YOu have in this Psalme many sinnes of this people set down. In the three former verses there is the mutiny of Corah and Abi­ram against Moses, and of two hundred and fiftie men with Corah; they envi­ed Aaron the saint of God.

In these verses you have another sinne of this people, a fearfull one, the sinne of Idolatry.

There be some sins of an high nature, such wee reckon the sinnes that be directly against God; as, Atheisme, Profanenesse, Idolatry, &c.

There be some sinnes directly against na­ture; as, Sodomy, bestiality, incestuous pollution, &c.

Some are directly against humane society; as, rapes, murder, oppression, effusion of innocent bloud, &c. Now, Idolatry is of the first kinde, and of the worst. Tertullian, excellently, me thinkes, saith, that Idolatry containes under it omnes species peccati, all kinds of sinne. There is trea­son in Idolatry; the Idolater sets up a new God, as the Traytor sets up a new King. There is falshood, and lying in Idolatry: for an Idoll is the doctor and teacher of lyes, Habak. 2. 18. There is theft in it: for what greater robberie then to rob God of his glory? There is whoredom in it, it is oft in Scripture called by that name; it is spi­rituall whoredome. How oft have I read that phrase of men going a whoring after another God? Well, mark the Text; observe three things here:

First, the Idoll after which they went a who­ring: It is called in the first verse of my Text, a Calfe. In the second verse, an Oxe. A young Oxe, a young bullocke, a young heifer of three yeares old, I have observed in the Scripture to be called by the name of a calfe. And, it was not a living young calfe, or, a living young bullocke: but, in the former verse, it is called, the molten I­mage [Page 3] of a calfe. In the second verse, the similitude of an oxe. That was their Idoll.

Secondly, consider the work of this people about that Idoll; their sin, in three things:

Then marke further, the cause of this sinne, the root from whence it did spring. It sprung from a forgetfulnes of God, that God that was their Saviour. They forgat God their Saviour. And then from a forgetfulnesse of those works of God; and those were,

First magna, great workes.

Then mirabilia, wondrous workes.

And then terribilia, terrible workes.

They forgat God their Saviour, that had done great workes for them in the land of Egypt, wondrous workes in the land of Ham, terrible workes by the red sea. This is the summe of the whole Text; I may not thinke to goe over all these at one time, it is a point that would not easily be passed over. There are a generati­on of men that will compasse sea and land to [Page 4] winne us to Idolatry, it were good our hearts were stablished against it. I will goe as farre as the time will give leave.

I begin first with the Idoll, it was a calfe, or, a young bullocke.

God forbids any Image to be made to the use of Religion, of any thing in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth. God specifieth all those places, because there is none of those places, neither heaven above, nor the earth beneath, nor the waters under the earth, but this foolish vaine heart of man hath found out something to deifie, to make a god of.

Some have worshipped the Sun, Moon, and Stars, the Host of heaven; glorious creatures, but yet such creatures as God made to serve man, and not man to serve them. Some of the Gentiles did worship men like themselves. Some four-footed beasts. Some creeping things of the earth. That same Dagon, that you read of in the Scripture, had the head of a man, but the lower parts of it were like a fish: Not to tire you with reckoning up particular vanities in this kind, heare what the Apostle saith of the Gen­tiles, Because when they knew God, they glorified him not as God, but were unthankfull, their foolish heart being [Page 5] filled with darknesse; when they professed themselves wise men, they became fooles. Fooles! how? They turned (and marke that phrase, it is the same that is here) the glory of the incorruptible God, to the I­mage, and similitude of corruptible man, and of birds, and four-footed beasts, and creeping things, and changed the truth of God into a lye, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator (saith the Apostle) who is blessed for ever, Rom. 1. 21.

A Question may be made here, why this people, since they will needs worship God un­der a forme, would choose this forme? why a calfe? why a young bullock?

It is agreed upon by all hands, old, and new Writers, that they all learned this kinde of ser­vice in Egypt: Egypt was the mother of Idolatry, so Jeremie calls it; Though all people under heaven had corrupted their waies, yet no people had more cor­rupted their waies in this kinde then Egypt: quis ne­scit qualia demens Aegyptus? who knowes not what base abominations, what dung-hill gods the Egyptians worship? They worshipped a deitie under the forme of a Crocodile. Another deitie under the forme of Ichneumon, a rat of Ni­lus. Another under the forme of Ibis: and they had more dung-hill gods then these, their onions, [Page 6] and leeks in their gardens. O sanctus, &c. The hea­then could scoffe at this foolery, that they should have deities growing in their gardens. But, of all the gods they worshipped, the greatest, their great god, was Apis, or Serapis; they worship­ped him under the similitude or form of a young Bullocke, pyed Bull, a pyed Oxe; black, with such and such white spots upon him.

Would you know from whence? Let mee trouble you a while. Apis, a King of another country, in a famine relieved Egypt, Alexandria especially: when hee was dead, they made him a god, and decreed divine honour to be given him: then they must worship him under a forme. They think of the benefit they had by A­pis; they had their corne by the tillage of the ground, by the labour of the Oxe, and they will worship this great god of theirs under the form of a pyed Oxe, a young pyed Bullock.

This people had seen this Idolatrous service in Egypt; and now they did not more long after Egyptian food, then after this Egyptian god.

I pray marke what Saint Stephen saith of this people, Acts 7. 39. In their hearts (quoth hee) they turned againe into Egypt: Saying, Make us a calfe, make us gods to goe before us. In their hearts they [Page 7] turned into Egypt, when they required of Aaron such a worship as this. The thing I observe from it, is this;

Observ. It is an easie matter for men to be drawn to the pra­ctice of that Idolatry, that they have been accustomed to see practised in those places that they have a long time lived in.

Hee that would take heed of Idolatry, let him take heed of Egypt: the very aire of Egypt (as I may so say) is infectious in this kind. See here, they had seen the worship of a young bul­locke in Egypt, and they must have a bullock. I pray remember Jeroboam the sonne of Nebat, that made Israel to sinne: How did hee make them sinne? Hee set up two calves, they set up one; hee set up two, one at Dan, another at Be­thel. Where did hee learne that? had hee been in Egypt too? yes, he lived in Egypt some space, hee fled thither for feare of Solomon: For when hee perceived that Solomon sought his life, hee went and dwelt with Shishak King of Egypt, and was with him (saith the Text) till the death of Solomon, 1 Kings 11. 40. I say, hee that would take heed of Idola­try, let him take heed how hee lives in Egypt.

The locall seat of Antichrist (and what seat can that be but Rome?) is called in the Reve­lations [Page 8] by three names: It is called Egypt, Rev. 11. 8. It is called Sodome in the same verse. It is called Babylon, in many places of the Revelations. It is called Babylon in regard of her crueltie. It is cal­led Sodome, in regard of her filthinesse: and E­gypt in regard of her Idolatry.

It is a hard matter for a man to live in Egypt, and not to taste, and savour somewhat of the I­dolatry of Egypt. Wee had sometime, in England, a proverb about going to Rome: They said, A man that went the first time to Rome, he went to see a wicked man there; Hee that went the second time to Rome, went to be acquainted with that wicked man there; Hee that went the third time, brought him home with him. How many have wee seen (and it is pitie to see so many) of our Nobilitie and Gen­try to goe to those Egyptian parts, and returne home againe: but few of them bring home the same manners, the same Religion, nor the same soules they carried out with them.

Isaac had bestowed the blessing upon Jacob, his younger son; you know the story, Gen. 27. But, when Isaac sent his sonne Jacob to Padan-Aram, though hee had blessed him before, the Scripture saith, hee blessed him againe, Gen. 28. If ever Parents had need to blesse their children, [Page 9] they had need to blesse them, and blesse them a­gaine, when they send them to travell to those forraine parts. Can a man be in a mill where much corne is ground, and have no badge of it upon his clothes? Can liquor be tunned up in a mustie vessell, and not taste of the cask? Can a man live in Ethiopia, and his face not be disco­loured? Marke, in verse 35. of this Psalme I have now in hand; It is said there, The people were mingled among the heathen; and what came of it? They learned their workes. It is a hard matter for a man to be much conversant with Idolaters, and not learn Idolatry. It is a hard matter for a man to be much conversant with common drunkards, and not learn to drink. It is a hard matter for a man to be a common companion with them that fit in the seat of the scornfull, and not to learn to scoffe. It is a hard matter for a man to live among blasphemers and swearers, and not learn to sweare. O, Wo is me (saith David) that I am constrained to dwell at Meshek. Brethren, if by any meanes, by prayer, or all holy endeavours, you can keep your selves from the wo of living at Meshek among Idolaters, labour to doe it: it is a miserable condition to live among idola­trous or wicked persons.

But if divine providence shall necessarily cast you upon Meshek, and Egypt; if it stand with the good will and pleasure of God, and there be no remedie, but the cords of your tabernacles must be fastned among the tents of Kedar, a­mong Idolaters; then learne, and remember how Noah lived in the old world: hee walked with God, when all the world walked from him. Remember how Lot lived in Sodome; how Joseph lived in the Court of Pharaoh, and Obadiah in the Court of Ahab, and Daniel in the Court of Babylon. Remember how the Saints lived in Nero's houshold, Phil. 4. 22. Remem­ber a Church that held the Name of God, and denied not the Faith, that lived in such a place where Satan's throne was. The fish keepes the fresh taste, though it live in salt-water. A Myrtle loseth not the nature; it is a Myrtle still, though it grow in the midst of netles.

It is a foule shame to live among good men, in good places, & not be good: but it is an high commendation to live among evill men, in e­vill places, and not be ill. Thus much shall suf­fice concerning the Idoll: It was a calfe, and they learned to make it in Egypt.

I come now to their worke, the making of [Page 11] it. They made a calfe in Horeb. There are three circumstances in that making of it.

Thirdly, of what did they make it? That my Text speakes not of here, but wee must take it out of the story. It was of the golden eare-rings that Aaron tooke out of the eares of the men and women, of their sonnes, and daughters; and of that they made a calfe. They made a calfe in Horeb.

For the first, the persons that made it: They made it. The Hebrewes, the Jewes, would ve­ry faine put this from themselves; they say that there were some Egyptians that were mingled a­mong them; and indeed, wee reade that there came out a great multitude, a mixed confused company came out of Egypt: but they were not these only that made the calf, the Israelites them­selves made it too; They made it. Yet, I doe not thinke that all of them had a hand in making of it: I make no question, but some of them hated this calfe with a perfect hatred, and them that made it, & them that worshipped it: they were but some of the people that made it. Harke what the Apostle saith, Let us not be Idolaters, as some of them were Idolaters, 1 Corinth. 10. 7. But [Page 12] some of them were Idolaters; yea, a great com­pany of them were Idolaters. They made the calfe.

But how can it be said they made it? for, if you look in the story, wee shall finde that Aaron made it? Aaron threw their gold into the for­nace. Aaron polished the calfe. Aaron set up an Altar. Aaron proclaimed an holy day: To morrow shall be an holy day unto the Lord. It was Aaron that made it; why is it not said, that Aaron made the calfe in Horeb, but, They made the calfe?

Marke those words, where this storie is set downe, Exod. 3 [...]. verse ult. It is said there, that God plagued the people for their sinne, in making the calfe that Aaron made. Marke, God plagued the people for their sinne in making the calfe that Aaron made. So the people, and Aaron both made it: the people first; They made it. Take these rules:

A man may have a hand, hee may have fellowship in the unfruitfull workes of darknesse, many waies: foure especially.

It is the usuall phrase of Scripture: 1. A man is said to doe that that he doth not himself, but another man, if he command it; that is one. So David slew Uriah the Hittite with the sword, be­cause [Page 13] hee commanded him to be set in the Army where he might be slaine with the sword of the Children of Ammon.

Secondly, a man may be said to doe that that another man doth, if hee doe counsell, and per­swade to it, and entice, and solicite to it. Thus the High-Priests, and the Scribes, and Pharisees, are said with their wicked hands to take Christ, and to crucifie him, and to hang him on a tree. They with their wicked hands did not doe it, but they perswaded Pilate to doe it with much im­portunity: therefore they did it.

Thirdly, a man may be said to doe that that another man doth, if hee occasion the do­ing of it. It is said of Judas, that hee purchased a field, Acts 1. ver. 18. This man purchased a field. Judas did not purchase it; but Judas, by return­ing the money to the treasury again for which he sold Christ, gave them occasion to purchase it: therefore this man purchased the field.

Fourthly, a man may be said to doe that that another man doth, if he doe not hinder the do­ing of it, if he ought, and might hinder it. The men of Tyrus came upon the Sabbath day, and sold wares in Jerusalem: Nehemiah, that good governour, hee goes to the Rulers of the people, [Page 14] and saith; What is this that you doe, and breake the Sabbath? Nehem 13. They brake it, because they should have hindred the breaking of it, and did it not.

Wee have sinnes enough, and too many of our own to answer for; wee need not answer for the sins of others: yet, wee shall answer for the sins of others too, for all those sinnes that other men have committed, if either wee

• Command them.
• Counsell them.
• Occasion them.
• Or not hinder them.

Aaron made the calfe: but yet they made it, be­cause they would have him make it.

Aaron made it. It is a thing to be considered a little. Whether did Aaron sinne in making this calfe, or no? Did Aaron well in yielding to the people in making this calfe? Tantum Sacerdotem condemnare non audemus, &c. saith S. Ambrose, We dare not condemne so great an High-Priest; and we cannot tell how to justifie, and excuse him: yet some, in former time, and one of late dayes, in our time (but a Papist) hath written a book, Munsius, de AARONE purgato, of Aaron purged: Hee will free Aaron from all manner of sinne [Page 15] in making of this calfe; but it will not be: Should he purge him with Nitre, and with Fullers sope seven times over, hee could not doe it. I see the Fathers are wondrous carefull in extenuating this sin; and we may doe that, ex­cuse it we cannot: we must needs acknow­ledge it a very great sin in this High-Priest.

First of all, say they, the people would have him doe it, hee would not have done it else.

Well, be it so: hee was now a Governour left under Moses; hee should have been more vigilant and have looked better to his go­vernment. The permission of an evill, is as great an evill as the commission of it. Woe to that people that are humoured in their sins, either by the Ministers, or by the Magistrates; the one should check them, the other should punish them: but, woe to the people that are humoured in them.

But then you will say, This people was set up­on a mischief, they would have it, there would be no remedie: Indeed Aaron told Moses so.

It is true, they were so: Be they so; Aaron should have been more vigilant, more couragi­ous, more resolute in his government to with­stand them.

But they were importunate, and clamorous; they would never give Aaron over till hee had done it.

Be it so: yet, this importunity of theirs, though it may extenuate the fault, cannot excuse it. Or, if you will say, it may excuse it: it may excuse it à tanto, but not à toto; it may qua­lifie it somewhat, but it cannot justifie it.

But, say they, it is likely the people would have stoned him if hee had not done it.

It is like enough so; they were ready enough to take up stones; they did it to Moses: but grant it, Aaron should have chosen rather to have died a thousand deaths, then to suffer God almightie to be so dishonoured. Wee know what some said afterwards in the like case; Know, O King, that our God is able to deliver us from the fiery for­nace; if not, wee will not worship thine Image.

There is no question, Aaron cannot be excu­sed in this sinne. You may truly say thus farre for Aaron, that that hee did, hee did it out of feare, and out of weaknesse, and out of Pusillan­imity; hee durst not displease the people; he did it out of feare, and frailtie. But take the sinne in it selfe, O it is a fearefull sinne in it's owne na­ture. Look in Deut. 9. 20. and you shall finde [Page 17] what Moses saith concerning it, that GOD was angry with Aaron for this sinne: nay, hee was very angry with him for this sinne; yea, so angry, and very angry, that hee would have destroyed him: had not Moses made intercessi­on for him, he had destroyed him. Now the anger of God is not wont to come like fire, to flame out against his servants, but upon mightie provocations. Surely God was provoked mightily against Aaron, that hee would have de­stroyed him, had not Moses made intercession. There is no excuse of it.

But then (This is a point of some use, let me not passe from it thus) Why did not God so stablish this servant of his, that hee might not fall into such a sinne as this? The Apostle saith, God is faithfull, and hee is able to stablish you, and to deliver you from all evill, 2 Thess. 3. 3. The Apostle assures himselfe, God will deliver mee from every e­vill worke, and will preserve mee to his heavenly king­dome: and many such like places. God was able to establish Aaron, so that hee should not have condescended out of weaknesse to this request of theirs.

It is true: but it pleased God to leave Aaron to himselfe, hee would suffer him to fall; and you [Page 18] may thinke that God hath some good ends in it. God, being a good God, would not suffer evill to be in the world, but that hee knowes how to order that evill to some superiour event that is good. Surely, there was some speciall end why God suffered Aaron to fall into such a fearefull sinne as this. I will tell you what I conceive.

The first was this, to shew that the Leviticall Priest-hood of the old Law was imperfect. How could the Priest of the old Law perfectly reconcile a poore sinner to God, since hee was a sinner himselfe? Looke in Heb. 7. and you shall see there, the Apostle shewes the differ­ence between our Lord Jesus Christ, the High-Priest of the New Testament, and the Priests of the Old Testament. Verse 27. The Priest of the Old Testament stood in need to offer for his owne sinnes first, and then for the sinnes of the people. The Priest of the old Law was not only to offer for the sinnes of the people, but for his owne sinnes; yea, first for his owne sinnes, and then for the sinnes of the people. Now, how shall one sin­ner reconcile another sinner to God? It cannot be: therefore, saith our Apostle there, verse 26. It became our High-Priest to be another manner of [Page 19] High-Priest, to be holy, and harmlesse, separated from sinners, and made higher then the heavens. That is one reason, to shew that the Priest-hood of the old Law could not perfectly reconcile men to God.

A second reason why God permitted him to fall, was, that in so great dignity as Aaron was now assigned to, in so great a place as the high-Priest-hood, Aaron might learne to walk hum­bly with his God. There is nothing that will beat downe a child of God more in the sight of his owne eyes, then the sight of his owne corruptions, and the conscience of his owne unworthinesse. Solomon tells us, that All the af­flictions that God sends a man under the sun, are to humble him: And all that is too little. God is faine sometimes to let corruptions loose in his chil­dren, to suffer his owne children many times to have many a fearefull conflict, and combate, and Messenger of Satan to buffet them, a pricke in the flesh to molest them; hee suffers them to have many fearefull tryalls in the flesh, to the intent that, there being such a Jebusite in the land, such an enemy in our own bowels, such a thorne in our eyes, such prickes in our sides, the proud heart may never finde time to sit, and [Page 20] blesse it selfe in any gift or grace, wherewith God hath honoured it.

Nay, here is not all, God doth not only suf­fer corruptions to grow and to rule in his chil­dren, that he may humble them: But, God some­time permitts his children to fall into some great sinne, that they may not fall into Pride, saith Saint Austine. I am bold to speake it: I thinke it profitable for the children of God sometimes to sin, to keep them from falling into Pride. As a Physician, when hee would cure a Convulsion, hee doth what hee can to procure an Ague: so God, to cure Pride (that dangerous sin in his children) many times suffers them to fall into other sins, though they be fearfull in themselves, that they may not fall into Pride.

When men grow proud of any gift or grace that God hath honoured them with, A man (as Gregorie speakes) makes a sore of a salve: There­fore God suffers them to fall into other sinnes, that so he may make a salve of a sore; that, when a man hath been wounded by his owne vertues, hee may be healed by his owne vices: That is the second reason.

Thirdly, God suffered him to fall, I conceive for this; to teach Aaron to looke compassionate­ly, [Page 21] being a Priest, upon poore sinners, con­sidering himselfe. Remember the Apostles precept, Galat. 6. Brethren, if any of you be overta­ken with a fault, you that are spirituall (yea, they especially, whose Function and Ministery is spirituall) you that are spirituall, restore such a man with the spirit of meeknesse, restore him againe; the Greek word is, set him in joynt againe: Doe you see him out of joynt? handle him gently, as you doe a bone that is out, set him in joynt againe with the spirit of meeknesse: Why? Considering thy selfe, lest thou also be tempted. That good Fa­ther, that heard tell of the fall of his brother, hee cried out, Alas! hee fell to day, and I may fall to morrow. O Consider thy selfe, either thou art tempted, or hast been tempted, or mayest be tempted, as that man was. The Lord would have Aaron to fall, that hee might look with an eye of compassion upon sinners.

Then, lastly, It pleased God to suffer him to fall thus, that hee might be a warning to us: Quomodò tener Agnus, &c. Alas! how shall the tender Lamb doe, when the Bell-wether of the flock is thus endangered? If Aaron the saint of the Lord (as hee is called in this Psalme) a man so familiarly acquainted with God, and divine vi­sions, [Page 22] and a man that had been so powerfull with Moses in working miracles; a man that approached so near to God, a man so long con­versant with God, a man that had gone of so many errands of God, as hee did with Moses to Pharaoh: If so holy, and so great a man as hee, fell into so great a sinne as this; then let us learn to worke out our salvation with feare and trembling. Howle Firr-tree (saith the Prophet) when the Ce­dar fals. Be not high-minded, but feare. It is the use wee are to mak of it. So much for the first cir­cumstance.

The second circumstance is, Where they made this calfe. In Horeb. There ran all along in Arabia, a ridge of mountaines; it was but one mountain, but there were two great tops of it; Sinai was one, and Horeb was the other; and you shall finde them sometime called by the one name, and sometimes by the other: sometimes the whole mountaine is called by the name of Sinai, sometimes all the mountaine is called by the name of Horeb; sometime by the one top, sometime by the other. Now, this is a thing to be observed; they were not gone yet from Horeb, the law was given in Sinai but a little before, where the Lord charged them out [Page 23] of the fire, Thou shalt not make an Image to me; they were but at the foot of the hill, and had not tarried there much above a month after the law was given: they saw mount Sinai before them, that was the higher top, and they could not but remember how mount Sinai was all on a smoaking fire and flame, and with what ear­nestnesse God had charged them, Thou shalt not make any similitude of mee: they were not yet gone altogether from the mountaine, they were yet in Horeb; and yet, you see, as it is ver. 13. They made haste, and forgat God, and fell to this sinne: so saith God to Moses, Goe, get the downe; this people are quickly gone out of the way, Exod. 32. 7. You may see it in this. I stand not upon that point.

The third circumstance is, Whereof did they make this calfe? They made it of their golden eare-rings, Pull off the golden ear-rings (saith he) from your wives, and your sonnes, and your Daughters, and give them to mee. No doubt of it, but the ser­vant of God, Aaron, would faine by this have di­verted them from making them a calfe: Hee would faine have turned them from it, if hee could: Hee knew that all those people in those Easterne parts were much delighted in or­naments, in eare-rings: they say, they weare [Page 24] them usually there to this day. And suppose hee could perswade the men to be content to part with their ornaments out of their eares; yet he thought it impossible to get the women to part with theirs. What? for a woman to part with her jewels, and ornaments! This seems a thing impossible: You see they are so desirous of them, they will, many of them, pinch their bellies, that they may lay somewhat more upon their backes: We know there are many that had rather their bellies should want sufficient sustenance, then their backes a superfluous ornament. You see what a hard matter it is to get women to leave an idle instrument, or a bagge of vanity that they carrie about with them; but, to leave their jew­els, to part with their ornaments, hee never thought they would doe it, though the men might part from theirs: yet they all do, both men and women. Wee may observe how easi­ly men and women will part with any thing to maintaine Idolatry.

I cannot tell, whether it be (as that Father i­magined) the pride of our hearts, that wee are in love with the workes of our owne hands, with the devices of our owne braine, with the [Page 25] invention of our own spirits; that because they are our own, we like them: Or, whether it be the vigilancy of the divell, that roaring lyon, that goes about seeking whom he may devoure; or what else is the cause, I know not: but this I know, men are more willing to part with any thing to an Idoll, to a superstitious worship, then to the true worship and service of God.

And for this cause, Idolatry may fitly be compared to whoredome: You see, a whore-monger will be pinching and sparing enough to his wife and children at home, but he cares not how expensive, and excessive, and lavish he be upon his whores abroad: Thus it is in spirituall whoredome; men are never so nig­gardly as in the worship of God, but they are content to part with any thing for the main­taining of Idolatry. This forwardnesse of this people, even to pull their very eare-rings out of their eares, to bestow upon an Idoll, it will rise up and condemne us, that are not willing to pull any thing out of our purses, to the worship and service of God.

Many men, in this liberall age we live in, are content, with the Wise men, to take a great journey to see Christ: peradventure they are [Page 26] content to fall downe and worship him; but they are not willing, with those Wise-men, to open their treasures. Speake to them of o­pening their treasures, whether for works of piety to God, or of charity to men, then they stand at it, as Naaman the Assyrian, Nay the Lord be mercifull to me for that. Brethren, I could speak a great deale more to this purpose, but I am loath to trouble you.

Then, besides, I know how unnecessary this is in this place. I have had many a time here, twice especially, a plentifull experience of your forwardnesse. I have seene how your hearts have beene enlarged in bounty towards the en­larging of this place; towards the maintenance of the Ministery, and service of God in this place. I need not speake of that now.

But yet I will exhort you now to a worke of charity. Do you remember the Briefe that was read even now, for that poore towne of Cambridge? Me thought your hearts did even yearne within you with pity and compassion, to heare of almost 3000. poore distressed soules, brought into this extreame misery, through the The great plague in Cambridge. Aug. 1630. hand of * God. Brethren, I need say no more; I beseech you give us, that are your ser­vants [Page 27] in ordinary, (here in the worke of the Ministery, both of the one side, and of the other; we are all brought up in the Universities) I pray give us leave to repaire to your houses, and, If there be any consolation of Christ, any comfort of love, any fellowship of the Spirit; any communion of Saints, any bowels, any mercy, fulfill our joy in this. I beseech you bestow such a blessing upon that poore Towne, and the poore Inhabitants, that they may be occasioned, and we for them, to blesse you again, and pray to God, to re­store that which you shall give, in the riches of grace here, and of glory hereafter.

I Began to handle these words the last Lords day. There are three things in them.

The third thing is the roote of this sin, the [Page 29] cause of it, whence it grew; it grew from for­getfulnesse of God and his works.

The God they forgat was their Saviour.

The works they forgat were,

• First, great works.
• Secondly, wonderfull works.
• Thirdly, terrible works.

They forgat God their Saviour, that had done great things for them in Egypt, wondrous things in the land of Ham, terrible things by the Red sea.

Of the Idoll I have spoken; and of their first work in making of it; wherein I considred three circumstances,

This was the end for which they would have it made, and so consequently, they turned the glory of God into this similitude: Here was their sin; which was not so much in making of it, they might have made it without sinne; but to make it, to that end, to worship it, this was abominable.

Now, because these are dangerous dayes [Page 30] wherein we live, and there are a generation of men, that will compasse Sea and Land to make a proselyte. Out of my desire to stablish your hearts in the true and sincere worship of God, I shall, besides my custome, fall upon a matter of Controversie, and discusse the question, be­tweene the Church of Rome and us, about worshipping of Images. There is a great dispute betweene them and us, about this peoples Ido­latry in worshipping this calfe. We do beleeve the sin was sinfull above measure: but yet they would make it somewhat worse then it was; because they would not be thought to be Ido­laters, as these were.

The thing will ask a little time to discusse it, more then I have to day; I shall but make an entrance into it. I shall tell you what order I will take in the handling of it.

First, I will shew you, That the making of an Image is not simply forbidden, except it be, in way of Religion, to worship, and to serve God by it. That is the first. They made it, and, they worshipped it.

A second thing I will shew is this, That all application of divine honour to any Image whatsoever, is Idolatry.

I will shew you thirdly, That all Idolaters do change their God; they change their glory into the similitude of that they worship.

I will shew you fourthly, That the Church of Rome doth commit as grievous Idolatry in worshipping their Images, as this people did in worshipping of this Calfe.

Lastly, I will shew what use we are to make of the whole. I say, I cannot do all to day, I shall but begin it; but have patience till I can end it: And if, in the handling of these things, I alledge either Fathers, or Councels, or Tradi­tions of the Church, or History, more then I use, or more then I think is fit in popular Ser­mons; I pray beare with me, and consider whom I deale with, with unreasonable men, such as will not be satisfied with the meere au­thority of holy Scripture.

For the first point; The making of an Image is no act of Idolatry, except it be, by way of Religion, to worship God by it: that is my first proposition. God doth never in the Scripture simply forbid the making of an Image. He saith in the second Commandement, Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven Image: It is true, but you must know, that that is a Commandement [Page 32] of the first Table: Now the first Table con­cernes the worship of God; so you must under­stand it by way of relation to the worship of God; Thou shalt not make an Image. If you will heare God expounding his owne Law that it is thus, looke in Levit. 26. 1. Ye shall make you no Idols, nor graven Image, neither shal ye set up any Image of stone in your land, to bow downe unto it. So, it is not the making of the Image that is forbidden, but the bowing downe to the Image we have made; or the making it to that end to bow downe, that is Idolatry.

If the making of an Image were simply and absolutely evill, then surely the same Art, and skill, and cunning that some men have in car­ving and graving of Images, should never be attributed to the Spirit of God as the author of it. Now you shall finde what God saith, I have filled Bezaleel and Aholiab with the spirit of wisdome, and understanding, and knowledge, to work all such rare curious inventions, whereof some were Images, as you shall heare anon.

God allows the making of Images to foure uses, which I shall name unto you.

First, he allows us to make an Image for the distinction of coines. The first coines almost [Page 33] that I can finde in all the Scriptures mentioned, they were stamped with a Lamb upon them, and were called for that cause Lambs. You reade in Gen. 33. 19. that Jacob did purchase a field, a parcell of ground, of Hamor the son of Shechem; and he purchased it for an hundred pieces of silver, a hundred pieces of money; so it is called there: but the Hebrew phrase is, with an hundred Lambs. He bought it with money, so Stephen saith. But why doth he say with an hun­dred Lambs? It was money stamped with a Lamb. So in Job ult. every one of Jobs friends brought to him a piece of money, our Transla­tion reads it so; but the Hebrew phrase is a Lamb; a piece of money so stamped. As we call that piece of gold that is stamped with an Angel, an Angel; so the Scripture called that piece of money that was stamped with a Lamb, a Lamb. This was the ancient coine I finde.

