s thee in thy terribleness so, _There went out a
smoke at his nostrils_,[179] and another the effect of thine anger so,
_The house was filled with smoke_;[180] and he that continues his
prophecy as long as the world can continue, describes the miseries of
the latter times so, _Out of the bottomless pit arose a smoke, that
darkened the sun, and out of that smoke came locusts, who had the power
of scorpions_.[181] Now all smokes begin in fire, and all these will end
so too: the smoke of sin and of thy wrath will end in the fire of hell.
But hast thou afforded us no means to evaporate these smokes, to
withdraw these vapours? When thine angels fell from heaven, thou tookest
into thy care the reparation of that place, and didst it by assuming, by
drawing us thither; when we fell from thee here, in this world, thou
tookest into thy care the reparation of this place too, and didst it by
assuming us another way, by descending down to assume our nature, in thy
Son. So that though our last act be an ascending to glory (we shall
ascend to the place of angels), yet our first act is to go the way of
thy Son, descending, and the way of thy blessed Spirit too, who
descended in the dove. Therefore hast thou been pleased to afford us
this remedy in nature, by this application of a dove to our lower parts,
to make these vapours in our bodies to descend, and to make that a type
to us, that, by the visitation of thy Spirit, the vapours of sin shall
descend, and we tread them under our feet. At the baptism of thy Son,
the Dove descended, and at the exalting of thine apostles to preach, the
same Spirit descended. Let us draw down the vapours of our own pride,
our own wits, our own wills, our own inventions, to the simplicity of
thy sacraments and the obedience of thy word; and these doves, thus
applied, shall make us live.

XII. PRAYER.

O eternal and most gracious God, who, though thou have suffered us to
destroy ourselves, and hast not given us the power of reparation in
ourselves, hast yet afforded us such means of reparation as may easily
and familiarly be compassed by us, prosper, I humbly beseech thee, this
means of bodily assistance in this thy ordinary creature, and prosper
thy means of spiritual assistance in thy holy ordinances. And as thou
hast carried this thy creature, the dove, through all thy ways through
nature, and made it naturally proper to conduce medicinally to our
bodily health, through the law, and made it a sacrifi