Sermon CLIII

SERMON CLIII.

PREACHED AT PAUL'S CROSS TO THE LORDS OF THE COUNCIL, AND OTHER HONOURABLE PERSONS, MARCH 24, 1616.

It being the Anniversary of the King's coming to the Crown, and his Majesty being then gone into Scotland.

Proverbs xxii. 11.

He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be

his friend.

That man that said it was possible to carve the faces of all good kings that ever were, in a cherry-stone, had a seditious, and a traitorous meaning in his words. And he that thought it a good description, a good character of good subjects, that they were populus natus ad servitutem, a people disposed to bear any slavish yoke, had a tyrannical meaning in his words. But in this text, as in one of those tables, in which, by changing the station, and the line, you use to see two pictures, you have a good picture of a good king, and of a good subject; for in one line, you see such a subject, as loves pureness of heart, and hath grace in his lips. In the other line, you see tho king gracious, yea friendly to such a subject, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend. The sum of the words is, that God

H 2

will make an honest man acceptable to the king, for some ability which he shall employ to the public. Him that proceeds sincerely in a lawful calling, God will bless and prosper, and he will seal this blessing to him, even with that which is his own seal, his own image, the favour of the king, He that loveth pureness of heart, for the grace of his lips, the king shall be his friend.

We will not be curious in placing these two pictures, nor considering which to consider first. As he that would vow a fast, till ho had found in nature, whether the egg, or the hen were first in the world, might perchance starve himself; so that king, or that subject, which would forbear to do their several duties, till they had found which of them were most necessary to one another, might starve one another; for king and subjects are relatives, and cannot be considered in execution of their duties, but together. The greatest mystery in earth, or heaven, which is the Trinity is conveyed to our understanding, no other way, than so, as they have reference to one another by relation, as we say in the schools; for, God could not be a father without a son, nor the Holy Ghost Spiratus sine spirante. As in divinity, so in humanity too, relations constitute one another, king and subject come at once and together into consideration. Neither is it so pertinent a consideration, which of them was made for other's sake, as that they were both made for God's sake, and equally bound to advance his glory.

Here in our text, we find the subject's picture first; and his marks are two; first, pureness of heart, that he be an honest man; and then grace of lips, that he be good for something; for, by this phrase, grace of lips, is expressed every ability, to do any office of society for the public good. The first of these, pureness of heart, he must love; the other, that is, grace of lips (that is, other abilities) he must have, but he must not be in love with them, nor over-value them. In the king's picture, the principal mark is, that he shall be friendly and gracious; but gracious to him that hath this grace of lips, to him that hath endeavoured, in some way, to be of use to the public; and not to him neither, for all the grace of his lips, for all his good parts, except he also love pureness of heart; but He that loveth pureness of heart (there is the foundation) for the grace of his lips (there is the upper building) the king shall be his friend.

In the first then, which is this pureness of heart, we are to consider rem, sedem, et modum; what this pureness is, then where it is to be lodged and fixed, in the heart; and, after that, the way, and means by which this pureness of heart is acquired and preserved, which is implied and notified in that affection, wherewith this pureness of heart is to be embraced and entertained, which is love; for love is so noble, so sovereign an affection, as that it is due to very few things, and very few things worthy of it. Love is a possessory affection, it delivers over him that loves into the possession of that that he loves; it is a transmutatory affection, it changes him that loves, into the very nature of that that he loves, and he is nothing else.

For the first, pureness itself; it is carried to a great height, for our imitation (God knows, too great for our imitation) when Christ bids us be perfect, even as our Father which is' in heaven is perfect¹. As though it had not been perfectness enough, to be perfect, as the Son upon earth was perfect; he carries us higher, Be perfect as your Father which is in heaven is perfect. The Son, upon earth, Christ Jesus, had all our infirmities and imperfections upon him, hunger, and weariness, and hearty sorrow to death, and that, which alone is all, mortality, death itself. And, though he were innocence itself, anS knew no sin, yet there was no sin that he knew not, for, all our sins were his. He was not only made man, and by taking (by admitting, though not by commiting) our sins, as well as our nature, sinful man; but he was made sin for our sakes. And therefore, though he say of himself, Sicut ego, Keep my commandments, even as I have kept my Father's commandments*, yet still he refers all originally to the Father; and because he was under our infirmities and our iniquities, he never says (though he might well have said so) Sicut ego, Be pure, be perfect as I am perfect and pure, but Sicut Pater, Be pure as your Father in heaven is pure. Hand to hand with the Father, Christ disclaims himself, disavows himself, Non sicut ego, Nevertheless, not as I will, but as thou wilt, 0 Father*. We are

not referred for the pattern of our purity (though we might be safely) to him that came from heaven, the Son, but to him which is in heaven, the Father. Nor to the sun which is in heaven (the sun, that is, the pure fountain of all natural light) nor to the angels which are in heaven, though they be pure in their nature, and refined by a continual emanation of the beams of glory upon them, from the face of God, but the Father which is in heaven is made the pattern of our purity; that so, when we see the exact purity, which we should aim at, and labour for, we might the more seriously lament, and the more studiously endeavour the amendment of that extreme and enormous foulness and impurity, in which we who should be pure, as our Father which is in heaven is pure, exceed the dog that turns to his own vomit again; and the sow, that was washed, to her wallowing in the mire⁴.

Yet there is no foulness so foul, so inexcusable in the eyes of God, nor that shall so much aggravate our condemnation, as a false affectation, and an hypocrical counterfeiting of this purity. There is a pureness, a cleanness imagined (rather dreamed of) in the Roman church, by which (as their words are) the soul is abstracted, not only a pmsionibus, but a phantasmatibus, not only from passions, and perturbations, but from the ordinary way of coming to know anything; The soul (say they) of men so purified, understands no longer, per phantasmata rerum corporalium; not by having anything presented by the phantasy to the senses, and so to the understanding, but altogether by a familiar conversation with God, and an immediate revelation from God; whereas Christ himself contented himself with the ordinary way; he was hungry, and a fig-tree presented itself to him upon the way, and he went to it to eat⁵. This is that pureness in the Roman church, by which the founder of the last order amongst them, Philip Nerius, had not only utterly emptied his heart of the world, but had filled it too full of God, for, so (say they) he was fain to cry sometimes, Recede a me Domine, O Lord, go further from mo, and let me have a less portion of thee. But who would be loath to sink, by being over freighted with God, or loath to over-set, by having so much of that wind, the breath

* 2 Pet. ii. 22. 8 Matt. xxi. 20.

of the Spirit of God? Privation of the presence of God, is hell; a diminution of it, is a step toward it. Fruition of his presence is heaven; and shall any man be afraid of having too much heaven, too much God? There are many among them, that are over laden, oppressed with bishoprics and abbeys, and yet they can bear it and never cry, Retrahe Domine, Domine resume, O Lord withdraw from me, resume to thyself some of these superabundances; and shall wo think any of them to be so over freighted and surcharged with the presence, and with the grace of God, as to be put to his Recede Domine, 0 Lord withdraw thyself, and lessen thy grace towards me? This pureness is not in their heart, but in their phantasy.

We read in the ecclesiastic story of such a kind of affectation of singularity, very early in the primitive church. We find two sorts of false puritans then; the Catharists, andtheCathari. The Catharists thought no creatures of God pure, and therefore they brought in strange ceremonial purifications of those creatures. In which error, they of the Roman church succeed them, in a great part, in their exorcisms, and consecrations; particularly in the greatest matter of all, in the sacraments. For the Catharists in the sacramont of the body and blood of our Saviour, thought not the bread pure, except it were purified by the aspersion of something issuing from the body of man, not fit to bo named here; and so, in the Roman church, they induced a use of another excrement in the other sacrament, they must have spittle in the sacrament of baptism. For, in those words of Tertullian, In baptismo dwmones respuimus, In baptism we ronounce the devil, they will admit no other interpretation of the respuimus*; but that respuere, is sputo detestari,. that we can drive the devil away, no way, but by spitting at him; their predecessors in this, the Catharists, thought no creatures pure, and therefore purified them, by abominable and detestable ways.

The second sort of primitive puritans, the Cathari, they thought no men puro but themselves, and themselves they thought so pure, as to have no sin; and that therefore they might and so did, leave out, as an impertinent clause in tho Lord's prayer, that

⁰ Durantius de citib. 1. i. 19 n. 30.

petition, Dimitte nobis debita nostra, for, they thought they ought⁷ God nothing. In natural things, monsters have no propagation; a monster does not beget a monster. In spiritual excesses it is otherwise; for, for this second kind of puritans, that attribute all purity to themselves, and spend all their thoughts upon considering others, that weed hath grown so far, that whereas those puritans of the primitive church did but refuse to say, Dimitte nobis, Forgive us our trespasses, because they had no sin, the puritan papist is come to say, Recede a nobis, O Lord stand further off", for I have too much of thee. And whereas the puritan of the primitive church did but refuse one petition of the Lord's prayer, the later puritan amongst ourselves hath refused the whole prayer. Towards both these sorts of false puritans, Catharists, and Cathari, derived down to our time, we acknowledge those words of the apostle to belong, Reprove, rebuke, exhort*; that is, leave no such means untried, as may work upon their understandings, and remove their just scruples; preach, write, confer; but when that labour hath been bestowed, and they sear up their understanding against it, so that the fault lies not then in the darkness of their understanding, but merely in the perverseness of the will, over which faculty other men have no power, towards both these sorts, we acknowledge those other words of the apostle to belong too, Utinam abscindantur, Would to God they, were even cut off that disquiet you*: cut off, that is, removed from means by which, and from places, in which, they might disquiet yon. These two kinds of false puritans we find in the primitive church; and Satan, who lasts still, makes them last still too. But if we shall imagine a third sort of puritans, and make men afraid of the zeal of the glory of God, make men hard, and insensible of those wounds that are inflicted upon Christ Jesus, in blasphemous oaths, and execrations, make men ashamed to put a difference between the Sabbath and an ordinary day, and so, at last, make sin an indifferent matter, If any man list to be contentious, we have no such custom, neither the church of God". The church of God encourages them, and assists them in that sanctity, that purity, with all those means wherewith Christ Jesus hath

