us, but thy love was above our desert. Thou, that madest the earth ready for us before we were, hast by the same mercy prepared a place in heaven for us while we are on earth. The stage was first fully prepared, then was man brought forth thither, as an actor or spectator: that he might neither be idle nor discontent; behold, thou hadst addressed an earth for use, and heaven for contemplation, After thou hadst drawn that large real map of the world, thou didst thus abridge it into this little table of man; he alone consists of heaven and earth, soul and body. Even this earthly part, which is vile in comparison of the other; as it is thine, O God, I dare admire it, though I can neglect it as mine own; for lo, this heap of earth hath an outward reference to heaven: other creatures grovel down to their carth, and have all their senses intent upon it; this is reared up towards heaven, and hath no more power to look beside heaven, than to tread beside the earth. Unto this, every part hath his wonder. The head is nearest to heaven, as in place, so in resemblance; both for roundness of figure, and for those divine guests which have their seat in it; there dwell those majestical powers of reason, which makes a man; all the senses as they have their origipal from thence, so they do all agree there to manifest their virtue: how goodly proportions hast thou set in the face! such as though oft-times we can give no reason when they please, yet transport us to admiration. What living glasses are those which thou hast placed in the midst of this visage, whereby all objects from far are clearly represented to the mind? and because their tenderness lies open to dangers, how hast thou defended them with hollow bones, and with prominent brows, and lids! And lest they should be too much bent on what they ought not, thou hast given them peculiar nerves to pull them up towards the seat of their rest. What a tongue hast thou given him, the instrument not of taste only, but of speech! How sweet and excellent voices are formed by that little loose film of flesh! What an incredible strength hast thou given to the weak bones of the jaws! What a comely and towerlike neck; therefore most sincwy, because smallest! And lest I be infinite, what able arms and active hands hast thou framed him, whereby he can frame all things to his own conceit! In every part, beauty, strength, convenience meet together. Neither is there any whereof our weakness cannot give reason, why it should be no otherwise. How hast thou disposed of all the inward vessels, for all offices of life, nourishment, egestion, generation! No yein, sinew, artery is idle. There is no piece in this exquisite frame, whereof the place, use, form, doth not admit wonder, and exceed it. Yet this body if it be compared to the soul, what is it, but as a clay wall that encompasses a treasure; as a wooden box of a jeweller; as a coarse case to a rich instrument; or as a mask to a beautiful face! Man was made last, because he was worthiest. The soul was inspired last, because yet more noble; if the body have this honour to be the companion of the soul, yet withal it is These the drudge. If it be the instrument, yet also the clog of that divine part the companion for life, the drudge for service, the instrument for action, the clog in respect of contemplation. external works are effected by it, the internal which are more noble, hindered; contrary to the bird which sings most in her cage, but flies most and highest at liberty. This my soul teaches me of itself, that itself cannot conceive how capable, how active it is. It can pass by her nimble thoughts from heaven to earth in a moment: it can be all things, can comprehend all things; know that which is; and conceive that which never was, never shall be: nothing can fill it, but thou which art infinite: nothing can limit it, but thou which art everywhere. O God, which madest it, replenish it, possess it, dwell thou in it, which hast appointed it to dwell in clay. The body was made of earth common to his fellows, the soul inspired immediately from God. The body lay senseless upon the earth like itself: the breath of life gave it what it is; and that breath was from thee. Sense, motion, reason, are infused into it, at once. From whence then was this quickening breath? No air, no earth, no water was here used to give help to this work : thou, that breathedst upon man and gavest him the Holy Spirit, didst also breathe upon the body and gavest it a living spirit; we are beholden to nothing but thee for our soul. Our flesh is from flesh, our spirit is from the God of Spirits. How should our souls rise up to thee, and fix themselves in their thoughts upon thee, who alone createdst them in their infusion, and infusedst them in their creation! How should they long to return back to the Fountain of their being, and Author of being glorious! Why may we not say, that this soul, as it came from thee, so it is like thee? as thou, so it, is one, immaterial, immortal, understanding spirit, distinguished into three powers which all make up one spirit. So thou, the wise Creator of