But herein in doing so, God assists thee with the staff of others; with the favour and support of other men; Jacob was first in baculo, and in suo, nothing but a staff; no staff but his own; truly his own for we call other staffs ours, which are not ours, My people ask counsel of their stocks, and their staff teacheth them; that is, they have made their own wisdom, their own plots, their own industry, their staff; upon which they should not rely, and so we trust to a broken staff of reed, on which, if a man lean, it will go into his hand, and pierce it, when God hath given thee a staff of thine own, a leading staff, a competency, a conveniency to lead thee through the difficulties, and encumbrances of this world, if thou put a pike into thy staff, murmuring at thine own, envying superiors, oppressing inferiors, then this piked staff is not thy staff, nor God's staff, but it is baculus inimici hominis; and the envious man in the Gospel, is the devil. If God have made thy staff to blossom, and bear ripe fruit in a night, enriched thee, preferred thee a pace, this is not thy staff; it is a mace, and a mark of thy office, that he hath made thee his steward of those blessings. To end this, a man's own staff, truly, properly, is nothing but his own natural faculties: nature is ours, but grace is not ours; and he that is left to this staff of his own, for heaven, is as ill provided, as Jacob was, for this world, when he was left to his own staff at Jordan, when he was banished; and banished in poverty, and banished alone.

Thus far we have seen Jacob in his low estate; now we bring him to his happiness: in which it is always one degree to make haste; and so we will; all is comprised in this that is, was present. Now I am two bands, now; it was first now, quando revertitur, now when he returned to his country, for he was come very near it, when he speaks of Jordan, as though he stood by it, I came over this Jordan. It is hard to say, whether the returning to a blessing, formerly possessed, and lost for a while, be not a greater pleasure, than the coming to a new one. It is St. Augustine's observation, that that land, which is so often called the land of promise, was their land from the beginning, from the beginning Sem, of whom they came, dwelt there: and though God restored them by a miraculous power, to their possession, yet still 20 2 Kings xviii. 21.

19 Hosea iv. 12.

it was a returning and so the blessing is evermore expressed; a return from Egypt, a return from Babylon; and a return from their present dispersion is that, which comforts them still, Christ himself had this apprehension, Clarifica me, Glorify me thou Father, with that glory, which I had with thee before the world was. Certainly our best assurance of salvation, is but a returning to our first state, in the decree of God for our election; when we can consider, our interest, in that decree we return. Our best state in this life, is but a returning, to the purity, which we had in our baptism; whosoever surprises himself in the act or in the remorse of any sin that he is fallen into, would think himself in a blessed state, if he could bring his conscience to that peace again, which he remembers, he had the last time he made up his accounts to God, and had his discharge sealed in the sacrament of the body and blood of Christ Jesus. Cleanse thyself often therefore, and accustom thy soul to that peace, that thou mayest still, when thou fallest into sin, have such a state in thy memory, as thou mayest have a desire to return to: and the Spirit of God shall still return to thee, who lovest to receive it, and at last thy spirit, shall return to him that gave it, and gave his own Spirit for it.

Jacob's happiness appears first now, quando revertitur; and now, quando jubente Domino, now, when he returned, and now when he returned upon God's bidding, God had said unto him, Turn again into the land of thy fathers, and I will be with thee 23, think no step to be directly made towards preferment, if thou have not heard God's voice directing the way. Stare in usque; stand upon the ways, and inquire not of thy fathers, but of the God of thy fathers, which way thou shalt go: for God's voice may be heard in every action, if we will stand still a little, and hearken to it. Remember evermore, that applica ephod; where David comes to ask counsel of the Lord, he said to Abiathar, Applica ephod; Bring the ephod; and there David asks, Shall I follow this company, shall I overtake them? When thou doubtest of anything, applica ephod, take this book of God: if, to thine understanding, that reach not home punctually to thy

21 John xvii. 5.

Eccles. xii. 7.

23 Gen. xxxi. 3.

24 1 Sam. xxx. 7.

particular case, thou hast an ephod in thyself; God is not departed from thee; thou knowest by thyself, it is a vain complaint that Plutarch makes, de defectu oraculorum; that oracles are ceased; there is no defect of oracles in thine own bosom; as soon as thou askest thyself, How may I corrupt the integrity of such a judge, undermine the strength of such a great person, shake the chastity of such a woman, thou hast an answer quickly, It must be done by bribing, it must be done by swearing, it must be done by calumniating. Here is no defectus oraculorum, no ceasing of oracles, there is a present answer from the devil. There is no defect of the urim, and thummim of God neither, if thou wilt look into it, for as it is well said of the moral man, Sua cuique providentia Deus, Every man's diligence, and discretion, is a God to himself so it is well said, of the Christian father Augustine, Recta ratio verbum Dei, A rectified conscience is the word of God. Applica ephod, bring thine actions to the question of the ephod, to the debatement of thy conscience rectified, and thou still shalt hear, Jubentem Dominum or Dominum revocantem, God will bid thee stop, or God will bid thee go forwards in that way.

