Lætetur cor quærentium Dominum, says David 20; thou art not in the right way of finding the Lord, if thou do not find a joy in the seeking of him; though thou canst not settle thyself in a sense that thou hast found him, yet thou hast, if thou canst find a holy melting, and joy in thy seeking of him. If the angels be come down to destroy Sodom, if Jonas be come to proclaim destruction to Nineveh, wilt thou make thyself believe that thou art a citizen of Sodom, an inhabitant of Nineveh, and must necessarily be wrapped up in that destruction? If David say, Non sic impii, non sic, the wicked shall not stand in judgment, will thou needs be one of them? As a wise, and a discreet man will never believe that he that writes a satire, means him, though he touch upon his vices, so whatsoever the prophets say, of an aversion, and obduration in God, against sinners, yet they mean not thee, nor do thou assume it, in an inevitableness upon thyself. The angel of God, the spirit of God shall deal with thee, as he did with Lot in Sodom; he told Lot over-night, that he would burn the city, and bade him prepare; God shall give thee some grudgings, before he exalt thy fever, and warn thee to consider thy state, and consult with thy spiritual physician; the angel called him up in the morning, and then hastened him, and when he prolonged, says the text, the angel caught him, and carried him forth, and set him without the city. Because, though there was no co-operation in Lot, yet there was no resisting neither. God was pleased to do all; so in this death of diffidence, and sense of God's fearful judgments, God opens thy grave now, and now he calls to thee, Lazare veni foras, Come forth Lazarus, and he offers his hand to pull thee out now, only Comfortare et esto robustus, as God said to Joshua, Be strong and have a good courage22, and as God adds there, Comfortare et esto robustus valde, multiply thy courage, and God shall multiply thy strength, in all dejections have a cheerful apprehension of thy resurrection, and thou shalt have it, nay thou hast it.

But this death of desperation, or diffidence in God's mercy, by God's mercy hath swallowed none of us, but the death of sin hath swallowed us all, and for our own customary sins we all need a resurrection and what is that? Resurrectio à peccato, et cessatio

20 Psalm cv. 3.

21 Gen. xix. 12,

22 Josh. i. 6.

à peccato, non est idem; every cessation from sin, is not a resurrection from sin. A man may discontinue a sin, intermit the practise of a sin, by infirmity of the body, or by satiety in the sin, or by the absence of that person, with whom he hath used to communicate in that sin. But resurrectio, est secunda ejus, quod interiit, statio2. A resurrection is such an abstinence from the practice of the sin, as is grounded upon a repentance, and a detestation of the sin, and then it is a settling, and an establishing of the soul in that state, and disposition: it is not a sudden and transitory remorse, nor only a reparation of that which was ruined, and demolished, but it is a building up of habits contrary to former habits, and customs, in actions contrary to that sin, that we have been accustomed to. Else it is but an intermission, not a resurrection; but a starting, not a waking; but an apparition, not a living body; but a cessation, not a peace of conscience.

Now this resurrection is begun, and well advanced in baptismate lachrymarum, in the baptism of true and repentant tears. But, beloved, as St. Paul in this place, hath a relation ad baptismum clinicorum, to death-bed baptists, death-bed Christians, to them that defer their baptism to their death, but he gives no allowance of it; so this baptisma clinicorum, this repentance upon the deathbed, is a dangerous delay. Even of them, I will say with St. Paul here, If there were no resurrection, no need to rise from sin by repentance, why are they then thus baptized, pro mortuis? why do they repent, when they are as good as dead, and have no more to suffer in this world? But if there be such a resurrection, a necessity of such a baptism by repentance, why come they no sooner to it? For is any man sure to have it, or sure to have a desire to it then? It is never impertinent to repeat St. Augustine's words in this case, Etiam hac animadversione percutitur peccator, ut moriens obliviscatur sui, qui dum viveret, oblitus est Dei; God begins a dying man's condemnation at this, that as he forgot God in his life, so he shall forget himself at his death. Compare thy temporal, and thy spiritual state together, and consider how they may both stand well at that day. If thou have set thy state in order, and make a will before, and have nothing to do at last, but to add a codicil, this is soon despatched at last; 24 Damascene.

23 Durand.

but if thou leave all till till, then, it may prove a heavy business. So if thou have repented before, and settled thyself in a religious course before, and have nothing to do then, but to wrestle with the power of the disease, and the agonies of death, God shall fight for thee in that weak estate; God shall imprint in thee a cupio dissolvi, St. Paul's, not only contentedness, but desire to be dissolved; and God shall give thee a glorious resurrection, yea an ascension into heaven before thy death, and thou shalt see thyself in possession of his eternal kindom, before thy bodily eyes be shut. Be therefore St. Cyprian's peripatetic, and not his clinic Christian; a walking, and not a bed-ridden Christian; that when thou hast walked with God, as Enoch did, thou mayest be taken with God, as Enoch was, and so walk with the Lamb, as the saints do in Jerusalem, and follow him whithersoever he goes; that even thy death-bed may be as Elias' chariot, to carry thee to heaven; and as the bed of the spouse in the Canticles, which was lectus floridus, a green and flourishing bed, where thou mayest find by a faithful apprehension, that thy sickness hath crowned thee with a crown of thorns, by participation of the sufferings of thy Saviour, and that thy patience hath crowned thee with that crown of glory, which the Lord the righteous Judge shall impart to thee that day.

