THis Psalme, and the rest to the end, are much-what of one kinde, both for manner and matter, and something may be said not un­usefully from both. Their method or man­ner is [...], a circular praying the Lord; like the heavens they move in a circle, and have recourse to the same point; at Hallelujah is the beginning, and at Hallelujah is the ending.

And this may be [...], a circular doctrine or instruction, that after this manner wee looke up to God in all our designes, not as first disposer or mover onely, but as founder and finisher, α and ω, first efficient, and supreme end, to whom all our strength and service refers and bowes, like the sheaves of Iacobs sonnes to the sheafe of Ioseph.

Againe, the matter of these five last Psalmes, the whole of them is but Hallelujah; praise ye the Lord, runneth like the bloud in the veines, quite thorow them.

And why may not this instruct us too, even wherein is every good mans duty, to praise God thorowly, and per­petually? The Lord our God, the keeper of Israel, neither sleepeth, nor slumbreth; and his Angels, or Seraphims cease not to sing, Holy, Holy; and Satan and his Angels are ever in circuit to devoure us, and our indevotion to good is ever stealing on us; therefore we should not content our selves with good beginnings, like the Church of Ephesus, nor pre­sume of mercy at the end, and be starke dead in the middle, like the Church of Sardis; we should not rest in this, that we lift up our lips sometime to the Lord in the morning, or end in the evening in our accustomed devotions, unlesse the heart and matter of our day, our life be well bestowed: ac­cording to our modell here, wee should bee enwoven and wrought quite thorow; our maine bent should be a Halle­lujah to praise the Lord with all our might, as David did with all Israel at the bringing home of the Arke, be­ing very sensible whensoever we cease to bee of service to the Lord, as David was grieved for the breach in Vzzah, and therefore called it Perez-Vzzah, 1 Chron. 13. Now the Psalme in hand is first Eucharisticall, a vow of perpe­tuall praise to the Lord, in the two first verses. Secondly, Paraineticall; it exhorts to it upon maine reason in the resi­due of the Psalme.

Praise yee the Lord. Praise the Lord O my soule: While I live I will praise the Lord; while I have any being; that is, O my minde or understanding meditate thou on God, know him ô my will or inmost affection, my very heart-root bee thou set for God, yea, and that not for a mood or humour onely, sed quum adhuc ego sum; while I live, while I have any being, I shall praise the Lord thorow all times, places, and occasions.

Here is the man after God his owne make; So let us a­waken our selves, so speake, and so doe, Iames the second. Especially we who succeed the Psalmist in office, so should we foretaste, & pre-digest the heavenly gift, and the powers of the world to come, and speake of our God out of experi­ence, [Page 3] or out of a sense of that peace and grace which wee preach; and this is Clarigatio, as the Roman heralds use to speake, an Hallelujah, a denouncing warre against hell and sinne, with a shrill and piercing sound.

Againe, the Psalme is exhortative, pressed with good rea­son. The summe is this; Sticke close to the Lord by faith and love, for fruitlesse and vaine is all other confidence in comparison; in God there is much good-will and good­nesse, in God there is infinite abilitie and power, in God there is eternall being, hee rules for ever, as wee see from the fifth verse to the end. But humane succour that must faile us needs, sometime in will, sometime in power, ever in dura­tion, as in the third and fourth verses, Put not your trust in Princes, nor in the sonne of man in whom there is no helpe: His breath goeth forth, &c.

Indeed, Christ is the Prince of peace, happy are we that have him our hope, for as he is the sonne of man, the branch of David; so he is germen Iehovae, the seed of Iehovah, Esa. 4.2. The Lord our righteousnesse, Ierem. 23.5. Ex homine, non per hominem, borne of a woman, but by the Holy Ghost, and the fullnesse of the Godhead dwelleth in him personal­ly, that the helpe of Christ, is the helpe of God.

But meere sons of men; every second cause whatsoever is no salvation, no solid helpe, no merit or efficacy to build upon. The grace of a Prince is a shade under which all flesh is glad to feed, Dan. 4. and Seneca wondereth how Polybius could weepe, Propitio Caesare, being in grace with Caesar: yet put not your trust in Princes, not in the ingenious (as the word signifieth) or magnificent? No: Then the Psalmist takes off our trust from all the world, and there is not that thing in it which is to be trusted and celebrated for ever, be­cause nothing in the world is for ever, and God his Deputies in office, are filii hominis, in essence like other men: and so the best humane confidence is but pons sublicius, a woodden bridge, very ready to sinke under us; yea, scipio arundincus, as he said of the King of Egypt, a broken reed, perillous to be trusted on, when the waves of death, and judgement, and [Page 4] spirituall distresses arise and swell; and therefore Hallelu­jah, praise God, and doe not deifie or propose to your hearts a rest in the creature, for it is all mutable.

Here a treble note of humane imbecillity: First, from that which is the forme or the fountaine of lively being; Spiritus exit, His spirit, or his breath goeth forth: Secondly, from the matter that he is made of; Et revertetur in terram s [...]am, and he shall returne into his earth: Thirdly, from the effects that he purposeth or produceth; In illo die pertbunt omnes cogita­tiones corum, in that very day his thoughts perish.

The word spirit is sometime taken substantially for the soule, Lord Iesus receive my spirit, Acts 7. And the spirit returneth to God that gave it, Eccles. 12. So Saint Ierome and others take this place, his soule goeth forth accor­ding to that, as her soule was going forth or departing, Gen. 35.18.

Againe, it is used effectually for breath or respiration; Au­fer spiritum, Take away their breath, and they die, Psal. 104.29. And the body without the spirit is dead, that is, without breath, Iames 2. For compare breath to a massie body, and such is the rarity of it, or thinnesse, that it seemes to bee a spirit or spirituall; and consider it with the soule, and such is the use of it, that it seemes no lesse to informe the body, than the spirit it selfe, by which it is. But the argument is good however the word be taken: say our very essence, and forme, and soule is fleeting as a Pilgrim, and ready to passe from its Inne, to goe forth of the body, therefore Hallelujah, fasten mainly upon Jehovah, because man is very soone out of being, so soone done, his soule goeth forth. Againe, what a brittlenesse is this? if we say a breath, an aiery sub­stance, so thinne and vanishing it is, that it is scarce visible, if we say a breath, it is a tye which combines soule and body, and props up even Princes from mouldring into ashes. Be­side the Heavens and the Elements, God made man for his glory, a creature able to conceive him, and to speake and de­clare [Page 5] his excellencie, and by those two rich donatives, [...], and [...], understanding and speech; the Lord put man in a state of perfection, denied to all other creatures below, namely, to be admitted into the immediate presence of God, and most especially to behold and publish his glo­ry, and so a soule understanding and reasonable; animus aeterna mente delibatus, (as the Oratour speaketh) a spirit breathed into man by the immediate act of God himselfe; it is such a dowry wherein man is farre nobler and better than the very heavens, and therefore man had need of somewhat to abate the rising thoughts of the soule, and the Lord hath given us therefore Stimulum in carne, a mortality in the body to buf­fet us; ‘His breath goeth forth.’

Yea, there is the deaths head, the mortality of man in­deed, that a very breath is as much as his being is worth: Our soule that spiraculum vitarum, the Lord inspired it, not into Adams eye or eare, or mouth, but into his nostrills, which may shew to man his imbecillity, Cujus anima in na­ribus, whose soule is in his nostrills, and dependeth upon a breath as it were, for the very soule must away, if but breath expires, soule and breath goe forth both together.

Now heare yee this, all ye People, ponder it high and low, your Castle is built upon a verie aire, the subsistence is in flatu narium, in a blast, that is out in the twinckling of an eye; Wherefore David maketh a question, saying, Domine, quid est homo? Lord, what is man? Hee answereth himselfe also; Man is a vanishing shadow, Psal. 144. [...], A shadow of smoake, or [...], the dreame of a shadow ra­ther (as the Poet speaketh.) And blessed therefore are the poore in spirit, this advantage have all afflicted ones, that they have checks enough to call them home, to make them see they be but men: The curtaine of honour, profit, or plea­sure, hard it is and rare to draw that aside, when it is spread over us, man in honour understandeth not, Psal. 49. To great ones therefore be it spoken, the Psalme intendeth it to verie Princes, His br [...]th goeth forth.

