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to be God's heir, in the kingdom of heaven, that gives all away to his earthly heirs, and lends nothing to the God of Heaven?

As that witty Grecian said of extreme tall men, that they were cypress-trees, años nai indos, &c. "fair and tall, but fruitless;" so may I say of a strait-handed rich man, And these cypresses are not for the garden of Paradise: none shall ever be planted there, but the fruitful. And, if the first Paradise had any trees in it only for pleasure, I am sure the second, which is in the midst of the New Jerusalem; Rev. xxii. 2. shall have no tree that bears not twelve fruits, yea whose very leaves are not beneficial,

Do good, therefore, O ye Rich; and shew your wealth to be, not in having, but in doing good. And, if God have put this holy resolution into any of your hearts, take this with you also, from him; do not talk, and purpose, and project; but execute: do not so do good, that we may thank your death-bed for it, and not you. Late beneficence is better than none, but so much as early beneficence is better than late. He, that gives not till he dies, shews that he would not give, if he could keep it. And God loves a cheerful giver. That, which That, which you give thus, you give it by your Testament, can scarce say you give it by your will: the good man's praise is dispersit, dedit: he dispersed his goods; not, he left them behind him: and his distribution is seconded with the retribution of God, His righteousness endureth for ever; Psalm cxii. 9. Our Saviour tells us, that our good works are our light; Let your light so shine, that men may see your good works. Which of you lets his light go behind him; and hath it not rather carried before him, that he may see which way it goes, and which way himself goes by it? Do good, therefore, in your life; that you may have comfort in your death, and a crown of life after death.

Now all this have I spoken, not for that I have ought, as St. Paul says, whereof to accuse my nation. Blessed be God, as good works have abounded in this age, so this place hath superabounded in good works. Be it spoken to the glory of that God whose all our good works are, to the honour of the Gospel, to the conviction of that lewd slander of Solifidianism; London shall vie good works with any city upon earth: this day and your ears are abundant witnesses. As those therefore, that by a handful guess at the whole sack, it may please you by this year's Brief to judge of the rest: wherein I do not fear, lest envy itself, shall accuse us of a vain glorious ostentation. Those obstreperous benefactors, that, like to hens which cannot lay an egg but they must cackle straight, give no alms but with trumpets, lose their thanks with God, Alms should be like oil, which, though it swim aloft when it is fallen, yet makes na noise in the falling; not like water, that still sounds where it lights, But, howsoever private beneficence should not be acquainted with both the hands of the giver, but silently expect the reward of him that seeth in secret; yet, God should be a greater loser, if the public fruits of charity should be smothered in a modest secrecy. To the praise, therefore, of that good God which gives us to give and rewards us for giving, to the example of posterity, to the honour

of our profession, to the encouragement of the well-deserving, and to the shame of our malicious adversaries, hear what this year hath brought forth.

[Here followeth a brief memorial of the charitable acts of the city this year last past, &c.]

And if the season had not hindered, your eyes should have seconded your ears, in the comfortable testimony of this beneficence; Euge, &c: Well done, good and faithful servants. Thus should your profession be graced: thus should the incense of your alms ascend, in pillars of holy smoke, into the nostrils of God: thus should your talents be turned into cities. This colour is no other than celestial; and so shall your reward be. Thus should the foundation be laid of that building, whose walls reach up unto heaven; whose roof is finished and laid on, in the heaven of heavens, in that immortality of glory, which the God of all glory, peace, and comfort hath provided for all that love him. Unto the participation whereof, the same God of ours mercifully bring us, through the Son of his Love, JESUS CHRIST the Righteous: to whom, with the Father, and the Holy Ghost, one Infinite and Incomprehensible God, be given all praise, honour, and glory, now and for ever, Amen,

SERMON VIII,

THE DECEIT OF APPEARANCE;

PREACHED BEFORE HIS MAJESTY, AT HIS COURT OF THEOBALDS, ON SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 1622.

IN THE ORDINARY COURSE OF ATTENDANCE.

JOHN vii. 24.

Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment,

As in the civil body, so in the natural; the head, as it is the highest, so the chief part. According to the place is the dignity, Of the head, the highest region is chiefest, serving only for the use of intellectual powers; whereas the lower part of it is only employed for bodily nutrition. Now, as the reasonable part of the soul is Vertex animæ, being contradistinguished to the sensitive; so, if ye distinguish the reasonable into Judgment and Deliberation, Naturale Judicatorium dicetur esse vertex, saith Aquinas; "Judg ment is the top of our soul;" and therefore calls for the top of our care. If the highest wheel go right, the inferior hardly err.

Hear then the golden rule of the Author, of the Judge of our judgment; Judge not according to the appearance, but judge righteous judgment. The negative part is first, Judge not; then, Judge: where the mind is free and clear, it is good to begin with the positive document of right, which is the rule to itself and the wrong; but where the heart is forestalled with mis-opinion, ablative directions are first needful to unteach error, ere we can learn truth. Judge not, therefore, according to the appearance. Kar', is, as the Vulgate rightly, secundum faciem, "according to the face;" because the face only appears, the rest is hid. Every thing, not man only, hath both a face and a heart: a face, which is pervious to every eye; a heart, to which no eye can pierce but the wise. This face, as of man, so of things, is a false rule of judgment; Frons, oculi, &c. "The forehead, eyes, countenance tell many a lie." Judge not, therefore, according to appearance; it is no measuring by a crooked line.

