shadow, and the Shadow of Wings.

(1.) And what is a Refuge, (which is the first,) but a place of Security, ei­ther in regard of its Secrecy to hide us, or its strength to defend us, to which we flie, when Calamity threatens us? And such is God to his People; a City of Refuge, an inviolable Sanctuary; an Altar of Mercy, to which we may flie, and be safe, and from the Horns where­of no bold Calamity shall dare to pluck us, without his special Commission. Or in another Reference, a place of Re­fuge is a Covert from Storm and Rain, Es. IV. 6. and as it follows there in the same Verse,

(2.) A Tabernacle for a Shadow too in the Day-time from the Heat, which is the second Expression. The Empha­sis whereof is far better understood in those intemperate Climats, where the Sun-Beams are scorching, and the Heats insufferable. Nothing there more de­sirable, [Page 127] than a shady Grove, or a deep Grot, the Sun never looks into, or the Shadow of a great Rock in a weary Land. Which Protections, because the Pilgrim- Israelites wanted in the Wilder­ness, God supplyed it to them, by spreading a Cloud over them for a Co­vering in the Day-time (as the Psalmist speaks,) Ps. CV. 39. and God was in that Cloud; so that for forty years together they marcht, and encampt under his shady Wings, I had almost said, without a Metaphor. And still whenever the Son of Persecution, Jac. I. 11▪ or other Calamity ari­seth upon us with burning Heat, God can exempt, whom he thinks good, and send them times of refreshing from the presence of the Lord: so that, while the World is all on fire about them, they journey through that torrid Zone, with their mighty Parasol, or Umbrella over their Heads, and are all the while in the Shade.

And yet every Shade is not a safe Protection. Umbra aut Nutrix, aut No­verca est, L. 17. c. 1 [...]. saith Pliny: And all the Na­turalists tell us, that the shadow of some Trees is unwholsome; of others deadly. Ay there is a shadow of Death too in Scripture Language; and you have heard of the Shades of Hell it self. And [Page 128] therefore to distinguish this benign, and saving Protection from those black and dismal Shades, here is yet a further, and a higher Emphasis;

(3.) 'Tis in the third place Umbra A­larum, a Shadow of Wings: An Expres­sion borrow'd from Birds and Fowls, that brood, and foster their young Ones under them. The Wing of the Dam is both the Midwife, and the Nurse; it brings forth the Chickens, and it brings them up too. So Providence is both the Womb, that bare us, and the Paps, that give us suck. The Wing is not only; as the Shade, a protection from the Heat; but a more Universal Defence against all the Injuries, and Inclemencies of the Air. Is it too hot? The Wing casts off a cold Shade. Or is it too cold? The Wing affords a warm Covering. Are the Younglings frighted with a Storm? The Wing is a ready Shelter. Doth the Kite, or Hawk, the Tyrants, and Freebooters of the Air, hover over and threaten? The Wing is a safe Re­treat. And thus in sacris Domini Defen­sionibus, as Cassian speaks; in God, and his holy Protections we have All.

That our Troubles are not long since grown too hot for us, 'tis because He cools, and allays them. That our Com­forts [Page 129] do not grow cold, and die away in our Bosoms; 'tis because he warms, and reinforceth them. That we have heard it bluster abroad for so many years toge­ther in a formidable Tempest, which hath drench'd, and drown'd so great a part of Christendom in Blood, and yet the Storm hath hitherto flown over us: That the Clouds have been gathering at home too, and so long hung black o're our Heads, and yet not power'd them­selves forth in showers of Vengeance: That Gebal, and Ammon, and Amaleck, and the Rest; that Hell, and Rome, and their Partizans, our Enemies on all Hands, both foreign, and Domestick, have been so long confederate against us, saying, Come, and let us root them out, that they be no more a People, that the Name of the Reformed Church of England may be no more in Remem­brance; that they have so often lookt grim, and sour, and roar'd, and rampt upon us, and yet not been able to seize us; to what can we justly as­cribe all this, but to the gracious pro­tections of God's shady Wings spread over us?

