always Judge of the truth of piety by charitable actions. Judas disbursed the money for Christ, there was no traitor but he. The poor traveller that was robbed and wounded betwixt Jerusalem and Jericho, was passed over, first by the Priest, then by the Levite, at last the Samaritan came and relieved him his religion was naught, yet his act was good; the Priest's and Levite's religion good, their uncharity ill. Novatus himself was a martyr, yet a schismatic. Faith is the soul, and good works are the breath, saith St James: but as you see in a pair of bellows, there is a forced breath without life, so in those that are puffed up with the wind of ostentation, there may be charitable works without faith. The church of Rome, unto her four famous orders of Jacobins, Franciscans, Augus tines, and Carmelites, hath added a fifth of Jesuits; and like another Jerusalem for those five leprous and lazarly orders, hath built five porches, that if the water of any state be stirred, they may put in for a share. How many cells and convents hath she raised for these miserable cripples! and now she thinks, though she exalt herself above all that is called God, though she dispense with and against God, though she fall down before every block and wafer, though she kill kings, and equivocate with magistrates, she is the only city of God. Digna est, nam struxit synagogam, "She is worthy, for she hath built a synagogue." Are we more orthodox, and shall not we be as charitable?

I am ashamed to think of rich noblemen and merchants, that die and give nothing to our five porches of Bethesda. What shall we say? have they made their mammon their God? instead of making friends with their mammon to God? Even when they die, will they not (like Ambrose's good usurers) part with that which they cannot hold, that they may get that which they cannot lose? Can they begin their will, In Dei nomine, Amen, and give nothing to God? Is he only a witness and not a legatee? Can we bequeath our souls to Christ in heaven, and give nothing to his limbs on earth? and if they will not give, yet will they not lend to God? "He that gives to the poor, fœneratur Deo, "lends to God. Will they put out to any but God? and then, when instead of giving security, he receives with one hand, and pays with another, receives our bequest and gives us glory! O damnable niggardness of vain men, that shames the gospel, and loses heaven! Let me show you a Bethesda that wants porches. What truer house of effusion than the church of God, which sheds forth waters of comfort, yea, of life! Behold some of the porches of this Bethesda so far from building, that they are pulled down. It is a wonder if the demolished stones of God's house have not built some of yours, and if some of you have not your rich suits guarded with souls. There were wont to be reckoned three wonders of England, ecclesia, fœmina, lanu," the churches, the women, the wool." Famina may pass still, who may justly challenge wonder for their vanity, if not their per As for lana, if it be wonderful alone, I am sure it is ill-joined with ecclesia, the church is fleeced, and hath nothing left but a bare pelt upon her back. And as for ecclesia, either men have said with the Babylo nians, "Down with it, down with it, even to the ground;" or else in respect of the maintenance with Judas, ut quid perditio hæc? "why was this waste?" How many remorseful souls have sent back, with Jacob's sons, their money in their sack's mouth! How many great testators

son.

Ye

have, in their last will, returned the anathematized peculium of impropriations to the church, choosing rather to impair their heir, than to burden their souls? Dum times ne pro te patrimonium tuum perdas, ipse pro patrimonio tuo peris, saith Cyprian; "While thou fearest to lose thy patrimony for thy own good, thou perishest with thy patrimony." great men, spend not all your time in building castles in the air, or houses on the sand; but set your hands and purses to the building of the porches of Bethesda. It is a shame for a rich Christian to be like a Christmas box, that receives all, and nothing can be got out till it be broken in pieces: or like unto a drowned man's hand, that holds whatsoever it gets. "To do good, and to distribute, forget not; for with such sacrifices God is well pleased."

This was the place, what was the use of it? All sorts of patients were at the bank of Bethesda where should cripples be but at the spital? The sick, blind, lame, withered, all that did either morbo laborare, or vitio corporis, "complain of sickness or impotency, were there." In natural course, one receipt heals not all diseases, no, nor one agent; one is an oculist, another a bone-setter, another a chirurgeon; but all diseases are alike to the supernatural power of God.

Hippocrates, though the prince of physicians, yet swears by Esculapius, he will never meddle with cutting for the stone. There is no disease that art will not meddle with; there are many that it cannot cure. The poor hæmoirrhoissa was eighteen years in the physician's hands, and had purged away both her body and her substance. Yea, some it kills instead of healing whence one Hebrew word signifies both physicians and dead men. But, behold, here all sicknesses cured by one hand, and by one water: O all ye that are spiritually sick and diseased, come to the pool of Bethesda, the blood of Christ: do ye complain of the blindness of your ignorance? here ye shall receive clearness of sight of the distemper of passions? here ease of the superfluity of your sinful humours? here evacuation of the impotency of your obedience? here integrity: of the dead witheredness of good affections? here life and vigour. Whatsoever your infirmity be, come to the pool of Bethesda, and be healed.