trusted her, for the advancement of that purity; and professes that she prefers in her recommendations to God, in her prayers, one Christian truly fervent and zealous, before millions of lukewarm. Only she says, in the voice of Christ Jesus her head, Woe be unto you, if you make clean the outside of cups and platters, but leave them full of extortion, and excess within¹¹. Christ calls them to whom he says that, blind Pharisees, if they have done so; if they think to blind others, Christ calls them blind. But if their purity consist in studying and practising the most availablo means to sanctification, and in obedience to lawful authority established according to God's ordinance, and in acquiescence in fundamental doctrines, believed in the ancient church to be necessary to salvation, if they love the peace of conscience, and the peace of Sion, as Balaam said, Let me die the death of the righteous, and let my last end be like his"; so I say, let me live the life of a puritan, let the zeal of the house of God consume me, let a holy life, and an humble obedience to the law, testify my reverence to God in his church, and in his magistrate: for, this is St. Paul's puritan, to have a pure heart (the end of the commandment is love, out of a pure heart^1*) and then to have puro hands (that we may lift up pure hands, without wrath or doubting¹*) and to have pure consciences (having the mystery of faith, in pure consciences¹¹). The heart is the fountain from which my good and holy purposes flow; my hand is the execution and declaration of those good purposes, produced into the eyes of men; and my conscience is the testification of the Spirit of God with my Spirit, that I have actually made those declarations, that I have lived according to that profession. This is St. Paul's puritan, pure in heart, pure in hand, pure in conscience; that I do believe I ought to do this; that really I do it; that my conscience tell me after, it was rightly done; for, a man may do good, ill, and go by ill ways, to good ends. And then, if our purity be but comparative and not positive, that we only look how ill other men be, not how good we should be, we shall become either Catharists, purifying puritans, quarrelling with men, with states, with churches, and attempting a purifying of

¹¹ Matt, xxiii. 25. "Numb, xxiii. 10. ¹⁸ 1 Tim. i. 5.

¹⁴ 1 Tim. ii. 8. ¹⁵1 Tim. iii . 8.

sacraments, and ceremonies, doctrine and discipline, according to our own fancy; or Cathari, purified puritans, that think they may leave out the dimitte debita, they need ask no forgiveness. And then Cain's major iniquitas", (My sin is too great for God to forgive) is not worse than this minor iniquitas, My sin is too little for God to consider; I cannot have a pardon, and I do not need a pardon, it is impossible for me to get it, and it is unnecessary for me to ask it, are equal contempts against the majesty and mercy of God. But this first consideration (the nature of this pureness) enlarges itself by flowing into the second branch of this first part, that is, the place where this pureness is established, the heart: He that loves pureness of heart, the king shall be his friend.

Absolute pureness cannot be attained to in via. It is reserved for us in patria; at home in heaven, not in our journey here, is that pureness to be expected. But yet here in the way, there is a degree of it, acceptable to God; of which himself speaks, and there it may be had; Blessed are the pure in heart (so the pureness be placed there, all is well,) for they shall see God¹¹. Whether that sight of God be spoken De cognitione Dei, of that sight of God, which we have in speculo, in a glass¹⁸, an that true glass of his own making, his word explicated in the church; or de visione beatifica, of that beatifical vision of God, which is salvation, howsoever the reward (the sight of God) in the perfect fruition thereof may be reserved for the future (They shall see God) yet they are pure, and they are blessed already, Blessed are the pure in heart. This pureness then must be rightly placed; for, in many things, the place qualifies and denominates the things; it is not balsamum if it grew not in Palestine. It is not pureness, if it grew not in the heart. The hypocrite is the miserablest of all other; he does God service, and yet is damned. The shedding of our blood for God is not a greater service than the winning of souls to God; and the hypocrite many times does that; his outward purity works upon them who cannot know it to be counterfeit, and draws them truly and sincerely to serve God. He does God service, and yet perishes, because ho does it

not from the heart. God shall take him away, as a man taketh away dung, till it be all gone God does not say there, that he will take away the dung, but the man; not that he will take away tho dissimulation of the hypocrite, but he will take away the hypocrite himself, as dung is taken away, till it be all gone, till this hypocrite be swept, not clean, but clean away. If he have a complacency, a joy that he can deceive, and can seem that which he is not (The joy of the hypocrite is but for a momentTM.) He hath no true joy at all; his joy is but dung, and in a moment comes a cart, and fetches away that dung, sweeps away even that false joy. Can he hope for more I (The hope of the hypocrite shall perish*¹.) If he can conceive such a hope, it shall perish in abortion, and never have life (Their hope shall be as the giving up of the ghost".) As soon as it is a hope, it shall be as the giving up of the ghost, and a cart shall carry away that dung, that hope. What cart? first, God shall disappoint his hope of deluding the world; God shall discover him, and lay him open (That the hypocrites reign not, lest the people be insnared"). And then when God hath discovered him (The innocent shall stir up himself against the hypocrite⁸*) that is, consider him, observe him, and arm himself against his imaginations. And God shall not only discover him to men, but God shall discover himself to him, and make him see his future condemnation (Fearfulness shall surprise the hypocrite"). And then (What is the hope of the hypocrite, when God taketh away his soul") when the cart comes for the last load of dung, his corrupt, his putrefied soul, what hope hath the hypocrite for the next life?

It is not pureness then, except it be in the right place, the heart; but where is the heart? The heart is vafrum et inscrutabile, Deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked, who can know it"? It is uncertain and unsearchable"; and it is so, because it pursues those things which are in fluxu, ever in motion. Cast but a paper into the river, and fix thine eye upoh that paper, and bind thine eye to follow that paper whithersoever the river, or

1* 1 Kings xiv. 10. ¹⁰ Job xx. 5. "Job viii. 13.

■ Job xi. 20. ⁰ Job xxxiv. 30. ** Job xvii. 8.

"Isaiah xxxiii. 14. ^M Job xxvii. 8. *⁷ Jer. xvii. 9.

the wind shall carry it, and thou canst not imagine where thine eye will be to-morrow: for, this paper is not addressed, as a ship, to a certain port, or upon any certain purpose, but exposed to the disposition of the tide, to the rage of the wind, to the wantonness of the eddy, and to innumerable contingencies, till it wear out to nothing. So, if a man set his heart (we cannot call it a setting) if a man suffer his heart to issue upon any of these fluid and transitory things of this world, he shall have cor vafrum et inscridabile, He shall not know where to find his own heart. If riches be this floating paper that his eye is fixed upon, he shall not know upon what course; if beauty be this paper, he shall not know upon what face; if honour and preferment be it, he shall not know upon what faction his heart will be transported a month hence. But, if the heart can fix itself upon that which is fixed, the almighty and immoveable God, if it can be content to inquire after itself, and take knowledge where it is, and in what way, it will find the means of cleansing; and so, this second consideration, the placing of this pureness in the heart, enlarges itself also into the third branch of this part, which is de modo, by what means this pureness is fixed in the heart, in which is involved the affection with which it must be embraced, love, He that loveth pureness of heart.

Both these then are settled; our heart is naturally foul; and our heart may be cleansed. But how, is our present disquisition, Who can bring a clean thing out of filthiness? There is not one**: Adam fouled my heart and all yours; nor can we make it clean ourselves, Who can say I have made clean my heart"? There is but one way; a poor beggarly way, but easy and sure, to ask it of God. And, even to God himself it seems a hard work to cleanse this heart; and therefore our prayer must be with David, Cor mundum crea, Create, 0 Lord, a pure heart in me". And then comes God's part, not that God's part began but then; for it was his doing, that thou madest this prayer; but because it is a work that God does especially delight in, to build upon his own foundations; when he hath disposed thee to pray, and upon that prayer created a new heart in thee, then God

^M Job xiv. 4. ** Prov. xx. 9. *0 Psalm Li. 12.

works upon that new heart, and By faith purifies it, enables it to preserve the pureness, as St. Peter speaks^*1. He had kindled some sparks of this faith in thee, before thou askedst that new heart; else the prayer had not been of faith; but now finding thee obsequious to his beginnings, he fuels this fire, and purifies thee, as gold and silver, in all his furnaces; through believing and doing, and suffering, through faith, and works, and tribulation, we come to this pureness of heart. And truly, he that lacks but the last, but tribulation (as fain as we would be without it) lacks one concoction, one refining of this heart.

But, in this great work, the first act is a renovation, a new heart; and the other, that we keep clean that heart by a continual diligence, and vigilancy over all our particular actions. In these two consists the whole work of purifying the heart; first, an annihilating of the former heart, which was all sin; and then a holy superintendency over that new heart, which God vouchsafes to create in us, to keep it as he gives it, clean, pure. It is, in a word, a detestation of former sins, and a prevention of future. And for the first, Mundi corde sunt, qui deposuere cor peccati**; That is the new heart that hath disseised, expelled the heart of sin. There is in us a heart of sin, which must be cast up; for whilst the heart is under the habits of sin, we are not only sinful, but we are all sin, as it is truly said, that land overflowed with sea, is all sea. And when sin hath got a heart in us, it will quickly come to be that whole body of death, which St. Paul complains of^", Who shall deliver me from the body of this death? when it is a heart, it will get a brain; a brain that shall minister all sense, and delight in sin; that is the office of the brain; a brain which shall send forth sinews and ligaments, to tie sins together; and pith and marrow to give a succulency, and nourishment, even to the bones, to the strength and obduration of sin; and so it shall do all those services, and offices for sin, that the brain does to the natural body. So also if sin get to be a heart, it will get a liver to carry blood and life through all the body of our sinful actions; that is the office of the liver; and whilst we dispute whether the throne and seat of the soul be in

the heart, or brain, or liver, this tyrant sin will praeoccupate all, and become all; so, as that we shall find nothing in us without sin, nothing in us but sin, if our heart be possessed, inhabited by it. And if it be true in our natural bodies, that the heart is that part that lives first and dies last, it is much truer of this cor peccati, this heart of sin; for, this hearty sinner that hath given his heart to his sin, doth no more foresee a death of that sin in himself, than he remembers the birth of it; and, because he remembers not, or understands not how his soul contracted sin, by coming into his body, he leaves her to the same ignorance, how she shall discharge herself of sin, when she goes out of that body. But, as his sin is elder than himself (for Adam's sin is his sin) so is it longer lived than his body, for it shall cleave everlastingly to his soul too. God asks no more of thee, but, Fili, da mihi cor, My son, give me thy heart **; because when God gave it thee, it was but one heart. But since thou hast made it cor et cor (as the prophet speaks) a heart, and a heart, a double heart, give both thy hearts to God; thy natural weakness and disposition to sin (the inclinations of thy heart) and thy habitual practice of sin, (the obduration of thy heart) corpeccans, and cor peccati, and ho shall create a new heart in thee; which is the first way of attaining this pureness of heart, to become once iu a good state, to have (as it were) paid all thy former debts, and so to be the better able to look about thee for the future, for prevention of subsequent sins, which is the other way that wc proposed for attaining this pureness, detestation of former habits, watchfulness upon particular actions.

