parts; Mortify your earthly members, saith our Apostle, Col. iii. 5. not the limbs of our human body, which are made of earth, so should we be hostes nature, as Bernard; but the sinful limbs, that are made of corruption, fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, &c. The head of sin is wicked devices; the heart of sin, wicked desires; the hands and feet of sin, wicked executions; the tongue of sin, wicked words; the eyes of sin, lustful apprehensions; the forehead of sin, impudent profession of evil; the back of sin, a strong supportation and maintenance of evil: all this body of sin is not only put to death, but to shame too; so as it is dead with disgrace; I am crucified. St. Paul speaks not this singularly of himself, but in the person of the Renewed: sin doth not, cannot live a vital and vigorous life in the Regenerate. Wherefore then, say you, was the Apostle's complaint, Taλaíπwe ¿yw, &c. Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from this body of death? Mark, I beseech you: it was the body of sin, not the life of sin; a body of death, not the life of that body: or, if this body had yet some life, it was such a life as is left in the limbs when the head is struck off; some dying quiverings, rather as the remainders of a life that was, than any act of a life that is; or, if a further life, such a one as in swoons and fits of epilepsy, which yields breath, but not sense; or, if some kind of sense, yet no motion; or, if it have some kind of motion in us, yet no manner of dominion over us. What power, motion, sense, relics of life are in a fully-crucified man? Such a one may waft up and down with the wind, but cannot move out of any internal principle.

Sin and Grace cannot more stand together in their strength, than life and death. In remiss degrees all contraries may be lodged together under one roof. St. Paul swears, that he dies daily; yet, he lives: so, the best man sins hourly, even while he obeys; but the powerful and over-ruling sway of sin is incompatible with the truth of Regeneration. Every Esau would be carrying away a blessing: no man is willing to sit out. Ye shall have strong drinkers, as Isaiah calls them; Isaiah v. 22: neighing stallions of lust, as Jeremiah calls them; Jer. v. 8: mighty hunters in oppression, as Nimrod; Gen. x. 9: rotten talkers; Eph. iv. 29: which yet will be challenging as deep a share in grace, as the conscionablest. Alas, how many millions do miserably delude themselves, with a mere pretence of Christianity! Aliter vivunt, aliter loquuntur; as he said of the philosophers. Vain Hypocrites! they must know, that every Christian is a crucified man. How are they dead to their sins, that walk in their sins? How are their sins dead in them, in whom they stir, reign, flourish? Who doth not smile, to hear of a dead man that walks? Who derides not the solecism of that actor, which expressed himself fully dead by saying so? What a mockery is this? eyes full of lust, itching ears, scurrilous tongues, bloody hands, hearts full of wickedness; and yet dead? Deceive not your souls, Dear Christians, if ye love them. This false death is the way to the true, eternal, incomprehensibly-woeful death of body and soul. If ye will needs do so, walk on, ye falsely-dead, in the ways of your old

sins: be sure these paths shall lead you down to the chambers of everlasting death. If this be the hanging up of your corruptions, fear to hang in hell. Away with this hateful simulation: God is not mocked. Ye must either kill, or die. Kill your sins, or else they will be sure to kill your souls: apprehend, arraign, condemn them; fasten them to the tree of shame; and, if they be not dead already, break their legs and arms, disable them to all offensive actions as was done to the thieves in the Gospel; so shall you say, with our blessed Apostle, I am crucified.

Neither is it thus, only in matter of notorious crime and gross wickedness; but thus it must be, in the universal carriage of our lives, and the whole habitual frame of our dispositions: in both these we are, we must be, crucified.

Be not deceived, my Brethren: it is a sad and austere thing to be a Christian. This work is not frolic, jovial, plausible: there is a certain thing, called true Mortification, required to this business; and whoever heard, but there was pain in death? but, among all deaths, in crucifying? What a torture must there needs be, in this act of violence! what a distention of the body; whose weight is rack enough to itself! what straining of the joints! what nailing of hands and feet! Never make account to be Christians, without the hard tasks of Penitence. It will cost you tears, sighs, watchings, self-restraints, self-strugglings, self-denials.

This word is not more harsh than true. Ye Delicate Hypocrites, what do you talk of Christian profession, when ye will not abate a dish from your belly; nor spare an hour's sleep from your eyes; nor cast off an offensive rag from your backs, for your God? vain shall the vassals of appetite challenge to be the servants of God.