'Tis pity, Brethren, we are not more deeply apprehensive of it, since so it is. We sit continually in the Lap, and [Page 130] Arms of Providence: She is at once our Fortress, and our Store-house: 'Tis to her we owe both our Defence, and Supplies; our Safety, and our Abun­dance: That we ever had any good thing in this World, whether Personal, or National, 'tis because we have suckt the Breasts of her Consolations: And that we keep, and enjoy any thing, (while our Soul is among Lyons, while we dwell in the midst of Cruel, and Blood-thirsty Men, as holy David com­plains a little below my Text;) 'tis be­cause we sit under the shadow of her Wings. And since we are for all this so over apt to forget her, and to pride our selves in Bulwarks of our own project­ing; God hath seem'd oftentimes, and now again of Late, to be about to dis­mantle all, and to teach us this Lesson at the dearest Rate, if we will not learn it better cheap, That we cannot be safe out of his protection; that the shadow of his Wings is our best, nay our only Refuge: And that whether we take a Refuge for the protection of Secrecy, or for the protection of Strength. Of which much might be said, would the time permit it: But so much briefly of the first Privilege, that of Safeguard, and protection from Calamities, that [Page 131] they come not upon us. I hast to the second;

(2.) If Calamities do come, (and who is wholly exempt from that com­mon Tax, and Tribute of Mortality?) the Expression speaks Assistance too, and timely Deliverance out of them. Wings in the common Notion of the World signifie Speed, and Activity; [...], In [...] 1 [...]. 8. & 18. 10. as Theodoret speaks; God's speedy, and efficacious Provi­dence, and Appearance in time of Need to deliver his People. 'Tis therefore, that we give the Winds Wings, and the Angels too; as being the swift Messen­gers of God, the nimble Mercuries of Heaven. 'Tis therefore too, that when God appears seasonably to deliver his af­flicted People, Ps. xviii. 10. he is said in the Psalm to mount a Cherub, and to flie, or to come flying to them upon the Wings of the Wind, or to carry them off into safety on the Wings of an Eagle. Birds do not only cover their young Ones under their Wings within the Neast: If the Seat prove dangerous, they take them up too on their Wings, and carry them off to a safer Station.

Ye have seen, what I have done for you (saith God to the Iewish Nation) how I bear you upon Eagles Wings, Ex. xix. 4. and [Page 132] brought you to my self. As if he had said, When you were in actual Bondage, I rescued you; not only brooded you un­der my Wings in Egypt, and preserv'd you by my Providence, while you were yet in the Egg; but I hatch'd you, as it were, even in the Iron Furnaces of Memphis, into Political Life, and Na­tional being; and then brought you out safely, openly, triumphantly (as the Eagle doth her Young) and brought you off too into a more prosperous Condition.

And may not God bespeak us too, the People of England, in the same Language? When we were enslav'd at home (and so in worse than Egyptian Slavery) and our Pharach, and his proud Task-Masters made even our Lives bit­ter to us in hard Bondage, in Mortar, and in Brick, to build up their own proud Babels; when they had now kill'd, and also taken possession, and divided the Spoil, and said in a Frolic of their lusty Pride, We have devoured them, and there is no Hope for them in their God: Then on the sudden, as an Eagle stirreth up her Neast, and fluttereth over her Young, and spreadeth abroad her Wings, (as Moses speaks in his admirable Song) thus awakening, [...] and exciting their na­tural [Page 133] Activity, and emboldening them to use it to the utmost; and when that will not do, taketh them up her self, and beareth them away upon her own Wings; So here, The Lord alone did lead us, and there was no Other with him; that's Moses's own Reddition: When our own Pinion prov'd too weak, and all our faint Flutterings to no pur­pose; then by a Miracle of Wisdom, Pow­er, and Goodness, he took us up to that gallant, and wonderful Flight, even up to a higher pitch, than we durst look, and made us to ride upon the high Places of the Earth, and set our Neast again amongst the Stars.

And now, when restless, and unqui­et Men (the true Spawn of him, whose Tail drew the third part of the Stars of Heaven, Rev. xii. 4. and cast them to the Earth) would fain by their Hellish Plots, and Contrivances bring us down again from thence, even down to the very Ground, and lay all our Honour in the Dust: When by their secret Machinations they are at work on all Hands to hurry us back into the old Confusions; in Hope, that out of that disordered Mass they may at length rear up a new World of their own; (But what a World? A World made up of a new [Page 134] Heaven of Superstitions, and Idolatries; a new Earth too of Anarchy first, and pretended Liberty, but of Tyranny in­sufferable at the next Remove:) In such a dangerous State of Affairs as this, whether should we rather (nay whether else can we) run for Help, and Delive­rance, but under his Protections, the Stretching out of whose Wings fills the Breadth of thy Land, Es. viii. 8. ô England! He can make all these Cockatrice Eggs, on which this Generation of Vipers (that eat out the Bowels of their Mother) have sat so long abrood, windy at last, and addle; and he will do it: So that out of the Serpent's Root shall never come forth an Adder, to bite us, or a fiery flying Serpent, to devour us. He will confound these Babel builders, with their City, and their Tower, or Temple, (their Foreign Politie, and their strange Worship; their novel Modes, and Models of Government in Church, and State) and scatter them a­broad from hence upon the Face of all the Earth. Like as a Dream, when one awaketh; so shall he despise their Images, and their imaginations too, and cause them to vanish out of the City; and make the whole Bulk of their vast Contrivance to consume away like a [Page 135] Snail, and become like the untimely Fruit of a Woman, which shall never see the Sun. He that at first made all things with an Almighty Word, said only, Let it be, and it was so; can with the same Facility unmake, and annihilate those Worlds of Wickedness, which these great Architects of Mis­chief have been so long projecting, and building up. 'Tis but for him to say, It shall not pr [...]sper, or This shall not be, and behold the mighty Machin cracks about their Ears, and sinks into Ruin, into Nothing; leaving no Effect behind it more real or conspicuous, than a more firm, and lasting Establishment of that, which God's own Right Hand hath planted amongst us.