Then that same shekell that we reade oft of in Scripture, it had two figures upon it; it had the likenesse of the pot of Manna on the one side, and the likenesse of Aarons Rod on the o­ther side. Our Lord said to the Herodians, Shew me a penny: Whose Image hath it? Caesars. Our [Page 34] Lord disliked not to have Caesars Image up­on a penny; but, saith he, Give to Caesar that which belongeth to Caesar, and to God that which is Gods. God allows us Images for distinction of coins, that is one.

Secondly, God allows Images for orna­ment. Solomon made a throne of Ivory that had six steps to it, and on both sides of the steps, on the right hand, and on the left, were Lions made; there were 12. Lions: It was for orna­ment, an ornament of Glory; There was not such a throne in any Kingdome, saith the Scripture. Nay, farther: here you see the people made a similitude of an Oxe that eateth grasse; Solomon he made twelve such similitudes of Oxen. Look in 2 Chron. 4. 3, 4. you shall finde, that the molten Sea stood on 12. Oxen that Solomon had made. This people made the similitude of an Oxe that eateth grasse; So­lomon made twelve similitudes, or likenesses of Oxen that eate grasse: Solomon was never re­proved for this; this people was plagued for theirs. There is the difference then; they made it for one end, and Solomon for another: they made it for worship, and Solomon for ornament. God allows us Images for ornament.

Nay, of what shape the Cherubims were [Page 35] that you reade of oft in Scripture, that were made in the Temple, it is hard to say: Josephus saith, it cannot be affirmed, or conjectured. We usually think the face of a Cherubim was like the face of a man; but you shall finde there is a difference betweene them, Ezek. 10. 4. Every beast had foure faces; one face like the face of a Che­rubim, another like the face of a Man; the third like the face of a Lion, and the fourth like the face of an Eagle. These were all different faces; the face of a Cherubim, and the face of a Man then are dif­ferent faces: But, of what shape soever they are, God commanded Cherubims to be made in his Tabernacle: yea, and Solomon made Cherubims; not only those two Cherubims in the Sanctum Sanctorum, the most holy place; but he made Cherubims all along the wals of the Temple, and all upon the vailes of the Temple, and up­on the brims of the vessels, and upon divers utensils in the house and service of God Solomon made Cherubims.

And, together with them, he made the Ima­ges of Lions, and Buls, and Flowers, and Palme-trees, and of Pomegranates: All these were for ornament.

I conclude then, It is lawfull for us to adorne [Page 36] and beautifie our houses: yea, it is lawfull to a­dorne and beautifie the house of God, the wals, the windows with such Images, as

First, may not hinder the people in their devotion.

Secondly, such as are in no danger to be a­bused to Idolatry or superstition. That is my second.

Thirdly, it is lawfull to make Images for monument. You know how the Brazen Ser­pent was made at Gods command in the wil­dernesse, and that though it were the similitude of a Serpent; yet, notwithstanding, this was preserved afterward as a monument for the space of 700. yeares, no fewer; for, as long as it was a monument, it was preserved: but when it came to be abused to Idolatry, as you shall heare anon, then it was broken in pieces. Those same Statues, those Images of our Kings, and Queens, and Nobles, and great personages, in Westmin­ster or Pauls, that are set on their Tombes, to what end serve they, but to be monuments? The Father may set up a monument, a statue, upon the grave of his deceased child, or the child upon the grave of his Father. This God hath allowed us; Christian Religion never for­bade [Page 37] it, and the Christian Church hath alway practised it; for Monument.

Fourthly, it is lawfull to have an Image for History; there is an historicall use of Images. The Naturall History of beasts, birds, and plants may be set downe by Imagerie: they cannot well be made knowne without the figures of these beasts, and these birds. How profitable the figures of plants and herbs are in Herbals, I think there is no man but he doth know, that knows the use of an Herball, or Naturall Hi­stories.

Then secondly, the Ecclesiasticall histories of the Church, the martyrdomes of the Saints, the sacred histories of the Bible, the historie of Adam and Eve, seduced by the Serpent, or the history of Abel slaine by Cain, or the history of Abraham sacrificing Isaac, or of David killing Goliah, or of Solomon judging and giving the Child to the right mother; yea, and the history of the Passion of Christ, the history of it, I say; this hath beene approved of in the Church of God. We reade anciently in Gregory Nyssen, of the history of the Passion of Christ: The histori­call use of Images we condemne not, God and the Church never disallowed it. So then, now I goe [Page 38] over all; God allows us to make an Image for the distinction of coine, he allows it for orna­ment, he allowes it for monument: he allows the historicall use of Images, in Naturall histo­ry, in Sacred history, and in Ecclesiasticall hi­story.

But yet, let me give some cautions and pro­viso's about these Images.

First, no Image is to be made of the Trinity, to any use whatsoever, though it be not to a Re­ligious use. God forbids this Deut. 4. Thou heardest a voice, but thou sawest no likenesse; therefore thou shalt make no likenesse of me. So in Esay 40. 18. To what will yee liken me? To make a visible Image of an invisible God, it is no lesse unlawfull, then im­possible to make an Image of the Trinity, saith Da­mascene; who, though he was but an Image-monger, a worshipper of Images; yet, he ab­horred this, to make an Image of the Deity: there is no lesse follie then impiety in it.

Yet, notwithstanding, you shall finde some such Images in the books of Papists: in some of their Service-books, you shall finde the Tri­nity with three faces; in some of their books, you shall finde God the Father as an old man, and Christ his Son between his legs, and the [Page 39] Dove between them both: These are abomi­nable, such as Christian eyes should not look on without horrour and detestation. No I­mage of the Trinity whatsoever is to be made.

Secondly, no false Image, no false represen­tation: I could name many in Popery. To paint the Virgin Mary now in glory in heaven, with Christ a little Babe in her armes, is a false, lying, blasphemous representation; no way answering the person and quality of them that are repre­sented. The like I might say of Saint Dunstan and the Devill; and of Garnets face in the straw, as it is publike at Madrill in Spaine. Such like false representations God condemnes, and we abhorre.

Thirdly, take heed of wanton lascivious pictures, obscene filthy pictures; those are to be abhorred too. If evill words corrupt good manners; surely, lewd and obscene pictures will do it more. Those provocations to lust that get into the heart at the eye, do a great deale more move the heart to uncleannesse, then those provocations that get in at the eare; Segniùs irri­tant animos, &c. He that would have an eye to his heart, must have an eye to his eye.

Fourthly, take heed of all wanton excesse [Page 40] in a love of pictures. There are many men a­mong us, that have spent even their estates in a dotage about these rarities, and excellent work­manship. These rules observed, it is lawfull for us to make an Image; not in the way of Reli­gion, to worship God by it.

Enough of that first point; let me come to a second. I will but touch it. The second is this:

All Religious worship, given or bestowed on an I­mage, is Idolatry.

The application of Divine, Religious wor­ship to an Image, is Idolatry.

First, Brethren, know the difference between Images, and Idols; for this they charge us with: when we tell them of the second Commande­ment, Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven I­mage; Say they, you do us wrong to call it so: It should be thus, Thou shalt not make a graven I­dol. There is a great deale of difference, say they, between an Image, and an Idoll. There is a difference indeed in Ecclesiasticall custome of speech, (and custome must prevaile in that kind.) And know how this difference is; Imago in the Latin, Image, and Idolon in the Greek; they are all one originally: But we must speake with common people. I say, Ecclesiasticall custome [Page 41] of speech makes a difference betweene an Idoll, and an Image. And what is that? I will tell you: Every representation of any creature in heaven above, or in the earth beneath, or in the waters under the earth, that is an Image: but if this be to the use of Religion, then it is an Idoll, or else it is not. Omnis consecratio Idololatria, &c. The consecration of an Image maketh it an Idoll, saith Tertullian. An Image is an Image, and no more; but if it be set up by way of Re­ligion, to serve God by it, then it is an Idol.

Let me give it in an example I shewed even now: The brazen Serpent was set up at first, at Gods appointment: Then there were mi­racles done by the sight of the brazen Serpent; as many as were stung, and looked on that, were cured: Then the brazen Serpent was a type of Christ; As it was lifted up, so should the Son of man be lifted up upon the Crosse: and it was pre­served, as you heard before, 700. yeares. As long as it was a monument, there was no hurt in it; but when once the people began to burne In­cense to it, which belonged to the worship and service of God; then Hezekiah, that good King, out of his zeale to Gods glory, could not indure it longer, but brake it in pieces. Though it were [Page 42] set up by Gods appointment, and miracles had beene done by it: though it were a type of Christ, and had been reserved 700. yeeres; yet he would not spare it, but breaks it in pieces, and calls it Nehushtan, a piece of brasse: it was no more, when Divine Religious worship was given to it.

Divine Religious worship is twofold:

• Inward.
• Outward.

Divine inward Religious worship is the worship of the heart and affections. God re­quires the whole heart; My son, give me thy heart. He requires all the affections of the heart; our love, our feare, our joy, our confidence, our o­bedience, and subjection. Now, whatsoever thing it is that withdraws these affections from God to it selfe, that is an Idol: There is the in­ward worship. For this cause (not to give you other examples) the Apostle calls a covetous man, an Idolater, Ephes. 5. 3. He calls covetous­nesse Idolatry, Colos. 3. 5. The covetous man is an Idolater: Why? Because gold and silver withdraw the heart and affections from God. You shall see how. Look upon his affecti­ons; What is his love? He loves more the pi­cture [Page 43] of his Prince upon his coine, then the I­mage of God in his brother. Then go to his feare: he feares more the losse of his estate, then he feares hell; he feares more to be damnified, then to be damned. Go to his joy; he joyes more at the assurance of his money, then he joyes in the assurance of Gods favour to him in Christ. Go to his confidence; if any danger arise, what flies he to? To God? No; Solo­mon saith, The rich mans riches are his strong City; and whither should a man flee, but to his strong City? He flees to his riches, he hopes that they will beare him out. He trusts more in un­certaine riches, then in the living God. He saith to his gold, Thou art my hope; and to the wedge of gold, Thou art my confidence.

Then looke to his obedience, you shall see all goes that way. God bids him give; Mam­mon bids him take, and he takes, God bids him scatter and disperse abroad, and give to the poore; Mammon bids him gather, and he gathers. God bids him relieve; Mammon bids him extort, and he extorts. God bids him lend freely, looking for nothing againe; Mammon bids him let his money for thus much in the hundred, and he lets it. See now, Mammon is [Page 44] the god; Mammon hath withdrawn the heart and affections, and withdrawn the obedience from God to it selfe. That which the Psalmist saith of the Heathen men, Their Idols are silver and gold: turne but the words, and you may say of covetous men, Their silver and gold are their Idols: He is an Idolater. This is the inward worship. To outward worship per­taine prayer and thanksgiving, vowes and oathes, erection of Churches and Oratories, bowing of the body, all outward observances, the dedication of our selves, or whatsoever we have, to the honour of that that we worship. This is outward worship. Look, to what prayers are made, thanksgiving is rendred, vows are nuncupated, Oratories are built, Al­tars are dedicated, Holy-days are instituted: Look whatsoever is honoured, with any part of this Religious worship, that is made an Idol.

I shall shew, when I come to that point, that the Papists, in all these things, bestow Gods glory on an Image.

Now, Religious worship appertaines to God, and to God alone: Ipsius est, &c. It is his, and none but his: God will not suffer any part [Page 45] of that to be given to any creature in heaven, or earth; if wee doe, it is Idolatry.

What say you to the Sunne, Moone, and Stars, glorious creatures, may we not worship them?

O, no; they are glorious creatures indeed; but yet they are such as God hath made to serve us, he made not us to serve them.

But, what say you to Angels? we are lower somewhat then Angels; may we not wor­ship them?

Marke what the Angel saith to John, Rev. 19. See thou do it not, I am thy fellow servant, worship God. We are not servants to them, they and we are fellow-servants to one and the same God, See thou do it not, worship God.

O, but what say you to the Virgin Mary? Is it not lawfull to worship her?

I will answer in the words of the old Church, Mariam, &c. Let no man worship the Vir­gin Mary: Let the Virgin Mary be had in honour, say they, and let her be called blessed in all generati­ons; but let God the Father, Sonne, and holy Ghost be worshipped. Let no man worship the Virgin Mary.

Nay, I go further yet, The very humane na­ture [Page 46] of Christ, the manhood of Christ, is not to be worshipped any otherwise then as it is united to the person of the Son of God. I will tell you the confession of the primitive Fathers; Confitemur, &c. We confesse, that our Lord Je­sus Christ is to be worshipped in the flesh, in the manhood, but not according to the man­hood.

Nestorius, that blasphemous Heretick, di­vided the person of Christ, (we beleeve there is but one person, God, and Man) and made two persons in Christ: He made one the son of God, that was not the son of Mary; and another the son of Mary, that was not the son of God; and yet he believed that that same son of Mary was to be adored, that was not the son of God. The Fathers in the Church of God have abhorred this, and condemned this doctrine of Nestorius for Idolatry: Damnamus idololatriam, &c. We condemne the Idolatry of Nestorius. Where marke, I pray: If the very manhood of Christ may not be adored and worshipped with Re­ligious worship, but as it is united to the per­son of the Sonne of God; if the manhood of Christ when it is worshipped, be an Idol (for the word Idolatry implyes so much:) if it be an [Page 47] Idol, not being united to the person of the Son of God: then surely the Images of Christ must needs be Idols, seeing they are no way united, neither to the Godhead of Christ, nor yet to his manhood. I should have said more of this point if I had had time: I shall go on, by Gods grace, the next Sabbath.

OUt of my desire to stablish your hearts in the true, sincere worship of God, I thought good to discusse the question betweene the Church of Rome and us, about the worshipping of Images. This order I have propounded to my selfe.

First to shew that the making of all kinde of Images is not forbidden.

Secondly, that the worshipping of Images is Idolatry.

Thirdly, that the Idolater in worshipping an Image, turnes his glory to the likenesse of that Image.

Fourthly, that the worshipping of Images, [Page 49] as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome, is flat Idolatry.

Fiftly, I promised to shew you the use of all these.

The two first points I have handled. Now I come to my third proposition, and that is this; that

The Idolater, in worshipping an Image, changeth his glory into that Image.

Marke the words of the Text; They worship­ped the molten Image; and, in doing that, they chan­ged their glory. But I must tell you, I finde the words reade two waies; sometimes, his glory, and sometimes, their glory: They changed their glory. The Greek Septuagint reades it the first way, his glory. If you take it so, his glory, that is, the glory of God, then wee must distinguish of the glory of God: Now, the glory of God is two-fold;

• There is an Absolute glory of God.
• There is an Relative glory of God.

The absolute glory of God, is that same incomprehensible, ineffable majesty of the Dei­ty, dwelling in light that no man can attaine to. This glory it pleased God, in some measure, to [Page 50] communicate to the Creatures, to Angels, and to Men, in such a wise omnipotent manner, as is convenient and possible for them to be made partakers of: This is the absolute glory of God; this cannot be changed, no more then God himselfe can.

But now there is a relative glory of God; that is, that glory that men give to God in wor­shipping of him, that glory may be changed: and thus the Gentiles changed it, as the Apostle saith; They changed the glory of the incorruptible God, to the similitude of corruptible man, Rom. 1. 23. And thus the Israelites here changed his glory. If you reade the words so as the Septuagint doth; They changed his glory: But I like not that read­ing, the other is better.

They changed their glory; their owne glory: What was that? By their glory, is meant God himselfe: They changed their glory; that is, they changed their God. You shall have a place of Scripture, that will make this plaine to you, Jerem. 2. 11. Will any Nation change their God? (saith God by his Prophet) yet my people have changed their glory (that is, they have changed mee that am their glory) for that that will not profit. Let me observe somewhat out of the very words: mee [Page 51] thinkes it is observable; God may be called the glory of his people two waies.

Thus old Simeon, when hee had Christ in his armes, hee called him, the glory of the people Israel, Luke 2. 32. The Lord is my glory (saith David) and the lifter up of my head, Psal. 3. 4. Among many Prerogatives that belonged to the people of the Jewes, the Apostle names one, and that was this; To them pertained the glory, Rom. 9. 4. What glory was that?

Wee may take it, as some do, for the glory of the Covenant; God was their glory by Cove­nant.

Or else you may take it for the glory of Mi­racles, by which God brought them out of the land of Egypt.

Or else you may take it for the glory of Di­vine vision and revelation, that God vouchsa­fed to them.

Or (which I take especially,) by the glory you may meane the Arke, which was the signe of Gods presence. And therefore (by the way) Phineas his Daughter in-law, when shee heard that the Arke of God was taken, Now [Page 52] (quoth shee) the glory is departed from Israel: and shee named her sonne, that was borne at that time, Ichabod; that is, Where is glory? For shee said it againe, The glory is departed from Israel: for the Arke of the Lord is taken.

Wee may talke what wee will of other glo­ries; but the glory of any Nation consists in this, to have God to be their God. The graci­ous, and glorious presence of God, in all his ho­ly, and blessed Ordinances, according to his Word; that is the glory of any Nation under heaven.

It is our happinesse, wee have this glory yet among us. The Prophet Ezekiel, in his 9 ^th, 10 ^th, and 11 ^th. Chapters, shewes how the glory of God departed from Jerusalem. It did not de­part all at once, but by degrees it went away.

First the glory of the Lord (in that vision of his) removed from betweene the Cheru­bims where it was, and removed to the doore of the house; and there it stayed a while, to see if the people would turne unto him by true re­pentance: It stayed a while upon the doore of the house, and then the glory of the Lord re­moved thence: Afterward it removed to the East-gate of the entrance to Gods house, the [Page 53] East-gate was the furthest gate of the house, it removed thither, and there it stayed a while: Then it removed againe to the midst of the Ci­ty: and then from the midst of the City, it re­moved to the mountaine upon the East side of the City; that was Mount Olivet: cleane out of the City it was now departed.

Wee have the glory of God yet in our Land; and may it be the good pleasure of God to con­tinue this glory among us, till Jesus Christ come in glory with all his Saints. But, brethren, doth not this glory of God seeme to remove? doth it not seeme to fleet a little? O, should God withdraw his word from us, and the pro­fession of it: Should God remove the candle­sticke out of his place, should God withdraw this gracious presence of his in all his Ordinan­ces; then I tell you, Mothers, what you should name your children that are borne next, Ichabod, Where is glory? when God is gone from you.

I read of some foolish Nations that were wont to fetter, and chaine their gods, that they might not depart from them: Surely, our God cannot be chained, nor fettered; but yet there is a way to hold him still, when hee seemes to be [Page 54] departing: I gat hold on him (saith the Church) and would not let him goe, Cant. 3. 4. I will not let thee goe till thou blesse mee (saith Jacob, Genes. 32. v. 26. When our blessed Lord seemed to the two men that were travelling to Emaus, that hee would leave them, the Scripture saith, They con­strained him to stay with them. We may constraine our God; there is a holy violence we may offer to our God, by repentant teares, and importu­nate prayers, by which wee may stay our God with us still: and this is, as Tertullian calls it, A holy violence, pleasing and acceptable to God. But I stand no more upon the words: now I come to the thing.

They changed their glory; that is, their God. How may a people change their God? They may change their God two waies:

First, when they forsake him, and set up, and worship some other God in his stead; as the people forsook the Lord, and served Baal and Ashtaroth, Judges 2. 13. This is the grossest kind of Idolatry: This is a breach of the first Com­mandement.

Or secondly, a people may change their God, when they change the truth of God into a lie, when they represent and worship God in an I­mage, [Page 55] when they represent God in a corpo­reall, a visible, a finite, a circumscribed Majesty; this is to change a God: this is against the se­cond Commandement. And you must know, that thus the people changed their God here at this time; for, wee doe not thinke, that they made this calfe to be their god. Their sin was bad enough, let not us make it worse then it was. They had cast off now all Religi­on, and the feare of God, let not us thinke they had cast off sense and reason with it. Can wee imagine, that this people were such calves, as to think, that the calf that they themselves had made yesterday, was the very God that brought them out of Egyt three months before the calfe was made? Never imagine that; they took not this calfe to be their god. What then? They tooke it to be a figurative signe of their god. I know they call it their god; These are the gods that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. Or, as it is in Nehemiah, chap. 9. verse 18. This is thy God, O Israel, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt. But, as this Image is called a calfe in my Text, They made a calfe in Horeb; though it was no calfe, but the Image of a calfe: So they called it their god; but they did not [Page 56] thinke it to be their god; they tooke it as an I­mage of their god, as a figurative signe of their god: therefore Aaron proclaimes, To morrow is an holy day to Jehovah; not to the calfe, but to Jeho­vah, whom they worshipped in the calfe.

I pray marke this rule that I shall give you: The truth of God is turned to a lie, and God is changed to the Image that is worshipped; though God himselfe, and none but hee, be worshipped in that Image, I say, God is chan­ged into that Image that is worshipped for him, though the true God, and none but he, be worshipped in that Image.

Here is the reason of it: The rule of Divine worship is not the will of the worshipper, but it is the will of him that is worshipped: Now, it was never Gods will to be worship­ped in an Image. Take a similitude: Suppose a subject, a vassall, should devise an honour of his owne braine to his Soveraigne, to his King; and hee should set up a toad, and hee will have it in a glasse, and come every morning, and bow to that toad; and being asked why hee did so, hee should say; O, I doe it not to the toad, but to the honour of my Soveraigne and Prince: doe you think this Prince will like [Page 57] well to be resembled by a toad?

I tell you, brethren, there is a thousand times a greater disproportion between Almighty God, and an Image set up for him, then there is between a Prince, and a toad. Not to speake of that infinite inequality and distance that is between God, and a mortall man; there is a great distance even between a toad, and an Idoll, a great difference: For,

The toad is the workmanship of God; an Idoll, as is an Idoll, it is the workmanship of man.

A toad, it is a living creature, it hath sense and motion; the Image is a senselesse block, it hath neither life nor motion.

Therefore heare how it pleaseth the Spirit of God, in Scripture, to call consecrated Images; hee calls them sometimes lies, sometimes vani­ties, sometimes (nay oft) abominations, some­time Dung-hill-gods, sometimes Divels; You wor­shipped divels: What divels? Idols, the worke of their owne hands, Revel. 9. 20. I pray, heare, how the Spirit of God in Scripture shewes his detestation of all Images in his service. Hearken how hee thunders in the second Commande­ment; Thou shalt not make to thy selfe any graven I­mage; [Page 58] thou shalt not bow downe and worship it. Hearken what the Prophet Esay saith: Confound­ed be all they that worship Images. Hearken what the Apostle saith in the New Testament; Babes, take heed of Idols, 1 John c. ult. v. ult.

I pray looke over the Bible, and see if ever you finde any of Gods children (except at such times as they had corrupted their waies) worshipping of Images. Enough out of Scri­pture against Images.

Now, because wee are in this controversie to deale with such men whom the authority of Scripture doth not satisfie, such unreasonable men as are not content with the authority of Scripture; and because they say this stands upon tradition, the worshipping of Images in the Church: I pray give mee leave a little, besides my custome, to shew you the testimony of the Fathers, the determination of Councels, and the long tradition of the Church against Images. Of every one a word, and some few of many. There is no point that a man may be so copious in as in this.

First, for Fathers: Fieri non potest, &c. so Origen. It is not possible that a man should know God, and be a suppliant to an Image. There is no doubt [Page 59] (saith Lactantius) but there is no Religion, where there is a worshipping of Images. It is a most indigne thing (saith Tertullian) that the Image of a dead man should be worshipped by man, that is the Image of the living God. We make no figure, or representation of the Saints (saith Anthelopius Bishop of Hiponium. Wee have no need of them (saith Ambrose:) God will not be worshipped by a stone. We worship no Image (saith Austine) but that Image that is the same that God himselfe is; hee meanes Christ, the substantiall Image of the Father. I could goe on: but this is enough.

Come then to Councels: The Councell of Illeberos in Spaine; for, at that time, by the ne­gligence of the Bishops, Images were crept into the Church: then that Councell decreed, there should be no pictures in the Church. The Constantinople Councell condemned all Images in the Church of God: and so did the Coun­cell at Frankfort under Charles the Great.

For the Tradition of the Church: For three hundred yeares after Christ, it is confessed by some of our Adversaries themselves, that there were no Images in the Churches of God. Three hundred yeares after that, six hundred yeares after Christ, then began Images in the [Page 60] Churches; then the people began to yield some worship to them. Gregorie the Great, Bishop of Rome, condemned the worshipping of them: Hee allowed them, and hee did ill to allow them to be in the Church, to be provo­cations to Idolatry; yet, hee condemned the worshipping of them. Thus it continued six hundred yeares after Christ. Between six and eight hundred yeares, there came a marvelous stirre in the Church of God, between the East­erne and the Westerne Churches, about the worshipping of Images. The Bishops of the West, under Rome, were all for Images: The good Emperour of the East was against it; a bloudy war there was about it, and thus it con­tinued for above an hundred yeares: Then Minera, the Empresse, in the minority of her Sonne, a cruell Idolatrous woman (and marke when you will, Idolatry is cruell) shee caused the second Nycene Councell to be called; and there was first decreed the worshipping of Ima­ges in the Church of God, in the yeare of our Lord 788. Till then, Images were never ap­pointed publikely to be worshipped in the Church: yea, after that time, the worshipping of Images got not a peaceable quiet profession [Page 61] in the Church of God. Charles the Great, Em­perour in the West, mightily opposed it: hee called his Bishops together at Franckford; they mightily opposed the worshipping of I­mages.

Yea, I pray marke, that duty that concernes us in our Kingdome: Charles the Great, hee sent that Act of that second idolatrous Nycene Councell to our Bishops in England, to know how they liked it: They said, Alas for woe! we finde in those Acts many things against Christian Religion, especially this, that the worshipping of Images is decreed, which the Church of God curseth. Marke, our Bishops Fore-fathers in England, about eight hundred yeares since, held that a doctrine, which the Church of God curseth; yea, and that, against all the Tables of Gods Law, against the preaching of the Pro­phets, against the institution of the Apostles, a­gainst the custome of the old Church, against the practice of the primitive Church, against the cleare testimonies of the Fathers, against the determination of Councels, against a con­tinued Tradition for almost eight hundred yeares together. The beauty of the Church (as one complaines) in defiance of God and Man, is [Page 62] now polluted with the very filth of Paganisme; and Christian Churches are pestred, as much as ever the hea­then Temples were, with Idols.

I come now to the proof of that; that is the fourth point: viz. That,

The worshipping of Images, as it is taught, and pra­ctised in the Church of Rome, is plaine Paganisme and Idolatry.

The Paganish and Popish Idolatry is all one. I say, the worshipping of Images, as it is taught and practised in the Church of Rome, is plaine heathenish Idolatry.

How is it taught? and how is it practised? For the doctrine of their Church it is hard for a man to set it downe. The determination of the Councell of Trent about it, is a very nose of wax; you may turne it any way. They tell us of our divisions among our selves: It is a won­der to see how they interferre, and strike one on another in the point of worshipping of Ima­ges: It is hard to say what they teach. But I will tell you thus much; Isolius the Jesuite saith, This is the constant opinion of the Divines of our Church, that Images are to be worshipped with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is. This was the doctrine of Thomas of Aquine, [Page 63] whom they make a Saint. This was the do­ctrine of all his followers. This was the do­ctrine of Nauclantus, a Bishop in Italy, upon Romanes 1. Wee doe not (saith hee) worship before an Image, as some men are wont casually to speake: but we worship the Image it selfe, and that with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is. Peter Precavaria, a great professour of Divinity in Spaine, saith, This doctrine is the onely true, and pious doctrine, agreeable to the decrees of the Christian faith. Hee alledgeth nineteene of the speciall School-men that all were of this o­pinion besides himself. We take this then to be the doctrine of the Church of Rome, that Images are to be worshipped with the same worship that is due to him whose Image it is.

They that have travelled into foreigne parts have found, that the practise of that Church is as bad as these Theorems. Confessed by some of the modest sort of them, that their people were growne to a kinde of piety, that did not differ much from impiety: You will say it, if you consider,

First, the Image it selfe.

Then the worship that is given to that Image.

And then the rites and ceremonies, in the per­formance of that worship.

Consider first the Images themselves: What difference can you finde in the Images, be­tween the Popish Images, and the Images of the Gentiles?

Look to the matter of them; they are the ve­ry same. The matter of the Gentiles Images was, silver, and gold, and brasse, and wood, and stone; this is the matter of Popish Ima­ges.

Look to the outward forme of their Ima­ges; they are the very same. The Gentiles Ima­ges were the work of mens hands, they had eyes, and could not see; they had eares, and could not heare; they had mouths, and could not speake; they had hands, and could not work; they had feet, and could not walk. Popish Images, they see no more, they heare no more, they speake no more, they doe no more, they walke no further then the heathens I­mages. Thus much for the Image it selfe.

Then come secondly to the acts of devotion performed to these Images. The Gentiles were wont to bow to them, so doe the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to pray to them, so doe the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to render [Page 65] thanks to them, so doe the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to dedicate themselves, and all that they had to their Idols, so doe the Papists. The Gentiles nuncupated vowes to them, so doe the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to sweare by them, so doe the Papists. The Gentiles were wont to set up Candles to them, so doe the Pa­pists. The Gentiles were wont to burne in­cense to them, so doe the Papists. They yield the same acts of devotion to their Images, that the Gentiles did to theirs.

