seek and not find them, or find one from the other; or if both together, yet have no hold of them, but soon lose them again. Seek where we may, nay, where we shall be sure to find them, where both will be had; and both together, and good assurance of both, even to eternity, as at God's right hand, a right hand that withereth not. If ye seek rest, let it be in His "holy hill;" if glory, gloria in excelsis, Ps. 15. 1. where Christ is already; set, so at rest; at the right hand, so in glory; at God's right hand, and so, in both for ever. There they be, there "seek," there "set your minds.”

To withdraw ourselves, to sequester our minds from things here below, to think of Him, and of the place where now He is, and the things that will bring us thither.

Lu. 2. 14.

cation to

It is a prerogative that a Christian hath, to make it Easter The appliany day in the year, by doing these duties on it. They the time. come no day amiss. But no day so fit as this day, the very day of His rising. Then of very congruity, we to rise also. For no reason in the world, if He rise, that we should lie still. Nor is it good for us that He should rise without us, and leave us behind in the grave of our sins still. But when He, then we too.

For

Rising is not so proper to the day, but the two signs or two duties, call them which ye will, are as proper. this day was, indeed, a day of seeking. "I know Whom you Mark 16. 6. seek, ye seek Jesus That was crucified, saith one Angel;"

Why seek ye the living among the dead," saith another? Lu. 24. 5. To rise when He rose, to seek Him when He was sought. This day He was sought by men, sought by women. Women, the three Maries; men, the two Apostles. The women at charges, the Apostles at pains. Early by the one, earnestly by the other. So there was seeking of all hands.

And they which sought not went to Emmaus, yet they set Lu. 24. 13. their minds on Him, had Him in mind, were talking of Him by the way. So that these do very fitly come into the agendum of this day; thus to seek and set our minds. At least not to lose Him quite, that day we should seek Him, nor have our minds farthest from Him that day they should be most upon Him.

The Church by her office, or agendum, doth her part to To the Sahelp us herein, all she may. The things we are willed to

Y

crament.

Joh. 6. 50.

SERM. seek she sets before us, the blessed mysteries. For these are VIII. from above; the "Bread that came down from Heaven," the Heb. 9. 12 Blood that hath been carried "into the holy place." And I add, ubi Christus; for ubi Corpus, ubi sanguis Christi, ibi Christus, I am sure. And truly here, if there be an ubi Christus, there it is. On earth we are never so near Him, nor He us, as then and there. There in efficacia, and when all is done, efficacy, that is it must do us good, must raise us here, and raise us at the last day to the right hand; and the local ubi without it of no value.

Lu. 24. 30.

35.

6

He was found in the "breaking of bread:" that bread she breaketh, that there we may find Him. He was found by them that had their minds on Him: to that end she will call to us, Sursum corda, Lift up your hearts;' which, when we hear, it is but this text iterated, "Set your minds," have your hearts where Christ is. We answer, We lift them up;' and so I trust we do, but I fear we let them fall too soon again. Therefore, as before so after, when we hear, Thou That sittest at the right hand of the Father;' and when again, Glory to God on high," all is but to have this. But espeHeb. 6. 4. cially, where we may sentire and sapere quæ sursum, and gustare donum cæleste, 'taste of the heavenly gift,' as in another place he speaketh; see in the breaking, and taste in the receiving, how gracious He was and is; was in suffering for us, is in [1Pet. 1.3.) rising again for us too, and regenerating us thereby "to a lively hope." And gracious in offering to us the means, by His mysteries and grace with them, as will raise us also and set our minds, where true rest and glory are to be seen.

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That so at this last and great Easter of all, the Resurrection-day, what we now seek we may then find; where we now set our minds, our bodies may then be set; what we now but taste, we may then have the full fruition of, even of His glorious Godhead, in rest and glory, joy and bliss, never to have an end.

A SERMON

PREACHED BEFORE

THE KING'S MAJESTY AT WHITEHALL,

ON THE TWENTY-FOURTH OF APRIL, A.D. MDCXIV., BEING EASTER-DAY.

PHILIPPIANS ii. 8-11.

He humbled Himself, made obedient unto death, even the death
of the Cross.

For this cause hath God also highly exalted Him; and given
Him a Name above every name.

That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in
Heaven, and in earth, and under the earth.

And that every tongue should confess, that Jesus Christ is the
Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

[Humiliavit Semetipsum, factus obediens usque ad mortem, mortem

autem crucis.

Propter quod et Deus exaltavit Illum, et donavit Illi nomen, quod est super omne nomen:

Ut in nomine Jesu omne genu flectatur cælestium, terrestrium, et infernorum,

Et omnis lingua confiteatur quia Dominus Jesus Christus in gloria est Dei Patris. Latin Vulg.]

