sinfull man had spoken this it had beene no newes but that it should come from a most sanctified vessell of the holy Ghost a chosen vessell one that for his life was unblameable and for all learning and the graces of the spirit incomparable that he should utter this it is a very strange mervaile Indeed a reprobate a man that followes his owne lusts that lives not to God but to himselfe he may truely say I dye daily For the Lord makes his life to be hanged before him as a perpetuall signe of death that as the children of God are said to have the earnest of the spirit and of the kingdome of heaven so the servants of sinne may be said to receive the earnest of hell So many passages of his life as there be they are as so many flakes of hell burning before him and doe assure him that at the last he shall be tumbled and divolved into the damnation of the divell and his Angels That gnawing worrne of conscience makes his life a continuall death But that the Saints of God should be thus troubled too it is this that moves the wonder And yet the Apostle here saith nay and sweares it too that not onely wicked men are troubled and galled with the conscience of sinne that they are alway in death because they are the sonnes of death and study that which tends to death but he that had the fruit of life he that had the spirit of God and of Christ in him Gal. 2.20 nay that had Christ himselfe as he saith It is no longer I that live but Christ liveth in me that he should he subject to this death and to this frequencie of death that there was never a day came over his head but a new death was presented to him It seemeth strange The reason of this we must fetch out of the rest of his writings for there he hath set downe the summe of every thing that we are to conceive of this mystery The first reason or meanes of this death it was that he carried the divell about him as Gregory Nazianzen saith in his 32. Nazianzen Orat. 32. Oration to the Bishops at Constantinople when he was to leave the place Saith he Even as it was with Paul 2 Cor. 12.7 so doe I carry the divell about me alluding to that place 2 Cor. 12. where the Apostle complaines of the messenger and instrument of Sathan that was sent to buffet him continually that he could not be at peace and quiet for him and he prayed to the Lord thrice against it but the Lord answered him My grace is sufficient for thee Rom. 7 23. This was it that made him to say I protest by the rejoycing that I have in our Lord Iesus Christ I dye daily For my life is such a kinde of condition as wherein the flesh and the spirit are continually conflicting together good and evill righteousnesse and sinne are alway countermanding one another A good conscience and an evill conscience sorrow and joy heaven and hell God and the divell are continually in an agony and combate This conflict that I sustaine betweene the flesh and the spirit is that which makes me dye daily and makes me cry out Oh wretched and miserable man that I am Rom. 7.24 who shall deliver me from this body of death that is from the sting of the law in my members whereby I am carryed in contradiction to the good spirit of God And so as Nazianzen saith he did carry Sathan about him nay within him also For the reliques of sinne which he cals the messenger of Sathan the instrument of the divell the remainders of corruption were in him yea and are in all the sonnes of God For there was none ever without them but that Sonne of God that came to take away the sinnes of the world The second reason why the Apostle said he dyed daily was because the divell bare him outwardly by envy and trouble and persecution he carried him on his shoulders he was the beast that he was set on And no marvell for if the divell could make our Lord sit on his backe Math. 4. Mat. 4. and that our Lord Iesus rode upon the divell as a man would ride upon a horse if he were so impudent as to set himselâ—fe under our Lord and carry him about to the pinacle of the Temple and to the mountaine then well may he come to the shoulders nay to the very bowels of his members If he did so to the head he will doe to the members much more Acts 17.4.12 Thus he still carried Paul wheresoever he came by the envy of the world by the malice of the Iewes and Gentiles as upon the occasion of those devout and religious womens beleeving whereupon they raised persecution against him and that wheresoever he came there was eyther stoning or fire and faggot or banishment some mischiefe intended Treason by false brethren treason by his opposers or treason of those that were best trusted of him every where he was inclosed with perill This was the divell without him as some of the Fathers imagine 2 Cor. 12 7. from that place 2 Cor. 12. that messenger of Sathan there sent to buffet him They say it was not so much any inward thing he speakes of But I yeeld not to this for I suppose it was somewhat inward Rom. 7.23 But the Fathers say he meanes another matter he speakes of men and of the malice of men that would not suffer the Gospell to passe in the world and that for this he saith he dyed daily by the perpetuall hand of those murtherers I cannot goe any where but the malice of men persecutes and followes me so that I cannot rest and if they could trap me once in their snare and make a prey of me I were surely theirs and then I were gone the feare of this makes me dye daily Thirdly