do not enjoy, but no end of that love in which I am married to the Lamb for ever. Yea, I shall see an end of some of the offices of the Lamb himself; Christ himself shall be no longer a mediator, an intercessor, an advocate, and yet shall continue a husband to my soul for ever. Where I shall be rich enough without jointure, for my husband cannot die; and wise enough without experience, for no new thing can happen there; and healthy enough without physic, for no sickness can enter; and (which is by much the highest of all) safe enough without grace, for no temptation that needs particular grace, can attempt me. There, where the angels, which cannot die, could not live, this very body which cannot choose but die, shall live, and live as long as that God of life that made it. Lighten our darkness, we beseech thee, O Lord, that in thy light we may see light: illustrate our understandings, kindle our affections, pour oil to our zeal, that we may come to the marriage of this Lamb, and that this Lamb may come quickly to this marriage: and in the mean time bless these thy servants, with making this secular marriage a type of the spiritual, and the spiritual an earnest of that eternal, which they and we, by thy mercy, shall have in the kingdom which thy Son our Saviour hath purchased with the inestimable price of his incorruptible blood. To whom, &c.

SERMON LXXXIV.

PREACHED AT A CHRISTENING.

REVELATIONS vii. 17.

For the Lamb, which is in the midst of the throne, shall govern them, and shall lead them unto the lively fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

Ir our conversation be in heaven', as the apostle says his was, and if that conversation be, (as Tertullian reads that place) municipatus noster, our city, our dwelling, the place from whence only we receive our laws, to which only we direct our services, in which only we are capable of honours, and offices, where even the office

1 Phil. iii. 20.

of a door-keeper was the subject of a great king's ambition: if our conversation be there, even there, there cannot be better company met, than we may see and converse withal in this chapter. Upon those words, Doth the eagle mount up at thy commandment, or make his nest on high; St. Gregory says, Videamus aquilam, nidum sibi in arduis construentem; Then we saw an eagle make his nest on high, when we heard St. Peter say so, Our conversation is in heaven; and then doth an eagle mount up at our commandment, when our soul, our devotion, by such a conversation in heaven, associates itself with all this blessed company that are met in this chapter, that our fellowship may be with the Father, and with his Son Jesus Christ', and with all the court and choir of the triumphant church. If you go to feasts, if you go to comedies, sometimes only to meet company, nay if you come to church sometimes only upon that errand, to meet company, (as though the house of God, were but as the presence of an earthly prince, which upon solemn festival-days must be filled and furnished, though they that come, come to do no service there) command your eagle to mount up, and to build his nest on high, command your souls to have their conversation in heaven by meditation of this Scripture, and you shall meet company, which no stranger shall interrupt, for they are all of a knot, and such a knot as nothing shall untie, as inseparably united to one another, as that God, with whom they are made one spirit, is inseparable in himself.

Here you shall see the angel that comes from the east, (yea, that angel which is the east, from whence all beams of grace and glory arise, for so the prophet calls Christ Jesus himself, (as St. Hierome reads that place) Ecce vir, Oriens nomen ejus, Behold him, whose name is the East) you shall see him come with the seal of the living God, and hold back those angels which had power given them to hurt the sea, and the earth, and you shall hear him say, Hurt not the earth, nor the sea, nor the trees, till we have sealed the servants of our God in the foreheads". And as you shall see him forward, so you shall see him large, and bountiful in imprinting that seal, you shall see an hundred and forty-four thousand of the tribes of the children of Israel, and you shall see a

Job xxxix. 27.
5 Rev. vii. 2.

Greg. Moral. xxxi. 34.

Zech. vi. 12.

4 1 John i. 3. 7 Rev. vii. 3.

great multitude, which no man can number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stand before the throne, and before the Lamb, and cry out, and say, Salvation cometh of our God, that sitteth upon them, and of the Lamb: and you shall see all the angels stand round about the throne, and about the elders, and the four beasts, all falling upon their faces, and worshipping God, saying, Amen, praise, and glory, and wisdom, and thanks, and honour, and power, and might be unto our God, for evermore, Amen. And this is good company, and good music.

And lest you should lose any of the joy of this conversation, of this society, by ignorance what they were, one of the elders prevents you; and (as the text says) answers you, saying, What are these that are arrayed in white? he answers by a question, which is somewhat strange; but he answers before any question, which is more strange: but God sees questions in our hearts before he hears them from our lips; and as soon as our hearts conceive a desire to be informed, he gives a full and a present satisfaction; he answers before we ask; but yet he answers by a question, that thereby he may give us occasion of further discourse, of further questioning with him. There, this elder shall tell thee, that those are they which are come out of the tribulations of this world, and have made their robes white in the blood of the Lamb; that therefore they are in the presence of the throne of God, that they serve him day and night in the temple, that they shall hunger no more, thirst no more, nor be offended with heat, or sun; that is, as many as are appointed to receive this seal of the living God upon their foreheads, though they be not actually delivered from all the incommodities of this life, yet nothing in this life shall deprive them of the next. For as you see the seal given in this chapter, and the promise of all these blessings annexed to it, so you see in this text the reason of all this, for the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall govern them, and shall lead them unto the lively fountains of waters, and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.

