Have mercy upon thine own soul, and I will commiserate it. too; be liberal to thyself, and I will bear thee out in it. God asks, Quid potui, What could have been done more to my vineyard? Do but tell him, and he will do that. Tell him, that

he can remove this damp from thy heart; tell him, as though thou wouldst have it done, and he will do it. Tell him, that he can bring tears into thine eyes, and then, wipe all tears from thine eyes; and he will do both. Tell him, that he did as much for David, as thou needest; that he came later to the thief upon the cross, than thou puttest him to; and David's transtulit peccatum, shall be transferred upon thee, and that thief's hodie mecum eris, shall waft, and guard, and convey thy soul thither. Think not thy God a false God, that bids me call thee, and means not that thou hear; nor an impotent God, that would save thee, but that there is a decree in the way; nor a cruel God, that made thee, to damn thee, that he might laugh at thy destruction. Thy King, thy Christ, is a liberal God; his officers, his ministers, by his instructions, declare plentiful redemption; be liberal to thyself, in the apprehension and application thereof, and by these liberal things, we shall all stand.

The King himself stands by it, Christ himself. It destroys the nature, the office, the merit of Christ himself, to make his redemption so penurious, so illiberal. We, his officers, his ministers, stand by it. It overthrows the credit, and evacuates the purpose of our employment, and our ministry, if we must offer salvation to the whole congregation, and must not be believed, that he that sends it, means it. The people, every particular soul stands by it. For, if he cannot believe God, to have been more liberal to him, than he hath been to any other man, he is in an ill case, because he knows more ill by himself, than he can know by any other man. Believe therefore liberal purposes in thy God; accept liberal propositions from his ministers; and apply them liberally, and cheerfully to thine own soul; for, The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.

364

SERMON LXXVI.

PREACHED TO THE EARL OF CARLisle, and hIS COMPANY, AT SION.

MARK XVI. 16.

He that believeth not, shall be damned.

THE first words that are recorded in the Scriptures, to have been spoken by our Saviour, are those which he spoke to his father and mother, then when they had lost him at Jerusalem, How is it that you sought me? Knew ye not that I must be about my Father's business'? And the last words, which are in this evangelist recorded to have been spoken by him, to his apostles, are then also, when they were to lose him in Jerusalem, when he was to depart out of their presence, and set himself in the heavenly Jerusalem, at the right hand of his Father: of which last words of his, this text is a part. In his first words, those to his father and mother, he doth not rebuke their care in seeking him, nor their tenderness in seeking him, (as they told him they did) with heavy hearts: but he lets them know, that, if not the band of nature, nor the reverential respect due to parents, then no respect in the world should hold him from a diligent proceeding in that work which he came for, the advancing the kingdom of God in the salvation of mankind. In his last words to his apostles, he doth not discomfort them by his absence, for he says, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world2: but he encourageth them to a cheerful undertaking of their great work, the preaching of the Gospel to all nations, by many arguments, many inducements, of which, one of the weightiest is, that their preaching of the Gospel was not like to be uneffectual, because he had given them the sharpest spur, and the strongest bridle upon mankind; Præmium et pænam, authority to reward the obedient, and authority to punish the rebellious and refractory man; he put into their hands the double key of heaven, and of hell; power to convey to the believer salvation, and upon him that believed not,

to inflict eternal condemnation; he that believeth not, shall be damned.

That then which man was to believe upon pain of damnation, if he did not, being this commission which Christ gave to his apostles, we shall make it our first part of this exercise, to consider the commission itself, the subject of every man's necessary belief; and our second part shall be, the penalty, the inevitable, the irreparable, the intolerable, the inexpressible penalty, everlasting condemnation, He that believeth not, shall be damned. In the first of these parts, we shall first consider some circumstantial, and then the substantial parts of the commission; (for though they be essential things, yet because they are not of the body of the commission, we call them branches circumstantial) first, An sit, whether there be such a commission or no; secondly, the ubi, where this commission is; and then the unde, from whence this commission proceeds; and lastly the quo, how far it extends, and reaches; and having passed through these, we must look back for the substance of the commission; for in the text, He that believeth not, is implied this particle, this, this word this, He that believeth not this, that is, that which Christ hath said to his apostles immediately before the text, which is indeed the substance of the commission, consisting of three parts, ite prædicate, go and preach the Gospel, ite baptizate, go and baptize them, ite docete, go and teach them to do, and to practise all that I have commanded; and after all these which do but make up the first part, we shall descend to the second, which is the penalty; and as far as the narrowness of the time, and the narrowness of your patience, and the narrowness of my comprehension can reach, we shall show you the horror, the terror of that fearful intermination, Damnabitur, He that believeth not, shall be damned.