another cause that made the Apostle dye daily was the opposition that hee had by Idolaters wheresoever he came Idolaters still laboured to put downe the Gospell As we see at Athens Acts 17. Acts 17.16 The Text saith His spirit was sore troubled when hee saw the City given to idolatry And so likewise when he came to Ephesus they cry Acts 19.28 Great is Diana of the Ephesians Diana the Idoll of Ephesus had like to have cost him his life Therefore the vexation of his spirit to see men fall down to stocks and stones and to forget that loyalty they ought to God Rom. 1.25 To worship the creature in stead of the Creator This made him teare his cloathes and ready to teare his flesh for the vexation of his spirit to see whole Cities so given over Fourthly another cause of this daily death of the Apostle it was the opposition that he had by Witches and Sorcerers wheresoever he came almost the divell would still set some Witch in the place so in Acts 16.17 Acts
qualifie his speech with 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may chance or perhaps I will come to you and if the Lord permit I will doe thus or thus for as it is the phrase of the faithfull never to be peremptory in any of these contingent things of this world to say this I will doe and that I will doe without limitation So S. Paul gives us here the same example in himselfe that hee was not certaine of his owne actions he was not sure how God would dispose of him and so being not the Lord and Master of his journeyes and intendiments but resting still at the disposall of God he seasons his speech with this gracious qualification and saith if God permit if God will have it so I will doe it for the will of God is that unknowne and hidden cause of causes which must be fulfilled Whatsoever men imagine or wish or desire yet if it be not according to Gods will it shall never stand Iam. 4. therefore as S. Iames saith Chap. 4. Woe be to you that say this yeare and the next yeare we will goe to such a Citie and dwell there and traffique there and yet you know not whether ye shall live till to morrow For this you ought to say If God will and if the Lord permit and if we live we will doe thus or thus shewing unto us how the life of a Christian man ought ever to hang before him still to be in anxiety in this world because we have no certaine dwelling here but we expect an abiding place hereafter The Apostle therefore hath taught us by his gracious example that all these things that may be so or so wee should not grow to any confidence in them but wee should referre all to the will of God that governes and guides us and all the parts of the world according to his secret judgement and counsell and whose will can never be sounded till it be effectuate in the world For when wee see things come to passe we understand that it was Gods will they should be so but till they come to passe in particular we cannot dive into it The will of God it must be that Cynosura that load-starre that must guide the barke amidst the sea of this world It must be as the cloud about the Arke of God when the Arke was to remove that removed and it never stirred till the cloud removed before and the moving of the cloud caused the moving of the Ark and the staying of the cloud caused the staying of the Ark still as the cloud carried it selfe so was the Ark demeaned so should our heart and life be which is the Arke of God the temple of the holy Ghost in which God vouchsafeth to dwell we should not offer to presume upon any thing further than the will of God is but to yeeld our selves in all things and to say as our Lord and Saviour teacheth us in that most holy Prayer Thy will be done not mine Math. 6. but thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven It seems therefore that it was not the wil of God although it were the wil of Paul though he had a will to come to Corinth to stay with them and to winter there as he had said before yet God had another purpose which made the Apostle speak in these doubtfull termes for by the relation of S. Luke which he makes in Act. 20. Acts 20. and by likelihood of all circumstances in the Acts of the Apostles the Apostle Paul never came at Ephesus any more but wrote this Epistle from Philippi a Citie in the North of Macedonia And he excuseth himselfe in the second Epistle that hee could not come to Corinth as he intended and hee gives the reasons of it Now that I may proceed in order Parts of the text and so as your memories and understandings may goe along in the parcells of the Text we will consider here First a resolution and purpose that the Apostle had And then the reasons and arguments to confirme that The resolution that hee had was this to stay at Ephesus till Whitsontide till Pentecost The reason of it why because a great doore was open to him that is a large and faire oportunity for the winning of soules to God And besides that there were many adversaries among whom hee should get great glory to God by the confusion of the adverse power by the light and glory of the Gospell of Christ In the first part the resolution we are to consider two things First where the Apostle was when he wrote this Epistle because hee saith hee will stay at Ephesus therefore it seemeth that hee was now there and that he wrote from that place to the Corinthians Secondly we are to consider also the time that he had in his resolution and purpose