pass; as more worthy of smiles, than confutation. Questionless, the sense is spiritual; and, it is a sure rule, That, as the historical sense is fetched from signification of words, so the spiritual from the signification of those things which are signified by the words.

For this Inscription then, it shall not be upon the bells, for their own sakes, but for the horses; not as bells, but as bells of the horses and on the horses, not for their own sakes, but as they serve for their riders: the horse, a military creature; there is no other mention of him in Scripture, no other use of him of old. When the eyes of Elisha's servant were open, he saw the hill full of horses; 2 Kings vi. 17. Even the celestial warfare is not expressed without them. Hence you shall ever find them matched with chariots in the Scripture: And the poet, Nunc tempus equos, nunc poscere currus. He rusheth into the battle, saith Jeremiah: and he is made for it; for he hath both strength and nimbleness. He is strong: there is fortitudo equi; Pslam cxlvii. 10: and God himself acknowledges it; Hast thou given the horse his strength? Job xxxix. 19. He is swift, saith Jeremiah; iv. 13: yea, as eagles, or leopards, saith Habakkuk.

We must take these horses then, either as continuing themselves, or as altered.

1. If the first: the very wars under the Gospel shall be holy; and God shall much glorify himself by them. He saith not, There shall be no horses, or those horses shall have no bells, or those bells no inscription; but those horses, and their use, which is war, and their ornaments, which are bells, shall have a title of Holiness.

While Cornelius Agrippa writes of the Vanity of Sciences, we may well wonder at the vanity of his opinion, that all war was forbidden under the Gospel. But let Agrippa be vain in this, as a mere humanist; and the Anabaptists grossly false, as being frantic heretics: it is marvel how Erasmus, so great a scholar, and Ferus, so great a textman, could miscarry in this Manichean conceit. Alphonsus à Castro would fain have our Oecolampadius to keep them company, but Bellarmin himself can hardly believe him: No marvel, when he sees Zuinglius die in the field, though as a pastor, not as a soldier; and when our swords have so well taught them, besides our tongues, that the heretics are as good friends to war, as enemies to them.

It is God's everlasting title, Dominus Exercituum. To speak nothing of the Old Testament; what can Cornelius Agrippa say to Cornelius the Centurion? I fear no man would give that title to him that opposed war, which God's Spirit gives to this agent in war; A just man, and fearing God: "His warfare," saith Chrysostom," hurt him not." Did not Christ himself bid (even he, that said, Whoso smites with the sword, shall perish with the sword, in case of private revenge) Qui non habet gladium, vendat tunicam, emat gladium?

The Angels themselves are heavenly soldiers. Every Christian is a soldier: as he is a Christian, he fights not against flesh and blood, but principalities and powers; as he is a Christian soldier, he

fights both against flesh and blood, and principalities; all the wars of God: so that, contrary to St. Martin, who said, "I am a Christian, I may not fight;" he must say, "I am a Christian, I must fight." And why may he not? God, when he makes us Christians, leaves us the same wit to devise stratagems, the same hands to execute them. All things, as Erasmus wittily, have in them naturally a means of defence: the horse, heels; dog, teeth; ox, horns; porcupine, quills; bee, sting; serpent, poison: those weaker crea tures, that cannot resist, have either nimble feet to outrun us, or wings to outfly us: only man is left naked; yet so, as his furniture within can soon furnish him for without.

Yet all horses, all wars, are not written holy. As there is a spiritual evil war, of the flesh against the spirit; so there is a temporal, of flesh against flesh. Unde bella? saith St. James. Militare propter prædam, "to fight for a booty," saith Ambrose, "is sin." That witty Alphonsus, king of Arragon, to whom we are beholden for so many Apothegms, had, for his Impress, a Pelican striking herself in the breast, and feeding her young with the blood; with a word, Pro lege, et grege. All war draws blood: oft of the innocent part, πόλεμος is πολύ-αἷμος, and therefore must never be but pro lege, for religion; or pro grege, for the commonwealth. And, as it hath these two grounds; so also two directors; Justice and Charity.

Justice, that requires both authority in the manager, and innocence in managing. Authority: a subordinate power is not capable of holy war: he only may say pro lege, that is custos utriusque tabule; he only pro grege, that is on Aev: if private men shall say, pro lege, or pro grege, they are traitors, and not soldiers: in them, as he said to Alexander, war is but theft and murder. Only Kings are the public Justicers of the World; which can command peace, with their own, and punish the breach of peace in others' Innocence. Wrong no man, saith John Baptist. That non ex jure, is, more than unchristian, brutish.