all things, wouldst have some things to resemble their Creator. These other creatures are all body; man is body and spirit; the angels are all spirit not without a kind of spiritual composition; thou art alone after thine own manner, simple, glorious, infinite; no creature can be like thee in thy proper being, because it is a creature; how should our finite, weak, compounded nature give any perfect resemblance of thine? Yet of all visible creatures thou vouchsafest man the nearest correspondence to thee: not so much in the natural faculties, as in those divine graces, wherewith thou beautifiest his soul. Our knowledge, holiness, righteousness, was like the first copy from which they were drawn. Behold, we were not more like thee in these, than now we are unlike ourselves in their loss. O God, we now praise ourselves to our shame; for the better we were, we are the worse; as the sons of some prodigal or tainted ancestors, tell of the lands and lordships which were once theirs. Only do thou whet our desires answerably to the readiness of thy mercies, that we may redeem what we have lost; that we may recover in thee what we have lost in ourselves. The fault shall be ours, if our damage prove not beneficial, I do not find, that man, thus framed, found the want of a helper. His fruition of God gave him fulness of contentment; the sweetness which he found in the contemplation of this new workmanship, and the glory of the author, did so take him up, that he had neither leisure nor cause of complaint. If man had craved a helper, he had grudged at the condition of his creation, and had questioned that which he had; perfection of being. But he, that gave him his being, and knew him better than himself, thinks of giving him comfort in the creature, whilst he sought none but in his Maker: he sees our wants, and forecasts our relief, when we think ourselves too happy to complain: how ready will he be to help our necessities, that thus provides for our perfection! God gives the nature to his creatures: man must give the name; he that might see they were made for him, they shall be to him what he will. Instead of their first homage, they are presented to their new lord, and must see of whom they hold. He that was so careful of man's sovereignty in his innocency, how can he be careless of his safety in his renovation! If God had given them their names, it had not been so great a praise of Adam's memory to recal them, as it was now of his judgment, at first sight, to impose them he saw the inside of all the creatures at first; (his posterity sees but their skins ever since;) and by his knowledge he fitted their names to their dispositions. All that he saw were fit to be his servants, none to be his companions. The same God, that finds the want, supplies it. Rather than man's innocency shall want an outward comfort, God will begin a new creation: not out of the earth, which was the matter of man; not out of the inferior creatures, which were the servants of man; but out of himself, for dearness, for equality. Doubtless such was man's power of obedience, that if God had bidden him yield up his rib, waking, for his use, he had done it cheerfully but the bounty of God was so absolute, that he would not so much as consult with man's will, to make him happy. As man knew not while he was made, so shall he not know while his other self is made out of him that the comfort might be greater, which was seen before it was expected. : If the woman should have been made, not without the pain, or will of the man, she might have been upbraided with her dependance and obligation. Now she owes nothing but to her creator: the rib of Adam sleeping, can challenge no more of her, than the earth can of him. It was a happy change to Adam, of a rib, for a helper. What help did that bone give to his side? God had not made it, if it had been superfluous: and yet if man could not have been perfect without it, it had not been taken out. Many things are useful and convenient, which are not necessary and if God had seen man might not want it, how easy had it been for him, which made the woman of that bone, to turn the flesh into another bone! But he saw man could not complain of the want of that bone, which he had so multiplied, so animated, O God, we can never be losers by thy changes, we have nothing but what is thine: take from us thine own, when thou wilt, we are sure thou canst not but give us better. OF PARADISE. Gen, ü. MAN could no sooner see, than he saw himself happy: his eyesight and reason were both perfect at once, and the objects of both were able to make him as happy as he would. When he first opened his eyes, he saw heaven above him, earth under him, the creatures about him, God before him; he knew what all these things meant, as if he had been long acquainted with them all : he saw the heavens glorious, but far off: his Maker thought it requisite to fit him with a paradise nearer home. If God had appointed him immediately to heaven, his body had been superfluous; it was fit his body should be answered with an earthen image of that heaven, which was for his soul: had