wilt thou not say to them, to thyself, in the behalf of Christ, Why persecute ye me? Wilt thou not make Christ's case thine, as he made thine his? Art not thou the bowels of Christ? If not, (and thou art not, if thou have not this sense of his suffering) thou hast no interest in his death, by thy baptism, nor in his resurrection, by thy feeble half repentances. But in the duty of a child, as thou art a servant, in the simplicity of a child, as thou hast sucked from him, in the interest and inheritance of a child, as thou art the son of his bowels, in all these capacities, (and with all these we have done) God calls thee, Come ye children; and that is our next step, the action, Come.

Passing thus from the persons to the action, venite, come, we must ask first, what this coming is? The whole mystery of our redemption is expressed by the apostle in this word, venit, that Christ Jesus is come into the world'. All that thou hast to do, is to come to, and to meet him. Where is he? At home; in his own house, in the church. Which is his house, which is his church? That to thee, in which he hath given thee thy baptism, if that do still afford thee, as much as is necessary for thy salvation. Come thither, to the participation of his ordinances, to the exercises of religion there. The gates of heaven shall be opened to you, at last in that word, venite benedicti, come ye blessed, the way to those gates is opened to you now, in the same word, venite filii, come ye children, come. Christ can come, and does often, into thy bed-chamber, in the visitation of his private Spirit, but, here, he calls thee out into the congregation, into the communion of saints. And then the church celebrates Christ's coming in the flesh, a month before he comes, in four Sundays of Advent, before Christmas. When thou comest to meet him in the congregation, come not occasionally, come not casually, not indifferently, not collaterally; come not as to an entertainment, a show, a spectacle, or company, come solemnly, with preparation, with meditation. He shall have the less profit, by the prayer of the congregation, that hath not been at his private prayer before he came. Much of the mystery of our religion lay in the venturus, that Christ was to come, all that the law and prophets undertook for, was that venturus, that Christ was to come; but

14 1 Tim. i. 15.

the consummation of all, the end of the law and the prophets, is in the venit, he is come. Do not clog thy coming with future conditions, and contingencies, thou wilt come, if thou canst wake, if thou canst rise, if thou canst be ready, if thou like the company, the weather, the man. We find one man who was brought in his bed to Christ'; but it was but one. Come, come actually, come earnestly, come early, come often; and come to meet him, Christ Jesus and nobody else. Christ is come into the world; and therefore thou needest not go out of the world to meet him; he doth not call thee from thy calling, but in thy calling. The dove went up and down, from the ark, and to the ark, and yet was not disappointed of her olive-leaf, thou mayest come to this place at due times, and mayest do the businesses of the world, in other places too, and still keep thy olive, thy peace of conscience. If no heretical recusancy, (thou dost like the doctrine) no schismatical recusancy, (thou dost like the discipline) no lazy recusancy, (thou forbearest not because thou canst not sit at thine ease) no proud recusancy, (that the company is not good enough for thee) if none of these detain thee, thou mayest be here, even when thou art not here; God may accept thy desire; as, in many cases, thou mayest be away, when thou art here; as, in particular thou art, if being here, thou do not hearken to that which is said here; for that is added to the coming, and follows in a third consideration, after the capacity, children, and the action, come, the disposition, hearken: come ye children and hearken.

Upon those words of David, Conturbata sunt ossa mea1, St. Basil saith well, Habet et anima ossa sua, The soul hath bones as well as the body. And in this anatomy, and dissection of the soul, as the bones of the soul, are the constant and strong resolutions thereof, and as the seeing of the soul is understanding (The eyes of your understanding being opened1o) so the hearing of the soul is hearkening; in these religious exercises, we do not hear, except we hearken; for hearkening is the hearing of the soul. Some men draw some reasons, out of some stories of some credit, to imprint a belief of ecstacy, and raptures; that the body remain

