IX.

When I saw my precious watch (now through an unhappy fall grown irregular) taken asunder, and lying scattered upon the workman's shop-board; so as, here lay a wheel, there the balance; here one gimmer, there another; straight my ignorance was ready to think, when and how will all these ever piece together again in their former order? But, when the skilful artisan had taken it a while in hand, and curiously pinned the joints, it now began to return to its wonted shape and constant motion, as if it had never been disordered. How could I chuse but see in this, the just emblem of a distempered Church and State? Wherein, if all seem disjointed, and every wheel laid aside by itself, so as an unknowing beholder would despair of a redress; yet, if it shall please the great Artist of Heaven to put his hand unto it, how soon might it return to a happy resettlement! Even so, Blessed Lord, for thy great mercy's sake, make up the breaches of thy Sion, and repair the ruins of thy Jerusalem.

X.

We are, and we are not, all one man's children. Our bodies once met in one root; but our minds and dispositions do so differ, as if we had never been of kin. One man is so gentle and plausible, that he would fain please all; another is so churlish and dogged, that he cares not whom he displeases, and hardly can be well pleased with himself: one, so sparing and pinching, that he grudges himself necessaries; another, so vainly lavish, that he cares not how he squanders his estate: one is tenderly pitiful; another, mercilessly cruel: one, religiously devout; another, wildly profane: one, cowardly fearful; another, desperately courageous: one, jovially cheerful and lightsome; another, sad and dumpish, even to stupidity: one, petulant and wanton; another, austerely continent: one, humble, and low-conceited of rich endowments; another, swollen big with a little. He did never read men to purpose, that is too much troubled with the harsh and unpleasing contrariety of humours, which he meets with in the world; and he shall be too unthankful to God, that, finding himself better composed than others, knows not whither to ascribe it; and too neglective of himself, that, finding his own distempered, labours not to rectify it.

XI.

Nature, Law, and Grace divide all the ages of the world. Now, as it is in man, who is a lesser world, that in every day there is a resemblance of his whole life; the morning is his childhood, the mid-way his youth, the evening his old age; so

is it in this greater world. The dim break of day was the state of Nature; and this was the nonage of the world, wherein the light of knowledge, both of human and divine things, was but weak and obscure. The sun was risen higher in the state of the Law; but yet not without thick mists and shadows, till the high noon of that true Sun of Righteousness, who personally shone forth to the world: upon whose vertical point began the age of Grace, that still continues; which is the clear afternoon, and full vigour of the world, though now in its sensible declination: after this, there shall be no time, but eternity. These then are they, which both the Prophets and Apostles have styled the last days: not only in respect of the times, that went before them; but in regard, that no time shall follow them. Neither have we reason to boggle at the large latitude of sixteen hundred years: there was neither of the two other periods of age, but were longer than this. Besides, however childhood and youth have their fixed terms which they ordinarily pass not, yet the duration of old age is indefinite. We have, in our youth, known some grey-heads, that have continued vigorous, till we have lived to match them in the colour of their livery. And if this be, as it is, the evening of the world, do we not see much difference of time in the shutting in of the light? A summer's evening, is a winter's day. But, if these were to the Apostles the last days, how can they be other than in the last hour, yea, the last minute unto us? Why do we not put ourselves into a constant expectation of the end of all things, and set ourselves in a meet posture for the receipt of our returning Saviour?

XII.