In

Were it, that the kingdom of God did consist in eating and drinking, in pampering and surfeits, in chambering and wantonness, in pranking and vanity, in talk and ostentation; O God, how rich shouldst thou be of subjects, of Saints! But, if it require abstinence, humiliation, contrition of heart, subjugation of our flesh, renunciation of our wills, serious impositions of laboursome devotions; O Lord, what is become of true Christianity? where shall we seek for a crucified man? Look to our tables: there ye shall find excess and riot. Look to our backs: there ye shall find proud disguises. Look to our conversations: there ye shall find scurril and obscene jollity.

This liberty, yea this licentiousness, is that, which opens the mouths of our adversaries to the censure of our real impiety. That slander, which Julian could cast upon Constantine, that guy led him to acwría," delicacy" to " intemperance," the very same do they cast upon us. They tell us of their strict Lents, frequent fastings, canonical hours, sharp penances, their bashful shrifts, their painful scourgings, their solitary cells, their woolward and barefoot walks, their hard and tedious pilgrimages; while we, they say, deny nothing to back or belly, fare full, lie soft, sit warm, and make a wanton of the flesh, while we profess to tend the spirit.

Brethren, hear a little the words of exhortation. The brags of their penal will-worship shall no whit move us. All this is blown away, with a Quis requisivit? Baal's priests did more than they; yet were never the holier. But, for ourselves, in the fear of God see that we do not justify their crimination. While they are in one extreme, placing all religion in the outside, in Touch not, taste not, handle not; let us not be in the other, not regarding the external acts of due humiliation.

It is true, that it is more easy to afflict the body, than to humble. the soul: a dram of remorse is more than an ounce of pain. O God, if whippings and hair-cloths and watchings would satisfy thy displeasure, who would not sacrifice the blood of this vassal (his body), to expiate the sin of his soul? who would not scrub his skin, to ease his conscience? who would not freeze upon a hurdle, that he might not fry in hell? who would not hold his eyes open, to avoid an eternal unrest and torment? But such sacrifices and oblations, O God, thou desirest not. The sacrifice of God is a broken spirit: a broken and a contrite heart, O God, thou wilt not despise.

Yet, it is as true, that it it more easy to counterfeit mortification of spirit, than humiliation of body: there is pain in the one; none, in the other, He, that cares not therefore to pull down his body, will much less care to humble his soul; and he, that spares not to act meet and due penalties upon the flesh, gives more colour of the soul's humiliation.

Dear Christians, it is not for us, to stand upon niggardly terms with our Maker: he will have both: he, that made both, will have us crucified in both. The old man doth not lie in a limb or faculty; but is diffused through the whole extent of body and soul, and must be crucified in all that it is. TTTI2w, saith the Chosen Vessel, I beat down my body; my body, as well as my spirit.

Give me leave, ye Courtiers and Citizens. Lent is wont to be a penitential time: if ye have soundly and effectually shriven yourselves to your God, let me enjoin you a wholesome and saving penance for the whole year, for your whole life. Ye must curb your appetites; ye must fast; ye must stint yourselves to your painful devotions; ye must give peremptory denials to your own wills; ye must put your knife to your throat, in Solomon's sense. Think not, that ye can climb up to heaven with full paunches; reeking ever of Indian smoke, and the surfeits of your gluttonous crammings and quaffings.

O easy and pleasant way to glory! from our bed to our glass, from our glass to our board, from our dinner to our pipe, from our pipe to a visit, from a visit to a supper, from a supper to a play, from a play to a banquet, from a banquet to our bed! Oh, remember the quarrel against damned Dives: He fared sumptuously every day: he made neither Lents nor Embers: aiev doprn, as he said, "every day was gaudy and festival;" in rich suits, in dainty morsels and full draughts; Intus mulso, foris oleo, " Wine within, oil without," as he said: now, all the world for a drop, and it is too little. Ve saturis, Woe to the full, saith our Saviour: but even

66

nature itself could abominate bis de die saturum, one that is full twice a day."

One of the sins of our Sodom is fulness of bread, What is the remedy? It is an old word, that " Hunger cures the diseases of gluttony." Oh, that my words could prevail so far with you, Honourable and Beloved Christians, as to bring austere abstinence and sober moderation into fashion. The Court and City have led the way to excess: your example shall prescribe, yea administer the remedy. The heathen man could say, " He is not worthy of the name of a man, that would be a whole day in pleasure;" (Cic. de Fin.) what, and we always? In fasting often, saith St. Paul; what, and we never? I fast twice a week, saith the Pharisee; and we Christians, when? I speak not of Popish mock-fasts; in change, not in forbearance; in change of coarser cates of the land for the curious dainties of the water, of the flesh of beasts for the flesh o fish, of untoothsome morsels for sorbitiuncule delicate, as Jerome calls them. Let me never feast, if this be fasting. I speak of a true and serious maceration of our bodies, by an absolute and total refraining from sustenance: which, howsoever in itself it be not an act pleasing unto God, (for well may I invert St. Paul, neither if we eat not are we the better, neither if we eat are we the worse; 1 Cor. viii. 8.) yet in the effect it is: singulare Sanctitatis aratrum; as that Father terms it. The plough bears no corn, but it makes way for it it opens the soil; it tears up the briars; and turns up the furrows. Thus doth holy abstinence: it chastises the flesh; it lightens the spirit; it disheartens our vicious dispositions; it quickens our devotion.

