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 liv od 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 10; 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 Eucha

ristical chapter, a chapter of thanksgiving for God's deliverance of his children, even in this world, from the afflictions and tribulations thereof, and therefore this text belongs also to this world.

This imprinting then of the seal in the forehead, this washing of the robes in the blood of the Lamb, St. Ambrose places conveniently to be accomplished in the sacrament of baptism: for this is copiosissima redemptio, this is the most plentiful redemption, that can be applied to us, not only at last in heaven, nor at my last step towards heaven, at my death, nor in all the steps that I make in the course of my life, but in my first step into the church, nay before I can make any step, when I was carried in another's arms thither, even in the beginning of this life; and so do divers of the later men, and of those whom we call ours, understand all this, of baptism; because if we consider this washing away of tears, as St. Cyprian says, Young children do most of all need this mercy of God and this assistance of man, because as soon as they come into this world plorantes, ac flentes, nihil aliud faciunt, quam deprecantur, they beg with tears something at our hands, and therefore need this abstersion, this wiping. For though they cannot tell us, what they ail, though (if we will enter into curiosities) we cannot tell them what they ail, that is, we cannot tell them what properly, and exactly original sin is, yet they ail something, which naturally disposes them to weep, and beg, that something might be done, for the wiping away of tears from their eyes. And therefore though the other errors of the Anabaptist be ancient, a thousand years' old, yet the denying of baptism to children, was never heard of till within a hundred years, and less. The Arians, and the Donatists did re-baptize those who were baptized by the true Christians, whom they counted heretics; but yet they refused not to baptize children: the Pelagians denied original sin in children; but yet they baptized them. All churches, Greek, and Russian, and Ethiopic, howsoever they differ in the body of the church, yet they meet, they agree in the porch, in limine ecclesiæ, in the sacrament of baptism, and acknowledge that it is communicable to all children, and to all men; from the child new born to the decrepit old man, from him that is come out of one mother's womb, to him that is going into

another, into his grave, Sicut nullus prohibendus à baptismo, ita nullus est qui non peccato moritur in baptismo, As baptism is to be denied to none, so neither is it to be denied, that all, that are rightly baptized, are washed from sin 13. Let him that will contentiously say, That there are some children, that take no profit by baptism, show me which is one of them, and qui testatur de scientia, testetur de modo scientia; if he say he knows it, let him tell us how he knows that which the church of God doth not know.

We come now to the second part; in which we consider first, this first word, quoniam, for, which is verbum prægnans, a word that includes all those great blessings, which God hath ordained for them, whom in his eternal decree, he hath prepared for this sealing and this washing. Those blessings, which are immediately before the text, are, that in God's purpose, they are already come out of great tribulation, they have already received a whiteness by the blood of the Lamb, they are already in the presence of the throne of the Lamb, they have already overcome all hunger, and thirst, and heat. Those particular blessings we cannot insist upon; that requires rather a comment upon the chapter, than a sermon upon the text. But in this word of inference, for, we only will observe this: that though all the promises of God in him, are Yea, and Amen", certain, and infallible in themselves, though his name, that makes them be amen, (thus saith Amen, the faithful and true witness1) and therefore there needs no better security, than his word, for all those blessings, yet God is pleased to give that abundant satisfaction to man, as that his reason shall have something to build upon, as well as his faith, he shall know why he should believe all these blessings to belong to them who are to have these seals, and this washing. For God requires no such faith, nay he accepts, nay he excuses no such faith, as believes without reason; believes he knows not why. As faith without fruit, without works, is no faith; so faith without a root, without reason, is no faith, but an opinion. All those blessings by the sacrament of baptism, and all God's other promises to his children, and all the mysteries of Christian religion, are therefore believed by us, because they are grounded in

13 Augustine.

14 2 Cor. 1. 20.

15 Rev. iii. 14.