It is a feeling and experimental expression, that the Apostle gives of a Christian, That he looks not on the things which are seen; 2 Cor. iv. 18. Not that his eyes are so dim as old Isaac's, that he cannot discern them; or, that his inward senses are so stupified, that he cannot judge of their true value: but that, taking an exact view of these earthly things, he descries so much vanity in them, as that he finds them not worthy to be looked at with the full bent of his desires: like as it is not the mere sight of a strange beauty that is forbidden, for a man may as well look upon a fair face as upon a good picture; but a settled and fixed aspect, that feeds the eye, and draws the heart to a sinful concupiscence. Thus doth not the Christian look upon the things that are seen, as making them the full scope and aim of his desires and affections: so far, he takes notice of them, as to make his best, that is lawful and moderate, use of them; not so, as to make them the chief object of his contemplation, the main drift of his cares. It is well observed by St. Basil, that, as there are two contrary ways, the

broad and the narrow; so there are two guides, as contrary, Sense and Faith. Sense presents to us the pleasing delights of this world, on the one side; on the other, the present afflictions and persecutions, that attend a good profession: Faith lays before us the glorious things of a future life, and the endless miseries and torments abiding for sinful souls in the world to come. Now, it is not for every one to deny all credit to his sense; alluring him with all present and visible pleasures, and discouraging him with the terror and pain of present and visible afflictions: and to yield himself, hoodwinked, to be led by faith; fore-promising only better things afar off, and foreadmonishing him of dangers, future and invisible. Faith only is that heroical virtue, which makes a man, with a holy contempt, to overlook all the pleasing baits of the world; and, with a brave courage and fortitude, to despise all the menaces and painful inflictions of his present fury. This works our eyes, not to look upon the things, which we cannot but see; the present shews of the world, whether alluring or terrifying. Had Lot but looked back on Sodom; the pleasant plain of Sodom, that lay like the garden of God behind his back; he had never escaped into the mountain. Had the glorious Protomartyr fixed his eyes only upon his persecutors, his heart could not but have failed, to see the fire in their faces, the sparkling of their eyes, the grinding of their teeth, the bending of their brows, the stopping of their ears, their furious running upon him, their violent halings and draggings, and, lastly, a whole volley of stones discharged mortally upon him: he had been utterly daunted with such an impetuosity of death: But he, as not seeing any of this pomp and ostentation of horror, looks up stedfastly to heaven; and there sees, that which might well make him blind to all other visible objects, the heavens open, and Jesus standing at the right hand of God; and, upon this sight, he shut up his eyes, and slept. The true Christian, then, hath, with holy Job, made a covenant with his eyes, not to look upon, either the cruel insolencies of the raging world with fear and dejectedness, or on the tempting vanities of the world with amorous glances; but, with a sober and constant resolution, entertains the objects of both kinds. Very justly did Tertullian jeer that heathen philosopher, who pulled out his eyes to avoid concupiscence: and can tell him, that a Christian can hold his eyes; and yet behold beauty, unbewitched; and can be, at once, open-eyed to nature, and blind to lust: and, what the Apostle said of the use, he can practise, of the sight of the world and earthly objects; he can so behold them, as if he beheld them not. How oft have we, in a deep study, fixed our eyes upon that, which we the while thought not upon, neither perceived that we saw! So doth the Christian to these worldly glories, pleasures, profits; while

his mind and affections are on the things above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God; Col. iii. 1. There, Lord, let me behold those things, which cannot yet be seen; but shall, once, in the sight of them, make me blessed. And, let me not look on the things that are seen: for, the things, that are seen, are temporary; but, the things, which are not seen, are eternal. 2 Cor. iv. 18.

XIII.

