in reading, to assign examples of men, that have therefore lost all, because they were loath to part with anything. When Nazianzen says, That man cannot be so like God in anything, as in giving, he means that he shall be like him in this too, that he shall not be the poorer for giving. But keeping the body, and soul of liberality, giving his own, and giving worthily, in soul and body too, (that is, in conscience and fortune both) by liberal things he shall stand, that is, prosper.

Now these three terms, liberality, the virtue itself, the studying of liberality, this devising, and the advantage of this liberality, this standing, (being yet in this first part, still upon the consideration of civil, and moral liberality) we are to consider, (according to their exposition, that bind this prophecy to an Hezekias, or a Josias, in which prophecy we find mention of all those persons) we are, I say, to consider them, in the king, in his officers, the magistrate, and in his subjects. For the king first, this virtue of our text, is so radical, so elementary, so essential to the king, as that the Vulgate edition in the Roman church reads this very text thus, Princeps verò ea quæ principe digna sunt, cogitabit, The king shall exercise himself in royal meditations, and actions; him, whom we call a liberal man, they call a king, and those actions that we call liberal, they call royal. A translation herein excusable enough; for the very original word, which we translate, liberal, is a royal word, nadib, and very often in the Scriptures hath so high, a royal signification. The very word is in that place, where David prays to God, to renew him spiritu principali; and this, (spiritus principalis) as many translators call a principal, a princely, a royal spirit, as a liberal, a free, a bountiful spirit; if it be liberal, it is royal. For, when David would have bought a threshing-floor, to erect an altar upon, of Araunah, and Araunah offered so freely place, and sacrifice, and instruments, and all, the Holy Ghost expresses it so, All these things did Araunah, as a king, offer to the king®; there was but this difference between the liberal man, and David, a king, and the king. Higher than a king, for an example and comparison of liberality, on this side of God, he could not go.

VOL. III.

5 Psalm Li. 10.

2 Sam. xxiv, 23.

2 A

The very form of the office of a king, is liberality, that is, providence, and protection, and possession, and peace, and justice shed upon all.

And then, this prophecy (considered still the first way, morally, civilly) carries this virtue, not only upon the king, but upon the princes too, upon those persons that are great, great in blood, great in power, great in place, and office, they must be liberal of that, which is deposited in them. The sun does not enlighten the stars of the firmament, merely for an ornament to the firmament, (though even the glory, which God receives from that ornament, be one reason thereof) but that by the reflection of those stars his beams might be cast into some places, to which, by a direct emanation from himself, those beams would not have come. So do kings transmit some beams of power into their officers, not only to dignify and illustrate a court, (though that also be one just reason thereof, for outward dignity and splendour must be preserved) but that by those subordinate instruments, the royal liberality of the king, that is, protection, and justice might be transferred upon all. And therefore, St. Hierome', speaking of Nebridius, who was so gracious with the emperor, that he denied him nothing, assigns that for the reason of his largeness towards him, Quod sciebat, non uni, sed pluribus indulgeri, Because he knew, that in giving him, he gave to the public; he employed that which he received, for the public.

And lastly, our prophecy places this liberality upon the people. Now, still this liberality is, that it be diffusive, that the object of our affections be the public. To depart with nothing which we call our own, nothing in our goods, nothing in our opinions, nothing in the present exercise of our liberty, is not to be liberal. To press too far the advancing of one part, to the depressing of another, (especially where that other is the head) is not liberal dealing. Therefore said Christ to James, and John, Non est meum dare vobis, It is not mine to give, to set you on my right, and on my left hand; Non vobis, quia singuli separatim ab aliis rogatis, Not to you, because you consider but yourselves, and petition for yourselves, to the prejudice, and exclusion of others.

7 Epistol. ad Salvian.

8 Matt. xx. 23.

9

Augustine.

Therefore Christ bid the Samaritan woman call her husband too, when she desired the water of life, Ne sola gratiam acciperet, saith St. Chrysostom, That he might so do good to her, as that others might have good by it too. For, Ad patriam qua itur"? Which way think you to go home, to the heavenly Jerusalem? Per ipsum mare, sed in ligno, You must pass through seas of difficulties, and therefore by ship; and in a ship, you are not safe, except other passengers in the same ship be safe too. The spouse saith, Trahe me post te, Draw me after thee. When it is but a me, in the singular, but one part considered, there is a violence, a difficulty, a drawing; but presently after, when there is an uniting in a plural, there is an alacrity, a concurrence, a willingness; Curremus post te, We, We will run after thee; if we would join in public considerations, we should run together. This is true liberality in God's people, to depart with some things. of their own, though in goods, though in opinions, though in present use of liberty, for the public safety. These liberal things, these liberal men, (king, magistrate, and people) shall devise, and by liberal things they shall stand.