When the Earth at first was without Form, Gen. 1. 2. and void, and Darkness hover­ed over the Face of the Deep; the Spi­rit of God (saith the Text) mov'd upon the Waters. [...] The word in the Original (as St. Hierom tells us from the Hebrew Traditions) implies, that the Spirit of God sate abrood upon the whole rude Mass, Greek Schol. on Aratus. as Birds upon their Eggs, [...], (as a Greek Author speaks elegantly) and hatch the Chaos into World; by degrees digesting, and in the mean time preserving, and sustei­ning [Page 136] it by kindly Heats, and vital In­cubations. And to the like benign, and gracious purposes doth God still spread the Wings of his good Providence over his People, and their Affairs in calamitous times, such as this is; when he may seem to stretch out upon the Political World the Line of Confusion, and the Plummet of Emptiness, (Tohu, and Bo­hu, the very Words, which describes the first Chaos,) as 'tis Es. XXXIV. 11. And if hereupon we put our selves (as we ought) under the saving Influences of his Wings; he will either digest our Confusions into greater Order, and Beauty than before; or at least support, and chear us, while we lye under them; which is the third, and last Privilege implyed in this Expression.

(3.) Comfort, and Refreshment in Calamities, while they are upon us. For the Wing is not only the Retreat of Safety from Calamities, as in the first particular; Nor only the Instrument of Deliverance, out of Calamities, as in the second: 'Tis also the Seat of Com­fort, and Fountain of Refreshment, when they lye heaviest upon us.

And here I might spend the Hour with much Delight; for the Prospect is fair, and large before me. But I am [Page 137] sensible, that I have already staid too long upon the first Head of Discourse propounded; and so perhaps comply'd too much with the common Humour, which loves rather to be tickled, and amused with high Privilege, than in­structed in necessary Duty. I shall therefore make hast to seize what re­mains of the Time, and improve it, to let you see, That All, I have said hi­therto, and the Much more I might have said, upon that first Head of Pri­vileges, signifies nothing at all, is all blank, and Cypher to them, that go not on chearfully to the Second, that of Duty.

II. They that would be safe under God's Wings, must not only please themselves with the general Speculation, that Safety, and Protection is there to be had: They must also make their Re­fuge there, they must put themselves under the Shadow of those Wings by their special Act, and Deed; must de­liberately chuse, and effectually place their last Resort there; and if they will partake the Benefits, must comply with the Obligations of such a State. God is our Refuge, and our Strength, saith holy David, most devoutly, and most Methodically too: [...] LXVI. 1 For we must first [Page 138] make him our Refuge by flying to him, before we can hope, that he will be our Strength. In vain do they dream of God's saving Protections, that turn their Backs upon his Precepts, and cast his Laws behind them. 'Tis true, God's Altars are our Sanctuary; an inviola­ble Asylum in our Sufferings, and in our Sorrows, in our Calamities, and in our Dangers, for our Ignorances, and for our Infirmities: But are our Crimes too privileg'd, and protected there? That were indeed to turn God's Tem­ple into a Den of Thieves, and Mur­derers, (the notorious Abuse of the modern Sanctuaries;) and to set up the Wing of Abominations (spoken of by Daniel the Prophet) even in the Holy Place. Nay but pluck them from mine Altars, (saith God) or slay them there, that sin [...] presumptuously, and with a high hand. God will not be so merci­ful to those, that offend of malicious Wickedness, as to receive them, with all their Sins about them, under that sacred, and saving Protection. The holy Dove broods not a Kite, or a Vul­ture: They are Birds quite of another Feather. If in good earnest we would be foster'd, and cherisht under God's Wings; we must first be hatch'd into [Page 139] his Likeness, and Similitude, be re­newed after his Image, and be made Partakers in some Measure of the Di­vine Nature.

