temptations?" Surely if we look to stand in the faith of the sons of God, we must hourly, continually, be providing and setting ourselves to strive. It was not the meaning of our Lord and Saviour in saying, "Father, keep them in Thy name" (John xvii. 11), that we should be careless to keep ourselves. To our own safety, our own sedulity is required. And then blessed for ever and ever be that mother's child whose faith hath made him the child of God. The earth may shake, the pillars of the world may tremble under us, the countenance of the heaven may be appalled, the sun may lose his light, the moon her beauty, the stars their glory; but concerning the man that trusteth in God, if the fire have proclaimed itself unable as much as to singe a hair of his head, if lions, beasts ravenous by nature, and keen with hunger, being set to devour, have, as it were, religiously adored the very flesh of the faithful man; what is there in the world that shall change his heart, overthrow his faith, alter his affection towards God, or the affection of

God to him? If I be of this note, who shall make a separation between me and my God? "Shall tribulation, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" (Rom. viii. 35, 38, 39.) No; "I am persuaded that neither tribulation, nor anguish, nor persecution, nor famine, nor nakedness, nor peril, nor sword, nor death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature," shall ever prevail so far over me. "I know in whom I have believed;" I am not ignorant whose precious blood hath been shed for me; I have a Shepherd full of kindness, full of care, and full of power: unto Him I commit myself; His own finger hath engraven this sentence in the tables of my heart, "Satan hath desired to winnow thee as wheat, but I have prayed that thy faith fail not:" therefore the assurance of my hope I will labour to keep as a jewel unto the end; and by labour, through the gracious mediation of His prayer, I shall keep it.

HEAVEN.

IN this house of His Father's, thus by Him made ours, there are mansions; in which word, the consolation is not placed (I do not say that there is not truth in it), but the consolation is not placed in this, that some of these mansions are below, some above stairs, some better seated, better lighted, better vaulted, better fretted, better furnished than others; but only in this, that they are mansions, which word, in the original, and Latin, and our language, signifies a remaining, and denotes the perpetuity, the everlastingness of that state. A state but of one day, because no night shall overtake or determine it, but such a day as is not of a thousand years, which is the longest measure in the Scriptures, but of a thousand millions of millions of generations: Qui nec præceditur hesterno, nec excluditur crastino (Augustine), a day that hath no pridie, nor postridie, yesterday doth

"A preacher in earnest, weeping sometimes for his auditory, sometimes with them; always preaching to himself like an angel from a cloud, but in none; carrying some, as St Paul was, to heaven in holy raptures, and enticing others by a sacred art and courtship to amend their lives; here picturing a vice so as to make it ugly to those that practised it, and a virtue so as to make it beloved even by those that loved it not; and all this with a most particular grace, and an inexpressible addition of comeliness."-Isaak Walton.

not usher it in, nor to-morrow shall not drive it out. Methuselah, with all his hundreds of years, was but a mushroom of a night's growth to this day; and all the four monarchies, with all their thousands of years, and all the powerful kings, and all the beautiful queens of this world, were but as a bed of flowers, some gathered at six, some at seven, some at eight, all in one morning, in respect of this day. In all the two thousand years of nature, before the law given by Moses, and the two thousand years of law, before the Gospel given by Christ, and the two thousand of grace, which are running now (of which last hour we have heard three-quarters strike, more than fifteen hundred of this last two thousand spent), in all this six thousand, and in all those which God may be pleased to add, in domo patris, in this house of His Father's, there was never heard quarter clock to strike, never seen minute glass to turn. No time less than itself would serve to express this time, which is intended in this word mansions; which is also exalted with another beam, that they are Multa-"In my Father's house there are many mansions."

In this circumstance, an essential, a substantial circumstance, we would consider the joy of our society and conversation in heaven, since society and conversation is one great element and ingredient into the joy which we have in We shall have an association with this world.

and I shall see nothing but God, and what is in Him, and Him I shall see, in carne-"in the flesh," which is another degree of exaltation in mine exinanition.