Then come to their rites and ceremonies in yielding these acts. I pray reade at your leasure the sixth Chapter of Baruch; you will say it is an Apocryphall book, and I confesse it is so; but yet with them it is Canonicall, and so is good Scripture against them. The authour of that Chapter, shewes what the people shall see when they come to Babylon; saith hee, there you shall see an Image of gold, or of silver, or of wood, or brasse, or stone: you shall see it clad in purple, with a scepter in it's hand; or, peradventure, trimmed up garishly, as a virgine that loves to goe gay. You shall see such an Image carried upon mens shoulders in a solemne procession, and a num­ber of people before, and behind it, adoring [Page 66] and worshipping it: You shall see the Priests with their shaven heads and beards taking off those offerings that are offered to those Images, and bestowing them upon common harlots. You shall see (saith he) candles lighted to them, you shall see perfume burned to them, you shall heare vowes nuncupated to them, you shall see oblations and offerings given to them: and all this to such an Image as is no better (saith hee) then a scare-crow in a garden of Cucumbers.

Now those that have ever seene the processi­ons that are in Paris, or the Ladie of Heige at Iquiers in Flanders, or have ever seene the wor­ship in Italy, or Spaine; they can beare witnesse that they have seene all these things done, and a number of fooleries more besides these.

Wee may thinke they have somewhat to say for themselves; and, in a word or two, you shall heare it.

First, they say, they worship not the Image, but they worship him in that Image whose Image it is.

Marke, first they have no excuse for the wor­shipping of Images, but the same that the hea­thens had; their worship is heathenish, and so is their excuse: For, when the Fathers, in the [Page 67] first yeares of the Church, challenged the hea­then for the worshipping of Images: What (say they) doe you thinke us such blockes, as to worship these blockes? They have the same.

Againe, it is not true that they say; for, as I said before, they conclude they worship the I­mage. Bellarmine proves, that the worship pro­perly belongs to the Image.

Againe, suppose they intended not to wor­ship the Image, but God in it: Know, that the rule of divine worship is not mans intenti­on, but Gods will. Marke it in the example I gave before, of a man honouring his Prince in a toad. Wee inquire not of the will of the wor­shipper, but of him that is worshipped. Let them shew that it is Gods will to be worship­ped in an Image, and wee will not charge them with Idolatry.

But, say they, doe not wee doe reverence to the chaire of state, in honour to the King, when the King is not there?

Wee doe indeed a civill reverence to it; but who appointed an Image to be the chaire of state to the King of heaven? The reverence wee doe to the chaire of state, is according to the will of the Prince; it is his will it should be [Page 68] done: But where can they tell us it is the will of God that wee should reverence and wor­ship him in a base inglorious abomination?

Yea, but say they, Images in the Church of God, have beene accounted Lay-means bookes.

It is true, they have called them so; but I say that againe, they are books prohibited, they are not bookes that come forth Cum Privilegio: God doth not allow such bookes as these. When the Bishops in their Churches were painfull in their places, and taught the people out of the Word; the people needed not these bookes: but when Teachers came to be Idols, then Idols came to be Teachers.

Yea, but say they, the worship that wee give to Images, wee give it not properly; it is improperly, it is analogicè, repraesentativè, reducti­vè: these are Bellarmine's words, and many more such distinctions.

O, Brethren, these are the men that know how to rob God of his glory, and yet they know how to deceive, and delude the world with di­stinctions; there is no place so plaine, but they can elude it with distinctions. But in the mean time, what wrong is it to Gods people to bring [Page 69] them to horrible grosse Idolatry, and then to seeke to worke and winde them out with such new distinctions, as the poore people under­stand not, nor, peradventure, they themselves?

If any man desire to be better satisfied about the point of worshipping of Images, I desire him to reade the third Homilie in our Church, set forth by the Church against the perill of I­dolatry, and hee shall finde abundant satisfa­ction.

There is yet one point to be handled, it is the use that wee are to make of this, and of the whole history: but the time is past, I must leave it for the next day.

THere remaines now but one thing more concerning this worshipping of Ima­ges, that is, the use that you are to make of all this that you have heard concerning it. It is this, by way of ex­hortation: Let mee exhort you to hate, and ab­horre, [Page 71] and detest all Idolatry if it be Image-worship, whether heathenish, or popish.

Holy David, in Psalme 119. brings many ar­guments to prove his love to God, and to his Word; and one argument above all other (for hee repeates it often) is this, his hatred of false waies; hee meanes false doctrine, all falshood in doctrine, and falshood in life: In verse 113. I hate all inventions; but thy Law doe I love. Ver. 163. I hate and abhorre all falshood, but thy Law doe I love. And thus hee goes on in many places more. Now then, if our hatred of falshood, be an ar­gument of our love to the truth; if such as is our hatred to errour, is our love to true Religion; then surely, brethren, wee are fallen from our first love, because wee are fallen from our first hatred of Popery and Superstition. Wee are growne now to have a better opinion of I­mage-worship then wee had before. Wee are growne almost to a very neutrality in Religion.

The desire of my soule is, to preserve your hearts upright in the holy, sincere worship of God: therefore, I pray, let me commend foure caveats to you, with which I will conclude this point.

The first is this, it is that of Saint John, 1 John [Page 72] Chap. ult. Ver. ult. Babes, (saith the Apostle) keep your selves from Idols. Marke, hee saith not your selves from Idolatry, but from Idols; not ab of­ficio, as Tertullian speakes, but ab effigie: not from the service of Idols, but from Idols; from such Images as may be abused to Idolatry.

God in the old Law forbad his people to de­sire the gold of an Image: they may not desire so much as the gold of an Image; For it will be as a snare to thee, saith God, Deut. 7. 25. David, hee met with the Philistines Images; it is likely they were of gold, or silver, or the like: and what doth hee with them? He burnes them every one, 2 Sam. 5. 20.

The brazen serpent, though it were set up at the first (as you heard) by Gods owne com­mand; though there were miracles wrought by the sight of it; though it were kept seven hundred yeares, as an excellent monument of Gods mercy; though it were a type and figure of Christ; Even as the brazen serpent was lifted up in the wildernesse, so shall the Sonne of man be lifted up: yet good Hezekiah, when hee saw incense bur­ned to it, would not forbid the burning of incense, but he takes the serpent, and breakes it, and stamps it in pieces, and calls it Nehushtan, [Page 73] it was a piece of brasse, and no more.

What did Moses in this history, when he saw the calf? Though it were made of gold, and there might have been some use of gold among the poore people, it might have done good to a number of them; yet hee would not keepe the gold, hee burnes it in the fire, hee stampes it to powder, hee beates it as small as dust, Deuter. 9. ver. 21. And hee is not yet revenged enough of this Image; hee casts the dust into the brooke that ranne out of Ho­reb, and made the people drinke of that water: hee would not have the lest memoriall of this I­mage left.

Let mee tell you but one history more out of the Church history: Epiphanius, that good Bishop, hee came to a Church, and found a vaile in the Church, wherein there was an I­mage of Christ, or of some Saint: For, quoth hee, I remember not whose it was, but I tooke it, and tore it, and wrote to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, under whose charge that Church was, that hee should not suf­fer such vailes in the Church, against Christian Religion.

These are good patternes fo Magistrates in Church, or Common-wealth; but these are no presidents for private men in publike places, out of a pretence of zeale, in a tumultuous manner, [Page 74] to enterprise any such publike Reformation. Men may doe, as Jacob, at home; every man re­forme his owne houshold, burie his owne I­mages, at home: but private men must learne that golden rule of Saint Austine, To correct what they can within the compasse of their owne calling, and what they cannot, to mourne for; to mourne and to cry to God, that hee would please to send his Son, to take whatso­ever offends out of his Kingdome. This is the first caveat, Take heed of Images: To take heed of sinne, is to Take heed of the occasions of sinne.

My second caveat is, take heed of familiar conversation with these Image-worshippers. All society with them is not unlawfull; there may be a lawfull society even with Idolaters, quoad publicam conversationem, in regard of a publike conversation: but take heed of societie with them in regard of inward acquaintance with them; it is dangerous. Let a good man be joyned with an evill man, you seldome see the evill bettered by the good; but the good is easily corrupted, and spoyled by the evill. A whole lump of dough will not sweeten a little leaven, but a little leaven will sowre a whole [Page 75] lump of dough. If any man that is called a bro­ther be an Idolater (saith Paul,) with such a man eate not, 1 Cor. 5. 11.

The Pharasees in old time were so carefull of their carriage among the Gentiles and Samari­tanes, that they would not so much as eate of a Samaritanes bread, nor drinke of a Samaritanes cup, nor warme themselves at a Samaritanes fire; they would not weare a Samaritanes garment, nor reade a Samaritanes booke. It is said of John the Evangelist, that hee refused to wash him­selfe in that bath wherein Cerinthus the heretike had washed. Polycarpus could not be gotten to salute Marcion the heretike. Eusebius Versalensis would not receive meat in prison from the hands of the Arrians. You know what Saint John saith; Whosoever saith, God speed to them, is par­taker with them in their sin, 2 John 10.

It is a childish thing I shall tell you of, but you may perceive by that how children were trained up in the detestation of heresie. Theodo­ret tells of it: At Samosatum, the children playing with a ball, refused to play with it after the ball by chance had touched Lucius the here­ticall Bishop, or the asse that hee rode on; they cast the ball into the fire, and would play no [Page 76] more with it. Wee have a story of Thosmos, that being about to be throwne, when hee was dead, into the grave of an hereticall Bishop, a voice was heard in the grave, Touch mee not he­retike. I avouch not this for truth, but I told you what the Apostle saith; If any man be called a brother, and be an Idolater, with such an one eate not.

Surely, brethren, wee are growne a little too familiar with them, wee are too bold a little with these Image-mongers; wee match with them, wee consult with them, wee conferre with them, wee converse with them; nay, per­adventure, wee finde such delight in their com­pany, as that wee cannot be merry, except they be in our company; we cannot eate our meat, except they carve it; wee cannot sleepe, except they rocke the cradle: no wonder, brethren, if wee be drawne away.

But let me give you a third caveat: Take heed of beholding Idoll-service out of the curiosity of the eye. Many men will goe to masse, or Idoll-service; they say they meane not to adore, they will not worship, they go but to see; and, may they not go see it?

I tell you, that sight is very dangerous, that [Page 77] curiositie of the eye is a branch of the concupi­scence of the eye, which, if it be not mortified, may be the occasion of many sinnes. Idolatry is called in Scripture by the name of whoredome. Lust gets into the heart by the eye. It is a hard matter for the body to be kept cleane, if the eye be full of adultery. Job made a covenant with his eyes to abridge them of liberty in matters of indifferency.

Let mee tell you a story that Saint Austine hath in the sixth booke of his Confessions, c. 8. He tells us of Allipius his deare friend, who went to Rome to study the Law. At Rome there were usually those gladiatory sports, bloudy, sword-killing sports; they killed men in sport: Hee could not be perswaded by his companions to see those sports; they desired him, but by no meanes hee would goe: at last (saith Saint Au­stine) by a familiar violence they drew him once to goe, and see those bloudy sports. Well, saith hee, I will goe, but I will be absent while I am there, I will not looke on it. Hee went, and when hee came, hee sate there among the rest, but hee shut his eyes, and would not see any of those sports, till at length there was a man wounded, and then the people shouted: [Page 78] Hee had shut his eyes, but hee had not stopped his eares; hee heard the shout, and would see what was the matter; hee looked about, and, seeing the wounded man, he then desired to see a little more. Thus (saith Saint Austine) he grew at the last not to be the same man he was when he came thither, but to be as one of the company to which hee came; and, after that time, hee de­sired to see it a second, and a third time; and, at last, hee came to be, not only a companion of those that went thither, but would be a guide to them; yet hee would goe, not tanquam unus ex illis, he would be one of the forwardest. And thus hee continued a while, till it pleased God, by a mighty hand, to deliver him from this vanity.

The eyes are the windowes of the body, and if wee shut them not up against allurements, wee may happily be forced to crie out, as they did Jerem. 9. 21. Death is entered in at the windowes. Lord (saith David) turne away mine eyes, that they behold not vanity. Idols are called vanities oft in Scripture. Surely, wee shoud make a cove­nant with our eyes, that they be not the occasi­on of our falling. I said it the other day; I con­clude with it now, Hee that would have [Page 79] an eye to his heart, must have an heart to his eye.

My fourth caveat that I give, is this, Take heed how you doe allow your selves to live in any knowne sinne without repentance; for, this is the way for which God gives men over to this sinne of Idolatry. Unrepented of errours in life, breed errours in judgement. Those 2 Thes. 3. v. 10, 11. that will not embrace the love of the truth, that they may be saved (saith the Apostle,) those men shall have strong delusions to beleeve lies. I conclude all with what the Apostle (speaking of the hea­then) saith, Rom. 1. 25. They knew God. The hea­then had some knowledge of God, but, they were not carefull to glorifie him as God, but were un­thankfull. What punishment came upon them for it? This, their foolish heart grew full of darke­nesse, and when they professed themselves wise men, they became fooles. Fooles! Why? How did they play the fooles? Saith the Apostle (which is the very phrase that is here) Because, when they knew God, they did not care to glorifie him as God, but were unthankfull; therefore God gave them over to this blindenesse, to turne the glory of the incor­ruptible God, to the Image of corruptible man, and of foure-footed beasts, and they served and worshipped the [Page 80] creature, more then the Creator, that is God over all, who is blessed for ever. Thus, beloved, I have now done with that great point, concerning the worshipping of Images.

Now I come to the last thing in my Text, that is the roote of this sin, whence this sin of theirs did spring; it was from forgetfulnesse of God, and of his workes.

They forgat God their Saviour, &c.

The words are many, and many things may be observed out of them. I will runne them first over with a briefe paraphrase, and then speake of that sinne that was the cause of this I­dolatry; the forgetfulnesse of God.

[They forgat God.] There was one of the Tribes that was called the Tribe of Manasses; Manasses had this name, of forgetfulnesse. When I looke over this Psalme, mee thinkes this people should be all of that Tribe, they were so for­getfull. In ver. 7. They remembred not the multitude of his mercies. There the Spirit of God speakes of their forgetfulnesse. Then, in ver. 13. they soone forgat his workes. They made haste, and forgat them, as the words are. And now here againe, They forgat God their Saviour. Three times the Spi­rit of God in this Scripture speakes of their [Page 81] forgetfulnesse of God.

It was but three months agoe, since God brought them out of the land of Egypt: It was little more then one month agoe, since God appeared to them in a fearefull manner upon Mount Sinai, with thunder, and lightning, and earth-quakes; and yet see, they have already forgot God.

[God their Saviour.] Saviour: The word is sometime taken strictly in the Scripture, in a narrow sense; and sometime it is taken in a larger sense.

Take it in the narrow sense, and then a Sa­viour is such an one as saveth from sinne, from the punishment of sinne, from Gods wrath, from hell, and eternall damnation: Thus our Lord is called a Saviour. You know what the Angell said to the Shepheards; This day is borne to you in the City of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. And his very name shewes him to be thus; Jesus, it signifies a Saviour: and the reason is given by the Angell; because hee shall save the people from their sinnes. Hee saves them,

First, from the guilt of sin.

Then he saves them from the punishment of sin.

Then hee saves them from the power of sin: Thus the word Saviour is taken, when you take it strictly.

But you may take it more largely, and then a Saviour is such an one as is a deliverer, a pre­server, either from wrong, from afflictions, from oppressions, from dangers, from tempo­rall death. A Saviour, that is, as if hee should say, a Preserver. In this sense the Apostle saith, 1 Tim. 1. 10. that God is the Saviour of all men; that is, the preserver of all men: but, especially, of them that beleeve. In this sense take the word here: God was their Saviour, that is, their Preserver; And doe but consider,

First the evils from which hee preserved them, and those were many.

Then consider the meanes whereby hee pre­served them, and those were mighty.

Then consider the end to which he preserved them, and that was glorious, that they should be a holy people, a peculiar treasure to himself. Consider, I say, the meanes by which, the ill from which, and the end to which they were saved; and then no people may more appropriate God to be their Saviour, then this people could: Yet, behold, They forgat God their Saviour.

Yea, and they forgat his works. The works of God are set downe here to be of three sorts:

• Great workes.
• Wonderfull workes.
• Terrible workes.

Great works in Egypt: Wondrous works in the land of Ham (the land of Ham, and Egypt are all one.) Then, Terrible works by the Red-sea.

[Great works.] The works of God, are either,

• workes of Nature.
• workes of Grace.

The workes of Nature, are either workes of Creation; or they are workes of Actuall pro­vidence, in the preserving that that is created.

The workes of Grace those are many. The principall work whereupon all others depend, is the Incarnation of the Son of God, that great mystery of godlinesse, God manifest in our flesh; that was the great work of grace.

Then redemption of mankinde by his blood. The electing of some to salvation, be­fore the foundations of the world were laid. The vocation of them in Gods good time. The justification of them in the blood of our cruci­fied Jesus. The sanctification of them by Gods [Page 84] blessed Spirit, the resurrection of their bodies, and the glorification of them. All these are workes of grace.

Now all the workes of God, whether they be workes of nature, or of grace, they are all great workes. There is not a worke of Creation, but it is a great worke. The Pis-mire is a little creature, yet it is a great worke: the making of a Pis-mire is as great a worke, as the creation of an Elephant. It is all one with God; hee can as easily make an Elephant, as a Pis-mire; nay, Deus maximus in minimis, a man may truely say it; God is greatest in the least creatures. If you marke it, you may see how great God is in e­very little creature.

The lesse the Watch is that you carry about you, to know the time of the day, the greater is the skill of the work-man: And, surely, in eve­ry little worke, it appeares how great God is. There is never a worke so little, but it is a great work, if it be well considered. Workes of Cre­ation are great workes.

But there are some workes greater then o­ther: Those workes wherein the Divine attri­butes are most manifested; such workes where­in appeares the great wisedome of God, or the [Page 85] great goodnesse of God, or the great power of God, or the great truth of God, or the great mercy of God, or the great justice of God. Those workes wherein these attributes of Divine ma­jesty are most apparent, those are called great workes: Therefore the workes of redemption, are greater workes then the workes of creati­on: The workes of grace, are greater workes then the workes of nature. But now this peo­ple had seen great workes in both kindes;

Great workes of Nature.

Great workes of Grace.

There were workes of nature; let mee name but one or two of them: The multiplication of them in Egypt. When they came to Egypt at first, there were but seventy souls of them, seven­ty souls that came out of the loines of Jacob, no more. They were in Egypt but two hundred and fifteene years, no longer: A great part of this time they lived under oppression, loaden with burthens, loaden with blowes, loaden with injuries; yet see how they multiplied: this same bleeding vine bare abundance of fruit, this Ca­momile that was thus trodden downe, it pro­spered exceedingly. They grew in two hun­dred [Page 86] and fifteene yeares to be so many, that, at their coming out of Egypt, there were num­bred six hundred thousand men, from twenty yeares old and upward, besides women and children. This multiplication was a great work of God; a work of Nature.

Then consider their preservation there, how wonderfully they were preserved in the de­spight of their enemies; and how all things were preserved that were theirs: As the land of Goshen preserved from those same swarmes of flies, with which all the rest of Egypt was pe­stred. Their cattell in the land of Goshen preser­ved from that murraine, of which the cattell, through the land of Egypt, died. The land of Go­shen was light, when all Egypt besides was dark­nesse. This wonderfull preservation of that that they had, and the preservation of their first-born, when all the first-born died in the land of Egypt. This preservation of them was a great worke.

There is another work, which I know not whether it be the greater; their eduction and bringing out of Egypt. Their preservation was great, their bringing out was as great; they came out in despight of Pharaoh and his servants; and they came out with vigour of body, their [Page 87] veins full of bloud, and their bones full of mar­row; There was not one feeble person among their Tribes. Here were great Works; but all these were works of nature, either of multiplication, or preservation.

Then will you heare the great workes of Grace? The adoption of this people to be Gods first-borne: the separation of this people from all the people of the earth, to be to God a holy Nation, a Royall Priest-hood, his peculiar treasure. The revealing of his promises, especially that great promise, that out of their loines should come that blessed seed, that blessed Lord, in whom all the Nations of the earth were to be blessed. The promulgation of the Law; no Nation had it but they: God had not dealt so with other Nations; the hea­thens had not the knowledge of his Lawes.

Here were great workes of Nature, great works of Grace; yet this was the unthankfulnesse of this people, they forgat God their Saviour that had done these great things for them in Egypt.

Then Wonderfull things too, Mirabilia. There be foure sorts of Mirabilia, of wonderfull things: There be mirabilia naturae, wondrous works of nature: secret wondrous works of nature; That the load-stone should draw Iron to it; [Page 88] That this power of the load-stone should be restrained, if the Adamant be neare it. That the Adamant cannot be broken upon an anvile with an hammer, that is easily broken if it be anointed with goats bloud. That the flesh of a dead Peacocke should not putrefie: Saint Au­stine saith, hee observed it himselfe, hee took an experiment of it in an whole twelve-month, hee tried it, that it putrefied not. That a foun­taine in Lybia should send forth water so cold in the day, that none could drink it; and so hote in the night, that none can touch it: These, and a thousand more, are mirabilia naturae, wonder­full things in nature; no man is able to give the reason of it: yet it is God that did these won­derfull things in nature.

Then againe, there be mirabilia artis, won­derfull things in art. There were seven build­ings that were wont to be called the Wonders of the world: one of them was in Egypt, the Pyrami­des: another of them, above all other was a wonder, me thinks, above all wonders: a won­der of Art. It were too long to tell you what a wonder it was. It was nothing but a prodigall monument of prodigality and vaine-glory; prodigality and vaine-glory, that was the sin [Page 89] of them that built it; but the skill in making it, that came from God.

Thirdly, there be mirabilia Satanae, there be wonderfull things of Satan, wondrous works that Satan and his instruments, Magicians and Sorcerers, can doe. God did not punish the apostate Angels at the first (as the School-men say) in their naturall skill and power; that is as great now to doe a mischiefe, as the skill and power of good Angels is to doe that that is good. The Divell, hee can doe wonderfull things; hee can compasse the whole earth in a little time; you finde, in the booke of Job, that he can raise tempests, he can bring down fire, hee can hurrie a body, and remove it; as he did the body of our Lord from the wilder­nesse to the pinacle of the Temple, and thence to the mountaine. Hee can speake in Images; it was the divell that spake in some Images of the Gentiles. And if popish Images have now and then spoken too, as they say they have, (Be­ne de me scripsisti, said he of Thomas Aquinas, Thou hast written well of mee Thomas) I make no question, but the divell spake in them.

The divell can doe more then that; the divell knowes the secret and hidden vertues in things; [Page 90] their sympathies and antipathies, their quali­ties and properties. The divels can doe wonderfull things: Though they cannot doe miraculous things, they can doe wonderfull things. Thus the sorcerers in Egypt, they did many wonderfull things; mira, but not true miracles.

Now fourthly, there are mirabilia Dei, the wonderfull things of God. Indeed, there is ne­ver a worke of God but it is wonderfull, what worke soever it be. The very Heathen man could say, in every naturall thing, there is some­thing in it that is wonderfull. But there are some workes of God above all other that are truly miracles; not mira, but miracula. What workes are those?

Such as exceed the facultie and possibility of nature, they are properly and theologically miracles. The divell can doe many things by the concurrence of naturall causes, but hee can­not worke a miracle: that which is properly and theologically called a miracle, the divell can­not worke it.

Now God had wrought many miracles for this people. The turning of the dust of the earth into lice, this was a miracle: the Magici­ans, by the help of the divell, attempted to doe [Page 91] this; but they could not doe it: the art of the Magicians failed them in such a thing as this, they could not turne the dust into lice. Then he turned the water of the river into blood; hee turned the red-sea into drie land; hee turned three daies into three darke nights; hee turned light into palpable darknesse, that no man saw one another, nor stirred from the place where hee was for three daies. These are wonderfull things, truely miracles; yet, this people forgat God their Saviour, that had done such great things for them in Egypt, and wondrous things in the land of Ham.

Yea, and lastly, Terrible things in the Red-sea; yea, God did terrible things for them before they came to the red-sea: He did terrible things for them in Egypt, if you marke them; hee plagued the Egyptians in all things.

First in their soules, with hardnesse of heart; hee plagued them in their bodies with botches, and blaines; hee plagued them in their corne with haile; hee plagued them in their beasts with murraine; hee plagued them in their houses with froggs; hee plagued them in their families with the death of their first-born: Here were terrible things when they were in Egypt; [Page 92] but, the most terrible thing of all was that at the red-sea, when hee drowned Pharaoh, and all his host, that there was not one of them left. In the ninth verse of this Psalme, you may ob­serve a worke of power; in the tenth verse, a worke of mercy; and, in the eleventh verse, a worke of judgement. The worke of mercy was a great worke, the worke of power was a wonderfull worke, and the worke of judgement was a terrible worke.

Yet, for all this, see the unthankfulnesse of this people. They forgat all these.

But, is it possible (you will say) that they for­gat, in so little a time, all these works; that they did not remember them?

There is a two-fold forgetfulnesse; there is a forgetfulnesse of the minde, and a forgetfulnesse in affection, and action. A man may have God in his minde, yea, in his words, in his mouth, and yet forget him while hee thinkes of him, while hee speakes of him.

I will shew it you in examples: Aske the I­doll-monger, Why dost thou make this Idoll? He will say, To remember God by it. It is the usuall word of the Papists; Why have you these Images? Why? To remember God by them. [Page 93] But this is no way to remember God, this is to forget him: because, when his Commande­ment is forgotten, hee is forgotten; his Com­mandement is, that thou shalt not make an I­mage. They made this calfe to have a visible re­presentation of God before their eyes, to re­member him. O, they forgat him now.

A blasphemer, a swearer, will have the Name of God in his mouth: there are not three peri­ods, but hee will have the Name of God in his mouth. Will you say, that this man remembers God that talkes and speakes of him, and swears by him at every word? Doth hee remember him, thinke you? This is to forget God: For, if hee remembred the Name of God, that it is a good name, hee would love it: If hee remem­bred that it were a great name, hee would feare it: If hee remembred it were a glorious name, hee would reverence it. But hee neither knowes it to be a good name, hee forgets that it is a good name, and a great name, and a glorious name, and that makes him to forget God, even when hee remembers him, and speakes of him.

To conclude, let mee onely make a little ap­plication. I thinke, if any Nation may call God their Saviour next this people; surely, I thinke, [Page 94] wee may doe it. Consider how God saved us in 88. Was not that a great worke? Remem­ber how God saved us in the Gun-powder treason: Was not that a wonderfull worke? Remember how God saved our lives from death five yeares since, in that same great and heavie plague: Was not that plague a terrible worke?

Yet surely, brethren, have not wee forgotten God? have not wee forgotten these workes of his? Our falling from our first love, our sli­ding back again to Egypt, our neutrality in Reli­gion, our little hatred of Idolatry, and Super­stition: such is our pride, such is our wanton excesse, such is our oppression, such our false weights, and such our false oathes, and such our false faces: Our waies that wee walke in are so unworthy of the Gospell of Christ, that, I am affraid, God may charge us as truely as hee charged this people, Wee have forgot God our Saviour, that hath done so great things, so won­drous things, and so terrible things for us.

I Have done with that same fearefull sinne of this people. I am now, in the verse that I have read, to shew you the fearefull punishment of God upon them for this sinne. He said, hee would destroy them, had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turne away his wrath, lest bee should destroy them. In these words you have two things:

The s [...]ntence that God pronounceth against this people for this sinne; He said, hee would de­stroy them.

You have secondly, the revocation of this sentence; the meanes whereby God was kept from the execution of this judgement: you shall see how Gods hand was held from destroying of them; Moses his chosen stood in the breach, and tur­ned away the wrath of God, that hee should not destroy them.

First, bee said hee would destroy them. The judge­ment that God threatens for this sin, is not fa­mine, nor captivity, nor bondage, nor pestilence, nor the sword of an enemy; but it is a totall subversion, a totall destruction of the whole Nation. The words of God used to Moses, Deut. 9. 14. Moses, let mee alone, let mee destroy this people, that I may blot out their name from under hea­ven. Here was the sentence, hee would blot out their name from under heaven. I will ne­ver be troubled againe with such an unthank­full people as this; I will blot out their name; there shall not be such a people upon the earth as this, that have used mee thus unthankfully for such mercies as I have shewed them. Hee doth not now threaten to lopp off a bough or two from the tree, but to stub up the whole tree; hee will not leave roote or branch, head nor tayle of this people; hee will have them all [Page 97] buried and entombed together in one grave of destruction; I will destroy them all.

Hee said hee would destroy them.

I will set downe one generall Proposition: Great sins, such as are sinnes of an high nature, when they come once to be committed with an high hand, that is, with delight, with out-rage, with impudency, and impenitency; they are able to bring the judgements of God to the utter destruction of a whole people, of a whole country.

Sins of an high nature. I told you, when I began to handle this Scripture, what sinnes are sinnes of an high nature; that is, such sinnes as are directly against God:

• As, Atheisme.
• As, Blasphemy.
• As, Idolatry.

Or, such as are directly against nature:

• As, Sodomy.
• As, Bestiality.
• As, All incestuous, and unnaturall pollution.

Or, thirdly, such sinnes as are directly against humane society:

• [Page 98]As, Murther.
• As, Robbery.
• As, Rapine.
• As, The effusion, and shedding of innocent bloud.

Such sinnes as these, that are directly a­gainst God, against nature, against humane so­ciety, when they are thus committed with an high hand, they are able to bring destruction, utter destruction, not only upon whole houses, as they did upon the house of Jeroboam the son of Nebat, upon the house of Basha, upon the house of Ahab (which houses God swept with the beesome of destruction, as the Prophet speakes) but they are able to bring the judgement of God, to utter destruction, upon a whole people, upon a whole country: they are able to lay the honour of the greatest Kingdom, of the greatest Monarch in the dust, in a little space, in a little time. I need not stand long to prove this; on­ly two or three examples.

Some of these sinnes of this nature brought an utter destruction upon the whole world; there were but eight persons left in it: when it was over-flowne with these sins, it came then to be over-flowne with water.

For some of these sinnes God brought such a fearefull destruction upon Sodome, and Gomor­rah, that he made all that country a proverb of reproach: When God is pleased to threaten ut­ter destruction, hee saith, hee will destroy it as hee did Sodome and Gomorrah.

