necessity of the cause and consequence, as well as strength of reason and equity. There is an influence issuing from Christ our head, to make us so indeed. Therefore, those that are otherwise, they may thank themselves. The best of us, indeed, have cause to be abased, that we betray our comfort, and the means that we have of raising up our dead and dull hearts, for want of meditation. Let us but keep this faith in exercise, that Christ is in heaven in glory, and we in him are in heaven, as verily as if we were there in our persons, as we shall be ere long, and then let us be uncomfortable, and base, and earthly-minded, if we can.

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To conclude all. As the soul of man is first sinful and then sanctified; first humble and then raised; so our meditations of Christ must be in this order: first, think of Christ as abased and crucified, for the first comfort that the soul hath is in Christ' manifested in the flesh,' before it come to ' received up into glory.' Therefore, if we would have comfortable thoughts of this, Christ received up in glory,' think of him first manifest in the flesh.' Let us have recourse in our thoughts to Christ in the womb of the virgin; to Christ born and lying in the manger; going up and down doing good; hungering and thirsting; suffering in the garden; sweating water and blood; nailed on the cross; crying to his Father, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?' finishing all upon the cross; lying three days in the grave; have recourse to Christ thus abased, and all for us, to expiate our sin; he obeyed God to satisfy for our disobedience. Oh! here will be comfortable thoughts for a wounded soul, pierced with the sense of sin, assaulted by Satan; to think thus of Christ abased for our sins, and then to think of him taken up into glory.'

In the sacrament, our thoughts must especially have recourse, in the first place, to Christ's body broken, and his blood shed, as the bread is broken and the wine poured out; that we have benefit by Christ's abasement and suffering, by satisfying his Father's wrath, and reconciling us to God. Then think of Christ in heaven, appearing there for us, keeping that happiness that he hath purchased by his death for us, and applying the benefit of his death to our souls by his Spirit, which he is able to shed more abundantly, being in that high and holy place, heaven; for the Spirit was not given in that abundance, before Christ was ascended to glory, as it hath been since. In this manner and order, we shall have comfortable thoughts of Christ. To think of his glory, in the first place, it would dazzle our eyes, it would terrify us, being sinners, to think of his glory, being now ascended; but when we think of him as descended first, as he saith, Who is he that ascended, but he that descended first into the lower parts of the earth?' Eph. iv. 9. So, who is this that is taken up in glory?' Is it not he that was 'manifest in our flesh' before? This will be comfortable. Therefore let us first begin with Christ's abasement, and then we shall have comfortable thoughts of his exaltation.

These points are very useful, being the main grounds of religion; having an influence into our lives and conversation above all others. Other points have their life and vigour and quickening from these grand mysteries, which are the food of the soul. Therefore let us oft feed our thoughts with these things, of Christ's abasement and glory, considering him in both as a public person, the second Adam,' and our surety; and then see ourselves in him, and labour to have virtue from him, fitting us in body and soul for such a condition. The very serious meditation of these things, will put a glory upon our souls; and the believing of them will transform us 'from glory to glory,' 2 Cor. ix. 18.

NOTES.

"

(a) P. 465.- Procul este profani,' &c. The reference is probably to the famous 'Procul o, procul este, profani' of Virgil (Æn. vi. 258). Of course the thought is contained in the word 'profanus' itself, pro-fanum before or outside of the temple -not sacred or dedicated to a divinity.

(b) P. 465.—'What is the reason that there is one word in the Greek and in other languages to signify both common and profane?' Query ßißnλ05? accessible, open to all, and hence common. But while what is profane is common, it is not true that what is common must be profane.

(c) P. 466.—' What kind of nation were we in Julius Cæsar's time?' &c. Cæsar's famous description contained in lib. v. De Bell. Gall. is too long for insertion here. (d) P. 472.-'It was literally performed in Julius the Second; for in his papal crown there was written " Mysterium," &c., till at last it was blotted out, and instead thereof was written, "Julius secundus Papa." Scaliger on the authority of an informant of the Duke of Montmorency, whilst at Rome, affirms this. So again, Francis Le Moyne and Brocardus, on ocular evidence, saying that Julius III. removed it. Consult Daubuz, Vitringa, Bishop Newton, earlier, and Elliott's Hora Apocalyptica on Rev. xvii. 5.