I shall see Him, in carne sua-"in His flesh," and this was one branch in St Augustine's great wish, that he might have seen Rome in her state, that he might have heard St Paul preach, that he might have seen Christ in the flesh. St Augustine hath seen Christ in the flesh one thousand two hundred years, in Christ's glorified flesh; but it is with the eyes of his understanding, and in his soul. Our flesh, even in the resurrection, cannot be a spectacle, a perspective glass to our soul. We shall see the humanity of Christ with our bodily eyes, then glorified; but that flesh, though glorified, cannot make us see God better nor clearer than the soul alone hath done, all the time from our death to our resurrection. But, as an indulgent father, or as a tender mother, when they go to see the king in any solemnity, or any other thing of observation and curiosity, delights to carry their child, which is flesh of their flesh, and bone of their bone, with them, and though the child cannot comprehend it as well as they, they are as glad that the child sees it as that they see it themselves; such a gladness shall my soul have that this flesh (which she will no longer call her prison nor her tempter, but her friend, her companion, her wife), that this flesh, that is I, in the reunion and redintegration of both parts, shall see God; for then one principal clause in her rejoicing and acclamation shall be, that this flesh is her flesh; In carne mea"In my flesh I shall see God."

It was the flesh of every wanton object here, that would allure it in the petulancy of mine eye. It was the flesh of every satirical libeller, and defamer, and calumniator of other men, that would call upon it, and tickle mine ear with aspersions and slanders of persons in authority. And in the grave, it is the flesh of the worm; the possession it transferred to him. But in heaven it is caro mea- -"my flesh," my soul's flesh, my Saviour's flesh. As my meat is assimilated to my flesh, and made one flesh with it-as my soul is assimilated to my God, and made partaker of the divine nature (2 Peter i. 4), and idem spiritus, the same spirit with it (1 Cor. vi. 17), so there my flesh shall be assimilated to the flesh of my Saviour, and made the same flesh with Him too. Verbum caro factum ut caro resurgeret (Athanasius); therefore the Word was made flesh, therefore God was made man, that that union might exalt the flesh of man to the right hand of God. That is spoken of the flesh of Christ; and then to facilitate the passage for us, Reformat ad immortalitatem suam participes sui (Cyril); those who are worthy receivers of His flesh here, are the same flesh with Him; and God shall quicken your mortal bodies by His Spirit that dwelleth in you (Rom. viii. 11). But this is not in consummation, in full accomplish

ment, till this resurrection, when it shall be caro mea, my flesh, so as that nothing can draw it from the allegiance of my God; and caro mea"my flesh," so as that nothing can divest me of it. Here a bullet will ask a man, where's your arm? and a wolf will ask a woman, where's your breast? A sentence in the Star Chamber will ask him, where's your ear! and a month's close prison will ask him, where's your flesh? A fever will ask him, where's your red? and a morphew will ask him, where's your white? But when after all this, when "After my skin worms shall destroy my body, I shall see God," I shall see Him in my flesh, which shall be mine as inseparably (in the effect, though not in the manner), as the hypostatical union of God and man in Christ, makes our nature and the Godhead one person in Him. My flesh shall no more be none of mine, than Christ shall not be man, as well as God.

SIN.*

Sin is so far from being nothing, as that there is nothing else but sin in us; sin hath not only a place, but a palace, a throne, not only a being, but a dominion, even in our best actions: and if every action of ours must needs be denominated from the degrees of good or of bad that are in it, howsoever there may be some tincture of some moral goodness, in some actions, every action will prove a sin, that is, vitiated and depraved with more ill, than rectified with good conditions. And then every sin will prove læsio Dei, a violence, a wound inflicted upon God himself, and therefore it is not nothing.

God spake not only of the beasts of the forest, but of those beasts, that is, those brutish affections, that are in us, when He said, Subjicite et dominamini-" Subdue and govern the world ;" and in sinning we lose this dominion over ourselves, and forfeit our dominion over the creature too. Qui peccat, quatenus peccat, seipso deterior; Every sin leaves us worse than it found us, and we rise poorer, ignobler, weaker, for every night's sin than we lay down. Plerumque non implemus bonum propositum, ne offendamus eos quibuscum vivimus (Augustine); If any good purpose arise in us, we dare not pursue it, for fear of displeasing those with whom we live, and to whom we have a relation, and a dependence upon them. We sin, and sin, and sin, lest our abstinence from sin should work as an increpation, as a rebuke upon them that do sin; for this they will call an ambition in us that being their inferiors, we go about to be their betters, if we will needs be better, that is, less vicious than they. First then, personally in himself, prophetically in us, David laments our state, quia peccata, because we are under sin, sin which is a depravation of man in himself, and a deprivation of God from

* Works, vol. iv., p. 362.

man.

And then our next cause of lamentation is the propriety in sin, that they are nostra, our own, Iniquitates meæ, says David-My sins, mine iniquities are gone over my head.