For this sinne of Idolatry, 2 King. 21. 3. God threatens that hee will wipe Jerusalem as a man wipeth a dish, and turneth it upside downe, when hee hath wiped it. In Ezek. 21. 27. he threatneth Jeru­salem, that he will overturne it, and overturne it, and overturne it; three times: and three times you may say that Jerusalem was overturned.

It was overturned once by the Babylonian army, under Nebuchadnezar.

It was overturned a second time by the Ro­mane army, under Titus Vespasian.

And then the very ruines of it afterward were so overturned by Elius Adrian the Emper­our, the very carkasse of that City; for Titus left it but like a carkasse, it was so torne and tortu­red. The carkasse of Jezabell was eaten so with doggs, that men could not say, This is Jezabell; so the carkasse of this City was so torne, that, had it not been for a turret or two, and a piece of a wall that they would have stand, a man [Page 100] could not have said, This was Jerusalem.

Idolatry was first established in the Easterne parts of the world: I pray looke what miser­able destruction God brought upon those East­erne parts. Where are now those golden Chur­ches of Asia? Where are those learned Chur­ches of Greece? As Pius Secundus once said, A man may looke for Greece in Greece now, and not finde it: they are all drowned in Turcisme and infidelity, for this sinne of Idolatry. I will goe no further in examples.

In Levit 18. God reckons up the sinnes of the people that lived in the land of Canaan before he brought his people to it; and he reckons all those sins that I named to you now: some di­rectly against God, some directly against nature, some directly against humane society. Then he warnes his people v. 25. & 28. to take heed; Take heed that you defile not your selves, and the land, with those sinnes wherewith the Gentiles did defile it: mark the reason, lest (quoth hee) the land spue you out, as it did the inhabitants before you. A homely phrase, you will say: It is so; yet, it is a phrase observable. As it is with a man that hath his stomack over­charged with some meat that hee hath eaten, hee never is at rest and quiet till hee have cast [Page 101] up that meat that offends his stomack: so is it with a land that is over-charged with sinnes of this nature, it is never at rest; it is still working, and working; as a mans stomack is never at rest, till it have eased it self by vomiting, and have cast out those inhabitants that have defiled it.

It pleaseth the Spirit of God to use the same phrase in Rev. [...]. 16. saith God to the Angell of the Church of Ephesus; Thou art neither hot nor cold, but luke-warme, I will spue thee out of my mouth. I will cast thee out with loathing and indigna­tion.

God is a mercifull God, and his mercy is o­ver all his workes; but when sin once growes to be horrible, God can no more forget that he is just, then hee can forget that hee is mercifull: hee must needs pay it, and pay it home in the end with vengeance. God may be provoked too farre, and patience, when it is too farre a­bused, will turne to fury.

When I consider the manifold sinnes, under the burthen where of this Land groanes, and I name that first which I named last; our luke-warmnesse, our neutrality in Religion, our halting between God and Baal, together with [Page 102] our unmercifull oppressions, and our over-mer­cifull connivance at the vile dishonour to the Name of God: I doe not wonder, brethren, that God hath denied to us, this yeare, his ac­customed plentifull blessing in our corne-fields. I doe not wonder that hee hath sent to us divers times such unseasonable seasons. I wonder not at the murraine of cattell in many places of this Kingdome. I wonder not that the arrowes of pestilence flee abroad to so many corners of the Kingdome, that the venome of them drinkes up the spirits of so many hundreds in severall places. I wonder not at our mutuall Jealousies and discontents (peradventure, fore-runners of heavier judgements) I wonder at the mercy of God, considering what a sinfull Nation we be, a Nation laden with sins; a Nation that walk, most unworthy of those high favours that God hath vouchsafed us; I wonder, I say, at Gods mercy, that hath spared us thus long: It is his mercy, that wee are not all consumed. It is his mercy, that God blots not out our names from under heaven. Pradventure, there be some Moseses in the land, some chosen servants of God, some that have stood in the gap to keep this judgement from us. That is the first point.

I come now to the second; He said, he would destroy them (saith the text;) then Moses his chosen stood in the breach, and kept away his fierce wrath, that hee should not destroy them.

Here are three things observable:

First, that a sentence of extirpation, pronoun­ced against a people, is revoked; God said that hee would destroy them, yet hee doth it not.

A second thing, that one man, Moses, (indeed a chosen man) Moses whom hee had chosen, pro­cures this revocation of this sentence against this whole people.

A third thing is, the meanes by which Moses came to get this sentence revoked, and that was this, hee stood in the breach. God, like an enemy, had made a breach in the wall, and Moses hee runnes to that breach, and there stayes God, that hee should not destroy them.

I am affraid time will not give mee leave to goe through all these, I will goe as farre as I can, and leave the rest till the next day; they are not things that are to be hastily passed over.

The first is, that the sentence is revoked;

Hee said that hee would destroy them.

[Hee said it.] If a man had said it, I should not then have wondred, that it should [Page 104] have been revoked. A man may say a thing and never meane it; Man is deceitfull upon the weight, lighter then vanity it selfe.

Or, secondly, a man may say a thing, and meane it, and yet not be able to make it good: as Senacherib used great and big words against Jerusalem, what hee would doe; and hee meant it, surely, for hee came with a mighty army a­gainst it: but God put a hooke in his nostrils, and a bridle into his lips, and brought him back againe that same way that hee came; hee was not able to shoote an arrow against it.

Thirdly, a man may say a thing, and meane it, and have power in his hand to doe it; but his mind may be altered, hee may repent of what he hath said: as you see of David, he said he would not leave a man alive in Nabals house, to make water against the wall: surely, hee meant it too, and had power in his hand to do it; but, by the wisedom of Abigail, he was per­swaded to turne, and alter his mind; hee did not doe it. If a man had said this, I say, I should not have wondred: But that God, that is the prime truth, the prime essentiall truth, upon whom all truth depends; Hee that is light, in whom is no darknesse at all; hee that is truth, in [Page 105] whom there is no falshood at all: none actual­ly, hee cannot deceive us; none passively, hee cannot be deceived himselfe, that hee should say, and should not doe it when hee hath said it: for, as that Wizard Balaam, said truely, God is not as man, that hee should lie; or as the son of man, that he should repent. Hath God said it, and shall he not doe it, saith hee? Hath the word come out of Gods mouth, and shall he not make it good? I will urge the objection no further.

But I answer it, and with the words of Gregorie; Deus mutare sententiam, &c. God knowes how to change a sentence pronounced against a people, but God knowes not how to change his counsell. The counsell of God; that is, what God in his secret counsell hath decreed and determined from all eternity, that shall be fulfilled in the season, in the substance, yea, in e­very circumstance. God knowes not how to change his counsell; the counsell of God is as immutable as God himselfe: There is no variable­nesse, with God, (saith S. James) nor shadow of change c. 1. 18. Mutability, is a kind of mortality: It is as possible for God to be mortall, as to be mu­table. The counsell of God is immutable, God knows not how to change that, but God [Page 106] knows how to change a sentence pronounced. You shall see it in many examples: God tells A­bimelech in a dream; Surely thou art a dead man, for this woman that thou hast in thine house; yet, no sooner had Abimelech restored the woman, but Gods sentence was changed, his life spared. In Judg. 10. the people were oppressed by the Phili­stines, and by the Ammonites; they come to God for help: God tells them, No (saith hee) I have delivered you heretofore; when you cried to mee I deli­vered you, but you have gone and served other gods: goe, get you to those gods, let them deliver you; as for mee, I will deliver you no more. A fearefull sentence; yet, presently upon their repentance, God deli­vered them, and many times afterward.

Ezechiah was sick to death, and God sends him a message by Isaiah, Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die. Ezechiah turnes his face to the wall, and weepes; God revokes his sentence, and hee addes fifteene yeares more to his daies. God sends a fearefull message by the mouth of Jonah to the Ninevites, Yet fourty daies, and Nine­veh shall be destroyed; yet, for all that fourty, and fourty, and almost fourty more, not daies, but years, passed over the heads of the Ninevites, be­fore that City of theirs was lodged in bloud.

Why, but will some say, how can this stand, though with the constancy and un­changeablenesse of Gods nature, yet with his truth, thus to change, and revoke his sentence?

Not to trouble you with the opinions of some men: let me only hold to this, That these same comminations, and threatnings of God, are not absolute, but they are conditionall; they are upon a condition: Now a condition (as the School-men say) a conditionall threatning, a conditionall commination, it doth turne it selfe upon the condition this way, or that way, as the doore doth upon the hinges.

Let me make it a little plainer if I can; When God doth threaten that hee will roote out a people, as hee did here now; or to bring such and such judgements upon a people, hee doth it usually upon a two-fold condition. When God doth so threaten a people, hee requires two things from that people:

The first is at the hands of wicked men, that is, that they shall all turne away from their sins, repent of their sins; and then the sentence is changed. Look Jerem. 18. ver. 6, 7, 8. If I shall speake to a Nation, to pluck it up, and to roote it out, to destroy it; if that Kingdome, and that Nation shall [Page 108] turne from their evill waies, and repent; then (saith God) I will repent of that evill that I threatned to doe against them. The sentence is absolute, to the end it may strike a further feare and terrour. The sentence is propounded absolutely, but in­tended conditionally. Though God doth not change his will, yet God doth will a change. If wee know how to change our lives, God knowes how to change his sentence. That is the first thing that he requires.

The second thing that God lookes for at the hands of his children, is, an earnest, and vehement intercession to God by prayer for pardon. That was the condition hee look­ed for here at this time: He said, hee would destroy this people; but it was with this condition, hee would not destroy them, if Moses made interces­sion for them.

Yea, and hee would encourage Moses; hee did as much as tell Moses, that this was the meanes whereby hee might be stayed. And he would encourage Moses to make intercession, by his words; Moses (saith hee) let mee alone, and let mee destroy this people. Why doth hee say, let mee alone? What is that, but because hee would have him be bold? O Moses, you see [Page 109] what power you have with mee, I cannot strike this people if you make intercession (hee knew Moses his love to this people) therefore, let mee alone, that I may destroy them.

I must conclude with the time, and with an application.

There is a fatall period set to all the King­domes of the earth, sooner or later, according as the sinnes of that Kingdome and people come to their full ripenesse and maturity. Both Phi­losophers, and Divines have observed, by long experience, diverse prognostick signes of the ap­proach of the ruine of a people: If God should seeme, by any of these prognostick signes, to threaten our ruine and destruction at this time; if God doth seeme to any to doe this, let them know, it may be that this threatning of God now is but conditionall. There are two waies by which wee may get God to revoke, and call back his word. One is, by true repentance from wicked men; and, the other is an earnest inter­cession made by Gods children. O, brethren, that wee did but know, in this our day, what belongs now to our peace. O, that wee could do, as the Ninevites did, every one humble him­selfe before God, and turne from the wicked­nesse [Page 110] of his waies! And, O, that Moses would run to the breach, and now with strong cries and teares, begge pardon! for who doth know whether the Lord will not yet be mer­cifull to us, and turne his fierce wrath from us, that wee perish not? I have gone thorow the first thing, the revocation of the sentence: Who caused it? Moses; And by what means? By standing in the breach. I must leave till next time.

I Spake the last day of the re­vocation of this sentence. I come now to the next thing, Who caused the revocation of this sentence: but one man, Moses; but hee was a chosen man.

[Moses whom hee had chosen.]

Marke, I pray, among Gods elect in every generation, in every age, there have been some men that have been select. Such a man I name Enoch in the old world, that God tooke away hence, that hee should not see death: And such a man I reckon Noah to be, a man gracious in [Page 112] the eyes of God, when all the world perished. And such a man I reckon Abraham to be, whom God is pleased to honour with the name of his Friend, Abraham my Friend: And such a man was Moses, whom God was wont to talk with, as familiarly as one man talkes with another, as the Scripture saith: And such men I reckon Eliah, and Elisha to be, the very Chariots and Horse­men of Israel in their daies: And such a man was Daniel, a man of Gods affection, a man that God did wondrously love, and set by; and many more. These are as deare to God, as the apple of his owne eye, as the signet upon his right hand: these I call the Favourites of heaven.

Kings upon earth have their Favourites; the King of Kings hath his. These are the Favou­rites of heaven; these are those principall men: Micah 5. v. 5. The Princes of men. The hebrew beares it, Principall men. These are those Excellent ones upon earth, that David speakes of, Psal. 16. My delight is upon the Excellent ones that are upon the earth. There is not one of these but are worth a thousand others, and have more power with God, then many thousands of others: And, as the people said of David, when hee would goe to battell against Absolom; [Page 113] No, thou shalt not goe, lest the light of Israel be quench­ed: for thou art worth ten thousand of us. I may say the same of such as these: One Moses in the day of Gods hot wrath and vengeance; one such a man as Phineas was in the time of a plague; One such a man as Eliah was in the time of a drought; One such a man as Paul in the compa­nie when men are in a shipwrack, is able to doe more good then a thousand others.

Gods children, they are not alway mighty men according to the flesh; Not many mighty, saith the Apostle, not many mighty ones accord­ing to the flesh, 1 Cor. 1. 6. But, though they be not alway mighty according to the flesh; yet, in regard of their spirit and grace, and their state with God, they may be mighty men. Saint John Baptist, a contemptible man according to the flesh; but the Angell fore-told of him, that hee should be great in the sight of the Lord.

You have some men that have prided them­selves in the sirname of Great; Antiochus the Great, and Alexander the Great, and Herod the Great, and Pompey the Great, and diverse others. There be many of Gods children poore, con­temptible things, Ignobilia mundi, the contem­ptible things of the world; that are greater [Page 114] men with God, and have done greater acts, then the greatest of these great ones.

Which of all those great ones was able to command the sun to stand still? Josuah did it; Sun, stand thou still in Gibeon, and thou Moon in the val­ley of Ajalon. Which of all those great ones was able to command the thunder? Samuel did it in the time of wheat-harvest. Which of all those great ones was able to command the raine? Eliah did it: As the Lord God of Israel liveth, there shall be no raine, but according to my word, 1 King. 17. verse 1. Which of all those great ones was able to stand in the breach against the great God of heaven and earth, when hee came to execute his fierce wrath upon his people? you see Moses did it. If one Moses may cause a revocation of a fearfull sentence against a whole Nation, what may a multitude of Gods chosen ones doe, uni­ting their forces, and soliciting heaven for mercy?

I know, beloved brethren, what opinion the world hath of Gods children, of Gods cho­sen ones: they doe not onely thinke them to be contemptible things, [...], as the Apostle speakes, the very filth of the world, and the off-scou­ring of all things unto this day: Men of no name, as [Page 115] Job saith; Nay, men of no being: Those things that are not, saith the Apostle. They may have a be­ing in nature; but they have no being in the esteeme and account of men, those things that are not.

And they not onely thinke them thus, but (besides) the only troublesome, dangerous men in a state. Ahab tooke Eliah to be the man that troubled all Israel. The men of Thessalonica tooke Jason, and the brethren in his house, to be the men that turned the world upside downe, as they speake Acts 17. ver. 5. Tertullus accuseth Paul to be a pestilent fellow; nay, it is somewhat worse in the Greeke, it is [...] in the abstract, the pesti­lence it selfe, a plague, one that moved sedition thorow the world where hee came, Acts 24.

In the first ages of the Church, if either Tyber at any time did flow above the accustomed height, or Nilus did not flow to the accusto­med height; if either there were famine, or pe­stilence in the land, or any calamity, they laid all the fault upon the Christians: the Christians were in the fault, away with the Christians, to the lions with them; as though they were men not worthy to live in the world. Yet hearken, I pray, what the Apostle saith for all [Page 116] that, in Hebrew. 11. ver. 38. The world was not worthy of them. Hee speakes of some men that wandred up and downe in sheep-skins, and goat-skins, destitute, afflicted, tormented; yet the world was not worthy of them. Why not worthy? These men bring blessings to the places where they come, they bring blessings to the world; the world is not worthy of these blessings, therefore not worthy of the men that procured them.

And what blessings (will you say) doe Gods children bring to a place?

I tell you, they bring a blessing with their very presence, their very presence is a blessing. The presence of Jacob was a blessing in the house of Laban. The very presence of Joseph was a blessing in the house of Potiphar. And what a blessing was in the widow of Zare­phath's house, when Eliah was there?

Then they procure a blessing with their prayers where they come: The prayer of a faithfull Jam. 5. 16. man prevailes much with God. God promised this to Abimelech as a great favour; My servant Abra­ham Gen. 20. 5. shall pray for thee. And the like favour is promised to the three friends of Job; Goe, (saith God, to those three men, Job's friends,) goe every one of you offer a burnt offering, seven bullockes, [Page 117] and seven lambes for a burnt offering, and my servant Job shall pray for you, Job ult. 8.

Thirdly, they procure blessings by their good example of life, because they shine as stars among a wicked and froward generation.

Yea, and they procure this blessing, not one­ly to private houses, as Jacob did to the house of Laban, and Joseph to the house of Potiphar; but to the whole society, to all that are in the company. There were in the ship with Paul two hundred seventy and six soules in a mighty shipwrack: not one of those men peri­shed, not a haire fell from the head of any one of them; and all for Paul's sake. They bring a blessing to the whole company that is with them.

Nay, further, they bring a blessing to a whole City where they be: Runne to and fro (saith the Lord to the Prophet) in the streets of Jerusalem, and see if you can finde a man that will execute judge­ment, and speake the truth, and I will spare the City for his sake, Jer. 5. 1. If there had been but ten men in Sodome righteous, it had not been destroyed: there was but one righteous man found there, and God could doe nothing to Sodome till hee was out of it; Get thee gone (saith the Angell to [Page 118] Lot) I can doe nothing till thou be gone.

Nay, further, they doe good to the whole country wherein they live. Wee are not in a continent here, wee live in an Island: And hearken what Eliphaz the Temanite saith, ac­cording to our former translation (our new somewhat varies, but the words will beare as well the one as the other) The righteous shall de­liver the Island, and it shall be delivered through the uprightnesse of his hands, Job 22. ult.

Nay, I will goe further, The children of God are not the men that turne the world upside downe, they are the men that keepe it upright. Were it not for the Elect in the world, God would soone turne it upside downe. It is for the Elects sake that hee keepes it up: as soone as the Elect are gathered together, the world will be at an end.

Let mee make use of it, and I have done. Doth God for the righteous sake shew favour to the wicked; mee thinkes, the wicked for their owne sakes should shew favour to the righteous. If Moses were gone, and the wrath of God begin to burne like fire against us, who should run to the gap, and to the breach?

If Aaron were gone, and the plague should [Page 119] wax hot among us, who should run with his censer, and stand between the living and the dead, and make atonement for us?

If war should be in the land, and if the Cha­riots and Horse-men of Israel were gone, who should fight for us?

A fearefull presage of an utter destruction, (and was ever held so) is the untimely end of many eminent persons in the Church or Com­mon-wealth; a fearfull presage. Methuselah, if you marke the story, did live to the very six hundredth yeare of Noah's life, and in the second month of that six hundredth yeare the Flood came: Methuselah was but new dead, and, as soone as Methuselah was dead, God sent the Flood. As soone as Josiah, that good King, was slaine, then came that miserable captivity. Esay chap. 57. ver. 1. The righteous perisheth, and no man layeth it to heart, and good men are taken away. Why? from the evill that is to come. Marke that, from the evill that is to come. God takes those away, those would hinder him, those would run to the breach, those would stay divine justice from proceeding further; hee takes them away. Let me conclude this point: You have had here one worke of Moses; let mee tell you of another [Page 120] in another history. In the 17 ^th. of Exodus, there was war between Israel and Amalek; Moses hee gate up on the hill, and held his hands to God in prayer: As long as Moses his hands were held up, Israel prevailed; when Moses his hands grew faint, come Aaron and Hur, one on the one hand, and the other on the other, and hold up his hands, and prop them up, that they might not be weary. Brethren, wee should all be holding up our hands to God for mercy. If thou, out of conscience of thine owne unwor­thinesse, thinkest surely that God will not re­gard the holding up of thine hands; he will ne­ver have an eye to thine hands when thou hold­est them up; yet doe as Aaron and Hur, hold up the hands of them, whose hands thou thinkest God will respect. If thou canst not act Moses his part, act Aarons and Hurs.

Alas! the hands of Gods children are faint, they are discouraged, their knees are feeble with prayer: O, encourage them, lift up their hands, it may be God will yet heare their prayers, and shew mercy to them. Thus much shall serve for the first point: It was Moses that got the sentence revoked.

I come to the other, the meanes by which he [Page 121] got it revoked, hee stands in the breach; had not Moses his chosen stood in the breach.

A military phrase, a phrase taken from the wars. If a City be besieged, and if the enemy without, by a ram, or any other warlike En­gine, hath made a breach in the wall; all that are men of courage and valour runne to the wall, runne to the breach, and strive by all meanes possible to keepe the enemy from en­tring in at that breach that hee hath made.

This fearefull sinne of the people had made a breach, by which divine justice might have entred, and have brought an utter destruction upon them all: Moses runnes to the breach, and sets himselfe between God and the people, that God should not proceed further to their destruction.

Now, you must note, he stood in the breach two waies:

First, by a due execution of justice.

And then by an earnest, importunate inter­cession for mercy.

First, I say, by the execution of justice. Doth the wrath of God at any time burne like fire against a sinfull people? There are two things whereby it may be quenched; A man may [Page 122] quench the wrath of God in regard of any tem­porall calamity, the fire of Gods wrath, with two things, two liquors:

• The one is blood.
• The other is teares.

The blood I meane, is the blood of male­factors, principall malefactors, that shall be shed with the sword of justice.

The teares I speake of, are such teares as are shed by principall men, by the Favourites of heaven in their prayers for mercy. Moses doth both; he pleads Gods cause here against the peo­ple, and he pleads the peoples again with God.

First, Causam Dei apud populum gladio, he pleads Gods cause against the people with a sword of justice; hee pleads the peoples cause against God with teares, and prayers: in both hee shewes himselfe a zealous Magistrate; and I cannot tell whether hee shew himselfe more zealous to the glory of God in the one, or more zealous of the peoples good in the other.

For the first, his execution of justice. There is a way to stand in the breach. Moses is said to be the mildest man that was upon the earth; but, I pray, marke what this mild man did, when hee saw the glory of God bestowed u­pon [Page 123] a base, filthy, inglorious abomination. First hee comes from the Mount, and brings the Tables of God in his hand, and casts down the Tables, and breakes them; I doe not thinke hee did it through impotency of passion: Mark his words, Deuteronom. 9. ver. 17. mee thinkes, hee did it advisedly; but with some secret war­rant from God. Hee saw the people had bro­ken the Covenant, and hee, before their eyes, breakes the Tables of the Covenant, the most precious monument that ever the world had. This was the first thing hee did.

Hee stayes not here, hee goes to the Calfe, the sinne that they had made (as hee calls it) he takes it, and breakes it to pieces, stampes it to powder, hee beats it as small as dust, and casts it into the brooke, and makes them drink the water of it; these are the Gods that shall goe be­fore them. Let them looke their god in their u­rine.

He is not yet content, but cries, Who is on the Lords side? And the Tribe of Levi come, and gird their swords on their sides, and run from one side of the camp to the other, and slay eve­ry man his brother, and every man his Father, and every man his companion. They slew at [Page 124] that time three thousand, and with the blood of these three thousand hee slacked the wrath of God. The sonnes of Levi never offered a sacri­fice of the flesh of beasts, that was a sacrifice of so sweet a smelling savour in the nostrils of God, as this sacrifice of their brethren.

When a sinne is committed, wherewith earth is annoyed, and heaven provoked, the justice of God sets out presently against that sin; but goes on slowly, very slowly: hee will see whether mans justice will follow after it, or no; if mans justice overtake it, Gods justice pursues it no further, there is an end.

There may be easily an unmercifull cruelty in the shedding of blood, and there may be an over-cruell mercy in the sparing of it. Jonah was no sooner cast out of the ship, but the sea was quiet. Achan, and his family were no sooner stoned to death, and burned with fire, but Isra­el prevailed. The sonnes of Saul were no soon­er hanged, but the famine ceased. Phineas stood up, and executed judgement, and the plague was stayed, in verse 30. of this Psalme. As soone as this blood of three thousand men, that were princi­pall offenders in this Idolatry, as soone as that was shed, as soone as that blood was throwne [Page 125] upon the fire of Gods wrath, the fire slacked presently.

But yet it was not quenched till his prayer came. There is the second way, his prayer; The prayer of a righteous man prevaileth much, if it be Jam. 5. 16. fervent. Can you finde a more fervent prayer then this that Moses made for this people? Mark the prayer, you shall finde it Exodus 32. where this story is set downe.

First hee puts God in mind of his propriety in this people, It was thy people, O God, &c. God before called them Moses his people, as you may perceive, when God bids him goe downe; Goe downe, for thy people that thou hast brought out of E­gypt, &c. Moses disclaimes them, as if he should say, Lord, they are none of my people, they are thy people: Wilt thou lose any thing that is thine? There is his first argument.

His second argument is from Gods great workes; Lord, thou hast brought them out of Egypt with a mighty hand. Wee love not to lose our former benefits; our former benefits are lost, if they be not seconded with new: Lord, wilt thou lose thy former favours done to this people?

The third argument is, hee puts God in mind [Page 126] of his glory; Lord, what will the Egyptians say? Thou hast brought them forth with a mighty hand, and an out-stretched arme. Why is it? To kill them in the mountaines? To consume them from the earth? Lord, how will thy glory be eclipsed?

Then, fourthly, hee puts him in mind of their progenitors, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: Lord, these be the children of those Fathers; Didst thou love the tree, and wilt thou cast a­way the fruit? Didst thou love the Fathers, and wilt thou cast away the children?

Then another is from the promise of God, confirmed with oathes: thou swarest to them that thou wouldest give them the Land; shall not thy promise hold? Not thy promise confirmed with oathes? Here is his pleading for the people: as before you heard how hee pleaded Gods cause with the sword, yea, how earnestly hee pleaded Gods cause, in that very day that hee brake the Calfe. Yet, notwithstanding all this, the good man feared: though God might repent of the evill; yet, it may be, he will not be thorowly reconciled to the people, there will not be a thorow reconci­liation; therefore he goes to God againe, Lord (quoth hee) If thou wilt pardon this people! It was [Page 127] a vehement pathos; If thou wilt pardon it! hee saith no more: but, if thou wilt not, put mee out of the booke of life. So desirous was hee of Gods glory, together with the salvation of the people, that hee was carelesse of the salvation of his own soule; Lord, either forgive them, or blot me out of the book of life. Here is a vehement prayer, and with this he slacks the wrath of God, & quench­eth it. It was slacked with the bloud that he cast on it, it was quenched with the teares.

Wee reade of many more in Scripture that stood in the breach; Samuel; God is wont by Jeremy to joyne him and Moses together, If Mo­ses and Samuel stood before mee. Then Ezekiel stood in the breach another time: Josiah, ano­ther time. And, not to heape other examples, God complaines, Ezek. 13. 5. that the Prophets would not stand in the breach, the false Prophets. But there is an excellent place, worth your ob­servation, in Ezek. 22. ver. 30. God had spoken of the sins of the people thorow that Chapter, and shewed how those sins had made way for Divine justice to breake in among them: Then, in verse 30. marke what hee saith; I sought for a man among them that would make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before mee for the land, that it should [Page 128] not be destroyed: I found none: see, I sought for a man.

When our sinnes have opened such a gap, whereby divine justice may come in to the de­struction of a whole land; then God looks for a man, he looks about to see if he can find a man that will come and stand in the gap, to keep him that he might not destroy them. Brethren, hee that doth not see what a wide gap, what a wide breach the manifold sins of this land have made, whereby divine justice may breake in, and hath begun to breake in already; hee that sees not this gap, this breach, sees nothing. I pray you, brethren, doe but remembet, Did not God, a few yeares agoe, make us turne our backes twice or thrice upon our enemies? Did hee not make us a very derision, and scorne to them that are round about us? Doth not God come in now among us, as the Prophet Haba­kuk shewes his manner of coming, when hee comes to judgement; to wit, with the pesti­lence before him, and burning coales going forth at his feet? Hab. 3. verse 5. Doe you not see, beloved brethren, what a number of new upstart here­sies there be in the world? It bodes no good, surely; new heresies broached every day, and [Page 129] old heresies renewed. Doe you not see what miserable rents and schismes there be in the Church, while some hold of Paul, some of Apollo, some of Cephas, some of all of them, and some of none of them? Doe you not see the aspect one upon another, is like the a­spect of malignant planets? Is not Christ di­vided? Then doe you not see what jealousies and discontents there are in the secular state? Brethren, surely God is looking for a man to come to the breach.

Help, men, fathers, and brethren, come to this breach; help, Magistrates: it is not enough for you to looke upon our miseries, though with teares in your eyes, unlesse your hands be put to the redresse of it. Are there no houses of correction for these vagrant persons that live under no Magistracy, under no Ministry? Have you no carts for bauds? No whips for harlots? No pecuniarie mulcts for others? No punishments for transgressors?

It is for us too, that are Ministers, to runne to this breach. If ever wee did preach with pow­er, and evidence, and demonstration, not of na­ture, or art, but of grace, and of the spirit, it is time for us now to preach, and to preach a­gaine, [Page 130] in season, and out of season. O, that wee could be Boanerges, sons of thunder, and crie downe those sins that crie for vengeance. And hearken, Masters, Fathers, and Governours of families, run to the breach. In cleansing of the City, if every man sweep before his own door, the streets will be kept cleane. Why doe you suffer revelling, and swearing, and quarrelling, and drinking in your families? Your houses should be Churches for God. Where be your old exercises of Religion in your housholds? Where be your prayers, and your reading of Scriptures, and your singing of Psalmes? Where is your catechising? I say no more, but, high and low, rich and poore, let us all run to the breach, by earnest intercession to God privatly, by continuall teares of repentance. I conclude now as I did the last day, Who knowes yet whether the Lord will have mercy on us, and turne from his fierce wrath, that wee perish not?