To hover no longer in Generalities; the fruitful Metaphor of the Text, as you have distinctly seen it big with our Privilege; so to qualifie us for that, 'tis as remarkably pregnant with our Duty also. Among the Rest, it clear­ly suggests to us in three noble Instan­ces of our Duty so many apt, and pro­per Qualifications, to fit, and prepare us for God's Wing. (1.) A pious Trust, and Confidence in God. (2.) A fervent Devotion towards God, and his holy Worship in his Temple. And (3.) A constant unwearied perseverance in both the former; for 'tis Donec tran­sierint, until these Calamities be over­past. And

(1.) For Trust, and Affiance in God; 'tis visible, That to fly under God's Wings, and to make him our Refuge, and to trust in him, are parallel Phrases, which expound one another; and dif­fer only, as the same Sence clad in Me­taphor, and stript of it again. And therefore some Vers [...]ons, both Ancient, and Modern, translate the Text, Un­der the shadow of thy Wings will I trust. Chald. Engl. Gen. [Page 140] 'Twere happy for us, were this Duty of Trust in God but as visibly tran­scrib'd into our practice, as 'tis origi­nally legible in the Text. We all pre­tend high indeed, and put on a fair Semblance here too, I believe in God is our daily Language: But, as one saith well, Non est strepitus Oris, sed Fervor, & Devotio Cordis: Lip-labour will not serve the turn; it must go deeper, even to the Ground of the Heart. Would we put in then for Da­vid's share in the Privilege, God's Mercy, and Protection to our King, and to our Selves? We must labour then for a Trust like David's: Be mer­ciful to me O God, (saith he) for my Soul trusteth in thee.

To bring you to the Test then; The Trust that may be trusted to, and that will stand us instead, when Calamities invade, or threaten us, must have these Three Properties: 'Tis founded, and prepared in Self-Diffidence; 'Tis carried on, and exercis'd in active Diligence; And lastly 'tis consummate in full, and perfect Resignation.

First, 'Tis founded, and prepar'd in deep Self-Diffidence, and Distrust; in a clear Abrenunciation of our selves, and all [Page 141] worldly Dependences. The Chickens are weak, and helpless in themselves; and as if they knew it too, stay not to combat the Kite, nor stand the dreadful shock, when the Hawk hovers over, and is ready to stoop upon them; but run nimbly un­der the Dam's Wing for shelter. The very Instincts of Nature have taught all Weak things, to seek their Sup­port out of themselves, in some Re­treat, where they may be safe. Thus the Firr-Trees are a Refuge for the Stork; Psal. CIV. 18. the high Hills for the wild Goats, and the Rocks for the Conies. The Hare hath her Covert too, and the Foxes their Holes or Dens. Even the weaker, and groveling Plants (as Vines, and the like) have their Tendrils, cer­tain pliant Strings, wherewith they na­turally clasp, and twine themselves about the Supporters, they are to climb by. In fine, all Nature is wholly Adjective, and, as if 'twere conscious to it self of its inability to stand alone, is ever in busie quest of its proper Substantive, that may uphold it. Man, as the only bad Grammarian, makes still false Syn­tax, and false Construction; apt to seek his Refuge, where 'tis not to be had: As if he were under that Curse upon David's Enemies, Psal. cix. 10. not only in case [Page 140] [...] [Page 141] [...] [Page 142] to beg his Bread, which he finds not at home, but to seek it also out of deso­late places.

Thus Ionah sits under his Gourd with over-much Delight; till the Worms smites it at the Roots, and it withers. Rebellious Israel trusts in the shadow of Aegypt (the Land shadowing with Wings, Esa. xxx. 3. as the Prophet speaks) and it proves their Confusion: And we have heard of Cedars of Lebanon, that degraded them­selves into the Protection of a Bramble; till Fire came out of that Bramble, and devour'd them. We laugh at the Babel-builders, who design'd a Tower up to Heaven, above the Reach of Divine Ven­geance, or any Deluge of Wrath, that could come on them. But he had Rea­son, that said, Totus Mundus est plenus Turrium Babylonicarum: Not only the Plains of Shinar; the whole World is full of such Towers. We all are apt to build Castles in the Air, some [...], or other, some City of Cuc­kows in the Clouds, like that in the Greek Comedian. Aristop. We have all of us our Gourds, and our Brambles to trust in; apt to Canonize our own Sanctity, and Integrity; to Idolize our own Strength, and Activity; to Deifie our own Wit, and Policy.