SERMON LXXIX.

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S.

PSALM XC. 14.

O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days

THEY have made a rule in the Council of Trent, that no Scripture shall be expounded, but according to the unanime consent of the fathers but in this book of the Psalms, it would trouble them to give many examples of that rule, that is, of an unanime consent of the fathers, in the interpretation thereof. In this salm, Bellarmine, in his Exposition of the Psalms, finds himself

perplexed; he says, (and says truly) Hieronymus constanter affirmat, Augustinus constanter negat, St. Hierome doth confidently and constantly affirm, and St. Augustine with as much confidence, and constancy deny, that this psalm, and all that follow to the Hundreth Psalm, are Moses' Psalms, and written by him. And this diverse constancy in these two fathers, St. Hierome and St. Augustine, shake the constancy of that canon, which binds to a following of an unanime consent, for that canon to be found. Bellarmine expedites himself herein, that way, which is indeed their most ordinary way amongst their expositors, which is, where the fathers differ, to adhere to St. Augustine. So he doth in this point; though most of the ancients of the Christian church, most of the rabbins of the Jews, most of the writers in the Reformation, take it to be Moses' Psalm, and that way runs the greatest stream, and nearest to a concurrence. And thus far I have stopped upon this consideration, whether this be Moses'. Psalm or no, that when it appears to be his psalm, and that we see, that in the tenth verse of this psalm, man's life is limited to seventy years, or at most to eighty, and then remember, that Moses himself, then when he said so, was above eighty, and in a good habitude long after that, we might hereby take occasion to consider, that God does not so limit, and measure himself in his blessings to his servants, but that for their good and his glory he enlarges those measures. God hath determined a day, from sun to sun, yet when God hath use of a longer day, for his glory, he commands the sun to stand still, till Joshua have pursued his victory. So God hath given the life of man, into the hand of sickness; and yet for all that deadly sickness, God enlarges Hezekiah's years: Moses was more than fourscore, when he told us, that our longest term was fourscore.

If we require exactly an unanime consent, that all agree in the author of this psalm, we can get no farther, than that the Holy Ghost is the author. All agree the words to be canonical Scripture, and so from the Holy Ghost; and we seek no farther. The words are his, and they offer us these considerations; first, that the whole psalm being in the title thereof called a prayer, A Prayer of Moses the Man of God, it puts us justly, and pertinently upon the consideration of the many dignities and prerogatives of that part of our

worship of God, prayer; for there we shall see, that though the whole psalm be not a prayer, yet because there is a prayer in the psalm, that denominates the whole psalm, the whole psalm is a prayer. When the psalm grows formally to be a prayer, our text enters, O satisfy us early with thy mercy, that we may rejoice and be glad all our days: and in that there will be two parts more, the prayer itself, O satisfy us early with thy mercy, and the effect thereof, That we may rejoice and be glad all our days. So that our parts are three; first prayer, then this

the benefit of all prayer.

prayer, and lastly

For the first, which is prayer in general, I will thrust no farther than the text leads me in, that is, that prayer is so essential a part of God's worship, as that all is called prayer. St. Hierome upon this psalm says, Difficillimum psalmum aggredior, I undertake the exposition of a very hard psalm, and yet, says he, I would proceed so in the exposition thereof, ut interpretatio nostra aliena non egeat interpretatione, that there should not need another comment upon my comment, that when I pretend to interpret the psalm, they that hear me, should not need another to interpret me: which is a frequent infirmity amongst expositors of Scriptures, by writing, or preaching, either when men will raise doubts in places of Scripture, which are plain enough in themselves, (for this creates a jealousy, that if the Scriptures be everywhere so difficult, they cannot be our evidences, and guides to salvation) or when men will insist too vehemently, and curiously, and tediously in proving of such things as no man denies; for this also induces a suspicion, that that is not so absolutely, so undeniably true, that needs so much art, and curiosity, and vehemence to prove it. I shall therefore avoid these errors; and because I presume you are full of an acknowledgment of the duties, and dignities of prayer, only remember you of thus much of the method, or elements of prayer, that whereas the whole book of Psalms is called Sepher Tehillim, that is, Liber Laudationum, the Book of Praise, yet this psalm, and all that follow to the hundredth psalm, and divers others besides these, (which make up a fair limb of this body, and a considerable part of the book) are called prayers; the book is praise, the parts are prayer. The name changes not the nature; prayer and praise is the same thing: the name scarce