WE have two things in the Text: The sinnes of the people. And their punishment. The sins of the people are set down in the two former verses. And the punishment in the two later.

Their sinnes are foure:

The first is, their unthankfulnesse, in despi­sing the pleasant land; They despised the plea­sant land.

The second is, their infidelity, that was the cause of that same unthankfull despising of [Page 132] the land; They did not beleeve his Word.

The third sin was their accustomed sin of murmuring; They murmured in their tents.

The fourth sin was their rebellion and diso­bedience; They hearkned not to the voice of the Lord. They despised the pleasant land; they beleeved not his Word; they murmured in their tents; they hearkened not to the voice of the Lord.

You see their sinne, see their punishment. The Lord threatens that hee will punish them for this; you heard before my Text, The Lord said, hee would destroy them: Now, hee sweares it, Hee lift up his hand against them. The lifting up of the hand was a ceremony among them, used in swearing; and God is said to doe it, to lift up his hand when hee sweares. He swore against them now.

And what did hee sweare? Hee swore hee would punish them. Punish them in their owne persons; hee would punish them thus, Hee would overthrow them in the wildernesse: And hee would punish them in their seed; Hee would overthrow their seed among the Nations, and scatter them in the land: Therefore he lift up his hand against them. There was his swearing, that hee would overthrow them in the wildernesse, and over­throw [Page 133] their seed also among the Nations, and scatter them in the land. Now you see the whole Text what it containes.

But I cannot give you a perfect understand­ing of this, nor gather such doctrines out of it, as the words will naturally afford to us, except I first make knowne to you the history at large that is here epitomized. This is the Epitomy of an history; the history is set out at large, and I must declare that to you. I pray heare an histo­ricall narration first, to make way to the Text. This history, here epitomized, is set downe at large in Numbers 13. and 14. I pray, at home, reade over those two Chapters, and compare with them, when you reade them, the first Chapter of the booke of Deuteronomy, beginning at ver. 19. and so to the end of that Chapter; you shall finde many observable circumstances of this history, that you shall not finde out of the booke of Numbers. Give mee leave to tell you all the whole history, how it is out of all these places together: It was thus; Let me shew you first, that, three months after the people of Israel came out of Egypt, they came to Mount Horeb, or Mount Sinai; for it was called some­time by the one name, and sometime by the [Page 134] other: It was the same mountain in the root, it had two tops, as I shewed you. They came there the third month after their coming out of the land of Egypt; there they continued for the space almost of one whole yeare, for they went a­way from thence again upon the twentieth day of the second month of the second yeare. Al­most a whole twelve-month they were at Mount Horeb: at Mount Sinai, as soone as they came there, God called Moses to him, Moses goes up to the Mount, there God gives the Law in fearefull manner. Moses abode with God in the Mount fourty daies: In that time the children of Israel committed that Idolatry which you heard of; they made a golden calfe, and wor­shipped the Image. For that, God said he would destroy them: Moses stood in the breach, in the gap, and turnes away Gods wrath, that hee should not destroy them. Then Moses goes up againe to the Mount, and tarries fourty dayes, and fourty nights longer; hee comes downe a­gaine, and gives them the Ceremoniall Law, and the Judiciall; framed the Tabernacle, and all the vessels appertaining to it; sets the people in their march, shewes them how they should march in the wildernesse towards the land of [Page 135] Promise. This was all done in that yeare. And let me observe this to you: In every place where they came, you shall find some extraordinary example of Gods judgements on them. Before they came to Mount Horeb, before the Law was given, God bare with them much; but af­ter hee had given them the Law, he would not beare with them. They removed from Horeb, and came to Taberah: there some of them fall a murmuring; they were burned. Then they re­moved to another place, to Kebroth-Hattana, the grave of lust, that was the place where they fell a lusting for quailes, for flesh: there God de­stroyed the wealthiest, the best of them, with the very meat in their mouthes. Then they re­moved to Hazeron, there Miriam was smitten with leprosie for her ill tongue against Moses. Thence they removed to Cadesh-Barnea; now Cadesh-Barnea was upon the very borders of the land of Promise that God would give them; they were now upon the very entrance of the land, inasmuch as Moses tells the people, that now you are come to the land that God hath sworne to give to your Fathers, now goe your waies in, and possesse the land.

The people would seeme to be a little wiser, [Page 136] and more circumspect then Moses was; they would have Moses goe send spies, first to the land, to see the goodnesse thereof. The thing pleased Moses well; Moses saith so, Deut. 1. The thing pleased mee well to doe this. Hee goes and acquaints God with it, and he permits it. Well, hee sends the spies into the land; the spies were twelve chosen (commonly when wee choose spies to send to a country, wee choose men of meane condition) Moses did not so, hee would have them choice men, that the eminency of their place, might give credit to their testimonie of the land. Out of the twelve Tribes hee chose twelve men; a principall man out of e­very Tribe, to view the land. Of these twelve, Caleb, the son of Jephunneh was one; hee was fourty yeares old then, hee went for the Tribe of Judah: and Josuah the son of Nan, Moses his servant, was another; and went as a principall man of the house of Ephraim: you shall finde the names of all the rest; these two I name, the cause you shall heare anon. These twelve spies were sent to goe and see what the land was, and what the people of the land were; they were to give them these instructions:

First, from the land, they must see whether [Page 137] it were good or bad, whether it were a whole­some or an unwholesome land.

Then they must see againe whether it were a fat or a leane land, a fertile or a barren land.

And then whether it bare trees or no: there were no trees in the desert where they were, and this was neare it; they must see if it bare trees. This for the land.

Then for the people of the land, they were to give them these instructions; they must see whether they were many or few, whether they were strong or weake: then, whether they dwelt in tents, or in cities, and townes. And then, if they dwelt in cities, whether their cities were walled or no, what fortifications they had: these things pleased Moses well. And, in very deed, prudent policy is allowed us in the execution of that that God gives us in charge, so as it be not mixed with unbeliefe. I beleeve, that this policy of theirs was mixed with a great deale of cowardise and unbeliefe.

Thus the men goe, they view the land, they were fourty daies in viewing it, they returne a­gaine, they bring with them such a branch of a vine as hath not been heard of, such a cluster of grapes, that two men were faine to bring it [Page 138] upon a staffe, upon a barre between them; such a mighty cluster of grapes this was. They bring with them also pomegranats and figs, that they might see the fruit of the land. Well, they come, they make an account of this journey of theirs. They all agree in this, the land was a wondrous good land, a marvelous pleasant land, as my text calls it here, a wondrous pleasant land; they all agree in that. And Caleb and Josua, those two, they en­courage them, and say it is no more, but, arise, come, let us possesse it. They were full of faith; Caleb, his name signifies hearty, a hearty man full of courage: Come (quoth hee) let us goe up, and possesse it. the land is worth our labour. The other ten spies (white liver'd men) they tell a­nother tale: they begin with a commendation of the land; It could not be denied, it was a good land, a land that flowed with milk and hony, as God told them; that was very true. But com­monly when a man will deprave, when he will calumniate, hee begins his calumniation with a commendation, and hee comes in with a But: As when wee commend a man, O, hee is a good man, a very good man, a good neighbour; but—and then he goes on: Like as wee reade of Naaman the Assyrian, a great man, an [Page 139] honourable man, a mighty man at armes, one. that had done great acts; but, hee was a leper. Even as the Papists, they commend the Scri­pture, O, it is an excellent booke, the booke of Scripture; It was written by the Spirit of God, holy Pen-men, of holy matters, in a holy stile, to an holy end; O, it is a good booke; but, it is a hard booke, it is difficult, there are great mysteries in it, it is impossible for Lay-men to attaine to it, it is good to keep them from it; Ignorance is the mother of devotion. Even thus doe the spies: It is a good land, O, a very good land, it flowes with milk and hony, there wants nothing you can desire, you see the fruit of it; but, it is hard coming to it, there is great difficulty, I tell you, it is impossible to come to it. Why, what was the matter? First of all, the men wee found in the land were the sons of Anak, Gyants, men of mighty stature; their height was as the height of Cedars, and their strength as the strength of Oakes, as the Prophet speakes of the Amorites; A mighty people, they are Gyants, wee are but like grashoppers in their sight; they took us as grashoppers, they may tread us downe at their pleasure.

And then againe, these men dwell in cities, [Page 140] and these cities are walled; yea, and to make it the more terrible, they are walled up to heaven: thus they say in Deuteronomy, chap. 1. Their Cities are walled up to heaven: there is no scaling of them.

Then besides, say they, it is such a land as de­voures the Inhabitants of it; it eates out the In­habitants. How is that? It is hard to say their meaning; Some think thus, there were pesti­lentiall vapours there, that caused the pestilence among them, that they died upon heapes.

Some think they were at civill wars one a­mong another.

Or, peradventure, it will eat out the heart of the husband-man in the tillage of it: with strong labour they must toyle, and work hard if they will have their living. Somewhat it was; but they bring an ill name, an ill report upon the land, as the Scripture saith. Never seeke to get this land, it is impossible, the men are so great, and the wals are so high, and it is such a land as eates out the Inhabitants.

The people they heare this, and first they fall to their old weeping, as they did before, for meat, for flesh: they fell a weeping all that night; there was nothing but weeping to heare [Page 141] this. Well, the next day they fall to murmuring in their tents. If they had wept for their sin of infidelity, it had beene well; but, in their mourning, they fall a murmuring:

First, against God; for, when God promised to give them this land out of his love: Because I loved your Fathers, therefore I gave you the land; the people turne it the other way; No, God did it out of his hatred: thus they say in Deut. God hated us, therefore hee brought us out of Egypt, to kill us here.

Then they fall a murmuring against Moses; What, were it not better to have died in Egypt? Were there no graves in Egypt? Were it not better to die in the wildernes, then to go in and die there? They wish to die for feare of death, they wish themselves dead for feare they should die.

Then they goe a little further, they will (for­sooth) chuse a new Captaine, and goe back in­to Egypt; they will not goe into the pleasant land; they will chose an Elect one, and back they will goe, and they will not goe in there. Moses and Aaron fall upon their faces and en­treat them, and Caleb and Josua encourage them; this land may be gotten, the Lord delivered us from the Amalekites, and he will deliver us from the Amorites; the Lord hath slaine the Egyptians, [Page 142] and cannot hee slay the Anakims? No, by no meanes; they tooke up stones, and would have stoned Caleb and Josua: had not the glory of God appeared upon the Tabernacle, God knowes what they would have done. Upon that they stayed, then they knew Gods displeasure; then God swears, of all these people that came out of the land of Egypt (and there were six hundred thousand men, that were twenty yeares old and upward) not one man of them should enter into the land of Promise; they shall all of them, since they wish they might die in the wilder­nesse, they shall die every one of them; and hee commands them to goe back againe, hee carries them to the red-sea, hee makes them wander thirty eight yeares and an halfe more in the wildernesse: and, in that time, all that generati­on was worne out. Hee gave it to their seed, but not one man of them did come into the land of Promise, but those two, Caleb and Josua. Now you may see what the meaning of my Text is; They despised the pleasant land. When they heard they could not have it without some blood-shed, they will none of it: They despised the pleasant land, and would not beleeve his Word. The spies told them one thing, that they could not [Page 143] get it; and God said they should have it: they tooke mans word rather then Gods: They would not beleeve his word. Then marke how my Text goes on, then they murmured in their tents. First they murmured against God; It is out of his ha­tred that hee doth it. Then against Moses; Why have you brought us to die here?

Then, last of all, they utterly refuse to goe to this land. But, as it is in the story, when they saw that God had sworn, that not a man of them should come in, then all in haste they would goe: God bids them goe, and then they say, No. Then hee saith, See you goe not: for, if you doe, surely, you shall be made a spoyle to them; yet, for all that, they would go; and they were made a spoyle to their enemies, a number of them fell by the sword.

Now, I have told you this whole history, you shall the better observe out of these words such points as they shall naturally afford to us.

I begin first with the first sin, their despising of the pleasant land.

They contemptuously despised, so the word signi­fies; they contemptuously despised the pleasant land. This same sin of theirs, in despising of the land, [Page 144] will appeare yet to be more grievous, a more great and fearefull sin, if you shall but consider two things with mee:

First, that the land was a pleasant land; that is the thing that I shall especially stand upon to day. To despise any land that God was plea­sed in mercy to bring them to, out of such an house of bondage as he brought them, it should not have been; but, to despise a pleasant land, that is a sin, sinfull above measure. The He­brew phrase is, a land of desire: It was such a land, as, if a man would desire a land, hee could not desire a more delightfull land, then that land of Promise.

Wee heare much of this land in Scripture; you see how it is called here a land of desire. I pray, let me trouble you now a little further, to shew you the pleasantnesse of this land; and then make some use of it, as the time will permit.

First, the situation of the land was pleasant: It is said usually in Scripture to stand in the midst of the land. It had Asia upon the East, it had Europe upon the West, it had Africa and Lybia upon the South, it had Scythia and Armenia and Persia upon the North. That same that [Page 145] you read of in Psal. 74. 12. The Lord is my King of old, hee hath wrought salvation in the midst of the earth; It is Allegorically, I confesse, mystically, but sweetly, by the Fathers applied to that great worke of salvation, that our crucified Jesus wrought for us at Jerusalem in the midst of the earth, in medio terrae. This is Jerusalem (saith God) that I have set in the midst of all Lands and Nations about it, Ezek. c. 5. God saith of the people of this land, that they dwell in the very navell of the earth: It is Gods word in Ezek. 38. A people that dwell in the navell, in the very midst of the earth.

Indeed, looke in our maps, and if it doe not fall out exactly, that India is in the midst of the then knowne habitable world; yet, our Cosmo­graphers agree in this, that there is no Country from which there is such an expedite conveni­ent passage to all the parts of the world, as from India; the situation was pleasant.

Then secondly, the aire was pleasant. The climate, I know, was more hot then ours is by far; being distant some thirty two, or thirty three degrees from the line; a hotter climate then ours: yet, a sweet, temperate climate, free, (as it is confessed by all) from ill vapours: they were [Page 146] not infested with any pestilentiall, epidemicall diseases.

Yea, but for the water of it; What water was in it? I confesse, I finde not any great navi­gable rivers in it; but it so abounded with wa­ter-brooks, and springs, and fountaines, both in hills and vallies, that it is called by God, in Deuter. 8. ver. 8. a land of brookes, and springs, and fountaines.

Yea, but what corne bare it? That was one of their questions; they would know whether it was a fat land, or no. You shall finde in that place againe, Deuter. 8. It was a land of wheate, a land of barley. What abundance of corne grew in that Country, you may imagine by this: It was in the whole length of it, from Dan to Beer-sheba, but one hundred and fifty miles; the length of it: the breadth of that land, between fifty and sixty miles at the broadest: What a number of people could this land nourish? Marke but in the dayes of David, hee numbred the people, and yet hee numbred not all; for he numbred not Benjamin, nor the Tribe of Levi: yet, in the other Tribes, hee numbred thir­teene, hundred thousand fighting men. What a number were there then, besides these, in pro­portion [Page 147] of women and children, old and young? Where should they have bread to sustaine such a multitude? Surely, it was, as it is called in Scripture; a very fat land, Nahum chap. 3. ver. 5.

O, but what trees grow there in it? That is another question they would know. Excel­lent Vines. The wine of Zarephath was famous, even among the Gentiles. Besides their Vines, they had Fig-trees, Pomegranats, Almonds, and Dates, and Olives in abundance: therefore God calls it, a land of Oyle-olive: Yea, and, which is a remarkable thing; whereas there are some fruits that will not grow but in cold countries, and some fruits that will not grow but in hot countries, and some that will not grow but in temperate countries; about the lake of Genesa­reth, the soyle was of such an admirable nature, that all kind of fruits would prosper there with the like felicity.

I might goe on, and tell you what Mines they had; God told them the stones of that land were Iron, and out of their mountaines they might digge Brasse. I might tell you of the Medicines of Herbes about Engedi: the best Balsome in the world was there. I might [Page 148] tell you of their Fishes in their lakes, and many commodities more. Let me tell you this, that God saith, Deut. 8. It was a land that lacked nothing in it. There was one City in the land, that was La­ish, it was afterward called Dan, after that, Cesa­rea-Philippi; you read of it in the Gospell: the Scri­pture saith, that that lacked nothing that was upon the earth, Judges 18. 10. Not to trouble you more with the commendation of this land, hearken what Ezekiel saith of it; It was the glory of all lands, Ezek. 20. 6.

But, let mee aske now, What is become of the glory of this land? If there be any land upon the earth that ever was anathemated, smitten with a curse from God, it is this land. It is now under the Turks: It is inhabited, where it is in­habited (but that is but in a few places of it; but, where it is, it is inhabited) by barbarous Turks in the vallies, and by wild Arabs in the mountaines. The most part of the land, at this day, lies unpeopled, and unhusbanded, and uninhabited. It is reported by a Gentleman of good worth, that did lately see it, that in that same goodly valley, (the eye of man hath sel­dome seen a goodlier) hee found grasse grow­ing to the waste, waste-high, that so perished [Page 149] unmowen and uneaten; it came to no better end, then the grasse upon the house-top. All those same goodly places, that you finde men­tioned in the Scripture, as fruitfull as any places under heaven, are now made nothing but ha­bitations for lions, and wolves, and wild bores, and leopards. Here is that that the Psalmist tells us, that God brings a fruitfull land to barrennesse, for the wickednesse of the people that dwell in it.

Brethren, wee live in a pleasant land too: it were too long to reckon up the commodities of this land; you know it your selves, Your lot is fallen in a good ground, and you have a goodly he­ritage.

Let us first be thankfull to this good God, for this good land that hee hath given us: And, let us take heed, that the pleasures of this land make us not forget him. I pray, marke; When ever God shewes to his people the commodities of this pleasant land of Canaan that hee would give them, as in Deuter. c. 8. hee gives them this charge; When thou art come into that good land, and findest it a land of springs and fountaines, of wheat and barley, of pomegranats and vines and fig-trees; a land, the stones whereof are Iron, and out of whose mountaines thou mayest dig brasse. When thou hast eaten, and art [Page 150] full, then take heed, that thou forgettest not the Lord thy God that gave thee that good land.

It is an easie matter to forget God in abun­dance; Nimia bonorum copia, ingens malorum occasio, too too great plenty of good, is too too great an occasion of ill. That same abundance of good things, that should make us remember our good God, makes us forget him.

Then take another lesson with you, and I have done with it; that is, Take heed that wee defile not this good land. Were a land never so pleasant; were it a more pleasant land then this land of Judea; were it the very Eden, the garden of God: if it once come to be defiled with sinnes of an high nature, Gods soule can take no pleasure in it. I conclude this point with that exhortation that David, a little before his death, gave to the Over-seers of the people assembled together: And now (quoth hee) here, before the Congregation of Israel, and in the Au­dience of your God, I give you this charge; That you seeke the Commandements of God, and keepe them, that you may enjoy the good things of this land, and con­tinue them to inherite to your children, and to your chil­drens children for ever, 1 Chron. 28. 8. This is the first thing, the sinne of theirs in despising this land: [Page 151] it was a fearefull sinne, in regard the land was a pleasant land.

The sin was yet a little more fearefull, (I can but touch this point) if you consider how they despised this land, in regard of the house of bondage whence they came. They knew their usage in Egypt well enough; they knew how they were loaden there with burthens, and blowes, and injuries: so loaden, that their very lives were bitter to them, as the Scripture saith, all the while they were in E­gypt; yet, forsooth, they will forsake this plea­sant land, to goe back againe to the house of bondage.

If they had despised this pleasant land, in re­gard of something that had been better, it had been well done. If a man despise the faire beau­tifull wife that lies in his bosome, out of love to Christ and the Gospell, from the which that wife would seeke to draw him; hee should doe well to despise her. Hearken what our Lord saith: Hee that forsakes not father and mother, and wife and children, and all for my sake and the Go­spels, he is not worthy of mee; hee cannot be my di­sciple, Luke 14. 26. But, if a man despise this faire beautifull wife, out of love to a foule bag­gagely [Page 152] strumpet; this is a sin, an untolerable a­bominable sin.

If this people had despised this good land, this pleasant land, in regard of heaven, of an heavenly country, O, they had done well in that; their fathers are commended for doing that, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob: the Apostle saith of them, They regarded not that good land of Canaan: they tooke themselves there to be like pilgrims and strangers; they regarded not that, They sought for a better country, the heavenly one, Hebrews 11. ver. 16. If I say they had despised this pleasant land, in regard of heaven, they had done well in it; but to despise it, in regard of Egypt, though it was a fruitfull land (wee de­ny it not) though it was a plentifull land; yet, in regard it was the land of their servitude and bondage, wherein they had been so ill used, and out of which God brought them with such a mighty hand and out-stretched arme; to de­spise this pleasant land, in regard of this: O, that wee had died in Egypt! this was a thing that made God lift up his hand, that for this they should never come to the land of Promise. This was the sin of them.

And, brethren, is it not our sinne too? You [Page 153] heard how the people despised the good land God promised them, and you thinke this was a great sin of them to doe it; and you will say more when you heare the words following. But are not wee guilty of the same sin too? Hath not God promised us a country, a better country then this? That same better country that the Apostle speakes of, when hee saith, A­braham, Isaac, and Jacob sought a better country. Hath not God promised us a Canaan; not a ter­restriall, but a celestiall Canaan, a Kingdome of heaven? And we say of the fruits of the land; O, they are glorious fruits! O, what a blessed coun­try is that! O, how happy are they that are in heaven! Wee all say, it is a goodly country. If some of these countries upon earth are such Paradises, O, what a Paradise is that in heaven! What a country is that! Yet, though God hath promised us that country, when wee are told it is hard coming by it, and we must fight for this country before wee come to it; and that not with flesh and bloud, those sons of Anak, those mighty men; but with Principalities and pow­ers, with the divell, with the world, with the flesh; that we must forsake our selves, and for­sake all that stands in the way, father and mo­ther, [Page 154] and wife and children, and through ma­ny afflictions come to it: O, then we despise this good land; nay, wee despise it in regard of the earth. Shall I (saith the worldling) looke after an uncertainty in heaven, and lose my certainty here upon earth? Must I forsake such a sin that brings me in profit? Must I forsake such sins as bring me pleasure upon earth? No, let others seek heaven, if they will; let me have earth. Thus they crie for earth, and thus they preferre the spirituall Egypt of this world, before the ce­lestiall Canaan, the Kingdome of heaven. Thus wee preferre a mess of pottage before our birth­right; and our swine, with the Gergasens, be­fore Christ; and these vaine transitory joyes, be­fore the joyes of the Kingdome of heaven, that cannot be conceived, and shall never be ended. To which eternall joyes, the Lord, for his mercies sake, and for his Christs sake, bring us.

YOU have in these verses foure sins of this people. Wee have done with the first of them, which was this; They despised the pleasant land.

I now goe on to the next sinne, which is, their Unbeliefe; They beleeved not his Word.

That word was a word of promise; that promise was a particular promise of the land; they did not beleeve that. God told them that [Page 156] hee would give them the land; hee had sworn hee would give it them. The spies come and tell them it was impossible that they should possesse the land; they beleeve the spies, but they would not beleeve God: Here was their sinne.

I will first shew the hainousness of this sin in this people.

And then shew what use we are to make of it: both, as briefly as I can.

The hainousness of this peoples sin appeares in this; They would not beleeve God: It was infi­delity. There is a question, among Divines, what was the first sin that was in the world, (wee doe not speake of the sin of apostate An­gels, but among men.) Some say it was disobedi­ence, some say it was pride, some make it an inor­dinate desire of superfluous knowledge, some one thing, some another; but, if you marke the story well, you will finde that the first sin was Unbeliefe: God had told them, that, in the day that they eate of that tree, they should die. Moriendo mo­riemini; Dying, yee shall die; that is, As sure as you live, you shall die, if you eate. The divell comes and tells them, they shall not die, but live in a better condition then they did [Page 157] before. Our first Parents beleeved Satan, but not God; Infidelity then was the first sinne: that ushered in Pride, Pride brought in an in­ordinate desire of superfluous knowledge, that brought in disobedience, and that brought in the judgement of God upon them and all their posterity. As unbeliefe was the first sinne, so unbeliefe is a sinne that is exceeding odious to God: God cannot endure to be distrusted, that hee may not be beleeved. Man is deceitfull upon the weights, and lighter then vanity it selfe; yet man loves not to be distrusted, but sibi quis (que) credi vult, &c. as hee saith; Every man willingly would be credited. If man, I say, love not to be dis­trusted; surely, God loves it not, who is not onely true, but truth it selfe; that same Prime, Originall Truth, whereupon all truth hath its dependence. Hee is light, in him is no darknesse at all: Hee is truth, in him there is no falshood at all: There is none actively, hee cannot deceive; God is not as man, that hee should lie, saith Balaam, Numbers 23. 17. God cannot lie, saith the Apostle, Titus 1. 2. It is not possible that God should lie, Heb. 6. ver. 8. Now, if that man, that is a lyar, (every man is so, for, every man is a lyar,) If, I say, that man, being a lyar, doth not love to be account­ed [Page 158] a lyar: if that man thinke it a great disho­nour to put up a lie; if a man will present death upon the point of a sword to that man that shall give him the lie: if a lying man cannot en­dure to be accounted a lyar; what, can God en­dure it? Will God brook it? Hearken what the Apostle saith, 1 John 5. 10. Hee that beleeveth not God, maketh him a lyar.

The sin of the people was yet greater, because God had not onely promised to give them the land, and had given his word for it, though that had been enough, but he had given his oath for it; hee had sworne that they should have the land. This Moses tells them in Deut. 1. that God had lift up his hand, and had sworn that hee would give them the land.

An oath among men, is, as the Heathen man calls it, the greatest bond of assurance that can be be­tween man and man; there is reason for it. There are certaine principles, as these: That there is a God, that this God is present in every place, that hee is acquainted with every secret, that hee is a Patron of truth, that hee is a revenger of fals­hood, that hee is a just God, and therefore will; and an omnipotent God, and therefore is able to plague every one that sweareth falsely. There [Page 159] are these principles in the heart of every child of man: Though the conclusions that may be drawne from thence, may be, and sometimes are, in some men obliterated and blotted out; yet the principles remaine in man: therefore it is presumed, because there are these principles in our hearts, that no man dares take that God to be his witnesse, and call upon him to be a witnesse and a Judge in that that hee knowes is false. Hence it comes, that an oath (as the A­postle saith) is set for the confirmation of all truth. An oath among men is the greatest bond of as­surance that can be given: Abimelech required no other assurance of Abraham for his covenant, but his oath; Sweare to mee, saith hee, Genes. 21. 23. Jacob, when hee had purchased the birth-right of Esau, requires no other assurance for the birth-right, but his oath; though Esau were a profane man: Sweare to mee that I shall have it, Genes. 25. ver. 33. Rahab required no other assu­rance of the spies for her safety, and her fathers house; Sweare to mee, to confirme it.

Now, if there be such a bond of assurance in an oath, between man and man; if an oath be the greatest bond of assurance, that can be be­tween man and man; and wee dare beleeve [Page 160] upon an oath: may wee not beleeve God upon his oath? God (saith the Apostle) to shew the im­mutability of his counsell to them that should be heires of promise, bound himselfe by an oath; that by two immutable things (by those two immutable things, hee meanes his word and his oath) wherein it is impossible that God should lie, wee might have strong comfort, Hebrews 6. ver. 18. Now here was the sinne of that people, they would not beleeve God upon his oath. Happy people! hap­py they might have been, for whose sake God was content to bind himselfe by an oath for the performance of his promise: But, O wretched men, that will not beleeve God, no not upon his oath! They beleeved not his word.

Nay, yet further, their sin is yet greater then thus; they did not beleeve God upon expe­rience. For what was it they were affraid of? The Anakims, great men, men that might tread them downe, as wee doe Grashoppers under our feet. But they had experience of Gods mer­cy: there was never people that had better expe­rience of Gods power and mercy; it was never magnified as it was towards this people: there­fore God, you well perceive, is never so of­fended [Page 161] when hee is distrusted, as when hee is distrusted upon experience.

You may see, in Psalme 78. 20. The people there were in want of bread; Indeed, say they, Hee stroke the rock, and the water gushed out, and the streames over-flowed: But, can hee give bread? Can hee furnish a Table in the wildernesse? See, they had great and wonderfull experience of Gods power. They wanted water, God sent them water miraculously out of the rock, and easily; hee did but smite the rock, and abundance of water gushed out, and the streames over-flow­ed: yet, they come and aske out of unbeliefe; yea, But can hee give bread? Hee that gave us wa­ter, can hee give us bread too? How did God take this question? Looke in the next verse, The Lord heard it, and his wrath was kindled against Jacob, and the fire burned against Israel, because they beleeved not the word of the Lord.

What, will not men beleeve upon experi­ence? Experience breedeth hope. Among men, if I had experience of a mans goodnesse, if I have bought and sold with him, and have ever found him a just, and an honest man, that never brake his day with mee; Dare not I trust this man upon experience? May a man be trusted upon [Page 162] experience? a good man? and shall not God take it ill that hee cannot be trusted upon expe­rience? You see the sin of this people.

Let mee now come and make use of it. Let mee tell you, It was not onely their sin, it is our sin too, It is the sin of us all. The best of Gods children have need to mourne every day over their unbeliefe. They that doe not find this un­beliefe in themselves, surely, are strangers to themselves. If a man were not a stranger to himselfe, hee would finde such a deale of unbe­liefe, as would make him mourne continually under it, and strive against it.