[Page 143]But if in good earnest we look to­ward the Covert of God's Wings, and would put in there, We must begin Ne­gatively; first moult, and cast all our sick Feathers, and clip the Wings of all our Carnal Confidences, upon which we are apt to soar too loftily, before we can make good our Flight. Confringes As­cellas (so the vulgar Latin reads that Text, Levit. i. 17.) The Sacrifice of Birds is not accepted, till the Wings be broken, that is (saith St. Cyril of Alexandria) till our Pride be mortified. De Ador [...]. lib. 16. God will take us off our false Dependences, and will have us clearly quit All (namely as to Trust in any of them) and run naked under his Defence; and then we are fit for his Wing. Say not then, this great Nation is a Wise, and an Understanding People, We have Counsel, and Strength for the War; We are fenc'd, and moated in from the rest of the World with the vast Ocean: Our Island sits a Queen in the Heart of the Four Seas; she shall dwell in safety alone, and know no sorrow, Let not the mighty thus glory in their Might, nor the Wise in their Wisdom; but he that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord.

And of this Holy David stands here before us a great Example. He trusts [Page 144] not in the Wings of his Army, but in the Lord of Hosts, and Battles; not in the shadow of his Cave, but in the sha­dow of God's Wings; not in the height of his Rock, but in the Rock of Ages. Though being a Man of War, he well understood the grand Importance of a Castle well seated, and fortified; of a Mount, or Rock inaccessible; of a Cave in that Rock capacious, and defensible (such as Strabo tells us there were many in Palestine; and such were probably the Cave of Adullam, and the strong Holds of Engedi, and the rest, which we meet with so often in David's story:) yet sever'd, and abstracted from the Di­vine Protections, he slights all these, as Paper-walls, and Cobweb-fortifications: And knowing he could not be safe on this side Omnipotence, he stiles God al­most in every Psalm, his Rock, and his Castle, his Fortress, and his Strong-Hold, his High-Tower, and the Hill of his De­fence; that's the first property of his Trust, it begins in great Self-diffidence: But,

Secondly, It goes on in active Dili­gence. The Young one hath its last Retreat indeed under the Dam's Wing: Yet the little Wing it hath of its own, it imploys to bring it thither. The Eagle [Page 145] in Moses's Song, as I noted before, not only bears its Eaglets on her own Wings; but stirs up her Nest too, and provokes them first to do their uttermost.

Though David resolv'd well, Psal. xliv. 6.—xxxiii. 16. I will not trust in my Bow; yet he us'd it sure. It was not Goliah's Sword, that could save him; yet gladly he girt himself with it, when the High Priest reacht it him. There is no King, saith he, that can be sav'd by the Multitude of an Host, yet he refus'd not the Voluntiers, that came to List themselves under him. He fled from Saul with all Diligence into the Cave; though he had still a Refuge beyond it. Though he sets up his Rest under God's Wings; Psal. lv. 6. yet Oh, (saith he) that I had the Wings of a Dove too, that I might fly away to my Rest.

The Moral, and the Reddition of All is but thus much. We all of us have Wings of our own too; Faculties, and Abilities, that must be us'd (Why else were they given us?) Though they must not be trusted in. The most excellent Father Paul of the Servi of Venice was Libell'd in the Holy Office (as they call it) for advising one that pretend­ed to immediate Inspirations, See his Life. and Assi­stances, to use human Means and In­dustries, and so to expect God's Bles­sing. [Page 146] But the Inquisitors were for once so wise, as to absolve him without Ex­amination.

Our Psalmist states the matter well. Trust in the Lord, Psal. xxxvii. 3—5. saith he, but be doing Good too, and so verily thou shalt be fed. Commit thy way unto the Lord, and He shall bring it to pass: But walk in it thy self; how is it else thy way? Commit he keeping of thy Soul, 1 Pet. iv. ult. (saith the Apostle, and so, commend the keeping of the public too) to God: But still [...], in well-doing, in doing thy Duty in thy Station in all the instances of it.

In the Age of Miracles indeed, when the Sea divided, and suddenly turn'd green Meadow; and when an Angel went forth, and dispatcht so many Thousands in a Night: Well might the watch-word be, Stand still and see the Salvation of God; The Lord shall fight for you, and ye shall do nothing. But the season is chang'd, and 'tis now, Come forth, and help the Lord against the Mighty; and work out your own Salvation, (and so the Salvation of the Nation too) because 'tis God that Works; that is St. Paul's Logic.

We must not presume to use our Lord, as Herod did; call for him, when we please, to Work us a fine Miracle; [Page 147] neglect our Assairs, and leave them em­broyl'd, and ruffled on purpose, that he may come down [...], to disentan­gle them. The Glory of God descends not visibly now adays upon our Palaces, as of old upon the Tabernacle of the Congregation, to rescue our Moses and Aaron from being massacred by a desperate Knot of Mutineers: Nor doth the Earth open her Mouth any longer, to swallow up our Rebels and Traitors alive. 'Tis a Scepter of ordinary Justice, not a Rod of Wonders, that fills the Hand of our Governours. We must not expect, that a good Cause should work alone of it self by Way of Miracle: Believe it, it must be prudently, and industrious­ly manag'd too, or it must at last mis­carry.

