will do lie still in their way, it were happy for them, if authority would deal with them as confident riders do with a startling horse, spur them up, and bring them back to the block they leaped from. But, if still their obstinacy will needs, in spite of contrary endeavours, feoff them in the style of filii desertores, it is a fearful word, that God speaks to them, Væ eis quoniam vagantur à me; Woe to them, for they have wandered from me; Hos. vii. 13. Now the God of Heaven reclaim them; confirm us; save both them and us, in the day of the Lord Jesus! To whom, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, One Infinite God, be given all praise, honour, and glory, now and for ever. Amen.

SERMON XXIII.

ST. PAUL'S COMBAT.

PART II.

1 CORINTHIANS XV. 32.

Εθηριομάχησα.

I HAVE carried you into St. Paul's theatre at Ephesus; I have shewed you his beasts: you must now see his FIGHT.

It was his charge to Timothy, that he should be an example: know then, that what he bids, he practises. It is an exemplary combat, which St. Paul fought; and that, wherein we must follow him, as Teachers, as Christians.

Here he says, I have fought afterwards, in imitation of him that saw his own works and approved them, he says, I have fought a good fight; doubtless, as with principalities and powers elsewhere, so even with these beasts at Ephesus.

Let it please you to see, first, the Person of the Combatant; then, secondly, the Manner of the Fight.

1. In the PERSON OF THE COMBATANT, ye may not look at St. Paul as a common soldier, but as a selected champion of God: not merely as Paul, but as an Apostle; as a public person; as the spiritual leader of God's people: so ¿Onpioμáxnoa, I have fought with beasts.

There is no trained man in the whole troop of God, but must have his bout with the beasts of the time. Vita hominis militia super terram: we are here in a Militant Church. As we have all received our press-money in baptism, so we must every one,

according to our engagement, maintain this fight against the world. But if a man be apopupévos, as St. Paul, singled out to a public calling, now he must think himself made for combats, because for victories: for Bellum durius contra victores, as Gregory speaketh.

It was the charge of the Apostle, that a Bishop should be no striker; and Clericus percussor is an old brand of irregularity. But if, in this kind, he strike not, I must say of him as St. Paul to Ananias, God shall smite thee, thou whited wall. All his whole life must be spent in these blows: he must be, as Jeremiah speaks of himself, ws; Jer. xv. 10. a man of strife and contention; there is no beast comes in his way, but he must have a fling at him. When Gregory Nazianzen (Epist. 23.) speaks of Basil, designed to the Bishoprick of Cæsarea, "If any man," saith he, "pretend his weakness, non athletem, sed doctorem creabitis." But, in this spiritual sense, if he be a Doctor in the Chair, he must be a Champion in the Theatre. No St. Martin may plead here, "I am Christ's soldier, I may not fight;" yea, therefore must he fight, because he is Christ's soldier. Whosoever then would be a fit combatant for God, to enter into these lists against the beasts of the world, must be a St. Paul, in proportion: so must he be a follower of him, as he is of Christ. Will it please you to see him, first qualified, then armed?

(1.) Qualified first, with Holiness, Skill, Courage.

Holiness: for he must be a man of God, and, as the Apostle charges, aperos irreprehensible; otherwise he is a beast himself, and had need of somebody to bait him. Woe be to those champions of God, that take upon them to wield the sword of the Spirit with unclean hands. That divine weapon is not so fit to wound any, as their own souls. Ex ore tuo, serve nequam. Let me say truly, It were a happy and hopeful thing, that even our external and secular wars should be managed with pure and innocent hands. I shall tell you that, which perhaps few of you have either known or considered, that of old a soldier was a sacred thing and it is worth your notice, what, in former times, was the manner of our ancestors, in consecrating a soldier or a knight to the wars. Some six hundred years ago and upward, as I find in the History of Ingulphus, the manner was this: Anglorum erat consuetudo, quod qui militiæ legitimæ consecrandus esset, &c. "He, that should be devoted to the trade of war, the evening before his consecration came to the Bishop or Priest of the place; and, in much contrition and compunction of heart, made a confession of all his sins: and, after his absolution, spent that night in the Church, in watching, in prayers, in afflictive devotions on the morrow, being to hear Divine Service, he was to offer up his sword upon the altar; and, after the gospel, the priest was, with a solemn benediction, to put it about his neck; and then, after his communicating of those sacred mysteries, he

