remember also, that though a man can cut deeper with an axe, than with a knife, with a heavy, than with a lighter instrument; yet God can pierce as far into a conscience, by a plain, as by an exquisite speaker.

Now this widow being thus married, this church thus undertaken, he must perform the duty of a husband's brother: first, it is a personal office, he must do it himself. When Christ shall say, at the judgment, I was naked, and ye clothed me not, sick, and ye visited me not, it shall be no excuse to say, When saw we thee naked, when saw we thee sick? for we might have seen it, we should have seen it. When we shall come to our account, and see them, whose salvation was committed to us, perish, because they were uninstructed, and ignorant, dare we say then, We never saw them, show their ignorance, we never heard of it? That is the greatest part of our fault, the heaviest weight upon our condemnation, that we saw so little, heard so little, conversed so little amongst them, because we were made watchmen, and bound to see, and bound to hear, and bound to be heard; not by others, but by ourselves; my sheep may be saved by others; but I save them not, that are saved so, nor shall I myself be saved by their labour, where mine was necessarily required.

The office is personal, I must do it, and it is perpetual, I must perform it, says the text, go through with it. Lot's wife looked back, and God never gave her leave to look forward again. That man who hath put his hand to the plough, and looks back 25, Christ disables him for the kingdom of God. The Galatians who had begun in the spirit, and then relapsed, before whose eyes Christ Jesus had been evidently set forth", as the apostle speaks, fall under that reproach of the apostle, to be called, and called again, fools, and men bewitched. If I begin to preach, amongst you, and proceed not, I shall fall under that heavy increpation from my God, You began, that you might for your own glory, show that you were in some measure, able to serve the church, and when you had done enough for your own glory, you gave over my glory, and the salvation of their souls, to whom I sent you. God hath set our eyes in our foreheads, to look forward, not backward, not to

24 Matt. xxv. 43.

25 Luke ix. 62.

26 Gal. iii. 3.

be proud of that which we have done, but diligent in that which we are to do. In the creation, if God had given over his work, the third, or fifth day, where had man been? If I give over my prayers, due to the church of God, as long as God enables me to do it service, I lose my thanks, nay, I lose the testimony of mine own conscience for all. My office is personal, and it is perpetual, and then it is a duty. He must perform the duty of a husband's brother unto her.

It is not of courtesy, that we preach, but it is a duty, it is not a bounty given, but it is a debt paid: for, Though I preach the Gospel, I have nothing to glory of, for a necessity is laid upon me, says St. Paul himself 27. It is true, that as there is a Væ si non, Woe be unto me, if I do not preach the Gospel, so there is an Euge bone serve, Well done good and faithful servant, to them that do. But the va, is of justice, the euge is of mercy; if I do it not, I deserve condemnation from God; but if I do it, I deserve not thanks from him. Nay, it is a debt, not only to God, but to God's people, to you: and indeed there is more due to you, than you can claim, or can take knowledge of. For the people can claim but according to the laws of that state, and the canons of that church, in which God hath placed them; such preaching, as those laws, and those canons enjoin, is a debt which they can call for but the pastor himself hath another court, another bar in himself, by which he tries himself, and must condemn himself, if he pay not this debt, perform not this duty, as often, as himself, knows himself, to be fit, and able to do it.

It is a duty, and it is the duty of a husband's brother. Now the husband hath power, and authority over the wife. The head of the woman is the man2; and when the office of this spiritual husband is particularly expressed, thus, reprove, rebuke, exhort, you see, for one word of familiarity, that is, exhort, there are two of authority, reprove, and rebuke. But yet, all the authority of the husband, secular, or ecclesiastical, temporal, or spiritual husband, is grounded, rooted in love: for, the apostle seems to delight himself, in the repeating of that commandment, to the Ephesians, and to the Colossians, Husbands love your wives. Moses extends

29

27 1 Cor. ix. 16.

1 Cor. xi. 3.

28 Matt. xxv. 21.

30 2 Tim. iv. 3.

himself no farther, in expressing all the happinesses, that Isaac and Rebecca enjoyed in one another, but this, she became his wife, and he loved her. If she had not been his wife, Moses would never have proposed that love for an example; for so it is also between Elkanah, and his wife Hannah, (1 Sam. i. 5.) Unto Hannah he gave a double portion, for (says the text) he loved Hannah. If the pastor love, there will be a double labour; if the people love, there will be double respect. But being so, he thought he said all, when he said they loved one another; for where the congregation loves the pastor, he will forbear bitter reproofs, and wounding increpations, and where the pastor loves his congregation, his rebukes, because they proceed out of love, will be acceptable, and well interpreted by them.

