But if Christ have thus taken away the malignity of all temporal punishments, why are they not quite removed? To what end should the substance of that remain, whose properties are extinguished? Certainly, God is so good", as that he would not permit evil to be, if he were not so powerful as to turn it to good. Is there not honey in the bee, when the sting is removed? sweetness in the rose, when the prickles are cut off? a medicinable virtue in the flesh of vipers, when the poison is cast out? And can man turn serpents into antidotes, and shall not God be able to turn the fiery darts of that old serpent into instruments for letting out our corruptions; and all his buffets into so many strokes, for the better fastening of those graces in us, which were before loose, and ready to fall out?

Briefly to conclude this digression, some ends of the remaining death, and other temporal evils (notwithstanding the death of Christ have taken away the malignity of them all) are, amongst others, these:

First, For the trial of our faith, and other graces. Our faith in God's providence is then greatest*, when we dare cast ourselves on his care, even when, to outward appearances, he seemeth not at all to care for us: when we can so look on our miseries, that we can withal look through them. Admirable is that faith which can, with Israel, see the land of promise through a sea, a persecution, a wilderness, through whole armies of the sons of Anak; which can, with Abraham, see a posterity like the stars of Heaven, through a dead womb, a bleeding sword, a sacrificed Son; which can, with Job, see a Redeemer, a resurrection, a restitution, through the dunghill and the potsherd, through ulcers and botches, through the violence of Heaven and of men, through the discomforts of friends, the temptations of a wife, and the malice of Satan, which can, with Stephen, see Christ in Heaven through a whole tempest and cloud of stones; which can, with that poor Syrophoenician woman, see

h Deus est adeò bonus, ut non permitteret malum fieri, si non esset adeò potens, ut posset ex malo bonum educere. Aug. in Enchir. i Heb. xii. 36. Zech. xiii. 9. Deut. viii. 2. 1 Pet. iv. 12.-Conflictatio in adversis probatio est veritatis. Cypr. de Mortal. et de Lapsis. * Sed quando Deus magis creditur, nisi cum magis timetur? Tert. de fuga in persec. cap. 1. et vide Apol. cap. ult.—Aug epist. 28. et de Civ. Dei, lib. 10. c. 29. et Chrys. ad Populum Antioch. Hom. 1.

Christ's compassion through the odious name of dog; which can, in every Egypt, see an Exodus,-in every Red sea, a passage,-in every fiery furnace, an angel of light,-in every den of lions, a lion of Judah,-in every temptation, a door of escape,-and in every grave, an "Arise and sing."

Secondly, They are unto us for antidotes against sin', and means of humility and newness of life, by which our faith. is exercised and excited", our corruptions pruned, our diseases cured, our security and slackness in the race which is set before us, corrected; without which good effects, all our afflictions are cast away in vain upon us. He hath lost his affliction", that hath not learned to endure it. The evils of the faithful are not to destroy, but to instruct them; they lose their end, if they teach them nothing.

Thirdly, They make us conformable unto Christ's suf ferings.

Fourthly, They show unto us the perfection of God's graces P, and the sufficiency of his love.

Fifthly, They drive us unto God for succour, unto his Word for information, and unto his Son for better hopes: for nothing sooner drives a man out of himself, than that which oppresseth and conquereth him. Insomuch, as that public calamities drove the heathen themselves to their prayers, and to consult with their Sibyl's Oracles for removing those judgements, whose author, though, ignorant of, yet under false names and idolatrous representations, they laboured, as much as in them lay, to reconcile and propitiate.

Sixthly, God is in them glorified', in that he spareth not his own people; and yet doth so punish, that he doth withal support and amend them.

Lastly, It prepareth us for glory, and by these evils con

1 Heb. xii. 20. Psal. xciv. 12, 13. Sicut sub uno igne aurum rutilat, palea fumat; ita una eademque vis irruens bonos probat, purificat, eliquat ; malos damnat, vastat, exterminat. Aug. de Civ. Dei, l. 1. c. 8. m Jacentem fidem et (penè

dixeram) dormientem, censura cœlestis erexit. Cypr.-Exercitia sunt ista, non funera. Id. de Mor.-Sic quoties ferro vitis abscinditur, erumpentibus pampinis meliùs uva vestitur. Id. de Laud. Mart.-Incidisti in mantelis, sed feliciter incidisti: incidit et ille in ægritudines tuas. Tert. cont. Gnost. n Perdidistis utilitatem calamitatis, et miserrimi facti estis, et pessimi permansistis. Aug. de Civ. Dei, lib. 1. cap. 33. P 2 Cor. xii. 9. q Hos. v. 15. s Levit. x. 3.

vi. 1.

o Rom. viii. 17.

r Vide Brisson. de Form. lib. 2. p. 204 and 208.

2 Sam. xii. 14. John ix. 3. xi. 4.

t Heb. xi. 26. xii. 2. "Iva wepì ávarтá

vincing the understanding of the slipperiness, and uncertainty of this world's delights; and how happiness cannot grow in that earth, which is cursed with thorns and briers,it teacheth us to groan after the revelation of that life which is hid with Christ, where all tears shall be wiped from our eyes. So that, in all temporal evils, that which is destructive, the sting and malediction of them, is, in the death of Christ, destroyed.