how long hee would stay there I will stay at Ephesus till the day of Pentecost till the feast of Pentecost that is till such time come that he might saile from Ephesus to Ierusalem and get thither by Pentecost for so I must needs understand these words for the Apostles purpose was not to be at Ephesus at Pentecost for so he should have lost his occasion and oportunity His occasion was then to be at Ierusalem because of the great concourse and assembly of people that gathered together to keepe the feast and to offer up their sacrifice and there as Peter he was to launch into the deepe where the Sea was deepe and where there was aboundance of fish there to become a fisher of men so the summe of his resolution was this I will stay at Ephesus till Pentecost that is if the Lord further my desires I will stay at that Citie till I shall have sufficient leasure to goe to Ierusalem and to be there at Pentecost that was his intention to be at Ierusalem that was the place of his great victory The second part of the text is his reasons inducing him to stay at Ephesus till such time as hee might get to Ierusalem by Pentecost the reason is because a doore is opened to me Where we are First to consider what is meant by this doore Secondly who opened it he doth not say I have opened a doore but it is opened to my hand that is God hath opened a doore Thirdly the quality of this doore a great doore and effectuall and a powerfull one And lastly the noble spirit that he had to undertake the battaile and skirmish against the enemies The adversaries are many a man would think that therefore hee should not goe because there were many enemies Who would thrust himselfe into the hands of his enemies but the spirit of God was most noble in the Apostle and hee made that one motive or reason that because there were many adversaries therefore hee would goe to confront them all and to out-face the falshood and prevarication of the superstitious Iewes and to plant the Gospell of Christ the word of
I must labour to bring them in and call them home if they be bruitish already I must seeke to make them men to reduce them backe againe But especially I speake according to the custome of men for your sakes for your weakenesse for your better understanding that you may know the greatnesse of my trouble which I sustained at Ephesus I speake after the manner of men as they use to call wicked men beasts so give me leave also to call these who have made themselves so by their malice and persecution 2 Where the place was Concerning the place it was at Ephesus and when this persecution was there is great dissention among Writers some thinke it to be that persecution that Saint Luke mentions Acts 19.24 Acts 19. Paul being at Ephesus and preaching against Idolatry there riseth up Demetrius the silver Smith and all the trade comes with him he being as it were the Master of his Company he brings his livery after him a whole army of divellish beasts were raised against Paul Demetrius being the principall man that led all the heard after him and so the whole forrest was in a tumult and uproare Tertul. Beza So Tertullian and Beza after him with divers other of the Fathers But certainly this cannot be so for we reade that Saint Luke sets it downe directly that Saint Paul as soone as he had received that affront at Corinth that great danger when Sosthenes was beaten and that Gallio cared for none of these things Acts 18.17 he after a while quitted the Citie and went from Ephesus to Macedonia Acts 18.18.19 and it is certaine when Saint Paul wrote this he was at Ephesus and saith he will stay there till Pentecost 1 Cor. 16.8 as he saith Cap. 16.8 Therefore it cannot be that hee speakes of that sedition that Demetrius raysed against him that being the last period of his stay at Ephesus he went thence presently upon it he knew that Christ gave him a commission when they persecuted and beate him away Math. 10.14 to shake the dust off his feete against them Therefore this cannot be admitted Another Company expound it thus that it was the trouble that happened to him from the sonnes of Sceva Acts 19.16 Acts 19.16 And the sonnes of Sceva cast out divels in the name of Iesus whom Paul preached There were seven sonnes of Sceva and they tooke upon them to cast out divels and the manner of their conjuration was this We adiure you by IESVS Acts 19.13 whom Paul preacheth to come forth Verse 14. Now the divell replyed Iesus I know and Paul I know but who are ye and so he ranne upon them and prevailed against them and tare and rent them Hereupon some thinke the sons of Sceva raised persecution against him of envy because they suffered that great hurt by the divell But this is more uncertaine then the former It cannot be thus for we know that the sonnes of Sceva invocated the name of Christ and nominated Christ whom Paul preacheth wherein they shewed themselves rather friends and allies to Paul then enemies and so we have a direct rule and Canon of Christ Math. 10. Matth. 