Till this be done, till this cor peccati, this hearty habitualness in sin be divested, there is no room, no footing to stand and sweep it; a heart so filled with foulness will admit no counsel, no reproof. The great engineer would have undertaken to have removed the world with his engine, if there had been any place to fix his engine upon, out of the world; I would undertake, (by God's blessing upon his ordinance) to cleanse the foulest heart that is, if that engine which God hath put into my hands might enter into his heart; if there were room for the renouncing God's judgments, and for the application of God's mercies in the merits

^*4 Prov. xxiii. 56.

of Christ Jesus in his heart, they would infallibly work upon him. But he hath petrified his heart in sin, and then he hath immured it, walled it with a delight in sin, and fortified it with a justifying of his sin, and adds daily more and more outworks, by more and more daily sins; so that the denouncing of judgment, the application of mercies, prayers, sermons, sacraments, (which are the engines and ammunition which God hath put into our hands) though they have a blessed and a powerful operation, and produce heavenly effects, where they may have entrance; in this, habitual sinners can have none. Some things therefore, some great things every man must depart with, before he can come to the God of pure eyes".

When the heart is emptied of infidelity, and of those habits of sin that filled it, when it is come to a discontinuance, and a detestation of those sins, then we can better look into every corner, and endeavour to keep it clean; clean in that measure, that the God of pure eyes will vouchsafe to look upon it, and the light of his countenance will perfect the work. The diligence required on our part, is a serious watchfulness and consideration of our particular actions, how small soever. In the law, whatsoever was unclean to eat, made a man unclean, to touch it, when it was dead. Though the body of sin have so far received a deadly wound in thee, as that thou hast discontinued some habitual sin, some long time; yet if thou touch upon the memory of that dead sin, with delight, thou begettest a new child of sin. And as Esay speaks of a child, and of a sinner of an hundred years old^*8, so every sin into which we relapse, is born an hundred years old; it hath all the age of that sin, which we had repented and discontinued before, upon it; it is born an Adam, in full strength the first minute; born a giant, born a devil, and possesses us in an instant. Every man may observe, that a sin of relapse is sooner upon him, than the same sin was at the first attempting him; at first, he had more bashfulness, more tenderness, more colluctation against the sin, than upon a relapse. And therefore in this survey of sin, thy first care must be, to take heed of returning too diligently to a remembrance of those delightful sins which are past; for that will endanger new. And in many cases it is safer

"Habak. i. 13. ⁸⁰ Isaiah Lxv. 20.

to do (as God himself is said to do) to tie up our sins in a bundle, and cast them into the sea; so for us to present our sins in general to God, and cast them into the bottomless sea of the infinite mercies of God, in the infinite merits of Christ Jesus; than by an over-diligent enumeration of sins of some kinds, or by too busy a contemplation of those circumstances which increased our sinful delight then when we committed those sins, to commit them over again, by a fresh delight in their memory. When thou hast truly repented them, and God hath forgotten them, do thou forget them too.

The pureness and cleanness of heart which we must love, was evidently represented in the old law, and in the practice of the Jews, who took knowledge of so many uncleannesses; they reckon almost fifty sorts of uncleannesses, to which there belonged particular expiations; of which, some were hardly to be avoided in ordinary conversation: as to enter into the courts of justice; for the Jews that led Christ into the common hall, would not enter, lest they should be defiled". Yea, some things defiled them, which it had been unnatural to have left undone; as for the son to assist at his father's funeral; and yet even these required an expiation: for these, though they had not the nature of sin, but might be expiated, (without any inward sorrow or repentance) by outward ablutions, by ceremonial washings, within a certain time prescribed by the law, yet if that time were negligently and inconsiderately overslipped, then they became sins, and then they could not be expiated, but by a more solemn, and a more costly way, by sacrifice. And even beforo they came to that, whilst they were but uncleannesses, and not sins yet even then they made them incapable of eating the Paschal Lamb. So careful was God in the law, and the Jews in their practice (for these outward things) to preserve this pureness, this cleanness, even in things which were not fully sins. So also must he that affects this pureness of heart, and studies the preserving of it, sweep down every cobweb that hangs about it. Scurrile and obscene language; yea, misinterpretable words, such as may bear an ill sense; pleasurable conversation, and all such little entanglings, which though he think too weak to hold him, yet they foul him.

^*7 John xviii. 23.

And let him that is subject to these smaller sins, remember, that as a spider builds aways where he knows there is most access and haunt of flies, so the devil that hath cast these light cobwebs into thy heart, knows that that heart is made of vanities and levities; and he that gathers into his treasure whatsoever thou wastest out of thine, how negligent soever thou be, he keeps thy reckoning exactly, and will produce against thee at last'as many lascivious glances as shall make up an adultery, as many covetous wishes as shall make up a robbery, as many angry words as shall make up a murder; and thou shalt have dropped and crumbled away thy soul, with as much irrecoverableness, as if thou hadst poured it out all at once; and thy merry sins, thy laughing sins, shall grow to be crying sins, even in the ears of God; and though thou drown thy soul here, drop after drop, it shall not burn spark after spark, but have all the Are, and all at once, and all eternally, in one entire and intense-torment. For, as God, for our capacity, is content to be described as one of us, and to take our passions upon him, and be called angry, and sorry, and the like; so is he in this also like us, that he takes it worse to be slighted, to be neglected, to be left out, than to be actually injured. Our inconsideration, our not thinking of God in our actions, offends him more than our sins. We know, that in nature, and in art, the strongest bodies are compact of the least particles, because they shut best, and lie closest together; so be the strongest habits of sin compact of sins which in themselves are least; because they are least perceived, they grow upon us insensibly, and they cleave unto us inseparably. And I should make no doubt of recovering him sooner that had sinned long against his conscience, though in a great sin, than him that had sinned less sins, without any sense or conscience of those sins; for I should sooner bring tho other to a detestation of his sin, than bring this man to a knowledge, that that that he did was sin. But if thou couldst consider that every sin is a crucifying of Christ, and every sin is a precipitation of thyself from a pinnacle; were it a convenient phrase to say, in every little sin, that thou wouldest crucify Christ a little, or break thy neck a little.

Beloved, there is a power in grace, upon thy repentance, to wash away thy greatest sins; that is tho true, the proper physic

Vol. vi. i

of the soul, it is the only means to recover thee. But yet, wert thou not better to make this grace thy diet, than thy physic? Were thou not better to nourish thy soul with this grace all the way, than to hope to purge thy soul with it at last? This, as a diet, the apostle prescribes thee, Whether you eat or drink, do all to the glory of God^**. He intends it farther there, Whatsoever you do; and farther than that, in another place^**, Whatsoever ye do, in deed, or in word, do all in the name of the Lord JesusSince there is no action so little, but God may be glorified in it, there is no action so little, but the devil may have his end in it too, and may overthrow thee by a temptation, which thou thinkest thyself strong enough to leap over. And therefore, if you have not given over all love of true weights, and true measures, weigh and measure your particular and indifferent actions, before you do them, and you shall see, at least, grains of iniquity in them; and then, this advantage will you have, by this preconsideration, and weighing your actions beforehand; that when you know there is sin in that action, and know that nothing can counterpoise, nor weigh down sin, but only the blood of Christ Jesus; you may know too that the blood of Christ Jesus cannot be had beforehand. God gives no such non-obstantes no such privileges, no leave to sin, no pardon for sin, before it be committed: and therefore, if this premeditation of this action bring thee to see that there is sin it; it must necessarily put a tenderness, a horror, an aversion in thee, from doing that, to which, (being thus done with this preconsideration, and presumption) the blood of thy Saviour doth not appertain. To all your other wares, the baser and coarser they are, the greater weight and measure you are content to give; to the basest of all, to sin, you give the lightest weight, and scantiest measure, and you supply all with the excuses of the custom of the time, that the necessity of your trade forces you to it, else you should be poor, and poorly thought of.

Beloved, God never puts his children to a perplexity; to a necessity of doing any sin, how little soever, though for the avoiding of a sin, as manifold as Adam's. It is not a little request to you, to beware of little sins: it is not a little request, and there

fore I make it, in the words of the greatest to the greatest, (for they are all one head and body) of Christ to his church, Capite vulpeculas, Take us the little foxes, for they devour the vines". It is not a cropping, nor a pilling, nor a retarding of the growth of the vines, but demoliuntur, as little as those foxes are, they devour the vines, they root them out. Thy soul is not so easily devoured by that lion, that seeks whom he may devour⁴¹; for, still he is put to seek, and does not always find: and thou shalt hear his roaring, that is, thou shalt discern a great sin; and the lion of the tribe of Judah" will come in to thy succour, as soon as thou callest: but take heed that thy soul be not eaten up with vermin, by thoso little sins, which thou thinkest thou canst forbear, and give over when thou wilt. God punished the Egyptians most, by little things; hailstones, and frogs, and grasshoppers; and Pharaoh's sorcerers, which did greater, failed in the least, in lice". It is true, there is physic for this, Christ Jesus that receives thy greatest sins into his blood, can receive these vermin too into his bowels, even at last; but yet, still make his grace rather thy diet, by a daily consideration beforehand, than thy physic at last. It is ill to take two physics at once; bodily, and ghostly physic too, upon thy death-bed. The apothecary and the physician do well together; the apothecary and the priest not so well. Consult with him before, at least, consult with thine own conscience in those little actions, which either their own nature, or the custom of the time, or thy course of life, thy calling, and the examplo of others in thy calling made thee think indifferent: for though it may seem a degree of flattery, to preach against little sins in such a city as this, where greater sins do abound; yet because these be the materials and elements of greater sins, (and it is impossible to say where a bowl will lie, that is let fall down a hill, though it be let never so gently out of the hand,) and there is no pureness of heart, till even these cobwebs and crumbs be swept away; ho that affects that pureness, will consider well that of St. Augustine⁴⁴ Interest inter rectum corde, et mundum corde; A right heart and a clean heart, is not all one: he may have a right heart, that