And breathlesse man, who before amazed the bruit crea­ture by the majestie of his eye, no better is hee to the eye now, than the dust and gravell, and chill clay under our shooe:

The Poet speakes of King Priam. Now cease from the man whose breath is in his nostrils, Isay 2. Ten thousand graves, and wormes, and passing-bels, cannot give us a truer touch. Waldus, a rich Merchant of Lyons, seeing a man on the sudden breathe his last in the streets: So was hee taken with it, that as suddenly he turned his old course, fell to stu­dy the Scriptures, and became in earnest a Preacher, and Founder of the Christians called Waldenses: Yee see what a point this is, and of what use, his breath goeth forth. Our Saviour hid himselfe from the unsought honours of the Jewes: and so should we, had we learned but this, we would withdraw sure from the perillous dignities and delights of the times. But as Iulius Caesar, the same morning hee went out to sue for the Priesthood, saluting his mother said, Do­mum nisi Pontificem se non reversurum, That he would never come home but high Priest: So (my brethren in the Mini­sterie) doe not some of us in pursuit of honour, take leave of our charge, which should be as our mother deare unto us; but we goe out, as resolved not to come to residence with­out an high Priesthood; for we never thinke on it, that our spirit hath but this to shew for its residence in the world, a breath, and if the Lord dash that, we die, if he take away his finger, we fall away like water: Now therefore, that we may all grow to more sinceritie, let us, I pray you, accustome our eares and eyes to man dying, it would certainly loosen us much from this world, to see, and to feele, and to handle this truth, as it were, his spirit, his breath goeth [...]orth. And this for the substance of the act, the going forth of the spi­rit, yee see what it meaneth.

See we now the continuednesse, Exit, it goeth; as if it were now presently in its passe to shew this, that Homo vivens [Page 7] contin [...] è moritur, That by the verie act of living wee are dy­ing, that life is a continued death, our candle lightens, con­sumes and dies: as in the passing of an houre-glasse, everie minute some sand falleth, and the glasse once turned, no crea­ture can intreat the sands to stay, till they are drawen out: So is our life, it shortens and dies everie minute, and we can­not beg a minute of time backe, and that we call death, is but the terme of it, or consummation; Ʋita ultimo die fini­tur, omni perit, saith Seneca: Many be our partiall or pettie deaths, sorrow, sicknesse, mishap, but death is inclosed in the bowels of our life, and is essentiall with it. Spiritus exit: His spirit goeth forth. Lycurgus said, that according to the threefold age of man, a threefold salutation might bee used, you are welcome, or you come in a good houre; God keepe you, or stand in a good houre; God speed you, or goe in a good houre: to shew that from the age of fiftie and forward, we are taking our leave, our spirit is going forth, but so fraile and fluid is life, that at all ages & times we may be bid, God speed, we may have our Vale, or goe in a good houre. For once imbarqued, we are going to the Port. The going out of the Cradle is the entring into the grave, to have a begin­ning and to be borne, is to breed or be in travell, yea to bee darted, or put in a slight to an end; Therefore Thales was wont to say, that there is no difference betweene life and death, and being thereupon demanded, Tu ergo quid non moreris? Why doest not thou dye then? Because, saith he, there is no difference: So that if we seeke the act of living, our hearts, if we be wise, should be established against dy­ing, because life and death are essentiall to one another, or include one another, and it is as naturall to dye, as to live, and in themselves therefore to be regarded both alike: Quid ergo novi, si mortalis natus moriatur? Let it not bee strange to us, that we should die, being borne dying or mortall. His spirit goeth forth: Exit. And to us that bee Ministers in the Gospell of Jesus Christ, let this word bee to us a remem­brance, like Bezaleel and Aholibah, by the grace that is gi­ven us, we are master-builders, but of the Lords Taberna­cles, [Page 8] or Church militant on the earth, and wee are gentle a­mong you, saith the Apostle, even as a Nurse cherisheth her children, affectionately desirous of you, 1 Thess. 3. even so with piteous heart [...] looke wee upon our charge, for they be earthly tabernacles, dying men and women: their soule and spirit stand upon their lips as it were: It goeth forth; Spiritus exit. O let us tender them therefore, and apply our present speedy releefe, lest they fall out of our hands, before we have dispenced them the bread of life, of which Christ hath made us overseers and stewards, and as upon the bed of our languishing, we would not have a loftie or profound, but a gracious word come to us; so seeing wee deale with such, whose living is a continued dying, let us seeke that our divinitie may be as profitable as may be to save: Salus populi suprema lex esto.

Now I come to the libertie of the spirit, that it recedes in­violate; 1. In Act, it goeth: 2. In essence, it goeth forth.

Our spirit is free in the Act, it is not haled, not snatched out, as it were, it goeth forth. A soule in life sealed to eter­nitie by the first fruits of the spirit hath its good issue, its free passing, its hopes even in death: for let this breath fade, fi­delis Deus, God who cannot lye, because he hath said it, be we sure he will stand nigh us in that exigencie, and begin to helpe where man leaveth, not suffering his to be tempted a­bove that they are able, 1 Cor. 10. The holy Spirit, whose name is the Comforter, will not omit and leave off his owne act or office in the great needs of death. Hence good Hilarion having served the Lord Christ seventie yeares, checkes his soule that it was so loth at the last to part, to goe forth, say­ing, Egredere, ô anima mea, egredere; Goe forth, my soule, goe forth: And devout Simeon sueth for a manumission, Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word: And this is the freedome of the act, the Spirit goeth forth; it yeelds, yea it goes and passes freely, that is, it taketh up, or embraceth the Crosse of Christ, as he com­mandeth us to doe. But is the act at our will and libertie? not simply, we may not projicore animam, thrust or cast forth [Page 9] our breath or spirit, Spiritus Exit, it goeth forth, strive wee must to cast the world out of us, we may not cast our selves out of the world. Saint Paul dareth not dissolve himselfe, though he could wish to be dissolved, God must part that which he joynes, God giveth, and God taketh away; and if God say as he doth to Lazarus, Exi foras, come forth, with faithfull Steven we must resigne our Spirit, and all in­to his hands. When God biddeth us yoke, he is the wisest man that yeeldeth his necke most willingly; when our grand Captaine recalls us, we must take the retreit in good part, but it is heathenish to force out the soule, for when the misdeeming flesh amidst our disasters, will not listen with pa­tience for God his call, but rather shake off the thought of divine providence quite, then are wee ready to curse God and die, and that is probably, to leape e fumo in stammam, out of the sinne of selfe-murder into hell; no, but God will have our spirits to passe forth upon good termes. Spiritus exit, the spirit goeth forth.

Secondly, the spirit goeth free or inviolate in essence, death is not the end, but the out-going of the soule, a trans­migration or journey from one place to another. It goeth forth, so the character of our weaknesse we see in the issue, it is an argument of our eternity, for man indeed is perishing, but so is not his spirit, Non simul perit anima, & animal. The Phaenix goes forth, or out of his ashes, the spirit returneth to God that gave it, Eccles. 12. that is, it abides still, and as in the body it pleased God to inclose the soule for a sea­son, so it may as well exist elsewhere without it, if God will, for it hath no rise at all from the clay, yea, it beares in it immortality, an image of that brest whence it is breathed. The separate and very abstract acts of the spirit, even while it is in the body, the wondrous visions of the Lord to his Prophets, usually when their bodies were bound up in sleepe; Saint Paul his rapture when he knew not whe­ther he was in the bodie or out of it: the admirable inventi­ons and arts of men manifest the soules-selfe-consisting. Not Socrates, and Cato, and the civilized heathen onely, but the very savage beleeve this, and so entertaine death, Vt exitum, [Page 10] non ut exitium, as a dissolution, not as a destruction, Spiritus exit, his spirit goeth forth.

But we know saith the Apostle, 2 Cor. 5. we are sure God the Father, Sonne, and Holy Ghost, doth no create, redeeme, and regenerate man for the meere use of a wretched short life; and who can imagine, so monstrously, that of all men the good and righteous, and of all creatures man, for whom the rest are made, and who hath the use or soveraignty of all, yet by farre that he should be the most vile and miserable of all? but sure it were so, if in this life onely we had hope, seeing there be no lower creatures that are capable of sor­row, and terrours of conscience, and feares of death, and con­ceit of future judgement, yea, not so subject to bodily dis­ease. But account mee not dead said the holy martyr, for I shall certainely live and never die. And the martyrs, so vigo­rous (as we see) amidst the ruines and destructions of the body, had something in them surely more than dust: A Phi­losopher, Hermes Trismegistus, dying, said; Mourne not for me as if I were dead, for I returne to the happiest City. Above all Jesus Christ giveth us an expresse watch-word, Nothing is able to kill the soule, Mat. 10. And Martin Luther going to give up his account before the Emperour, received this Eccho from the people, feare not them that cannot kill the soule. Mundus minetur, aestuet, Death by all its pyoning takes but a fort of clay; Animus ad sedes suas & cognata sydera recurrit, the spirit as new hatched goeth forth to live still, like as the light issuing from the Sunne, dieth not at Sun­s [...]ing, but goeth some whither else with the Sunne; so life that issues from the soule, goes with its owne principle, and abides with it; so Saint Iohn the divine, to be better enabled to his banishment, he had a vision of this by speciall privi­lege, a sight of the immortall safe subsistence of the soule af­ter death, under the altar the custody of Christ Jesus, Rev. 6.9 And thence is Saint Pauls, Ne contristemini, sorrow not as hopelesse men, 1 Thess. 4. Yea, bee we nured to a certaine faith, and frequent thought of this, and a fairer flower the booke of God yeeldeth not, than the immortality of Saints in blisse. Hence the great patience of the Saints, hence the [Page 11] challenge of death, Vbi mors victoria, O death thou wilt take away our breath; Alas how small a losse, seeing no death can divide us from Christ, Rom. 8.38. and spiritus exit, seeing the spirit doth but migrare, it goeth untouched in es­sence, and inviolate.

