any state be stirred, they may put in for a share. How many cells and convents hath she raised for these miserable cripples! and now she thinks (though she exalt herself above all that is called God, though she dispense with and against God, though she fall down before every block and wafer, though she kill kings and equivocate with magistrates,) she is the only city of God: Digna est, nam struxit synagogam, She is worthy, for she hath built a synagogue.

Are we more orthodox, and shall not we be as charitable? I am ashamed to think of rich noblemen and merchants, that die and give nothing to our five porches of Bethesda. What shall we say? Have they made their mammon their God, instead of making friends with their mammon to God? Even when they die, will they not, like Ambrose's good usurers, part with that, which they cannot hold; that they may get that, which they cannot lose? Can they begin their will, In Dei nomine, Amen; and give nothing to God? Is he only a witness, and not a legatee? Can we bequeath our souls to Christ in heaven, and give nothing to his limbs on earth? And if they will not give, yet will they not lend to God? He, that gives to the poor, fœneratur Deo, lends to God. Will they put out to any, but God? and then; when, instead of giving security, he receives with one hand and pays with another, receives our bequest and gives us glory? O damnable niggardliness of vain men, that shames the Gospel, and loses Heaven! Let me shew you a Bethesda, that wants porches. What truer house of effusion, than the Church of God; which sheds forth waters of comfort, yea of life? Behold, some of the porches of this Bethesda, so far from building, that they are pulled down. It is a wonder, if the demolished stones of God's house have not built some of yours; and if some of you have not your rich suits guarded with souls.

There were wont to be reckoned three wonders of England, Ecclesia, Femina, Lana, “The Churches, the Women, the Wool." Femina may pass still; who may justly challenge wonder for their vanity, if not their persons. As for Lana, if it be wonderful alone, I am sure it is ill joined with Ecclesia: the Church is fleeced, and hath nothing but a bare pelt left upon her back. And as for Ecclesia, either men have said with the Babylonians, Down with it, down with it, even to the ground; or else, in respect of the maintenance, with Judas, ut quid perditio hæc? Why was this waste? How many remorseful souls have sent back, with Jacob's sons, their money in their sacks' mouths! How many great testators have, in their last will, returned the anathematized peculium of Impropriations to the Church; chusing rather to impair their heir, than to burden their souls. Dum times, ne pro te patrimonium tuum perdas, ipse patrimonio tuo peris, saith Cyprian; "While thou fearest, to lose thy patrimony for thy own good, thou perishest with thy patrimony."

Ye great men, spend not all your time in building castles in the air, or houses on the sand; but set your hands and purses to the building of the porches of Bethesda. It is a shame for a rich Christian, to be like a Christmas-box, that receives all, and nothing can be got out, till it be broken in pieces; or like unto a drowned man's hand, that holds whatsoever it gets. To do good, and to distribute, forget not; for with such sacrifices, God is well pleased.

III. This was the Place, what was the USE of it? All sorts of patients were at the bank of Bethesda where should cripples be, but at the Spittle? The sick, blind, lame, withered, all that did either morbo laborare or vitio corporis, complain of sickness or impotency, were there. In natural course, one receipt heals not all diseases; no, nor one agent: one is an Oculist; another, a Bonesetter; another, a Chirurgeon: but all diseases are alike to the supernatural power of God.

Hippocrates, though the prince of physicians, yet swears by Esculapius he will never meddle with cutting of the stone. There is no disease, that art will not meddle with: there are many, that it cannot cure. The poor Hæmorrhoissa was eighteen years in the physicians' hands; and had purged away both her body and her substance. Yea, some it kills, instead of healing; whence one Hebrew word signifies both Physicians and Dead Men. But behold, here all sicknesses cured by one hand, and by one water. O all ye, that are spiritually sick and diseased, come to the Pool of Bethesda, the blood of Christ. Do ye complain of the blindness of your ignorance? here ye shall receive clearness of sight; of the distemper of passions? here, ease; of the superfluity of your sinful humours? here, evacuation; of the impotency of your obedience? here, integrity; of the dead witheredness of good affections? here, life and vigour. Whatsoever your infirmity be, come to the pool of Bethesda, and be healed.

