set eye more upon their hearts, till they see them either fearfully entoiled in the present judgments of God, or fast chained in the pit of hell in the torments of final condemnation.

3. If our searches and watches should fail us, we are sure our distrust cannot. It is not possible our heart should deceive us, if we trust it not. We carry a remedy within us of others' fraud; and why not of our own? The Italians, not unwisely, pray God, in their known proverb, to deliver them from whom they trust for we are obnoxious to those we rely upon; but nothing can lose that, which it had not. Distrust therefore can never be disappointed. If our heart then shall promise us ought, as it hath learned to proffer largely of him that said All these will I give thee, although with vows and oaths; ask for his assurances if he cannot fetch them from the evidences of God, trust him not. If he shall report ought to us; ask for his witnesses if he cannot produce them from the records of God, trust him not. If he shall advise us ought; ask for his warrant: if he cannot fetch it from the Oracles of God, trust him not. And in all things so bear ourselves to our hearts, as those, that think they live among thieves and cozeners; ever jealously and suspiciously, taking nothing of their word; scarce daring to trust our own senses; making sure work in all matters of their transactions. I know I speak to wise men, whose counsel is wont to be asked, and followed, in matter of the assurances of estates; whose wisdom is frequently employed in the trial, eviction, dooming of malefactors: Alas, what shall it avail you, that you can advise for the prevention of others' fraud, if, in the mean time, you suffer yourselves to be cozened at home? What comfort can you find in public service to the state against offenders, if you should carry a fraudulent and wicked heart in your own bosoms? There is one above, whom we may trust; whose word is more firm than heaven. When heaven shall pass, that shall stand. It is no trusting ought besides, any further than he gives his word for it. Man's epithet is homo mendax ; and his best part, the heart, deceitful. Alas, what shall we think or say of the condition of those men, which never follow any other advice than what they take of their own heart? Such are the most, that make not God's Law of their counsel: as Isaiah said of Israel, Abiit vagus in via cordis sui; Isaiah lvii. 17. Surely they are not more sure they have a heart, than that they shall be deceived with it, and betrayed unto death. Of them may I say, as Solomon doth of the wanton fool, that follows a harlot; Thus with her great craft she caused him to yield, and with her flattering lips she enticed him and he followed her straightways, as an ox that goes to the slaughter, or as a fool to the stocks for correction; Prov. vii. 21, 22. Oh, then, Dear Christians, as ever ye desire to avoid that direful slaughter-house of hell, those wailings, and gnashings, and gnawings, and everlasting burnings, look

carefully to your own hearts; and, whatever suggestions they shall make unto you, trust them not, till you have tried them by that unfailable rule of righteousness, the Royal Law of your Maker, which can no more deceive you than your hearts can free you from deceit.

4. That we may avoid not only the events, but the very enterprises of this deceit, let us countermine the subtle workings of the heart. Our Saviour hath bidden us be wise as serpents. What should be wise but the heart? And can the heart be wiser than itself? Can the wisdom of the heart remedy the craft of the heart? certainly it may. There are two men in every regenerate breast, the old and the new: and of these, as they are ever plotting against each other, we must take the better side; and labour that the new man, by being more wise in God, may outstrip the old. And how shall that be done? If we would dispossess the strong man that keeps the house, our Saviour bids us bring in a stronger than he; and, if we would overreach the subtlety of the old man, yea, the old serpent, bring in a wiser than he, even the Spirit of God, the God of Wisdom. If we would have Ahithophel's wicked counsels crossed, set up a Hushai within us the foolishness of God is wiser than the wisdom of men. Could we but settle God within us, our crafty hearts would be out of countenance, and durst not offer to play any of their deluding tricks before him, from whom nothing is hid; and if they could be so impudently presumptuous, yet they should be so soon controlled in their first motions, that there would be more danger of their confusion than of our deceit. As ye love yourselves therefore and your own safety, and would be free from the peril of this secret broker of Satan, your own hearts, render them obediently into the hands of God: give him the keys of these closets, of his own making: beseech him, that he will vouchsafe to dwell and reign in them; so shall we be sure that neither Satan shall deceive them, nor they deceive us; but both we and they shall be kept safe and inviolable, and presented glorious to the appearance of our Lord Jesus Christ: to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, be all honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen.

SERMON X.

THE BEST BARGAIN :

A SERMON; PREACHED TO THE COURT AT THEOBALD'S, ON SUNDAY,

SEPTEMBER 21, 1623.

TO THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

WILLIAM, EARL OF PEMBROKE,

LORD HIGH CHAMBERLAIN; CHANCELLOR OF THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD; ONE OF HIS MAJESTY'S MOST HONOURABLE PRIVY COUNCIL.

Right Honourable,-Let it please you to receive from the press, what you vouchsafed to require from my pen: unworthy, I confess, either of the public light, or the beams of your Honour's judicious eyes; yet such as, besides the motive of common importunity, I easily apprehend, might be not a little useful for the times; which, if ever, require quickening. Neither is it to no purpose, that the world should see in what style we speak to the Court, not without acceptation. This, and whatever service I may be capable of, are justly devoted to your Lordship; whom all good hearts follow with true honour, as the great Patron of Learning, the sincere friend of Religion, and rich Purchaser of Truth. The God of Heaven add to the number of such Peers, and to the measure of your Lordship's graces and happiness.

Your Honour's,

In all humble and faithful observance,

JOSEPH HALL.

PROVERBS XXIII. 23.

Buy the Truth, and sell it not.

THE subject of my Text, is a BARGAIN and SALE; a Bargain enjoined, a Sale forbidden: and the subject of both bargain and sale, is Truth; a Bargain able to make us all rich, a Sale able to make any of us miserable. Buy the truth, and sell it not. sentence of short sound, but large extent. The words are but seven syllables; an easy load for our memories: the matter is a world of work; a long task for our lives.