The maine issue of this first point is, that seeing our breath, our spirit goeth forth, that wee make sure provision there­fore of some harbour or sanctuary, that we get us into the Arke before the fl [...]ud, that we gather our Manna, and pre­pare to our eternall Sabbath now in the Even of this life, Qui laborat in vesp [...]re Sabbati, vesce ur in Sabbato, say the Rab­bines, and what an exceeding strength will it be to us when we are weake in minde and body, that our spirit is to passe safely and comfortably, that we have a refuge, a terminus ad quem for our spirit; so let us forecast for it by a true appre­hension and faith of the loves and promises of God in Christ Jesus. O my Dove that art in the clefts of the rock, saith our Sa­viour, Cant. 2.14. The wounds of Christ, are the clefts of the rocke, therein let us cove&r hide us over soule and body, let us make sure of a rightfull hold in that rocke of our salvation, through faith and repentance, and so our spirits will grow acquainted with the peace of conscience, and the joyes of the Holy Ghost, and the sense and hopes of the promised recompence, and so shall also we be well composed and for­tified for our migration or passage, even that our spirit go­eth forth of an earthly vessell, but into an eternall and bles­sed receptacle.

I come to the second branch of the text: the second note of mans imbecillity from the matter that he is made of: Et revertetur in terram suam, and he returneth to his earth. He returneth: The body of man before his fall was beau­tifull and amiable in the eye of God, and awfull in the eye of the creature, and exacts in its owne temper, and immor­tall by privilege sealed in the tree of life; but since that sinne came into the world, the body of man incloseth a death, a selfe-ruining, beside outward violence, and perills of conta­gion, none of which were incident to his pure estate; so man returnes to his earth without contradiction, hee hath [Page 12] no helpe for it. The spirit which holdeth up the elements together in a body, when that goeth forth, each of them fall backe to their owne principles; earth goeth to its earth, according to God his ordinance, dust thou art, and to dust thou shalt returne, Gen. 3. Nicodemus thought it strange, but in this sense it is true, we re-enter the bowels of our mother. The sonne of Syrach calleth the earth, [...], the mo­ther of us all, Ecclus. 40. So Brutus wisely tooke the Ora­cle, when being warned to kisse his mother, kissed the earth. His earth. Earth we see goeth, very nigh us, it is our earth, not onely the matter or rocke out of which wee are hewen, but the matter whereof wee consist, our ingredient, and co-essentiall with us, that I may say with the Prophet Ieremy, O earth, earth, earth, heare the word of the Lord. Trim wee never so nicely, we are earth, Lutea progenies, an off-spring of earth, yea, pulvinaria, as the Romans stiled their Temples, vessels or beds made up or stuft with dust, and shall we dote upon our earth? Shall we suffer our immorta [...] spirit to goe out like a starveling, and over-care for what [...] cernes the bodie, and over-decke the daughter of ro [...]en­nesse? know we not that our very make is such, that earth, that the chambers of death stand like the houses of the Ro­man Tribunes, wide open for us night and day, and very usually man sleepeth, and never riseth againe, and walketh, but never returneth againe, unlesse it be into his earth.

The men of Anathoh said to the Prophet Ieremie, Pro­phesie not in the name of the Lord, that thou dye not, Ier. 11. But to you, my fellow-labourers, I say, prophesie in the feare of God; for we shall die, because we shall be dissolved, and returne to our earth, wee know not how soone, and if this doth not quicken, our account being so nigh at hand, what will? And of all Gods Officers, we his especiall Em­bassadours, how shall wee turne us on the bed of death, if we have betrayed the immediate worke and businesse of our Soveraigne? The Indian Priests or Brachmanes, so verie se­parate were they from the body, that they are said, Interrâ esse, & non in terrâ esse; To be, and not to bee on the earth: A Minister of Christ his Gospell much rather hee should bee [Page 13] unglued, and abstracted from this earth, the body, like a starre already fixed in Heaven: But wee care what wee can for our body, and so tender it oft times, that wee forget our God, and yet neverthelesse wee shall returne to our earth; and when our turne commeth, what a crowne of rejoycing should it be, to thinke that we have wasted in body, by win­ning soules, and have truly sought to turne men to God, though it turne us into the earth, stantem & praedicantem mori? But beside counsell, the Lord hath comfort for this point in the issue, namely, that thus God ordaineth by his returne into earth, to refine and turne our vile bodies, to bee like the glorious bodie of Jesus Christ: Hee that was wrapt up into the third Heavens, and knew what he saith, S. Paul speakes it, Yea (saith hee) as the corne liveth not except it die, and be cast into the earth, so wee are not clarified, not made blessed bodies, but by a returne into the earth. So then with an Eagles eye by faith, pierce wee thorow, and looke beyond the grave, and wee shall discerne and see an incomparable light of grace, to which the Lord worketh our returne into earth, our verie dissolution.

But if the spirit of him that raised Jesus from the dead be in you, he that raised Christ from the dead, shall quicken al­so your mortall bodies, by, or because of the Spirit that dwelleth in you, Rom. 8.11. our earth is Christs body, know ye not that your bodies are the members of Christ, 1 Cor. 6. Dead and withered as we be, wee are still united to Christ, it is not death that can separate us from him, for I am perswa­ded, that neither death nor life, &c. Rom. 8. and by vertue of this mysticall conjunction with Christ, even according to our whole man, doubt we nothing, but our first resurrection by the same spirit, is an earnest and certaine pledge of a bet­ter resurrection; for that same quickening spirit of Christ, which now dwelleth in us, and uniteth us to him, it is hee that made our bodies out of the earth at first, yea, which made the earth it selfe, and the whole world out of nothing; and therefore hee can and will, as hee hath witnessed, fetch our bodies backe from the earth to which they are returned, and that because they are yet the members of Christ Jesus [Page 14] though the same spirit, and his owne temples God will surely reare them up againe, yea, though they lye in the dust, and the latter temples shall have farre more beautie than the former, according to his word.

I proceed to the third and last note of humane weaknesse from the effects, that which man purposeth or produceth: In illo die peribunt omnes cogitationes eorum, In that verie day his thoughts perish: The night commeth that no man can worke, Iohn 9.4. The dead are out of office; so it is of our nature, to leave our humane purposes crackt and broken in the verie midst, my dayes are past, my enterprises are bro­ken off, Iob 8. In that verie day our life is defined to bee a vapour that appeares a little time, and then vanisheth, Iam. 4. My dayes are a span long, saith David, Fecisti dies meos pal­marios, Psal. 39. and wee are but as yesterday, Iob 8. So though we make a bustle for a life time in this world, that is all our projects go not on into another world, and life is such a minute, such a drop of the bucket, Gutta è situla, as the Pro­phet speaketh, that our terrene thoughts perish all in that ve-day that they were hatched, as it were.

Alexander had not elbow-roome, not space enough in the world for his thoughts. Xerxes had such thoughts against Greece, that he undertaketh an expedition so huge and great, that seas and mountaines are even spurned out of his way. And Iulian madly projects a finall and utter extirpation of all Christendome: Vast and high thoughts all, yet a bub­ble, no sooner up than deaded, dasht that verie day that they were conceived, as it were. The Parable of that certaine rich man, Luke 12. sheweth how verie perishing is the figure and thought of this world, and it is well shadowed at the Coro­nation of the Popes, when hee that is new called passeth on, the Master of the Ceremonies holds up an handfull of flax at the end of a dry reed, and setting fire to it, saith aloud, Pater sancte, sic transit gloria mundi; Holy Father, so passes the worlds glorie: Fortuna vitrea, It is a glassie condition, as that noble Lady, the Lady Iane Gray admonished the Lieutenant at her death, now let us not bee too eager on it therefore, but keepe in, and limit our terrene thoughts and [Page 15] purposes, yea let us trample the Moone, the world under our feet, give it the lowest place in our affections, as the Lord represents it in the twelfth of the Revelation. Everie Chri­stian man like young Hannibal, tactis sacris, hee voweth no lesse in baptisme, se cum primum posset hostem fore, even to hate the world in comparison, and not to spend a thought for it, if it lay in his way to God and his grace. But, by thoughts, not only the worldly, but the verie quintessence, or most excellent effects of the minde of man, are meant; namely, that all which is not above humanitie is most peri­shing. The best humane good is the rich furniture of Wis­dome, Arts, and Sciences; and, Let not the wise glorie in his wisdome, saith the Lord, Esay 9. and, God knoweth the thoughts of the wise are but vaine, 1 Cor. 3. uneffectuall to salvation: should any creature swell or presume on this good? The depths of the Schooles or State, what are they? An anchor pitched in the aire, a wall of breath about us, which if the Lord but push at us, are gone verso pollice, with a wet finger (as they say) and when the darts of temptation, and the furie of disease, and the fearefull wan lookes of death and judgement come to us, in that verie day these thoughts pe­rish. O fallacem hominum spem! ô inanes nostras contentiones! Thus the Oratour laments the death of his learned Horten­sius. But ô the buckler of faith, the helmet of salvation! at other times we may talke, and say our wits have made us, at the evill houre nothing but God can ease us, no skill can cure us but of God his mercie in Christ Jesus: and Luther therfore said well, that men were best Christians in death, because when learning, policie, friends, and breath, and all goe from us, if we be wise, we then goe from our selves, our owne a­bilities, and with all our strength and might, rest and repose on God, and his especiall favour and mercie in Christ Jesus revealed in the word; againe, it is a comfort at this verie day, that In illo die peribunt omnes cogitationes eorum, the Devill and the world league, and set in together, and worke their spleene out against the Church of Christ, and even plow it up before them, fierce and cruell be their thoughts, but they are fraile: the Holy Ghost resembleth them to [Page 16] grasse on the house tops, Psal. 129. one would thinke they were good corne by their growing, they are vile grasse, and such as is without blessing. Iulians thoughts against the Church, were nubiculae citò transiturae, clouds soone over, as Athanasius prophesied, They gave up the ghost in one day as it were. The end of the upright God sets a marke upon it, that it is peace, Psal. 37. but the union of his enemies God will disjoynt it, and they shall walke, as wee hope at this day, in Baal-perizin, in the valley of division, 1 Chron. 14. Counsels against God shall not stand, not laste, not a day in comparison, In that very day his thoughts perish.

