for till we see what we shall be then, we are but short sighted. Wouldst thou say, thou knewest a man, because thou hadst seen him in his cradle? No more canst thou be said to have known thyself, because thou knowest the titles and additions which thou hast received in this word; for all those things which we have here, are but swaddling clouts, and all our motions and preferments, from place to place, are but the rocking of a cradle. The first thing that Christ says to his spouse in the Canticles, is, If thou know not thyself', (for so all the ancients read it, and so the original bears it) If thou know not thyself, O thou fairest of women; she might know that she was the fairest of women, and yet not know herself; thou mayest know that thou art the happiest of men, in this world, and yet not know thyself. All this life is but a preface, or but an index and repertory to the book of life; there, at that book begins thy study; to grow perfect in that book, to be daily conversant in that book, to find what be the marks of them, whose names are written in that book, and to find those marks, ingenuously, and in a rectified conscience, in thyself, to find that no murmuring at God's corrections, no disappointing of thy hopes, no interrupting of thy expectations, no frustrating of thy possibilities in the way, no impatience in sickness, and in the agony of death, can deface those marks, this is to go forth, and see thyself beyond thyself, to see what thou shalt be in the next world. Now we cannot see our own face without a glass: and therefore in the old temple, in or about that laver of brass, where the water for the uses of the church was reserved, Moses appointed looking-glasses to be placed; that so, at the entering into the temple, men might see themselves, and make use of that water, if they had contracted any foulness in any part about them. Here, at your coming hither now, you have two glasses, wherein you may see yourselves from head to foot; one in the text, your head, Christ Jesus, represented unto you, in the name and person of Solomon, Behold King Solomon crowned, &c. And another, under your feet, in the dissolution of this great monarch, our royal master, now laid lower by death than any of us, his subjects and

servants.

5 Cant. i. 8.

6 Exod. xxxviii. 8.

First then, behold yourselves in that first glass, Behold King Solomon; Solomon the son of David, but not the son of Bathsheba, but of a better mother, the most blessed Virgin Mary. For, Solomon, in this text, is not a proper name, but an appellative; a significative word: Solomon is pacificus, the peace-maker, and our peace is made in, and by Christ Jesus: and he is that Solomon, whom we are called upon to see here. Now, as St. Paul says, that He would know nothing but Christ, (that is his first abridgment) and then he would know nothing of Christ, but him crucified, (and that is the re-abridgment) so we seek no other glass, to see ourselves in, but Christ, nor any other thing in this glass, but his humiliation. What need we? Even that, his lowest humiliation, his death, is expressed here, in three words of exaltation, it is a crown, it is a marriage, it is the gladness of heart: Behold King Solomon crowned, &c.

The crown, which we are called to see him crowned with, his mother put upon him; the crown which his Father gave him, was that glory, wherewith he was glorified, with the Father, from all eternity, in his divine nature: and the crown wherewith his Father crowned his human nature, was the glory given to that, in his ascension. His mother could give him no such crown; she herself had no crown, but that, which he gave her. The crown that she gave him, was that substance, that he received from her, our flesh, our nature, our humanity, and this, Athanasius, and this, St. Ambrose, calls the crown, wherewith his mother crowned him, in this text, his infirm, his human nature. Or, the crown wherewith his mother crowned him, was that crown, to which, that infirm nature which he took from her, submitted him, which was his passion, his crown of thorns; for so Tertullian, and divers others take this crown of his, from her, to be his crown of thorns: Woe to the crown of pride, whose beauty is a fading flower, says the prophet'; but blessed be this crown of humiliation, whose flower cannot fade. Then was there truly a rose amongst thorns, when through his crown of thorns, you might see his title, Jesus Nazarenus: for, in that very name, Nazarenus, is involved the signification of a flower; the very word signifies a flower. Esay's flower in the crown of pride fades, and is removed; this flower

7 Isaiah xxviii, 1.

in the crown of thorns fades not, nor could be removed: for, for all the importunity of the Jews, Pilate would not suffer that title to be removed, or to be changed; still Nazarenus remained, and still a rose amongst thorns. You know the curse of the earth, Thorns and thistles shall it bring forth unto thee; it did so to our Solomon here, it brought forth thorns to Christ, and he made a crown of those thorns, not only for himself, but for us too, Omnes aculei mortis, in dominici corporis tolerantia, obtusi sunt', All the thorns of life and death, are broken, or blunted upon the head of our Solomon, and now, even our thorns, make up our crown, our tribulation in life, our dissolution in death, conduce to our glory: Behold him crowned with his mother's crown, for even that brought him to his Father's crown, his humiliation to exaltation, his passion to glory.