⁴⁰ Cant. ii. 15. ⁴¹ 1 Pet. v. 8. ⁴⁸ Rev. v. 5,

^4* Exod. viii. 16. ⁴⁴ Psalm xxiv. 4.

keeps in the right way, in the profession of the right religion; but he only keeps his heart pure, that watches all his steps, even in that right way. St Augustine considers that question of David", Quis ascendet, and quis stabit, Who shall ascend into the hill of the Lord? and who shall stand in his holy place? And he applies the answer, Innocens manibus, et mundo corde; He that hath clean hands, and a pure heart: thus, that he hath clean hands, clean from blood, clean from bribery and oppression, clean from fornication, and such notorious sins, ascendet in montem, he shall ascend into the hill of the Lord, he shall be admitted to all the benefits that the Christian church can give him; but only he that hath a pure heart, a care to glorify God, in a holy watchfulness upon all his particular actions, to the exclusion of lesser sins, stabit, shall stand safe, confident, unshaken, in his holy place, even in the judgment of God; clean hands justify him to men, a pure heart to God: and therefore this pureness of heart, is here wrapped up in the richest mantle, in the noblest affection that the nature of man hath, that is, love: for this is not only a contentment, an acquiescence, a satisfaction, a delight in this pureness of heart, but love is a holy impatience in being without it, or being in a jealousy that we are without it; and it is a holy fervour and vehemency in the pursuit of it, and a preferring it before any other thing that can be compared to it: that is love; and therefore it deserves to be insisted upon, now when in our order proposed at first, from the thing itself that is required (pureness) and the seat, and centre of that pureness (the heart) and the way of this fixation of this pureness in the heart, (detestation of former habits of sins, and prevention of future sins, in a watchful consideration of all our actions, before we do them,) we are come to that affection wherewith this inestimable pureness is to be embraced, love: he that loveth pureness of heart.

Love, in divinity, is such an attribute, or such a notion, as designs to us one person in the Trinity; and that person who communicates, and applies to us, the other two persons, that is, the Holy Ghost: so that, as there is no power, but with relation to the Father, nor wisdom but with relation to the Son, so there should be no love but in the Holy Ghost, from whom comes this

"Psalm xxiv. 3.

pureness of heart, and consequently the love of it necessarily: for, the love of this pureness is part of this pureness itself, and no man hath it, except he love it. All love which is placed upon lower things, admits satiety; but this love of this pureness, always grows, always proceeds: it does not only file off the rust of our hearts, in purging us of old habits, but proceeds to a daily polishing of the heart, in an exact watchfulness, and brings us to that brightness, Ut ipse videos faciem in corde, et alii videant cor iii facie". That thou mayest see thy face in thy heart, and the world may see thy heart in thy face; indeed, that to both, both heart and face may be all one: thou shalt be a looking-glass to thyself, and to others too.

The highest degree of other love, is the love of woman; which love, when it is rightly placed upon one woman, it is dignified by the apostle with the highest comparison, Husbands love your wives, as Christ loved his church": and God himself forbade not that this love should be great enough to change natural affection, relinquetpatrem", (for this, a man shall leave his father) yea, to change nature itself, caro una, two shall be one. Accordingly David expresses himself so, in commemoration of Jonathan, Thy love to me was wonderful,passing the love of women": a love above that love, is wonderful. Now, this love between man and woman, doth so much confess a satiety, as that if a woman think to hold a man long, she provides herself some other capacity, some other title, than merely as she is a woman: her wit, and her conversation, must continue this love; and she must be a wife, a helper; else, merely as a woman, this love must necessarily have intermissions. And therefore St. Jerome notes a custom of his time, (perchance prophetically enough of our times too) that to uphold an unlawful love, and make it continue, they used to call one another friend, and sister, and cousin, tit etiam peccatis indiiant nomina caritatis, that they might apparel ill affections in good names; and those names of natural and civil love might carry on, and continue a work, which otherwise would sooner have withered. In parables, and in mythology, and in the application

of fables, this affection of love, for the often change of subjects, is described to have wings; whereas the true nature of a good love (such as the love of this text) is a constant union. But our love of earthly things is not so good as to be volatilis, apt to fly; for it is always grovelling upon the earth, and earthly objects: as in spiritual fornications, the idols are said to have ears and hear not, and eyes and see not; so in this idolatrous love of the creature, love hath wings, and flies not; it flies not upward, it never ascends to the contemplation of the Creator in the creature. The poets afford us but one man, that in his love flew so high as the moon; Endymion loved the moon. The sphere of our loves is sublunary, upon things naturally inferior to ourselves.

Let none of this be so mistaken, as though women were thought improper for divine, or for civil conversation: for, they have the same soul, and of their good using the faculties of that soul, the ecclesiastic story, and the martyrologies, give us abundant examples of great things done, and suffered by women for the advancement of God's glory: but yet, as when the woman was taken out of man, God caused a heavy sleep to fall upon man, and he slept⁵⁰; so doth the devil cast a heavy sleep upon him too, when the woman is so received into man again, as that she possesses him, fills him, transports him. I know the fathers are frequent in comparing and paralleling Eve, the mother of man, and Mary the mother of God. But, God forbid any should say, that the Virgin Mary concurred to our good, so, as Eve did to our ruin. It is said truly, That as by one man sin entered, and death^M, so by one man entered life. It may be said, That by one xcoman sin entered and death, (and that rather than by the man; for, Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, was in the transgression".) But it cannot be said, in that sense, or that manner, that by one woman innocence entered, and life: the Virgin Mary had not the same interest in our salvation, as Eve had in our destruction; nothing that she did entered into that treasure, that ransom, that redeemed us. She, more than any other woman, and many other blessed women since, have done many things for the advancing of the glory of God, and

⁵⁰ Gen. ii. 22.

^S1 Rom. v. 12. "1 Tim. ii. 14.

imitation of others; so that they are not unfit for spiritual conversation; nor for the civil offices of friendship neither, where both temptation at home, and scandal abroad, may truly be avoided. I know St. Jerome in that case despised all scandal, and all malicious misinterpretations of his purpose therein, rather than give over persuading the lady Paula to come from Rome, to him, and live at Jerusalem: but, I know not so well, that he did well in so doing. A familiar and assiduous conversation with women will hardly be without temptation and scandal. St. Jerome himself apprehended that scandal tenderly, and expresses it passionately; Sceleratum me putant, et omnibus peccatis obrutum. The world takes me for a vicious man, more (sceleratum) for a wicked, a facinorous man, for this, and obrutum, surrounded, overflowed with all sins: Versipellem, lubricnm, mendacem, satancc arte decipientem: They take me to be a slippery fellow, a turn-coat from my professed austerity, a liar, an impostor, a deceiver; yet, though he discerned this scandal, and this inconvenience in it, he makes shift to ease himself in this, Nihil aliud mihi objicitw, nisi sexus mens: They charge me with nothing but my sex, that I am a man; et hoc nunquam objicitur, nisi cum Hierosolymam Paula proficiscitur, nor that neither, but because this lady follows me to Jerusalem.

He proceeds farther, that till he came acquainted in Paula's house at Rome, omnium pent jndicio, summo sacerdotio dignus decernebar, every man thought me fit to be pope; every man thought reverently of him, till he used her house. St. Jerome would fain have corrected their misinterpretations, and slackened the scandal, as we see in that vehement expostulation, and unlikelihood of an ill love between hirti and Paula; Nulla alia me Romw edomare potuit? Was Rome so barren, so weak, so ill furnished with instruments of temptation, that nothing in Rome itself could shake my constancy, or retard my austerity, nisi lugens, jejuna, squallida, fletibus cwcata, but a sad, fasting, ill-dressed woman, blind with weeping? Et quam manducantem nunquam vidi: A woman, whom (as familiar and domestic as I was in her house) I could never see eat bit of meat. Hut all this would not quench the fire, the scandal grew; he found it even amongst his brethren, homines Christiani dicunt, he could not say, that only the enemies of the faith, or his enemies, but they that loved religion well, and him well, talked dangerously and suspiciously of it; and yet St. Jerome could not dispose himself to forbear that conversation. He overcame the sense of it, with a, par pari refertur: I, says he, am even with them: invicem insanire videmur, they think me mad, and I think them mad: but this is not always a safe, nor a charitable way, when he might so easily have cured both madnesses. But he perseveres in it with that resolution, Saluta Paalam, velit nolit mundus, in Christo mearn; Remember me to my Paula, let the world say what it will, in Christ, my Paula: thus he proceeds; if excusably in his own behalf, that is the best; certainly not exemplarily, not to be followed by others, in cases of so great scandal: for there goes not only a great deal of innocency (which we acknowledge, doubtlessly, to have been between that blessed couple) but there must go a great deal of necessity too, (that is, that Paula could not have been reduced by any other means to the service of God, or continued in it, but by following St. Jerome to Jerusalem) to justify such a conversation as became so scandalous. And howsoever in some cases excuses might be found, what good mariner would anchor under a rock, and lie in danger of beating upon that? What fish would choose his food upon a hook? What mouse at a trap? What man would mingle sugar and ratsbane together, and then trust his cunning to sever them again? Why should any man choose such company, such conversation, as may minister temptation to him, or scandal to others? St. Augustine apprehended this danger tenderly, when he gave his reason, why he would not have his mother in the house with him, Because, says he, though there be no danger of scandal in the person of my mother; all those women that serve my mother, and that accompany my mother, and that visit my mother, all they are not mothers to me; and a lawful conversation may come to an unlawful love quickly. We see how this love wrought, when it was scattered upon many women, (and therefore could not be so dangerously vehement upon any one) in Solomon, whose wife turned away his heart", so that his heart was not perfect with God. Nec errore putavit idolis serviendum^*\ Solomon never came to think

"1 Kings xi. 4.