It is a duty, and personal, and perpetual; a duty, of a husband, and lastly, of a husband that is brother to the former husband; in which last circumstance, we have time to mark but this one note, that the reason of that law, which drew the brother to this marriage, was the preservation of the temporal inheritance, in that family. Even in our spiritual marriages to widow churches, we must have a care to preserve the temporal rights of all persons; that the parish be not oppressed with heavy extortions, nor the pastor defrauded with unjust subtraction, nor the patron damnified by usurpations, nor the ordinary neglected by disobediences; but that people, and pastor, and patron, and ordinary, continuing in possession of their several rights, love being the root of all, the fruit of all may be peace, love being the soul of all, the body of all may be unity; which the Lord of unity, and concord, grant to us all, for his Son Christ Jesus' sake, Amen.

31 1 Sam. i. 5.

270

SERMON CXXVII.

THE SECOND SERMON PREACHED BY THE AUTHOR AFTER he came to ST. DUNSTAN'S, 25TH APRIL, 1624.

PSALM XXXIV. 11.

Come ye children, hearken unto me, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

THE text does not call children simply, literally, but such men, and women, as are willing to come in the simplicity of children; such children, as Christ spoke of, Except ye become as little children, ye shall not enter into the kingdom of heaven'; Come ye children; come such children. Nor does the text call such as come, and would fain be gone again; it is come and hearken; not such as wish themselves away, nor such as wish another man here; but such as value God's ordinance of preaching, though it be, as the apostle says, but the foolishness of preaching, and such, as consider the office, and not the person, how mean soever; Come ye children; and, when ye are come, hearken, and, though it be but I, hearken unto me; and, I will teach you the fear of the Lord; the most noble, the most courageous, the most magnanimous, not affection, but virtue, in the world; Come ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

To every minister and dispenser of the Word of God, and to every congregation belong these words; and therefore we will divide the text between us; to you one, to us appertains the other part. You must come, and you must hearken; we must teach, and teach to edification; there is the meum et tuum, your part, and our part. From each part, these branches flow out naturally; in yours, first, the capacity, as children; then the action, you come; then your disposition here, you hearken; and lastly, your submission to God's ordinance, you hearken even unto me, unto any minister of his sending. In our part, there is first a teaching; for, else, why should you come, or hearken unto me, or any? It is a teaching, it is not only a praying; and then, there is a catholic doctrine, a circular doctrine, that walks the round, and 21 Cor. i. 21.

1 Matt. xviii. 3.

goes the compass of our whole lives, from our first, to our last childhood, when age hath made us children again, and it is the art of arts, the root, and fruit of all true wisdom, The true fear of the Lord. Come ye children, hearken unto me, and I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

First then, the word, in which, in the first branch of the first part, your capacity is expressed, filii, pueri, children, is, from the original, which is banim, often accepted in three notions, and so rendered; three ways, men are called children, out of that word banim, in the Scriptures. Either it is servi, servants; for, they are filii familiares; as the master is pater familias, father of the family, (and that he is, though there be no natural children in the family) the servants are children of the family, and are very often in Scriptures called so, pueri, children; or it is alumni, nurse-children, foster-children, filii mammillares, children of the breasts; whether we minister to them, temporal or spiritual nourishment, they are children; or else it is filii viscerales, children of our bowels, our natural children. And in all these three capacities, as servants, as sucking children, as sons, are you called upon in this appellation, in this compellation, children.

First, as you are servants, you are children; for, without distinction of age, servants are called so, frequently, ordinarily, in the Scriptures, pueri. The priest asks David, before he would give him the holy bread, An vasa puerorum sancta, Whether those children, (speaking of David's followers) were clean from women"; here were children that were able to get children. Nay, David's soldiers are often called so, pueri, children. In the first of the Kings', he takes a muster, recenset pueros; here were children that were able to kill men. You are his children, (of what age soever) as you are his servants; and in that capacity he calls you. You are unprofitable servants; but it is not an unprofitable service, to serve God; he can get nothing by you, but you can have nothing without him. The centurion's servants came, when he said, Come; and was their wages like yours? Had they their being, their everlasting well-being for their service? You will scarce receive a servant, that is come from another man, without testimony; if you put yourselves out +1 Kings xx. 15.

31 Sam. xxi. 5.