All these may be cured; yet shall be cured at leisure; all must wait, all must hope in waiting. Methinks I see how enviously these cripples look one upon another, each thinking other a let, each watching to prevent other, each hoping to be next; like emulous courtiers, that gape and vie for the next preferment, and think it a pain to hope, and a torment to be prevented: but Bethesda must be waited on. He is worthy of his crutches that will not wait God's leisure for his cure: there is no virtue, no success without patience. Waiting is a familiar lesson with courtiers, and here we have all need of it; one is sick of an overflowing of the gall, another of a tumour of pride, another of the tentigo of lust, another of the vertigo of inconstancy, another of the choking squinancy of curses and blasphemies; one of the boulimy of gluttony, another of the pleuritical stitches of envy; one of the contracting cramp of covetousness, another of the atrophy of unproficiency: one is hide-bound with pride, another is consumed with emulation, another rotten with corrupt desires; and we are so much the sicker, if we feel not these distempers.

O that we could wait at the Bethesda of God, attend diligently upon his ordinances we could no more fail of cure, than now we can hope for cure. We wait hard, and endure much for the body. Quantis laboribus agitur ut longiore tempore laboretur! multi cruciatus suscipiuntur certi, ut pauci dies adjiciantur incerti, "What toil do we take that we may toil yet longer! we endure many certain pains for the addition of a few uncertain days," saith Austin. Why will we not do thus for the soul? Without waiting it will not be. The cripple (Acts iii. 4.) was bidden Bréfov eis nuas, "look up to us :" he looked up, it was cold comfort that he heard, "Silver and gold have I none;" but the next clause made amends for all, Surge et ambula, "Rise and walk;" and this was, because προσδοκῶν, "he attended expecting," ver. 5. Would we be cured, it is not for us to snatch at Bethesda, as a dog at Nilus; nor to draw water and away, as Rebecca; nor to set us a while upon the banks, as the Israelites by the rivers of Babylon: but we must dwell in God's house, wait at Bethesda. But what shall I say to your courtiers, but even as St Paul to his Corinthians, "Ye are full, ye are rich, ye are strong without us?" Many of you come to this place, not as to Bethel the house of God, or Bethesda the house of effusion, but as to Bethaven, the house of vanity. If ye have not lost your old wont, there are more words spoken in the outer closet by the hearers, than in the chapel by the preacher; as if it were closet quasi close set, in an Exchange, like communication of news. What do ye think of sermons? As matters of formality, as very superfluities, as your own idle compliments which either ye hear not, or believe not? What do ye think of yourselves? have ye only a postern to go to heaven by yourselves, where through ye can go, besides the foolishness of preaching? or do ye sing that old Pelagian note, Quid nunc mihi opus est Deo? "What need have I of God?" what should I say to this but increpa domine? As for our household sermons, our auditors are like the fruit of a tree, in an unseasonable year, or like a wood new felled, that hath some few spires left for standers some poles distance; or like tythe sheaves in a field, when the corn is gone, es, dúo, ręɛis, &c. as he said. It is true, ye have more sermons, and more excellent than all the courts under heaven put together; but as Austin said well, Quid mihi proderit bona res non utenti bene? "What am I the better for a good thing, if I use it not well ?" Let me tell you, all these forcible means, not well used, will set you the further off from heaven. If the chapel were the Bethesda of promotion, what thronging would there be into it? yea, if it were but some mask-house, wherein a glorious, though momentary show were to be presented, neither white slaves nor halberts could keep you out: behold here, ye are offered the honour to be, by this seed of regeneration, the sons of God. The kingdom of heaven, the crown of glory, the sceptre of majesty, in one word, eternal life is here offered, and performed to you: O let us not so far forget ourselves, as in the ordinances of God to contemn our own happiness: but let us know the time of our visitation, let us wait reverently, and intentively upon this Bethesda of God, that when the angel shall descend and move the water, our souls may be cured, and, through all degrees of grace, may be carried to the full height of their glory.

CONTEMPLATION XIL-THE FIRST PART OF THE MEDITATIONS UPON THE
TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST.

A SERMON PREACHED AT HAVERING BOWER, BEFORE KING JAMES.

THERE is not in all divinity a higher speculation than this of Christ transfigured: suffer me therefore to lead you up by the hand into mount Tabor, for nearer to heaven ye cannot come while ye are upon earth, that you may see him glorious upon earth, the region of his shame and abasement, who is now glorious in heaven, the throne of his majesty. He that would not have his transfiguration spoken of till he were raised, would have it spoken of all the world over, now that he is raised and ascended, that by this momentary glory we may judge of the eternal. The circumstances shall be to us as the skirts of the hill, which we will climb up lightly; the time, place, attendants, company; the time, after six days; the place, a high hill apart; the attendants, Peter, James, John; the company, Moses and Elias: which when we have passed, on the top of the hill shall appear to us that sight which shall once make us glorious, and in the meantime happy.

