the world his To day have I begotten thec, Ilodie, i. e. ab æterno, which is a nunc stans, as Aquinas defines it.

The heathens had five famous periods of computations, Ninus' monarchy, Ogyges's flood, Trojan war, Olympiads, Urbs condita: all ours is ab illo die, which St. Paul calls, The fulness of time.

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But Christ hath two days, as two comings: his first, in die illá radix Jesse, saith Isaiah xi. 10; the day of his coming to sojourn in the world his second, 1 Cor. i. 8; the day of his return, which St. Paul calls gav añoλUтpwσews; Eph. iv. 30, when he comes to ransom us, and to judge the world. Both are days indeed: in the first, there is no night of his absence, though to our sense there be some little darkness of our misery: in the second, no absence, nor no misery; a day without night; Rev. xxi. 25. This prophecy is true of both. Partially and inchoately, of the first; totally and absolutely, of the second: of the first, so far as it makes way for, and resembles the second: and this, as it is here principally intended, so shall it be the drift of our discourse.

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This is the day. Now, what of this day? There shall be a motto written an honourable motto; such as was written upon the ny, the turban of the high priest, Holiness to the Lord. And where shall it be written? An honourable mott in an ignoble place; by by: not, as Aquila and Theodotion, under the belly of the horse, super profundum; nor, as Symmachus, under his feet, super incessum umbrosum; the senses are senseless, (though you take them cum grano salis, as the lawyers admonish) they savour neither the sense nor word: not, as Jerome, the Septuagint, and Geneve, super frænum; though this hath the sense well, not the word: Jerome's master came a little nearer, super phaleras. Those of the Rabbins yet light rightest, both on the word and sense, which turn super tintinnabula: for ten times, at least, in the Chronicles and Ezra, is the same word dually used, for cymbals; and the verb of this root is the same, whereby God would express the tingling of the ears byn, Tinnient aures audientium; Jer. xix. 3.

To adorn their horses with bells, was not only a fashion in those south-east countries; but, in our forefathers' days, in this land: as it were easy to show you, but out of Chaucer's antiquity; and some of us have seen it still in use elsewhere. What bells then were these? Not of the priest: it had been easy to transfer his emblem from his forehead, to his skirts: but of the horses: the horse, an unclean beast; Lev. xi. a warlike beast, Equus paratur in diem belli; Prov. xxi. 31. Whence still shall you find horses and chariots put together: In bello et equis; Hosea i. 7.

Behold this motto had wont to be written upon a man; now, upon a beast: had wont upon a holy man, the High Priest; now, upon an unclean beast: before, upon a man of peace; now, on a beast of war: before, upon the forehead of the high priest; now, as Rab. Eliezar, inter oculos, betwixt the eyes of the horse. But what? not to continue there; as some Rabbins and good Interpreters: but so, that of these very bells shall be made Pots, for the use of sacrifice: like as of the glasses of the Jewish women was

made a Laver; and of the jewels of the Midianitish camels, a rich Ephod. This is well, to come thus near: yet they shall be promoted higher they shall be Bowls for the Altar. The pots might be greater, for there was Olla grandis; 2 Kings iv. 38: but the bowls were more noble, and more peculiarly devoted to God's

service.

Moses shall comment upon Zechariah: Num. vii. twelve several times you have the matter of these bowls, silver; the weight, seventy shekels; the use, for flour and oil for the meat-offering, besides that following employment for the incense. But I hold not this dependance necessary: here are rather two distinct prophecies, though to one purpose, as we shall see in the process. You see now Zechariah's holy riddle read; That God, under the Gospel, will effect a gracious sanctification, both of things and persons; and, by those things, which, in their use, have been altogether profane, will indifferently glorify himself, and work them both to peace and holiness: and, as Cyprian saith, Fidem rerum cursus implevit.

What now is more fit for courtiers to hear of, than an Impress of honour? What more fit for kings and princes, than the Impress of the God of Heaven? And, as in all Impresses, there is a body and a soul, as they are termed; so are both here without any affectation. The soul of it is the Motto or Word, Holiness to the Lord: the body is the Subject itself; as, ofttimes, the very shield is the device; the subject, Bells of the horses.