Behold your Solomon, your Saviour again, and you shall see another beam of comfort, in your tribulations from his; for even this humiliation of his, is called his espousals, his marriage, Behold him crowned in the day of his espousals. His spouse is the church, his marriage is the uniting of himself to this spouse, in his becoming head of the church. The great city, the heavenly Jerusalem, is called the bride, and the Lamb's wife, in the Revelation: and he is the head of this body, the bridegroom of this bride, the head of this church, as he is the first born of the dead; death, that dissolves all ours, made up this marriage. His death is his marriage, and upon his death flowed out from his side, those two elements of the church, water and blood; the sacraments of baptism, and of the communion of himself. Behold then this Solomon crowned and married; both words of exaltation and exultation, and both by death; and trust him for working the same effects upon thee; that thou (though by death) shall be crowned with a crown of glory, and married to him, in whose right and merit thou shalt have that crown.

And behold him once again, and you shall not see a beam, but a stream of comfort; for this day, which is the day of his death, he calls here The day of the gladness of his heart. Behold him crowned in the day of the gladness of his heart. The fulness, the

8 Gen. iii. 18.

9 Tertullian.

10 Rev. xxi. 19.

compass, the two hemispheres of heaven, are often designed to us, in these two names, joy and glory: If the cross of Christ, the death of Christ, present us both these, how near doth it bring, how fully doth it deliver heaven itself to us in this life? And then we hear the apostle say, We see Jesus, for the suffering of death, crowned with honour and glory": there is half heaven got by death, glory. And then, For the joy that was set before him, he endured the cross 12; there is the other half, joy; all heaven purchased by death. And therefore, If any man suffer as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, saith the apostle13; but let him glorify God, in isto nomine, as the Vulgate reads it; in that behalf, as we translate it. But, In isto nomine, saith St. Augustine: Let us glorify God, in that name; non solum in nomine Christiani, sed Christiani patientis, not only because he is a Christian in his baptism, but a Christian in a second baptism, a baptism of blood; not only as he hath received Christ, in accepting his institution, but because he hath conformed himself to Christ, in fulfilling his sufferings. And therefore, though we admit natural and human sorrow, in the calamities which overtake us, and surround us in this life: (for as all glasses will gather drops and tears from external causes, so this very glass which we look upon now, our Solomon in the text, our Saviour, had those sadnesses of heart toward his passion, and agonies in his passion) yet Count it all joy when you fall into temptations, saith the apostle': all joy, that is, both the interest and the principal, hath the earnest and the bargain; for if you can conceive joy in your tribulations in this world, How shall that joy be multiplied unto you, when no tribulation shall be mingled with it? There is not a better evidence, nor a more binding earnest of everlasting joy in the next world, than to find joy of heart in the tribulations of this; fix thyself therefore upon this first glass, this Solomon, thy Saviour, Behold King Solomon crowned, &c., and by conforming thyself to his holy sadness, and humiliation, thou shalt also become like him, in his joy, and glory.

But then the hand of God hath not set up, but laid down another glass, wherein thou mayest see thyself; a glass that

11 Heb. ii. 9.

13 1 Pet. iv. 16.

12 Heb. xii. 2. 14 James i. 2.

reflects thyself, and nothing but thyself. Christ, who was the other glass, is like thee in every thing, but not absolutely, for sin is excepted; but in this glass presented now (the body of our royal, but dead master and sovereign) we cannot, we do not except sin. Not only the greatest man is subject to natural infirmities, (Christ himself was so) but the holiest man is subject to original and actual sin, as thou art, and so a fit glass for thee, to see thyself in. Jet shows a man his face, as well as crystal; nay, a crystal glass will not show a man his face, except it be steeled, except it be darkened on the back side: Christ as he was a pure crystal glass, as he was God, had not been a glass for us, to have seen ourselves in, except he had been steeled, darkened with our human nature; neither was he ever so thoroughly darkened, as that he could present us wholly to ourselves, because he had no sin, without seeing of which we do not see ourselves. Those therefore that are like thee in all things, subject to human infirmities, subject to sins, and yet are translated, and translated by death, to everlasting joy, and glory, are nearest and clearest glasses for thee, to see thyself in; and such is this glass, which God hath proposed to thee, in this house. And therefore, change the word of the text, in a letter or two, from egredimini, to ingredimini; never go forth to see, but Go in and see a Solomon crowned with his mother's crown, &c. And when you shall find that hand that had signed to one of you a patent for title, to another for pension, to another for pardon, to another for dispensation, dead: that hand that settled possessions by his seal, in the keeper, and rectified honours by the sword, in his marshal, and distributed relief to the poor, in his almoner, and health to the diseased, by his immediate touch, dead: that hand that balanced his own three kingdoms so equally, as that none of them complained of one another, nor of him, and carried the keys of all the Christian world, and locked up, and let out armies in their due season, dead; how poor, how faint, how pale, how momentary, how transitory, how empty, how frivolous, how dead things, must you necessarily think titles, and possessions, and favours, and all, when you see that hand, which was the hand of destiny, of Christian destiny, of the Almighty God, lie dead! It was not so hard a hand when