All three evangelists accord in the terminus a quo, that it was immediately after those words, "There be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death till they have seen the Son of man come in his kingdom." Wherein, methinks, the act comments upon the words. Peter, James and John, were these some; they tasted not of death, till they saw this heavenly image of the royalty of Christ glorified. But the terminus quo disagrees a little. Matthew and Mark say, after six; Luke, post fere octo, which, as they are easily reconciled by the usual distinction of inclusive and exclusive, necessary for all computations; and Luke's about eight; so, methinks, seems to intimate God's seventh day, the Sabbath : why should there be else so precise mention of six days after, and about eight, but to imply that day which was betwixt the sixth and eighth ; God's day was fittest for so divine a work; and well might that day, which imported God's rest and man's glory, be used for the clear representation of the rest and glory of God and man. But in this conjecture, for ought I know, I go alone; I dare not be too resolute: certainly it was the severth, whether it were that seventh, the seventh after the promise of the glory of his kingdom exhibited; and this perhaps not without a mystery; "God teacheth both by words and acts (saith Hilary), that after six ages of the world should be Christ's glorious appearance, and our transfiguration with him. But I know what our Saviour's farewell was, oùx iμv yuva, "it is not for us to know;" but if we may not know, we may conjecture; yet not above that we ought, saith St Paul; we may not super sapere, as Tertullian's phrase is.

For the place, tradition hath taken it still for Tabor; I list not to cross it without warrant: this was a high hill indeed: thirty furlongs high, saith Josephus; mira rcanditate sublimis, saith Hierom: and so steep, that some of our English travellers, that have desired to climb it of late, have been glad to give it up in the midway, and to measure the rest with their eyes. Doubtless this hill was a symbol of heaven, being near, as in its situation, in resemblance. Heaven is expressed usually by the name

II.

2 T

of God's hill and nature, or this appellation, taught the heathens to figure it by their Olympus. All divine affairs, of any magnificence, were done on hills: on the hill of Sinai was the law delivered; on the hill of Moriah was Isaac to be sacrificed; whence Abraham's posie is, In monte providebitur. On the hill of Rephidim stood Moses with the rod of God in his stretched hand, and figured him crucified upon the hill, whom Joshua figured victorious in the valley; on the hills of Ebal and Gerizim were the blessings and curses; on Carmel was Eliah's sacrifice; the phrontisteria, schools, or universities of the prophets were still Ramath and Gibeath, excelsa, "high places ;" who knows not that on the hill of Sion stood the temple ? "I have looked up to the hills," saith the Psalmist: On the Mount of Olives and idolatry, in imitation, had their hill altars. was Christ wont to send up his prayers, and sent up himself: and here, Luke saith, he went up to a high hill to pray; not for that God makes difference of places, to whose immensity heaven itself is a valley: it was a heathenish conceit of those Aramites, that God is Deus montium, “the God of the mountains:" but because we are commonly more disposed to good by either the freedom of our scope to heaven, or the awfulness or solitary silence of places, which (as one saith) strikes a kind of adoration into us; or by our local removal from this attractive body of the earth: howsoever, when the body sees itself above the earth, the eye of the mind is more easily raised to her heaven. It is good to take all advantage of place, setting aside superstition, to further our devotion; Aaron and Hur were in the mountain with Moses, and held up his hands; Aaron, sây some allegorists, is mountainous; Hur, fiery: heavenly meditation and the fire of charity, must lift up our prayers to God. As Satan carried up Christ to a high hill, to tempt him, so he carries up himself, to be freed from temptation and distraction; if ever we would be transfigured in our dispositions, we must leave the earth below, and abandon all worldly thoughts, venite, ascendamus, &c. "O come, let us climb up to the hill, where God sees," or is seen (saith devout Bernard); "O all ye cares, distractions, thoughtfulness, labours, pains, servitudes, stay me here with this ass, my body, till I with the boy, that is, my reason and understanding, shall worship and return," saith the same father, wittily alluding to the journey of Abraham for his sacrifice.

O noble

Wherefore then did Christ climb up this high hill? not to look about him, but, saith St Luke, #goσğαoba, "to pray;" not for prospect, but for devotion, that his thoughts might climb up yet nearer to heaven. Behold how Christ entered upon all his great works with prayers in his mouth. When he was to enter into that great work of his humiliation in his passion, he went into the garden to pray: when he is to enter into this great work of his exaltation in his transfiguring, he went up into the mountain to pray; he was taken up from his knees to both. example of piety and devotion to us! He was God that prayed: the God that he prayed to, he might have commanded; yet he prayed, that we men might learn of him to pray to him. What should we men dare to do without prayers, when he that was God would do nothing without them? The very heathen poet could say, A Jove principium: and which of those verse-mongers ever durst write a ballad, without imploring of some deity? which of the heathens durst attempt any great enterprise,