[And being found in fashion as a man, He humbled Himself, and
became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross..

Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him, and given Him a
Name which is above every name:

That at the Name of Jesus every knee should bow, of things in
Heaven, and things in earth, and things under the earth;

And that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to

the glory of God the Father. Engl. Trans.]

"FOR this cause God hath exalted Him," saith the text; The sum. "Him," that is, Christ. And "for this cause" are we now here, to celebrate this exalting. Of which His exalting this

SERM. is the first day, and the act of this day the first step of it; IX. even His rising again from the dead. Hæc est clarificatio [S.August. Domini nostri Jesu Christi, quæ ab Ejus resurrectione sumpsit

Tract. in

Joann. 104. 3.]

The di

vision. I.

II.

exordium, saith St. Augustine upon this place; 'this now is the glorifying of our Lord Jesus Christ, which took His beginning at His glorious resurrection.'

This is the sum and substance of this text set down by that learned Father.

By him also is it likewise divided to our hands; into humilitas claritatis meritum, and claritas humilitatis præmium. Humility, the merit of glory,' in the first verse of the four; and glory, the reward of humility, in the other three. Which two, here and ever, are so fast linked together as there is no parting them. I cannot but touch, and I will but touch, the merit in the first verse-it properly pertains to another day; and so come to opus diei.

The matter of this day's exaltation is called here, His exaltation.

And is of two sorts. By God, in the ninth verse; and by us, in the two last.

1. By God; and that is double: of His Person; of His Name. Two supers, either, one. Super-exaltavit Ipsum, His Person; there is one in the forepart of the ninth verse. And Nomen super omne nomen, His Name; there is the other in the latter part of it. And this is God's.

2.

Then cometh ours. have us to do the like.

For God exalting it Himself, He will And not to do it inwardly alone, but even outwardly to acknowledge it for such; and sets down precisely this acknowledgment, how He will have it made by 1. 2. us. Namely, two ways; by the knee, by the tongue. The Phil. 2. 10. "knee," to "bow" to it; the "tongue" to "confess" it. And

11.

both these to be general; "every knee," "every tongue." And

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not in gross, but deduced into three several ranks all in Heaven," all in "earth," all "under the earth;" which com3. 4. prehends all indeed, and leaves none out. This acknowledgment, thus, but only, insinuated by the knee, is by the tongue more plainly expressed; and this is it, that Jesus Christ is the Lord, Lord of all those three. This to be done, and so done, as it redound all "to the glory of God the Father."

But then last, take the use with us; that since in Him His

humiliavit Seipsum ends in super-exaltavit Deus, His humbling Himself in God's exalting, that "the same mind” be in us, Phil. 2. 5. and the same end shall come to us. As His end was, so ours

shall be, in "the glory of God the Father."

Propter quod, "for this cause." We touch first upon this I. word. It is the axis and cardo, the very point whereupon the whole text turneth.

Phil. 2. 8.

Propter.

First, propter; a cause there is. So God exalts ever, for 1. a cause. Here on earth, otherwhile, there is an exaltavit without a propter quod. Some, as Shebna, Haman, Sanballat, Isa. 22. 15. sometimes exalted, no man knows wherefore. With God there goeth ever, with men there should go, a propter quod before exaltavit.

Esther 3.1.
Neh. 4. 1.

2.

For a cause. For what? "for this cause." And this now Propter casts us back to the former verse where it is set down, humi- quod. liavit; there it is for His humility.

avit.

Now of all causes, not for that, if we go by this world, Humiliwhich, as the proverb is, was made for the presumptuous. Nor for that virtue of all others. A virtue, before Christ thus graced it, so out of request as the philosophers-look into their Ethics, you shall not so much as find the name of humility in the list of all their virtues. Well, this cast virtue of no reckoning is here made the propter quod of Christ's exalting, as respexit Lu. 1. 48. humilitatem the ground of His mother's magnificat. And He That by Him "brought light out of darkness" at the first, will 2 Cor. 4. 6. by Him bring glory out of humility at last, or this book deceiveth us. With God, it shall have the place of a propter quod, how poor account soever we make of it here.

But this quod is a collective; there be in it more points 1. Ipse. than one. I will but point at them.

many times

"He,” so

Humiliavit Ipse, "He humbled." "He,” which is idle, but here a circumstance of great weight. great a person, "being in the form of God, and without any Phil. 2. 6. disparagement at all, equal to God," as he tells us a verse before, "He humbled." Ubi Majestatem præmisit, ut humilitatem illustraret; 'That discourse of His High Majesty was but to set out, to give a lustre to His humility.' For, for one of mean estate to be humble, is no great praise, it were a fault if he were not. But in alto nihil altum sapere: for a king, as David, to say, "I will yet be more humble;" for the 2Sam.6.22.