A

And first, let me call you to this Mart, which holds both now and ever. If ye love yourselves, be ye customers at this shop of heaven: Buy the Truth

I. In every BARGAIN there is merx and mercatura; the Commodity, and the Match.

1. The COMMODITY to be bought is the Truth; the match made for this commodity, is Buying: Buy the Truth.

An ill Judge may put a good interrogatory: yet it was a ques

tion too good for the mouth of a Pilate, What is Truth? The Schools have wearied themselves in the solution. To what purpose should I read a Metaphysical Lecture to Courtiers?

Truth is as Time, one in all: yet, as Time, though but one, is distinguished into past, present, future, and every thing hath a time of its own; so is Truth variously distinguished, according to the subjects wherein it is. This is Anselm's, cited by Aquinas. I would rather say, Truth is as Light; (Send forth thy Truth, and thy Light, saith the Psalmist ;) which, though but one in all, yet there is one light of the sun, another of the moon, another of the stars, another of this lower air. There is an essential and causal truth in the Divine understanding, which the Schools call Primo-primam. This will not be sold, cannot be bought: God will not part with it, the world is not worth it. This truth is as

the light in the body of the sun. There is an intrinsical or formal truth in things truly existing: for Being and True are convertible; and St. Austin rightly defines, Verum est illud, quod est. All this created truth in things, is derived, exemplarily and causally, from that increated truth of God. This the Schools call Secundo-primam; and it is as the light of the sunbeams, cast upon the moon and stars. There is an extrinsical or secondary truth of propositions, following upon and conformable to the truth of the things expressed: thus, verum is no other than esse declarativum, as Hilary. And this truth, being the thing itself subjectively, in words expressively, in the mind of man terminatively, presupposeth a double conformity or adequation; both of the understanding to the matter conceived, and of the words to the understanding; so as truth is, when we speak as we think, and think as it is. And this truth is as the light diffused from those heavenly bodies, to the region of this lower air.

This is the truth we are called to buy. But this derivative and relative truth, whether in the mind or in the mouth, hath much multiplicity, according to the matter either conceived or uttered. There is a theological truth; there is a natural; there is a moral; there is a civil: all these must be dear bought; but the best at the highest rate, which is Theological or Divine; whether in the principles, or necessary conclusions. The principles of Divine Truth are Scriptura Veritatis; Dan. x. 21: The Law of Truth; Mal. ii. 6: The Word of Truth; 2 Cor. vi. 7. The necessary Conclusions are they, which, upon irrefragable inferences, are deduced from those holy grounds. Shortly then, every parcel of Divine Truth, whether laid down in Scripture or drawn necessarily from Scripture, is this mercimonium sacrum, which we are bidden to Buy; Buy the Truth.

2. This is the Commodity: the MATCH is, Buy; that is, Beat the price, and pay it.

Buy it of Whom? for What?

(1.) Of whom, but of the Owner, of the Maker? The Owner

it is Veritas Domini, God's Truth; Psalm exvii. 2. His style is the Lord God of Truth; Psalm xxxi. 5. The Maker: The works of his hands are truth and judgments; Psalm cxi. 7. And if any usurping spirit of error shall have made a free-booty of truth, and shall withhold it in unrighteousness, we must redeem it out of his hands with the highest ransom.

(2.) What is the Price? That is the main thing in buying; for buying is no other than pactio pretii. Elsewhere God proclaims; Ho, every one that thirsteth, come, buy wine and milk without money, and without price; Isaiah lv. 1: this is a donation, in form of sale: but, here must be a price in the hand: God will give mercy, and not sell it; he will sell truth, and not give it. For what will he sell it?

First, for Labour. The Heathen Poet could say, his gods sold learning for sweat; the original word here used is p, compara, get it any way, either labore or pretio ; yea, labore and pretio. This great foreman of God's shop tells us we cannot have it under, Prov. ii. 4. We must seek for her as silver, and search for her as for hid treasures. The vein of truth lies low: it must be digged and delved for, to the very centre. If truth could be bought with ease and pleasure, many a lazy Christian would bid fair for it; who now resolve rather upon want, than toil. The slothful® worldling will rather take up a falsehood for truth, than beat his brain to discern truth from falsehood. An error of free-cost is better than a high-rated verity. Labour for truth is turned over for the task of Churchmen. No life savours to these phlegmatic spirits, but that of the lilies; Neque laborant, neque nent; They neither labour, nor spin. This dull resolution is unworthy of a Christian; yea, of a reasonable soul: and, if we should take up no other for the body, we should be fed with hunger, and clothed with nakedness; the earth should be our feather-bed, and the sky our canopy; we should aboud with want, live savagely, and die miserably. It was the just canon of the Apostle, He, that labours not, let him not eat. Certainly, he can never eat of the heavenly Manna of Truth, that will not step forth to gather it. Hear this, ye Delicate Courtiers, that would hear a sermon, if ye could rise out of your beds; that would lend God an hour, if ye could spare it from your pleasures. The God of Heaven scorns to have his precious Truth so basely undervalued. If ye bid God less than labour for Truth, I can give you no comfort, but that ye may go to hell with ease.

The markets of Truth, as of all other commodities, vary. It is the rule of casuists; Justitia pretii non consistit in individuo : "The justice of price doth not pitch ever upon a point." Sometimes, the price of Truth hath risen; it would not be bought but for Danger: sometimes, not under Loss, not under Disgrace, not under Imprisonment, not under Exile: sometimes yet dearer, not under Pain: yea, sometimes it hath not gone for less than