There is nothing more uncertain than appearance. Some things appear, that are not; and some things are, that appear not: and that, besides natural occurrences, in morally both good and evil. Some things appear good, that are not; and therefore mislead the heart, both to an unjust prosecution, and to a false applause: some

things appear evil, that are not; and therefore mislead us to an injurious censure, and undeserved abomination. Again, some things are good, that appear not; and therefore lose both our al lowance and pursuit: some things are evil, that appear not; and therefore insinuate themselves in our acquaintance and love, to our cost. Many a snake lies hid under the strawberry leaves, and stings us ere we be aware. Vitia virtutes mentiuntur, saith Gregory, "Vice too oft makes a mask of the skin of virtue," and looks lovely: virtue as often comes forth, like a martyr in the Inquisition, with a San-benit upon her back, and a cap painted with devils upon her head, to make her ugly to the beholders; Judge not, therefore, according to the appearance.

The appearance or face, is of things, as of men. We see it, at once, with one cast of the eye; yet there are angles, and hills, and dales, which, upon more earnest view, the eye sees cause to dwell in: so it is with this appearance or face of things, which, however it seems wholly to appear to us at the first glance; yet, upon fur ther search, will descry much matter of our enquiry: for every thing from the skin inclusively to the heart, is the face; every thing besides true being, is appearance.

All the false or pia, that use to beguile the judgment of man, hide themselves under this appearance. These reduce themselves to three heads, PRESUMPTIONS, FALSE FORMS, EVENTS.

PRESUMPTIONS must be distinguished: for, whereas there are three degrees of them, first, levia probabilia, light probabilities; then, fair probabilities; and, thirdly, strong probabilities, which are called, judicia juris: the two first are allowed by very Inquisitors; but, as sufficient to cause suspicion, to take informa.ion, to attach the suspected; not enough, whereon to ground the libel or the torture, much less a final judgment: thus Eli sees Hannah's lips go; therefore she is drunk: the Pharisees see Christ sit with sinners; he is a friend to their sins.

FALSE FORMS are presented either to the eye or the ear. In the Former, besides supernatural delusions, there is a deceit of the sight; whether through the indisposition of the organ, or the distance of the object, or the mis-disposition of the medium: so as, if we should judge according to appearance, the sun should double itself by the first, through the crossness of the eye; it should diminish itself by the second, and seem as big as a large sieve, or no large cart-wheel at the most; it should dance in the rising, and move irregularly, by the third, To the Ear, are mis-reports and false suggestions; whether concerning the person, or the cause: in the former, the calumniating tongue of the detractor, is the juggler, that makes any man's honesty or worth appear such as his malice listeth: in the latter, the smooth tongue of the subtle rhetorician is the impostor, which makes causes appear to the unsettled judgment, such as his wit or favour pleaseth.

EVENTS; which are ofttimes as much against the intention and above the remedy of the agent, as beside the nature of the act, There is sometimes a good event of evil: as Jason's adversary

cured him in stabbing him; the Israelites thrive by oppression; the field of the Church yields most when it is manured with blood. There is sometimes an ill event of good: Abimelech gives David the shew-bread and the sword; he, and his family, dies for it. Sapientis est præstare culpam: It is enough for a wise man to wield the act; the issue he cannot: wisdom makes demonstrative syllogisms, à priori, from the causes; folly, paralogisms, à posteriori, from the success. Careat successibus opto, quisquis ab eventu, &c. was of old the word of the heathen poet.

If, therefore, either upon Slight Probabilities, or False Forms, or Subsequent Events, we pass our verdict; we do, what is here forbidden, Judge according to appearance.

Had the charge been only Judge not, and goue no further, it had been very useful; and no other, than our Saviour gave in the Mount. We are all on our way. Every man makes himself a Justice Itinerant, and passeth sentence of all that comes before him; yea, beyond all commission, of all above him; and that, many times, not without gross misconstruction, as in the case of our late directions. Our very Judges are at our bar. Secrets of Court, of Council, of State escape us not; yea, not those of the most reserved Cabinet of Heaven. Quis te constituit Judicem? Who made thee a Judge? as the Israelite, unjustly, to Moses. These are saucy usurpers of forbidden Chairs; and therefore it is just with God, that, according to the Psalmist, such judges should be cast down in stony places; yea, as it is in the original, ow, that they should be left in the hands of the rock, allidantur petræ, that they should be dashed against the rocks, that will be sailing without card or compass, in the vast ocean of God's counsels, or his Anointed's.

But now here our Saviour seals our commission; sets us upon the Bench; allows us the act, but takes order for the manner: we may judge, we may not judge according to the appearance: we may be judges, whether spiral or dinacal; the one to condemn, the other to absolve : we may not be κριταὶ διαλογισμῶν πονηρῶν, judges of evil thoughts; and we shall be evil-thoughted judges, if we shall judge according to appearance. Not only fortune and love, but even justice also, is wont to be painted blindfold; to import, that it may not regard faces. God says to every judge, as he did to Samuel concerning Eliab, Look not on his countenance, nor the height of his stature. Is an outrageous rape committed? Is blood shed? Look not whether it be a courtier's or a peasant's; whether by a courtier or a peasant: either of them cries equally loud to heaven. Justice cannot be too Lyncean to the being of things; nor too blind to the appearance.

The best things appear not; the worst appear most. God, the angels, souls both glorified and encaged in our bosoms, grace, supernatural truths; these are most-what the objects of our faith, and faith is the evidence of things not seen: like as in bodily objects, the more pure and simple ought is, as air and ethereal fire, the more it flieth the sight; the more gross and compacted, as water and

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