But are the thoughts of men so perishing, it is matter of advice then that we redeeme the spanne of time wee have, husband it well, and on good thoughts, and to good pur­poses, and there be thoughts, as wee see in Maries choice, which shall not perish with our dayes, and of which no time shall bereave us. Blessed are they that die in the Lord, they rest from their labours, and their workes follow them, Rev. 14. The thoughts of Gods worship, good workes have their abiding fruit for ever, and when all faile us they follow, goe along with us after death in their reward and crowne, but the bent of our hearts if it be on by matters, we may say, what is this we doe? what fruit will this afford us in or after death, In that very day our thoughts are cut off and perish.

Our dayes are a declining shadow, Psal. 102. and the shadow declines and lengthens, as the Sunne goeth off or on us: when it is direct or meridian short is our shadow, and stretched out at even, when the light of Christ is far from us, then according to the mold of our owne blinde thoughts, our shadow lengthens, for life is our shadow, Iob 14. but then we thinke of death as farre removed, In hoc enim fallimur quod mortem prospicimus, saith Seneca. Now let our eyes be truly inlightened, and all those thoughts perish, and we per­ceive life sliding swifter away than a Weavers shuttle, Iob 7. and so the Lord is said to shorten our dayes, Psal. 89. not that he cuts off, or depriveth us of that time, which hee had determined, but of that which our owne thoughts have min­ted: And, ô we vaine and blinde, that thinke thus, as if wee [Page 17] were at a fee with death, and never to be removed. Nullius vita non spectat in crastinum, saith Seneca, wee thinke all, to morrow we shall live, and we shall live better to morrow, and the life we forge and fancie to us, failes us, even before we thinke on it; In that verie day his thoughts perish.

Be we therefore advised to fasten on the present time, to repent to day, and beleeve to day, let us provoke our hearts to good purposes, and to day let us put our hands to practise them. But there be who thinke or dreame, rather of future expiations or satisfactions to be made after death, of a release after a time in hellish durance: but these are groundlesse pe­rishing thoughts. It is for men once to dye, but after death commeth judgement, Heb. 9.27. Therefore the tree of our life, while it hath a standing, let it bend to God-ward, and then we shall both stand and fall to our owne Lord and Ma­ster, and let us seeke presently to bee reconciled to God, through the pretious purgation of our soules, which is through faith in Christ his bloud, and then wee shall never be confounded, our thoughts shall not perish, or bee made void, Praeveniendus ergo dies est, qui praevenire consuevit, saith S. Austen: wee must trim our lamps betime with the oyle of faith, and love, and prevent the day of death, lest it prevent us, our eternitie of woe or blisse, wee should not ha­zard it to after-thoughts, and to second plots, yea, surely it cannot be mended afterward: the watchlesse virgins, because unprovided then, were undone for ever; and though sor­rowing learnt them wit, they had no time to practise it: In that verie day his thoughts perish.

And to you especially (my Brethren in the Ministerie) let me speake in the words of S. Paul; As we have opportuni­tie let us die good, Gal. 6.10. let us be doing good while wee may:—Dum superest Lachesi quod torqueat:—Should such as wee cast in our thoughts, [...], to serve our selves or the times for a season, and thinke then af­terward, [...], to serve the Lord in his Vineyard, perhaps at even, but when our carnall thoughts have rea­ched up to their ends: alas, while wee so thinke, while our thoughts are in our hearts, our thoughts may perish, the [Page 18] hand of Justice may write bitter things against us in that ve­rie moment; high is our race, and life is perishing, heavenly be our thoughts; let us take that good of our high calling at the first opportunitie, the world should stoope to it; for the fashion of the world passeth away, but the Crowne is uncorruptible which God reserveth for us, if wee finish our course, with a conscience of his ordinance, [...], with feare and trembling.

The Atticke Oratours (saith Quintilian) are, Eloquentiae, quadam frugalitate contenti, ac semper manum intra pallium continentes; just so, many of us doe thinke with Nicodemus, we can plead for God in sober silence, husbanding both our professing and preaching of Christ Jesus for feare of the Jewes, lest we should run into suspition with great ones, and hazard our stocke of worldly favours. The argument of my Text is good to raise our diligence, namely that we may bee called to dye, in the midst of our ambitious and terrene thoughts, and so to dye before wee have begun to live, and so we may live and dye in vaine, and without Use: a wret­ched mishap especially in a most spirituall and heavenly cal­ling, a Prophet, a Seer of the Lord to perish before hee hath done any good, a worthlesse case, and most to be feared. To conclude, heare we the words of our Savior to his Apostles, What I say unto all, I say unto you, Watch, Mat. 26. and heare what Salomon saith, Whatsoever thy hand findeth to doe, doe it, for there is no worke, no device nor wis­dome in the grave, whither thou goest, Eccles. 9.10.

AS all civill bodies or common-wealths, so that of the Jewes was made up of three diverse parts: the rich, the middle sort, the poore; and so their oblations were diverse, from the herd, the flock, the fowles of the aire; and di­verse often was their end and acceptation: he in the impurity of his heart killeth an oxe, or sacrificeth a kid, Decollat canem, saith the Prophet, is as if he cut off a dogs necke, so little is the Lord affected to the worship wee doe him in meere ceremony; but the honest contrite soule, the poore in spirit, that comes trembling with his paire of turtle doves, repentance and faith, to this man will I looke saith the Lord, Es. 66. The poore service we doe him, if it be in spirit, and in truth, he takes delight in it, wherefore David here at the 15. verse, praying for ability to praise, or worship the Lord aright, sets it out; First, by negation, even what it is not in comparison; thou desirest not sacrifice, thou delightest not in burnt offerings: Secondly, hee posi­tively concludes what indeed that is, which indeed God wills, and likes; the sacrifices of God are the contrite spirit, A broken and a contrite heart O God, thou wilt not despise.

Not that the Jewish rights were not Gods ordinances, or were then in abrogation, in sepultura, in their buriall; but be­cause these outward forms or performances did never satisfie not please the Lord without the sacrifice and service of the heart, a lip-devotion, a deed done, an heartlesse manner of worship is not that which delights the Lord, or profits us; yea, if there be no heart, no soule in it, it is a shining sinne, it is abominable, as if we blest an Idoll, as if a Jew had offe­red swines bloud, The sacrifice of the wicked is an abomination to the Lord, Pro. 21.27.

But a cup of cold water, saith our Saviour, and the least sparke of zeale out of a true heart, though mixt with much infirmity, yet goeth not away unregarded; this, when the widow, good soule, came in with her mite, the Lord calls his disciples to see, as in admiration of her bounty: and David here upon Nathans rebuke, a contrite sinner presents the Lord with his offering, even such he had, a broken heart; and goeth away well perswaded or satisfied concerning Gods acceptance, O God thou wilt not despise.

You may see there is a double use of that I am to say: First, Preparatory, like the Lords Epistle to the Church of Laodi­cea, that the luke-warme indifferent Christian, who sayes he is rich, and needs nothing, may see he is poore indeed, and so become poore in spirit. Secondly, Principall, like the other Epistle of comfort to the Church of Smyrna, a Church of a broken heart we see, and much humbled, but very rich, therefore according to the grace of Gods acceptation.

Now two things were of great regard in the legall sacri­fices or oblations, the subject, and the manner; a lambe, or a dove: there is the thing, and both without blemish; not the refuse, not the reversion, there is the quality. The bur­den of the word of the Lord came downe against Iudah, be­cause the table was come into contempt; and if you offer the blinde, saith he, for sacrifice, is it not evill? and if you offer the lame and sicke, is it not evill? carry these to your Prince, and can he be pleased with you, and can he accept your persons saith the Lord of hosts, Malac. 1.

