art fair, my beloved; behold, thou art fair; and there is no spot in thee. Thine head is as fine gold, thy mouth is as sweet things, and thou art wholly delectable. Come forth, ye daughters of Sion, and behold King Solomon, with the crown wherewith his Father crowned him in the day of the gladness of his heart.

O Saviour, if thou wert such in Tabor, what art thou in Heaven? If this were the glory of thy Humanity, what is the presence of thy Godhead?

Let no man yet wrong himself so much, as to magnify this happiness as another's, and to put himself out of the participation of this glory. Christ is our Head, we are his members. As we all were in the First Adam, both innocent and sinning; so are we in the Second Adam, both shining in Tabor and bleeding sweat in the Garden.

And as we are already happy in him, so shall we be once in ourselves by and through him. He shall change our vile bodies, that they may be like his glorious body. Behold our pattern, and rejoice; Like his glorious body. These very bodies, that are now cloddy like the earth, shall once be bright as the sun; and we, that now see clay in one another's faces, shall then see nothing but heaven in our countenances; and we, that now set forth our bodies with clothes, shall then be clothed upon with immortality, out of the wardrobe of heaven. And if ever any painted face should be admitted to the sight of this glory, (as I much fear it : yea I am sure God will have none but true faces in heaven;) they would be ashamed to think, that ever they had faces to daub with these beastly pigments, in comparison of this heavenly complexion. Let us therefore look upon this flesh, not so much with contempt of what it was and is, as with a joyful hope of what it shall be. And when our courage is assaulted, with the change of these bodies from healthful to weak, from living to dead; let us comfort ourselves, with the assurance of this change from dust to incorruption. We are not so sure of death, as of transfiguration. All the days of our appointed time, we will therefore wait, till our changing shall come.

Now from the glory of the Master, give me leave to turn your eyes to the error of the servant; who, having slept with the rest, and now suddenly awaking, knoweth not whether he slept still. To see such a light about him, three so glittering persons before him, made him doubt now, as he did after, when he was carried by the angel through the iron gate, whether it were a pleasing dream, or a real act. All slept, and now all waked: only Peter slept waking; and I know not whether more erred in his speech or in his sleep. It was a shame, for a man to sleep in Tabor; but it is more a shame, for a man to dream with his eyes open. Thus did Peter; Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us make us three taber

nacles.

I could well say, with Optatus, in this or any other occasion, Ipsius Sancti Petri beatitudo veniam tribuat, dubito dicere peccasse

tantam sanctitatem; "Let blessed Peter pardon me, I fear to say so great holiness offended." Yet since our adversaries are so overpartial to this worthy saint, in whom they have as little as they boast much, that they can be content his praise should blemish the dignity of all the rest, yea that God himself is in danger to be a loser by the advancement of so dear a servant; give me leave to lay my finger a little upon this blot. God would never have recorded that, which it should be uncharitable for us to observe. k was the injurious kindness of Marcion, in honour of Peter, to leave out the story of Malchus, as Epiphanius notes: it shall be our blame, if we do not so note, that we benefit ourselves even by his imperfections.

Saint Mark's gospel is said to be Peter's. O blessed apostle; can it be any wrong to say of thee that, which thou hast written of thyself, not for insultation, not for exprobration? God forbid, but that men may be ashamed to give that to him, which he hath denied to himself. Let me, therefore, not doubt to say, with reverence to so great a saint, that as he spake most, so he is noted to have erred most.

Not to meddle with his sinking, striking, judaizing; one while, we find him carnally insinuating; another while, carnally presuming one while, weakly denying; another while, rashly inisconstruing.

Carnally insinuating; Master, favour thyself. Which though some parasites of Rome would fain smooth up, that he in this shewed his love to Christ, as before his faith, out of St. Jerome and St. Austin; yet it must needs be granted, which Bernard saith, diligebat spiritum carnaliter," he loved the spirit in a carnal fashion." Let them choose, whether they will admit Christ to have chid unjustly, or Peter worthy of chiding: except perhaps, with Hilary, they will stop where they should not; Vade post me, spoken to Peter in approbation; Satana, non sapis quæ Dei sunt, spoken to Satan in objurgation.

Carnally presuming; Though all men, yet not I. If he had not presumed of his strength to stand, he had not fallen. And as one yawning makes many open mouths, so did his vain resolution draw on company; Likewise said the other disciples.

For his weak denial; ye all know his simple negation, lined with an oath, faced with an imprecation.

