martyrs, under the altar, who solicit God for the resurrection, for, thou shalt add a step to the resurrection itself, by having brought it so much nearer, as to have done thy part for the filling up of the number of the saints, upon which fulness the resurrection shall follow. And thou shalt add a voice, to that old, and ever-new song, that catholic hymn, in which, both churches, Militant and Triumphant, shall join, Blessing, honour, glory, and power, be unto him, that sitteth upon the Throne, and to the Lamb, for ever, and ever", Amen.

SERMON CXXIV.

A SERMON UPON THE 5TH OF NOVEMBER, 1622, BEING THE ANNIVERSARY CELEBRATION OF OUR DELIVERANCE FROM THE POWDER TREASON.

INTENDED FOR PAUL'S CROSS, BUT, BY REASON OF THE WEATHER, PREACHED IN THE CHURCH.

LAMENTATIONS iv. 20.

The breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits.

THE PRAYER BEFORE THE SERMON.

O LORD open thou my lips, and my mouth shall show forth thy praise; for thou, O Lord, didst make haste to help us, Thou, O Lord, didst make speed to save us. Thou that sittest in heaven, didst not only look down, to see what was done upon the earth, but what was done in the earth; and when the bowels of the earth were, with a key of fire, ready to open and swallow us, the bowels of thy compassion were, with a key of love, opened to succour us; this is the day, and these are the hours, wherein that should have been acted in this our day, and in these hours, we praise thee, O God, we acknowledge thee, to be the Lord; all

41 Rev. v. 13.

our earth doth worship thee; the holy church throughout all this land, doth acknowledge thee, with commemorations of that great mercy, now in these hours. Now, in these hours, it is thus commemorated, in the king's house, where the head and members praise thee; thus, in that place, where it should have been perpetrated, where the reverend judges of the land do now praise thee; thus, in the universities, where the tender youth of this land, is brought up to praise thee, in a detestation of their doctrines, that plotted this; thus it is commemorated in many several societies, in many several parishes, and thus, here, in this mother church, in this great congregation of thy children, where, all, of all sorts, from the lieutenant of thy lieutenant, to the meanest son of thy son, in this assembly, come with hearts, and lips, full of thanksgiving: thou Lord, openest their lips, that their mouth may show forth thy praise, for thou, O Lord, didst make haste to help them, thou didst make speed to save them. Accept, O Lord, this sacrifice, to which thy Spirit giveth fire; this of praise, for thy great mercies already afforded to us, and this of prayer, for the continuance and enlargement of them, upon the Catholic church, by them, who pretend themselves the only sons thereof; dishonoured this day; upon these churches of England, Scotland, and Ireland, shaked and threatened dangerously this day; upon thy servant, our sovereign, for his defence of the true faith, designed to ruin this day; upon the prince, and others derived from the same root, some but infants, some not yet infants, enwrapped in dust, and annihilation, this day; upon all the deliberations of the counsel, that in all their consultations, they may have before their eyes, the record and registers of this day; upon all the clergy, that all their preaching, and their government, may preclude, in their several jurisdictions, all re-entrances of that religion, which, by the confession of the actors themselves, was the only ground of the treason of this day; upon the whole nobility, and commons, all involved in one common destruction, this day; upon both our universities, which though they lack no arguments out of thy word, against the enemies of thy truth, shall never leave out this argument out of thy works, the history of this day; and upon all those, who are any ways afflicted, that our afflictions be not multiplied upon us,

by seeing them multiplied amongst us, who would have diminished thee, and annihilated us, this day; and lastly, upon this auditory assembled here, that till they turn to ashes in the grave, they may remember, that thou tookest them, as fire-brands out of the fire, this day.

Hear us, O Lord, and hearken to us, receive our prayers, and return them with effect, for his sake, in whose name and words, we make them :

Our Father which art, &c.

THE SERMON.

Or the author of this book, I think there was never doubt made; but yet, that is scarce safely done, which the Council of Trent doth, in that canon, which numbers the books of canonical Scriptures, to leave out this book of Lamentations. For, though I make no doubt, but that they had a purpose to comprehend, and involve it, in the name of Jeremy, yet that was not enough; for so they might have comprehended and involved, Genesis, and Deuteronomy, and all between those two, in one name of Moses; and so they might have comprehended, and involved, the Apocalypse, and some epistles in the name of John, and have left out the book itself in the number. But one of their own Jesuits', though some, (whom in that canon they seem to follow) make this book of Lamentations, but an appendix to the prophecy of Jeremy, determines, for all that canon, that it is a distinct book. Indeed, if it were not, the first chapter would have been called, the fiftythird of Jeremy, and not the first of the Lamentations. But that which gives most assuredness, is, that in divers Hebrew Bibles, it is placed otherwise, than we place it, and not presently, and immediately after the prophecy of Jeremy, but discontinued from him, though he were never doubted to be the author thereof.

