it may appear Christ was a person in all senses competent to do this for us, himself testifies, that he had " power over his own life, to take it up or lay it down." And, therefore, as there can be nothing against the most exact justice and reason of laws and punishments; so it magnifies the Divine mercy, who removes the punishment from us, who, of necessity, must have sunk under it, and yet makes us to adore his severity, who would not forgive us without punishing his son for us; to consign unto us his perfect hatred against sin, to conserve the sacredness of his laws, and to imprint upon us great characters of fear and love. The famous Locrian, Zaleucus, made a law, that all adulterers should lose both their eyes: his son was first unhappily surprised in the crime; and his father, to keep a temper between the piety and soft spirit of a parent, and the justice and severity of a judge, put out one of his own eyes, and one of his son's. So God did with us; he made some abatement, that is, as to the person with whom he was angry, but inflicted his anger upon our Redeemer, whom he essentially loved, to secure the dignity of his sanctions, and the sacredness of obedience; so marrying justice and mercy by the intervening of a commutation. Thus David escaped by the death of his son, God choosing that penalty for the expiation and Cimon offered himself to prison, to purchase the liberty of his father Miltiades. It was a filial duty in Cimon, and yet the law was satisfied. And both these concurred in our great Redeemer. For God, who was the sole arbitrator, so disposed it, and the eternal Son of God submitted to this way of expiating our crimes, and became an argument of faith and belief of the great article of "remission of sins," and other its appendent causes and effects and adjuncts; it being wrought by a visible and notorious passion. It was made an encouragement of hope; for he that spared not his own Son" to reconcile us, "will with him give all things else" to us so reconciled; and a great endearment of our duty and love, as it was a demonstration of his. And, in all the changes and traverses of our life, he is made to us a great example of all excellent actions, and all patient sufferings.

In the midst of two thieves, three long hours the holy Jesus hung, clothed with pain, agony, and dishonour, all of them so eminent and vast, that he who could not but hope, whose soul was enchased with divinity, and dwelt in the bosom of God, and in the cabinet of the mysterious Trinity, yet had a cloud of misery so thick and black drawn before him, that he complained as if God had forsaken him: but this was "the pillar of cloud" which conducted Israel into Canaan. And as God behind the cloud supported the holy Jesus, and stood ready to receive him into the union of his glories; so his soul, in that great desertion, had internal comforts proceeding from consideration of all those excellent persons, which should be adopted into the fellowship of his sufferings, which should imitate his graces, which should communicate his glories. And we follow this cloud to our country, having Christ for our guide: and though he trode the way, leaning upon the cross, which, like the staff of Egypt, pierced his hands; yet it is to us a comfort and support, pleasant to our spirits as the sweetest canes, strong as the pillars of the earth, and made apt for our use, by having been borne and made smooth by the hands of our elder brother.

In the midst of all his torments, Jesus only made one prayer of sorrow, to represent his sad condition to his Father; but no accent of murmur, no syllable of anger against his enemies: instead of that, he sent up a holy, charitable, and effective prayer for their forgiveness, and by that prayer ob

tained of God, that within fifty-five days eight thousand of his enemies were converted. So potent is the prayer of charity, that it prevails above the malice of men, turning the arts of Satan into the designs of God; and when malice occasions the prayer, the prayer becomes an antidote to malice. And, by this instance, our blessed Lord consigned that duty to us, which, in his sermons, he had preached, That we should forgive our enemies, and pray for them: and, by so doing, ourselves are freed from the stings of anger, and the storms of a revengeful spirit ; and we oftentimes procure servants to God, friends to ourselves, and heirs to the kingdom of heaven.

Of the two thieves that were crucified together with our Lord, the one blasphemed; the other had, at that time, the greatest piety in the world, except that of the blessed Virgin, and particularly had such a faith, that all the ages of the church could never show the like. For when he saw Christ" in the same condemnation" with himself, crucified by the Romans, accused and scorned by the Jews, forsaken by his own apostles; a dying distressed man, doing at that time no miracles to attest his divinity or innocence; yet then he confesses him to be a Lord, and a King, and his Saviour: he confessed his own shame and unworthiness: he submitted to the death of the cross: and, by his voluntary acceptation and tacit volition of it, made it equivalent to as great a punishment of his own susception; he showed an incomparable modesty, begging but for a remembrance only; he knew himself so sinful, he durst ask no more; he reproved the other thief for blasphemy; he confessed the world to come, and owned Christ publicly; he prayed to him, he hoped in him, and pitied him: showing an excellent patience, in this sad condition. And in this I consider, that besides the excellency of some of these acts, and the goodness of all, the like occasion for so exemplary faith never can occur; and until all these things shall, in these circumstances, meet in any one man, he must not hope for so safe an exit, after an evil life, upon the confidence of this example. But now Christ had the key of Paradise in his hand; and God blessed the good thief with this opportunity of letting him in, who, at another time, might have waited longer, and been tied to harder conditions. And, indeed, it is very probable, that he was much advantaged by the intervening accident of dying at the same time with Christ; there being a natural compassion produced in us towards the partners of our miseries. For Christ was not void of human passions, though he had in them no imperfection or irregularity; and, therefore, might be invited by the society of misery, the rather to admit him to participate his joys; and St Paul proves him to be a " merciful high priest," because "he was touched with a feeling of our infirmities;" the first expression of which was to this blessed thief; Christ and he together sat at the supper of bitter herbs, and Christ paid his symbol, promising that he should" that day be together with him in Paradise."