We are not all Davids, amabiles, lovely and beloved in that measure that David was, men according to God's heart; but we are all Adams, terrestres, and lutosi, earth, and dirty earth, red, and bloody earth, and therefore in ourselves, as derived from him, let us find, and lament all these numbers, and all these weights of sin. Here we are all born to a patrimony, to an inheritance; an inheritance, a patrimony of sin; and we are all good husbands, and thrive too fast upon that stock, upon the increase of sin, even to the treasuring up of sin, and the wrath of God for sin. How naked soever we came out of our mother's womb, otherwise, thus we came all apparelled, apparelled and invested in sin; and we multiply this wardrobe with new habits, habits of customary sins, every day. Every man hath an answer to that question of the apostle, "What hast thou, that thou hast not received from God?" Every man must say, "I have pride in my heart, wantonness in mine eyes, oppression in my hands; and that I never received from God." Our sins are our own; and we have a covetousness of more; a way to make other men's sins ours too, by drawing them to a fellowship in our sins. I must be beholden to the loyalty and honesty of my wife, whether my children be mine own or no; for he whose eye waiteth for the evening, the adulterer, may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to the protection of the law, whether my goods shall be mine or no; a potent adversary, a corrupt judge, may rob me of that propriety. I must be beholden to my physician, whether my health and strength shall be mine or no; a garment negligently left off, a disorderly meal may rob me of that propriety. But without asking any man leave, my sins will be my own. the presumptuous men say-"Our lips are our own, and our tongues are our own" (Psalm xii. 4), the Lord threatens to cut off those lips, and those tongues. But except we do come to say our sins are our own, God will never cut up that root in us, God will never blot out the memory in Himself of those sins. Nothing can make them none of ours, but the avowing of them, the confessing of them to be ours. Only in this way, I am a holy liar, and in this the God of truth will reward my lie; for, if I say my sins are mine own, they are none of mine, but by that confessing and appropriating of those sins to myself, they are made the sins of Him who hath suffered enough for all, my blessed Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Therefore, that servant of God, St Augustine, confesses those sins, which he never did, to be his sins, and to have been forgiven him; Peccata mihi dimissa fateor, et quæ mea sponte feci, et quæ te duce non feci; Those sins which I have done, and those

When

which, but for Thy grace, I should have done, are all my sins. Alas, I may die here, and die under an everlasting condemnation of fornication with that woman that lives and dies a virgin, and be damned for a murderer of that man that outlives me, and for a robbery, and oppression, where no man is damnified nor any penny lost. The sin that I have done, the sin that I would have done, is my sin. We must not, therefore, transfer our sins upon any other. We must not think to discharge ourselves upon a peccata patris; to come to say, "My father thrived well in this course, why should not I proceed in it? My father was of this religion, why should not I continue in it?" How often is it said in the Scriptures of evil kings, He did evil in the sight of the Lord, and walked in via patris, in the way of his father? father in the singular; it is never said plurally, in via patrum-in the way of his fathers. God's blessings in this world are expressed so, in the plural, Thou gavest this land patribus, to their fathers, says Solomon (1 Kings viii. 48), in the dedication of the temple; and Thou broughtest patres, our fathers, out of Egypt; and again, Be with us, Lord, as Thou wast with our fathers; so in Ezekiel (Ezek. xxxvii. 25), Where your fathers dwelt, you, their children, shall dwell too, and your children, and their children's children for ever. His blessings upon His saints, 'His holy ones in this world, are expressed so, plurally; and so is the transmigration of His saints out of this world also; Thou shalt sleep cum patribus, with thy fathers, says God to Moses (Deut. xxxi. 13); and David slept cum patribus, with his fathers (1 Kings ii. 10); and Jacob had that care of himself, as of that in which consisted, or in which was testified the blessing of God. I will lie cum patribus, with my fathers, and be buried in their burying-place, says Jacob to his son Joseph (Gen. xlviii. 30). Good ways and good ends are in the plural, and have many examples, else they are not good; but sins are in the singular; he walked in the way of his father is in an ill way, but carry our manners, or carry our religion high enough, and we shall find a good rule in our fathers. "Stand in the way," says God in Jeremiah, "and ask for the old way, which is the good way" (Jer. vi. 16). We must put off veterem hominem, but not antiquum; we may put off that religion which we think old, because it is a little elder than ourselves, and not rely upon that it was the religion of my father. But antiquissimum dierum, Him, whose name is He that is, and was, and is for ever, and so involves and enwraps in Himself all the fathers, Him we must put on. Be that our issue with our adversaries at Rome, by the fathers, the fathers in the plural, when those fathers unanimely deliver anything dogmatically for matter of faith, we are content to be tried by the fathers, the fathers in that plural. But by that one father, who begets his children not upon the true mother, the Church, but upon the