The greatest man alive, let him come to the Table of the [Page 21] Lord to receive of his visible and invisible word, with an unwasht, irreverent, and dead heart, and the very Sacrament and word he taketh are his judgements for not discerning, and because of his contempt; wherefore King David offe­reth like himselfe, that is, according to Gods owne heart: First, for the materialls, his heart: Secondly, for the forme and qualification, his heart broken and contrite.

That very Caruncula, that little flesh, or part of the bo­dy, the heart, some from the triangular figure of that observe a seat, and receptacle not of the round world, but of the blessed Trinity, yea, and some gather this same doctrine from the letters of the word Cor. But the heart, it meaneth more spiritually, and first, the understanding, in which Saint Paul saith, Cor excaecatum, a blinded heart, Rom. 1. And Da­vid sayes, The foole hath said in his heart; in corde suo that is, in his unhallowed, unbroken understanding. Secondly, the heart is the conscience, so Davids heart smote him. Third­ly, it is the desiring part of the soule, Quid est cor tuum, nisi voluntas tua, saith Saint Bernard; Love the Lord with all thy heart; and out of the abundance of the heart, &c. Vbi thesaurus, ibi cor, our affections, our wills live with our trea­sure, Vbi ancant, non ubi animant. Fourthly, the heart is the complete soule quite through; With the heart we beleeve, Rom. 1. with the act of the understanding, conceiving; and with the armes of the will and affiance; consenting. [...], Acts 15. God which searcheth the heart, that is, the thoughts, the conscience, the affections, the whole depth of the soule, a thing, which neither the sight of man can reach, nor the law of man can censure.

This is the subject of Davids sacrifice, the matter, but without forme, and void as it was in the beginning; the man­ner or information, the due trimming to the Lords Altar, followes in these words, [Broken and con [...]rite] and to take them and apply them to the subject in order. First, the un­derstanding, yea, Nathan uses this method with David, by the parable of the Ewe lambe, 2 Sam. 12. First of all he con­vinces the judgement, breaketh that, maketh David plyable to understand himselfe, for the judgement unbroken ap­proves [Page 22] of sinne, thus David makes no matter of numbring the people, so did pride hood-winke reason; upon his con­fession he confesses he did very foolishly, or without any true understanding. S. Paul so understood, as if he did well to persecute the saith of Christ, but upon his repentance his judgement altered, I did it ignorantly, saith he, and I am the least of the Apostles, not worthy to be so called, yea, an ab­ortive, or one borne out of time, because I did persecute the Church of God. Surely, the reason why wee so rarely repent in truth is, because we allow sinne in our judgement, our minde dislikes it not, and we have no apprehension of the danger of it, that it is so deadly, and therefore we refuse the Physicke of contrition, because we conceive that, as a thing more than needs: we consider not, that God is as well just as mercifull, and cannot possibly be served without repentance, and therefore this holy informing, it deales first at the under­standing; as in the case of comfort, namely, against the feares of death, faith cheeres up the heart by meditation, or min­ding it of the blessed promises, that the judgement rectified, and made to understand death inwardly, as it is without the larvae, the shapes it appeareth in to ignorants and Infi­dels, we may be so resolved, and setled, and not to be ama­zed for death; even so in the case of renovation, the Lord alters and breaks the imaginations of the heart, first of all layeth open to our eye the heinousnesse of our sinfull estate in generall, and then commeth home to us, that we relent in particular.

Yea, contrition giveth the minde, the understanding a right reflection, that it sees it selfe rightly without the vaile, and scales of superficiall proud blinde Science. The contrite heart feeleth how heavy the wings of depraved reason are, and how it hovers like Noahs Raven, Super profundum, sine fundo; and like the earth receives the light onely in superficie, in the surface of it, and in things divine, how it builds rather upon negation to know what the truth is not, than what it is; how uncapable, yea, averse it is since the fall from the right scanning of truth, that the very Philosophers, the best or wisest heathen, [...], as the Apostle speaketh, [Page 23] They became vaine in their imaginations of God, Rom. 1. and indeed the naturall man judgeth of divine truths but ac­cording to his owne senses, receives no more in religion than he can shew reason for, not reason of the word or divine au­thority, but reason of nature, or demonstration: So the things of God which are spiritually discerned, or with a con­trite eye, carry a kinde of contrariety to him, and the un­doubted knowledge or perswasion of Gods gospell, is not to be had in the worldly wise, who doe not, who will not so farre renounce their conceited knowledge, and subdue their imaginations, as farre as they exalt themselves against the word, or have repugnance to Gods knowledge.

Now in the works of repentance or contrition, when the Lord puts a holy light into the heart, this eye of the soule, he makes it simple and submisse, The Law of the Lord is pure, making wise the simple, Psal. 19. So that reason it comes to conclude with Iewell, the peerelesse Bishop, Gratias ago Deo, quod ignorantiam meam non ignoro, God I thanke thee, that I am not ignorant of my ignorance.

But faith, when it winnes upon us first, it finds reason sit­ting like Iezabel painting her face, dressing her head, and looking out at the window, till contrition, which like the Baptist, ushers the way of the Lord, calleth to our thoughts, and sayes with Iehu, throw her downe, and if they yeeld not, but advance themselves against God too, it sayes of them also, as Edom said of Israel, Downe with them, downe with them, even to the ground.

Contrition, it breaketh the understanding, maketh it teachable, and glad of Gods wayes; as they that were stung with the fiery serpents, were glad to looke to the brazen ser­pent; so the broken soule with earnest expectation, erecto ca­pite, waiteth for the manifestation of Christ and his grace; Omne humidum facilè alieno termino. But take a man, when the sunne of much prosperity, and the like temptations, ex­hale, and draw out this holy moisture of contrition, and the Lord of life, the Sonne of God, though he then approve him­selfe ne're so much before him by word, and works, yet like the Scribes and Pharisees, seeing, hee will not perceive, and [Page 24] learning, he will not understand; let the Lord sing of mercy, and he needs it not, or of judgement, and he feareth it not: I referre you to Saint Austen, the third booke of his Confess. the fifth chapter, yea, let common experience speake, if ma­ny an impenitent heart preacheth not, talketh not, disputeth not subtilly of the doctrines of God, and hath no right knowledge of them, nor acknowledging, but is even made up, and mixt, of doubtings, unbeleefe, and errour? and Where is the disputer of this world, saith the Apostle, 1 Cor. 1.

Contrariwise, as Abraham went to offer his onely sonne upon the mount of Moriah, and never once advised with na­turall reason, he left his servants at the foot of the hill, lest by their clamours and disswasions he might be disturbed in his sacrifice; so the contrite broken heart, the mind thus quali­fied of God, obeyeth the call of God, subdueth it selfe, and becommeth a slave to his word; Da quod jubes, & jube quod vis, Gods commands are not grievous to him, but he is ready wheresoever he sees, thus saith the Lord, to intrust himselfe to the word. Say unto his soule, that man was by the breath of the Lord, and the world was by his word at the begin­ning, he stands not with Galen, to censure Moses for want of demonstration: say unto him, that God Almighty was in­carnate, and the mother a Virgin delivered of her Maker; he learnes not to dispute where the Cherubins are said to vaile, but saith with the Centurion, Domine dic verbum, & sana­bitur servus tuus, the contrite understanding taketh the Lord at his word, though hee seeth not his owne reason for it, he followes the word of God in all formes, Vt aqua sequi­tur sulcantem digitum. And as one said, having read the wri­tings of Heraclitus, the things I know, and the things I know not, omnia fortia, & generosa; so he of Gods Scriptures, they be celestiall, and good all; and what he cannot fadome, he adoreth, and saith, O the depths of Gods counsells! in summe, he hath all divinity in praeparatione animi, in a readi­nesse to submit to the word, as it shall bee revealed to him, and ever saith, Now faith arise, and sleeping hope awake, awake my glory, and though reason would comprehend no­thing, beleeveth all. Agrippina the mother of Nero said, [Page 25] o ccidar modo imperet; but the faith of the contrite minde saith, imperabo modò occidat, I will trust the Lord, though he kill me: with Abraham, against hope, hee beleeves in hope, and offers himselfe in sacrifice to the Lord by an holy vio­lence upon his carnall reasonings: he seeketh to bring every thought in captivity to the obedience of Christ, and he rec­koneth of all science, how subtil soever, but as drosse, compa­red to the excellencie of the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ our Saviour: yea, that sweet and pretious name, (with Ignatius the martyr) he hath such a dear impression of it, that it seemeth riveted, and graven, In tabulis cordis, in the tables of his heart or understanding, for now hee sees well, and sayes with Themistocles, periissem nisi periissem, I had utterly perished, if with the prodigall, by remorse and contrition, I had not beene rein'd in to see my foule mistakings, and so to seeke and returne to God my mercifull father in Christ Jesus.