It is a wondrous hard thing (brethren) to beleeve Gods word, to beleeve a promise. Let mee give you but an instance in one promise, Hebrews 13. 5. Let your conversation (saith the A­postle) be without coveteousnes: Be content with those things that you have. Why? For hee hath said it, (this is the promise) hee hath said, I will not faile thee, I will not forsake thee. He hath said it. Who is that hath said it? Pythagoras his scholars were wont to attribute so much to their Master, that when in their Disputes it came to Ipse dixit, He said it, there was no more talking of it, all was well, they beleeved it. Behold, a greater then Py­thagoras [Page 163] is here; Ipse dixit, Hee hath said it: and, I thinke, hee never said a thing more earnestly, then hee said that. There are in the Greek five negatives in that sentence: I doe not remember the like in all the Scripture besides. The Gre­cians, when they are wont to deny a thing earnestly, double the negative: The Spirit of God here is pleased, not only to double it, but also to treble it; [...] a thing cannot be spoken with more earnestnes. Wee know not how to expresse it in our English, but wee translate it thus; I will never leave thee, nor forsake thee. It is well so: It is, as if hee should say, Beleeve mee upon my word, I will never leave thee; no, no, no, I will not leave thee. It is so earnest, God never promised a thing with more earnestnes then that.

And, besides, wee have found in experience the truth of this promise many a time. Wee are here some of us twenty yeares old, and some of us fourty, and some sixty, and some above; and, in all this time, wee have found how true this was: upon twenty, or fourty, or sixty yeares ex­perience, wee may say, God never left us yet, he never forsook us. Wee have been sometimes in sicknesse, and sometimes in danger, and [Page 164] sometimes in want; God never left us yet, hee never forsook us: yet, notwithstanding all this, wee dare not beleeve that same word, wee dare not beleeve it.

Doe not tell mee that thou doest, certainly thou doest not beleeve it. Even as Saul would needs justifie himselfe to Samuel, when hee re­served the best of the cattle, contrary to Gods command; I have kept Gods commandement (quoth hee) O thou blessed of the Lord. Hast thou so, saith Samuel? Then what meanes the bleating of these sheep in mine eares, and the lowing of these oxen? Mee thinkes, I might say so: thou sayest thou belee­vest the promise of God, that hee will not leave thee, nor forsake thee; Doest thou so? Doest thou beleeve it? Then what meane those false weights, those false measures, and those false oathes? And what meanes that cunning over­reaching of thy neighbour in bargaining, and that secret undermining of him in his estate? And what meanes thine inordinate carking, and caring? That same losing of many a sweet sleep, and losing many a sweet Sermon for the things of this life? Surely, if thou didst beleeve that God would not leave thee, nor forsake thee, thou wouldest, indeed, use those [Page 165] meanes whereby the providence of God might be served; thou wouldest never be thus world­ly, thou wouldest never be thus covetous, thou wouldest never use this sharking, nor these dishonest trickes if thou didst beleeve: As sure as the Lord liveth, thou beleevest not that promise, I will not leave thee, nor forsake thee.

I could shew the like in many other promi­ses. Good Lord, how slow of heart are we to beleeve any promise that God hath made to us, either concerning this life, or concerning a bet­ter, considering with mee these things that I tell you!

First, considering how much seed of unbe­liefe there is in the nature of every man upon the earth, even in the best of Gods children; and considering what a deep root this seed takes in all our hearts. Then considering that the time that God hath set for the performance of pro­mises; is,

First, uncertaine.

And many times long before a promise be performed.

Then consider againe, that same wonderfull working of God, when his workes goe against [Page 166] his promise, as many times it seemes. God pro­miseth many times a blessing, and hee seemes to goe against his word.

Then considering how busie and subtile the divell is, labouring still, as hee did with Eve, to discredit the truth of Gods promise.

Then considering how ready we are to list­en, as Eve, to the whisperings, and suggestions of that subtile serpent. Certainly, brethren, we should never please our selves in any measure of faith: but labour still for a greater measure there­of, and never think we can lay hold fast enough upon the promises of God. O, that is a safe course that M ^r Luther gave; In all temptations, and con­flicts, and combates, and agonies, still urge the promise: whatsoever the divell can object against it, still hold the promise. That that we would hisse at in schools, in disputes among men, is a good course in disputing with Satan: When wee cannot an­swer the Premisses, deny the Conclusion; hold to the promise. The Covenant of day and night may be altered, that there may be neither day nor night any more in their season: but there is never a promise in the Covenant of grace but it shall stand for ever: Lord, I beleeve it, helpe mine unbeliefe. So much shall suffice concerning the [Page 167] second sin, They beleeved not his word. I come to the third, They murmured in their tents.

There is a three-fold murmuring;

There is murmur displicentiae, a murmur of dis­pleasure, of dislike and discontent that is against God, when things goe with us otherwise then wee would have them.

Then there is murmur inobedientiae, a murmur of disobedience against our Superiours, when wee thinke that they command us something that wee conceive to be unreasonable.

Then there is murmur invidentiae, a murmur of envy against our neighbours; when wee think they are in a better condition then wee are, wee dislike it. The Grecians murmured against the Jewes, because their women were neglected, Acts 6. 1. Cain murmured, because Abels sacrifice was accepted, and his was not. Judas murmu­red at the box of Spicknard that was bestowed upon our Lord. The elder brother of the pro­digall child murmured that the fat calf should be killed for his riotous brother, that had spent his fathers goods among harlots. This people murmured thus against Moses, and Aaron; They envied Aaron the Saint of the Lord, and murmured a­gainst Moses in their tents. This wee speake not [Page 168] of now; this was no [...] [...] or envie.

What murmur was it then?

The other two:

First, a murmuring of displeasure, and discon­tent against God.

And then a murmur of disobedience, both a­gainst God, and against the Magistrate.

First, I say, it was a murmur of discontent a­gainst God, and a fearefull murmur; you shall seldome heare of the like. I pray, marke this; When God promised them the land at any time, hee usually promiseth it to them out of his love; Because God loved the fathers, therefore hee chose the seed, Deuter. c. 4. ver. 37. In another place, Deuter. 7. ver. 8. The Lord set his love upon you, not because you were many; for you were the fewest of all people; but because bee loved you, therefore hee brought you out of the land of Egypt. I thinke, there was never Nation had so many sensible demonstrations of Gods love, as this people had: Doe you think that God would have brought them out of the land of bondage, with such a mighty out­stretched arme, if he had not loved them? Doe you think he would have made a way for them in the sea, and afterward have fed them with [Page 169] bread from heaven, and given them water out of the rock, and have guided them with a pillar of fire in the night, and a pillar of a cloud in the day, if hee had not loved them? Doe you think hee would have appeared to them in fire, and have spoken to them in an audible voice out of Mount Sinai, and have chosen them there to be a peculiar people to him of all the people in the earth, if hee had not loved them?

You will say, Who doubted of this love? O, I pray you, heare this people, hearken to this people; out of their impatience (and impatiency is ever full of misconstructions) they impute all this that God had done, to the very hatred of them. Would you thinke it? Look in Deut. c. 1. ver. 27. Because God hated us, therefore hee brought us out of Egypt to de­stroy us with the Amorites. O sinfull Nation, worthy to be hated indeed, not worthy to be loved, that takes Gods love thus for hatred. This was the murmur of impatiency.

The murmur of disobedience against God and the Magistrate was in these words; O, that wee had died in the wildernesse! O, that wee were dead! They were but affraid of [Page 170] death, and they might have lived, if they had beleeved; they were but affraid of death, and, for feare they should die, they wish, O, that wee were dead! The like murmuring you shall finde oft times of this people: Fourty yeares long was God grieved, and vexed with their continuall murmuring. One while they murmured for want of wa­ter; after they had water, then they murmur at the bitternesse of the water. One while they murmur for want of bread; another time they had bread, and the bread of An­gels, the bread of heaven; then they mur­mur because they had nothing but bread. One while they murmur at the government of Moses and Aaron; God punished them for that murmuring: then they murmur againe because God punished them. They murmur at the tediousness of the way from Egypt to Cadesh-Barnea; now they murmur, because they may not goe from Cadesh-Barnea to Egypt againe. Thus they were like swine: For, as the swine, whether full or empty, wa­king or sleeping, is ever grunting: so this peo­ple were still murmuring.

The Apostle, 1 Corinth. chap. 10. ver. 10. saith, [Page 171] that this is written for our example, that wee should not murmur as they murmured, and were destroyed of the destroyer. Brethren, beware of this sin of murmuring. I will not speake of the murmuring of envie; you have in this Psalme v. 16. They murmured one against another. I doe not speake of that; but I begin,

First, beware of that murmuring of dis­obedience. Children, take heed how you murmur against your Parents. Servants, take heed how you murmur against your Masters. Subjects, take heed how you murmur against your Soveraigne. Let no­thing (saith the Apostle) be done with mur­muring, and reasoning. Doe all things without murmurings, and disputings, Phil. chap. 2. ver. 14. [...], as Chrysostome on that place excellently: It is a grievous sin that same murmuring. It is better (saith hee there) for a man not to have his worke done, then done with murmuring. The voice of murmuring is but a low voice, it is not loud; it is rather muttered, then uttered; it is but a low voice: It may be the man heares thee not against whom thou mur­murest: But it is said, The Lord heard the voice [Page 172] of this peoples murmuring, Deuteronomy chap. 1. And the Author of the book of Wisedome, excellently; There is (quoth hee) auris zeli, an eare of jealousie (hee speakes of divine jealousie; and that is a jealousie as hot as fire) and there is an eare of a Jealous God, and the voice of murmuring (saith hee) shall not be hid: therefore, (saith hee) in the next verse, Be­ware of murmuring. There is not such a secret thought, that shall goe for nought. If wee must give an account to God for every idle word, surely, wee shall give an account to God for words of desperate murmuring. That is for the one, Beware of that mur­muring of disobedience.

Then of the other, Beware, above all, of that murmuring of impatience. There are a generation of men that cannot be trou­bled with any thing that they would not be troubled with, nor can they want any thing that they would have; they must not be crossed with wet nor dry, with wind nor raine, with foule nor faire weather; but their mouths are presently set against heaven, and they will not stick to charge God foolishly, (as the people did) that God hates them.

I pray, let mee onely give you a few remedies against this impatient murmu­ring.

The first is this; Consider, that that same Discipline of God, at which wee murmur, is from God; Affliction comes not out of the dust, as Eliphaz speakes. There is nothing befalls thee in thine estate, but it comes from a Divine power, and is gui­ded by a most wise providence; and wilt thou murmur at it?

The very savage beast, that is ready to flee at the throat of a stranger, will en­dure it selfe to be stricken and beaten by his keeper. Surely, thou art worse then a beast, if thou wilt not suffer God thy Fa­ther, and thy Maker, and thy Keeper to strike thee.

Then, secondly, againe consider, God is righteous in all his waies, and holy in all his workes. Discat non murmurare qui malum patitur, Let not a man that suffers ill murmur; though hee know not for what ill hee suffers, hee can but suffer justly. There is nothing but it comes with due desert, because God is just, and it shall have a due profit. The [Page 174] judgements of God, some of them are secret, some of them open, they are all righteous; never murmur. We desire that God would not enter into judgement with us: Shall wee enter into judgement with God? wee doe so, if we murmur.

Thirdly, consider, that this same Disci­pline that thou murmurest at, it may be it is not so much penall, as medicinal. Thou mur­murest, peradventure that thou art poore; if thou wert rich, peradventure, thou would­est be proud of it. Thou murmurest be­cause thou art kept low, Thou art a hewer of wood, and a drawer of water to the host; perad­venture, if thou wert higher, thou would­est be more licentious. Thou murmurest, peradventure, because thou hast a weak sick­ly body; if thou wert more healthy, it may be, thou wouldest be more intemperate: God knowes what is better for thee, then thou doest for thy selfe: Therefore, as there was a law among the Persians, that if any man had been beaten at the Kings com­mand, hee should have beene so farre from murmuring against the King, that hee was bound by that law to come and give the [Page 175] King thanks, as though it was a favour from the King; hee must come and give the King thankes, that hee was pleased to remember him. Surely, when God beates us with any affliction, with poverty, or abasement, or whatsoever, wee should be so farre from murmuring, that wee should come and give God thankes that hee is pleased to remember us, and to make us againe to remember him, that otherwise might have forgotten him dayes without number.

Fourthly, and lastly, consider the feare­full judgement of God that falls upon mur­murers. I could have shewed many ex­amples, but remember this heavie judgement of God that at last fell upon this people for murmuring: the Lord bare with it a while: they murmured at Marah, hee bare with it; and at Rephidim, and hee bare with it; and at Taberah, and hee punished them a little; and at Kebroth-Hattanah, and then hee punished them a little: But at length hee would beare no more, but sware; hee lift up his hand, that they should never enter into the land of Promise; they entred not into that land. And, let mee conclude with that speech [Page 176] of Gregorie; Nullus qui murmurat, &c. there are none that murmur that enter into the Kingdome of heaven; nor shall any but the sons of peace, ever participate of that peace and tranquillity the Saints shall there enjoy. Let us therefore take heed of murmuring.

OF this Sicknesse, this grievous Sicknesse that now rageth and raigneth, and spreads it selfe more and more among us, as wee are not busie to seek a reason of it in naturall causes; so wee are not especially to seek the remedy of it by naturall meanes. It is no hand but that of God that smiteth us; and there is no hand but that of God can heale us. It is no hand but that of God that gave the wound; and it is no hand but Gods that must bind up againe. Therefore it was an usuall custome, both among the Iewes and among the Gentiles, when as the Plague began to break out at any time among them, the first thing they did, was, they did seek to appease the wrath of God by sacrifice: [Page 2] The Iewes did it by the light of grace, and the Gentiles by the light of nature. The Sicknesse being now broken out, and that a long time, our course must be still to ap­pease Gods wrath by sacrifice.

Sacrifices in the old Law were many; in the new Testament there is but one true, reall, externall, propitiatory sacrifice, that our blessed Lord offered on the Altar of the Crosse; a sacrifice of a sweet savour to God.

But though there be none of that kind, yet there be sacrifices of other kinde a great number, by which wee must seek to ap­pease Gods wrath. There be spirituall sacri­fices, saith St. Peter, 2 Pet. 2. 5. And what are those?

There be these five especially:

First Prayer, that is a sacrifice; Let my prayer ascend as incense, and the lifting up of my hands as an evening sacrifice, Psal. 141. 2.

The second sacrifice whereby we should appease Gods wrath, is a contrite heart, that David speaks of, The sacrifice of God is a troubled spirit; a broken and contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise. Psal. 51. 17. That is the second.

A third is a mortified body; I beseech you brethren (saith the Apostle) by the mercies of God, offer up your bodies a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God Rom. 12. 1.

A fourth sacrifice is in the Verse before my Text, a sacrifice of praise and thanksgiving: The Apostle calls it there, The fruit of the lips; but Hos [...]a, from whom the Apostle hath it, calls it, The calves of the lips. Calves were wont to be offered in sacrifice; and these calves of the lips ought to be offered to God, the sa­crifice of praise and thanksgiving.

That God may be pleased in mercy to give us occasion to offer this sacrifice, for our de­liverance from this infectious and venemous disease, when his good will and pleasure is, I have in the mean time now thought good to speak of a fifth sacrifice, of Almes-giving; To doe good, and to communicate, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

I need not to divide the Text, it breaks it selfe into two parts;

• 1. An Exhortation; And
• 2. The Reason of it.

To doe good, and to communicate, forget not; there is the Exhortation.

With such sacrifices God is well pleased; there is the Reason of it.

Concerning the Exhortation, I shall han­dle none but that to day, by Gods grace; con­sider there,

The matter, the thing we are exhorted to;

And the manner, how the Exhortation is framed.

The thing we are exhorted to is double, two-fold,

• Well-doing, and Communicating;
• To doe good, and com­municate.

These are the things we are exhorted to.

For the manner how the Exhortation is framed, it is not thus, Doe good and com­municate; but, Doe not forget to doe good; it is a thing of great necessity: what-ever thing you forget beside, forget not this; it is a thing you may easily forget: to doe good, and to com­municate, forget not. And of these, with Gods assistance, with all brevity and plainnesse I can. I have many matters to goe through, and I would be briefe.

Mark, I beseech you, first, the two things wee are exhorted to; they are Substantives in [Page 5] the Greek; how they differ, or whether there be difference between them, Writers doe dif­fer. Some think they are both one and the same thing, in two words. Others do think the latter word is of somewhat larger ex­tent then the former, The first word doth signifie an almes-deed, or such reliefe as wee give the poore; that is, Well-doing. The second word [Communicate] containes under it all mutuall offices of love and kindnesse, that passe between man and man.

For the better knowing of that commu­nicating, what it is to communicate, let me first tell you, that as severall Countries have their severall commodities, as you know, one Country abounds with good corne, another Country hath good wine, another hath good fruit, another Country hath good breed of cattell: Solomon had his oaks from Bashan, but his cedars from Lebanon, his firre from Shebar, his Almug-trees and gold from Ophir, his spi­ces and sweet odours from Arabia, his fine linnen and horses were brought out of E­gypt; his ivory, apes, and peacocks, were brought out of Selvesia by his navy and fleet of Tharshish. As severall Countries have [Page 6] their severall commodities, so severall men have severall gifts or blessings, which they are to communicate to others; as every Countrey by Merchants communicate the commodities that abound in them to other Countries, and they from other Countries receive in other commodities they want.

God would have one Country to stand in need of another, for some commodity or other: So it is among men, God hath so dis­posed of his blessings, as that there is no man but stands in need one of another. There is a necessity of receiving and com­municating. Solomon (Eccles. 5. 9.) tells us, The King is served by the tillage of the field; the very King stands in need of husbandry. The Ci­tizens sometime stand in need of the Coun­try man, and the Country man another time hath as much need of the Citizen. The poore man cannot stand in so much need of the rich man at one time, but the rich man at another time stands in as much need of the poore. There is never a member of the body can say to another, I have no need of thee, as the Apostle tells us, The eye cannot say to the hand, I have no need of thee; nor the [Page 7] head cannot say to the foot, I have no need of you. Nay, quoth the Apostle, those mem­bers that are feeble, are necessary. Those poore men that peradventure are contemp­tible in the sight of the world, are neces­sary. God hath so disposed of his gifts, and dispensed them with such wisdome, as that hee would still have an intercourse of kind­nesse betweene man and man. There is a necessity of receiving, a necessity of com­municating of gifts.

Some men can tell how to receive, but they know not how to communicate: Na­bal and his servants received a great deale of kindnesse at the hands of David and his ser­vants, they confessed it; Davids servants was a wall about them by day and by night, they prote­cted and defended them from all dangers, all the while they were in the wildernesse; but when David sent to Nabal for some re­liefe, in the day of Nabals sheep-shearing, What? quoth the Churle, Shall I take my bread; see how hee appropriates things still, My bread, and my water, and my flesh, that I have pre­pared for my shearers, and give them to men that I know not whence they come? 2 Sam. 25. 11. Hee knew [Page 8] how to receive kindnesses, but he knew not how to communicate.

As God hath established a distinction of proprieties among men, while every man governes his owne house, and rules his own servants, and tills his owne land, and feeds his owne cattell, and mannageth his owne affaires; I say, while God doth thus, every man finds sweet experience of Gods parti­cular providence. As God hath established thus a distinction of propriety, of house, and goods, and land among men; so God on the other side hath established a Commu­nion of Saints, and Communion of Saints doth not abolish the distinction of Proprie­ty, nor the distinction of Propriety doth not abolish the Communion of Saints; they may both stand together, a distinction of the Propriety and the Communion of Saints, God will have us, in regard of possession, to have things private and severall that are our owne; but God would have us make these things common, in regard of use, upon se­verall occasions: and then a man doth good, when he communicates that good that God hath given him, to the good of others.

Every man must consider with himselfe, wherein hath God enabled me to doe the greatest good? (as Sampson knew wherein his strength lay) and then to his uttermost power to doe good, and communicate to others of that which God hath given him: Forget not to doe this, for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

This same doing of good and communi­cating, may be done many wayes, and mark them, because there is no body may be ex­empted from this precept of the Apostle, it concernes every man, and every man may doe good and communicate some way or other. Wee are forbid to call our brother, Racha; which in the Syriack signifies empty, vacuous: A man empty! saith St. Ierome upon that word, how can a man be said to be bare and empty, whom the Spirit of God hath filled and replenished with some gift or o­ther, that hee may communicate, and in so doing doe good?

There are many wayes of doing good: First, a man may doe good to the Publike, or hee may doe good to the Private; hee may doe good to the Church and Com­mon-wealth [Page 10] in generall, or a man may doe good to some speciall persons in the Church or Common-wealth in particular. And to distribute and doe good, both to the one and to the other, forget not.

For the first, to the Publike, a man may doe good many wayes; These wayes espe­cially come to my mind.

First, a man may doe good to the Publike, by the building, or enlarging, or adorning Churches and Chappels, and Oratories for the service of God. A man may doe good to the Publike, by erecting and endowing of Schools and Colledges for the education of youth. A man may doe good to the Pub­like, by making High-wayes, and Causies, and Bridges for the Travellers. A man may doe good to the Publike, by the conveyance of water, that may be usefull either to City or Countrey, and many other things. There are many wayes more that a man may doe good to the Publike in, and to doe good to the Publike, forget not; for with such sacri­fice God is pleased. For some such works as I have named, the memory of some good men is blessed to this day, and will be here­after, [Page 11] from generation to generation, for such publike works.

Then secondly, a man may doe good to some speciall person in Church and Com­mon-wealth; and that two wayes:

• 1. A man may doe good to the body; or,
• 2. To the soule:

The good that a man communicates, may be either a Corporall, or Spirituall good.

Then doth a man good to the body, to the outward estate I meane, when hee commu­nicates such a thing as is a means of his com­fortable being in the state of Nature. But a man doth good to the soule, when he doth communicate such a thing as may be a means of a wel-being here in the state of grace, and of his eternall wel-being hereafter in the state of glory. Now, to doe good both to the soule and body of thy brother, forget not; for with such sacrifice, &c.

I begin with the soule first, that is the prin­cipall part. Doest thou see thy brother igno­rant of some truth that hee should know, that is necessary to salvation? Thou canst not doe him a greater good then to instruct him. Doest thou see him doubtfull what to [Page 12] doe? Why then doe him good to direct him. Doest thou see them over-taken with some infirmity? Why then restore them againe, as the Apostle saith, Brethren, if any of you be over-ta­ken with infirmity, you that are spirituall, restore such a man. The Greek word is, put him in ioynt againe; hee is out of ioynt, set him right, put him in ioynt with the spirit of meek­nesse and gentlenesse. Doest thou see thy brother unruly, and rush into sinne, as the horse into the battaile? Thou mayest doe a great deale of good, to admonish and reprove him, to pluck him (as Iude saith in his Epistle) out of the fire, that hee perish not. Doest thou see thy poore brother feeble and weak-heart­ed? Thou shalt doe a great deale of good then to encourage him. Doest thou see him deiected and cast downe, and almost swal­lowed up of despaire? Thou canst not doe a greater good then comfort him. These things you may doe. And if thou see thy bro­ther past all help from men, then thou canst not doe a greater good then to pray and beg help for him at Gods hand. And in very deed, that sweet Communion of Saints that we be­lieve in the Creed, I believe the Communion of Saints, [Page 13] that Communion of Saints, appears in no­thing more then the doing of good thus to the soule one man of another; to edifie and build up one another in our holy faith, to exhort one a­nother to holinesse of life, to provoke one another to love and good works, to comfort one another in sicknesse, to mourne one over another for your corruptions: This they may doe when they are together. And then, pray one for another: and that they may do when they are a thousand miles asunder. This is the Communion of Saints. Thus wee may doe good to the soules of our brethren; and to doe this good to the soules of your bre­thren, forget not; with this sacrifice God is well pleased.

To the body we may doe good, in the out­ward estate, many wayes; I will think of these three especially.

First, wee may doe them good, defendendo, by defending of our brother; by defen­ding his person from violence, by defending his goods from ruine, by defending his name from reproach and dishonour. Pro. 24. 11. Deliver him that is appointed to die, if it be in thy power. Deliverance it is a thing that holy [Page 14] Iob, among other works of his, hee speaks of this, I delivered the poore when hee cryed, and helped him that was fatherlesse; I brake the iawes of the wicked in pieces, and took the prey out of his teeth. If thou canst doe it by thy calling, if thy cal­ling will allow thee to doe it, thou art bound to doe it, to doe that good; to right them when they suffer wrong, either in their per­son, or goods, or good name; if it be in thy power to right thy brother, doe good that way, defend him. That is one way.

Secondly, thou mayest doe good, accom­modando, by lending; and indeed, sometimes a man may doe as much good by lending, as by giving. And this is a work of mercy that God requires of his people; mark that place, Deut. 15. 7, 8. Thou shalt not harden thy heart, nor shut thy hand from thy poore brother; But thou shalt open thine hand wide unto him, and shalt surely lend him sufficient for his need, in that which he want­eth. Thou shalt help and help him wide, so the word is, Thou shalt open wide to thy brethren; and shalt surely lend to them: The Originall word doubles it, in lending thou shalt lend; that is, thou shalt surely lend, and lend sufficiently, according to his need. So [Page 15] the Old Testament. And Christ in the New Testament saith, Lend, looking for nothing again, Luke 6. 35. And it is the commendation given to the righteous man, A righteous man is mer­cifull and lendeth, Psal. 112. 5. but then mark the words that follow after too, hee guides his affaires with discretion. That is the second way.

Thirdly, a man may doe good, donando, by free giving: Of what? That which is ac­cording to the necessity of our brother. If he be hungry, then we shall doe good to feed him, to give him bread; if hee be thirsty, we must give him drink; if hee be naked, we must give him clothes; if hee be sick, if it be in our power, wee are to give him remedy; if hee be dead, then to give him buriall, de­cent buriall; and among the works of cha­rity, and works of mercy, you shall ever find reckoned in Scripture, the buriall of the dead. When the Traitor Iudas grudged at the box of Spikenard that was bestowed upon our blessed Saviour, saith hee, Let her alone, shee hath done a good work towards my buriall. And, The Lord shew mercy, saith David, to the men of Iabesh-Gilead, because they shewed mercy to his Ma­ster Saul. What mercy? Many they buried his [Page 16] bones: It is a work of mercy. Thus you see how many wayes there be of doing good and communicating: A man may doe good you see to the Publike many wayes. And then to the Private, a man may doe good to the soule, to the body: To the soule by in­structing, by directing, by admonishing, by reproving, by encouraging, by comforting, by praying for them. A man may doe good to the body, by defending them from wrong, by lending that which is necessa­ry, by giving according to their necessity that aske. And thus to doe good to the Pub­like, to Private, to the soules and bodies of our brethren, when it is in our power, for­get not, it is a sacrifice with which God is pleased.

Seeing there are so many wayes of doing good thus, I will set down two Corrella­ries and Consectaries; two things follow on it.

The first is this, Since there are so ma­ny wayes of doing good, certainly as long as wee live here in this life, wee can never want oportunity of doing good, some way or other. That is the first. We cannot want [Page 17] oportunities of doing good, there be so ma­ny wayes to doe it; either a man shall find some ignorant poore body that hee may in­struct, as David did, Come yee children, hearken un­to mee; I will teach you the feare of the Lord. Or a man may find some person wronged, whom hee may help and succour, as Iob did. Or a man may sit in his tent doore, and find some stranger passe by that hee may entertaine, as Abraham did. Or a man may find some fa­therlesse children that hee may bring up, as Pharaohs daughter brought up Moses. Or a man may find some naked person that hee may clothe, as Dorcas did. Or a man may find some wounded person, which if hee have the gift and skill of healing, hee may heale; as the good Samaritane did. I might goe fur­ther: It is impossible while thou art here but thou shalt meet with oportunities of good­doing; wee cannot want them.

Let none excuse themselves with this, that they have no oportunity of doing good; they may have daily, either to doe good to the soules, or the bodies of some; or per­haps both to soule and body. I must worke, saith our Lord, while it is day; the night commeth [Page 18] when no man can work. The day is the time of life, we must follow our Lord in this work while it is day; while you have now time, here is the time to work good: The night comes, when death comes there is no more time then to doe good. Eccles. 9. 10. whatsoe­ver thine hand shall find to doe, saith Solomon there, that is, whatsoever God hath enabled thee to doe, whatsoever good, doe it with all thy power; Why? there is neither working, nor iudge­ment, nor knowledge, nor invention in the grave, whither thou goest.

Thinke of that; you are going now to your grave, you know not how long or how short a time it may be before you come there; therefore whatsoever thy hand shall find to doe, whatever good God hath ena­bled thee to doe, doe it with thy power; for there is no doing of good in the grave, whi­ther thou art going.

Titus the Romane Emperour is commen­ded by St. Ierome, and hee deserved commen­dations indeed, and Ierome propounds his example and saying to others, as commen­dable; Titus the Romane Emperour would every night call himselfe to account what [Page 19] good he had done that day; and if he found that all the day long there had been no good done hee, would cry out to his friend, Friend, I have lost a day. A great losse it seemed to him; but to us Christians a greater losse, that know we must make account to God for every day of our life, what good wee have done in it.

And surely, considering in our selves how much good God requires at our hands, first in our generall calling as wee are Christians; and then in our particular calling, according to the places wee hold in Church and Com­mon-wealth, and in our private families, it were not good to lose a day, every day to doe somewhat, as that Painter that would never have a day passe over his head with­out some line drawing; wee should not sof­fer one day to passe over our heads without some good work done, some good worke every day. Since there are so many oportu­nities of doing good every day, never suffer a day to goe over our heads without some good.

The Scripture saith of the devill, hee be stirres himselfe, and the reason is, because hee [Page 20] knowith that his time is short. How much more should wee bestirre our selves then to doe good, knowing that our time is shorter then his. While wee have time, saith the Apo­stle, let us doe good to all. The word is not in the Greek; but while wee have oportunity, so wee read it in the new Translation, While wee have oportunity to doe good, Gal. 6. 10. Now as long as wee live here, a charitable heart will never want oportunity of doing good, we shall still have oportunity to doe good; but when wee are gone there is no opor­tunity of doing good, there is no doing good after; but then wee are to receive for that wee have done already, whether good or evill.

