right God, upon whom who is the Lord. Now this name of God, which is translated the Lord here, is not the name of God, which presents him with relation to his creatures: for so it is a problematical, a disputable thing, whether God could be called the Lord, before there were any creatures. Tertullian denies absolutely that he could be called Lord till then; St. Augustine is more modest, he says, Non audeo dicere, I dare not say that he was not; but he does not affirm that he was; howsoever the name here, is not the name of relation, but it is the name of his essence, of his eternity, that name, which of late hath been ordinarily called Jehovah. So that we are not to trust in those Lords, whose breath is in their nostrils, as the prophet says, For, wherein are they to be esteemed? says he "; we are less to trust in them, whose breath was never in their nostrils, such imaginary saints, as are so far from hearing us in heaven, as that they are not there and so far from being there, as that they were never here: so far from being saints, as that they were never men, but are either fabulous illusions, or at least, but symbolical and allegorical allusions. Our Lord is the Lord of life and being, who gave us not only a well-being in this life, (for that other Lords can pretend to do, and do indeed, by preferments here) nor a beginning of a temporary being in this life, (for that our parents pretend, and pretend truly to have done) nor only an enlarging of being in this life, (for that the king can do by a pardon, and the physicians by a cordial) but he hath given us an immortal being, which neither our parents began in us, nor great persons can advance for us, nor any prince can take from us. This is the Lord in this place, this is Jehovah, and Germen Jehova1, the Lord, and the offspring of the Lord; and none is the offspring of God, but God, that is, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. So that this perfect blessedness consists in this, the true knowledge and worship of the Trinity.

And this blessing, that is, the true religion and profession of Christ Jesus, is to be upon all the people; which is our last consideration. Blessed is the nation, whose God is the Lord, and the people whom he hath chosen for his inheritance". And here again 16 Isaiah iv. 2.

15 Isaiah ii. ult.

17 Psalm xxxiii. 12.

(as in the former consideration of temporal blessedness) the people includes both prince and people; and then, the blessing consists in this, that both prince and people be sincerely affected to the true religion; and then, the people includes all the people; and so, the blessing consists in this, that there be an unanimity, a consent in all, in matter of religion; and lastly, the people includes the future people; and there, the blessing consists in this, that our posterity may enjoy the same purity of religion that we do. The first temptation that fell amongst the apostles carried away one of them: Judas was transported with the temptation of money; and how much? For thirty pieces, and in all likelihood he might have made more profit than that, out of the privy purse; the first temptation carried one, but the first persecution carried away nine, when Christ was apprehended, none was left but two, and one of these two, St. Hierome, says, Utinam fugisset et non negasset Christum, I would Peter had fled too, and not scandalized the cause more by his stay, in denying his master: for, a man may stay in the outward profession of the true religion, with such purposes, and to such ends, as he may thereby damnify the cause more, and damnify his own soul more, than if he went away to that religion, to which his conscience (though ill rectified) directs him. Now, though when such temptations, and such persecutions do come, the words of our Saviour Christ will always be true, Fear not little flock, for it is God's pleasure to give you the kingdom, though God can lay up his seed-corn in any little corner, yet the blessing intended here, is not in that little seedcorn, nor in the corner, but in the plenty, when all the people are blessed, and the blessed spirit blows where he will, and no door nor window is shut against him.

And therefore let all us bless God, for that great blessing to us, in giving us such princes, as make it their care, Ne bona caduca sint, ne mala recidiva, that that blessedness which we enjoy by them, may never depart from us, that those miseries which we felt before them, may never return to us. Almighty God make always to us all, prince and people, these temporal blessings which we enjoy now, peace and plenty, and health, seals of his spiritual blessings, and that spiritual blessedness, which we enjoy now,

18 Luke xii. 32.

the profession of the only true religion, a seal of itself, and a seal of those eternal blessings, which the Lord, the righteous Judge hath laid up for his, in that kingdom which his Son, our Saviour hath purchased for us, with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. In which glorious Son of God, &c.

SERMON LXXV.

PREACHED To the king AT WHITEHALL, APRIL 15, 1628.

ISAIAH XXXii. 8.

But the liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he
shall stand.