was to remain miles legitimus." Thus he who tells us how that valiant and successful knight, Heward, came thus to his uncle, one Brandus, the devout Abbot of Peterborough, for his consecration; and that this custom continued here in England, till the irreligious Normans, by their scorns, put it out of countenance, accounting such a one non legitimum militem, sed equitem socordem, et Quiritem degenerem. This was their ancient and laudable manner; some shadow whereof we retain, while we hold some Orders of Knighthood religious. And, can we wonder to hear of noble victories achieved by them; of giants and monsters slain by those hands, that had so pious an initiation? These men professed to come to their combats, as David did to Goliath, in the Name of the Lord; no marvel if they prospered. Alas! now, Nulla fides pietásque, &c. ; ye know the rest. The name of a soldier is misconstrued by our gallants, as a sufficient warrant of debauchedness: as if a buff-jerkin were a lawful cover for a profane heart. Woe is me, for this sinful degeneration! How can we hope, that bloody hands of lawless ruffians should be blessed with palms of triumph? that adulterous eyes should be shaded with garlands of victory? that profane and atheous instruments, if any such be employed in our wars, should return home loaded with success and honour? How should they prosper, whose sins fight against them, more than all the swords of enemies; whose main adversary is in their own bosom and in heaven? If the God of Heaven be the Lord of Hosts, do we think him so lavish that he will grace impiety? Can we think him so in love with our persons, that he will overlook or digest our crimes? Be innocent, O ye Warriors, if ye would be speedful: be devout, if ye would be victorious. Even upon the bridles of the horses in Zachary must be written, Holiness to the Lord: how much more upon the foreheads of his priests, the leaders of his spiritual war? With what face, with what heart, can he fight against beasts, that is a beast himself?

It is not holiness yet, that can secure us from blows: Job's Behemoth, as he is construed, durst set upon the Holy Son of God himself. To our holiness therefore must be added Skill; skill to guard, and skill to hit ; skill in choice of weapons, places, times, ways of assault or defence: else we cannot but be wounded and tossed at pleasure. Hence the Psalmist; Thou teachest my hands to war and my fingers to fight. The title that is given to David's champions was, not dispositi ad clypeum, as Montanus hath it,; but disponentis: such as could handle the shield and the buckler; 1 Chron. xii. 8. Alas, what is to be looked for, of raw, untaught, untrained men, if such should be called forth of their shops on the sudden; that know not so much as their files or motions or postures, but either flight or filling of ditches? He, that will be a Petus in Jovius's History, or a Servilius in Plutarch, to come off an untouched victor from frequent chal

lenges, had need to pass many a guard and veny in the fenceschool. So skilful must the man of God be, that he must know, as St. Paul, even rà vonpaya, the very plots and devices of that great challenger of hell. We live in a knowing age: and yet how many teachers are very novices in the practice part of this Onpiopaxia; and therefore are either borne down, or tossed up with the vices of the time? whose miscarriages, would God it were as easy to remedy as to lament!

Lastly, what is skill in our weapon, without a Heart and Hand to use it? Rabshakeh could say, Counsel and strength are for the war; 2 Kings xviii. 20. Strength without counsel is like a blind giant, and counsel without strength is like a quick-sighted cripple. If heart and eyes and limbs meet not, there can be no fight; but tu pulsas, ego vapulo. What are men in this case, but lepores galeati, or as sword-fishes, that have a weapon, but no heart? Hear the spirit of a right champion of heaven; I am ready, not to be bound only, but to die for the name of the Lord Jesus. Here was a man, fit to grapple with beasts. It is the word of the sluggish coward, There is a lion or a bear in the way. What if there be? If thou wilt be a Samson, a David, encounter them. There is no great glory to be looked for, but with hazard and difficulty. When the soldier said, "The enemy is strong," it was bravely answered of the captain, "The victory shall be so much more glorious."