And lastly, this contrite understanding is the onely Ire­naeus, he delights in peace, and therefore goeth on warily, and timorously, and feareth to frame out articles of faith, from the mould of his reason, much lesse to frame out oppo­sitions against manifest truths of Scripture, or to thrust out publike positions, from any private dispositions, ludere cum Deo; yea hee dares not let himselfe bee deceived with any hate, or evill opinion of good, wheresoever it is professed, lest he commeth in the end to deceive himselfe with a de­light or good opinion of evill. In summe, he minds, and is taken up most of all, how, or by what meanes he may con­found the devill, rather than how to confute his gaine­sayers, and bewaile the time, that ever the simplicity of be­leeving, should lose it selfe in the Labyrinths of beleefe, and that the word should be tam ferax religionum, so fruitfull of opinions, and so barren of piety, as Lipsius once spake; and this is to be transformed by the renewing of the minde, as the Apostle speaketh, this is contrition, in spiritu mentis, in the spirit of our minde, in the understanding.

The second seat of contrition, is the Conscience: the nim­ming away of the skirts of Sauls garment, and a rash wish [Page 26] for the waters of Bethlem; if these smote David to the heart, his conscience, if it was of so tender a touch, surely his pre­sumptuous fact in numbring the people, and this [...], e­specially this scarlet, or double-dyed sinne, of which the Pro­phet Nathan rebukt him, the conscience of this heinous sinne melts him away like water, as wee see in this Psalme: a Psalme we may all take up, as Gregorie Nazianzene did the Lamentations of Ieremie, to make us weepe for our sins and transgressions.

But conscience is a part of the practicke understanding, as Gods Deputy sitting within to judge, to see, and censure us together with God: it is a certaine secret feeling, or know­ledge of our deeds, which leaveth behinde it, or imprints the motions of joy, or sorrow, hope or feare, confidence or shame; it is an inward key, which unlocketh and openeth the doores and barres of our hearts, that the grieved spirit commeth forth, like good Lot out of the house of sinne, and sayes to the man of Sodome, O deale not so wickedly.

Now as the great Turke permits every one to live in his owne religion, so they pay him in his tribute; so the consci­ence hardned or seared, permits the appetites to their plea­sure, so it may partake; it neglects the soule, to please the sense; it prevaricates, and willfully suppresses the true ver­dict or testimonie, and is idle, and doth not its office, but luls us asleepe in our sinne, and layes the raines on the necks of our wilde and untamed lusts. Cor dilatatum, a spacious loose heart, a Chiverell conscience; and indeed, when the minde is in meere darknesse, as in the state of unregenera­tion, or when it is overflowed or dimmed with the dampe of some temptation, or wasting sinne, as it may befall the god­ly, no marvell then if this particular knowledge bee darke­nesse too, and our inward thoughts cease from their accu­sing for a season; for the soule, it hath not now an actuall or exercised sense and light, [...], as the Apostle speaketh, to discerne the proportions of good and evill; being possessed with a spirit of slumber in any measure, so farre it is no rightfull Judge, no more than the [Page 27] blinde man is of colours: [...], a consci­ence without science, a heart like Nabals, benum'd and senslesse.

And the manner or growth of it is thus; Originall sinne sends out actuall, and they leave a straine, a disposition to sinne so againe, and sinning so againe, slight impressions of evill become radicate, and habituall, till the callum, the crust, deadnesse or security in sinne comes over the soule; the buds of infirmity steale to the twigs of negligence, and they to the tyranny of custome, and then audacious and grand sinnes plead prescription, and like a stout tenant take no war­ning; and this is nervus ferreus, the iron sinew, the heart of adamant. When Camels, grosse sinnes passe, and digest without remorse, and this our Church in her Letany depre­cates most Christianly, From hardnesse of heart, and contempt of thy word and commandements, good Lord deliver us.

Now the contrite conscience is the very contrary, and that it may have its beginning thus; as Ioab would not be moved to come to Absalom till his fields were set on fire; so we oft-times, we have no heart, no perceiving of our estate towards God, till affliction, like fire ceaseth upon us, till with Manasses our chaine, or with Hezekiah our bed of sicknesse, or with Mauritius death of wife and children rouze and startle us, and wring forth a holy confession, Iu­stus est Deus, & justa sunt judicia ejus. For thus the good Shepherd oft-times sends after his sheepe, poverty, persecuti­on, sicknesse, and the like, to hurry them backe when they goe astray from him; and the heart, indeed the conscience, is in a very ill case, which ffliction cannot mollifie, [...], sayes the Apostle, Heb. 5.8. the sonnes of God learne obedience by the things they suffer, and for this wee may learne to take well the Lords castigations, kisse the rod as often as it betides us.

Againe, we must not thinke much to wait at the posts of Gods house continually, to listen, as David did, to his word in the mouth of Nathan, his word in the ministery of it, God useth to blesse it, and to put forth his spirit with it, that [Page 28] with David, our heart smiteth us, we tremble with Foelix, we melt with Iosiah, we are pierced to the quicke, like those thousands at S. Peters Sermon; and we are rifled, and con­vinced in our consciences, like those in the 1 Cor. 14. With­out the Law sin is dead, Rom. 7. It is not acknowledged; the word is Gladius Domini, the sword of the Lord, Heb. 4. It opens our sinnes to our eyes, and Malleus Domini, the Lords hammer to breake our stony heart, Ierem. 23.

Wherefore Moses and Aaron being called by the Lord in the wildernesse before the burning mount, he commanded them his word, and Law not to be supprest in secrecie, but to be pitched up in the eye of all the world, even that the pre­sumptuous heart might looke on it, as Christ did on Hieru­salem, with weeping eyes, to see how short he comes of that hee should, and that the dissembling heart might have his paintings and colours, his faces of sanctitie, thawed all by the fire of Gods justice: The Word of the Lord is spirit and life, a sacred perspective it is, wee may behold in it our sins of thought, desire, and deed, and thereupon see how the host of heaven, with chariots of fire, march in array, ready prest to charge; the curse of God, how ready it is to light on us. A sight for which Davids heart becommeth so intenerate, that hee a King, commits a Psalme to bee sung here in the Church, wherein his owne capitall sins should be blazed to all posteritie by his owne confession, a sight for which S. Austen needs would, that this verie Psalme should bee set over his bed night and day, that with teares hee might read over his transgressions, a roll wherof he hath left in his owne Confessions, which is admirable to the Reader.

And Conscience indeed is a sleeping Lion, it will awaken, in the evill houre we shall finde it, our owne heart then seeks occasions against us, as Iob speakes; and let not him thinke, who hath not yet the sting of his sinne, that he hath not of­fended; it watches the conscience, till the time of most ad­vantage; but the Lord, by this conscience of sinne, awakens those to life, that are his; by this sensiblenesse, or accusing of the heart, he doth much in our calling to grace, and in our [Page 29] continuing in it; for the contrite, or wounded conscience, dealeth not with our evill motions, as Darius did with Alexander, suffer them to passe, or come over the heart, as he did the Hellespont, till they beare all before them; but like Pharaoh, that killed the infants of Israel, lest they should overgrow his Countrey: So the truly broken, and tender heart growes daily verie conscientious of everie the least sin, and taketh care therefore of the serpents in the shell, Alli­dere parvulos ad petram, to crush the verie occasions of sin, and with S. Paul, it shaketh of the vipers from the fingers ends, at the first motion of evill, lest suggestion beget de­light, and that multiply from action into custome, like the fish that swim downe the streames of Jordan, in mare mor­tuum, into the dead sea.

Yea, and in the midst of all our prosperities & pleasures, it is the qualitie of a contrite conscience, ever and anon to send us downe an holy feare, as it were a bucket into the bottome of our hearts, to taste the waters, whether or no they bee still, sweet, and cleere, and so to preserve us from relapsing, or reciduation; I will put my feare into their hearts, that they shall not depart from me, saith the Lord, Ier. 32.

The third thing which partakes this contrition or brea­king, is the will and affections; O Lord, create in me a cleane heart, vers. 10. which is as if hee had said; O Lord, inable me to breake my will and affections from frowardnesse and perversenesse against thy will, to which I am bound by the cords of thy word: will and affections, these are the horse and mule, that must bee hold in, or broken by the bit and bridle, as David speaketh, yea, the horse may cast his rider, and himselfe stand upright still; but affections indanger not the soule, but by ruining themselves, as Pharaohs horse, and the riders also were drowned in the red sea: affections, these are the intestine foes, the Jebusites which fight still within our borders, yea, which rush in upon us oft times amidst our best devotions. S. Hierom in the wildernesse, among all his mortifications, had enough to doe to breake them; and S. Basil complaines, that when hee had forsaken the societie of [Page 30] men, he could not forsake his owne affections, his owne heart haunted him, and pursued him still: But Ismael the sonne of Agar the bond-woman, when he would be oppres­sing the sonne of the free, he was thrust out of Abrahams house: The Father of the faithfull gives us even in this a pat­terne, namely, that we breake with those affections, which hinder our holy purposes, that wee banish them, and binde them to their obedience and good behaviour; and this it is to sacrifice our affections, or to separate them to the Lord, when wee set them apart from their old excesses, and this is Sacrificium vivum, as the Apostle cals it, the living sacrifice of a broken heart or affection, a sacrifice that liveth the bet­ter after it is offered.