^M Augustine.

deliberately, that idolatry was lawful; sed blanditiis foemineis ad ilia sacrificia computus, his appliableness to women brought him to that sacrilege. Thus it wrought, even when it was scattered upon many, in Solomon; and we see how it wrought, when it was collected and contracted upon one object, in Samson; Because she was importunate upon him (says the text) and vexed him with her tcords continually, his soul was pained unto the death Yea, if we go as high as is possible, to Adam himself, we see both St. Augustine and St. Jerome express his case thus, Adam non tanquam verum loquenti credidit, Adam did not believe Eve, nor was not overcome by her reasons, when she provoked him to eat tho apple, sed sociali necessitudiniparuit, he was affected with that near interest which was between them. And ne contristaretur delicias suas, lest by refusing he should put her, whom he delighted in, to a desperate sadness, and sense of her sin, he ate for company. And as the first, and the middle times did, so without doubt, our own times too, if we search but ourselves at home, do minister examples of this (in a proportion) which neither St. Jerome, nor Solomon, nor Samson, nor Adam avoided, that an over-tender indulgence towards such women, that for other respects they were bound to love, inclined them to do such things, as otherwise they would not have done; natural and civil obligations induced conversation, and conversation temptation, or if not that really, yet scandal.

That that we drive to in all this, is this, that if we may not exceed in this love, which is natural, and commanded, much less in any other. So that there is nothing in this world left, for this noble and operative affection, love, to work upon, but this pureness of heart. Love it therefore, that thou mayest seek it, love it that thou mayest have it; love it that thou mayest love it; for (as we said before) it is a part of this pureness to love it. Some of the ancient fathers, out of their love to it, have put so high a price and estimation upon it, that they hardly afforded any grace, any pardon to those that sinned after they had once received this pureness in baptism. So that with them, the heart could never be clean again, after it was once fouled a second time. Our new Roman chemists, on the other side, they that can transubstantiate

Judges xvi. 6.

bread into God, they can change any foulness into cleanness easily. They require no more after sin, but quendam tenuem dolorem internum", a little slight inward sorrow, and that is enough. For, they have provided an easier way than contrition; for, that which they have induced, and call attrition, is not an affection, qui habet pro fine Deum, that hath proposed God, for the mark, that it is directed to; nec qui indiget divina gratia; but it is such an affection as may be had without any concurrence or assistance of grace, and is only dolor naturalis, et ex timore servili", a natural sorrow, proceeding only out of a servile fear of torment. And yet, a confession made with this attrition and no more, is enough for salvation, say they; and he that hath made a confession with such a disposition as this, this that hath no reference to God, this that hath no strength from his grace, this that hath no motive from the fear of God, shall never need to repent any farther for his sins. Displiceri de peccato, sed non super omni displicibili": This is attrition, to be displeased with our sins, but not more with our sins, than with any thing else; intendere vitare peccatum, sed non super omne vitabile, to have a purpose to leave a sin, but not the sin rather than any thing else, this is their attrition, and this is their enough for salvation. A sigh of the penitent, a word of the priest, makes all clean and induces an absolute pureness.

Thus some of the ancients went too far, they would pardon no sin after baptism; these now men go not far enough; they pardon all too easily. Old physicians thought all hurts in the heart presently mortal; these new physicians can pare off some of the heart, and give it to idolatry; for, so they say, that the worship due to God may be given to a creature, so it be not tanqttam Deo, as that the creature is thereby professed to be God; and yet, they confess that that worship which they give to the creature is idolatry, but, not that idolatry, say they, which is forbidden in the commandment, which is, that that creature, so worshipped with the worship due to God, be also believed to be God ; and so truly, I believe it will be hard to find any idolatry in the world; that they that worship anything, in representation of God, do believe

advisedly that representation to be very God. But the true reason why no hurt received in the heart can be healed, is, quia palpitat, because it is in perpetual motion. If the heart lay still, as other parts do, so that medicinal helps might be applied to it, and admitted by it, there were more hope. Therefore when we lay such a weight upon the heart, as may settle it, fix it, give it a reposedncss and acquiescence, though it do receive some wounds, though it be touched with some temptations, it may be cured. But is there any such weight as should so settle the heart, the soul of man? This love of pureness is that weight. Amor est pondus animw; sicut gravitas, corporis'6; As the weight of my body makes that steady, so this love of pureness is the weight and the ballast of my soul; and this weight stays the palpitation, the variation, the deviation of the heart upon other objects; which variation frustrates all endeavours to cure it.

The love of this pureness is both the ballast and the freight, to carry thee steadily and richly too, through all storms and tempests, spiritual and temporal, in this life, to the everlasting Jerusalem. If you be come to this love, this love of pureness of heart, never to lock up your door till you have carried out your dust; never to shut your eyes at night, till you have swept your conscience, and cast your foulness into that infinite sea of the blood of Christ Jesus, which can contract no foulness by it; never to open your eyes in the morning, but that you look out to glorify God in the rising of the sun, and in his other creatures, and in the peace and safety of your house and family, and the health of your children and servants; but, especially to look inward, and consider, whether you have not that night mingled poison with God's physic, whether you have not mingled sloth and laziness in that which God gave you for rest and refreshing; whether you have not mingled licentiousness in that which God gave you for a remedy against fornication. And then, when you shall have found that sin hath been awake in you, even when your bodies were asleep, bo sure you cast not the Spirit of God into a sleep in you, when your bodies are awake, but that you proceed vigilantly in your several ways, with a fore-knowledge, that there is everywhere coluber in via, a snake in the way; in

^M Augustine.

every way that you can take, in every course of life, in every calling, there is some of the seed of the old serpent presents itself. And then, if by God's infallible word, explicated in his church, which is Lucerna pedibus vestris", (The word is the light, but the church is the lanthorn, it presents and preserves that light unto you; and though it be said, Lucerna Dominus, Thou 0 Lord art my light, God himself"; and lucerna Agnus, the Lamb, Christ himself is your light"; and lucerna maudatum, the commandments of God are your light"; yet it is also said of John Baptist, Lucerna ardens. He was a burning and a shining light"; the ministry of the Gospel in the church, is your light; if by the benefit of this light, you consider every step you make, weigh every action you undertake, this is that- love of pureness, that pondus animw, the settling of the heart, that keeps it from evaporating upon transitory things, and settles it so, as that it becomes capable of that cure, which God, in his church, in the absolution of sins, and seals of reconciliation, exhibits to it. To recollect and contract that which hath been said, this pureness is not a purifying pureness, to correct and reform those things that appertain not to us; nor it is not such a purified pureness as makes us canonize ourselves, and think others reprobates (for all this is no pureness at all:) neither is it the true pureness, if it be not in the heart (for outward good works, not done to good ends, are impure:) nor is this pureness of heart acquired by any other means, than by discharging the heart in a detestation of former habits, and a sedulous watchfulness in preventing future attempts; nor can this pureness of heart, though by these means attained to, be preserved, but by this noble and incorruptible affection of love, that puts a true value upon it, and therefore prefers it above all other things. And this was the first of the two marks which we found to be upon that person that should be capable of the king's friendship, he that loveth pureness of heart. And the other is, that he have by honest industry fitted himself, in some way, to be of use to the public, delivered in that phrase, grace of lips; He that loveth pureness of heart (there is his honesty;) for the grace

of his lips (there is his sufficiency ;) the king shall be his friend, there is his reward, his preferment.

Ordinarily in Scriptures, where this word lips is not taken naturally, literally, narrowly, for that part of the body, but transferred to a figurative and larger sense, either it signifies speaking only (as in Solomon, As, righteous lips are the delight of kings, and the king loveth him that speaketh right things", that is, him, in whose counsels, and in whose relations he may confide and rely;) or else it is enlarged to all manner of expressing a man's ability, to do servico to that state in which God hath made his station; and by lips, and fruits of lips, is well understood the fruit of all his good labours and endeavours. And so may those words be well interpreted, With the fruit of a maris mouth shall his belly be satisfied, and mth the increase of his lips shall he be filled"; that is, his honest labours in a lawful calling shall enrich him. As therefore those words, A maris gift maketh room for him, and bringeth him before great men*¹, are not always understood of gifts given in nature of bribes or gratifications for access to great persons, but also of gifts given by God to men, that those gifts and good parts make them acceptable to great persons; so is not grace of lips to be restrained, either to a plausible and harmonious speaking, appliable to the humour of the hearer (for that is excluded in the first part, the root and fountain of all, pureness of heart, for flattery cannot consist with that) nor to be restrained to the good offices and abilities of the tongue only (though they be many;) but this grace of lips is to be enlarged to all declarations, and expressings, and utterings of an ability to serve the public; all that is grace of lips. And in those words of Hosea, We render the calves of our lips", is neither meant as the Jews say, Those calves which we have promised with our lips, and will pay in sacrifice, then, when we are restored to our land of promise again. Nor are those calves of our lips only restrained to the lip-service of praise, and prayer, though of them also St. Paul understand them"; but they include all the sacrifices of the New Testament, and all ways by which man can do service to God; so here the grace of lips reaches to all the ways

** Prov. xvi. 13. ^M Prov. xviii. 20. *' Prov. xviii. 1C.

- Hosea xiv. 13. "Heb. xiv. 15.

by which a man in civil functions may serve the public. And this grace of lips, in some proportion, in some measure, every man is bound in conscience to procure to himself; he is bound to enable himself to be useful and profitable to the public, in some i course, in some vocation.