(2.) I have showed you the man qualified; I should stay to show you him Armed: armed with Authority without, with Resolution within: but I long to show you the Fight.

2. A FIGHT it must be; which I beseech you observe, in the first place. Neither doth he say, "I played with beasts;" except you would have it in Joab's phrase: as neither did the beasts play with him, except, as Erasmus speaks, Ludus exiit in rabiem. He says not, "I humoured their bestiality: I struck up a league or a truce with the vices of men." No; St. Paul was far from this: he was at a perpetual defiance with the wickedness of the times; and, as that valiant commander said, would die fighting.

The world wanted not, of old, plausible spirits; that, if an Ahab had a mind to go up against Ramoth, would say, Go up and prosper; and would have horns of iron, to push him forward. St. Paul was none of them: neither may we. He hath indeed bidden us, if it be possible, to have peace with all men; not with beasts. If wickedness shall go about to glaver with us, Is it peace, Jehu? we must return a short answer, and speak blows.

Far, far be it from us, to fawn upon vicious Greatness; to favour even Court-sins. If here we meet with bloody oaths, with scornful profaneness, with pride, with drunkenness; we must fly in the face of it with so much more fierceness, as the eminence of the sin may make it more dangerously exemplary:

Let the

quo grandius nomeneò, grandius scandalum, as Bernard. clearest water mix with the best earth, it makes but mire. If we be the true Sons of Thunder, even the tallest cedar-sins must be blasted with our lightning; and riven with our bolts. Cato would not, they say, have a dumb soldier: I am sure Christ will not. Woe be to us if we preach not the Gospel: yea, woe be to us, if we preach not the Law too; if we do not lash the guilt of the Great, with the scorpions of Judgment. What stand we upon bulk? if the sin be an elephant, harnessed, and carrying castles upon his back; we must, with Eleazar, creep under his belly, and wound that vast enemy with the hazard of our own crushing. It is the charge of God, Cry aloud, spare not, lift up thy voice like a trumpet, and show my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins; Isaiah ĺviii. 1. The words are emphatical: whereof the first signifies a straining of the throat with crying; and the next, the trumpet, implies a sound of war. This same bellum cum vitiis, war with sins," must be aσrovdos móλeμos, uncapable of so much as a truce; yea, as a respiration. As that undaunted soldier therefore held first, with his right hand; and, when that was cut off, with his left; and, when both were cut off, with his teeth so must we resolve to do. That, which is the praise of the mastiffs of our nation, must be ours, To leave our life with our hold. Profectò stabimus, et pugnabimus usque ad mortem ; "We will stand, and fight it out to the very death;" as Bernard speaks.

The MANNER of the Fight follows; and that must needs vary, according to the divers fashions of the onset. For all beasts assail not alike: one fights with his tusks; another, with his paws; another, with his horn; another, with his heel; another, with his sting one rampeth upon us; another leaps in to us; a third either rusheth us down, or casts us upward; a fourth galls us afar; a fifth wounds us unseen: one kills by biting; another, by striking; another, by piercing; another by envenoming. According to these manifold changes of assaults, must the expert champion dispose of himself.

To speak morally: as these Men-beasts are either Beasts of Opinion or Beasts of Practice, and both of them maintain the fight either by close subtlety or by open violence; so did St. Paul's opposition suit them; so must ours, whether for defence or for offence.

The Beasts of Opinion were either idolatrous Ethnics, or refractory Jews: the onc, worshipping Diana for their goddess; the other, refusing the true Messiah for their Saviour: the one, he beats with the downright blows of right reason; the other, he hews with the two-edged sword of the Spirit, the Word of God. The Beasts of Practice he smites through with the darts of the Law; whereof Exod. xix. 13: If a beast touch the mount he shall be shot through. Their subtlety he declined by