Beloved, as in a common fire, when the flames take hold of our houses, we instantly run to the rivers, to the water, to quench it: so our hearts within, our affections naturally be­ing set on fire with hell, as S. Iames speaketh, what should we doe, but flye to the river of contrition and repentance? This Red sea of remorsefull sorrow, our spirituall Pharaoh drownes in it, with all his armies of vicious lusts, here they perish together: And as in a common siege, when the ene­mies reares up workes or edifices to the wals of a Citie, and from thence shoots, and hurles fire into it, a chiefe remedy is to dig secret wayes and passages for water under the earth unto those fabricks, that so their foundation may weaken, & fall; so a tower of Babel, of inordinate affections, being set up against our soule, and therein the Archers of Satan, Pride, Lust, Avarice, and the like, shooting the fire of sin into our hearts, let us with the Magdalene derive thither even tho­row the secret veines of our hearts, flouds of contrition and repentance, for this shakes the verie ground-worke of Satans holds: the gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved; that I may speake in the words of the Prophet Nahum 2.6. O poenitentiae lachryma rutulantior au­ro, splendidior Sole, saith Anselme, O Contrition, more ra­diant than gold, more shining than the Sun, respicis avariti­am, horres luxuriam, and so forth; thou hatest covetousnesse, [Page 31] thou abhorrest luxurie, thou breakest the power and yoke of evill affections: Thou art the axe laid to the root of the heart, thou art the Catholicon, the universall medicine, that workes upon everie peccant humour, thou makest us ready to part with all bad desires in obedience to the Lords com­mand: for this godly contrition is a distaste of sin as sin, and so it is impartiall against whatsoever comes, as a transgressi­on against God. I have refrained my feet from everie evill way, that I may keepe thy word, Psal. 119.101. Worldly sorrow hideth our ill affections, restraineth open breakings out, and that's all: Like the cold aire, it doth but drive the disease of sin inward, Abscondit vitia, non abscindit; But godly sorrow, or contrition enters and searches, it cancels and sacrifices the evill that is in our most covert, and retired inclining, and withall it cals out repentance, it is not con­tent to sigh in secret, it cals the heart, the affection into the eye, to weepe for sinne with S. Peter, and into the mouth to confesse it with King David, yea, and into the hands to break it off by good workes, the offices of pietie and pitie: Poros aperit cordis, saith S. Gregorie: And the contrite affection is of all the openest, the easiest to commiserate, [...], so well it is acquainted with its owne evill, that who is ill affected with sinne and miserie, that melts not? And so re­spective is it to Gods ire and displeasure, which it hath weighed and tasted, that the least symptome, or signe of it, upon it selfe or others, dissolves it into feare and trembling, and this is the circumcision of the heart, the breaking or con­trition of the will and affections.

Fourthly, to summe up all together, the heart meaneth no lesse here, than the soule complete, or quite thorow, Con­triti cordis holocaustum, saith S. Cyprian: The perfect heart, Psal. 101. Not perfection in everie part, but perfection of all the parts, Integritas animi. Create in me a cleane heart, saith David: before, as in the first creation, God made man per­fect in all members and parts: so in the second, in regenera­tion, it is a new birth, or breaking of all the powers of the soule in some good measure, and say not thou art contrite, or [Page 32] renued in the eye of the soule, in thy understanding and con­science, unlesse it goe also to thy bowels, to thy will and af­fections; the good heart is a broken, but not a divided heart; their heart is divided, now shall they be found faulty, Hos. 10.2. the Lord liketh not to have his right parted with the naturall mother, he will part with his right rather; rea­son must become a captive, and conscience an accuser; will and affections flexible, and laid downe at the feet of the Lord; the heart contrite, is the soule affected throughly, the word signifieth a grinding to powder, as of the corne be­tweene the milstones.

And great reason and ground is there for this; the Lord besides his law delivered on the mount, made us in Eden a new and everlasting covenant, even that his holy sonne, the essentiall image of his person, should come in our nature, by the price of redemption paid in his bloud, to reconcile us to God; so did the mighty God make a holy and speciall league with his mortall foe, [...], saith the Apostle, meerely for the good pleasure of his grace, and bound himselfe by as free promise, to make the faithfull, his Church, a joynture of all the joyes of heaven; yet we rebell against the most high, and lightly regard his counsels; if we looke up to heaven, we see the seat indeed of a tender Father, but infinitely have we sinned against him and it; if wee gaspe in our trouble for the comfort of Christ his merits, the Redeemer of the world, wee see how vilely our owne evill words and deeds crucifie him daily, and put him to open shame, grieving his spirit, quenching his gifts and abusing his very grace.

Now the Adamant softens when warme bloud is shed on it; and the bloud of the Lord Jesus so graciously effused on us, and for us, the riches of this goodnesse should lead us to remorse, and to repent of our sinnes, even in love of the Lord for his mercies, yea, no slight affection, no cursory Lord have mercie upon us, should suffice us; with Ieremy we should call for a cottage in the wildernesse, and then broken to water, wash with teares the day wherein wee were borne. [Page 33] And, O that the precious balmes, the mercies of our Lord Jesus, the sense of what he hath done and suffered for us, should not mollifie us, and make us relent; yea, let us bee sicke with his love, the loves of Christ constraine, as the A­postle speaketh, 2 Cor. 5. And if before time we have ser­ved and loved the Lord, even for feare of wrath; henceforth let us feare God for love, and repent, and sorrow for our sinnes in love, and so our contrition will become entire, and of the whole heart, because the love of God is absolute, and infinite.

Now there bee who make a trade, yea, a sport and a merriment of their sinnes, who can count, and chronicle their dissolutenesse with delight, so farre they be from con­trition and remorse, and they no doubt will laugh in their [...]leeves to heare of this bruising and maceration of spirit; and let the deceived world take these for godly people, jolly fel­lowes, they shall die like men, like the beasts that perish: the Lord gave strength to the horse, and clothed his necke with thunder, saith Iob, he mockes at feare, and beleeves not the sound of the trumpet, yet if the quiver of the Lord rat­tle against him, he is afraid as a grashopper. Obdurate god­lesse spirits, whose hearts like Prometheus, grow fat and stu­pid in the night of their ignorance, there is a day when the Vulture of feare, and heavinesse of heart shall seaze and gnaw upon them, death shall feed upon the ungodly, Psal. 49. and when they come indeed in sight of death, and the fatall anchor beginnes to fall, that can never be weigh­ed againe, and the lusty saylers, the senses, that rowed them over the streames of carnall pleasures, stand amazed, and faile, and the waves of horror swell and breake upon the crackt vessell, and the unwise Pilot reason as at the end of his wits, cryeth out with him in Seneca, Huc ego quemad­modum vens, Lord how may this be? yea, their owne heart and conscience then amidst their other evills, shall returne upon them like the Raven, in blacke and sable weeds, with the law, the curse, and all the aberrations of life in his mouth, and what tongue can tell their sorrow? Like as the [Page 34] chased Deere, recovering about the end of the day some lit­tle breathing, stands and listens unto the cries of them that seeke his bloud, and seeing the way stopt, pants, and shuts his fearef [...]ll eyes, and finding his legs faile him at last, lies downe, despaires, and dies; so they oft-times, and amidst their agonie, faine would give a thousand Rammes, and a thousand Rivers of oyle, and the fruit of their body, the choicest goods they have, to be assoyled from the sinne of their soule. O consider we this, that we doe not quite for­get God; without contrition and repentance the Lord wee see is a consuming fire, and the impenitent sooner or later, have there no peace, their hell, even upon earth: and if so, in the first day, at the day of death at least, what shall we say to the day of revelation, the day of the generall judgement. Surely Kings shall repine then at the beggers joy, and mighty Emperours shall say with Theodo­sius, how much better is it to have beene the true member of Christ his Church, than the head of an Empire? For the An­gels shall bee seene then to gather up the scattered peeces of every contrite and broken heart, and to draw out to their encouragement the teares of repentance, which the Lord had treasured, or put up into his bottle, and to take quite from them the cup of trembling, and to reach it forth into the hands of all impenitents, and remorselesse sinners; and so I have done with the sacrifice, The broken and contrite hear [...]; and proceed to the second branch of the text, the Lords gentle acceptance, O God thou wilt not despise.