10. his Disciples tell him We saw one casting out divels in thy name and we forbade him saith Christ to them Forbid him not for he that is with mee is not against me Where Christ gave them to understand that as long as any man although hee were not of their company and Colledge yet as long as he profest the name of Christ and did their miracles in his name they were with him and not against him and though the sonnes of Sceva miscarried in their desire of lucre and that they did not their miracles for the good of the Church yet they pretended friendship to Saint Paul rather then any adverse disposition Therefore I say this cannot be But we must understand it of the totall troubles that hee found at Ephesus which hee expresseth 2 Cor. 1.8 2 Cor. 1.8 Brethren saith he I would not have you ignorant of the pressures and troubles that wee sustained in Asia how we were pressed and urged above strength that we even despaired of life in our owne selves This desperate life he was cast into by the malice of the men of Ephesus that studied Idolatry and for their Idoll Diana and would therefore have beate downe and destroyed Paul and the doctrine of Christ This sedition that they moved against him he cals fighting with beasts And so wee must take the sence to be this that seeing you know that at Ephesus I had such a world of adverse powers against me that I was pressed above measure urged and crushed even to death that I received the sentence of condemnation against my selfe 2 Cor. 1.9 that I thought there was no way for me but to bee devoured as with the teeth and fury of so many wilde beasts If you have heard of it or if you know it you may imagine that I have some reason to undergoe these troubles For I brought them upon mine owne head I might have avoyded them if I would but I would not doe it because of that abundant reward and consolation of Christ which shall raise this my body So that all the teeth of beasts shall not offer me more wrong and injury in tearing it then Christ shall give it honour and glory in saving it after it hath beene thus deformed and so he shall give honour to that part which most lacked which hath most suffered here 1 Cor. 12.24 For this cause I am thus ready to undergoe these dangers and to encounter againe with beast after beast as they shall bee singled out against me that drinking of that cup of affliction here I may receive that eternall cup of thanksgiving in the world to come This should teach us to conclude all in a word that we ought not to despise the passions of Gods children Vse It is a great misery that the world is usually blinded withall Whatsoever a man suffers they thinke he suffers it as a guilty person they take him as a malefactor and it is enough that hee is in misery to prove him also to bee in fault By this meanes there should no substantiall argument bee drawne from the martyrdome of Gods Saints for of all men to flesh and bloud and common sence they are most miserable and wretched and pronounced guilty at every tribunall and are accounted the malefactors of the world the plagues of the earth such as brought barrennesse upon the earth and other plagues from God because men were not enlightened by the spirit of grace therefore they fell to the condemnation of the righteous which is the greatest plague in the world to condemne the righteous for woe to them that call light darkenesse and darkenesse light Esay 5.20 Let us therefore have speciall regard when we see troubles fall upon men to keepe an upright heart to
saith hee would have none to gather when he came because it would tend both to his and to their shame if they should be found unready Vnreadinesse is a fault in all the parts of Christianitie and there was no man that ought to be so forward as they therefore he prayes them to do it before hand These are the parcels of this Text. Of these things briefly and in order as it shall please God to give assistance 2 Motive from the Churches authority First concerning the motive from the Church It hath alway beene a strong argument that is taken from the Churches authority He that heares you heares me and he that scornes you scornes me saith our Lord Christ and tell it to the Church and if he will not heare the Church let him be to thee as a heathen and a publicane or sinner Hee that will not do as the Church doth he is out of the Church of God he is a banished man from heaven and a cast-away from all hope of salvation This argument therefore must be of speciall consideration with us what the ancient Church hath done before times we must follow their steps if we meane to partake of the reward that they and we both looke for We see that antiquitie is a great and a maine reason to induce any good understanding for if the Church of God have authoritie to perswade all her children and those that follow after certainly then the ancientest Churches are of the greatest authoritie Now the Church of Galatia was a more ancient Church then Corinth Therefore the Apostle alledgeth the authority of that Church to bring this on So we see also in persons not only in Churches but in particular persons Rom. 16.6 Salute Andronicus and Iunia that were before me in the Lord they were Christians before Saint Paul therefore Saint Paul gave them honour as his predecessors as his glorious and honourable Ancestors that were in the Lord before him Therefore hee saith honour them and salute them much So in this case Galatia was the more ancient Church therefore it was to be the rule of Churches afterward in all good things in all things belonging to the propagation of the Gospell to the maintenance of a good conscience The authoritie of the Church is the greatest argument one of them under heaven and it is certaine if our mother Church which was once the Church of