Since even the angels, which are all spirit, be yet administering spirits, and execute the commissions and ambassages of God, and communicate with men; should man, who is not made all soul, but a composed creature of body and soul, exempt himself from doing the offices of mutual society, and upholding that frame in which God is pleased to be glorified? Since God himself, whcf so many millions of ages contented himself with himself in heaven, yet at last made this world for his glory; shall any man live so in it as to contribute nothing towards it? Hath God made this world his theatre, Ut exhibeatur Indus Deorum^,', That man may represent God in his conversation; and wilt thou play no part? But think that thou only wast made to pass thy time merrily, and to be the only spectator upon this theatre? Is the world a great and harmonious organ, where all parts are played, and all play parts; and must thou only sit idle and hear it? Is every body else made to be a member, and to do some real office for the sustentation of this great body, this world; and wilt thou only be no member of this body? Thinkest thou that thou wast made to be cos amoris, a mole in the face for ornament, a man of delight in the world? Because thy wit, thy fashion, and some such nothing as that, hath made thee a delightful and acceptable companion, wilt thou therefore pass in jest, and be nothing? If thou wilt be no link of God's chain, thou must have no part in the influence and providence, derived by that, successsively to us. Since it is for thy fault that God hath cursed the earth, and that therefore it must bring forth thorns and thistles, wilt not thou stoop down, nor endanger the pricking of thy hand, to weed them up? Thinkest thou to eat bread, and not sweat? Hast thou a prerogative above the common law of nature? Or must God insert a particular clause of exemption for thy sake I

Oh! get thee then this grace of lips; be fit to be inserted, and be inserted into some society, and some way of doing good to the

Plato.

i public. I speak not this to yourselves, you senators of Loudon; but as God hath blessed you in your ways, and in your callings, so put your children into ways and courses too, in which God may bless them. The dew of heaven falls upon them that are abroad; God's blessings fall upon them that travel in the world. The fathers' former labours shall not excuse their sons' future idleness; as the father hath, so the son must glorify God, and contribute to the world, in some settled course. And then, as God hath blessed thee in the grace of thy lips, in thy endeavours, in thyself, so thy sons shall grow up, as the Son of God himself did, in grace and favour of God and man. As God hath blessed thee in the fruit of thy cattle, so he shall bless thee in the fruit of thy body; and as he hath blessed thee in the city, so he shall bloss in the field, in that inheritance which thou shalt leave to thy son. Whereas, when children are brought up in such a tenderness, and wantonness at home, as is too frequent amongst you in this city, they never come to be of use to the state, nor their own estates of any longer use to them. That son that comes to say, My father hath laboured, and therefore I may take mine ease, will come to say at last, My Saviour hath suffered, and therefore I may take my pleasure; my Saviour hath fasted, and therefore I may riot, my Saviour hath wept enough, and therefore I may be merry. But as our Saviour requires co-operarios, that we be fellow-workers with him to make sure our salvation; so if your sons be not co-operarii, labourers in some course of life, to make sure their inheritance, though you have been called wise in your generation, that is; rich in your own times, yet you will be called fools in your generation too; that is, ignominious and wretched in your posterity. In a word, he that will be nothing in this world, shall be nothing in the next; nor shall he have the communion of saints there, that will not have the communion of good men here. As much as he can, he frustrates God's creation; God produced things of nothing, and he endeavours to bring all to nothing again; and he despises his own immortality and glorification; for since he lives the life of a beast, he shows that he could be content to die so too, et accepit animam in vano, he hath received a soul to no purpose. This grace of lips then, this ability to do good to the public, we are bound to have; but we are not commanded to love it, as we are the pureness of heart; we must love to have it, but we must not be in love with it when we have it. But since the Holy Ghost hath chosen to express these abilities, in this word, Grace of lips, that intimates a duty of utterance, and declaration of those abilities which he hath. Habere te agnoscere, et ex te nihil habere; to let it appear in the use of them, that thou hast good parts, and to confess that thou hast nothing of thine own; hoc est nec ingratum esse, nec superbiim; therein thou art neither unthankful to God, nor proud of thyself. As he that hath no other good parts, but money; and locks up that, or employs it so, as that his money feeds upon the commonwealth, and does not feed it, (that is, lies gnawing and sucking blood, by usury, and does not make blood, by stirring and walking in merchandise,) is an unprofitable member in state; so he that hath good parts, and smothers them, in a retired and useless life, is inexcusable in the same measure. When therefore men retire themselves into cloisters and monasteries, when they will not be content with St. Paul's diminution, to be changed from Saul, to Paulus, (which is little) but will go lower than that little, by being called minorites, less than little, and lower than that, minims, least of all; and yet find an order less than that, as they have doire, nullani, nothing at all, ex ore mo, out of their own mouths they shall be judged; and that which they have made themselves here, God shall make them in the world to come, nullanos, nothing at all. Paulum sepultw distat inertiw celata virtus, it is all one as if he had no grace of lips, if he never have the grace to open his lips; to bury himself alive, is as much wrong to the state, as if he kill himself. Every man hath a politic life, as well as a natural life; and he may no more take himsolf away from the world, than he may make himself away out of the world. For he that dies so, by withdrawing himself from his calling, from the labours of mutual society in this life, that man kills himself, and God calls him not. Morte morietur, he shall die a double death; an allegorical death here, in his retiring, from his own hand; and a real death from the hand of God hereafter. In this case, that Vw soli, Wo be unto him that is alone, hath the heaviest weight with it; when a man lives so alone, as that he respects nobody but himself, his own ease, and his own ends. For, to sum up all concerning this part, the subject, as our principal duty is, pureness of heart towards God, and to love that entirely, earnestly; so the next is the grace of lips, ability to serve the public; which though we bound not to love it with a pride, we are bound not to smother with a retiring. And then for these endowments (for being religious, and serviceable to the state) the king shall be our friend. Which is our second general part, to which, in our order proposed, we are now come.

As it is frequent and ordinary in the Scriptures, when the Holy Ghost would express a superlative, the highest degree of any thing, to express it, by adding the name of God to it (as when Saul and his company were in such a dead sleep, as that David could take his spear, and pot of water from under his head; it is called, Tardemath Jehovah, Sopor Domini, The sleep of the Lord, the greatest sleep that could possess a man; and so in many other places, fortitudo Domini, timor Domini, signify the greatest strength, and the greatest fear that could fall upon a man) so also doth the Holy Ghost often descend from God, to God's lieutenant; and as to express superlatives, he does sometimes use the name of God; so doth he also sometimes use the name of king. For, lieges sunt summi regis defluxus (says the author, who is so ancient, that no man can tell when he was, Trismegistus) God is the sun, and kings are beams, and emanations, and influences that flow from him. Such is the manner of the Holy Ghost expressing himself in Esay. Tyrus shall be forgotten seventy years, according to the years of one king ⁿ; that is, during the time of any one man's life, how happy and fortunate soever. And so also the miserable and wretched estate of the wicked, is likewise expressed, His hope shall be rooted out of his dwelling, and shall drive him to the king of fears that is, to the greatest despair; Ad regem interituum (says the vulgar) to the greatest destruction that can be conceived. So that in this first sense, Amicitia regis, the king's friendship that is promised here, (the king shall be his friend) is a superlative friendship, a spreading, a dilating, an universal friendship. He that is thus qualified, all the world shall love him.

⁷¹ Isaiah xxiii. 10.

"Job xviii. 14.

So also by the name of king, both in the Scriptures, and in Josephus, and in many more profane and secular authors, are often designed such persons as were not truly of the rank and quality of kings; but persons that lived in plentiful and abundant fortunes, and had all the temporal happinesses of this life, were called kings. And in this sense, the king's friendship that is promised here, (The king shall be his friend) is utilis amicitia, all such friends as may do him good. God promises, that to men thus endowed and qualified, belongs the love and assistance that men of plentiful fortunes can give; great persons, great in estate, great in power and authority, shall confer their favours upon such men, and not upon such as only serve to swell a train, always for ostentation, sometimes for sedition; much less shall they confer their favours upon sycophants and buffoons; least of all upon the servants of their vices and voluptuousness; but they whom God hath made kings in that sense, (masters of abundant fortunes) shall do good to them only who have this pureness of heart, and grace of lips.

But if these words be not only intended of the king literally, that he shall do good to men thus endowed and qualified, but extended to all men in their proportion, that all that are able should do good to such persons; yet this text is principally intended of the king himself, and therefore is so expressed singularly and emphatically, The king shall be his friend. As God hath appointed it for a particular dignity to his spouse, the church, That kings shall be their fosterfathei-s, and queens their nurses^1*; so God hath designed it for a particular happiness of religious and capable men, that they may stand before the king, and hear his wisdom, as the queen of Sheba observed of the servants of Solomon, and pronounced them happy for that⁷⁴. This then is a happiness belonging to this pureness, and this grace, that the king shall not only nor absolutely rely upon the information of others, and take such a measure, and such a character of men, as the good or bad affections of others will present unto him; but he shall take an immediate knowledge of them himself; ho shall observe their love to this pureness of heart, and their grace of lips, and so become their friend.

Unto which of the angels said God at any time, Thou art my son, says the apostle⁷⁵. Indeed to none of them; it was a name peculiar to Christ. Unto what man did God ever say, Thou art my friend? only to one, to Abraham, {Israel, and Jacob, and the seed of Abraham my friend¹*) Jehoshaphat before this had taken knowledge of this friendship between God and Abraham, {Didst thou not give this land to the seed of Abraham thy friend for ever "?) And so doth St. James also record this friendship after, {Abraham believed, and he was called the friend of Godⁿ.) God never called any man friend, but him to whom he gave a change of name, and honourable additions. He called him Abraham, a name of dilatation, Patrem multitudinum, a father of multitudes; he made him able to do good to others; for he did not only say, Blessed shalt thou be, for that might be, blessed of others, or blessed amongst others; but it is not Eris benedictus, but Erie benedictio, Thou shalt be a blessing, A blessing to others¹*. I will make thee a blessed instrument of conveying my blessings to other men. That is God's friendship, and the highest preferment that man is capable of in this life, to extend men beyond themselves, and make thom his instruments to others.

Step we a step lower, from God to the king; for as kings have no example but God, so according to that example they are reserved, and sparing in affording that name of friend to any. For, as moral men have noted, friendship implies some degrees of equality, which cannot stand between king and subject. But this is the encouragement to this loving of pureness, and this seeking the grace of lips; that this is the true and the only way to that friendship of the king, which is intended in the word of this text. The word is nagnah**; and nagnah hath such a latitude in the Scriptures, as may well give satisfaction to any subject: for nagnah signifies amare, to love; and so the king

⁷⁵ Heb. i. 5. ¹⁶ Isaiah xiL 8. ¹⁷ 2 Chron. xx. 7.

⁷⁸ James ii. 23. ⁷* Gen. xii. 2.