In the Word, first see the ancient use of heraldry in the Scriptures that part especially which concerns inscriptions; as on coins, shields, ensigns. If the "Testament of the Patriarchs" had as much credit as antiquity, all the Patriarchs had their Arms assigned them by Jacob: Judah, a lion; Dan, a serpent; Napthali, a hind; Benjamin, a wolf; Joseph, a bough; and so the rest. The coin, which Jacob paid to the Shechemites, was stamped with a Lamb; Gen. xxxiii. 19. And, if Judah's ring, that he left with Thamar, had not had an inscription, it could not so certainly have descried his master. These coins had a figure, without a word: the frontal of the high priest had a word, without a figure: the shekel of the sanctuary, whose Character we have oft seen, had both a word and a figure; the word, Holy Jerusalem, the figure, A pot of Mauna like a large chalice, and Aaron's rod not budding but branching out. Solomon compares the Church to an Army with Banners: there could be no use, no distinction of Banners, without inscriptions. The Maccabees had four Hebrew letters in their ensign, for both their word and device; whence they had their name. Yea, this is not in via only, but in patria. They shall have a white stone, and a new name written in it: the field and the arms, both named and unknown.

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The use therefore of inscriptions and arms must needs be laudable, as ancient; since God himself was the first Herald, and shall be the last. Yea, the very Anabaptists, that shake off all the yoke of magistracy, yet, when they had ripened their fanatical pro

jects, and had raised their king Becold, from the shop-board to the throne, would not want this point of honour: and therefore he must have one henchman, on the right hand, to carry a crown, and a Bible with an inscription; on the left, another, that carried a sword naked, and a ball of gold: himself, in great state, carries a globe of gold, with two swords across. His pressing iron and shears would have become him better.

And, if I should look to heathenish antiquity, I should need to say no more, than that the Egyptian Hieroglyphics, whereof they say Horus Apollo was the inventor, were nothing else, but Emblems and Impresses. Among the rest, it is memorable that Ruffinus reports, that the sign of the Cross was one of their ygauμara iegarma, their ancient figures, long before Christ; which, saith he, signified to them, eternal life: and Socrates adds, that when they found the sign of the Cross, in templo Serapidis, the Heathen and Christians contended for it; each challenged it for theirs; and, when the Heathen, knowing the signification of it, saw it thus fulfilled to the Christians, many of them converted to Christianity. Be it far from us, to put any superstition in this: I think it done by the same instinct, whereby the Sibyls prophesied of Christ.

And, as arms and emblematical devices, are thus ancient and commendable; so more directly posies and words, whether for instruction or distinction, are here warranted. So the word of a faithful King is Dominus mihi adjutor; or, when he would thankfully ascribe his peace to God, Exurgat Deus, dissipentur inimici: so of a good prince, either, "I serve," to express his officious care; or, "One of your own," to signify his respective love: so the good statesman's should be given him by Solomon, Non est consilium contra Dominum, No policy against the Lord: a good Courtier's, by Samuel, Honorantes me honorabo: a good Bishop's, by Paul, eunaigus anaipws; In season, out of season: a good Subject's Not for fear, but conscience: a good Christian's, Christus mihi vivere est. So the Israelites were charged to make their Emblem the Law of God; for their posts, for their garments.

But these things may not be written upon our walls, or shields only: they must be written upon our hearts: else we are as very painted walls, as our walls themselves: else we shall be like some inn, that hath a Crown for the sign without, and within there are none but peasants; or a Rose upon the post without, and nothing but sluttishness and filth within; or an Angel without, and nothing within, but lewd drunkards. As it is said of God, Dixit, et factum est; so also, Scripsit, et factum est; They shall be written holy, that is, they shall be made holy. Happy is it for us, though we write no new emblems of our own, if we can have this holy "Impress of God" written, not in our foreheads, but in our hearts, Holiness to the Lord.

Thus much of the Emblem, or Word. Now for the Subject and Circumstances: In that day, above this; there is the Proficiency of the Church: Holiness shall be written upon the bells; profane things shall be holy; there is the Sanctification of the

Church: the bells of warlike horses shall be turned to the quiet use of religion; there is the religious Peace of the Church: The pots to seethe in, shall be as bowls, to offer up incense in; there are the degrees of the Church's Perfection: so that here arise Four Heads of our speech; the PROFICIENCY, SANCTIFICATION, PEACE, PERFECTION OF THE CHURCH. Al which crave your gracious and Christian attention; or, lest I be too long, two of them only.

I. When therefore shall this be fulfilled? Not under the Law. It had been a great profanation: for none but the High Priest might wear this posy. The place ofttimes disparages; as to put the ark of God into a cart, or to set it by Dagon.