And here, that no man may need to doubt of an error, the Spirit of God saith, He knew not what he said: not only Tan, as Mark, what he should say; but d Aɛya, saith Luke, what he did speak: whereof St. Mark gives the reason, MY EX DOBOL, They were amazedly affrighted. Amazedness may abate an error of speech, it cannot take it away. Besides astonishment, here was a fervour of spirit; a love to Christ's glory, and a delight in it: a fire, but misplaced, on the top of the chimney, not on the hearth; Præmatura devotio, as Ambrose speaks," a devotion," but "rash" and heady. And if it had not been so, yet it is not in the power of a good intention to make a speech good. In this the

matter failed: for what should such saints do in earthly tabernacles, in tabernacles of his making? And if he could be content to live there without a tent, (for he would have but three made,) why did he not much more conceive so of those heavenly guests? And if he spoke this to retain them, how weak was it to think their absence would be for want of house-room? Or, how could that at once be, which Moses and Elias had told him, and that which he wished? For how should Christ both depart at Jerusalem, and stay in the mount? Or, if he would have their abode there, to avoid the sufferings at Jerusalem, how did he yet again sing over that song, for which he had heard before, Come behind me, Satan? Or, if it had been fit for Christ to have staid there, how weakly doth he, which Chrysostom observes, equalize the servant with the Master, the Saints with God! In a word, the best and the worst that can be said here of Peter is that, which the Psalmist saith of Moses, No effutiit labiis, he spake unadvisedly with his lips, Psalm cvi. 33.

Yet, if any earthly place or condition might have given warrant to Peter's motion, this was it. Here was a hill, the emblem of heaven; here were two saints, the epitome of heaven; here was Christ, the God of Heaven.

And if Peter might not say so of this, how shall we say of any other place, Bonum est esse hic, "It is good to be here? Will ye say of the Country, Bonum est esse hic? there is a melancholy dulness, privacy, toil. Will you say of the Court, Bonum est esse hic? there dwells ambition, secret undermining, attendance, serving of humours and times. Will ye say of the City, Bonum est esse hic? there you find continual tumult, usury, cozenage in bargains, excess, and disorder. Get you to the Wilderness, and say" It is good to be here:" Even there, evils will find us out. In nemore habitat lupus, saith Bernard, "In the wood dwells the wolf." Weariness and sorrow dwell every where.

The Rich Man wallows amongst his heaps; and when he is in his counting-house, beset with piles of bags, he can say, Bonum est esse hic: he worships these molten images; his gold is his God, his heaven is his chest: not thinking of that, which Tertullian notes, Aurum ipsum quibusdam gentibus ad vincla servire, "That some countries make their very fetters of gold:" yea só doth he, whilst he admires it, making himself the slave to his servant; Damnatus ad metalla, as the old Roman punishment was. Coacta servitus miserabilior, affectata miserior; "Forced bondage is more worthy of pity; affected bondage is more miserable." And if God's hand touch him never so little, can his gold bribe a disease; can his bags keep his head from aching, or the gout from his joints? Or doth his loathing stomach make a difference betwixt an earthen and silver dish? O vain desires, and impotent contentments of men; who place happiness in that, which doth not only not save them from evils, but help to make them miserable! Behold their wealth feeds them with famine, recreates them with toil, cheers them with cares, blesses them with torments;

