Hooker

to him for nature, if nature do supply grace; because he hath made thee to be a man, he hath given thee natural faculties; because he hath vouchsafed thee to be a Christian, he hath given thee means of grace. But, as thy body, conceived in thy mother's womb, could not claim a soul at God's hand, nor wish a soul, no nor know that there was a soul to be had: so neither by being a man endued with natural faculties canst thou claim grace, or wish grace; nay those natural faculties, if they be not pretincted with some infusion of grace before, cannot make thee know what grace is, or that grace is. To a child rightly disposed in the womb, God does give a soul; to a natural man rightly disposed in his natural faculties, God does give grace; but that soul was not due to that child, nor that grace to that man.

Therefore, (as we said at first) David does not bring the hyssop, and pray God to make the potion, but, do thou purge me with hyssop, all is thine own; there was no pre-existent matter in the world, when God made the world; there is no pre-existent merit in man, when God makes him his. David does not say, do thou wash me, and I will perfect thy work; give me my portion of grace, and I will trouble thee for no more, but deal upon that stock; but Qui sanctificatur, sanctificetur adhuc, Let him that is holy be more holy, but accept his sanctification from him, of whom he had his justification; and except he can think to glorify himself because he is sanctified, let him not think to sanctify himself because he is justified; God does all. Yet thus argues St. Augustine upon David's words, Tuus sum Domine, Lord I am thine, and therefore safer than they, that think themselves their own. Every man can and must say, I was thine, thine by creation; but few can say, I am thine, few that have not changed their master. But how was David his so especially? says St. Augustine: Quia quæsivi justificationes tuas, as it follows there; Because I sought thy righteousness, thy justification. But where did he seek it? He sought it, and he found it in himself. In himself, as himself, there was no good thing to be found, how far soever he had sought: but yet he found a justification, though of - God's whole making, yet in himself.

So then, this is our act of recognition, we acknowledge God, and God only to do all; but we do not so make him sovereign

alone, as that we leave his presence naked, and empty; nor so make him king alone, as that we depopulate his country, and leave him without subjects; nor so leave all to grace, as that the natural faculties of man do not become the servants, and instruments of that grace. Let all, that we all seek, be, who may glorify God most; and we shall agree in this, that as the Pelagian wounds the glory of God deeply, in making natural faculties joint-commissioners with grace, so do they diminish the glory of God too, if any deny natural faculties to be the subordinate servants and instruments of grace; for as grace could not work upon man to salvation, if man had not a faculty of will to work upon, because without that will man were not man; so is this salvation wrought in the will, by conforming this will of man to the will of God, not by extinguishing the will itself, by any force or constraint that God imprints in it by his grace: God saves no man without, or against his will. Glory be to God on high, and on earth peace, and good will towards men; and to this God of glory, the Father, and this God of peace and reconciliation, the Son, and this God of good will and love amongst men, the Holy Ghost, be ascribed all praise, &c.

SERMON LXIII.

PREACHED ON CANDLEMAS DAY.

ROMANS xii. 20.

Therefore, if thine enemy hunger, feed him; if he thirst, give him drink; for, in so doing, thou shalt heap coals of fire on his head.

Ir falls out, I know not how, but, I take it, from the instinct of the Holy Ghost, and from the prophetical spirit residing in the Church of God, that those Scriptures which are appointed to be read in the church, all these days, (for I take no other this term) do evermore afford, and offer us, texts that direct us to patience, as though these times had especial need of those instructions.

And truly so they have; for though God have so far spared us as yet, as to give us no exercise of patience in any afflictions, inflicted upon ourselves, yet, as the heart aches if the head do, nay, if the foot ache, the heart aches too; so all that profess the name of Christ Jesus aright, making up but one body, we are but dead members of that body, if we be not affected with the distempers of the most remote parts thereof. That man says but faintly, that he is heart-whole, that is macerated with the gout, or lacerated with the stone; it is not a heart, but a stone grown into that form, that feels no pain, till the pain seize the very substance thereof. How much and how often St. Paul delights himself with that sociable syllable, ovv, con, conregnare', and convificare, and consedere, of reigning together, and living, and quickening together as much also doth God delight in it from us, when we express it in a conformity, and compunction, and compassion, and condolency, and (as it is but a little before the text) in weeping with them that weep. Our patience therefore being actually exercised in the miseries of our brethren round about us, and probably threatened in the aims and plots of cur adversaries upon us, though I hunt not after them, yet I decline not such texts, as may direct our thoughts upon duties of that kind.