Charity: whether in the Intention, (peace must be the end of war: Bellarmin said this one thing well, that war to the commonwealth is as vulnera Chirurgi:) or, in the Action; both of undertaking and cessation: Undertaking; according to the Jewish proverb, first we must enquire of Abel; and the Heathen poet could say, extrema nemo primo tentavit loco; no just war is anńpuntos: Cessation, upon just satisfaction; as Sheba's head raises the siege of Abel. This is bellum Domini; and Holiness is written upon the bells of these horses of war.

Such were the wars of that blessed Constantine, both Theodosii, Honorius, and all whom God wrote Holy, and made happy. Such were many gallant princes of old persuaded, that those wars of Palestine were; who, in a cunning wile, were sent to get the Holy Land, that, in the mean time, they might lose their own. many Councils were summoned, how many Armies levied, one of 300,000 at once, by P. Urban's procurement! How many streams of Christian blood spilt, to recover the land of them that murdered

How

Christ, which God had cursed to confusion, terram sacerrimam, in the Plautine sense! Such are those, that are undertaken against the scourge of Christendom, the creature of Mahomet, that Turkish Magog.

Such are those, that the Defender of the Christian Faith hath been justly provoked to undertake against that Romish Usurper Peter's successor in nothing, but in denying his Master. The inclemency of the late Pope labouring to forestall him in his just throne; and the absurd pragmatical impudence of the present, in that gross prohibition of a favourable and natural oath, for his Majesty's security, in a sort countenancing rebellion against his per son; beside those shameless libels of his factors, to the scorn of God's Anointed; have seemed to usurp Samuel's message, Vade, percute, demolire. To omit private motives; P. Urban, in that his zealous Oration to the Council of Cleremont, used no one reason to persuade the world to draw their sword against the Turks, which might not justly be urged to Christian Princes, to scale the walls of Rome. Doth he speak of the Saracens profaning of Jerusalem? we parallel the shameful profanations of the spiritual Jerusalem: their heathenism was never so idolatrous. Doth he speak of abusing the sepulchre of Christ? we parallel them with the abusing of his sacred body. Doth he speak of the cruelty of those savages? we also may say of them, Effunditur sanguis Christianus, Christi sanguine redemptus, &c. neither need I fear to say with Junius, that in this they are trucis truciores.

But I know what difference there is betwixt a preacher and a herald. Our title is Evangelizantes pacem: and though the sword of the hand doth well; yet it is the sword of the mouth, that must slay that Man of Sin. Yet this I dare say, that if, in the cause of God and his Church, this war should be undertaken, Holiness should be written upon our horses' bridles; and, as we shall enter with fewer crosses upon our breasts than those honest soldiers into their holy war, so both our cause should be more holy, and we should return with fewer crosses on our backs.

But I meddle not with this. There is a war, that we cannot shake off: not with the person, but the corruptions of that foul Church: we have long waged it. God had never any quarrel upon earth, if this be not his. Our blessed forefathers have shed their blood in this field, and are glorious: let us stir up our Christian courage to this service. Upon our horses' heads shall be written holiness; upon ours, glory and immortality.

2. But take these horses and bells altered, as fits better, by this writing, from themselves: what God writes is done: Write this man childless; therefore he must be so. Joel doth not so well comment upon this place, Break your ploughshares into swords, and your scythes into spears, Joel iii. 10. as Micah. iv. 3, They shall break their swords into mattocks, and their spears into scythes; mattocks and scythes the instruments of profit, one for the commo dities above the earth, the other for those under it: which, as I take it, would not be so strictly restrained to the very time of

Christ's coming, when there was an universal peace on earth, and the temple of Janus was shut: as Cyril, Chrysostom, Eusebius, Jerome, understand it: rather it is a prophecy of that outward and during peace under the Gospel, which all the true professors of it should maintain with themselves.

All nations, though fierce and stern of disposition, yet, if they once stoop sincerely to the Gospel, shall compose themselves to a sweet accordance, and employ their united strength to the service of God*. But how is this fulfilled? Some in all ages have run forth into fury, and troubled the common peace. It is true, but these are blanks; such, as upon whom God hath not written Holiness. It is no hoping, that all horses shall be bridled, or all bridles written on. As grace, so peace, is not in such sort universal, that all should incline to it, on all conditions.

There are some,

, peace-haters: it is as possible to tame a wasp, as to incline them to peace. Such are the wilful Romanists of our time, (to omit schisms,) which will rather mingle heaven and earth together, than remit one gainful error. But, whatever become of these Mamzers, which do thus exclude themselves from the congregation of God, it were happy, if all the true and acknowledged Sons of the Church would admit the inscription of a holy peace.