The king shall devise liberal things, that is, study, and propose directions, and commit the execution thereof to persons studious of the glory of God, and the public good; and that is his devising of liberal things. The princes, magistrates, officers, shall study to execute aright those gracious directions received from their royal master, and not retard his holy alacrity in the ways of justice, by any slackness of theirs, nor by casting a damp, or blasting a good man, or a good cause, in the eyes, or ears of the king; and that is their devising of liberal things. The people shall divest all personal respects, and ill affections towards other men, and all private respects of their own, and spend all their faculties of mind, of body, of fortune, upon the public; and that is their devising of liberal things.

And by these liberal things, these liberal men shall stand. The king shall stand; stand in safety at home, and stand in triumph abroad. The magistrate shall stand; stand in a due reverence of his place from below, and in safe possession of his

10 John iv. 16.

11 Augustine.

12 Cant. i. 4.

place from above; neither be contemned by his inferiors, nor suspiciously, and guiltily inquired into by his superiors; neither fear petitions against him, nor commissions upon him. And the people shall stand; stand upon their right basis, that is, an inward feeling, and an outward declaration, that they are safe only in the public safety. And they shall all stand in the sunshine, and serenity of a clear conscience, which serenity of conscience is one fair beam, even of the glory of God, and of the joy of heaven, upon that soul that enjoys it.

This is Esay's prophecy of the times of an Hezekias, of a Josias, the blessing of this civil and moral liberality, in all these persons. And it is time to pass to our other general part, from the civil, to the spiritual, and from applying these words, to the good times of a good king, to that, (which is evidently the principal purpose of the Holy Ghost) that in the time of Christ Jesus, and the reign of his Gospel, this, and all other virtues, should be in a higher exaltation, than any civil, or moral respect can carry them to.

As an Hezekias, a Josias is a type of Christ; but yet but a type of Christ; so this civil liberality, which we have hitherto spoken of, is a type, but yet but a type of our spiritual liberality. For, here we do not only change terms, the temporal, to spiritual, and to call that, which we called liberality in the former part, charity in this part; nor do we only make the difference in the proportion and measure, that that which was a benefit in the other part, should be an alms in this. But we invest the whole consideration in a mere spiritual nature; and so that liberality, which was, in the former acceptation, but a relieving, but a refreshing, but a repairing of defects, and dilapidations in the body or fortune, is now, in this second part, in this spiritual acceptation, the raising of a dejected spirit, the redintegration of a broken heart, the resuscitation of a buried soul, the re-consolidation of a scattered conscience, not with the glues, and cements of this world, mirth, and music, and comedies, and conversation, and wine, and women, (miserable comforters are they all) nor with that meteor, that hangs between two worlds, that is, philosophy, and moral constancy, (which is somewhat above the carnal man, but yet far below the man truly Christian and

religious) but this is the liberality, of which the Holy Ghost himself is content to be the steward of the holy, blessed, and glorious Trinity, and to be notified, and qualified by that distinctive notion, and specification, The Comforter.

To find a languishing wretch in a sordid corner, not only in a penurious fortune, but in an oppressed conscience, his eyes under a diverse suffocation, smothered with smoke, and smothered with tears, his ears estranged from all salutations, and visits, and all sounds, but his own sighs, and the storms, and thunders, and earthquakes of his own despair, to enable this man to open his eyes, and see that Christ Jesus stands before him, and says, Behold and see, if ever there were any sorrow, like my sorrow, and my sorrow is overcome, why not is thine? To open this man's ears, and make him hear that voice that says, I was dead, and am alive, and behold, I live for evermore, amen1; and so mayest thou; to bow down those heavens, and bring them into his sad chamber, to set Christ Jesus before him, to out-sight him, outweep him, out-bleed him, out-die him, to transfer all the fasts, all the scorns, all the scourges, all the nails, all the spears of Christ Jesus upon him, and so, making him the crucified man in the sight of the Father, because all the actions, and passions of the Son, are appropriated to him, and made his so entirely, as if there were never a soul created but his, to enrich this poor soul, to comfort this sad soul so, as that he shall believe, and by believing find all Christ to be his, this is that liberality which we speak of now, in dispensing whereof, the liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things shall stand.

Now you may be pleased to remember, that when we considered this word, in our former part, (he shall devise) we found this devising originally to signify a studying, a deliberation, a concluding upon premises; upon which, we inferred pregnantly and justly, that as to support a man's expense, he must vivere de proprio, live upon his own; so to relieve others, he must dare de suo, be liberal of that which is his. Now, what is ours? ours, that are ministers of the Gospel? as we are Christ's, so Christ is ours. Puer datus nobis, Filius natus nobis, There is a child given unto us, a Son born unto us1; even in that sense, Christ is given to