This text does so; for the circle of this epistle of St. Paul, this precious ring, being made of that golden doctrine, that justification is by faith, and being enamelled with that beautiful doctrine of good works too, in which enamelled ring, as a precious stone in the midst thereof, there is set, the glorious doctrine of our election, by God's eternal predestination, our text falls in that part, which concerns obedience, holy life, good works; which, when both the doctrines, that of justification by faith, and that of predestination have suffered controversy, hath been by all sides embraced, and accepted; that there is no faith, which the angels in heaven, or the church upon earth, or our own consciences can take knowledge of, without good works. Of which good works, and the degrees of obedience, of patience, it is a great one, and a hard one that is enjoined in this text; for whereas St. Augustine observes six degrees, six steps in our behaviour towards our enemies, whereof the first is nolle lædere, to be loath to hurt any man 2 Eph. ii. 1, 6.

12 Tim. ii. 12.

by way of provocation, not to begin; and a second, nolle amplius quam læsus lædere, that if another provoke him, yet what power soever he have, he would return no more upon his enemy, than his enemy had cast upon him, he would not exceed in his revenge; and a third, velle minus, not to do so much as he suffered, but in a less proportion, only to show some sense of the injury; and then another is, nolle lædere licet læsus, to return no revenge at all, though he have been provoked by an injury; and a higher than that, paratum se exhibere ut amplius lædatur, to turn the other cheek, when he is smitten, and open himself to further injuries; that which is in this text, is the sixth step, and the highest of all, lædenti benefacere, to do good to him, of whom we have received evil, If thine enemy hunger, to feed him, if he thirst, to give him drink.

The text is a building of stone, and that bound in with bars of iron: fundamental doctrine, in point of manners, in itself, and yet buttressed, and established with reasons too, therefore, and for; therefore feed thine enemy; for, in so doing, thou shalt heap coals. This therefore, confirms the precedent doctrine, and this for, confirms that confirmation.

But all the words of God are yea, and amen, and therefore we need not insist upon reasons, to ratify or establish them. Our parts shall be but two; mandatum, and emolumentum, first the commandment, (for we dare not call it by so indifferent a name, as an evangelical counsel, that we may choose whether we will do or no; it is a commandment, do good to thine enemy) and secondly, the benefit that we receive by that benefit, we heap coals upon his head. Each part will have divers branches; for, in the commandment, we shall first look upon the person, to which God directs us, inimicus, though he be an enemy, and inimicus tuus, though he be thine enemy; but yet it is but tuus, thine enemy; it is not simply inimicus homo, the devil, nor inimicus rester, a spreading enemy, an enemy to the state, nor inimicus Dei, an enemy to religion; and from the person, we shall pass to the duty, ciba, and da aquam, feed, and give drink, in which, all kinds of reliefs are implied; but that it is, si esurierit, if he be hungry; there is no wanton nor superfluous pampering of our enemy required, but so much as may preserve the man, and not nourish

the enmity. In these considerations we shall determine our first part; and our second in these; first, that God takes nothing from us, without recompense; nothing for nothing; he seals his commandment with a powerful reason, promise of reward; and then, the reward specified here, arises from the enemy himself; and that reward is, that thou shalt cast coals of fire upon his head; and congeres, accumulabis, thou shalt heap coals of fire upon him.

It is not ill said by a jesuit, of these words, Sententia magis evangelica, quam Mosaica; this text, that enjoins benefits upon our enemies, is fitter for the gospel, than for the law, fitter for the New, than for the Old Testament; and yet it is tam Mosaica, quam evangelica, to show that it is universal, catholic, moral doctrine, appertaining to Jew, and Christian, and all, this text is in the Old Testament, as well as in the New. In the mouth of two witnesses in this truth established, in the mouth of a prophet, and in the mouth of an apostle, Solomon had said it before, and St. Paul says it here, If thine enemy hunger, feed him, if he thirst, &c.

Your Senecas and your Plutarchs have taught you an art, how to make profit of enemies, because as flatterers dilate a man, and make him live the more negligently, because he is sure of good interpretations of his worst actions; so a man's enemies contract him, and shut him up, and make him live the more watchfully, because he is sure to be calumniated even in his best actions: but this is a lesson above Seneca, and Plutarch, reserved for Solomon, and St. Paul, to make profit by conferring and placing benefits upon enemies and that is our first branch, though he be an enemy.

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St. Augustine cites, and approves that saying of the moral philosopher, Omnes odit, qui malos odit, He that hates ill men, hates all men, for if a man will love none but honest men, where shall he find any exercise, any object of his love? So if a man will hold friendship with none, nor do offices of society to none, but to goodnatured, and gentle, and supple, and sociable men, he shall leave very necessary businesses undone. The frowardest and perversest man may be good ad hoc for such or such a particular use. By good company and good usage, that is, by being mingled with