⁸⁸ Nagnah is either a misprint, or a mistake of Donne's. The expression in the Hebrew text is "-T^Q !)!Tin, the root of which is HIH, "he fed;" and in its secondary meaning, "be associated to himself," (in Pihel.) There is a word QJO) "he was pleasing," " he delighted;" occurring in Prov. ix. 17. A few hues lower, it is Dagnah, in the folio edition.—Ed.

shall love this man. But we have known cases in which kings have been fain to disguise and dissemble their love, out of a tenderness and lothness to grieve them whom they have loved before; and so the king may love this man, and he never the better. Therefore this word nagnah, signifies sociare, to draw him nearer, to associate him to him, in counsels, and other ways, and always to afford him easy accesses unto him; but we have known cases too, in which kings, though they have opened one cabinet, their affections, yet they have shut up another, their judgments, and their last purposes, even from them whom they have drawn near them. For kings naturally love to be at their liberty; and it is not only a greatness, but an ease, to be able to disavow an instruction, upon the mis-understanding of the minister and instrument. Therefore against such intricacies and entanglings, this nagnah signifies docere, the king shall teach him, inform him directly, candidly, ingenuously, apertly, without any perplexities or reservations. And who would not purify his heart, and add grace to his lips, that he might taste this friendship of the king, to be loved by him, and feel the influences of his affection, to be drawn near him, and made partaker of his consultations; to be taught by him, and carried all the way with clearness, and without danger of mistaking? And who would not employ the thoughts of a pure heart, and the praises of graceful lips, in thanksgivings to Almighty God, who hath blessed us with such times, as that such subjects have found such a king!

Neither is this encouragement to this pureness, arid this grace in our text, only in the benignity of the king, (which yet were a just provocation, that the king would consider such men before others; for all kings do not always so) but it is in his duty, it is in his office; for, (as our translators have expressed it) we see it is not said, the king will be; but, the king shall be his friend; it is not am arbitrary, but a necessary thing. God, in whose hands the king's heart is, and who only can give law, and precept to the king, hath saith, The king shall be his friend. Neither hath God left the king at that largeness, that he shall seem to be his friend, and do for him as though he were his friend, but yet not bo so. Etiam simulare philosophiam, philosophia est; it is a degree of wisdom to seem wise. To be able to hold the world in opinion that one is great with the king, is a degree of greatness. And we have some tales, and apophthegms to that purpose; when men have been suitors to the king for -that favour, that they might bid him but good-morrow in his ear, thereby to put impressions in the beholders, that they had a familiar interest in him. But when the grounds of this royal friendship are true and solid, pureness of heart, and grace of lips, the friendship must be so too. And then the ground being good, as it is not said, the king shall seem to be, but he shall be; so it is not said, the king shall have been, but he shall be; he shall be so still, he shall continue this friendship; but yet, but so long as this pureness and this grace continues, which produced this friendship in him.

For all this great frame, the friendship of the king, turns upon this little hinge, this particle, this monosyllable, his; the king shall be his, his friend. And to whom hath that his relation? To him, and him only that hath both pureness of heart, and grace of lips. Neither truth in religion, nor abilities to serve the public, must be wanting in him to whom the king shall be a friend. For for the first, sincerity in religion, St. Ambrose expressed that, (and the other too) elegantly; An idoneum putabo qui mihi dat consilium, qui non dat sibi*¹? Can I think him fit to give me counsel, that mis-counsels himself in the highest business, religion? mihi eum vacare credam, qui sibi non vacat?' shall I think that he will study me, that neglects himself, his best self? the soul itself? And then for his doing good to the public, Officium ab efficiendo, et efficium dicendum, says he", He only is fit for an office, that knows how to execute it; he must have pureness of heart for his end; for he that proposes not that end, will make an ill end. And he must have this grace of lips, which implies that civil wisdom, which, (as the philosopher notes) Versatur circa media pervenienda; He must know wherein he may be useful and beneficial to others, thankful to God, profitable to others; that is his circumference; and then his centre here, is the love of the king. For these destroy not one another, religion and prudence. As that love which Christ bare to St. John, who lay in his bosom, (towards whom Christ had certainly other human and affectionate respects, than he had to the rest) made him not

⁸¹ Ambrose, Offic. L u. 22. 8^! I i 8,

the less fit to be an apostle, and an evangelist; nor the great office of apostlesbip made him not unfit for that love that Christ bare him; Bo both these endowments, pureness of heart, and grace of lips, are not only compatible, but necessary to him to whom the king shall be a friend. And both these doth God require, (if we consider the force of the original words) when he says, Bring ye men of wisdom, and known among the tribes, and I will make them rulers over you**. For that addition (known among the tribes) excludes reserved men, proud and inaccessible men: though God do not intend there popular men, yet he does intend men acceptable to the people. And when David comes to a lustration, to a sifting of his family, as he says, He that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me**; expressing in that, this pureuess; so intending to speak of this grace of lips, which is an ability to be useful to others, for which nothing makes a man more unfit than pride, and harshness, and hardness of access, ho scarce knows how to express himself and his indignation against such a man; Him (says he) that hath a proud look, and a high heart, I cannot; "and there he ends abruptly; he does not say, I cannot work upon him, I cannot mend him, I cannot pardon him, I cannot suffer him; but only, I cannot, and no more; I cannot tell what to do with him, I cannot tell what to say of him; and therefore I give him over: him that hath a proud look, and a high heart, I cannot. Whatsoever his grace of lips be, how good soever his parts, he doth not only want the principal part, pureness of heart, but he cannot be a fit instrument of that most blessed union between prince and subject, if his proud look, and harsh behaviour make him unacceptable to honest men. It was (says the orator" to the emperor Theodosius) Execratio postrema, An execration, and an expressing of their indignation, beyond which they could not go, when speaking of Tarquin, Libidine prweipitem, avaritia eweum, furors vecordem, crudelitate immanent, vocarunt superbum, They thought it enough to call a man that was licentious, and covetous, and furious, and bloody, proud; et putaverunt sujficere coneitium, they thought themselves sufficiently revenged upon him for all their grievances, and that they had said as much as any orator in an invective, any

poet in a satire, could say, when they had imprinted that name upon his memory, Tarquin the Proud.

To those therefore that have insinuated themselves into tho friendship of the king, without these two endowments: if the king hath always Christ for his example, if he say to them, Amice, quomodo intrasti? Friend, how came you in**? If you had not this wedding garment on, or if this wedding garment were not your own, but borrowed by an hypocritical dissimulation, Amice, qucmodo intrasti? Though you be never so much my friend, in never so near place to me, I must know how you got in; for, I have but two doors, (indeed, not two doors; but agate, and a wicket; a greater, and an inferior way,) a religious heart, and useful parts: if you have not these, if you fear not God, and if you study not, (as I do) the welfare of my people; you are not come in at my gate, (that is, religion) nor at my wicket, (that is, the good of my people:) and therefore, how near soever you be crept, I must have a review, an inquiry, to know, quomodo intrasti, how you came in.

But for those which have these two endowments, (religion, and care of the public) we have the word of the King of kings, of God himself, in the mouth of the wisest king, King Solomon, The king shall be his friend: and the king hath Christ himself still for his example, who loved them whom he loved to the end: for, as long as the reason, upon which he grounds his word remains, Regis verbum regi rex est", The king's word, the king's love, the king's favour, regi rex est, is a king upon the king, and binds him to his word, as well as his subjects are bound to him.

To recollect and fasten these pieces; these be the benefits of this pureness of heart, and grace of lips, first, that tho king shall take an immediate and personal knowledge of him, and not be misled by false characters, or false images of him, by any breath that would blast him in the king's ear. And then, that he shall take it to be his royal office, and Christian duty to do so; that to those men, whom he finds so qualified, he shall be a friend in all those acceptations of the word in our text: amabit, he shall love them, impart his affections to them; sociabit, he shall asso

⁸⁰ Matt. xxii. 12. ⁸⁷ Demosthenes.

ciate them to him, and impart his consultations unto them: and sociabit again, he shall go along with them, and accompany their labours, and their services, by the seal of his countenance, and ratification; and docebit, he shall instruct them clearly in his just pleasure, without entangling, or snaring them in perplexities, by ambiguous directions. This is the capacity required (to be religious and useful;) this is the preferment assured, The king shall be his friend; and this is the compass of our text.

Now, beloved, as we are able to interpret some places of the Revelation, better than the fathers could do, because we have seen the fulfilling of some of the prophecies of that book, which they did but conjecture upon; so we can interpret and apply this text by way of accommodation the more usefully, because we have seen these things performed by those princes whom God hath set over us. We need not that edict of the senate of Rome, Ut sub titido gratiarum agendarum, That upon pretence of thanking our princes, for that which, we say, they had done boni principes, quw facerent recognoscerent, good princes should take knowledge what they were bound to do, though they had not done so yet.

We need not this circuit, nor this disguise; for God's hand hath been abundant towards us, in raising ministers of state, so qualified, and so endowed; and such princes as have fastened their friendships, and conferred their favours upon such persons. We celebrate, seasonably, opportunely, the thankful acknowledgment of these mercies, this day: this day, which God made for us, according to the pattern of his first days in the creation; where, vesper et mane dies unus, the evening first, and then the morning made up the day; for here the saddest night, and the joyfullest morning, that ever the daughters of this island saw, made up this day. Consider the tears of Richmond this night, and the joys of London, at this place, at this time, in the morning; and we shall find prophecy even in that saying of the poet, Node pluit tota, showers of rain all night, of weeping for our sovereign; and we would not be comforted, because she was not⁸⁸: and yet, redeunt spectacula mane, the same hearts, the same eyes, the same hands were all directed upon recognitions, and acclama

^M Matt. ii. 18.

tions of her successor in the morning: and when every one of you in the city were running up and down like ants with their eggs bigger than themselves, every man with his bags, to seek where to hide them safely, Almighty God shed down his Spirit of unity, and recollecting, and reposedness, and acquiescence upon you all. In the death of that queen, unmatchable, inimitable in her sex; that queen, worthy, I will not say of Nestors years, I will not say of Methusalem's, but worthy of Adam's years, if Adam had never fallen; in her death we were all under one common flood, and depth of tears. But the Spirit of God moved upon the face of that depth; and God said, Let there be light, and there was light, and God saw that that light was good. God took pleasure, and found a savour of rest, in our peaceful cheerfulness, and in our joyful and confident apprehension of blessed days in his government, whom he had prepared at first, and preserved so often for us.