All these may be cured; yet shall be cured at leisure. All must wait; all must hope in waiting. Methinks, I see how enviously these cripples look one upon another, each thinking other a let, each watching to prevent other, each hoping to be next; like emulous courtiers, that gape and vie for the next preferment, and think it a pain to hope, and a torment to be prevented. But Bethesda must be waited on. He is worthy of his crutches, that will not stay God's leisure for his cure. There is no virtue, no success, without patience. Waiting is a familiar lesson with courtiers; and here, we have all need of it. One is sick of an overflowing of the gall, another of a tumor of pride, another of the tentigo of lust, another of the vertigo of inconstancy, another of the choking squinancy of curses and blasphemies; one of the boulimy of gluttony, another of the pleuritical stitches of envy; one of the contracting cramp of covetousness,

another of the atrophy of unproficiency; one is hide-bound with pride, another is consumed with emulation, another rotten with corrupt desires and we are so much the sicker, if we feel not these distempers. Oh that we could wait at the Bethesda of God, attend diligently upon his ordinances: we could no more fail of cure, than now we can hope for cure. We wait hard, and endure much for the body. Quantis laboribus agitur, ut longiore tempore laboretur! Multi cruciatus suscipiuntur certi, ut pauci dies adjiciantur incerti; "What toil do we take, that we may toil yet longer! We endure many certain pains, for the addition of a few uncertain days;" saith Austin. Why will we not do thus for the soul? Without waiting, it will not be.. The Cripple, Acts iii. 4, was bidden, Beyov eis nuas, Look up to us. He looked up. It was cold comfort that he heard; Silver and gold have I none but the next clause made amends for all; Surge et ambula, Rise and walk and this was, because eжeixeν прoodoкwv, he attended expecting, v. 5. Would we be cured? It is not for us to snatch at Bethesda, as a dog at Nilus; nor to draw water and away, as Rebekah; nor to set us awhile upon the banks, as the Israelites by the rivers of Babylon: but we must dwell in God's house; wait at Bethesda.

But what shall I say to you, Courtiers, but even as St. Paul to his Corinthians, Ye are full, ye are rich, ye are strong without us? Many of you come to this place, not as to Bethel, the House of God, or Bethesda, the House of Effusion; but as to Bethaven, the House of Vanity. If you have not lost your old wont, there are more words spoken in the outer closet by the hearers, than in the chapel by the preacher; as if it were closet, quasi close-set, in an exchange, like communication of news. What, do ye think of sermons as matters of formality, as very superfluities, as your own idle compliments, which either ye hear not, or believe not? What do ye think of yourselves? Have you only a postern to go to heaven by yourselves; where through ye can go, besides the foolishness of preaching? or do ye sing that old Pelagian note, Quid nunc mihi opus est Deo? "What need have I of God?" What should I say to this but, Increpa, Domine?

As for our household sermons, our auditors are like the fruit of a tree in an unseasonable year; or, like a wood new felled, that hath some few spires left for standers some poles distance; or, like the tithe sheaves in a field when the corn is gone, es, duo, Tрeis, &c. as he said. It is true, ye have more sermons and more excellent, than all the courts under heaven put together: but, as Austin said well, Quid mihi proderit bona res non utenti bene? "What am I the etter for a good thing, if I use it not well?" let me tell you, all these forcible means not well used, will set you the further off from heaven. If the chapel were the Bethesda of promotion, what thronging would there be into it! Yea, if it

were but some mask-house, wherein a glorious, though momentary, show were to be presented, neither white staves nor halberts could keep you out. Behold here, ye are offered the honour to be, by this seed of regeneration, the Sons of God. The kingdom of heaven, the crown of glory, the sceptre of majesty, in one word, eternal life, is here offered and performed to you. Oh let us not so far forget ourselves, as, in the ordinances of God, to contemn our own happiness. But let us know the time of our visitation: let us wait reverently and intentively upon this Bethesda of God; that when the angel shall descend and move the water, our souls may be cured, and, through all the degrees of grace, may be carried to the full height of their glory.