In which words, we shall consider for order and distinction, first the matter, and then the form: by the matter we mean the purpose and intention of the Holy Ghost in these words; and by the form, the declaring, the proving, the illustrating, and the

heightening of that purpose of his. For the matter, we take this imprinting of the seal of the living God in the forehead of the elect, and this washing in the blood of the Lamb, to be intended of the sacrament of baptism: in that which we call the form, which is the illustrating of this, we shall first look upon the great benefits and blessings which these servants of God so sealed, and so washed, are made partakers of; for those blessings which are mentioned in the verses before, are rooted and enwrapped in this particular of this text, quoniam, for; they are blessed; for the Lamb shall do this and this for them; and then we shall consider what that is which this Lamb will do for them; first, Reget illos, He shall govern them, take them into his care, make them heirs. of the covenant, breed them in a visible church: secondly, Deducet eos, He shall lead them to the lively fountains of waters; give them outward and visible means of sanctification: thirdly, Absterget omnem lachrymam, He shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; even in this life he shall settle and establish a heavenly joy in the faithful apprehension of the joys of heaven here.

First then to speak of the matter, that is, of the purpose and intention of these words, it is true, they are diversely understood: they have been understood of the state of the martyrs, which are now come to the possession of their crown in heaven, because they are said to have made their long robes white in the blood of the Lamb; and so St. Augustine and St. Gregory (when, by occasion of the subject which they were then in hand with, they were full of the contemplation of martyrdom, and encouragements to that) do seem to understand these words, of martyrs. But since it is not said that they washed their robes in their own blood, which is proper to martyrs, but in the blood of the Lamb, which is communicated to all that participate of the merit of Christ, the words seem larger than so, and not to be restrained only to martyrs. Others have enlarged them further than so, beyond martyrs: but yet limit them to the triumphant church; that because it is said, that they are come out of great tribulation, and that they are in the presence of the throne of God, and that they shall hunger no more, they see no way of admitting these perfections, in this life. But St. Paul saw a way, when he said of the elect, even in this life, God which is rich in mercy, Convivificavit, conresuscitavit; con

sidere fecit; he hath quickened us, he hath raised us, he hath made us sit together in the heavenly places, in Christ Jesus: that is, as he is our head, and is there himself, and we with Christ Jesus, as we are his members; we are with him there too. In the same place where the apostle says, that we look for our Saviour from heaven", (there is our future, our expectation) he says also, our conversation is in heaven, there is our present, our actual possession. That is it which St. Augustine intends, Dilexisti me Domine plusquam te; Lord thou hast loved me more than thou hast loved thyself: Not only that thou gavest thyself for me, that thou didst neglect thyself to consider me, but whereas thou hadst a glory with the Father, before the world was made, thou didst admit a cloud, and a slumber upon that glory, and stayedst for thy glory till thy death, yet thou givest us, (naturally inglorious, and miserable creatures) a real possession of glory, and of inseparableness from thee, in this life. This is that copiosa redemptio, there is with the Lord plentiful redemption"; though that were matura redemptio, a seasonable redemption, if it should meet me upon my deathbed, and that the angels then should receive my soul, to lay it in Abraham's bosom, yet this is my Saviour's plentiful redemption, that my soul is in Abraham's bosom now whilst it is in this body, and that I am already in the presence of his throne, now when I am in your sight, and that I serve him already day and night in his temple, now when I meditate, or execute his commission, in this service, in this particular congregation.

Those words are not then necessarily restrained to martyrs, they are not restrained to the state of the triumphant church, they are spoken to all the children of righteousness; and of godliness; and godliness hath the promises of the life present, and that, that is to come". That which involves all these promises, that which is the kernel, and seed, and marrow of all, the last clause of the text, God shall wipe all tears from their eyes, those words, that clause, is thrice repeated in the Scriptures: when it is spoken here, when it is spoken in the one-and-twentieth chapter of the Revelation, and at the fourth verse, in both places, it is derived from the prophet Isaiah", which is an Eucha10 Psalm cxxx. 7.

" Ephes. ii. 4, 5.

VOL. IV.

111 Tim. iv. 8.

• Phil. iii. 20.

18 Isaiah xxv. 8.

E