writ one thing, yet all have some things particular. And Luke most, for he writ last of three, and largeliest for himself, saith", I have made the former treatise of all that Jesus began to do and teach, until the day that he was taken up; which speech, lest the words in the last of John, If all were written which Jesus did, the world could not contain the books, should condemn, Ambrose and Chrysostom interpret well out of the words themselves, Scripsit de omnibus, non omnia, He writ of all, but not all: for it must have the same limitation, which Paul giveth his words, who saith, Acts xx., in one verse, I have kept nothing back, but have showed you all the counsel of God; and in another, I kept back nothing that was profitable. It is another peculiar singularity of Luke's, that he addresseth his history to one man, Theophilus. For it is but weakly surmised, that he chose that name, for all lovers of God, because the interpretation of the word suffereth it, since he addeth most noble Theophilus. But the work doth not the less belong to the whole church, for that, no more than his master's epistles do though they be directed to particulars.

It is also a singularity in him to write upon that reason, because divers have written. In human knowledge, to abridge or suck, and then suppress other authors, is not ever honest nor profitable we see after that vast enterprise of Justinian, who distilled all the law into one vessel, and made one book of two thousand, suppressing all the rest, Alciate wisheth he had let them alone, and thinketh the doctors of our times would better have drawn useful things from those volumes, than his Trebonian and Dorothee did. And Aristotle after, by the immense liberality of Alexander, he had engrossed all authors, is said to have defaced all, that he might be instead of all: and therefore, since they cannot rise against him, he imputes to them errors which they held not vouches only such objections from them, as he is able to answer; and propounds all good things in his own name, which he ought to them. But in this history of Luke's, it is otherwise he had no authority to suppress them, nor doth he

15 Acts i. 1.

16 Tribonian, Theophilus, and Dorotheus were the persons selected by Justinian to compile the Institutes.-See Gibbon, chap. xLiv.—ED,

reprehend or calumniate them, but writes the truth simply, and leaves it to outwear falsehood: and so it hath: Moses's rod hath devoured the conjuror's rod, and Luke's story still retains the majesty of the maker, and theirs are not.

Other singularities in Luke, of form or matter, I omit, and end with one like this in our text. As in the apprehending of our blessed Saviour, all the evangelists record, that Peter cut off Malchus's ear, but only Luke remembers the healing of it again: (I think) because that act of curing, was most present and obvious to his consideration, who was a physician: so he was therefore most apt, to remember this prayer of Christ, which is the physic and balsamum of our soul, and must be applied to us all, (for we do all crucify him, and we know not what we do) and therefore St. Hierome gave a right character of him, in his epistle to Paulinus, Fuit medicus, et pariter omnia verba illius, Anima languentis sunt medicino, As he was a physician, so all his words are physic for a languishing soul.

Now let us despatch the last consideration, of the effect of this prayer. Did Christ intend the forgiveness of the Jews, whose utter ruin God (that is, himself) had fore-decreed? And which he foresaw, and bewailed even then hanging upon the cross? For those divines which reverently forbear to interpret the words, Lord, Lord, why hast thou forsaken me? of a suffering hell in his soul, or of a departing of the Father from him; (for John xvi., it is, I am not alone, for the Father is with me) offer no exposition of those words more convenient, than that the foresight of the Jews' imminent calamities, expressed and drew those words from him : In their afflictions, were all kinds, and all degrees of misery. So that as one writer of the Roman story saith elegantly, He that considereth the acts of Rome, considereth not the acts of one people, but of mankind: I may truly of the Jews' afflictions, he that knoweth them, is ignorant of nothing that this world can threaten. For to that which the present authority of the Romans inflicted upon them, our Schools have added upon their posterities; that they are slaves to Christians, and their goods subject to spoil, if the laws of the princes where they live, did not out of indulgency defend them. Did he then ask, and was not heard?

God forbid. A man is heard, when that is given which his will desired; and our will is ever understood to be a will rectified, and concurrent with God. This is voluntas, a discoursed and examined will. That which is upon the first sight of the object, is velleitas, a willingness, which we resist not, only because we thought not of it. And such a willingness had Christ, when suddenly he wished that the cup might pass: but quickly conformed his will to his Father's. But in this prayer his will was present, therefore fulfilled. Briefly then, in this prayer he commended not all the Jews, for he knew the chief to sin knowingly, and so out of the reach of his reason, (for they know not). Nor any, except they repented after: for it is not ignorance, but repentance, which deriveth to us the benefit of God's pardon. For he that sins of ignorance, may be pardoned if he repent; but he that sins against his conscience, and is thereby impenitable, cannot be pardoned. And this is all, which I will say of these words, Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.

