the resurrection of our Lord and Saviour Christ Jesus, was accomplished upon that day, which is our Sabbath. But yet, as it did please God, to accompany the great day, the Sabbath, with other solemn days too, the Passover, and Pentecost, trumpets, and tabernacles, and others, and to call those other days Sabbaths, as well as the Sabbath itself; so, since he is pleased that in the Christian church, other days of holy convocations should also be instituted, I make account, that in some measure, I do both offices, both for observing those particular festivals that fall in the week, and also for the making of those particular festivals to serve the Sabbath, when upon the Sabbath ensuing, or preceding such or such a festival in the week, I take occasion to speak of that festival, which fell into the compass of that week; for, by this course, that festival is not pretermitted, nor neglected, the particular festival is remembered: and then, as God receives honour in the honour of his saints, so the Sabbath hath an honour, when the festivals, and commemorations of those saints, are reserved to wait upon the Sabbath.

Hence is it, that as elsewhere, I often do so, that is, celebrate some festival that falls in the week, upon the Sabbath: so, in this place, upon this very day, I have done the like, and return. now, to do so again, that is, to celebrate the memory of our apostle St. Paul to-day, though there be a day past, since his day was, in the ordinary course, to have been celebrated. The last time that I did so, I did it in handling those words, And he fell to the earth, and heard a voice, saying, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? Which was the very act of his conversion; a period, and a passage, which the church celebrates in none but in St. Paul; though many others were strangely converted too, she celebrates none but his. In the words chosen for this day, And now behold I know, &c., we shall reduce to your memories, first, his proceeding in the church after he was called, (I have gone preaching the kingdom of God among you) and then the ease, the reposedness, the acquiescence that he had in that knowledge, which God by his Spirit had given him, of the approach of his dissolution, and departure out of this life; (I know that all you shall see my face no more). As those things which we see in a glass, for the most part, must be behind us, so that that makes

our transmigration in death comfortable unto us, must be behind us, in the testimony of a good conscience, for things formerly done; Now behold, I know, that all ye, among whom I have gone, &c.

In handling of which words, our method shall be this; our general parts, being (as we have already intimated) these two, his way, and his end, his painful course, and his cheerful finishing of his course; his laborious battle, and his victorious triumph: in the first, (I have gone preaching the kingdom of God among you) we shall see first, That there is a transiri, as well as a requieri acceptable to God; a discharge of a duty, as well in going from one place to another, as in a perpetual residence upon one: Transivi, says our apostle, I have gone among you. But then, in a second consideration, in that first part, That that makes his going acceptable to God, is, because he goes to preach, Transivi prædicans, I have gone preaching; and then lastly, in that first part, That that, that makes his preaching acceptable, is, that he preached the kingdom of God, Transivi prædicans regnum Dei, I have gone amongst you, preaching the kingdom of God. And in these three characters of St. Paul's ministry, first, labour and assiduity; and then, labour bestowed upon the right means, preaching; and lastly, preaching to the right end, to edification, and advancing the kingdom of God, we shall determine our first part.

In our second part, we pass from his transition, to his transmigration; from his going up and down in the world, to his departing out of the world, And now, behold, I know, that ye shall see my face no more. In which, we shall look first, how St. Paul contracted this knowledge, how he knew it; and secondly, that the knowledge of it, did not disquiet him, not disorder him; he takes knowledge of it, with a confidence, and a cheerfulness. When he says, I know it, he seems to say, I am glad of it, or at least not troubled with it. And lastly, that St. Paul continues here, that way, and method, which he always uses; that is, to proceed by the understanding, to the affections, and so to the conscience of those that hear him, by such means of persuasion, as are most appliable to them, to whom he then speaks; and therefore knowing the power and efficacy of a dying, a departing man's words, he makes that impression in them, Observe, recol

lect, remember, practise that which I have delivered unto you, for, I know, that all ye shall see my face no more. And so we shall bring up that circle, which was begun in heaven, in our last exercise, upon this occasion, in this place, when Christ said from thence, Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou me? up into heaven again, in that Euge bone serve, which Christ hath said since unto him, Well done good and faithful servant, enter into thy Master's joy; and our apostle, whom, in our former exercise, for example of our humiliation, we found fallen to the earth, in this, to the assistance of our exaltation, in his, we shall find, and leave, upon the last step of Jacob's ladder, that is, entering into heaven, by the gate of death.