Rome if it had not proved extreamly cruell and tyrannous in her proceedings there ought no Church to have fallen away from her communitie for by separation from her if she had continued a true mother they had separated from their father too the God of all comfort the God of heaven and earth for a man cannot have his fathers blessing if he go from his mothers bosome but now when all things were turned to pride to worldly covetousnesse to ambition and vaine glory and their own greatnesse without the true aime and without respect to the right end when all was turned to pride and selfe-love that they would depose Kings and Princes out of their seats and kingdomes it grew then to be a monster and ceased to be a mother and thence it is not lawfull to have any communion with them that are so blasphemous But else I say if they had continued in that modest humilitie which they were first bred in Rome a true Church 500 yeares after Christ continued in for the space of foure or five hundred yeares surely the authoritie of the Church had beene a rule for the whole world for where they do well the Apostle makes a law from their doings As the Churches of Galatia do so do ye 2 What the Church of Galatia was Secondly here is to bee observed what this Church of Galatia was it was a famous but yet it was but a poore Church it was so famous in zeale that the Apostle protests that they would have given him their eyes to have done him good wherein he signified their infinite ardor and fervencie to the Gospell of Christ at his first comming although afterwards by his absence they were seduced and drawne away by circumcision by some creeping Iewes that stole in among them But as it was famous for the greatnesse of the graces of the spirit so it was but meane in condition Therefore the Apostle might well draw an argument from it for the Corinthians could not object and say What do you tell us of Galatia Galatia is a potent kingdome a rich kingdome full of meanes and full of glory above our Citie but this they could not do for it appeared to all the world to be but a poore place a place of no trafficke except it were a little in the Euxine sea for it is a middle-land place And although the countries of Asia-minor whereof Galatia is one can maintaine themselves Galatia in Asia minor yet for any great superfluitie and abundance to send to others they cannot do it especially the Citie of Galatia which is excluded and kept from the Pamphilian Sea by the border of the South which lyeth betweene it and Pamphilia So we see here that according as God hath given Churches meanes and abilitie so they should exceed those that are poorer the richer sort must do after a rich manner and if the poore should at any time seeke to transcend them it were a shame to them that are greater and more able The Citie of Corinth it was the Mart of all the world Corinth the Mart of the world Hom. Iliad 2. therefore Homer in his time which was one of the ancientest Writers that ever was among the Heathen there is none like him in his second Iliad he saith three times over Rich Corinth The reason of it is because of the scituation which is betweene two seas from whence all the traffick of the world flocked flowed to it Therefore it followed that seeing the Church of Galatia had farre lesse meanes then Corinth and yet they had done thus Therefore Corinth must much more obey this precept And it is a lesson that I would that men of sence and reason would lay to their owne consciences both in the Church and in their private persons for we have a great number of poore Churches even in this Citie that are sessed oft times to pay farre more then richer places do and there are many poore persons that are truer pay-masters that pay scot and lot better then many greater men do which the Apostle intimates here to be a shame it is a shame that poore Churches should go before rich it is a shame that Galatia should go before Corinth and exceed them it is a thing that God will have a saying for and these great ones that have their thousands and their ten thousands about them and yet they will not pay that which belongs to their poore officers to their poore servants such as belong to them poore Church-men that will not pay that which belongs to them
the Word of God it is without life it is without efficacy without the consequent which of due belongs unto it This also as I said before the great God must worke to make that which is spacious and large of it selfe to make it effectuall that when the doore hath once admitted the King of glory that we may keep him there that we may entertaine him into our hearts that we may lodge him in our affections that wee may yeeld our selves unto him in all our actions and that wee may bring forth fruit in our lives and conversations that our faith within us and the Lord within us may work effectually without us This is that mighty effectuall doore which God must open and make it wide and large and great and effectuall and prosperous that God may enter in and dwell there for ever I should come now to the last part of the Text which is full of great and various matter I should be too troublesome if I should enter into it namely concerning the Adversaries that were there to shew what were these adversaries They were Iewes no doubt and such as had skill in the law of Moses for they were the chiefe enemies of Paul the heathen