By two ways especially hath the Gospel been propagated by men of letters, by epistles, and by sermons. The apostles pursued both ways; frequent in epistles, assiduous in sermons. And, as they had the name of apostles, from letters, from epistles, from missives, (for the certificates and testimonials, and safe-conducts, and letters of credit, which issued from princes' courts, or from courts that held other jurisdiction, were in the formularies and terms of law called apostles, before Christ's apostles were called apostles) so they executed the office of their apostleship so too, by writing, and by preaching. This succession in the ministry of the gospel did so too. Therefore it is said of St. Chrysostom, Ubique prædicavit, quia ubique lectus, he preached everywhere, because he was read everywhere. And, he that is said to have been St. Chrysostom's disciple, Isidore, is said to have written ten thousand epistles', and in them to have delivered a just, and full commentary upon all the Scriptures. In the first age of all, they scarce went any other way, (for writing) but this, by epistles. Of Clement, of Ignatius, of Polycarpus, of Martial, there is not much offered us with any probability, but in the name of epistles.

1 Pelusiota.

When Christians gathered themselves with more freedom, and churches were established with more liberty, preaching prevailed; and there is no exercise, that is denoted by so many names, as preaching. Origen began; for, (I think) we have no sermons, till Origen's. And though he began early, (early, if we consider the age of the church, a thousand four hundred years since) and early, if we consider his own age, (for Origen preached by the commandment, and in the presence of bishops, before he was a churchman) yet he suffered no sermons of his to be copied, till he was sixty years old. Now, Origen called his, homilies; and the first Gregory, of the same time with Origen, that was bishop of Neocæsaria, hath his called, sermons. And so names multiplied; homilies, sermons, conciones, lectures, St. Augustine's enarrations, dictiones, that is, speeches, Damascene's and Cyril's orations (nay, one exercise Cæsareus, conveyed in the form of a dialogue) were all sermons. Add to these church-exercises, (homilies, sermons, lectures, orations, speeches, and the rest) the declamations of civil men in courts of justice, the tractates of moral men written in their studies, nay go back to your own times, when you went to school, or to the university; and remember but your own, or your fellows' themes, or problems, or common-places, and in all these you may see evidence of that, to which the Holy Ghost himself hath set a seal in this text, that is, the recommendation of bounty, of munificence, of liberality, The liberal deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.

That which makes me draw into consideration the recommendation of this virtue, in civil authors, and exercises, as well as in ecclesiastical, is this, that our expositors, of all the three ranks, and classes (the fathers and ancients, the later men in the Roman Church, and ours of the Reformation) are very near equally divided, in every of these three ranks; whether this text be intended of a moral and a civil, or of a spiritual and ecclesiastical liberality; whether this prophecy of Isaiah, in this chapter, beginning thus (Behold, a king shall reign in righteousness, and princes shall rule in judgment) be to be understood of an Hezekias, or a Josias, or any other good king, which was to

2 Ver. 1.

succeed, and to induce virtuous times in the temporal state, and government, or whether this were a prophecy of Christ's time, and of the exaltation of all virtues in the Christian religion, hath divided our expositors in all those three classes. In all three, (though in all three some particular men are peremptory and vehement upon some one side, absolutely excluding the other exposition, as, amongst authors in the Reformation, one says, Dubium non est, it can admit no doubt, but that this is to be understood of Hezekias, and his reign, and yet another of the same side', says too, Qui Rabbinos secuti, they that adhere too much to the Jewish Rabbins, and will needs interpret this prophecy of a temporal king, obscure the purpose of the Holy Ghost, and accommodate many things to a secular prince, which can hold in none, but Christ himself) yet, I say, though there be some peremptory, there are in all the three classes, ancients, Romans, reformed, moderate men, that apply the prophecy both ways, and find that it may very well subsist so, that in a fair proportion, all these blessings shall be in the reigns of those Hezekiases, and those Josiases, those good kings which God affords to his people; but the multiplication, the exaltation of all these blessings, and virtues, is with relation to the coming of Christ, and the establishing of his kingdom. And this puts us, if not to a necessity, yet with conveniency, to consider these words both ways; what this civil liberality is, that is here made a blessing of a good king's reign; and what this spiritual liberality is, that is here made a testimony of Christ's reign, and of his gospel. And therefore, since we must pass twice through these words, it is time to begin; The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand.

From these two arms of this tree, that is, from the civil, and from the spiritual accommodation of these words, be pleased to gather, and lay up these particular fruits. In each of these, you shall taste first, what this liberality thus recommended is; and secondly, what this devising, and studying of liberal things is; and again, how this man is said to stand by liberal things; The liberal man deviseth liberal things, and by liberal things he shall stand. And because in the course of this prophecy, in this