and yet they say, Bonum est esse hic. How are their sleeps broken with cares! how are their hearts broken with losses! Either riches have wings, which in the clipping or pulling fly away, and take them to heaven; or else their souls have wings (Stulte, hác nocte, Thou fool, this night) and fly from their riches to hell. Non dominus, sed colonus, saith Seneca, "Not the lord, but the farmer." So that here are both perishing riches, and a perishing soul. Uncertainty of riches, as St. Paul to his Timothy, and certainty of misery. And yet these vain men say, Bonum est esse hic. The Man of Honour, that I may use Bernard's phrase, that hath Ahasuerus his proclamation made before him, which knows he is not only TIS εyas, A certain great man as Simon affected, but ὁ αυτος, "The man," which Demosthenes was proud of, that sees all heads bare, and all knees bent to him, that finds himself out of the reach of envy, on the pitch of admiration, says, Bonum est esse hic. Alas! how little thinks he of that, which that good man said to his Eugenius, Non est quòd blandiatur celsitudo, ubi solicitudo major; "What care we for the fawning of that greatness, which is attended with more care?" King Henry the seventh's emblem in all his buildings, (in the windows,) was still a crown in a bush of thorns: I know not with what historical allusion; but sure, I think, to imply that great places are not free from great cares. Saul knew what he did, when he hid himself among the stuff. No man knoweth the weight of a sceptre, but he that swayeth it. As for subordinate greatness, it hath so much less worth, as it hath more dependance. How many sleepless nights, and restless days, and busy shifts doth their ambition cost them, that affect eminence! Certainly, no men are so worthy of pity, as they, whose height thinks all other worthy of contempt. High places are slippery; and, as it is easy to fall, so the ruin is deep, and the recovery difficult. Altiorem locum sortitus es, non tutiorem; sublimiorem, sed non securiorem, saith Bernard; " Thou hast got a higher place, but not a safer; a loftier, but not more secure." Aula culmen lubricum, "The slippery ridge of the court," was the old title of honour. David's curse was, Fiat via eorum tenebræ et lubricum, "Let their way be made dark and slippery." What difference is there, betwixt his curse and the happiness of the ambitious, but this, that the way of the one is dark and slippery, the way of the other lightsome and slippery : that dark, that they may fall; this light, that they may see and be seen to fall? Please yourselves then, ye Great Ones, and let others please you in the admiration of your height. But if your goodness do not answer your greatness, Sera querela est, quoniam elevans allisisti me," It is a late complaint, thou hast lift me up to cast me down." Your ambition hath but set you up a scaffold, that your misery might be more notorious. And yet these clients of honour say, Bonum est esse hic.

The pampered Glutton, when he seeth his table spread with full bowls, with costly dishes and curious sauces, the dainties of all three elements, says, Bonum est esse hic. And yet, eating hath a

satiety, and satiety a weariness. His heart is never more empty of contentment, than when his stomach is fullest of delicacies. When' he is empty, he is not well till he be filled; when he is full, he is not well, till he have got a stomach: Et momentanea blandimenta gula stercoris fine condemnat, saith Jerome; "And condemns all the momentary pleasures of his maw to the dunghill." And when' he sits at his feasts of marrow and fat things, as the Prophet speaks, his table, according to the Psalmist's imprecation, is made his snare; a true snare every way. His soul is caught in it with excess; his estate, with penury; his body, with diseases. Neither' doth he more plainly tear his meat in pieces with his teeth, than he doth himself and yet this vain man says, Bonum est esse hic.

The petulant Wanton thinks it the only happiness, that he may have his full scope to filthy dalliance. Little would he so do, if he could see his strumpet as she is her eyes the eyes of a cockatrice, her hairs snakes, her painted face the visor of a fury, her heart snares, her bands bands, and her end wormwood, consumption of the flesh, destruction of the soul, and the flames of lust ending in the flames of hell. Since therefore neither Pleasures, nor Honour, nor Wealth, can yield any true contentment to their best favourites, let us not be so unwise as to speak of this vale of misery, as Peter did of the hill of Tabor, Bonum est esse hic.

And if the best of earth cannot do it, why will ye seek it in the worst? How dare any of you Great Ones seek to purchase contentment with oppression, sacrilege, bribery; outfacing innocence and truth with power; damning your own souls, for but the humouring of a few miserable days? Filii hominum, usquequo gravi corde? ad quid diligitis vanitatem, et quæritis mendacium? O ye sons of men, how long, &c.

But that, which moved Peter's desire, though with imperfection, shews what will perfect our desire and felicity: for if a glimpse of this heavenly glory did so ravish this worthy disciple, that he thought it happiness enough to stand by and gaze upon it; how shall we be affected with the contemplation, yea fruition of the Divine Presence! Here was but Tabor, there is Heaven: here were but two saints, there many millions of saints and angels; here was Christ transfigured, there he sits at the right-hand of Majesty; here was a representation, there a gift and possession of Blessedness. Oh that we could now forget the world, and, fixing our eyes upon this better Tabor, say, Bonum est esse hic.

Alas! this life of ours, if it were not short, yet it is miserable; and if it were not miserable, yet it is short. Tell me, ye, that have the greatest command on earth, whether this vile world have ever afforded you any sincere contentation. The world is your servant: if it were your parasite, yet could it make you heartily merry? Ye delicatest Courtiers, tell me, if pleasure itself have not an unpleasant tediousness hanging upon it, and more sting than honey?

And whereas all happiness, even here below, is in the vision of