CONTEMPLATION XII-THE FIRST PART OF THE MEDITATIONS UPON THE TRANSFIGURATION OF CHRIST.

MATTHEW XVII, MARK IX., LUKE IX.

IN A SERMON PREACHED AT HAVERING BOWER, BEFORE KING JAMES, OF BLESSED MEMORY.

THERE is not, in all divinity, a higher speculation, than this, of Christ Transfigured. Suffer me, therefore, to lead you up by the hand into Mount Tabor, for nearer to heaven ye cannot come, while ye are upon earth; that you may see him glorious upon earth, the region of his shame and abasement, who is now glorious in Heaven, the throne of his Majesty.

He, that would not have his Transfiguration spoken of till he were raised, would have it spoken of all the world over, now that he is raised and ascended; that, by this momentary glory, we may judge of the eternal.

The Circumstances shall be to us as the skirts of the hill, which we will climb up lightly: the TIME, PLACE, ATTENDANTS, COMPANY: the Time, after six days; the Place, a high hill apart; the Attendants, Peter, James, John; the Company, Moses and Elias: which when we have passed, on the top of the hill shall appear to us that sight, which shall once make us glorious, and, in the mean time, happy.

I. All three evangelists accord in the terminus à quo, that it was immediately after those words, There be some of them that stand here, which shall not taste of death, till they have seen the Son of Man come in his kingdom: wherein, methinks, the act comments upon the words. Peter, James, and John were these some they tasted not of death, till they saw this heavenly image of the royalty of Christ glorified.

But the terminus quo disagrees a little. Matthew and Mark say, after six; Luke, post ferè octo: which, as they are easily reconciled by the usual distinction of inclusive and exclusive, necessary for all computations, and Luke's about eight; so, methinks, seem to intimate God's seventh day, the sabbath: why should there be else so precise mention of six days after, and about eight, but to imply that day, which was betwixt the sixth and eighth? God's day was fittest for so Divine a work: and well might that day, which imported God's rest and man's glory, be used for the clear representation of the rest and glory of God and Man. But in this conjecture, for ought I know, I go alone. I dare not be too resolute. Certainly, it was the seventh, whether it were that seventh, the seventh after the promise of the glory of his kingdom exhibited; and this, perhaps, not without a mystery. "God teacheth, both by words and acts," saith Hilary, "that after six ages of the world, should be Christ's glorious appearance, and our transfiguration with him." But I know what our Saviour's farewell was, ovx iμwv yvwvai, it is not for us to know. But if we may not know, we may conjecture; yet not above that we ought, saith St. Paul: we may not super sapere, as Tertullian's phrase is.

II. For the PLACE, tradition hath taken it still for Tabor. I list not to cross it without warrant.

This was a high hill indeed; "thirty furlongs high," saith Josephus; mirá rotunditate sublimis, saith Jerome: and so steep, that some of our English travellers, that have desired to climb it of late, have been glad to give it up in the midway, and to measure the rest with their eyes.

Doubtless, this hill was a symbol of Heaven; being near it, as in situation, so in resemblance. Heaven is expressed usually by the name of God's hill; and nature, or this appellation, taught the heathens to figure it by their Olympus.

All divine affairs, of any magnificence, were done on hills. On the hill of Sinai, was the Law delivered: on the hill of Moriah, was Isaac to be sacrificed; whence Abraham's poesy is, " 7772 in monte providebitur: on the hill of Rephidim, stood Moses with the rod of God in his stretched hand; and figured Him crucified upon the hill, whom Joshua figured victorious in the valley: on the hills of Ebal and Gerizim, were the blessings and curses: on Carmel, was Elijah's sacrifice: the Phrontisteria, schools or universties of the prophets, were still Ramah and Gibeah, excelsa, high places who knows not, that on the hill of Sion stood the Temple? I have looked up to the hills, saith the Psalmist: and idolatry, in imitation, had their hill-altars: on the Mount of Olives, was Christ wont to send up his prayers, and sent up himself and here, Luke saith, he went up to a high hill, to pray; not for that God makes difference of places, to whose immensity heaven itself is a valley; it was a heathenish conceit of those