man been made only for contemplation, it would have served as well to have been placed in some vast desert; on the top of some barren mountain; but the same power, which gave him a heart to meditate, gave him hands to work, and work fit for his hands. Neither was it the purpose of the Creator, that man should but live: pleasure may stand with innocence; he, that rejoiced to see all be had made to be good, rejoiceth to see all that he had made to be well. God loves to see his creatures happy; our lawful delight is his they know not God that think to please him with making themselves miserable. The idolaters thought it a fit ser、 vice for Baal, to cut and lance themselves; never any holy man looked for thanks from the true God, by wronging himself. Every earth was not fit for Adam, but a garden; a paradise. What excellent pleasures, and rare varieties, have men found in gardens planted by the hands of men! And yet all the world of men cannot make one twig, or leaf, or spire of grass. When he, that made the matter, undertakes the fashion, how must it needs be, beyond our capacity, excellent! No herb, no flower, no tree, was wanting there, that might be for ornament or use; whether for sight, or for scent, or for taste. The bounty of God wrought further than to necessity, even to comfort and recreation. Why are we niggardly to ourselves, when God is liberal? But, for all this, if God had not there conversed with man, no abundance could bave made him blessed. Yet behold: that which was man's storehouse was also his workhouse; his pleasure was his task: paradise served not only to feed his senses, but to exercise his hands. If happiness had consisted in doing nothing, man had not been employed; all his delights could not have made him happy in an idle life. Man, therefore, is no sooner made, than he is set to work: neither greatness nor perfection can privilege a folded hand; he must labour, because he was happy; how much more we, that we may be! This first labour of his was, as without necessity, so without pains, without weariness; how much more cheerfully we go about our businesses, so much nearer we come to our paradise. Neither did these trees afford him only action for his hands, but instruction to his heart: for here he saw God's sacraments grow before him; all other trees had a natural use; these two in the midst of the garden, a spiritual. Life is the act of the soul, knowledge the life of the soul; the tree of knowledge, and the tree of life, then, were ordained as earthly helps of the spiritual part: perhaps he, which ordained the end, immortality of life, did appoint this fruit as the means of that life. It is not for us to enquire after the life we had; and the means we should have had. I am sure it served to nourish the soul by a lively representation of that living tree, whose fruit is eternal life, and whose leaves serve to heal the nations. O infinite mercy! Man saw his Saviour before him, ere he had need of a Saviour; he saw in whom he should recover a heavenly life, ere he lost the earthly: but after he had tasted of the tree of knowledge, he might not taste of the tree of life; that immortal food was not for a mortal stomach: yet then did he most savour that invisible tree of life, when he was most restrained from the other. O Saviour, none but a sinner can relish thee: my taste hath been enough seasoned with the forbidden fruit, to make it capable of thy sweetness; sharpen thou as well the stomach of my soul by repenting, by believing: so shall I eat, and in despite of Adam live for ever. The one tree was for confirmation; the other for trial: one shewed him what life he should have; the other what knowledge he should not desire to have. Alas! he, that knew all other things, knew not this one thing, that he knew enough. How divine a thing is knowledge, whereof even innocency itself is ambitious! Satan knew what he did: if this bait had been gold, or honour, or pleasure, man had contemned it: who can hope to avoid error, when even man's perfection is mistaken! He looked for speculative knowledge, he should have looked for experimental: he thought it had been good to know evil: good was large enough to have perfected his knowledge, and therein his blessedness. All that God made was good, and the Maker of them much more good; they good in their kinds, he good in himself. It would not content him to know God, and his creatures; his curiosity affected to know that which God never made, evil of sin, and evil of death, which indeed himself made by desiring to know them; now we know well evil enough, and smart with knowing it. How dear hath this lesson cost us, That in some cases it is better to be ignorant; and yet do the sons of Eve inherit this saucy appetite of their grandmother: How many thousand souls miscarry with the presumptuous affectation of forbidden knowledge! O God, thou hast revealed more than we can know, enough to make us happy: teach me a sober knowledge, and a contented ignorance. Paradise was made for man, yet there I see the serpent. What marvel is it if my corruption find the serpent in my closet, in my |