For Instance, (the Instance of the present time:) The Devils of Sedition, and Faction of Treason, and Rebellion, those Familiars of Rome, and Rhemes, and St. Omers, (the Iesuites I mean, that have so long possess'd and agitated a wretched part of this Nation;) will ne­ver go out from hence, and leave us at quiet, no not by Prayer and Fasting only. Nay, the best Laws we have, the best you can make, (if they be not steddily, and severely executed) will prove [Page 148] too slight a Conjuration for these stur­dy evil Spirits of Disobedience. There is another and a better Flagellum Dae­monum, than that of Hieronymus Mengis, and his fellow Exorcists. Holy Water is a Trifle; and holy Words will not do it. There is no such thing as Me­dicina per Verba: Words, and Talk will never cure the Distempers of a Nation. Deaf Adders refuse all the Voice of the Charmer, charm he never so wisely. If in good earnest we would be rid of this Legion, and say, as our Lord to the deaf and dum Spirit, Go out, and enter no more; (What shall I say?— In short,) Prov. xix. 29. Solomon' s Rod for the back of Fools, that grow troublesom, or dan­gerous (as it may be prepar'd, and ma­naged) is a very powerful and effectual Exorcism. Untamed Horses, and skit­tish Mules, that will have no Understand­ing, are not edified at all by calm rea­sonings, and Instructions and meek Re­monstrances; nor in any other method so well as by Davids Expedient; Psal. xxxii. 9. In Fraeno, & Como; their Mouths must be kept in with Bitt and Bridle, that it may not be possible for them to fall upon you; and so ye may be secure of them.

[Page 149]But the fitting up of David's Bridle, and Solomon's Rod, and the right Use of both, is the Business of another Place. I shall resume the general Thesis, and so shut up this Particular. I say then; They trust not in God, they presume, and tempt him, who work not together with him, but receive his Aids in vain, and look, that He should bring about in extraordinary manner, what they take no care of themselves; but lie flat upon their Backs looking upward, and will stir neither Hand nor Foot, to help themselves. Ps. xxxi. 24. Nay but Viriliter agite, & confortabit Cor, as 'tis in the Psalm; play the Men your selves, Do All that you can or ought to do, within your proper Sphere; and so God will strengthen your Hearts, all ye, that put your Trust in the Lord. Wings as they are the Covert of Safety, so also the Emblems of Diligence, and the Instruments of Activity: And as they shew us our Pri­vilege, may teach us also this part of our Duty,—to trust only in God's Wings, but to use our own too; that's the progress of David's Trust; It goes on in active Diligence.

Thirdly, It is consummate (as in the last Act) in clear, and perfect Resignation to God's good pleasure in the Event, [Page 150] whatever it be. They trust not in God entirely, and as they ought, that rely only on his Power, and dare not submit to his Wisdom also; that would gladly engage Omnipotence on their side (and can you blame them?) but then they would manage it their own Way, and in Methods of their own Contriving, and to Ends, it may be, far distant from what God hath appointed: As if he would work Journey-work under them, and leave them to be Masters of the great Shop of the World. No; but as Luther said well, when his Friend Melanchthon troubled himself over-much at some cross Events; Desinat Philippus esse Rector Mundi: 'Tis God alone, who sits in Hea­ven, and doth whatever pleaseth him. If we be not content with the Portion he allots us, but will needs be carving for our selves elsewhere, or otherwise: Or if we be not satisfied with his Conduct of the Affairs of the World, but think with the great Alphonso, that we could mend the System: What is this but in Effect to turn our Backs upon God, and to set up for our selves upon our own wretch­ed Stock, and implicitly at least to re­nounce the shadow of his Wings, and all the privileges of it? Pulli non pro­spiciunt, saith One: Young Birds have [Page 151] no Designs, or Forecasts of their own, but are wholly under the Dams Con­duct. And if we are allow'd to have any our selves, be they never so deep­ly laid, or so wisely contriv'd; so skil­fully managed, or so vigorously pur­su'd; We must at last intirely submit, and sacrifice them all to that Sovereign Wisdom, and Power, which ruleth in the Kingdoms of Men, and orders them in all things according to the good pleasure of his Will.