15 Matt. ix. 2.

17 Psalm vi. 3.

16 Gen. viii. 11. 18 Ephes. i. 18.

ing upon the floor, or in the bed, the soul may be gone out to the contemplation of heavenly things. But it were a strange and a perverse ecstacy, that the body being here, at a religious exercise, and in a religious posture, the soul should be gone out to the contemplation, and pursuit of the pleasures or profits of this world. You come hither but to your own funerals, if you bring nothing hither but your bodies; you come but to be entered, to be laid in the earth, if the ends of your coming be earthly respects, praise, and opinion, and observation of men; you come to be canonized, to grow saints, if your souls be here, and by grace here always diffused, grow up to a sanctification. Bonus es Domine anima quærenti te, Thou art good, O Lord, to that soul that seeks thee; it is St. Augustine's note, that it is put in the singular, animæ, to that soul: though many come, few come to him. A man may thread sermons by half-dozens a day, and place his merit in the number, a man may have been all day in the perfume and incense of preaching, and yet have received none of the savour of life unto life. Some things an ape can do as well as a man; some things an hypocrite as well as a saint. We cannot see now, whether thy soul be here now, or no; but, to-morrow, hereafter, in the course of thy life, they which are near thee, and know whether thy former faults be mended, or no, know whether thy soul used to be at sermons, as well as thy body used to go to sermons. Faith comes by hearing, saith the apostle; but it is by that hearing of the soul, hearkening, considering. And then, as the soul is infused by God, but diffused over the whole body, and so there is a man, so faith is infused from God, but diffused into our works, and so there is a saint. Practice is the incarnation of faith, faith is incorporated and manifested in a body, by works; and the way to both, is that hearing, which amounts to this hearkening, to a diligent, to a considerate, to a profitable hearing. In which, one essential circumstance is, that we be not over-affectionately transported with an opinion of any one person, but apply ourselves to the ordinance, Come, and hearken unto me, to any whom God sends with the seal and character of his minister, which is our fourth and last branch in your part.

David doth not determine this in his own person, that you should hearken to him, and none but him, but that you should

hearken to him in that capacity and qualification, which is common to him with others, as we are sent by God upon that ministry; that you say to all such, Blessed art thou that comest in the name of the Lord. St. Augustine, and not he alone, interprets this whole psalm of Christ, that it is a thanksgiving of Christ to his Father, upon some deliverance received in some of his agonies, some of his persecutions; and that Christ calleth us to hearken unto him. To him, so, as he is present with us, in the ministry of his church, he is a perverse servant, that will receive no commandment, except he have it immediately from his master's mouth; so is he too, that pretendeth to rest so wholly in the word of God, the Scriptures, as that he seeks no interpretation, no exposition, no preaching, all is in the Scriptures, but all the Scriptures are not always evident to all understandings. He also is a perverse servant, that will receive no commandment by any officer of his master's, except he like the man, or, if his master might, in his opinion, have chosen a fitter man, to serve in that place. And such a perverseness is in those hearers who more respect the man, than the ministry, and his manner of delivering it, than the message that he delivers. Let a man so account of us, as of the ministers of Christ, and stewards of the mysteries of God1o. That is our classis, our rank, our station, what names soever we brought into the world by our extraction from this or that family, what name soever we took in our baptism, and contract between God and us, that name, in which we come to you, is that, the ministers of Christ, the stewards of the mysteries of God, and so let men account of us, says the apostle. Invention, and disposition, and art, and eloquence, and expression, and elocution, and reading, and writing, and printing, are secondary things, accessory things, auxiliary, subsidiary things; men may account us, and make account of us, as of orators in the pulpit, and of authors, in the shop; but if they account of us as of ministers and stewards, they give us our due; that is our name to you. All the evangelists mention John Baptist and his preaching; but two of the four say never a word of his austerity of life, his locusts, nor his camel's hair; and those two that do, Matthew and Mark, they insist, first, upon his calling, and then upon

19 1 Cor. iv. 1.

his actual preaching, how he pursued that calling, and then upon the doctrine that he preached, repentance, and sanctification, and after that, they come to these secondary and subsidiary things, which added to his estimation, and assisted the passage of his doctrine, his good life. Learning, and other good parts, and an exemplar life fall into second places; they have a first place, in their consideration who are to call them, but in you, to whom they are sent, but a second; fix you, in the first place, upon the calling. This calling circumcised Moses' uncircumcised lips; this made Jeremy able to speak, though he called himself a child"; this is Esay's coal from the altar, which takes away even his sin, and his iniquity. Be therefore content to pass over some infirmities, and rest yourselves upon the calling. And when you have thus taken the simplicity of children, (they are the persons, which was our first step) and are come to the congregation, (that is your action, and was our second) and have conformed yourselves to hearken, (that also is the disposition here, which was our third) and all this with a reverence to the calling before an affection to the man, (that is your submission to God's ordinance, and was our fourth and last step) you have then built our first part in yourselves, and laid together all those pieces which constitute your duty, Come ye children, and hearken unto me; and from hence we pass, to our duty, I will teach you the fear of the Lord.

In this second part, we made two steps; first, the manner, Docebo, I will teach; and then the matter, Timorem Domini, I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Upon the first, we will stay no longer, but to confess, that we are bound to teach, and that this teaching is to preach; Va si non, Woe be unto us, if we do not preach. Woe to them, who, out of ease, or state, silence themselves; and woe to them too, who by their distemper, and schismatical and seditious manner of preaching, occasion and force others to silence them; and think, (and think it out of a profitable, and manifold experience) that as forbidden books sell best, so silenced ministers thrive best. It is a duty, docendum, we must teach, preach; but a duty that excludes not catechizing;

20 Exod. vi. 12.

21 Jer. i. 6.

22 Isaiah vi. 6.