Lucifer could fall, having nothing to tempt him (for so many of the ancients interpret that place of the fall of the angels, and when the angels fell, there were no other creatures made), but Quid est homo aut filius hominis? Since the father of man, Adam, could not, how shall the sons of him that inherit his weakness, and contract more, and contribute their temptations to one another, hope to stand? Adam fell, and he fell à longe, far off, for he could see no stone to fall upon, for when he fell there was no such Messias, no such means of reparation proposed, nor promised when he fell, as now to us; the Blessed Virgin, and the forerunner of Christ, John Baptist, fell too, but they fell prope, nearer hand, they fell but a little way, for they had this stone (Christ Jesus) in a personal presence, and their faith was always awake in them; but yet he, and she, and they all fell into some sin. Quicunque cadit is unusquisque cadit, whosoever falls, is, whosoever he be, he falls, and whosoever falls, (as we said before) is broken; if he fall upon something, and fall not to an infinite depth; if he fall not upon a soft place, to a delight in sin, but upon a stone, and this stone, (no harder, sharper, ruggeder than this, not into a diffidence, or distrust in God's mercy) he that falls so, and is broken so, that comes to a remorseful, to a broken, and a contrite heart, he is broken to his advantage, left to a possibility, yea brought to a nearness of being pieced again, by the word, by the sacraments, and other medicinal institutions of Christ in his church.

We must end only with touching upon the third part, Upon whom this stone falls, it will grind him to powder; where we shall only tell you first, Quid conteri, What this grinding is; and then, Quid cadere, What the falling of this stone is; and briefly this grinding to powder, is to be brought to that desperate and irrecoverable estate in sin, as that no medicinal correction from God, no breaking, no bowing, no melting, no moulding can bring him to any good fashion; when God can work no cure, do no good upon us by breaking us; not by breaking us in our health, for we will attribute that to weakness of stomach, to surfeit, to indigestion; not by breaking us in our states, for we will impute that to falsehood in servants, to oppression of great adversaries, to iniquity of judges; not by breaking us in our honour, for we

will accuse for that, factions, and practices, and supplantation in court; when God cannot break us with his corrections, but that we will attribute them to some natural, to some accidental l causes, and never think of God's judgments, which are the true cause of these afflictions; when God cannot break us by breaking our backs, by laying on heavy loads of calamities upon us, nor by breaking our hearts, by putting us into a sad, and heavy, and fruitless sorrow and melancholy for these worldly losses, then he comes to break us by breaking our necks, by casting us into the bottomless pit, and falling upon us there, in this wrath and indignation, Comminuam eos in pulverem, saith he, I will beat them as small as dust before the wind 22, and tread them as flat as clay in the streets, the breaking thereof shall be like the breaking of a potter's vessel, which is broken without any pity. (No pity from God, no mercy, neither shall any man pity them, no compassion, no sorrow :) and in the breaking thereof, saith the prophet, there is not found a sheard to take fire at the hearth, nor to take water at the pit; that is, they shall be incapable of any beam of grace in themselves from heaven, or any spark of zeal in themselves, (not a sheard to fetch fire at the hearth) and incapable of any drop of Christ's blood from heaven, or of any tear of contrition in themselves, not a sheard to fetch water at the pit, I will break them as a potter's vessel, Quod non potest instaurari, says God in Jeremiah", there shall be no possible means (of those means which God hath ordained in his church) to recompact them again, no voice of God's word to draw them, no threatenings of God's judgments shall drive them, no censures of God's church shall fit them, no sacrament shall cement and glue them to Christ's body again; in temporal blessings, he shall be thankful, in temporal afflictions, he shall be obdurate: and these two shall serve, as the upper and nether stone of a mill, to grind this reprobate sinner to powder.

Lastly, this is to be done, by Christ's falling upon him, and what is that? I know some expositors take this to be but the falling of God's judgments upon him in this world; but in this world there is no grinding to power, all God's judgments here,