To summ up then this whole great Duty of Affiance in God, with all the Parts, and Branches of it: He trusts Regularly in God, that trusts in No­thing else first: And yet secondly doth every thing he can, or is oblig'd to do by his Duty: And thirdly, when he hath done All, sits down at last under the sha­dow of God's Wings, and waits the Suc­cess in Faith, and Hope, with perfect Re­signation to God's wise and just Appoint­ment in all things; That is the first Du­ty implied in the Expression a pious Trust, and Confidence in God. The (2d) Is an ardent and flaming De­votion towards God, and his holy Wor­ship, and Service in his Temple: Un­der the shadow of thy Wings will I make my Refuge; 'tis certainly an Allusion to [Page 152] the Holy of Holies, where was the Ark of the Covenant, the Symbol of God's gracious presence; over which the Che­rubim of Glory stretcht forth their Wings on high, [...]. xxv. 20. [...]ix. 5. and shadowed the Mercy-seat: Between which Wings was God's Dwelling-place, his Shekinah, or Majestatique Presence. And therefore when Ruth the Moabitess became Prose­lyte to the Jewish Religion, and Wor­ship; she is said to come to trust un­der the Wings of the God of Israel, Ruth ii. 12.

There are also Alae Ecclesiarum, which we meet with in Church-writers; as we corruptly call them the Isles of Churches; and in the Gospel it self [...], Penacles, or (if we will render it close, and just) Wings of the Temple: From the saving Covert and Protection whereof, as 'tis the Devil's Business to tempt, and withdraw us, and so to cast us down from one of our noblest Heights, and Defences: So on the contrary, holy David's great Ex­ample here, and the clear Importance of the Words of my Text, lead us di­rectly thither (that is the last, and most illustrious Resort of the Expression) and bring us up with Boldness to seek, and make our Refuge even un­der [Page 153] the Wings of the Cherubim of Glory.

And indeed, Where can we find on Earth so safe, or so comfortable a Re­treat, when Calamities assail, or threa­ten us, as here in the House of our God? Doth not his Cross stand over it on purpose, to direct us hither, when we are ready to sink under the Bur­then of our own? When God's Judg­ments are abroad in the World, and the Avenger of our Sins pursues us; More particularly, When the Land is mov'd, and divided; when the Pillars thereof shake, and tremble, and the Foundations are ready to be cast down; when all things are in Ferment, and in Commotion round about us, and Mens Hearts ready to fail them for Fear, and for looking after those things which are coming upon the Earth: Where should we rather take Sanctuary, where can we more probably find Help, and Redress, than at the Altar of the God of Mercy, and under the shadow of the Wings of his Mercy-seat?

This was holy David's steddy Re­solve, when his Heart was overwhelm­ed, as he speaks, Psal. lxi. 2. I will abide in thy Tabernacle for ever; I will trust (or, I will make my Refuge) in the Covert [Page 154] of thy Wings, ver. 4. And when his Af­flictions put him beside that Guard, set him at Distance from those happy Op­portunities, took him down from those blessed Heights: Yet still, even at the lowest, Psal. cxxi. 1. I will lift up mine eyes, saith he, to the Hills; (at least cast a long Look toward Sion) from whence cometh my Help. This was the Sting of all his Sorrows, as it were the Calamity Roy­al he so groans under, almost in every Psalm; not that Saul, or Absalom had driven him from his own, but from God's House. Though the Holy Land was of no large Extent: Yet as if he had been banisht to the Antipodes; From the Ends of the Earth; saith he, have I cried unto thee, Psal. lxi. 2. Though his De­votion consecrated every place he came into; turn'd the Cave into a Chappel, and the Wilderness of Iudah into Holy Ground; and I had almost said, even Gath of the Philistins into a Holy City; (for we have Psalms dated from every One of these;) Yet still he sighs, Oh restore me, Oh bring me, Oh set me up upon a Rock that is higher than I: He means without Doubt the Hill of Sion, the Pico of Iewry, where God's House was establisht upon the tops of the Moun­tains, as the Prophet speaks, Esa. ii. 2.

[Page 155]Men, and Brethren, you that make up the more popular part of this mixt Audience; Let me freely speak to you of the Patriarch David, and of your selves. Blessed be the Mercies of God, you lie under no such Restraint, or In­terdict, as he did: You are not banisht into the Wilderness, nor shut up in the Cave: The Doors of God's House stand open to you, if you please; and the Wings of his Mercy are stretcht out wide to invite, and receive you; would you but come in, and put your selves under the shadow of them. Let it not be said, that your Curiosity, or some worse Humour leads you quite another way: That you are over-careful, and trou­bled about many things, which belong not to you, while you neglect the one thing necessary, the great Duty of this, and of every Day; namely to implore God's Mercy, and Protection upon the King and his Kingdoms, and his Directi­on, and Blessing upon the public Coun­sels. Let my Counsel, I pray, be accep­table unto you. Study to be quiet, and to do your own Business: And that lies not in the Court, or in the Palace, but here in the Temple. 'Tis not to listen at the Doors of the two Houses of Parliament, or to Eves-drop the [Page 156] Council-Chamber; but to wait in your proper Stations with Modesty, and Pa­tience, what Avisoes, and Commands are sent you from thence, and to comply with them. Instead of thronging, and pestering the Galleries, and Avenues of those places, where Matters of State are upon the Table; what a blessed Appear­ance were it in times of Danger, such as this is, to see the Church Doors al­ways open, and the great Stream, and Shole of People continually flowing thi­ther; and to find some of you always upon the Floor there, Weeping between the Porch, and the Altar, and saying, Spare thy People, Oh Lord, and give not thy He­ritage to Reproach. Thou hast brought up a Vine out of Aegypt: Thou hast cast out the Heathen, and planted it. Let not the Wild Boar out of the Wood root it up, nor the Wild Beast of the Field devour it. Let thy Hand be upon the Man of thy right Hand, whom thou hast made so strong for thy self. Keep him, as the Apple of thine Eye. Hide him under the shadow of thy Wings. Let his Days be many, and his Reign prosperous; and under his shadow let both Church and State long flourish: And let them be confounded, and driven backward as many as have Evil Will at Sion.