There is not more strangeness, than significance, in that charge of the Apostle, That we should put on the Lord Jesus Christ; Rom. xiii. 14. Gal. iii. 27. The soul is, as it were, a body: not really and properly so, according to the gross error of Tertullian; but, by way of allusion. This body of the soul, then, may not be naked; but, must be clad: as our first parents were ashamed of their bodily nakedness; and so still are all their, not savage, posterity; so may we of our spiritual. Every sinner is naked: those rags, that he hath, are so far from hiding his nakedness, that they are part of it: his fairest moralities are but glittering sins; and his sins are his nakedness. Aaron had made Israel naked to their shame; Exod. xxxii. 25: not so much in that they were stript of their earrings, as that they were enwrapped in the sin of idolatry. No marvel, if we run away, and hide us from the presence of God, as our first parents did, while we are guilty to ourselves of our spiritual deformity. As, then, we are bodily naked, when we come into the world; so we are spiritually naked, while we are of the world: neither can it be either safe or comely for us, till we be covered. There is no clothing can fit the soul, but the Lord Jesus Christ: all other robes, in the wardrobe of earth or heaven, are too short, too strait; like those, which the scorn of Hanun put upon David's messengers, reaching but to the hams: for, though the soul of man be finite, the sin of the soul is scarce so; and that sin must be covered, else there can be no safety for the soul; according to that of the Psalmist, Blessed is he, whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered; Psalm xxxii. 1. None, therefore, but the robes of an infinite righteousness, can cover the soul so woefully dressed none, therefore, but the Lord Jesus Christ, who is God blessed for ever, can cover the soul, that it may not appear unrighteous; or can cleanse the soul, that it may not be unrighteous: and, cleansed it must be, ere the Lord Jesus can be put on we shall wrong his perfect holiness, if we think we can slip him on, as a case, over our beastly rags. It is with us, as with Joshua the High Priest: the filthy garments must first be taken off; and then the Lord shall say unto us, Behold, I have caused thine iniquity to pass from thee, and I will clothe thee with change of raiment; Zech. iii. 4. We put on a gar

ment, when we apply it all over to our body: so as, that part, which is clothed, appears not; but is defended from the air, and from the eye: if we have truly put on the Lord Jesus, nothing of ours is seen, but Christ is all in all to us: although this application goes yet deeper; for, we so put him on, that we not only put ourselves into him, but also put him into ourselves, by a mutual kind of spiritual incorporation. We put him on, then, upon our intellectual parts; by knowing him, by believing on him: This is eternal life, to know thee, and whom thou hast sent, saith our Saviour: and for Faith, no grace doth so sensibly apprehend him, and make him so feelingly ours. We put him on upon our wills and affections; when we take pleasure in him; when we love him, delight in him, and prefer him to our chiefest joy. Thus do we put him on: as our Lord; in our humble and dutiful subjection: as our Jesus; in our faithful affiance: as Christ, the anointed of God; to be our King, in all holy obedience; our Priest, in our willing consecration to him; our Prophet, in our cheerful readiness to be instructed by him. How happy are we, if we be thus decked: we prank up these poor carcasses of ours gaily, with no small expence; and, when we have done, the stuff, or the fashion, or both, wears out to nothing: but, here is a garment that will never be out of fashion: Jesus Christ yesterday, and to day, and the same for ever; yea, the same to us: here, we put him on in grace; there, in eternal glory. The Israelites were forty years in the wilderness; yet their shoes not worne, their apparel not impaired; Deut. xxix. 5. but this attire shall not only hold good in the time of our wandering in this desert, but after we are come into the Canaan of glory; and is best, at last. Wherefore do we put on our choicest attire on some high days, but to testify the cheerfulness of our hearts? Let thy garment be white, saith the Preacher; for now God accepteth thy works; Eccles. ix. 7, 8. Mephibosheth changed not his raiment, since David went out; as one, that would have the sorrow of his heart seen in the neglect of his clothes; although many a one, under a gay coat, hath a heavy heart: but this attire doth not only testify, but make cheerfulness in the soul; Thou hast given me more joy of heart, than they had in the time that their corn and their wine increased; Psalm iv. 7: and, In thy presence is the fulness of joy; Psalm xvi. 11. What can this apparel of ours do, but keep us from a blast, or a shower? It is so far from safeguarding the soul, that it, many times, wounds it; and that, to the death. It was one of the main quarrels against the rich glutton, that he was every day clothed in purple and byss; Luke xvi. 19. How many souls shall once wish, that their bodies had been ever, either naked, or clad with hair-cloth! But this array, as it is infinitely rich and beautiful, so it is as surely defensative of the soul;