Away with all factious combinations. Every man is master of his own maw. Fast at home, and spare not: leave public exercises of this kind to the command of sovereign powers. Blow the trumpet in Zion, sanctify a fast, saith Joel, ii. 15. Surely this trumpet is for none but royal breath.

And now, that what I meant for a suit may be turned to a just gratulation, how do we bless the God of Heaven, that hath put it into the heart of his Anointed to set this sacred trumpet to his lips! Never was it, never can it be, more seasonable than now: now, that we are fallen into a war of religion; now, that our friends and allies groan either under miscarriage or danger; now, that our distressed neighbours implore our help in tears and blood; now, that our God hath humbled us with manifold losses; now, that we are threatened with so potent enemies; now, that all Christendom is embroiled with so miserable and perilous distempers; oh, now it hath seasonably pleased your Majesty, to blow the trumpet in Zion, to sanctify a fast, to call a solemn assembly. The miraculous success, that God gave to your Majesty and your Kingdom in this holy exercise, may well encourage a happy iteration. How did the public breath of our fasting-prayers cleanse the air before them! How did that noisome pestilence vanish suddenly away, as that which could not stand before our powerful humiliations! If we be not straitened in our own bowels, the hand of our God is not shortened.

O daughter of Zion, gird thee with sackcloth, and wallow thyself in ashes, make thee mourning and most bitter lamentation; Jer. vi. 26. Fast, and pray, and prosper.

And, in the mean time, for us, let us not think it enough to forbear a meal, or to hang down our heads like a bulrush for a day: but let us break the bands of wickedness; and, in a true contrition of soul, vow and perform better obedience. Oh, then, as we care to avert the heavy judgments of God from ourselves and our land, as we desire to traduce the Gospel with peace to our posterity, let each man humble one: let each man rend his heart, with sorrow for his own sins and the sins of his people: shortly, let every man ransack his own soul and life; and offer a holy violence to all those sinful corruptions, which have stirred up the God of Heaven against us; and never leave, till, in truth of heart, he can say, with our blessed Apostle, I am crucified.

III. Ye have seen Christ crucified, St. Paul crucified: see now BOTH CRUCIFIED TOGETHER; I am crucified with Christ. It is but a cold word this, I am crucified. It is the company that quickens it. He, that is the Life, gives it life; and makes both the word and act glorious; I am crucified with Christ.

Alas, there is many a one crucified, but not with Christ!

The Covetous, the Ambitious man, is self-crucified. He plaits a crown of thorny cares, for his own head: he pierces his hands and feet, with toilsome and painful undertakings: he drencheth himself, with the vinegar and gall of discontentments: he gores his side and wounds his heart, with inward vexations. Thus, the man is crucified; but with the world, not with Christ.

The Envious man is crucified by his own thoughts. He needs no other gibbet, than another man's prosperity: because another's person or counsel is preferred to his, he leaps to hell in his own halter. This man is crucified; but it is Ahithophel's cross, not Christ's.

The Desperate man is crucified, with his own distrust. He pierceth his own heart, with a deep, irremediable, unmitigable, killing sorrow: he pays his wrong to God's justice with a greater wrong to his mercy; and leaps out of an inward hell of remorse, to the bottomless pit of damnation. This man is crucified; but this is Judas's cross, not Christ's.

The Superstitious man is professedly mortified. The answer of that Eremite in the story is famous; "Why dost thou destroy thy body?" "Because it would destroy me." He useth his body therefore, not as a servant, but a slave; not as a slave, but an enemy. He lies upon thorns, with the Pharisee: little ease is his lodg ing, with Simeon the anachoret: the stone is his pillow, with Jacob: the tears his food, with exiled David: he lanceth his flesh, with the Baalites: he digs his grave with his nails: his meals are hunger; his breathings, sighs; his linen hair-cloth, lined and laced with cords and wires: lastly, he is his own willing tormentor, and hopes to merit heaven by self-murder. This man is crucified; but not with Christ.