SERM.

V.

1.

2.

3.

We are yet; how long we shall we know not, nor how soon vitá tud will be gone, nor how quickly this jam vero will come in place. This we know; between his state and ours there is only a puff of breath in our nostrils. That this life, short though it be, and in a manner a moment, yet hoc est momentum unde pendet æternitas ; on it no less matter dependeth than our eternity;' or bliss or bane, comfort or torment. That in that place, without all hope either of relief, escape, or end; and that from thence, neither our profession of truth, nor the greatness of our receiving shall deliver, but only this recordare. It standeth us then in hand to take perfect impression of this recordare; and, as St. Augustine saith, oblivisci quid simus, attendere quid futuri simus, 'to forget what we now be, to consider what we shall be' without all question ere long, but we know not how soon; but oft it falleth, the shorter and sooner the less we think of it.

Three things then I wish for conclusion; 1. that we may remember; 2. remember in time; 3. remember effectually. That we may remember the fire, the thirst, and the torments; and know what they mean by memory rather than by sense. Abraham from Heaven calls to us to that end; the party in hell crieth, ne veniant et ipsi.

That we do it in time, that we be not in his case, never "lift up our eyes" till we "be in hell," nor remember that may do us good till it be too late.

That we do it effectually from the heart; for there is a heart in recordare, and that this being our greatest business, we make it not our least care.

Our remembering will be effectual, if we pray to God daily we may so receive as we may be received. And our remembering shall be effectual, if it have the effect, that is, make us remember Lazarus. Quotidie Lazarus, you may find Lazarus if you seek him, every day; nay you shall find him, though you seek him not. Our present estate, by present occasion of the dearth now upon us, makes the memory more fresh than at other times it would be. Remember then, our being remembered there lieth on this their remembrance here, and upon their receiving our recipies or rather recipieris. And remember that day, wherein what we have received shall be forgotten, and what He hath received of us, shall

be remembered, and nothing else shall be remembered, but quod uni ex minimis. The attaining "everlasting Tabernacles,” Mat. 10. 42. the avoiding "everlasting torments," lie upon it. That which

we remember now in Lazarus' bosom, shall be remembered to

us again in Abraham's bosom. To which, &c.

H

A SERMON

PREACHED IN

THE COURT AT GREENWICH,

ON SUNDAY, BEING THE FOURTH OF APRIL, A.D. MDXCVI.

SERM.

10.

VI.

1.

2 CORINTHIANS 12. 15.

And I will most gladly bestow, and will be bestowed for your souls, though the more I love you, the less I am loved.

Ego autem libentissime impendam, et superimpendar ipse pro animabus vestris, licet plus vos diligens, minus diligar.

[And I will very gladly spend and be spent for you; though the more abundantly I love you, the less I be loved. Engl. Trans.]

THE words be St. Paul's, and to the Corinthians. And if we neither knew whose they were, nor to whom, yet this we might know by the words themselves, that it is love that speaks, and unkindness that is spoken to. Impendam—superimpendar-libentissime. This must needs be love; and that, unkindness, that requiteth such love with such an etsi; etsi minus diligar, "though, the more I love, the less I be loved."

Many ways it may be manifest, that St. Paul loved the 1 Cor. 15. Church of Corinth, more than many other loved them, for he laboured more for them. By the time he spent with scarce with any so much.

Acts 18.11. them, a year and a half full

14.

2 Cor. 12. By his visiting them three several times-not any so oft. By two of his largest Epistles sent to them—not to any the like. And in the one of them we see here, how frank and how kind a profession he maketh, in qua omne verbum charitatis igne vaporatur, wherein every word carrieth a sweet scent of love's perfume'-it is St. Gregory. These, each of these; but all these together may prove his magis diligam, the abundance of his love to Corinth.