It is under the Gospel, that this posy of Holiness shall be so common; in illá die; and this is that day. How great is this PROFICIENCY of the Church! Look how much difference there is between one and many, between the holiest of men and an ordinary beast, between the frontal of the high priest and the bells of horses, so much there must be betwixt the Church in that day and in this. It is the fashion of the true Church, to grow up still, from worse to better; as it is said of the head of the Church, Crescebat et corroborabatur. As it is compared to stones for firmness, so to grafts for growth; yea, the kingdom of heaven is like a grain of mustard-seed, that, of the least seed, proves the greatest plant in his kind. The river of God flows first up to the aucies, then to the knees, and at last to the chin.

The Church was an embryo, till Abraham's time; in swathingbands, till Moses; in childhood, till Christ; à man, in Christ; a man full-grown, in glory. As man is an epitome of the world, so is every Christian an abridgement of the Church; best at last; In illa die. He is like to the feast of Cana, where the best wine was brought in last; not naturally, but by transmutation. It was a blasphemous, and, methinks, a Vorstian reason, that Tostatus brings, why God did not create the voices out of the Propitiatory, Quia Deus non potest agere per successionem: surely in us he doth; and, as we can do nothing, in instante, no more doth God in us. As in the Creation, he could have made all at once, but he would take days for it; so in our re-creation by grace: as natural, so spiritual agents, do agere per moram. That rule of Aquinas is sure, Successivorum non simul est esse et perfectio: to which that accords of Tertullian, Perfectio ordine post-humat.There must be an illa dies, for our full stature; till which, if we be true Christians, we must grow from strength to strength: herein grace is contrary to nature, strongest at last. We must change till then, but in melius, till we come to our best; and then, we must be like him, in whom is no shadow by turning.

But, where we should be like the Sun till noon, ever rising; there be many like Hezekiah's sun, that go back many degrees in the dial; whose beginnings are like Nero's first five years, full of hope and peace; or, like the first month of a new servant; or, like unto the four ages, whose first was gold, the last iron; or, to Nebuchadnezzar's image, which had a precious head but base feet. Look

to yourselves: this is a fearful sign, a fearful condition. Can he ever be rich, that grows every day poorer? Can he ever reach the goal, that goes every day a step back from it? Alas, then, how shall he ever reach the goal of glory, that goes every day a step backward in grace? He, that is worse every day, can never be at his best, In ülá die, In that day.

II. Hitherto the Proficiency; The SANCTIFICATION follows. The Mosaical Law was scrupulous: there were unholy places, unholy garments, persons, beasts, fowls, vessels, touches, tastes. Under the Gospel, all is holy. All was made unholy, when the First Adam sinned: when the Second Adam satisfied for sin, all was made holy. Moses, the servant, built his house, with a To μecóTOXOX Qayu; Eph. ii. 14; a partition wall in the midst: Christ, the Son, pulled down that screen, and cast all into one aμórepa Ev: Jews and Gentiles, whole hoofs and cloven, dwell now both under a roof. Moses branded some creatures with uncleanness: He, that redeemed his children from moral impurity, redeemed his creatures from legal. What should St. Peter's great sheet let down by four corners teach us, but that all creatures, through the four corners of the world, are clean and holy? St. Paul proclaims the sum of Peter's vision; Omnia munda mundis.

It is an injurious scrupulousness, to make differences of creatures; injurious to God, to the creature, to ourselves: to God, while we will not let him serve himself of his own; to the creature, while we pour that shame upon it which God never did; to ourselves, while we bring ourselves into bondage, where God hath enlarged us. When Julian had poisoned the wells, and shambles, and fields, with his heathenish Lustrations, the Christians, saith Theodoret, ate freely of all, by virtue of Paul's, Quicquid in macello.

To let pass the idle curiousness of our Semi-Anabaptists, of the separation; at whose folly, if any man be disposed to make himself sport, let him read the tragicomical relation of the Troubles and Excommunication of the English at Amsterdam. There shall he see such wars waged betwixt brothers, for but a busk, or whale. bone, or lace, or cork-shoc, as if all Law and Gospel stood upon this point; as if heaven and earth were little enough to be mingled in this quarrel; Nec gemino bellum Trojanum.

To pass over all other lighter niceness of this kind; who can chuse but be ashamed of the Church of Rome; which is here in a double extremity, both gross: in denying, wiping out holiness, where God hath written it; and in writing it, where God hath not

written it.

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In the first: how do they drive out devils out of good creatures, by foolish exorcisms! I would he were no more in themselves. How do they forbid meats, drinks, days, marriage which God hath written holy! He, that reads Navar's Manual," shall find choleric blasphemy, a venial sin; p. 91: some theft, venial; p. 140: common lying, venial; p. 191: cursing of parents, if not malicious, venial; p. 100 and yet, in the same author, (chap. xxi. nu.