[Page 157]To furnish out an Office for such dai­ly Devotions, 'tis but to take your Psal­ter along with you in your Hand, which is full of them. But especially let me commend to you that Decad of Psalms, which begins with the 54 th. and so on: which may seem to have been put toge­ther on purpose for such an Occasion. This would be indeed effectually to transcribe holy David's Copy, in this his Exemplary, and ardent Devotion: which is the second Duty requir'd in the Text, to prepare us for the pro­tection of God's Wing. There is but one more behind; and that is

(3.) Constant Perseverance in both the former.

In the two former you have seen Ho­ly David putting himself under the sha­dow of God's Wings, and making good his Refuge there, by Acts of Faith and Devotion. And being once there, no Storm shall beat him off, no Discourage­ment shall drive him away, no Delay shall weary him out. If God kills him, 'tis all one, hee'l trust in him still, and die in his Arms: For here he hath set up his Rest, and Donec transierin [...]t, he is steddily resolv'd; his Refuge is, and shall be, here, till these Calamities are over-past.

[Page 158]But here we must take heed of a great Mistake. There are, that hold the Do­nec in the Text too hard, and stiff; are too punctual, and precise with God in it: who will trust in him, it may be, and ply their Devotions just so long, as till the Calamity be past: But then on the sudden their Trust grows feeble, and their Devotion cold, and heartless: No sooner deliver'd, but like old Is­rael, they forget God at the Sea, even at the Red-Sea;— [...]. Use him like Themistocle's Planetrees, under which Men run for shelter in Storm, but the Shower once over, they pluck off the Branches, turn their Backs, and away.

Nay, but there is in Scripture Lan­guage an infinite and an interminable Donec, Matth. i. ult. which never expires. He knew [...] not, till she brought forth; Nay he never knew her. In spight of Helvidi­us [...], (as the Greek Church stile her) A Virgin before, and in, and after the Birth of our Lord, and for e­ver. Ay, that's the Virgin's Soul indeed, that keeps ever close to her heavenly Spouse: Not only runs under his Wings for Shelter, when Calamities affright her, saying, Spread thy Skirt over me, and then strays away again, as soon as ever the flattering Calm, and Sun-shine of [Page 159] Prosperity tempts her abroad. As our Lord hath given us an everlasting Do­nec: Lo I am with you, saith he, till the end of the World: (Not that he will leave us then, but take us yet nigher unto himself, and so we shall ever be with the Lord, 1 Thes. iv. 17. as the Apostle speaks:) So must we also have One for him of the same Latitude, and Extension. For e­ver under the Shadow of his Wings; till this single Tyranny, as in the old Translation; till these Calamities, as in the New; or as the Hebrew implies, till all, and every of our Calamities be overpast; Both before, and in, and af­ter Calamities, still under the Shadow of God's Wings. While they last, 'tis In the Shadow of thy Wings will I trust: and when they are past, 'tis In the Shadow of thy Wings, will I rejoyce; that's all the Difference. As the Scenes shift, our Devotion must improve, and Ad­vance too; till our Prayer be heighten'd into Praise, (as I trust e're long it will be) our Hope swallowed in Enjoyment, and our Trust sublimated, and made to flowre up into Joy, and Triumph: When the same God, that rais'd David from the Cave to the Throne, shall translate us also from the Shadow of his Wings into the Light of his Counte­nance: [Page 160] To the Beatifical Vision where­of he of his Mercy bring us, who hath so dearly bought it for us, Jesus Christ the Righteous: To whom with thee, O Father, and God the Holy Ghost, be ascribed of us, and all the Creatures in Heaven, and Earth, Blessing, Honour, Glory, and Power, both now, and for evermore. Amen.