First then, in our first part, our first branch is, That there is a transiri as acceptable to God, as a requieri; that God was served in St. Paul, by applying his labours to many places, as well as if he had resided, and bestowed himself entirely upon any one. When Christ manifested himself at first unto him, trembling and astonished, he said, Lord, what wilt thou hare me to do'? And when Christ had told him, That in Damascus, from Ananias, he should receive his instructions, which were, That he should bear his name, before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel, after this commission was exhibited by Ananias, and accepted by St. Paul, that prophetical Scripture laid hold upon him, by way of acclamation, Exultarit ut gigas ad currendum viam, He rejoiced as a strong man to run a race, He laboured more abundantly than they all, He carried the Gospel from Jerusalem to Illyricum', that is, as Hierome surveys it, A mari rubro ad oceanum, From the Red Sea (a sea within land) to the ocean without, from all within, to all without the covenant, Gentiles as well as Jews, Deficiente eum prius terra, quam studio prædicandi, He found an end of the world, but he found no end of his zeal, but preached as long as he found any to preach to. And as he exceeded in action, so did he in passion too; he joins both together, In labours more abundant, (there was his continual preaching) in stripes above measure, and then, in prisons more frequent, in deaths often. Who dies more than once? Yet he dies often.

How often? Death that is every other man's everlasting fast, and fills him his mouth with earth, was St. Paul's panis quotidianus, his daily bread, I protest, says he, by your rejoicing, which I have in Christ, I die daily.

Though therefore we cannot give St. Paul a greater name than an apostle, (except there be some extraordinary height of apostleship enwrapped in that which he says of himself, Paul an apostle, not of men, neither by men, but by Jesus Christ, that in that place he glory in a holy exultation, that he was made an apostle by Jesus Christ, then when Jesus Christ was nothing but Jesus Christ, then when he was glorified in heaven, and not a mortal man upon earth, as he was when he made his other apostles; and that in his being an apostle, there entered no such act of men, as did in the election of Matthias to that office, though Matthias were made after the ascension as well as he, in whose election those men presented God two names, and God directed that lot upon him, and so Matthias was reckoned amongst the eleven apostles') though we need not procure to him, nor imagine for him, any other name than an apostle, yet St. Paul was otherwise an universal soul to the whole church, than many of the other apostles were, and had a larger liberty to communicate himself to all places, than any of them had. That is it which St. Chrysostom intends, when he extends St. Paul's dignity, Angelis diversæ gentes commissæ, To particular angels particular nations are committed; Sed nullus angelorum, says that father, No angel governed his particular nation better than St. Paul did the whole church. St. Chrysostom carries it so high; Isodore modifies it thus; he brings it from the angels of heaven, to the angels of the church, indeed the archangels of the church, the apostles themselves, and he says, Apostolorum quisque regionem nactus unicam, Every apostle was designed to some particular and certain compass, and did but that, in that, which St. Paul did in the whole world. But St. Chrysostom and Isidore both take their ground for that which they say, from that which St. Paul says of himself, Besides these things which are without, that which cometh upon me daily, the care of all the churches"; for,

6 Gal. i. 1.

7 Acts i. ult.

8 2 Cor. xi. 28.

says he, who is weak, and I am not weak? that is, who lacks anything, but I am ready to do it for him? Who suffers anything but I have compassion for him? We receive by fair tradition, and we entertain with a fair credulity, the other apostles to have been bishops, and thereby to have had a more certain centre, to which, naturally, that is, by the nature of their office, they were to incline. Not that nothing may excuse a bishop's absence from his see; for natural things, even naturally, do depart from those places to which they are naturally designed, and naturally affected, for the conservation of the whole frame and course of nature; for, in such cases, water will ascend, and air will descend; which motion is done naturally, though it be a motion from that place, to which they are naturally affected; and so may bishops from their particular churches; for, Episcopus in ecclesia, et ecclesia in episcopo, Every bishop hath a superintendency, and a residence in the whole church, and the whole church a residence, and a confidence in him. Therefore it is, that in some decretal, and some synodal letters, bishops are called monarchæ, monarchs, not only with relation to one diocese, but to the whole church; not only regal, but imperial monarchs.

The church of Rome makes bishops every day, of dioceses, to which they know those bishops can never come; not only in the dominions of princes in the Reformed religion, (which are not likely to admit them) but in the dominions of the Turk himself. And into the Council of Trent, they threw and thrust, they shoved and shovelled in such bishops in abundance: they created (that their numbers might carry all) new titular bishops of every place, in the Eastern, the Greek church, where there had ever been bishops before, though those very places were now no cities; not only not within his jurisdiction, but not at all, upon the face of the earth. But in better times than these, (though times, in which the church was much afflicted too) St. Cyril of Alexdria mentions six thousand bishops at once, against Nestorius. Now if the church had six thousand bishops at once, certainly all of them had not dioceses to reside upon; sometimes collateral necessities enforce a departing from exact regularity, in matter of government. So it did, when St. Ambrose was chosen bishop of