Excellently Origen, (with which I will conclude this point) saith hee, The six a­ges of our life are as the six dayes of the week, they are dayes to gather Manna in; but the day of death, that is our Sabbath, there is no Manna then to be gathered, it is no day to gather Manna when wee are dead; but then we shall eat that we have gathered before. There is no doing good when wee are dead, but wee then come [Page 21] to receive for the good wee have done before, if wee have done it; therefore, To doe good, and to communicate, forget not. That is the first Correllary.

The second is this, that, Since there are so many wayes of doing good, there is no man exempted from doing good, there is no man but may doe good some way or other, Indeed, rich men must be rich in good workes; they that have a great deale of goods, must doe a great deale of good. But there is no man so poore that may challenge freedome from this doing good, because hee is poore; Harke what the Apostle saith, Ephes. 4. 28. Let him that stole, steale no more; but let him labour with his hands, working that which is good, that hee may communicate to them that need. See, the poore labouring man, that labours with his hands, hee must not bee free from doing good. Iohn Baptist, when hee was asked of the people, What shall wee doe? Marry, saith hee, Hee that hath two coats, let him impart to him that hath none; and hee that hath meat, let him doe likewise, Luke 3. 11. Let him that hath two coats, [Page 22] hee saith not, Let him that hath ten coats, a number of coats; but him that hath two coats, let him part to him that hath none.

Our blessed Lord did live upon that which good women gave him; that you shall see if you look Luke 8. 3. there it is said, that Mary Magdalene, out of whom hee had cast se­ven devils, and Ioanna, the wife of Chuza, Herods steward, and Susanna, and other women ministred un­to him of their substance. Christ lived upon that that good persons gave unto him, yet out of that that was given him, hee was wont to give almes; you may perceive that by that speech of the Apostles, when our Lord had bidden Iudas, That hee did, doe quickly, they did not know what he meant, but did think that hee would have them provide some­what, or to give somewhat to the poore, Ioh. 13. 29. To give some what to the poore. Our Lord himselfe lived upon that which was given him, yet hee himselfe, out of that which was given him, gave to the poore.

The Macedonians are commended by St. Paul for their great liberality, that whereas they were poore, I, deeply poore, it was deep poverty, so the word is, profound po­verty, [Page 23] deep poverty, as the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. 8. 2. it was poverty; deeply poverty; yet they abounded in liberality for all that. You know the woman in the Gospel cast in but two mytes into the Treasury, but it was all that ever shee had; it was but a lit­tle money, but it was great charity, a great worke of charity, all that ever shee had.

When the Creple asked an almes of Pe­ter and Iohn coming to the Temple, say they, Silver and gold wee have none; but such as wee have, give wee thee. If thou have no silver and gold to give, that thou canst not give that, yet give such things as thou hast.

The widow of Sarepta had no gold nor silver to give the Prophet, shee gave him a cake; shee lost nothing by it; you know the story. Our blessed Lord saith, Whosoever shall give a cup of cold water to a Prophet, in the name of a Prophet, shall not lose a Prophets reward. If thou canst not doe good with thy aera, thy money, that thou hast none to give, doe it ora, thou maist doe good that way. Thou shalt find some ignorant persons, instruct them. Thou shalt find some doubtfull, that know not what to doe, direct them. Thou [Page 24] shalt find some poore comfortlesse creatures, speak comfort to them, speak kindly to them, speak to their heart. Solomon tells us, Pro. 24. 16. Faire words are an honey-combe, sweetnesse to the soule, health to the bones. If thou canst not doe what good thou wouldest, why yet be willing to doe what good thou canst; doe that thou art able to performe, and God will accept thy willing heart, man, as hee did the willing heart of Abraham to offer his sonne, though hee did not offer him; and the wil­ling heart of David to build him an house and Temple, though hee built it not.

In a word, (to draw to a conclusion) e­very man must give according to his abili­ty, as God hath enabled him; and God looks not for small things from rich men. In the sacrifices of the old Law, in the voluntary free-will offerings, the Iewes had this Ca­non, that if a poore man brought a rich mans offering, God accepted of it: As, a paire of turtle doves and two young pige­ons was a poore mans offering, and ano­ther offering for rich men. If the poore man brought a rich mans offering it was accepted; but if the rich man brought in a [Page 25] poore mans offering, if a rich man came with a paire of turtles or two young pige­ons, this was not accepted; every man must give according to his ability.

Wee are not lords of that wee possesse, but stewards and bayliffes; and the greater bayliwick, the greater account: To whom God hath given but one talent, he shall make account but for one; but to whom God hath given two, hee shall make account for two; and to whom five, hee shall make ac­count for five. Thus as our gifts increase, so our account increaseth; according to the cost that God bestoweth on the ground, he looketh for fruit: of some ground it is enough if it bring forth thirty-fold; but of some ground God looks for sixty, and of some an hundred-fold. And they that have a great deale of goods, if they doe not a great deale of good with it, they must look for a great deale of punish­ment. And how little goods soever we have, we must doe good with it.

You shall heare many say; If I had so much as such a man hath, I would doe a great deale of good.

I marry, a great deale of good: But first, [Page 26] Why should God trust thee with a greater e­state, when thou wilt not doe good with that thou hast? Why should thy father put into thy hands a greater stock, when thou wilt not imploy that little? Be faithfull in lit­tle, and then God will increase that, as the widows oyle, and thou shalt have the bles­sing. To doe good, forget not. You have heard the thing exhorted unto; Now the man­ner.

Forget not to doe it.

In a word, I will not stand upon it, It seems that we are easily apt to forget to doe good, if wee be not called upon. Therefore our A­postle (for I take St. Paul to be the Author of this Epistle) when hee writes to Ti [...]us the Minister of the Church, saith hee, Put them in remembrance, put them in mind to doe good: It is one of his charges hee gives, Tit. 3. 1. Put them in mind to the good. It is a part of our du­ty to God, to put you in mind to doe good, that you may not forget it. In Gal. 2. 8, 9. you shall find there, that the Apostles Peter, and [...], and Iohn, the pillars among the Apostles, those three gave the hand of fellowship to Paul and Barnabas, that they should preach to [Page 27] the Gentiles, and the other to the Iewes; and there was nothing agreed upon but only this among them, that they should remember the poore wheresoever they came: whether it were Peter, Iames, and Iohn, that preached to the Iewes, or Paul and Barnabas to the Gen­tiles, this was covenanted and agreed on a­mong them, to remember the poore, still to mind them.

Therefore people must not take it ill at the Ministers hands, if that Ministers be still calling up on them for doing good and com­municating; it is part of our duty to call on you, that you forget not to doe good. And I could use many Arguments to per­swade you still to remember to doe good; but thus much onely, you must know this, (I will speak of this one thing, and then I have done;)

That, That God that forbids to doe ill, hath commanded us also to doe good▪ It is not enough for a man not to doe ill, but hee must doe good too. Innocency is a good thing, to doe no hurt, but innocency is not enough to salvation; It is not though for us that wee doe no hurt, wee must doe good [Page 28] too. That God that forbids us to vex the stran­ger, commands us in another place, to enter­taine strangers: That God that in one place for­bids us to grieve the widow and fatherlesse children, hee commands us in another place to relieve them: That God that forbids us to take the cloathing of a poore man for a pledge, com­mands us in another place, to cloathe poore naked men: That God that forbids us to doe ill to any man, commands us to doe good to any man. That fearfull sentence, Goe yee cur­sed into everlasting fire, it shall not be onely for doing ill, but it shall be for not doing good; I was hungry, and yee fed mee not; I was thirsty, and yee gave mee no drink, &c. and because you did not to one of those little ones, you did it not to me.

All the trees planted in the house of God, are called trees of righteousnesse, Isai. 61. they must bring forth fruit; their leaves must be for medicine, and their fruit for food; there must be good. God cannot indure that we should grow unprofitable, let every man take heed how hee growes unprofitable, that there come no good of that hee doth: Take heed of unprofitablenesse, the unprofitable servant is bound hand and foot; the unprofitable chaffe is [Page 29] scattered with the wind; the unprofitable fig-tree is hewen down; the unprofitable salt is cast on the dung-hill; God cannot endure unprofitablenesse. I will conclude with that place, Ezek. 15. 2. The Lord asks Ezekiel, Son of man, what is the vine tree good for? The vine brings fruit, it is good and comfortable for God and man, in Iothams parable. But God meanes the unprofitable vine tree, if it bear no grapes, what is it then good for? can you make a hook or naile of it, to hang a vessell on? You may doe it with other trees, if they grow un­profitable: the fig-tree, or the apple [...] o­thers, when they are unprofitable and beare no fruit, you may make a pin of them to hang a vessell on; but the vine, what is it good for? surely it is good for nothing but the fire; from one end to the other of it, you cannot make a pin to hang a vessell on. So either there must be grapes, there must be fruit, or woe and eternall perdition. To distribute, and to doe good, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

HEre is an Exhortation, and the Reason to enforce it: That Ex­hortation is. To doe good, and to com­municate. And then doe wee doe good, when we doe communicate that good that God hath given us, to the good of o­thers.

Wee have done with the Exhortation; Wee come to the Reason that the Apostle useth to enforce the Exhortation with all;

For with such sacrifices God is well pleased.

Hee saith not, With such workes God is well pleased; but with such sacrifices. There are spirituall sacrifices; Prayer is one, and Thanksgiving another, and Repentance ano­ther, and Beneficence another. But the thing that is offered to God in all these spirituall [Page 31] sacrifices, is the heart: A devout heart in Pray­er, a broken heart in Repentance, a gratefull heart in Thanksgiving, and a tender compas­sionate heart in Beneficence. And it is the tendernesse, and compassionatenesse, and the charitablenesse of the heart that makes it a sacrifice to God, and well-pleasing to him, and accepted of him.

Againe, hee doth not say, This is such a sacrifice as God requires, (though hee doo re­quire it too) but, This is such a sacrifice as God is well pleased with. It is motive e­nough to perswade a good child to doe this or that, if it be a thing that will please his fa­ther: It is motive enough to perswade a faithfull honest-hearted servant to doe a thing, to tell him, This will please your Ma­ster: It is enough to perswade any good subiect to doe this or that, to assure him the thing will please his Soveraigne: It is motive enough to a Christian heart; to per­swade him to doe good and communicate, to assure him, that this is a thing that God is well pleased with.

But yet it is not every work done, not every thing that is in it of the substance of a [Page 32] good work, that is pleasing to God; there is more required then so, to make a sacri­fice acceptable to God.

There is something required in the doer; and, There is somewhat required in the thing done.

There is somewhat required in the doer: First, hee must be in Christ, that will offer a sacrifice acceptable to God. Take these Rules:

First, If the person of a man please not God, his works can never please him. God accepted Abel, and his sacrifice: Abel first, and then his sacrifice. God never accepts a mans offer­ing, till first hee accept of his person. Now God accepts of no mans person, but in Christ; this is hee, in whom I am well pleased. The Apostle calls Christ, the Sonne of Gods love; and there are none that ever God loves, but hee loves them in his Sonne, the Sonne of his love, Col. 1. 13. That is one ground.

Another is, Though a work be good as it comes from the Spirit of God, the Author of all goodnesse, yet it cannot come thorow our fingers, but wee soyle it: All our righteous­nesses are as menstruous cloaths. If God should bee [Page 33] extreme to marke what is done amisse, in our best works, who were able to abide it? Even as the of­fering of the children of Israel, it was called a holy offering; yet as holy as it was, there was some iniquity in that holy offering; but that was laid on Aaron; and when hee bare the iniquity of all the other, the men and their workes were accepted. So it is here, the workes of a Christian man may be good workes, good in substance, because they are works that God requires at his hands. Then they may be good in the fountaine, when they spring from the Author of all good­nesse. And good in the end, because they are done to the glory of God, and the good of our brethren. But yet as there was some ini­quity did cleave to the holy offering of the children of Israel, (as holy as it was) so there is some iniquity cleaves to our good worke, how good soever it be: when that iniqui­ty that cleaves to our workes is laid upon Christ, who in his owne body on the tree, bare the iniquity of us all, then our persons and workes are graciously accepted, and all the iniquity that cleaves to our workes mercifully par­doned. This is the first thing; What is re­quired [Page 34] in the doer, to make his beneficence acceptable to God.

But here is not all, there is something re­quired in the thing done; and that I shall shew you in the remainder of the time, by Gods grace: And I shall lay it down in foure Rules.

The first is about the end. And you must not wonder that I begin at the end; for how­soever the end is the thing last attained, yet it is the thing first intended; it is the first thing in a mans intention. And besides, God regards not so much quid, as propter quid; not so much what wee doe, as for what we doe. A man may doe good works for ill ends, and then hee must not look that God should ac­cept them. It is the end that commends the action. Now there are three ill ends of do­ing good works.

One end that some propound to them­selves in doing good works is, to make sa­tisfaction to divine iustice, for the sins they have committed. The Apostle would have us doe good works for necessary uses; but God never appointed this use of good works. Our good works may be tokens of our secret [Page 35] predestination, they may be fore tokens of our future happinesse; but to think that by doing good wee can make recompense and satisfaction to divine iustice, and appease the infinite wrath of God for sinne, before the which the very Angels themselves are not able to stand, it is a senslesse and grace­lesse fancie; tending much to the dishonour of Christ, and that all-sufficient satisfaction that hee hath made for the sinnes of the world, when hee offered up his flesh a sacri­fice of a sweet smelling savour to God. That is one ill end.

Secondly, some propound another end, that is, to merit eternall blisse by it: And our English men, Rhemists, Romish, English men by birth, and Rhemists by education, and Romish by profession, oft times stand to it, to prove that good works are truly and pro­perly meritorious, ex condigno, even of very condignity: In so much, say they, in their Comment upon Heb. 6. Good works are so farre meritorious, that God were uniust if hee should not give heaven to our good works; hee were uniust, if hee should not yeild heaven to our good works. This is the [Page 36] onely place wherein they can find the name of merit; onely because the vulgar Latine hath it; and they doe in this place stand to prove the Doctrine of Merit, upon that word merit.

Give mee leave a little to shew you, that good works cannot be meritorious: I will give you these reasons.

One principall condition in a meritorious work is this, It must be done by a mans selfe: How can a man be said to merit any thing by a work that himselfe doth not, but another doth it by him, or in him? Now, you know, there is no good work that wee doe of our selves, God works all our good works in us. Hark how the faithfull pray in the Prophet, Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us, Isai. 26. 12. Our new translation reads, in us, our old, for us: The word in the Originall will beare either the one or the other; take it as you will, in us, or for us, God hath wrought the work; Lord, thou hast wrought all our works in us, and for us.

First of all, it is from Gods grace that we are enabled to doe good works, what works soever they be, it is grace that enableth us to doe them. And then, when we are enabled, [Page 37] it is from grace that wee are willing to doe them; both our ability, and our willingnesse to doe good, are from God. Look how the Apostle speaks, 2 Cor. 8. saith he there, I would have you know the grace that is bestowed on the Church of Macedonia. The grace that was bestowed on them, what grace was that? You may see in the two next Verses; nothing else but their willing bounty, even above their pow­er, to doe good; For, saith the Apostle, Vers. 3. to their power, I beare them record, yea (quoth hee) above their power: There was the grace that was bestowed on them, they were willing to doe good.

So then, have wee ability to doe good, it is of grace: have wee willing hearts to doe good, it is of grace. Doe we then any good, wee must shout as the people, Zech. 4. 2. and cry, Grace, grace, unto it. Double the word, Grace, Grace. Grace in enabling us, and grace in ma­king us willing too: All is of God. So if a man doe a good work, hee is more indebted to God for it; God is not indebted to him, but hee to God in making him able; and he is indebted to grace, for making him wil­ling; hee can merit nothing.

Then mark a second Reason, how good works cannot be meritorious; Merit is Opus indebitum, it is above a mans desert; it is a work that is not due, that a man is not bound to doe; for a man can merit nothing by doing that that hee is bound to doe already: hee should transgresse, if hee did not doe it; but hee merits nothing by doing that that hee stands bound in many bonds to doe already. Doth the Master thank his servant for doing that that is commanded, Luke 17. 9. Even so, (saith hee) when you have done all you can, say, We are unprofitable servants. If wee will merit any thing at Gods hands, wee must doe some­what that wee are not bound to doe. I, but how farre short come wee in the things we doe, of that that wee are bound to doe? we are so farre from doing more, that when we have done all wee can, wee are unprofita­ble servants. How much more unprofita­ble, saith Ierome, when wee come short of that which God hath commanded?

Thirdly, good works cannot be merito­rious; I prove it thus: There must be some proportion between the work that is done, and the reward that is given of condignity. [Page 39] Now, I pray, consider but what that reward is that God hath promised; not according to the worthinesse of our works, you must not think so; but of faith, of free mercy hee hath promised a reward: And what is it? Look in 2 Cor. 4. 17. see what it is, the Apostle calls it there, a farre more exceeding, eternall weight of glo­ry. These light, momentany afflictions, saith hee, pro­cure to us a farre more exceeding, eternall weight of glory. Mark; First, it is glory that God hath promised for a reward. Secondly, it is more then so, it is a weight of glory. Nay yet more then so, it is an eternall weight of glory. Nay yet further, an exceeding, eternall weight of glory. So farre our English can carry it; but our English cannot carry it so farre as the Greek, for there it is, an exceeding exceeding. The Apostle could not tell what to make of it, it was so much: He made as much as he could, A glory, a weight of glory, an eter­nall, an exceeding eternall weight of glory, an exceeding exceeding weight of glory. Now I would ask, I pray, what proportion can be between a little poore temporall ser­vice that wee doe, and such an eternall, ex­ceeding, exceeding eternall weight of glory? [Page 40] I will say no more concerning this point of merit.

Let us never talk of merits, they were all lost in the first Adam, we lost all merit in him: Let grace alone reigne in Christ. Let us say with Bernard, My merit is the Lords mercy. Let me have no merit, that will exclude grace: and, saith hee, there is no place for grace to enter in, when merit hath taken up all the roome before it comes. Therefore that is no right end.

Thirdly, there is a third end that some pro­pound of doing good; that is, glory from men Vaine men seek vain-glory. Thus did the Pharisees, they would doe a great deale of good, but they would doe it so that they might be seen of men to doe it. And indeed, it is lawfull for men to be seen to doe good, and our Lord would have us so to doe good, that wee may be seen of men to doe it, to let our light so shine before men, that they may see our good works, and glorifie our Father which is in heaven. If you be afraid of Spectators, you shall have no Imitators. If there be none to see you, there will be none to follow you. It is law­full for a man to be seen to doe good, but [Page 41] men must not doe good to be seen; for then they shall have their reward of men, they shall have none of their Father, God.

There belong two things to every good work:

• There is the Glory of the work.
• There is the Reward of the work.

The reward, God is pleased out of his free mercy to us in Christ to allow us that; hee allowes us the reward, but not the glory of the work; that must be his owne, and hee will not give that to another, as hee saith. If we deprive God of the one, we must look that God should keep us from the other: If wee keep from him the glory of the work, God will keep us from the reward of it. These are ill ends of good works. We must not do them to satisfie the iustice of God for sin, or with opinion of meriting eternall blisse, or to be seen of men to doe them.

What is the end then of good works?

Briefly, in one word, The end of all good works is the glory of God, in the good of our brethren.

And Gods glory is such a thing, as we are [Page 42] born to that end, to set forth the glory of God. As the Grace of God is our Alpha, so the Glo­ry of God must be our Omega. As the Grace of God is the beginning from whence all things come, so the Glory of God must be the end, to which all things must be referred: Of him, and through him, are all things; to him be glory for ever and ever. And we cannot bring greater glo­ry to God, and his holy Truth and Religion that we professe, then by doing good works. When men see our good works, and see how pitifull and tender-hearted we be, what bow­els of compassion we have to our poore af­flicted brethren, they cannot chuse but glori­fie God, and acknowledge and say, Surely this is the seed that God hath blessed, Isai. 61. 9. So much concerning the first Rule that I give you. Would you make your beneficence and good works that you doe toward your poore visi­ted brethren, pleasing and acceptable to God? doe them to a right end, to Gods glory, and your brethrens good.

I come to a second Rule; the former was about the End, the second is about the Foun­taine, from whence our good works must flow. And what is that? Compassion. If we [Page 43] will make our good works pleasing and ac­ceptable to God, they must flow out of a piti­full heart. If you instruct an ignorant man, which is a good work, it must be out of pity of his ignorance; if you feed a hungry man, it must be out of pity of his misery. The di­stribution of our goods to the poore, is ac­counted a work of charity, and so it is a great work of charity; if a man should doe as Za­cheus made an offer, give halfe his goods to the poore, and if I have wronged any man, I will restore it foure-fold, you would account that a great work of cha­rity; but suppose a man should give all his goods to the poore, you would say that were a transcendent work of charity; and it is true indeed: Yet see, a man may do even this tran­scendent work of charity, and have no chari­ty. For, mark the Apostles speech, 1 Cor. 13. 3. If (saith the Apostle) I should give all my goods to the poore, and have no charity: See, a man may give all that ever he hath to the poore, and yet have no charity; because that which hee gives comes not from a charitable, compassionate heart. Holy Iob doth not only tell of his works of charity, but hee tells out of what ground hee did those works of charity, out of what [Page 44] fountaine those works of charity flowed; and what was that? His compassion: Did not I weep for them that were in misery? was not my soule grieved for the poore? Iob 30. 25. The works that a man doth, if hee will make them a pleasing and acceptable sacrifice to God, they must come out of a fellow-feeling of his brethrens necessities.

It is said of our blessed Saviour in the Scrip­tures, He went about doing good. It is true, he did; his whole life was nothing else but a going about, doing good. And be pleased to mark what you read again in the Gospel, you shall find that some of our Lords works that hee did, were works of charity; and that he did, he did it out of compassion; and the Scrip­ture notes it to us, that it was out of compassi­on he did it. Let me shew some for example.

Our blessed Lord cleansed Lepers, and it was out of very compassion to them that hee cleansed them, the Scripture observes it so, Iesus had compassion on them, and said, I will, be thou cleane, Mark. 1. 41. In another place wee find, they brought many sick to Christ, and our Lord laid his hands on them, and healed them all; and it was out of compassion that hee [Page 45] healed them, Hee had compassion on them, and healed their sick, Mat. 14. 14. In another place, you know the miracle that our Lord wrought, he fed foure thousand men, besides women and children, and with a few barley leaves and fishes; yet it was out of compassion, so hee tells his Disciples, I have compassion on the mul­titude, they have been with me three dayes fasting, Mat. 15. 32. Againe, in another place, our blessed Saviour touched the eyes of the two blind men, and they received their sight, and fol­lowed him: and it was out of very compassi­on that he touched them, himself was touch­ed with compassion, before he touched their eyes; So Iesus had compassion on them, and touched their eyes, Mat. 20. ult. I will alledge no more places but one: You find that our blessed Saviour raised a young man at Naim, that was dead, and carrying to buriall; hee touched the coffin, and raised him again to life; and it was out of compassion; not to the young man, for it may be his estate was happy; but to his mother: the Scripture gives the reason, shee was a widow; and the name Widow, is a name of compassion; therefore out of com­passion hee saith, Weep not: and hee touched [Page 46] the coffin, and restored her sonne to life, Luke 7. 13. I could alledge many places more, but these shall suffice. Mark, I pray, onely a phrase of Scripture you shall find Isai. 58. 10. If (saith the Prophet there) thou shalt draw out thy soule to the hungry; he saith not, If thou shalt draw out thy purse, though that be somewhat, or draw thy meat out of thy cupboard, or thy gar­ments out of thy presse, and give to a poore wretch; but, If thou shalt draw out thy soule. The soule must be drawn out first; and if a man can once draw out his soule to a poore wretch, it will make him draw out his purse, if hee have it; he cannot but draw out his purse, if hee have drawn out his soule. Therefore saith Iohn, 1 Ioh. 3. 17. If a man (saith hee) hath this worlds goods, and shall shut up the bowels of compassion upon men; hee doth not say, If hee shut his purse; but, if hee shut up the bowels of compassion upon them, how dwelleth the love of God in him?

And while I name the bowels of com­passion, let me tell you, that word where it is said that Christ was moved with compas­sion, the Greek is, [...], wee cannot ex­presse [Page 47] it in English; it is a name from bow­els, he was moved in his bowels: That com­passion in Christ, and that that hee would have us to shew to our brethren, it is from the bowels. Therefore Mr. Beza translates the word, (he knowes not how to expresse it in one word, it must be an inward moti­on) I think wee call it, the yerning of the bowels; the bowels must yerne in us. When wee see poore miserable wretches, wee must not onely relieve them, but this reliefe must be done out of pity and compassion, and tender­nesse of heart to their misery. If we would have our sacrifice of beneficence acceptable and pleasing to God, there are two things in beneficence, in doing good, the inward affe­ction of the heart, and the outward act of the hand; they should not be parted, they should goe together: Not only the inward affection of the heart, but the outward act of the hand; nor only the outward act of the hand, but it must proceed from the inward affection of the heart.

But thus much, I can tell you one case, wherein God accepts the inward affection, without the outward act of the hand: Some­times [Page 48] God enables not a man to give a gift, then hee accepts of the good affection, and a pitifull heart to our brethren. Where God doth not find an ability to performe, there he accepts of a willing, loving, tender, charita­ble heart to our brethren; hee accepts of the inward affection to our brethren. I can tell you, I say, this case, wherein God accepts of the inward affection, without the outward action; but I cannot tell you any case, where­in God ever accepts of the outward action, without the inward affection. The outward act of the hand, it may be, may be more ac­ceptable to the man that stands in need, and receives; but the inward affection is that that makes it a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to God. That is my second Rule.

I come to the third and fourth; I will but touch them briefly. The third Rule is about the matter and substance of good works; Good works must be done with that which is our owne: It is a sacrifice wee find here, and wee must not offer in sacrifice to God, that which is not ours. In 1 Chron. 21. 24. Da­vid comes to Araunah the Iebusite, to buy the threshing-floore, to make an Altar there to [Page 49] God, and Araunah bountifully offers him, Nay, my lord, you shall not buy it of me, I will give my lord this, and my bullocks for a burnt-offering, and I will give my threshing instruments to burne the offering with, and I will give wheat for a meat-offering; I will give all, I will give, saith hee. No, saith David, I will take nothing of gift, I will not offer to God any thing that cost me nothing; nay, if it cost me nothing, I will not offer it to God; but I will buy it at a price, and then I will of­fer it to God. We may not offer to God that that cost us nothing, but that that cost us la­bour, and industry, and the sweat of our brows; that that we have gotten by hard la­bour and paines in our calling, let that come, and it is welcome to God. God cannot be pleased with a mocking sacrifice. I pray, who would be contented to be mocked? The son of Syrach, Ecclus. 34. 18. hee tells us, that he that offers an unrighteous sacrifice, of unrighte­ous goods, hee offers a mocking sacrifice to God: It is a mocking sacrifice, and will God be pleased to be mocked? why, our selves would not, saith Gregory. Whatsoever in our sacrifice that we offer to God is ill gotten, it is [Page 50] so farre from appeasing the wrath of God, that it provokes him much more.

It is a thing somewhat observable, that in the Scripture our almes-deeds are called righ­teousnesse, our beneficence is called righte­ousnesse in many places in Scripture; The good man is mercifull and lendeth, &c. He scattereth abroad, and gives to the poore; his righteousnesse endureth for e­ver: that is, his almes-deeds. Psal. 112. 9. And the Apostle prayes for the Corinthians, that God would please to increase the fruits of their righteousnesse, 2 Cor. 9. 10. that is, their bene­ficence; beneficence is called righteousnesse. And that which we read in Mat. 6. 1. Take heed that you doe not your almes before men, the vulgar La­tine reads at, Take heed that you doe not doe your righ­teousnesse before men. Master Beza reads it so too; and hee saith with all, that in two of the an­cientest Greek copies that hee hath, it is so. The Syriack Interpreter reads it so too, Take heed that you doe not your righteousnesse before men. Nay, I shall tell you more, that Christ hee looked in on them that put or cast money in the Treasury: Now what was that? It was a chest at the doore, (as your poore mens box) in which they were wont to cast money, as [Page 51] they passed by out of the Temple: And this the Hebrewes called, The chest of righteous­nesse; not the chest of mercy, or of charity, but of righteousnesse.

Why should our almes-deeds be called righ­teousnesse?

I could give you many reasons, but let this suffice now at this time, Because God would have that to be righteously brought in, that is charitably laid out: we must lay nothing charitably out, but that which is first righte­ously brought in: that must be laid out to good uses, that is gotten by good meanes; let it be righteously gotten, and then it will be a sacrifice pleasing and acceptable to God. That is my third Rule: It must be our owne that we give.

The fourth and last Rule, that I will but name to you, is this, about the manner, that it must be done cheerfully. The first Rule was about the End, It must be done to a good end. The second Rule was about the Foun­taine whence it must flow, A pitifull heart. The third Rule was about the Matter or Sub­stance, It must be our owne. The last Rule is about the Manner, It must bee done [Page 52] with alacrity and cheerfulnesse.

And this cheerfulnesse must appeare, first, in the countenance: A man must not give with an angry, unwilling countenance.

Then it must appeare in the words of a man; for a man may peradventure undoe a good work, with ill words; hee may bring a blemish on a good work, with ill words. Fair words are as an honey-comb, sweetnesse to the soule, and health to the bones. As there must be com­passion and bowels, so there must be grace and favour in the lips. A good word some­times may doe more good then a good deed, to cheere and comfort a poore soule, and re­vive it.

Thirdly our cheerfulnesse must be shevved by our speedy giving; hee gives tvvice, that gives quickly; and a man blemisheth his good vvork, that delayes it. There is so much taken from the vvorth of every vvork, by hovv much it sticks longer in the fingers of him that doth it.

Novv you see, brethren, hovv you may make good vvorks pleasing and acceptable to God: Your persons must be first in Christ. Then, you must have a good End; you must [Page 53] not propound to your selves, to make satis­faction to divine iustice, or to merit eternall blisse, or to think thereby to be seen of men, for vain-glory and popularity; but your end must be Gods glory, and your brethrens good. And then, this must flow out of a pi­tifull heart, Pro. 14. 21. Hee that hath pity on the poore, blessed is hee. Hee saith not, He that gives to the poore; yet he would not have it a bar­ren, fruitlesse pity; but the meaning is this, Hee that pities the poore, and gives out of pi­ty, blessed is he. Then again, it must be your owne that you give; it must not be a burnt-offering of goods gotten by rapine, and by ill meanes.