The book is certainly the prophet Jeremy's, and certainly a distinct book; but whether the book be a history, or a prophecy, whether Jeremy lament that which he had seen, or that which

1 Castro.

he foresees, calamities past, or future calamities, things done, or things to be done, is a question which hath exercised, and busied divers expositors. But, as we say of the parable of Dives, and Lazarus, that it is a historical parable, and a parabolical history, some such persons there were, and some such things were really done, but some other things were figuratively, symbolically, parabolically added: so we say of Jeremy's Lamentations. It is a prophetical history, and a historical prophecy; some of the sad occasions of these lamentations were passed, when he writ, and some were to come after: for, we may not despise the testimony of the Chaldee paraphrasts, who were the first that illustrated the Bible, in that nation, nor of St. Hierome, who was much conversant with the Bible, and with that nation, nor of Josephus, who had justly so much estimation in that nation, nor of those later rabbins, who were the learnedest of that nation; who are all of opinion, that Jeremy writ these Lamentations, after he saw some declinations in that state, in the death of Josiah, and so the book is historical, but when he only foresaw their transportation into Babylon, before that calamity fell upon them, and so it is prophetical. Or, if we take the expositions of the others, that the whole book was written after their transportation into Babylon, and to be, in all parts, historical, yet it is prophetical still; for the prophet laments a greater desolation than that, in the utter ruin, and devastation of the city, and nation, which was to fall upon them, after the death of Christ Jesus. Neither is any piece of this book, the less fit to be our text, this day, because it is both historical, and prophetical, for, they, from whom, God, in his mercy, gave us a deliverance, this day, are our historical enemies, and our prophetical enemies; historically we know, they have attempted our ruin heretofore, and prophetically we may be sure, they will do so again, whensoever any new occasion provokes them, or sufficient power enables them.

The text then is as the book presented to Ezekiel; in it are written lamentations, and mournings, and woe'; and all they are written within, and without, says the text there; within, as they concern the Jews, without, as they are appliable to us and they concern the Jews, historically (attempts upon that state Jeremy

2 Ezek. ii. 20.

had certainly seen,) and they concern them prophetically, for farther attempts Jeremy did certainly foresee. They are appliable to us both ways too: historically, because we have seen, what they would have done, and prophetically, because we foresee what they would do. So that here is but a difference of the computation; here is stilo veteri, and stilo novo; here is the Jew's calendar, and the papist's calendar; in the Jew's calendar, one Babylon wrought upon the people of God, and in the papist's calendar, another Babylon: stilo veteri, in the Jew's calendar, seven hundred years before Christ came, there were pits made, and the breath of their nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was taken in their pits: stilo novo, in the papist's calendar, sixteen hundred years after Christ came in all fulness, in all clearness, there were pits made again, and the breath of our nostrils, the anointed of the Lord, was almost taken in those pits.

It is then Jeremy's, and it is a distinct book; it concerns the Jews, and it concerns us too; and it concerns us both, both ways, historically, and prophetically. But whether Jeremy lament here the death of a good king, of Josiah, (for so St. Hierome, and many of the ancients, and many of the Jews themselves take it, and think that those words in the Chronicles, have relation to these Lamentations, And Jeremy lamented for Josiah, and all the people speak of him, in their lamentations,) or whether he lament the transportation and the misery of an ill king, of Zedekiah, (as is more ordinarily, and more probably held by the expositors) we argue not, we dispute not now; we embrace that which arises from both, that both good kings, and bad kings, Josiah, and Zedekiah, are the anointed of the Lord, and the breath of the nostrils, that is, the life of the people; and therefore both to be lamented, when they fall into dangers, and consequently both to be preserved by all means, by prayer from them who are private persons, by counsel from them, who have that great honour and that great charge, to be near them in that kind, and by support and supply, from all, of all sorts, from falling into such dangers.

These considerations will, I think, have the better impression in you, if we proceed in the handling of them thus: first, the main cause of the lamentation was the ruin, or the dangerous

32 Chron. Xxxxv. 25.