22 Psalm xviii. 42.

13 Isaiah xxx. 14.

24 Jer. xix. 11.

(for anything that we can know) have the nature of physic in them, and may, and are wont to cure; and no man is here so absolutely broken in pieces, but that he may be reunited: we choose therefore to follow the ancients in this, that the falling of this stone upon this reprobate, is Christ's last and irrecoverable falling upon him, in his last judgment; that when he shall wish that the hills might fall and cover him, this stone shall fall, and grind him to powder; He shall be broken, and be no more found, says the prophet, yea, he shall be broken and no more sought: no man shall consider him what he is now, nor remember him what he was before: for, that stone, which in Daniel2, was cut out without hands (which was a figure of Christ, who came without ordinary generation) when that great image was to be overthrown, broke not an arm or a leg, but brake the whole image in pieces, and it wrought not only upon the weak parts, but it brake all, the clay, the iron, the brass, the silver, the gold; so when this stone falls thus, when Christ comes to judgment, he shall not only condemn him for his clay, his earthly and covetous sins, nor for his iron, his revengeful oppressing, and rusty sins, nor for his brass, his shining, and glittering sins, which he hath filed and polished, but he shall fall upon his silver and gold, his religious and precious sins, his hypocritical hearing of sermons, his singular observing of sabbaths, his pharisaical giving of alms, and as well his subtle counterfeiting of religion, as his atheistical opposing of religion, this stone, Christ himself, shall fall upon him, and a shower of other stones shall oppress him too. Sicut pluit laqueos, says David", As God rained springs and snares upon them in this world (abundance of temporal blessings to be occasions of sin unto them): so pluet grandinem, he shall rain such hail-stones upon them, as shall grind them to powder; there shall fall upon him the natural law, which was written in his heart, and did rebuke him, then when he prepared for a sin; there shall fall upon him the written law, which cried out from the mouths of the prophets in these places, to avert him from sin; there shall fall upon him those sins which he hath done, and those sins which he hath not done, if nothing but want of

25 Dan. xi. 19.

26 Dan. ii. 45.

27 Psalm xi. 6.

means and opportunity hindered him from doing them; there shall fall upon him those sins which he hath done after another's dehortation, and those, which others have done after his provocation; there the stones of Nineveh shall fall upon him, and of as many cities as have repented with less proportions of mercy and grace, than God afforded him; there the rubbage of Sodom and Gomorrah shall fall upon him, and as many cities as in their ruin might have been examples to him. All these stones shall fall upon him, and to add weight to all these, Christ Jesus himself shall fall upon his conscience, with unanswerable questions, and grind his soul to powder. But he that overcometh, shall not be hurt by the second death, he that feels his own fall upon this. stone, shall never feel this stone fall upon him, he that comes to a remorse, early, and earnestly after a sin, and seeks by ordinary means, his reconciliation to God in his church, is in the best state that man can be in now; for howsoever we cannot say that repentance is as happy an estate as innocency, yet certainly every particular man feels more comfort and spiritual joy, after a true repentance for a sin, than he had in that degree of innocence which he had before he committed that sin; and therefore in this case also we may safely repeat those words of Augustine, Audeo dicere, I dare be bold to say, that many a man hath been the better for some sin.

Almighty God, who gives that civil wisdom, to make use of other men's infirmities, give us also this heavenly wisdom, to make use of our own particular sins, that thereby our own wretched conditions in ourselves, and our means of reparation in Jesus Christ, may be the more manifested unto us; to whom with the blessed Spirit, &c.

28 Rev. ii. 11.

46

SERMON CXVII.

PREACHED AT ST. PAUL'S UPON CHRISTMAS-DAY, 1621.

JOHN i. 8.

He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light.

Ir is an injury common to all the evangelists, (as Irenæus notes) that all their Gospels were severally refused by one sect of heretics or other. But it was proper to St. John alone, to be refused by a sect, that admitted all the other three evangelists, (as Epiphanius remembers) and refused only St. John. These were the Alogiani, a limb and branch of the Arians, who being unable to look upon the glorious splendour, the divine glory, attributed by St. John to this Logos, (which gave them their name of Alogiani) this Word, this Christ, not comprehending this mystery, that this Word was so with God, as that it was God; they took a round way, and often practised, to condemn all that they did not understand, and therefore refuse the whole Gospel. Indeed his whole Gospel is comprehended in the beginning thereof. In this first chapter is contracted all that which is extensively spread, and dilated through the whole book. For here is first, the foundation of all, the divinity of Christ, to the 15th verse. Secondly, the execution of all, the offices of Christ, to the 35th verse. And then the effect, the working, the application of all, that is, who were to preach all this, to the ends of the world, the calling of his apostles, to the end of the chapter for the first, Christ's divinity, there is enough expressed in the very first verse alone for, there is his eternity, intimated in that word, In principio, In the beginning. The first book of the Bible, Genesis, and the last book, (that is, that which was last written) this Gospel, begin both with this word, in the beginning. But the last beginning was the first, if Moses' beginning do only denote the Creation, which was not six thousand years since, and St. John's, the eternity of Christ, which no millions, multiplied by millions, can calculate. And then, as his eternity, so his distinction of persons, is also specified in this first verse, when the word, (that is, Christ) is said to have been apud Deum, with God.