came in more easily because they thought it was a better religion that they taught than that they had already but the Iewes thought theirs to be the best religion therefore St. Paul found the most enmity and hatred among them in all places And likewise concerning the place where these adversaries were not at Ephesus as most Interpreters agree but at Ierusalem because there was the great feast of Pentecost kept there was no such number of men simply in the world there was no such number of men as was gathered at Ierusalem at the feast Three times in the yeare saith God you shall come and appeare before me In the Passeover in the feast of weeks and in the feast of Tabernacles And Iosephus makes a true record that there were nine millions at one Passeover in his time which is a number sans number not to be numbred but only that the Iewish Nation were scattered in the world and wheresoever they were scattered they had the conscience to come at the feast to pay their vowes and sacrifice to God therefore the sea being full of fish it was time for St. Paul now to cast in his net and it could not fall amisse but it would no doubt prove an effectuall doore and take that which came to hand and sure it was effectuall for hee took so many that his net was almost broken with the multitude of fish but these things I will not trouble you with at this time I have been too offensive to you already FINIS SERM. 7. 1 COR. 16.9 10. A great doore is opened and there are many Adversaries THe summe of that I have said of the travells of St. Paul concerning these places of Corinth and Ephesus and Macedon is this that St. Paul was for the space of three years at Ephesus and from thence hee was driven out by the conspiracy of Demetrius the silver-smith and his company hee went therefore to Macedon to visite the Churches that hee had planted before and being at Ephesus almost three yeares hee disputed dayly for the space of a yeare and halfe in the Schoole of one Tyrannus a Philosopher after that time hee never came to Ephesus more for although he had a determination to be there and to stay there till hee might have a convenient saile to goe to Ierusalem by the Feast of Pentecost yet the Lord that disposeth of all things would not suffer that to bee so but the Iewes having laid wait for him in the way as hee was to returne so the brethren gave him counsell to goe back againe by Philippos into Macedon and to fetch a Northerne course that so their land-wait for him might be disappointed in which journey he wrot this Epistle to the Corinthians as one purposing to come to them but he was hindered by the treason of the Iewes for at Corinth hee had beene before for the space of 18. Moneths and the reason why he was there so long was because God told him in Acts 18. Acts 18. that hee had much people in that city and afterward going to Ephesus and staying there the space almost of three yeares and being driven out by the conspiracy of Demetrius he went to Macedon to visite the Churches that hee had before planted there for you heard before that he had two journeys to Macedon the first by reason of the vision in Acts 16. there appeared to him a man of Macedon and said Come to Macedon and helpe us And then he could goe no further then Berea that noble City because the Iewes sent thither from Thessalonica to take him after he had beene there three weekes discoursing of the Kingdome of God So his friends brought him along to Athens and from Athens to Corinth and there hee spent 18. Moneths and from thence hee went to Ephesus and stayed there three yeares from Ephesus being driven by the conspiracy of Demetrius he went to Macedon to view the Churches hee had planted there and to goe no further in the Countrey then purposing to come to Corinth they told him of a treason that was plotted against him which both hindered his purpose to come to Corinth as also his going to Ephesus therefore hee sailed by Ephesus because as I said there was treason as that hee could not with a safe conscience cast himselfe into the danger without tempting of God and because he had a great desire to be at Ierusalem at Pentecost These things are plainly set downe in the Acts of the Apostles You shall see in Act. 20. Acts 20. how these things agree In the first verse as soone as this tumult was ceased that is that great tumult of the people when they cried Great is Diana of the Ephesians great is Diana of the Ephesians which Demetrius raised when the tumult was ceased Paul called the Disciples together and saluted them and went to goe forward to Macedon and comming into those parts hee intreated them and exhorted them with much speach and comming into Greece hee stayed there three moneths and hearing of a certaine treason that was laid for him by the Iewes as hee was to goe to Syria therefore there was a Decree made that hee should returne back againe by Macedon Now three verses after you have it that wee sailed after the day of Sweet-bread from Philippi and came to the brethren at Troas in five dayes c. where wee stayed seven dayes Now about the 15. verse of that Chapter St. Paul did saile besides Ephesus that hee might not spend time in Asia for hee made hast if it were possible for him at the day of Pentecost to bee at Ierusalem So hee sent from Myletus to Ephesus and called the Elders of the Church and spake to them those rare and fatherly speaches as it