of others, nor he doth not make them mighty, and then leave them, ut glorietur in malo qui potens est, that he should think it a glory to be able to do harm. He doth not impoverish and dishonour his children, and then leave them; leave them insensible of that doctrine, that patience is as great a blessing as abundance; God giveth not his children health, and then leaveth them to a boldness in surfeiting; nor beauty, and leave them to a confidence of opening themselves to all solicitations; nor valour, and then leaveth them to a spirit of quarrelsomeness; God maketh no patterns of his works, no models of his houses, he maketh whole pieces, he maketh perfect houses, he putteth his children into good ways, and he directeth and protecteth them in those ways: for this is the constancy and the perseverance of the love of Christ Jesus, as he is called in this text a stone. To come to the particular benefits; the first is that he is lapis fundamentalis, a foundation-stone; for other foundation can no man lay than that which is laid, which is Christ Jesus. Now where St. Augustine saith, (as he doth in two or three places) that this place of St. Paul's to the Corinthians, is one of these places of which St. Peter saith, Quædam difficilia, There are some things in St. Paul hard to be understood: St. Augustine's meaning is, that the difficulty is in the next words, How any man should build hay or stubble upon so good a foundation as Christ, how any man that pretendeth to live in Christ, should live ill, for in the other there can be no difficulty, How Christ Jesus to a Christian, should be the only foundation: and therefore to place salvation or damnation in such an absolute decree of God, as should have no relation to the fall of man, or reparation in a Redeemer; this is to remove this stone out of the foundation, for a Christian may be well content to begin at Christ: if any man therefore have laid any other foundation to his faith, or any other foundation to his actions, possession of great places, alliance in great families, strong parties in courts, obligation upon dependants, acclamations of people; if he have laid any other foundations for pleasure, and contentment, care of health, and complexion, appliableness in conversation, delightfulness in discourses, cheerfulness in disportings, interchanging of secrets, and such other small wares of

1 Cor. iii.

courts and cities as these are: whosoever hath laid such foundations as these, must proceed as that general did, who when he received a besieged town to mercy, upon condition that in sign of subjection they should suffer him to take off one row of stones from their walls, he took away the lowest row, the foundation, and so ruined and demolished the whole walls of the city; so must he that hath these false foundations (that is, these habits). divest the habit, root out the lowest stone, that is, the general, and radical inclination to these disorders: for he shall never be able to watch and resist every particular temptation, if he trust only to his moral constancy; no, nor if he place Christ for the roof to cover all his sins, when he hath done them; his mercy worketh by way of pardon after, not by way of non obstante, and privilege to do a sin beforehand; but beforehand we must have the foundation in our eye; when we undertake any particular action, in the beginning, we must look how that will suit with the foundation, with Christ; for there is his first place, to be lapis fundamentalis.

And then, after we have considered him, first, in the foundation (as we are all Christians) he grows to be lapis angularis, the corner-stone, to unite those Christians, which seem to be of divers ways, divers aspects, divers professions together; as we consider him in the foundation, there he is the root of faith, as we consider him in the corner, there he is the root of charity, in Esay he is both together, a sure foundation and a corner-stone3, as he was in the place of Esay, lapis probatus, I will lay in Sion a tried stone, and in the Psalm, lapis reprobatus, a stone that the builders refused, in this consideration, he is lapis approbatus, a stone approved by all sides, that unites all things together: consider first, what divers things he unites in his own person; that he should be the son of a woman, and yet no son of man, that the son of a woman should be the son of God, that man's sinful nature, and innocency should meet together, a man that should not sin, that God's nature and mortality should meet together, a God that must die; briefly, that he should do and suffer so many things impossible as man, impossible as God. Thus he was a corner-stone, that brought together natures,

VOL. V.

5 Isaiah xxviii. 16.

6 Psalm cxviii. 22.

D

naturally incompatible. Thus he was lapis angularis, a cornerstone in his person, consider him in his offices, as a Redeemer, as a Mediator, and so he hath united God to man; yea, rebellious man to jealous God: he is such a corner stone has hath united heaven and earth, Jerusalem and Babylon together.

Thus in his person, and thus in his offices, consider him in his power, and he is such a corner-stone, as that he is the God of peace, and love, and union, and concord. Such a corner-stone as is able to unite, and reconcile (as it did in Abraham's house) a wife and a concubine in one bed, a covetous father and a wasteful son in one family, a severe magistrate and a licentious people in one city, an absolute prince and a jealous people in one kingdom, law and conscience in one government, Scripture and tradition in one church. If we would but make Christ Jesus and his peace, the life and soul of all our actions, and all our purposes; if we would mingle that sweetness and suppleness which he loves, and which he is, in all our undertakings; if in all controversies, book controversies, and sword controversies, we would fit them to him, and see how near they would meet in him, that is, how near we might come to be friends, and yet both sides be good Christians; then we placed this stone in his second right place, who as he is a corner-stone reconciling God and man in his own person, and a corner-stone in reconciling God and mankind in his office, so he desires to be a corner-stone in reconeiling man and man, and settling peace among ourselves, not for worldly ends, but for this respect, that we might all meet in him to love one another, not because we made a stronger party by that love, not because we made a sweeter conversation by that love, but because we met closer in the bosom of Christ Jesus; where we must at last either rest altogether eternally, or be altogether eternally thrown out, or be eternally separated and divorced from one another.