Now there should be in love the virtue of the load-stone, 2. the virtue attractive, to draw like love to it again. There should be, but was not. For their little love appeared by their many unloving exceptions which they took to him. To his office that he was but an Apostle of the second head, and no ways to be matched with the chief Apostles. To his 2 Cor. 12. person: that he was one of no presence. Somewhat good at an Epistle, but his person or presence nothing worth. To his 2 Cor. 10. preaching that he was but idióτns TÊ Xóy, "not so eloquent by much," as divers of them were; nor his sermons ex opere Corinthiaco, of the Corinthian fashion.' Indeed, I know not how, but he could not hit on their vein.

:

But him

11.

10.

2 Cor.11.6.

12.

This cold infusion of so faint regard on their parts might 3. have quenched his love. It did Apollos', for Apollos was once at Corinth, but found them so diverse to please, as he waxed weary and got him away; and when he was moved to return to them, πávτws oùк v Oéλnμa, “his mind was not 1 Cor. 16. at all" to come there again as yet, saith St. Paul. It made Apollos give over. So might it St. Paul too. it did not. Charitas quâ ædificabat, the love wherewith he built' was like lime, slacked not but rather kindled with water. For notwithstanding all these, such was his zeal, and he tantus zelator animarum, that we see his affection, and we hear his resolution what it is. Unkind they might be, but no unkindness of theirs, or verdict never so hard, or censure never so sharp; no minus diligar should move him, or make him love their souls a whit the less.

Wherein, lest they might be jealous he sought to Corinth 4. so oft for the ore of it, because the soil was rich, there was good to be done, as men are ever that way quick-eyed; he appealed to all his former course with them, that he had sought nothing hitherto. Nothing he had sought, nor 2 Cor. 11. nothing he would seek. And to come to this our verse, not only seek nothing, 1. but he would bestow; 2. bestow, and be bestowed himself; 3. and that, most willingly—indeed

8,9.

it is higher, dora, "most gladly;" 4. and all this, to use Chry- [S. Chry sostom's words, not vπèp Tŵv ovde piλouvтwv, for those that sot.in loc.] had not begun to love him first, but ὑπὲρ τῶν οὐδ ̓ ἀντιφι XoÚvTwv, for those that being loved first did not love him. again.' 5. And that, not kar' ioa, 'in equal measure'—that

VI.

SERM. is not his complaint, but such as "the more" (it is fuller in the Greek, Teppiσσoтéρws, "the more abundantly") "they were loved, loved him the less for it." The degrees are many; and look how many degrees, so many several points of elevation. 5. All which when I consider, I cannot choose but marvel at his love, which truly is right admirable; and more at their minus, than his magis. But at his heroical spirit most of all, whom such and so great unkindness could not overcome. The rather, when I lay it to, and compare it with ours in these times; in which, a kind of love we have, such as it is, but such as will not endure St. Paul's assay; or if in some degrees it do, if it be not respected straight-not as it deserveth, for so haply it is, but as it supposeth itself to deserve, if it be crossed with any unkindness, it groweth abrupt. Every minus diligar makes it abate; and far we are from this Christian magnanimity, to resolve with him in the eleventh chapter, Quod facio, hoc et faciam, "what I do, that 2 Cor. 11. I will do still." Or here, love I will still, "though the more I love the less I be loved."

12.

The di

vision.

I.

The thing loved, is the Corinthians' souls. And as Corinth itself was situate in a narrow land between two seas, so are they in the verse; having on the one side, the sea of self-love, in the former part; and on the other, the gulf of unkindness, in the latter. Through either of which St. Paul maketh a first and second navigation, if haply he may so adire Corinthum, gain their souls to Christ, more precious to him than Corinth itself and all the wealth in it.

In the love two things are offered. For, in the former moiety of the verse, he is encountered with self-love, 1. which bestoweth nothing, 2. but least of all his life; 3. or if it do, it is not most gladly; nay, not gladly at all. These three he beateth down: the first, with impendam; the second, with impendar; the third, with libentissime. Thus having vanquished the love of himself in the former, in the latter moiety unkindness riseth up. Unkindness in them for whom he had done all the former. Over which second enemy having a second conquest also, and triumphing over it with his etsi, he sheweth his love to be a love of proof, to have all the perfections and signatures of love; all which are within compass of this verse. Amor, as in schools we reckon them, 1. Im