First then, it is within this crediderit, that is, it is matter of faith to believe, that such a commission there is, that God hath established means of salvation, and propagation of his Gospel here. If then this be matter of faith, where is the root of this faith? from whence springs it? Is there any such thing writ in the heart of man, that God hath proceeded so? Certainly as it is in agendis, in those things which we are bound to do, which are all comprehended in the Decalogue, in the Ten Command

ments, that there is nothing written there, in those stone tables, which was not written before in the heart of man, (exemplify it in that commandment which seems most removed from natural reason, which is the observing of the Sabbath, yet even for that, for a Sabbath, man naturally finds this holy impression, and religious instinct in his heart, that there must be an outward worship of that God, that hath made, and preserved him, and that is the substance, and moral part of that commandment of the Sabbath) and it is in agendis, that all things, that all men are bound to do, all men have means to know; and as it is in sperandis, in petendis, of those things which man may hope for at God's hand, or pray for, from him, there is a knowledge imprinted in man's heart too; (for the Lord's Prayer is an abridgement of all those, and exemplify also this in that petition of the Lord's Prayer, which may seem most removed from natural reason, that we must forgive those who have trespassed against us, yet even in that, every natural man may see, that there is no reason for him, to look for forgiveness from God, who can, and may justly come to an immediate execution of us, as soon as we have offended him, if we will not forgive another man, whom we cannot execute ourselves, but must implore the law, and the magistrate to revenge our quarrel) as it is in agendis, in all things which we are bound to do; as it is in petendis, in all things which we may pray for, so it is in credendis, all things that all men are bound to believe, all men have means to know.

This then, that God hath established means of salvation, being inter credenda, one of those things which he is bound to believe, (for he that believeth not this, shall be damned) man hath thus much evidence of this in nature, that by natural reason we know, that that God which must be worshipped, hath surely declared how he will be worshipped, and so we are led to seek his revealed and manifested will, and that is nowhere to be found but in his Scriptures. So that when all is done, the Ten Commandments, which is the sum of all that we are to do; the Lord's Prayer, which is the sum of all that we are to ask; and the Apostles' Creed, which is the sum of all that we are to believe, are but declaratory, not introductory things; the same things are first written in man's heart, though dimly and sub-obscurely, and then

the same things are extended, shed in a brighter beam, in every leaf of the Scripture; and the same things are recollected again, into the Ten Commandments, into the Lord's Prayer, and into the Apostles' Creed, that we might see them altogether, and so take better view and hold of them. The knowledge which we have in nature, is the substance of all, as all matter, heaven and earth were created at once, in the beginning; and then the further knowledge which we have in Scripture, is as that light which God created after; for as by that light, men distinguished particular creatures, so by this light of the Scripture, we discern our particular duties. And after this, as in the creation, all the light was gathered into the body of the sun, when that was made; so all that is written in our hearts radically, and diffused in the Scriptures more extensively, is re-amassed, and reduced to the Ten Commandments, the Lord's Prayer, and to the Creed.

The heart of man is hortus, it is a garden, a paradise, where all that is wholesome, and all that is delightful grows, but it is hortus conclusus3, a garden that we ourselves have walled in; it is fons, a fountain, where all knowledge springs, but fons signatus, a fountain that our corruption hath sealed up. The heart is a book, legible enough, and intelligible in itself; but we have so interlined that book with impertinent knowledge, and so clasped up that book, for fear of reading our own history, our own sins, as that we are the greatest strangers, and the least conversant with the examination of our own hearts. There is then myrrh in this garden, but we cannot smell it; and therefore, All thy garments smell of myrrh, saith David', that is, God's garments; those Scriptures in which God hath apparelled, and exhibited his will, they breath the balm of the East, the savour of life, more discernibly unto us. But after that too, there is fasciculus myrrhæ, a bundle of myrrh together, fasciculus agendorum, a whole bundle of those things which we are bound to do, in the Ten Commandments; fasciculus petendorum, a whole bundle of those things, which we are bound to pray for, in the Lord's Prayer; and fasciculus credendorum, a whole bundle of those things, which we are bound to believe in the Apostles' Creed; and in that last bundle of myrrh, in that Creed, is this particular, ut

3 Cant. iv. 12.

4 Psalm XLV. 8.

Cant. i. 13.