Jesus is the Son of God; (there is a subscription to his divine nature :) he that separates these, and thereby makes him not able, or not willing to satisfy for man, he that separates his nature, or he that separates the work of the redemption, and says, Christ suffered for us only as man, and not as God, or he that separates the manner of the work, and says, that the passive obedience of Christ only redeemed us, without any respect at all to his active obedience, only as he died, and nothing as he died innocently, or he that separates the perfection, and consummation of the work, from his work, and finds something to be done by man himself, meritorious to salvation, or he that separates the prince, and the subject, Christ and his members, by nourishing controversies in religion, when they might be well reconciled, or he that separates himself from the body of the church, and from the communion of saints, for the fashion of the garments, for the variety of indifferent ceremonies, all these do solvere Jesum, they slacken, they dissolve that Jesus, whose bones God provided for, that they should not be broken, whose flesh God provided for, that it should not see corruption, and whose garments God vided, that they should not be divided.

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There are other luxations, other dislocations, of Jesus, when we displace him for any worldly respect, and prefer preferment before him; there are other woundings of Jesus, in blasphemous oaths, and execrations; there are other maimings of Jesus, in pretending to serve him entirely, and yet retain one particular beloved sin still; there are other rackings, and extendings of Jesus when we delay him and his patience to our deathbed, when we stretch the string so far, that it cracks there, that is, appoint him to come then, and he comes not; there are other dissolutions of Jesus, when men will melt him, and pour him out, and mould him up in a wafer-cake, or a piece of bread; there are other annihilations of Jesus when men will make him, and his sacraments, to be nothing but bare signs; but all these will be avoided by us, if we be gained by the testimony of these six witnesses, to hold fast that integrity, that entireness of Jesus, which is here delivered to us by this apostle.

" John v. 5.

In which we believe first Jesum, a Saviour: which implies his love, and his will to save us; and then we believe Christum, the Anointed, that is, God and man, able, and willing to do this great work, and that he is anointed, and sealed for that purpose; and this implies the the decree, contract, and bargain, of acceptation by the Father, that pactum salis, that eternal covenant which seasons all, by which, that which he meant to do, as he was Jesus, should be done, as he was Christ. And then as the entireness of Jesus is expressed, in the verse before the text, we believe, quod venit, that as all this might be done, if the Father and Son would agree, as all this must be done, because they had agreed it, so all this was done, quia venit, because this Jesus was already come; and that, for the further entireness, for the perfection, and consummation, and declaration of all, Venit per aquam et sanguinem, He came by water, and blood.

Which words St. Bernard understands to imply but a difference between the coming of Christ, and the coming of Moses; who was drawn out of the water, and therefore called by that name of Moses. But before Moses came to be a leader of the people, he passed through blood too, through the blood of the Egyptian, whom he slew; and much more when he established all their bloody sacrifices, so that Moses came not only by water. Neither was the first Testament ordained without blood". Others understand the words only to put a difference between John Baptist, and Christ: because John Baptist is still said to baptize with water. Because he should be declared to Israel; therefore am I come, baptizing with water: but yet John Baptist's baptism had not only a relation to blood, but a demonstration of it, when still he pointed to the Lamb, ecce agnus, for that Lamb was slain from the beginning of the world. So that Christ, which was this Lamb, came by water, and blood, when he came, in the ritual types, and figures of Moses; and when he came in the baptism of John: for in the law of Moses, there was so frequent use of water, as that we reckon above fifty several immunditias, uncleannesses, which might receive their expiation by washing, without being put to their bloody sacrifices for them and then

there was so frequent use of blood, that almost all things are by the law purged with blood, and without shedding of blood, is no remission. But this was such water, and such blood, as could not perfect the work, but therefore was to be renewed every day. The water that Jesus comes by, is such a water, as he that drinketh of it, shall thirst no more; nay there shall spring up in him a well of water; that is, his example shall work to the satisfaction of others; (we do not say to a satisfaction for others). And then this is that blood, that perfected the whole work at once, By his own blood entered he once into the holy place, and obtained eternal redemption for us. So that Christ came by water, and blood, (according to the old ablutions, and old sacrifices) when he wept, when he sweat, when he poured out blood; precious, incorruptible, inestimable blood, at so many channels, as he did, all the while that he was upon the altar, sacrificing himself in his passion. But after the immolation of this sacrifice, after his consummatum est, when Christ was come and gone for so much as belonged to the accomplishing of the types of the old law, then Christ came again to us by water and blood, in that wound, which he received upon his side, from which there flowed out miraculously true water, and true blood. This wound St. Augustine calls Januam utriusque sacramenti, The door of both sacraments; where we see he acknowledges but two, and both presented in this water and blood: and so certainly do most of the fathers, make this wound if not the foundation, yet at least a sacrament of both the sacraments. And to this water, and blood doth the apostle here, without doubt, aim principally; which he only of all the evangelists hath recorded; and with so great asseveration, and assuredness in the recording thereof, He that saw it bare record, and his record is true, and he knoweth that he saith truth, that ye might believe it. Here then is the matter which these six witnesses must be believed in, here is integritas Jesu, quæ non solvenda, the entireness of Christ Jesus, which must not be broken, that a Saviour, which is Jesus, appointed to that office, that is, Christ, figured in the law, by ablutions of water, and sacrifices of blood, is come, and hath perfected all