As the rule is true, Cum de malo principe posteri tacent, manifest um est vilem facere prwsentem", when men dare not speak of the vices of a prince that is dead, it is certain that the prince that is alive proceeds in the same vices; so the inversion of the rule is true too, Cum de bono principe loquuntur, when men may speak freely of the virtues of a dead prince, it is an evident argument that the present prince practises the same virtues; for, if he did not, he would not love to hear of them. Of her, we may say (that which was well said, and therefore it were pity it should not be once truly said, for, so it was not, when it was first said to the emperor Julian) Nihil humile, aut abjecium cogitavit, quia novitde se semper loquendum; she knew the world would talk of her after her death, and therefore she did such things all her life as were worthy to be talked of. Of her glorious successor, and our gracious sovereign, we may say; Onerosum est succedere bono principi'⁸, It would have troubled any king but him, to have come in succession, and in comparison with such a queen. And in them both we may observe the unsearchableness of the ways of God; of them both, we may say, Dominus fecit, It is the Lord that hath done it, and it is wonderful in our eyes": first, that a

woman and a maid should have all the wars of Christendom in her contemplation, and govern and balance them all; and then, that a king, born and bred in a warlike nation, and so accustomed to the sword, as that it had been directed upon his own person, in the strength of his age, and in his infancy, in his cradle, in ¹ his mother's belly, should yet have the blessed spirit of peace so abundantly in him, as that by his councils, and his authority, he should sheath all the swords of Christendom again. De forti egressa dulcedo", sweetness is come out of the strong, in a stranger manner, than when Samson said so in his riddle; and howsoever another wise king found it true, Anima saturata calcabit favum, The person that is full despiseth honey they that are glutted with the benefits of peace, would fain change for a war; yet the wisest King of all hath pronounced for our king, Beati pacifici, Blessed are the peace-makers**. If subjects will not apprehend it with joy here, the king himself shall joy hereafter, for, Therefore (says that Gospel) therefore, because he was a peace-maker, he shall be called the child of God. Though then these two great princes (of whom the one con-regnat Chrhto, reigns now with Christ*⁵, the other reigns here over ns, vice Christi, for Christ, were near in blood, yet thus were they nearest of kin, quod uterque optimus", that they were both better than any other, and equal to one another. Dignus alter eligi, alter eligere, that she was fittest in that fulness of years, to be chosen and assumed into heaven; and he fittest (as St. Paul did because it was more behooveful for his brethren) to choose to stay upon earth, for our protection, and for our direction ; because (as in all princes it is) vita principis perpetua censura, there cannot be a more powerful increpation upon the subjects^' excesses, than when they see the king deny himself those pleasures which they take.

As then this place, whero we all stand now, was the sanctuary whither we all resorted this day, to receive the assurance of our safety, in the proclamation of his undoubted title to this kingdom, so let it be our altar now, where we may sacrifice our humble thanks to God, first, that he always gave the king a just, and a

"Judges xiv. 24. ^1,* Prov. xxvii. 1. "Matt. v. 9.

2 Tim. ii. 12. ⁹⁶ Plin. de Nerva, et Trajan.

religions patience of not attempting a coming into this kingdom, till God emptied the throne here, by translating that queen to a throne more glorious. Perchance he was not without temptations from other men to have done otherwise. But, ad principatum per obsequium venit*¹, he came to be king by his obedience, his obedience to the law of nature, and the laws of this kingdom, to which some other king would have disputed, whether he should have obeyed or no. Cum omnia faceret imperare ut n/eberet, nihil fecit, ut imperaret; all his actions, all that he did, showed him fit for this crown, and yet ho would do nothing to anticipate that crown.

Next let us pour out our thanks to God, that in his entrance he was beholden to no by-religion. The papists could not make him place any hopes upon them, nor the puritans make him entertain any fears from them; but his God and our God; as he brought him via lactea, by the sweet way of peace, that flows with milk and honey, so he brought him via regia, by the direct and plain way, without any deviation or descent into ignoble flatteries, or servile humouring of any persons or factions. Which noble, and Christian courage he expressed more manifestly, when, after that infamous powder-treason, the intended dissolution, and conflagration of this state (that plot that even amazed and astonished the devil, and seemed a miracle even in hell,*that treason, which, whosoever wishes might be covered now, is sorry that it was discovered then, whosoever wishes that it might be forgotten, wishes that it had proceeded; and therefore let our tongue cleave unto the roof of our mouths, if we do not confess his loving kindness before the Lord, and his wonderful works before the sons of men) then I say, did his majesty show this Christian courage of his more manifestly, when ho sent the profession of his religion, the Apology of the Oath of Allegiance, and his opinion of tho Roman antichrist, in all languages, to all princes of Christendom. By occasion of which book, though there have risen twenty Rabshakehs, who have railed against our God in railing against our religion, and twenty Shimeis, who have railed against tho person of his sacred majesty (for I may pronounce that the number of them who have barked, and snarled

⁰⁷ Pacatus ad Theodosium.

at that book in writing, is scarce less than forty) yet scarce one of them all hath undertaken the arguments of that book, but either repeated, and perchance enlarged those things which their own authors had shovelled together of that subject (that is, the pope's temporal power) or else they have bent themselves maliciously, insolently, sacrilegiously, against the person of his majesty; and the pope may be antichrist still, for any thing they have said to the contrary. It belonged only to him, whom no earthly king may enter into comparison with, the King of heaven, Christ Jesus to say, Those that thou gavest me have I kept, and none of them is lost"; and even in him, in Christ Jesus himself, that admitted one exception; Judas the child of perdition was lost. Our king cannot say that none of his subjects are fled to Rome; but his vigilancy at home hath wrought so, as that fewer are gone from our universities thither, in his, than in former times; and his books abroad have wrought so, that much greater, and considerable persons are come to us, than are gone from us. I add that particular, (from our universities) because we see, that since those men whom our universities had bred, and graduated before they went thither, (of which the number was great, for many years of the queen's time) are worn out amongst them, and dead; those whom they make up there, whom they have had from' their first youth there, who have received all their learning from their beggarly and fragmentary way of dictates there, and were never grounded in our schools nor universities, have proved but weak maintainers of that cause, compared with those men of the first times.

As Plato says of a particular natural body, he that will cure an ill eye, must cure the head; he that will cure the head, must cure the body; and he that will cure the body, must cure the soul; that is, must bring the mind to a temperature, a moderation, an equanimity; so in civil bodies, in states, head, and eye, and body; prince, and council, and people, do all receive their health and welfare from the pureness of religion: and therefore, as the chiefest of all, I chose to insist upon that blessing, that God hath given us a religious king, and religious out of his understanding. His other virtues work upon several conditions of

John xvii. 12.

men; by this blessing, the whole body is blest. And therefore not only they which have been salted with the salt of the court'% as it is said of the king's servants; but all that are salted with the salt of the earth ¹⁸0, (as Christ calls his church, his apostles) all that love to have salt with themselves, and peace with one another*", all that are sensible of the spiritual life, and growth, and good taste that they have by the Gospel, are bound to praise him, to magnify him for ever, that hath vouchsafed us a religious king, and religious out of understanding.

Many other happinesses are rooted in the lovo of the subject; and of his confidence in their love, his very absence from us is an argument to us. His continual abode with us hath been an argument of his love to us; and this long progress of his is an argument of his assurance of our loyalty to him. It is an argument also of the good habitude and constitution to which he hath brought this state, and how little harm they that wish ill to it, are able to do, upon any advantage; Hanc in vobis fiduciam pertimescunt"*; This confidence of his makes his home-enemies more afraid, than his laws, or his trained-bands; Et contemni se sentiunt, cum relinquuntur; When they are left to their own malignity, and to do their worst, they discern in that, how despicable and contemptible a party they are. Cum in interiora imperii seceditis, When the king may go so far from the heart of his kingdom, and the enemy be able to make no use of his absence, this makes them see the desperateness of their vain imaginations. He is not gone from us; for a noble part of this body, (our nation) is gone with him, and a royal part of his body stays with us. Neither is the farthest place that he goes to, any other than ours, now, when, as the Roman orator¹" said; Nunc demum juvat orbem terrarum spectare depictum, cum in illo nihil videmus alienum; Now it is a comfort to look upon a map of the world, when we can see nothing in it that is not our own; so wo may say, Now it is a pleasant sight to look upon a map of this island, when it is all one. As we had him at first, and shall have him again, from that kingdom, where the natural days are longer than ours are, so may he have longer days with us, than ever any of our

^M Ezraiv. 14. ¹⁸⁸ Matt. v. 13. ^1,1 Mark ix. 50.

Mamertinus Maximiauo. "* Eumenius.

princes had; and as he hath immortalitatem propriam sibi,filium sibi similem, (as it was said of Constantine,) a peculiar immortality, not to die, because he shall live in his son; so in the fulness of time, and in the accomplishment of God's purposes upon him, may he have the happiness of the other immortality, and peacefully surrender all his crowns in exchange of one, a crown of immortal glory, which the Lord the righteous Judge lay up for him against that day.

To conclude all, and to go the right way from things which we see, to things which we see not, by consideration of the king, to the contemplation of God; since God hath made us his tenants of this world, we are bound, not only to pay our rents, (spiritual duties and services towards him,) but we are bound to reparations too, to contribute our help to society, and such external duties as belong to the maintenance of this world, in which Almighty God hath chosen to be glorified. If we have these two, pureness of heart, and grace of lips, then we do these two; we pay our rent, and we keep the world in reparation; and we shall pass through all those steps and gradations, which St. Ambrose harmoniously, melodiously expresses, to be servi per timorem, to be the servants of God, and live in his fear; to be mercenarii per laborem, to be the workmen of God, and labour in his vineyard; to be filii per lavacrum, to be the sons of God, and preserve that inheritance which was sealed to us at first, in baptism; aud last of all, amici per virtutem, by the good use of his gifts, the King of kings shall be our friend. That which he said to his apostles, his Spirit shall say to our spirit here, and seal it to us for a covenant of salt, an everlasting, an irrevocable covenant, Henceforth call I you not servants, but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard of my Father, have I made known unto you¹⁰⁴. And the fruition of this friendship, which neither slackens in all our life, nor ends at our death, the Lord of life, for the death of his most innocent Son, afford to us all. Amen.