Then lastly, it must be done with cheer­fulnesse; cheerfulnesse shewed in the coun­tenance, in words, in speedinesse and readi­nesse to give. If it be thus, then it is a sacri­fice acceptable to God.

Nay, I will goe further, God will reward such a sacrifice as this; you shall be sure of a reward at the hand of God: Though not for the merit of the work, (away with merit, talk not of that) yet you shall have a reward, through the free mercy of God in Christ.

That is lost, you say, that is bestowed on an unthankfull person; but, as Luther saith, if a man will not doe good unlesse he can find a thankfull man, let him look another world to doe it in, this is not a world for him; if one of ten give thanks, it is enough: it was so with Christ, one Leper comes of ten; but yet though men prove unthankfull, they will not seeme to requite; though men forget, yet our good God will not forget. Hark what saith the Prophet, Mal. 3. 10. Bring yee all the tithes into the store-house, that there may be meat in mine house; meat for the reliefe of the Levites, and so for the poore; for there went part that way too; that there may be meat in mine house, and try me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windowes of heaven, and poure you out a blessing from thence. Try me: Beloved brethren, you have tried many men, and you have made ventures, some perhaps to the furthest parts of the world; some have made ven­tures in this Kingdome; and you dare trust this man and that man with your estates and goods, and it may be some have cozened you of a great deale; this may be lost, Man is deceit­full on the weights, lighter then vanity it selfe; but [Page 55] trust God with somewhat, venture some­what to heaven: you venture in giving to the poore, you make it a hazard; but you never make so safe a return of any commodity in the world, as that that you give to your brethren.

Riches we call the muck of the world, I would we did account it so as we call it, the muck of the world. May I give you a simile from your selves; A heap of muck as it lies in the yard it doth no good, but carry it abroad into your pasture fields, and spread it, and you find the benefit of it: Thus it is, as long as your money and your goods lie heaped with you, it doth no good; carry it abroad and disperse it, as the Scripture saith, Hee hath dispersed and given to the poore, Psal. 112. it is taken from dung spread in the field; lay it out upon your poor brethren, and look for an increase; if you have it not in this life, assure your selves you shall have it in the life to come; if you have it not in outward blessings, you shall be enriched in grace here, and in glory hereafter. To which the Lord bring you, for his sake that hath dearly purchased it for you, Iesus Christ the righteous. Amen.

THe words doe refer to the 4 ^th. verse, wherein the blessed Vessell of election, St. Paul, beginneth to shew, how hee and Timothy, and other faithfull Ministers of Jesus Christ, did approve themselves to be so, by ex­ercise of patience, by purenesse, by knowledge, [Page 58] by long-suffering, by kindenesse, by the holy Ghost, by love unfeigned, by the Word of truth, by the power of God, by the armour of righteousnesse, on the right hand, and on the left; and all this, when (as it is in the Text) they passed thorow honour and dishonour, e­vill report and good report, accounted to be de­ceivers when they were true.

In the handling of the words (wherein are three Antitheta's) I propound this course; I will first handle the Antitheta's themselves se­verally.

In the second place, I will shew how it is the lot of the best of Gods children to passe tho­row every one of them.

And, in the third place, I shall shew that we shall then approve ourselves to be true Mini­sters of Jesus Christ (as Saint Paul doth here) when, as passing through honour and disho­nour, evill report and good report, held to be deceivers when wee are yet true, wee doe not­withstanding keep the faith, hold our owne, fulfill our Ministery.

HOnour, in Greek [...], is nothing else but Honour, and Disho­nour. a good opinion and estimation, which a man findeth among such as are wise, and vir­tuous, [Page 59] and religious; upon the acknowledge­ment either of some good graces, wherewith God hath honoured him, or of some good vir­tuous actions, wherewith hee hath honoured God: And this honour is made knowne abroad, Honor, in Scripturis non tantum in salutati­onibus & officiis defe­rendis, quan­tum in elee­mosynis ac munerum oblatione sentitur. Hieron. in caput 15. Matthaei. not onely by salutations and greetings in the Market-place, which was a piece of Honour wherewith the Pharisee was well pleased; nor onely in Titles to be called Rabbi, Rabbi, which they also affected, but in the performance of God offices, and all due observances, toge­ther with rewards and presents, which are therefore called Honoraria, as given by way of honour. Thus the Queen of Sheba honoured Solomon with a present of an hundred and twen­ty talents of gold, beside precious stones, and spices in great abundance, 1 King. 10. 10. Thus the men of Judah honoured Jehosophat with so many presents, that hee had riches and honour in abundance, 2 Chro. 17. 5. So the Wise-men, that came from the East, did their honour to Christ, not onely by falling downe and worshipping him, but by opening their treasures, and pre­senting their gifts, Gold, Frankincense, and Myrrhe, Matt. 2. 11. Our Saint Paul had honour, and much honour, [...]. so [Page 60] saith Saint Luke, Acts 28. ver. 10. They honoured us with many honours, and laded us with such things as were necessary for our journey.

And, to say no more, What is that double ho­nour which the Elders are worthy of that rule well, 1 Timoth. 5. 17. but Reverence and Mainte­nance? If maintenance be taken away, reverence is soon lost; who will give honour to the Mini­ster, what ever worth be in his person, if abili­ty and outward meanes be wanting? Solomon telleth us, that the wisedome of a poore man is despi­sed, and his words are not heard, Ecclesiast. c. 9. ver. 16.

This honour, in what thing soever it is shewn, must be acknowledged a blessing of God bestowed upon his children, as a reward of former good services, and an encouragement to future. Thus was Abraham, though a stranger, honoured among the Hittites, as a Prince of God; and had a choyce given him of a Sepulchre, amongst the choycest of their Se­pulchers, Genesis 23. Jehoida, that reve­rend High-Priest, lived in honour, and dyed as full of honour as of dayes, having been match­ed in Marriage with the Sister of the King, [Page 61] and buried in the City of David among the Kings: and this was because hee had done good in Israel towards God, and towards his house, 2 Chron. 24. ver. 16. But what doe I speak of such eminent Persons? Saint John Baptist in his Eremiticall retired course of life, wan­ted not his honour, not onely among the people, who held a common constant opinion of him, that he was a Prophet, but even with He­rod the King, who both feared him, and obser­ved him, [...], because he was a just, and an holy man. Goodnesse may command honour, when greatnesse must begge it. It is this honour which nourisheth Arts: Learning would soone decay, if this honour were taken from it: This encourageth to virtuous actions, Virtu­tis Valerius Maximus. uberrimum nutrimentum honos. It is this that putteth a man upon the greatest services: Da­vid durst adventure to fight with the Phili­stine, after hee had heard how the man should be honoured that slew him. There is no noble or generous spirit, but doth value honour at the highest rate: Interesse honoris est majus omni alio Interesse. Wee reade of many, in Gentile Stories, as Ajax, Brutus, Antony, Cato Uticensis, and others, which have willingly rid them­selves [Page 62] of life, to rid themselves of some disho­nour: Did not Saul the like in holy Scripture, when hee fell upon his owne sword? Did not Sampson the like, when hee pulled the house u­pon his owne head, and upon the heads of the Philistines, that had so dishonoured him? It trou­bled not Abimelech to thinke that hee should die, it troubled him (when, wretched man! hee should have thought of something else) to thinke that he should die so dishonourably, by the hand of a woman, Judg. 9. ver. 54. What hath caused so many duells, and mortall quarrells between noble and generous spirits, as that same too quick and sensible apprehension of some wrong done unto them in honour? Doe but looke upon examples of Gods children in Scriptures. You shall finde Elisha never so pro­voked, or so unable to dissemble his provocati­on, as when he was dishonoured, though it were by wanton and waggish children. Holy Job complaineth of nothing more than of that deri­sion and scorn which he suffered from them, whose fathers he would have disdained to have set with the dogs of his flock; they were men of no Name, viler than the earth, and yet these men abhorred him, and spared not to spit in [Page 63] his face, Job 30. Miserrimum est fuisse foelicem: hee telleth in the former Chapter, in what honour hee had lived; it went nearer therefore his heart, to be thus dishonoured. Wee never reade that good Nehemiah did use any imprecation a­gainst those sworne enemies of his, Sanballat and Tobijah the Ammonite, but only upon their contumelious reproaches: Heare us, saith hee, for wee are despised, O our God: Turne their reproaches upon their owne head, and give them for a prey in the Land of captivity, Nehem. 4. ver. 4. Have mercy upon us, O Lord, cry the people. And again, Have mercy upon us: Why? what ail they? Wee are exceedingly, say they, filled with contempt; our soul is exceedingly filled with the scorne of those that are at ease, and with the contempt of the proud, Psal. 123. 3, 4. What need I, by more examples, shew you how Gods children doe complaine of dishonours? One of the bitterest ingredients in that Cup, which our crucified Lord did drink for us, was shame and dishonour; which did wring from him that complaint in the midst of his sufferings; Vermis ego & non homo, I am a worme and no man, a scorne of men, and the out-cast of the peo­ple, Psal. 22. ver. 6. And, indeed, in that kind of death on the Crosse, it is a question whether [Page 64] the paine or shame is greater: but that glorious Author and finisher of our Faith, both endured the paine of the Crosse, and despised the shame, and is now set downe at the right hand of the throne of God, Hebr. 12. 4. and, if wee desire to raigne with him, wee must be content to suffer with him, and learne to contemne that contempt that the world shall cast upon us in his cause: hee was thus vile for us, and how vile soever wee are for him, wee are still to re­solve with David, that wee will be yet more vile than so.

THe two next Antitheta are, good report, and Good report and Evill report. evill report, [...], and [...]. Bona fama, & Infamia. [...] is first: but how irksome and odious that is to us, will best ap­peare, when I have first shewed unto you how precious and comfortable a good report is. But let me tell you first three things: First, we must not look for it from all men; Woe unto you, saith our Lord, when all men speak well of you, Luke 6. ver. 26 It is enough if wee be well-reported of by the most; yea, it is enough, if, though wee be not of the most, it be by the best. Secondly, wee must not looke for it alwaies from the mouthes of men. Wee commend our selves, saith S. [Page 65] Paul, to every mans conscience, in the sight of God, 2 Corinth. 4. 2. Our persons and actions may, peradventure, receive a good approbation from the consciences of men, when wee cannot get a good word from their lips. Thirdly, we must not look for it at all times: it is not alwaies a blessing, it may sometimes doe us hurt; an ill use sometimes may be made of a good report, if the proud heart of the man sit and blesse it selfe in that, for which hee is well reported; and a good use may be made of an ill report, when a man by it is made either cautior, or humilior; ei­ther more humble for what is past, or more wary for afterward: but a good report from the mouth of good men, and from the conscience of evill men, at such time as it may bring honour to God, or good to us, is to be reckoned amongst one of the greatest blessings of this life; though it be no virtue, yet it hath the originall from virtue: therefore, saith the Apostle, Si qua Virtus, si qua Laus; Virtus first, and then Laus, Phil. 1. 8. First, it is bonum utile, accounted a second Patrimony, Honesta fa­ma alterum patrimoni­um. rather to be chosen then great riches, saith Solomon, Proverb. 22. ver. 1. then a thousand great treasures of Gold, saith the son of Syrach, Ecclus. 41. 12. Ast Plautus, in Mostellaria. ego si bonam famam servasso, sat ero dives, saith one [Page 66] in the Comedy, if I shall keep my credit, I am rich enough. Secondly, bonum jucundum: A good Name is better then a precious oyntment, Eccles. 7. 1. There is mentioned by Saint Basil [...], a certaine Art of drawing of pigeons to their dove-houses, in those Coun­tries, by annointing the wings of one of them with a sweet oyntment, and, it being sent abroad, doth, by the fragrancy of that oyntment, invite and allure others to that house, where it selfe is a domestick. Thy Name (saith the Church to Christ) is an oyntment poured forth, Cantic. 1. ver. 3. Because of the savour of thy good oyntments, there­fore the Virgins love thee: And then, in the next verse, Draw mee, saith shee, and wee will run after thee. A Preacher, well reported of, shall not want hearers. A Physician of a good report, wanteth not patients. The Lawyer that hath a good report, wanteth not chents, nor the School-master scholars, nor the Trades-man customers, nor the Poore man friends. Thirdly, and especi­ally, bonum honestum. Amongst those things that are honest, and just, and pure, which are to be thought on, there are reckoned also [...], those things that are of good report, in that fourth of the Philip. ver. 8. A good man if hee be not [Page 67] so good as hee is reported, hee cannot but strive to be so good, because hee is so reported: on the other side, he is a dissolute man that careth not what is reported of him. The childe of God must not onely looke to his conscience, whereby hee provideth for himselfe in the sight of God; but also to his good name, providing things honest in the sight of all men, Rom. 12. 17. There are two things commended in the Lilly, whitenesse, and sweetnesse; there are these two in a child of God, saith Saint Bernard, Candor conscientiae, & odor bo­nae Ber. Serm. 71. in Cant. famae; the candor of a good conscience, and the fragrancy of a good name: Nec candor sine odore, nec odor sine candore, saith hee: My conscience is for my selfe, my good name for others. God would have none near to him, but such as are well re­ported of. The Widow that is to be maintained at the charge of the Church, not to be received in, unlesse well reported of for good, 1 Tim. 5. 10. The first Deacons that were chosen, were to be men of an honest report, Acts 6. 3. The Bishop (take the word in the largest sense) must be a man that hath a good report of them that are with­out, 1 Timoth. 3. 7. The nearer wee are to God, the more carefull ought wee to be of our credit; an evill report of one in that sacred Function, [Page 68] bringeth up an evill report upon the Function it selfe; an evill name of a Professor, bringeth a discredit upon the profession: and it were bet­ter that a milstone were hanged about our necks, and wee thrown into the sea, then wee should live, and, by our evill life, bring an evill name upon the Gospel, and so make the glori­ous Name of our God to be evill spoken of. I need adde no more; onely, because these dayes are dayes of evill report, wherein we do nothing else, but, as those Philosophers in Lucian, cast [...], whole cart-loads of evill speakings, even in the faces of one ano­ther; let me, in a word, shew what good uses may be made of those evill reports.

First, Let us examine our consciences, whe­ther they be true or no: if they be false, altoge­ther false, then we may comfort our selves in the testimony of a good conscience; and if our adver­saries should write a book against us (and there be bookes enough written of that Argument, and cryed every day up and downe our streets) wee might, with holy Job, take it upon our shoulders, and bind it as a crown to our heads, Job 31. v. 35, 36. But if the reports be in any part true, then it is fit that wee should lie downe in [Page 69] our shame, give God the glory of his justice, beg mercy, bear the punishment with patience, and give God thanks for it. Iram Domini portabo, quoniam peccavi ei: I will bear the wrath of the Lord, because I have sinned against him, Micha 7. 9. If the reports be not altogether true, then let us search the wound a little deeper, and see whether wee have not given a just occasion to such a report: It was said of that Vestall Virgin, that shee was

— Ovidius, Fast. lib. 4. Casta quidem, sed non est credita,—that she was chaste indeed, but not thought to be so; because she was more wantonly attired then became such a Virgin. It may be, though we are not so ill as we are reported, yet, upon ex­amination, we may find that we are not so good as we ought to be, in shunning the occasions and appearances of evill, which ought to be un­to us a sufficient matter of humiliation. If wee be free from giving occasions, yet we should do well to search yet a little deeper, and try whether we have not entertained some morose cogitati­ons, and thoughts of that sinne wherewith we stand charged upon report. It may be that that wickednes hath been sweet in our mouth, and wee have rolled it under our Job 20. ver. 12. tongue; [Page 70] though we have not swallowed it downe, yet, peradventure, we have not spit it out; and then, though Digest. li. 48. Tit. 19. de Poenis. cogitationis poenam nemo patitur, by the law of man; yet, it is a righteous thing with God, the Searcher of hearts, by false reports to punish that sin which hath found so kinde an entertainment, or some other sin wherein wee have lyen without repentance.

But, Lastly, it may, peradventure, please God in mercy, that such a false report should be char­ged upon us at this time unjustly, that we may be the more carefull of our waies, and watch­full over our hearts, with an holy jealousie a­gainst that sin, lest wee be justly charged with it another day: Good God, Teach us to make this good use of evill reports. And so I have done with evill reports in generall, and come now to one evill report in particular, which cannot but much trouble a true servant of God, to be coun­ted a Deceiver, when he is True.

AS Deceivers, saith the Apostle, and yet True. Ut Seducto­res, & ta­men Vera­ces. There is no lyar that would willingly be accounted a lyar; we see how ready some are, while they are lying, to present death upon the point of a sword to the man that shall give them the lye: There are no false Prophets, not [Page 71] Zedekiah whilest he opposed Michaiah, nor Ha­naniah whilest hee opposed Jeremiah, or any o­ther of them, who would be accounted a false Prophet: they would be accounted as true, and yet were deceivers; as Paul and Timothy here were accounted deceivers, and yet were true. One especiall reason given by good Authors, why Jonah should be so angry, and so very angry, that Nineveh was spared, was his owne credit, that hee might not be thought a false Prophet, as a deceiver, being true. Jeremiah also, when the Princes would have put him to death, as a false Prophet, regarded not his life, but stood in de­fence of that truth, which hee had spoken: I am in your hand, saith hee, doe with mee as seemeth good and meet unto you. But know yee for certaine, that if you put me to death, ye shall surely bring innocent bloud upon your selves, and upon this City, and upon the inha­bitants thereof; For, of a trueth, the Lord hath sent me unto you, to speake all these words in your eares, Jer. 26. 14, 15. So our Saint Paul oftentimes vindi­cates his credit, and standeth upon his sincerity in preaching the Gospel; Wee are not, quoth he, as many men are, which corrupt the Word of God, [...], seeking to vent their adulterate deceitfull wares, or, as Vintners doe mix their [Page 72] wines, But as of sincerity, as of God, in the sight of God, speak wee in Christ, 2 Cor. 2. 17. And so in a­nother place of this Epistle, Not walking in craf­tinesse, nor handling the Word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth, commending our selves to every mans conscience in the sight of God, 2 Cor. 4. 2. And this is it which every faithfull Minister of Jesus Christ should especially stand upon, (For cursed is he that doth the work of the Lord deceitfully, Jerem. 48. 10.) that his words be the words of truth and sobernesse. Let the world judge as it will of the manner of our preaching; some­times, they say, we are too hot, sometimes too cold; sometimes too learned for them, some­times too unlearned; sometimes too high, some­times too plaine; sometimes too sharp, some­times too pleasing: Let the world say what it will, if wee speak the trueth in Christ, our con­sciences bearing us witnesse in the holy Ghost, the Guide of our consciences, that wee lye not, keeping back nothing that is profitable to the people, but declaring unto them the whole Counsell of God; wee may then finde joy and comfort to our soules, when all the comforts shall faile us that the world can yeeld us. And thus have I shewed you what a Minister of [Page 73] Jesus Christ may passe thorow; I shall now come to the second point, and shew you that it is the lot of many a deare servant of God to passe tho­row them all.

ANd where should I rather begin to give 2. Point. an Instance, then in our Crucified Lord? one day honoured, when he rode into Jerusalem, bough's and garments spread in the way, with a joyfull shout of Hosanna; Blessed is hee that cometh in the Name of the Lord, Hosanna in the high­est: and, the fifth day after, most shamefully dishonoured, with a continuing cry of Crucifie him, Crucifie him. In which kind of death, there may be doubted, as I said before, whether there were more paine, or shame; but paine enough to satisfie for our pleasure, and shame enough to sa­tisfie for our pride. There's for honour and disho­nour. Now for his good report and evill report: Let me tell you how sometimes hee was reported to be a Prophet, a great Prophet, a Teacher come from God; that hee was true, and taught the way of God in truth, and cared for no man, and regarded not the person of men, and lastly, that hee did all things Mark 7. ver. 37. well. At other times, you shall finde him reported to be a Blasphemer, an Enemy to Cesar, a Seducer of the people, a Glut­tonous [Page 74] person, and a Wine-bibber, a Friend of Publicans and sinners, a Samaritane, and One that had a divell, and One that wrought by Beelzebub the Prince of divells: It were a won­der if they should not call him a Deceiver too: Yes, they did so; For whilst they murmured against him, some saying, He was a good man, others said, Nay, but hee deceiveth the people, Joh. 7. ver. 12. And the chiefe Priests and Pharisees, in plaine words to Pilate, call him a Deceiver, [...], Mat. 27. 63. Wee remember this Deceiver said; and yet, though he was held as a Deceiver, hee shew­ed himselfe true in that; for praedixit & revixit, hee fore-said it, and did it in his due time.

Let mee give you another instance in our St. Paul: You have heard how, at Malta, hee was honoured with much honour, and laden with neces­saries: You shall reade, at Philippi, Acts 16. 23. how much hee was dishonoured, and laden with many stripes; [...], in the place before, now here, [...]. But, you will say, these were at two severall places; Look Act. 14. and you shall finde him honoured at Lystra, more then was fit for a man to be honoured. Hee and Barnabas had much adoe to keepe the people from sacrificing to him, as to a god, &, presently [Page 75] after, (it is generally beleeved the same day) they stoned him with stones, even to death, as they supposed, (for they supposed him to be dead) and dragged him, like a dead dog, out of the gates of the City. Oh the inconstancy of hu­mane favour! I cannot but think how the A­thenians, in Plutarch, used Demetrius Phalereus: they set up two hundred statues to his honour, and took them every one downe againe, while Demetrius was yet living, to his dishonour; and that before either Cum nul­lam earum aut aerugo attigerat, aut pulvis sordidave­rat, Plut. Apophth. rust had spoiled them, or dust had soiled them. But what doe I alledge out of these Histories? Examples of the vulgars inconstancy, dishonouring where they have ho­noured one day, and honouring where they have dishonoured another? Nothing formerly hath been more honourable at home, or admirable a­broad, then the English Clergy: nothing grown now more despicable. [...]. Chrysost. in 2 Tim. c. 1. hom. 2. S. Chrysostome complained of the like in his time, that all things were tur­ned upside-down, and brought to confusion; that the Church Governours were not honoured, no reverence, no feare yeelded to them, [...]. But, good God, how much worth, how much learning, zeal, pietie, religi­on, in some Governours of the Church, have [Page 76] wee seen shamefully trampled on, under the dirty feet of some Sectaries in their scurrilous libels and pamphlets? I know none, I speake it in the presence of God, that have done better services to the Reformed Churches against Po­pery, by their Writings and Preachings, then some Reverend Fathers in our Church have done I meane (beside those Mar­tyr-Bi­shops, Cran­mer, Ridley, &c. in Q. Maries daies) such Bishops as have bin in the Church of England & Ireland, since the beginning of Queen Elizabeths Raign: as, namely, Archbish. Parker, to whose are wee are beholding for most of our ancient Histories. Bishop Bale, Ossoriensis Episcopus, for his many Volumes. Bishop Jewell, for his Workes. Archb. Saundys, for his Sermons. B. Bilson, for his Book, intituled, The Difference be­tween Christian Subiection and unchristian Rebellion &c. B Andr. for his Polem. B. Buck­ridge, for his Book, De potestate Papae in re [...]us Temporalibus, &c. B. Abbot, of Sarisbury, for his Book in Defence of Master [...]ins. B [...]ing [...], for his Workes. Bishop cake, for his learned Sermons. Bishop Davenant, for his Praelectiones de duobus in Theologia controversis Capitibus, &c. and other Tracts. Bishop White, for his Book against Fisher. Bishop Carleton, for his Book against Arminianisme. The Lord Primate of Armagh, never to be mentioned without honour, for his unparallel'd Workes: and many others.; whereof some are fallen asleep, and some re­main to this day, and long may they live, to the performances of the like services. Who hath so plainly discovered unto us See Bishop M [...]rton his Book of that Argument. THE GRAND IMPOSTURE OF THE (now) CHURCH OF ROME? Who hath so openly laid be­fore us See his In­stitution of the Sacrament. the superstitious, sacrilegious, and i­dolatrous abominations of the Romish Masse? Who hath so fully manifested See his Catholike Appeale, with many other of his ac­curate and learned Treatises against the Romanists. the Antiquity of our Religion, and satisfied all scrupulous [Page 77] Objections, which have been urged against us? Who hath so evidently demonstrated See Bish. Downham his Dia­tribe de An­tichristo, & Bish. Abbot of the same Argument. the Pope to be The Antichrist? Who hath so fully cleared that high point of See Bish. Downham his Trea­tises of Ju­stification. Justification, and overthrown the Popish Doctrine of Merits? Who hath so clearely set downe See Bish. usher his Historica Explicatio of that sub­ject. the begin­ning, progresse, and encrease of the mystery of Iniquity, from the birth of Antichrist, to his full age, out of manifold Records of Antiqui­ty? Who hath given us so wholesome a See Bish. Hall of the old Reli­gion. Pre­servative against all Popish Insinuations? In a word, who have more approved themselves the worthiest Champions, most willing, most ready, most able, to oppose all Popish, Anti­christian, Arminian, Pelagian, Doctrine, then some of These, who have been stiled in the late pamphlets Popish, Antichristian, Armi­nian, Pelagian Bishops? It is no open enemy that hath done this wrong, but the men of this Land, and children, as they would be thought to be, of this Church, that have dishonoured these Worthies, that have been an Honour to this Church and Land. As for us Ministers of the Gospel, of inferiour rank, who have alwaies preached the same divine Truth (some of us in the dayes of Queen Elizabeth) and have recei­ved [Page 78] that mercy from God, to be faithfull in holding the same profession, without waver­ing or warping, unto this day; how are we at this time (only because we walk in the way of the Church, and study the peace of it, desirous to yeeld obedience to God and our Supe­riours) how are wee, I say, [...], brought upon the Stage? Heb. 10. 33. traduced as Baals Priests, derided, contumeliously used, reproached in our streets, our Churches, our Pulpits, accounted [...], the filth of the world, and the off-scouring of all things, a spectacle to Angels and men?

But, holy Brethren, to come to my third point, wherein I shall make the use of all this: Wee may approve our selves to be the true Mi­nisters of Jesus Christ, if that neither honour puf­feth us up, nor dishonour disheartneth us; if nei­ther a good report doth make us proud, nor an evill report faint-hearted, but can passe through all these, honour and dishonour, evill report and good report, counting nothing in life, nor life it selfe dear to us, so as we may finish our course with joy, and the Ministration which we have re­ceived of the Lord Jesus Christ.

To that end let me tender these things brief­ly to our consideration:

First, that this vicissitude of honour and disho­nour, evill report and good report, is from the Lord, who must be allowed to doe what seemeth good in his eyes. The time was, wee doe con­fesse with thankfulnesse, that the people did e­steem us as the Ministers of Jesus Christ; that they knew us, and did acknowledge us wor­thy, and accordingly had us in exceeding great love, [...], for our works sake, that they might shew that they could have pulled their eyes out of their head to have done us good, that they honoured us with much honour, and laded us with necessaries, and plentifull provision for our encouragement to the worke of the Ministery. Have wee received so much good at the hand of God, and may we not now with patience receive some evill? There is no evill done in the City in this kinde, but the Lord hath done it, Amos 3. 6. God hath bidden them to curse us, and revile us, and traduce us, and load us with all these contumelies and reproaches; and it may be these things being sanctified to us, God may doe us good for all our reproaches this day: wee should consider that as it cometh [Page 80] not without due desert, seeing God is just; so it shall not passe away without due profit, seeing God is good.

Consider againe, That there is nothing can come from the hand of this God to his servants, but it cometh in the nature of a mercy: while wee were honoured, it was in mercy to encourage us; and now wee are dishonoured, and our soules filled with contempt, it is done in mercy to admonish us to walke both more humbly with God, and more warily with men.

Againe, It is but the pride of our hearts that makes us so impatient of every light dishonour; for it wee were as wee should be, vile in our own eyes, it were nothing, nothing to be vile in the eyes of others. Besides, hear what our Lord sayes to his Disciples, Blessed are you when men shall say all manner of evill of you, falsly for my sake: Rejoyce and be glad,—For so persecuted they the Prophets that were before you, Matt. 5. 11, 12. The Prophets, before the Apostles, were thus persecuted; the Apostles, and all the Worthies, since the Apostles dayes, have bin so persecuted in their severall Generations; and our blessed Lord, the Head both of Prophets and Apostles, [Page 81] hath been, as you heard before, persecuted in like manner.

Now, the disciple must not look to be above his Ma­ster, nor the servant above his Lord. It is enough for the Disciple, that hee be as his Master, and the servant as his Lord. If they have called the Master of the house Beelzebub, how much more shall they call them of his houshold? Mat. 10. 24, 25.

Lastly, Behold there is a crown in the right hand of Christ, and the word upon it is, [...], to him that overcometh. Brethren, let us hold fast that which we have, and let no man take away our crown; let us hold on still, [...], to divide the Word of God aright, and [...], to walk with a right foot in the profession of it: Et innocenter agere, & scienter praedicare; not studying so much to have our gifts commended, as to have God glorified, the consciences of people edified, their lives refor­med, and their souls saved: And then, if wee finde favour in Gods sight, God may bring us againe into favour with men; but, if hee thus say, I have no delight in you, nor in your services; be­hold, here are we, let him doe to us as he plea­seth.

He that, passing through honour and disho­nour, [Page 82] as St. Paul did, can say, as St. Paul said, I have fought the good fight, I have finished my course, I have kept the faith; [...], I have kept it, may assure himselfe of a crowne of Righteousnesse laid up for him; which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give him that day, and to all them that love the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ: To whom, with the Father, and the blessed Spirit, Three Persons, one True, Im­mortall, Invisible, onely Wise God, be gi­ven all Honour, Glory, Domini­on and Power, now and for ever. Amen.