8 Heb. ix. 22.

'Heb. ix. 12.

10 John xix. 35.

those figures in water, and blood too; and then, that he remains still with us in water, and blood, by means instituted in his church, to wash away our uncleannesses, and to purge away our iniquities, and to apply his work unto our souls; this is integritas Jesu, Jesus the Son of God in heaven, Jesus the Redeemer of man, upon earth, Jesus the head of a church to apply that to the end, this is integritas Jesu; all that is to be believed of him.

Take thus much more, that when thou comest to hearken what these witnesses shall say to this purpose, thou must find something in their testimony, to prove him to be come not only into the world, but into thee; he is a mighty prince, and hath a great train; millions of ministering spirits attend him, and the whole army of martyrs follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes: though the whole world be his court, thy soul is his bedchamber; there thou mayest contract him, there thou mayest lodge, and entertain integrum Jesum, thy whole Saviour. And never trouble thyself, how another shall have him, if thou have him all; leave him, and his church to that; make thou sure thine own salvation. When he comes to thee, he comes by water and by blood; if thy heart, and bowels have not yet melted in compassion of his passion for thy soul, if thine eyes have not yet melted, in tears of repentance and contrition, he is not yet come by water into thee; if thou have suffered nothing for sin, nor found in thyself a cheerful disposition to suffer; if thou have found no wrestling in thyself, no resistance of concupiscences, he that comes not to set peace, but to kindle this war, is not yet come into thee, by blood. Christ can come by land, by purchases, by revenues, by temporal blessings, for so he did still convey himself to the Jews, by the blessing of the land of promise, but here he comes by water, by his own passion, by his sacraments, by thy tears: Christ can come in a marriage and in music, for so he delivers himself to the spouse in the Canticles; but here he comes in blood; which coming in water, and blood (that is, in means for the salvation of our souls, here in the militant church) is the coming that he stands upon and which includes all the Christian religion; and therefore he proves that coming to them, by these three great witnesses in heaven, and three in earth. For there are three which bear record in heaven; the Father, the Word, and

the Holy Ghost: and these three are one. And there are three which bear record in the earth; the spirit, and the water, and the blood, and these three agree in one.

By the mouth of two, or three witnesses every word shall be confirmed", says Christ out of the law. That is as much as can be required, if any civil, or criminal business; and yet Christ gives more testimony of himself, for here he produces not duos testes, but duas classes; two ranks of witnesses; and the fullest number of each, not two, but three in heaven, and three in earth. And such witnesses upon earth, as are omni exceptione majores, without all exception. It is not the testimony of earthly men ; for when St. Paul produces them in abundance, (the patriarch, the judges, the prophets, the elders of the old times; of whom he exhibits an exact catalogue,) yet he calls all them but nubes testium, clouds of witnesses; for though they be clouds in St. Chrysostom's sense, that they invest us, and enwrap us, and so defend us from all diffidence in God, (we have their witness what God did for them, why should we doubt of the like?) though they be clouds in Athanasius' sense, they being in heaven, shower down by their prayers, the dew of God's grace upon the church; though they be clouds, they are but clouds; some darkness mingled in them, some controversies arising from them; but his witnesses here, are lux inaccessibilis, that light, that no eye can attain to, and pater luminum, the father of lights, from whom all these testimonies are derived. When God employed a man to be the witness of Christ, because men might doubt of his testimony, God was content to assign him his compurgators; when John Baptist must preach, that the kingdom of God was at hand, God fortifies the testimony of his witness, then, Hic enim est, for this is he of whom that is spoken by the prophet Esay12; and lest one were not enough, he multiplies them, as it is written in the prophets13. John Baptist might be thought to testify as a man, and therefore men must testify for him; but these witnesses are of a higher nature; these of heaven are the Trinity; and those of earth, are the sacraments and seals of the church. The prophets were full of favour with God, Abraham full of 11 Matt. xviii. 16.

12 Matt. iii. 3.

13 Matt. i. 2.

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