and their seed, and brought thee forth in baptism, and brought thee up in catechizing, and preaching, may yet, for thy misdemeanour to God in her, separate thee, à mensa et toro, from bed and board; from that sanctuary of the soul, the communion table, and from that sanctuary of the body, Christian burial, and even that Christian burial gives a man a good rise, a good help, a good advantage, even at the last resurrection, to be laid down in expectation of the resurrection, in holy ground, and in a place accustomed to God's presence, and to have been found worthy of that communion of saints, in the very body, is some earnest, and some kind of first-fruits of the joyful resurrection, which we attend: God can call our dead bodies from the sea, and from the fire, and from the air, for every element is his; but consecrated ground is our element. And therefore, you daughters of Sion, holy and religious souls, (for to them only this indulgent mother speaks here) hearken ever to her voice; quarrel not with your mother's honour, nor her discretion: despise not her person, nor her apparel; do not say, she is not the same woman she was heretofore, nor that she is not so well dressed as she was then; dispute not her doctrine, dispise not her discipline; that as you sucked her breasts in your baptism, and in the other sacrament, when you entered, and whilst you stayed in this life, so you may lie in her bosom, when you go out of it. Hear her; and a good part of that which you are to hear from her, is involved and enwrapped in that which we have proposed to you for our third part, Go forth, and behold Solomon, &c.

Here are two duties enjoined; at least two steps, two degrees; egredimini, go forth, and then, videte, behold, contemplate; and, after the duty, or wrapped in the duty, we have the object which we are to look upon, and in that, divers things to be considered; as we shall see in their order. First, when we are bid to go forth, it is not to go so far, as out of that church, in which God hath given us our station; for, as Moses says, That the word of God is not beyond sea; so the church of God is not so beyond sea as that we must needs seek it there, either in a painted church, on one side, or in a naked church, on another; a church in a dropsy, overflown with ceremonies, or a church in a consumption,

3 Folio Edition, "Quarrel not your mother's honour."

for want of such ceremonies, as the primitive church found useful, and beneficial for the advancing of the glory of God, and the devotion of the congregation. That which Christ says to the church itself, the church says to every soul in the church: Go thy way forth, by the footsteps of the flock; associate thyself to the true shepherd, and true sheep of Christ Jesus, and stray not towards idolatrous chapels, nor towards schismatical conventicles, but go by the footsteps of the flock; there must be footsteps, some must have gone that way before, take heed of opinions, that begin in thyself; and the whole flock must have gone that way, take heed of opinions vented by a few new men, which have not had the establishment of a church. And truly the best way to discern footsteps, is Daniel's way, Daniel's way was to strew ashes, and so their footsteps that had been there were easily discerned walk in thine own ashes, in the meditation of thine own death, or in the ashes of God's saints, who are dead before thee, in the contemplation of their example, and thou wilt see some footsteps of the flock, some impressions, some directions, how they went, and how thou art to follow, to the heavenly Jerusalem. In conversing evermore with them which tread upon carpets, or upon marbles, thou shalt see no footsteps, carpets and marbles receive no impressions; amongst them that tread in ashes, in the ways of holy sorrow, and religious humiliation, thou shalt have the way best marked out unto thee. Go forth, that is, go farther than thyself, out of thyself; at least out of the love of thyself, for that is but a short, a giddy, a vertiginous walk; how little a thing is the greatest man! If thou have many rooms in thyself, many capacities to contemplate thyself in, if thou walk over the consideration of thyself, as thou hast such a title of honour, such an office of command, such an inheritance, such a pedigree, such a posterity, such an alliance, if this be not a short walk, yet it is a round walk, a giddy, a vertiginous proceeding. Get beyond thine own circle; consider thyself at thine end, at thy death, and then egredere, go farther than that, go forth and see what thou shalt be after thy death. Still that which we are to look upon, is especially ourselves, but it is ourselves, enlarged and extended into the next world;

• Cant. i. 8.

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 Isa'ah 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.