(e) P. 476.- As lightsome and clear as if the gospel were written with a sunbeam, as one saith.' A common saying since Sibbes's day; but it seems to be impossible to trace it to its original author.

(f) P. 477.-'I will only make that use of it that a great scholar in his time once did upon the point, a noble earl of Mirandula.' This is John Picus of Mirandula,

a pre-eminent scholar in his age. Died 1494. His Works have been repeatedly published in collective editions.

(g) P. 477.-' Men live as if they made no question but they are false.' It is striking to find Bishop Butler, a century later, taking up the same lamentation in nearly the same words; e.g., 'It is come, I know not how, to be taken for granted by many persons, that Christianity is not so much as a subject of inquiry, but that it is now at length discovered to be fictitious, and, accordingly, they treat it as if, in the present age, this were an agreed point among all people of discernment,' (Preface to The Analogy').

(h) P. 488.- The whole world was darkened.' This remains matter of debate. The original in Mat. xxvii. 45, is rv yãv the Land, The Holy Land?

=

(i) P. 488.-' He was sold for thirty pence.' Query? The 'price' can hardly be thus definitely fixed. Cf. Mat. xxvii. 9, and Jer. xviii. 1, 2; xxxii. 6, 12.

(j) P. 496.—The word is not altogether so fitly translated.' The original is ὤφθη = viewed with wonder. Cf. 1 Pet. i. 12.

(k) P. 511.- That proud historian Tacitus, how scornfully doth he speak of Christians. The famous 'quatuor millia libertini generis ea superstitione infecta' (Annals, ii. 85), and the like phrases, warrant Sibbes's reference. Cf. also Annals, xii. 23; xv. 44; Hist. i. 10; ii. 4; ii. 79; v. 1, 2, et alibi.

This

(1) P. 511.- Saith Austin, "We must be very reverent in these matters [election, &c.]; it is most safe to commit all to God, and usurp no judgment here."' Father, like Calvin, abounds in modest statements concerning the becoming attitude toward the secret things' of God.

(m) P. 514.-In Rom. x. 14, seq, you have the Scala Cali, as a good old martyr called it.' I have failed to trace this saying, but Scala Cali is a trite designation of this and other portions of Scripture. The sermons on the Lord's Prayer by Bishop Andrewes were originally published (1611, 12mo), under the title of Scala Coeli.' (n) P.516.There is a world in the world, as one saith well in unfolding this point,' ['believed on in the world ']. Cf. Pearson and John Smith in loc.

(0) P. 518.- Divers of the Fathers were philosophers before.' It will be remembered how Augustine in his 'Confessions' self-accusingly expatiates upon this. The observation holds equally of Athanasius, Bernard, and other Fathers, Greek and Latin; but most particularly of Justin Martyr,-a providential arrangement, as it enabled them the more effectively to combat the philosophers' with their own weapons.

(P) P. 518.-St Austin saith, "The world was not overcome by fighting, but by suffering." One of many of Augustine's plaints in his 'worry' under his numer. ous controversies with the Donatists.

(2) P. 518.- St Austin observes, "It was the wonder of the world." A common saying in the De Civitate Dei.

(r) P. 523.—' Ignorance is the mother of "evotion.' It would be difficult to award this apophthegm to its original author.

(s) P. 523.— Bellarmine's tenet, "that faith is better defined by ignorance than by anything else." See the sentiment under Fides, in any of the editions of the Works of this eminent cardinal.

(t) P. 533.-Therefore the schoolmen speak well, he enjoyed the presence of God affectione justitiæ, . . . yet not affectione accommoda. The distinction has the ring of Aquinas.

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G.

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