Alas, why do we, that are brethren, fall out for our change of suits by the way? and make those quarrels deadly, which deserve not to be quarrels? Oh, that some blessed Dove would being an Olive of peace into the Ark of God! Who is so fit for this glorious service, as our gracious peacemaker? Nemno me impunè lacesset, is a good posy; but, Beati pacifici, is a better. Let the vicegerent of him, which is the Prince of Peace, as he was made for the peace of the walls and prosperity of the gates of Sion, be that Angelus pacis; Isaiah xxxiii. 7. Let his wisdom and sweet moderation proceed to allay all these unkindly storms of the Church, that we may live to see that happy greeting of the psalmist, Righteousness and Peace have kissed each other.

And, as this holds in matter of judgment, so of practice too. Do you see a loose and lawless man, wilful in his desires, unbridled in his affections, inordinate in his life, employing his wit to scoff at his Creator, caring for nothing but the worse part of himself? there is one of Zechariah's horses. When God's Spirit breathes upon the soul of this man, he is now another from himself: Holiness to the Lord is written upon his bells. This was done sometimes of old: Saul was among the prophets; Solomon and Manasseh, great patterns of conversion; but rarely, in respect of the days of the Gospel. What should I speak of St. Paul? no ground would hold him; he runs, chafing and foaming from Jerusalem to Damascus: of his jailor? of Mary Magdalen? Behold whole troops of wild natures reclaimed; Eph. iv. Col. iii. Acts ii.

Who can despair, where God undertakes? Shew me never so violent and desperate a sinner, let him be as Job's wild ass in the Bellicosa pectora vertuntur in mansuetudinem Christianam. Jer. Suniæ et Fritellæ.

desert, or as Amos's horse that will run upon the rocks; Amos vi. 12: if God once take him in hand, thou shalt soon see that this horse is flesh and not spirit; and shalt sing Deborah's, Ungula ceciderunt; Jud. v. 22: or Joshua's, subnervabis; Jos. xi. 6. Now shalt thou see him stand quaking under the Almighty hand of God, so that he may write what he will in his bridle, yea in his skin. And if there be any such headstrong and resty steed here among us, let him know, that God will either break his stomach or his heart. Flagellum equo, saith Solomon: and if that will not serve, Collidam in te equum et equitem; Jer. li. 21.

But, alas, how rare are these examples of reclamation! Where is this power of the Gospel? Men continue beasts still; and, with that filthy Gryllus, plead for the privilege of their bestiality. The sins of men strive to outface the glory of the Gospel. What shall I say to this? If, after all these means, thou have no bridle, or thy bridle no inscription, it is a fearful doom of the apostle, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that perish.

IV. Thus much of the horses and bells. Now, from the Pots and Bowls, you shall see the degrees of the Church's PERFECTION: and see it, I beseech you, without weariness; with intention.

The Pots of the Temple were seething vessels, for the use of sacrifice. These are the priests themselves here; for that there is a distinction made betwixt the pots of the Lord's house, and every pot in Jerusalem. The ordinary Jew was every pot; therefore the pots of the Lord's house must be his Ministers. These, under the Gospel, shall be of more honourable use; as the bowls before the altar: like as the altar of perfumes was more inward, and of higher respect. The pots were of shining brass: bowls, of gold; 1 Kings

vii. 50.

It is no brag to say, that the Ministry of the Gospel is more glorious than that of the Law: The least in the kingdom of heaven, saith Christ, is greater than John Baptist; Matth. xi. 11: the kingdom of heaven, that is, the Church; not as Austin, Jerome, Bede, expound it, of the third heaven; for Christ would make an opposition betwixt the Old and New Testament. The not unlearned jesuit Maldonat, while he taxeth us for prefering every Minister of the Gospel to John Baptist, mends the matter so well, that he verifies it of every person; Minimus quisque in Evangelio, that is qui Evangelium recipit, major est illo; not feeling how he buffets himself: for, if the least of those, that receive the Gospel; how much more the least of those, that preach it?

This is no arrogance. God would have every thing in the last Temple more glorious than in the first, which was figured by the outward frame, more glorious in Christ's time, than that of Solomon; as that was beyond the Tabernacle. This is a better Testament; Heb. vii. 22. That had the shadow, this is the substance; Heb. x. 1. Under this, is greater illumination: Effundam Spiritum meum, saith the prophet; before, some few drops distilled; now, a whole current of graces; effundam. If, therefore, John Baptist were greater than the sons of men, because they saw Christ to