By the cross of Christ stood the holy Virgin-mother, upon whom old Simeon's prophecy was now verified for now she felt "a sword passing through her very soul:" she stood without clamour and womanish noises; sad, silent, and with a modest grief, deep as the waters of the abyss, but smooth as the face of a pool; full of love, and patience, and sorrow, and hope. Now she was put to it to make use of all those excellent discourses her holy Son had used to build up her spirit with, and fortify it against this day. Now she felt the blessings and strengths of faith; and she passed from

the griefs of the passion, to the expectation of the resurrection; and she rested in this death, as in a sad remedy; for she knew it reconciled God with all the world. But her hope drew a veil before her sorrow; and though her grief was great enough to swallow her up, yet her love was greater and did swallow up her grief. But the sun also had a veil upon his face, and taught us to draw a curtain before the passion, which would be the most artificial expression of its greatness; whilst by silence and wonder we confess it great beyond our expression, or, which is all one, great as the burden and baseness of our sins. And with this veil drawn before the face of Jesus, let us suppose him at the gates of Paradise, calling with his last words, in a loud voice, to have them opened, that "the King of glory might come in."

THE PRACTICE OF THE PRESENCE OF GOD.

THAT God is present in all places, that he sees every action, hears all discourses, and understands every thought, is no strange thing to a Christian ear, who hath been taught this doctrine, not only by right reason, and the consent of all the wise men in the world, but also by God himself in holy Scripture. "Am I a God at hand, saith the Lord, and not a God afar off? Can any hide himself in secret places, that I shall not see him? saith the Lord. Do not I fill heaven and earth ?"* "Neither is there any creature, that is not manifest in his sight: but all things are naked and open to the eyes of him, with whom we have to do."+ "For in him we live, and move, and have our being." God is wholly in every place; included in no place; not bound with cords, except those of love; not divided into parts, not changeable into several shapes; filling heaven and earth with his present power, and with his never absent nature. So St Augustine expresses this article. So that we may imagine God to be as the air and the sea; and we all enclosed in his circle, wrapped up in the lap of his infinite nature; or as infants in the wombs of their pregnant mothers: and we can no more be removed from the presence of God, than from our own being.

SEVERAL MANNERS OF THE DIVINE PRESENCE.

The presence of God is understood by us, in several manners, and to several purposes.

1. God is present by his essence: which, because it is infinite, cannot be contained within the limits of any place; and because he is of an essential purity and spiritual nature, he cannot be undervalued by being supposed present in the places of unnatural uncleanness: because as the sun, reflecting upon the mud of strands and shores, is unpolluted in its beams, so is God not dishonoured, when we suppose him in every of his creatures, and in every part of every one of them; and is still as unmixed with any unhandsome adherence, as is the soul in the bowels of the body.

⚫ Jer. xxiii. 23, 24.

+ Heb. iv. 13.

+ Acts vii. 26.

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2. God is every where present by his power. He rolls the orbs of heaven with his hand; he fixes the earth with his foot; he guides all the creatures with his eye, and refreshes them with his influence: he makes the powers of hell to shake with his terrors, and binds the devils with his word, and throws them out with his command; and sends the angels on embassies with his decrees; he hardens the joints of infants, and confirms the bones, when they are fashioned beneath secretly in the earth. He it is, that assists at the numerous productions of fishes: and there is not one hollowness in the bottom of the sea, but he shows himself to be Lord of it, by sustaining there the creatures, that come to dwell in it: and in the wilderness, the bittern and the stork, the dragon and the satyr, the unicorn and the elk, live upon his provisions, and revere his power, and feel the force of his almightiness.