Having then received Christ for the foundation-stone, (we believe aright) and for the corner-stone (we interpret charitably the opinions and actions of other men) the next is, that he be lapis Jacob, a stone of rest and security to ourselves. When Jacob was in his journey he took a stone, and that stone was his pillow, upon that he slept all night, &c., resting upon that stone,

he saw the ladder that reached from heaven to earth; it is much to have this egress and regress to God, to have a sense of being gone from him, and a desire and means of returning to him; when we do fall into particular sins, it is well if we can take hold of the first step of this ladder, with that hand of David, Domine respice in testamentum, O Lord, consider thy covenant', if we can remember God of his covenant, to his people, and to their seed, it is well; it is more, if we can clamber a step higher on this ladder to a Domine labia mea aperies, if we come to open our lips in a true confession of our wretched condition and of those sins by which we have forfeited our interest in that covenant, it is more; and more than that too, if we come to that inebriabo me lacrymis, if we overflow and make ourselves drunk with tears, in a true sense, and sorrow for those sins, still it is more; and more than all this, if we can expostulate with God in an Usque quo Domine, How long, O Lord, shall I take counsel in myself, having weariness in my heart'? These steps, these gradations towards God, do well; war is a degree of peace, as it is the way of peace; and these colluctations and wrestlings with God, bring a man to peace with him; but then is a man upon this stone of Jacob, when in a fair, and even, and constant religious course of life, he enters into his sheets every night, as though his neighbours next day were to shroud and wind him in those sheets; he shuts up his eyes every night, as though his executors had closed them; and lies down every night, not as though his man were to call him up next morning, or to the next day's sport, or business, but as though the angels were to call him to the resurrection; and this is our third benefit, as Christ is a stone, we have security and peace of conscience in him.

The next is, that he is lapis David, the stone with which David slew Goliah, and with which we may overcome all our enemies; Sicut baculus crucis, ita lapis Christi habuit typum'; David's sling was a type of the cross, and the stone was a type of Christ, we will choose to insist upon spiritual enemies, sins; and this is that stone that enables the weakest man to overthrow the strongest sin, if he proceed as David did: David says to Goliah,

7 Psalm LXxiv. 20.

9 Psalm xiii. 2.

Isaiah xvi. 9.

10

Augustine.

Thou comest to me with a spear and a shield, but I come to thee in the name of the God of the hosts of Israel, whom thou hast railed upon", if thou watch the approach of any sin, any giant sin that transports thee most; if thou apprehend it to rail against the Lord of hosts, (that is, that there is a loud and active blasphemy against God in every sin) if thou discern it to come with a sword, or a spear, (that is, persuasions of advancement if thou do it, or threatenings of dishonour, if thou do it not,) if it come with a shield, (that is, with promises to cover and palliate it, though thou do it,) if then this David, (thy attempted soul) can put his hand into his bag (as David did) (for Quid cor hominis nisi sacculus Dei? A man's heart is that bag in which God lays up all good directions) if he can but take into his consideration his Jesus, his Christ, and sling one of his works, his words, his commandments, his merits, this Goliah, this giant sin, will fall to the ground; and then, as it is said of David, that he slew him when he had no sword in his hand, and yet in the next verse, that he took his sword and slew him with that: so even by the consideration of what my Lord hath done for me, I shall give that sin the first death's wound, and then I shall kill him with his own sword, that is, his own abomination, his own foulness shall make me detest him. If I dare but look my sin in the face, if I dare tell him, I come in the name of the Lord, if I consider my sin, I shall triumph over it, Et dabit certanti victoriam qui dedit certandi audaciam 13, That God that gave me courage to fight, will give me strength to overcome.

The last benefit which we consider in Christ, as he is a stone, is, that he is petra, a rock; the rock gave water to the Israelites in the wilderness; and he gave them honey out of the stone, and oil out of the hard rock": now when St. Paul says, That our fathers drank of the same Rock as we, he adds that the same Rock was Christ"; so that all temporal, and all spiritual blessings to us, and to the fathers, were all conferred upon us in Christ; but we consider not now any miraculous production from the rock, but that which is natural to the rock; that it is a firm defence to us in all tempests, in all afflictions, in all tribulations;

111 Sam. xvii. 45. 14 Num. XX..

12 Gregory.

15 Deut. xxxii. 13.

13

Augustine.

16 1 Cor. x. 4.