If in the conscience of sin, the broken heart tremble to ap­peare before the Lord, and though humbled, yet feareth lest God should not accept of him, behold his Cordiall, God will not despise him: Not despise him? Yea, deare shall he be in Gods sight, that the Sunne may not burne him by day, nor the Moone by n ght: For as in the Scripture there is an excesse of speech, when more is spoken than is understood, [...], as cast out the beame that is in thine owne eye: So there is also a defect of speech, when more is understood than spoken, [...], as despise not prophecie, the Apo­stle [Page 35] meaneth we should honour that gift of the Holy Ghost much: So here the words must be understood above the let­ter, and meane much more than is spoken, namely, that God will highly esteeme, and comfort, and revive the spirit of the humble; for Christ his sweet allures and invitations of the laden and contrite heart to come to him, shew that it is no despicable matter: a thing to be despised is fruitlesse, and of small use, but this oblation of David is of exceeding much validitie, and therefore he cals it first, A sacrifice; an offering it is, wherewith if we approach before the Lord, we have a good evidence before us, the pledge of our peace, and remis­sion of sins, because God hath so promised to accept of us for Christ his sake. Secondly, David cals it Sacrificia, in the plurall number, Sacrifices, because a penitent heart, why this is one for all, it includes and summes up all that whatsoever it is that God accepts, it is in stead of all, no sin­gle sacrifice. Thirdly, the Prophet cals it Sacrificia Dei, the sacrifices of the Lord, of the Lord by way of Emphasis, or excellence, as Nineveh, the Citie of God, or the exceeding great Citie, Ionah 3. and the trees of God are goodly Ce­dars, Psal. 80. and Opera Dei, the works of God, or which God approves, Iohn 6. So the contri [...]e heart is the sacrifices of God, such as to God is verie pleasing, an heart that re­pents and beleeves in Christs bloud, and seekes mercie for the same; yea, though it have sinned much, is yet such a worke of God, wherein God cannot but bee well pleased. From the heart are the issues of life and death, it rowles the lower spheres with it; and therefore though Davids eyes were adulterous, his hands imbrued, and his verie lips sea­led up with his sinnes, as we see at the fifteenth verse. Yet no sooner doth the Lord open his mouth, but his prayer is for his heart and spirit; for till God give us grace to draine that fen, or sinke of evill, which is in our heart, in vaine should we labour about our words, or deeds. And therefore Apol­lodorus in Plutarch dreamed, that his body being cut in pee­ces, and cast into a seething cauldron, his heart leapt up and said, Ego horum tibi causa fui, I was the cause of all this mis­chiefe. [Page 36] And therefore the Pharisies, those old hypocrites, when they cleansed but the outside, Christ & the second Elias called them vipers, and a generation of vipers, and bid them Mundare priùs quod intùs, cleanse within first, or be sincere at heart, and humble that; for till contrition come to the heart, their religion like a mill, it moved not without the wind of vaine glorie; and the light of their good works, the lampe of their charitie did not shine, and burne without the oyle of mans praise, they had no zeale but in publike, and in the corners of the street: whereas, the heart once well affe­cted and humbled, then would they enter their closets to pray, and seeke in their devotions not their owne, but Gods glorie, and though man would super-admire, or deifie them for any their good deeds, yet the heart well toucht with a sense of its owne infirmitie, it would retaine its humilitie a­midst the holiest and best performances, it would give backe to God his due. Of such behoofe is the broken heart, the is­sue of it is sinceritie, and that is the soule of all vertue; and therefore the contrite heart is, as wee see, the verie center wherein the lines of Gods graces meet, and to which they run, and so it hath Gods speciall love and acceptation for its circumference.

[O God thou wilt not despise.] The summons of death went out against Hezekiah, hee retires like the Sunne in his diall, he goeth backe to the Lord, hee mournes in his prayer like a Dove, he chatters like a Crane or Swallow, and I have heard thy prayers, I have seene thy teares, behold, saith the Lord, I will adde unto thy dayes fifteene yeares, Isa. 38. The summons of death, the threats of Gods Law and Word, were read in the cares of Iosiah the King, and his heart was tender, hee humbled himselfe before the Lord, hee rent his clothes, hee wept sore, and the Lord sent Huldah the Prophetesse, to as­sure him that his contrition was not despised, and he should bee gathered to his fathers in peace, 2 King. 22.19. The summons of death were out against Nineveh that great Ci­tie, and shee relents, shee fits her downe in sack-cloth, and turnes her silkes into ashes, Peeres and people, none excep­ted, [Page 37] come downe, è s [...]lio in solum: and by and by the hand of vengeance, that was waved over them, is taken aside, and the writ of bloud is reversed. Surge desperatio, vade ad Ni­niven: Now rise despaire, and goe to Nineveh: Thinke how Nineveh was not refused, though the cry of her sins went up to Heaven before the cry of her teares: And who art thou then that sayest with Spira, I cannot be saved; or with Cain, Major iniquitas, Mine iniquitie is greater than God can forgiue? Mentiris, Cain; Cain, thou lyest, saith Austen, thy sinnes bee they in number as the haires of thine head, Gods mercies are as the starres of Heaven, above all his workes: Can we with Elias surround our sacrifice with wa­ter, our prayers and devotions with holy sorrow, for the wants and defects of our devotions; yea, if but with sorrow for not sorrowing so heartily, so earnestly as we ought, the Lord will not despise us.

In ipsius praesentia nunquam supervacuae mendicant lachry­mae veniam, saith S. Cyprian, Never did teares or true contri­tion beg before the Lord in vaine: Nec unquam patitur re­pulsam contriti cordis holocaustum, And never did the sacri­fice of the broken heart finde repulse at the hands of God: The Israel of God that ever is fighting with Ammon, and conflicting to the verie Sun-setting, and the man of God that still holds up his hands and prayes, life and victorie is layd up for them in the bosome of Jesus Christ our Redee­mer, [...], Col. 3. And now let him be hid to the world, and despised, that the verie abjects have him in derision, his light shall breake forth like the Sun, through the continuall intercession of Christ for him, and all the world shall see, that God will not despise him.

We see Gods manner or method, Deducit ad inferos & reducit, When he brings a sinner to him, hee leadeth him as he did the Israelites, thorow a perillous wildernesse into Ca­naan, thorow Hell to Heaven, by mount Sinai to mount Si­on, thorow painfull contrition, and sorrow, and sense of his sinnes and corruptions, to the consolations and peace of the Holy Ghost, so that being well experienced in the miseries [Page 38] of his sinfull estate, he shall feare to returne into Aegypt, the bitter impression and sting of his sins, which still remaineth, it will be a checke to him from looking backe againe: and this may be a reason of Gods dealing with us, why hee ac­cepts the sacrifice of our hearts contrite and broken.

But now if we shall feare to venture into the wayes of re­pentance and godlinesse, for feare of losing our pleasures, and being cast upon the paines of contrition, prayer and wat­ching, we see the vanitie of that delusion, because from be­ing Benonies sons of sorrow, the Lord maketh us to bee Benjamins sons of his owne right hand. From a deluge of contrition to rinse us, we come to enjoy the certificates of our peace, like his heavenly raine-bow, to strengthen us. In sense of man, Iobs contrition was ignis foeno, like the fire to the stubble, to undoe him, or confound him; but in truth, and in the event it was ignis auro, like fire to the gold, to re­fi [...]e him and doe him good: For his corruption we see assu­meth incorruption, and this vile bodie riseth up a glorious bodie, Gods tender mercie a little bounded in for his triall, like a river breaketh forth the more, at the sluces of his re­pentance and contrition. A broken and a contrite heart, ô God, thou wilt not despise.

Wherefore, seeing the heart contrite is so acceptable an offering to the Lord, let us from the little Spider learne here to begin our amendment, let us begin to mend our web at the middle, our contrition let us seek to bring it to the heart. A cursorie confession, a formall fast, a coat of sack-cloth, and the like; can these quench the flames which sinne hath blowne and kindled? Leave off renting your garments, saith the Prophet, and learne to unharden your hearts, the contrite heart is the oblation that God will not despise.

The Romish Votarie or Secluse, how often is her eye cast downe and heavie, when her heart is an Aetna of vicious affe­ctions? How seemes the Jesuite, as if with S. Paul he were crucified to the world, and the world to him, when his spirit is with Lucifer in the clouds, contriving combustions of State? How broken, abject, and vile, seeme their begging [Page 39] Orders, being men of another mould indeed, just like the Co­medians, who play and act the siege of Troy, and the teares, of Priam, without all sense or touch of that griefe at the heart. True acceptable contrition runs and goes in another straine, by inward smart and groanes of heart and spirit: it prayes, it vowes, it powres out the soule before the Lord, Lam. 2. Like the parched earth, it gaspes towards Heaven, as if it would devoure the clouds, it wrestleth with the Lord like Iacob, with strong supplications it repents from the ve­rie heart root, and the savour of this incense ascends before the throne of the Lord, and returnes not without a blessing, yea, not without some inward pledge in the issue and experi­ence of Gods mercie and remission: The stroke of an wholly accusing guiltie heart is heavie, exiccat ossa, Prov. 17. but the joy of the contrite repenting heart is incredible, it is sani­tas carnium, Prov. 14. So sweet are the issues of the contrite heart, that i [...] sense thereof Iob feeleth not the witnesse of man against him, because God would witnesse for him, Iob. 31. and when our hearts dare indeed witnesse to us, that we are contrite, or doe un [...]einedly repent, this makes glad the heart, and is a continuall Jubilee, because it is the co-witnesse with Gods spirit, that we are his, that God hath accepted us.