Having therefore so many motives to make impressions on the soul, the wonder of Christ's death, the love of it, and the benefits redounding unto us from it, there is required of us a multiplied recordation, a ruminating", and often recalling of it to our thoughts, if it were possible at all times, to have no word, or thought, or work, pass from us without an eye unto Christ crucified, as the pattern, or, if not, as the judge of them; but especially at that time when the drift and purpose of our whole sacred business is the celebration of his death.

CHAPTER XVI.

Of the manner, after which we are to celebrate the memory of Christ's passion.

BUT we may not presume, that we remember Christ's death as he requires, when either with a historical memory, or with a festival solemnity only, we celebrate or discourse. of it, except we do it with a practical memory, proportioned to the goodness and quality of the thing remembered.

And, first, We must remember Christ with a memory of faith, with an applying and assuming memory, not only in the general, that he died,—but in particular, that the reason of his death was my salvation and deliverance from death. Pilate and the unbelieving Jews, shall one day see him whom

σews piλooopwμev. Chrysost. ad Pop. Antioch. Hom. 1. Amavit quos vocaverat in salutem, invitare ad gloriam, ut qui gaudeamus liberati, exultemus etiam coronati, &c. Vide Tert. cont. Gnost. cap. 6. u Celebrantes Sacramenta commovemur, quasi ungulam findens, et ruminans pecus revocare ad fauces, et minutatim commemorare Dominicæ institutionis exemplum, ut semper passio sit in memoria, &c. Cypr. de Cœna Dom.

they have pierced, and remember his death: Judas shall see and remember him whom he kissed: the devil shall see and remember him whom he persecuted; and in every one of these, shall their remembrance produce an effect of horror and trembling, because they remember him as their Judge *. If our remembrance of the love and mercy of his death, not only testified, but exhibited and obsignated unto us, were no other than that which the wicked spirits have of his justice and severity,-it could not be, but that we should as readily believe, as they do tremble at his death.

And indeed (if we observe it) the remembrance of Christ's death, and the faith in it, are one and the same thing: for what else is faith, but a review and reflection of our thoughts upon Christ? a multiplied, and reiterated assent unto the benefits of him crucified? And what is remembrance, but the returning of the mind back unto the same object, about the which it had been formerly employed? The remembrance of Christ is nothing else but the knowledge of Christ repeated, and the knowledge of Christ is all one with the belief in him; they which are not by faith united unto him, are quite ignorant of him. And therefore we find that St. Peter's second denial of Christ, is by the evangelists diversely related in some, "I am none of his;" in others, "I know not the man:" and certainly, if the one had been true, the other had been true too; for all complete knowledge must have a commensuration to the objects that are known, and the ends for which they are proposed. Now all divine objects, besides their truth, have together annexed a goodness, which is applicable to those that know it; so that to profess the knowledge of it, and yet not know how to apply it to our own use, is indeed therefore to be ignorant of it, because there is no other end why it should be known, than that thereby it might be applied. And therefore, in the Scripture-phrase, ' a wicked man and a fool' are terms equivalent, because the right knowledge of Divine truths doth ever infer the love and prosecution of them: for every act in the will, whether of embracing or abominating any object, is grounded

a James ii. 19.

y John xvii. 3.

z John xviii. 25. Matth. xxvi. 72.

• Nullum bonum perfecte noscitur, quod non perfecte amatur, &c. Vide Aug. 1. 83. quæst. Tom. 4. p. 208. q. 35.

on some precedent judgement of the understanding. Nothing that, by the ultimate dictate of each particular and practical judgement, is proposed as totally and supremely good, can possibly be by the will refused, because therein it must needs resist the impress of nature, which leads every, as well voluntary as necessary agent, unto an infallible pursuit of whatsoever is proposed unto it, as a thing able, by the accession of its goodness, to advance and perfect the nature of the other. And therefore whosoever believe not in Christ Jesus, and his death, nor do embrace and cling unto it with all the desires of a most ardent affection, cannot possibly be said to know him; because however they may have some few, broken, faint, and floating notions of him, yet he is not by this knowledge proposed unto the will, as its sole and greatest good (for then he could not but be embraced), but is in good earnest by the practic judgement undervalued and disesteemed, in comparison of other things, whose goodness and convenience, unto sensual and corrupt nature, is represented more clearly. Many men may be able to discourse of the death of Christ, after a speculative and scholastical manner, so profoundly, as that another who truly believes in him, shall not be able to understand it. And yet this poor soul, that desires to know nothing but him,-that accounts all things else dung in comparison of him,—that endeavours to be made conformable unto him in the communion and fellowship of his sufferings;—that can, in Christ's wounds, see his safety,-in Christ's stripes, his medicine,in Christ's anguish, his peace,-in Christ's cross, his triumph, doth so much more truly know him, as a man that is able safely to guide a ship through all the coasts of the world, doth better know the regions and situations of countries, than he who, by a dexterity that way, is able to draw most exact and geographical descriptions. Boys may be able to turn to, or to repeat several passages of a poet or orator more readily than a grounded artist, who yet notwithstanding knows the elegancy and worth of them far better. And a stage-player can haply express, with greater life of passion, the griefs of a distressed man, than he can himself, although altogether ignorant of the weight and oppression of them.

b Vide Arist. Eth. 1. 7. c. 3.