3. God is more specially present, in some places, by the several and more special manifestations of himself to extraordinary purposes. First, by glory. Thus his seat is in heaven; because, there he sits encircled with all the outward demonstrations of his glory, which he is pleased to show to all the inhabitants of those his inward and secret courts. And thus they, that “die in the Lord," may be properly said to be "gone to God;" with whom although they were before, yet now they enter into his courts, into the secret of his tabernacle, into the retinue and splendour of his glory. That is called walking with God; but this is dwelling, or being, with him. “I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ;" so said St Paul. But this manner of Divine presence is reserved for the elect people of God, and for their portion in their country.

4. God is, by grace and benediction, specially present in holy places,* and in the solemn assemblies of his servants. If holy people meet in grots and dens of the earth, when persecution or a public necessity disturbs the public order, circumstance and convenience, God fails not to come thither to them but God is also, by the same or a greater reason, present there, where they meet ordinarily, by order, and public authority: there God is present ordinarily, that is, at every such meeting. God will go out of his way to meet his saints, when themselves are forced out of their way of order by a sad necessity: but else, God's usual way is to be present in those places where his servants are appointed ordinarily to meet. But his presence there signifies nothing, but a readiness to hear their prayers, to bless their persons, to accept their offices, and to like even the circumstance of orderly and public meeting. For thither the prayers of consecration, the public authority separating it, and God's love of order, and the reasonable customs of religion, have, in ordinary, and in a certain degree, fixed this manner of his presence; and he loves to have it so.

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5. God is especially present, in the hearts of his people, by his Holy Spirit and indeed the hearts of holy men are temples in the truth of things, and, in type and shadow, they are heaven itself. For God reigns in the hearts of his servants: there is his kingdom. The power of grace hath subdued all his enemies: there is his power. They serve him night and day, and give him thanks and praise that is his glory. This is the religion and worship of God in the temple. The temple itself is the heart of man; Christ is the high-priest, who from thence sends up the incense of +1 Kings v. 9. Psalm cxxxviii. 1, 2.

* Mat. xviii. 20. Heb. x. 25.

prayers, and joins them to his own intercession, and presents all together to his Father; and the Holy Ghost, by his dwelling there, hath also consecrated it into a temple;* and God dwells in our hearts by faith, and Christ by his Spirit, and the Spirit by his purities: so that we are also cabinets of the mysterious Trinity; and what is this short of heaven itself, but as infancy is short of manhood, and letters of words? The same state of life it is, but not the same age. It is heaven in a looking-glass, dark, but yet true, representing the beauties of the soul, and the graces of God, and the images of his eternal glory, by the reality of a special presence.

6. God is specially present in the consciences of all persons, good and bad, by way of testimony and judgment: that is, he is there a remembrancer to call our actions to mind, a witness to bring them to judgment, and a judge to acquit or to condemn. And although this manner of presence is, in this life, after the manner of this life, that is, imperfect, and we forget many actions of our lives; yet the greatest changes of our state of grace or sin, our most considerable actions, are always present, like capital letters to an aged and dim eye: and, at the day of judgment, God shall draw aside the cloud, and manifest this manner of his presence more notoriously, and make it appear, that he was an observer of our very thoughts; and that he only laid those things by, which, because we covered with dust and negligence, were not then discerned. But when we are risen from our dust and imperfection, they all appear plain and legible.

Now the consideration of this great truth is of a very universal use, in the whole course of the life of a Christian. All the consequents and effects of it are universal. He that remembers, that God stands a witness and a judge, beholding every secrecy, besides his impiety, must have put on impudence, if he be not much restrained in his temptation to sin. "For the greatest part of sin is taken away, if a man have a witness of his conversation: and he is a great despiser of God, who sends a boy away, when he is going to commit fornication, and yet will dare to do it, though he knows God is present, and cannot be sent off: as if the eye of a little boy were more awful, than the all-seeing eye of God. He is to be feared in public, he is to be feared in private: if you go forth, he spies you, if you go in, he sees you: when you light the candle, he observes you; when you put it out, then also God marks you. Be sure, that while you are in his sight you behave yourself, as becomes so holy a presence." But if you will sin, retire yourself wisely, and go where God cannot see: for no where else can you be safe. And certainly, if men would always actually consider, and really esteem this truth, that God is the great eye of the world, always watching over our actions, and an ever-open ear to hear all our words, and an unwearied arm ever lifted up to crush a sinner into ruin, it would be the readiest way in the world, to make sin to cease from amongst the children of men, and for men to approach to the blessed estate of the saints in heaven, who cannot sin, for they always walk in the presence, and behold the face of God. This instrument is to be reduced to practice, according to the following rules :

* 1 Cor. iii. 16. 2 Cor vi. 16.