O Eternal God, look down from thy throne to thy foot-stool: from thy blessed company of angels and saints, to us, by our own faults made more wretched and contemptible, than the worms which shall eat us, or the dust which we were, and shall be. O Lord, under the weight of thy justice we cannot stand. Nor had any other title to thy mercy, but the name of Father, and that we have forfeited. That name of sons of God, thou gavest to us, all at once in Adam; and he gave it away from us all by his sin. And thou hast given it again to every one of us, in our regeneration by baptism, and we have lost it again by our transgressions. And yet thou wast not weary of being merciful, but didst choose one of us, to be a fit and worthy ransom for us all; and by the death of thy Christ, our Jesus, gavest us again the title and privilege of thy sons; but with conditions, which though easy, we have broke, and with a yoke, which though light and sweet, we have cast off. How shall we then dare to call thee Father? Or to beg that thou wilt make one trial more of us? These hearts are accustomed to rebellions, and hopeless. But, O God, create in us new hearts, hearts capable of the love and fear, due to a

Father. And then we shall dare to say, Father, and to say, Father, forgive us. Forgive us O Father, and all which are engaged, and accountable to thee for us; forgive our parents, and those which undertook for us in baptism. Forgive the civil magistrate, and the minister. Forgive them their negligences, and us our stubbornnesses. And give us the grace that we may ever sincerely say, both this prayer of example and counsel, Forgive our enemies, and that other of precept, Our Father which art in heaven, &c.

SERMON CXVI.

PREACHED FEBRUARY 21, 1611.

MATTHEW XXi. 44.

Whosoever shall fall on this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall, it will grind him to powder.

ALMIGHTY GOD made us for his glory, and his glory is not the glory of a tyrant, to destroy us, but his glory is in our happiness. He put us in a fair way towards that happiness in nature, in our creation, that way would have brought us to heaven, but then we fell, and (if we consider ourselves only) irrecoverably. He put us after into another way, over thorny hedges and ploughed lands, through the difficulties and encumbrances of all the ceremonial law; there was no way to heaven then, but that; after that, he brought us a cross way, by the cross of Jesus Christ, and the application of his Gospel, and that is our way now. If we compare the way of nature, and our way, we went out of the way at the town's end, as soon as we were in it, we were out of it. Adam died as soon as he lived, and fell as soon as he was set on foot; if we compare the way of the law, and ours, the Jews and the Christians, their synagogue was but as God's farm, our church is as his dwelling-house; to them locavit vineam, he let out his vine to husbandmen, and then peregre profectus, he went into a

far country, he promised a Messias, but deferred his coming a long time but to us dabitur regnum, a kingdom is given; the vineyard is changed into a kingdom, here is a good improvement, and the lease into an absolute deed of gift, here is a good enlargement of the term. He gives, therefore he will not take away again. He gives a kingdom, therefore there is a fulness and allsufficiency in the gift; and he does not go into any far country, but stays with us, to govern us, usque ad consummationem, till the end of the world; here therefore God takes all into his own hands, and he comes to dwell upon us himself, to which purpose he ploughs up our hearts, and he builds upon us; Vos Dei agricultura, et Dei ædificium, Ye are God's husbandry, and God's building': now of this, this husbandry God speaks familiarly and parabolically many times in Scriptures: of this building particucularly and principally in this place, where having intimated unto us the several benefits we have received from Christ Jesus in that appellation, as he is a stone; he tells us also our dangers in mis-behaving ourselves towards it, Whosoever shall fall on this, &c.

Christ then is a stone, and we may run into two dangers: first, we may fall upon this stone, and then this stone may fall upon us; but yet we have a great deal of comfort presented to us, in that Christ is presented to us as a stone, for there we shall find him, first, to be the foundation-stone, nothing can stand which is not built upon Christ; secondly, to be lapis angularis, a corner stone, that unites things most disunited; and then to be lapis Jacob, the stone that Jacob slept upon; fourthly, to be lapis Davidis, the stone that David slew Goliah withal; and lastly to be lapis Petra, such a stone as is a rock, and such a rock as no waters nor storms can remove or shake, these are benefits: Christ Jesus is a stone, no firmness but in him; a fundamental stone, no building but on him; a corner stone, no piecing nor reconciliation, but in him; and Jacob's stone, no rest, no tranquillity, but in him; and David's stone, no anger, no revenge, but in him; and a rocky stone, no defence against troubles and tribulations, but in him; and upon this stone we fall and are broken, and this stone may fall on us, and grind us to powder.

11 Cor. iii. 9.