But herein had Jacob another degree of happiness, that the commandment of God, was pursued with the testimony of angels. Not that the voice of God needs strength; teste me ipso, witness myself, was always witness enough; and quia os Domini locutum. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken it: was always seal enough. But that hath been God's abundant, and overflowing goodness, ever to succour the infirmity of man, with sensible and visible things; with the pillars in the wilderness; with the tabernacle after; and with the temple and all the mysterious, and significative furniture thereof after all. So God leaves not Jacob to the general knowledge, that the angels of God protect God's children, but he manifested those angels unto him, occurrerunt ei, the angels of God met him. The word of God is an infallible guide to thee, but God hath provided thee also visible, and manifest assistants, the pillar, his church, and the angels, his ministers in the church. The Scripture is thine

Where I have placed this second Dominum, the folio edition has "duni," arising, I suppose, from the contraction dñm. Duo has twice before in this sermon been printed in the folio edition for Domino.-ED.

only ephod, but applica ephod, apply it to thee by his church, and by his visible angels, and not by thine own private interpretation.

This was Jacob's nunc; now, when he was returned, returned upon God's commandments; upon God's commandment pursued, and testified by angels; and angels visibly manifested, now, he could take a comfort in the contemplation of his fortune, of his estate, to see, that he was two bands. Here is a great change; we see his vow; and we see how far his wishes extended at his going out; If God will give me bread to eat, and clothes to put on, so that I come again unto my father's house in safety, then shall the Lord be my God. In which vow is included all the service that he could exhibit, or retribute to God. Now his staff is become a sword; a strong army; his one staff now is multiplied; his wives are given for staves to assist him; and his children given also for staves to his age. His own staff is become the greatest, and best part of Laban's wealth; in such plenty, as that he could spare a present to Esau, of at least five hundred head of cattle. The fathers make moral expositions of this; that his two bands are his temporal blessings and his spiritual. And St. Augustine finds a typical allusion in it of Christ, Baculo crucis Christus apprehendit mundum, et cum duabus turmis, duobus populis, ad patrem rediit, Christ by his staff, his cross, musters two bands, that is, Jews and Gentiles, we find enough for our purpose in taking it literally; as we see it in the text; that he divided all his company, and all his cattle into two troops, that if Esau come, and smite one, the other might escape. For then only is a fortune full, when there is something for leakage, for waste; when a man, though he may justly fear, that this shall be taken from him, yet he may justly presume, that this shall be left to him; though he lose much, yet he shall have enough. And this was Jacob's increase and height; and from this lowness; from one staff, to two bands. And therefore, since in God we can consider but one state, semper idem, immutable; since in the devil, we can consider but two states, quomodo cecidit filius orientis, that he was the son of the morning, but is, and shall ever be for ever the child of everlasting death; since in Jacob

25 Gen. xxviii. 20.

and in ourselves we can consider first, that God made man righteous, secondly that man betook himself to his one staff, and his own staff, the imaginations of his own heart, thirdly, that by the word of God manifested by his angels, he returns with two bands, body and soul, to his heavenly Father again, let us attribute all to his goodness, and confess to him and the world, That we are not worthy of the least of all his mercies, and of all the truth which he hath showed unto his servant, for with my staff I passed over this Jordan, and now I am become two bands.

SERMON CXLIV.

PREACHED AT WHITEHALL, APRIL 19, 1618.

1 TIMOTHY i. 15.

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of which I am the chiefest.

THE greatest part of the body of the Old Testament is prophecy, and that is especially of future things: the greatest part of the New Testament, if we number the pieces, is epistles, relations of things past, for instruction of the present. They err not much, that call the whole New Testament Epistle: for even the Gospels are evangelia, good messages, and that is proper to an epistle, and the Book of the Acts of the Apostles is superscribed, by St. Luke, to one person, to Theophilus, and that is proper to an epistle; and so is the last book, the Book of Revelation, to the several churches; and of the rest there is no question. An epistle is collocutio scripta, says St. Ambrose, though it be written far off, and sent, yet it is a conference, and separatos copulat, says he; by this means we overcome distances, we deceive absences, and we are together even then when we are asunder and therefore, in this kind of conveying spiritual comfort to their friends, have the ancient fathers been more exercised than in any other form, almost all of them have written epistles one of them, Isidorus, him whom we call Pelusiotes,