Commentary on 2 Peter

WE read in common Histories, of many great Flouds that have been in the World: none but this, did overflow the World: they were all far short of this, both in extent and continuance. That great inundation of Nile, under Prometheus, endured but a months space: That under Ogyges, in Achaia, two months: Another under Deucalion, in Thessalia, three months: They mention a fourth inundation, of the I will Pharos, therefore called Pharonica, under the Egyptian Proteus. But none came near this Flood, either for universality of place, or duration of time; covering the tops of the highest mountains, and lasting twelve months and ten days. This general Deluge, as I had just occasion, I somewhat largely surveyed in the former Chapter: Where some Critics might say, There was a Flood upon a Flood; a Flood of discourse upon the Flood of Water: my present brevity in that argument, shall make amends. Shortly, consider with me,

• 1. A malefactor; The World that then was.
• 2. An executioner; The Water overwhelmed it.
• 3. The conveniency of this execution; because the Earth consisted in the Water: it was not far fetched, but ready at hand: Whereby.
• 4. The event of all; which was, perishing.

The malefactor, the World: which is taken either localiter, for this whole visible [unspec 1] Engine; The World was made by him: or materialiter, for the things of the World; The World is crucified to me: or formaliter, for the vicious and miserable condition of it, the vanity and villainy; Positus in maligno, The World lies in wickedness: or principaliter, by a Metonimy, for the excellentest part of the World, Man. Locally, a piece of it perished; the Earth: materially, a great deal of it perished; all the riches and commodities of the Earth: principally considered, all perished, but eight persons: formally, there was nothing left. Only God's quarrel to the World, was for the men of the World; and his quarrel to the men of the World, was for the sins of those men. The World it self was in this, like the Sea; and Sins, like the Winds: the Sea would be calm and quiet, if the Winds did not trouble it: if iniquities, like storms, had not put the course of nature into an uproar, the World had not perished. First, it was foul with wickedness; therefore God saw it high time to wash it, with a Deluge. Secondly, Iniquity had so sized it self into the Center of it, and died it in grain, that it must soke under the water a whole year. Thirdly, Sin did cleave so fast to the sides of it, that a little water was not sufficient: but as a Cloth that is thoroughly polluted, must be thoroughly scoured, and pass through many larders; so it would not off from the world, till the world it self was washed to nothing. Fourthly, no part of it was free, but this contagion had universally overspred it: therefore no part must be spared, but the water must universally overflow it. Fifthly, it was grown hot with the fever of burning lusts, the inflammations of concupiscence; therefore the flood came, not as a Iulep only to qualify and cure the intemperate heat; but as a vehement shower to drench the luxuriant parts. Sixthly, it was dry, all the moisture of grace, and sap of charity, the radical humor that maintains the life of Religion, was quite scorched and exciccated with the drought of malice: it must be moistened, not with gentle dews, (they could do no good, the malady was too desperate) but with an inundation of water. Seventhly, it was grown unruly, transgressing all the limits and boundaries that the Maker had set it: therefore he also pulls up the stakes of the Sea, and lets it in like a wild beast among them. Eigthly, men were proud and haughty, and had lifted up themselves above their own pitch and measure: therefore God opens the windows of Heaven, and powers down streams upon them, to lay them low enough. Ninthly, they had trusted to the World, more than to God; therefore he now puts them to their shifts: let them try how their god can deliver them: the waters drive them from their houses up to the mountains, from thence to the highest trees, and still pursues them. Meat they had none, but only drink enough: they might swallow of that as much as they could, which was sent to swallow them. Tenthly, they had rioted upon the creatures of God, without thanks to the owner: They did eat and drink, not for necessity, or pleasure, but intemperance: therefore all is taken from them, but water, and of that they have too much; or the fish, which if they could take, they have not a spark of fire wherewith to dress. Eleaventhly, the World was secure, men had given themselves up to carelessness: they did eat and drink, it may be not to surfeit and drunkenness: They married, and gave in marriage: it may be not as some say, Propter voluptatem carnis, magis quam propagationem prolis: Christ does not mention their whoredoms, adulteries, homicides, and such actual turpitudes; but their supine neglect and slumber: not that they were free from the other crimes; but that this was enough to destroy them. If then the worlds security in lawful things made it so fit for the deluge of water: how doth now the universality of unlawful things, horrible sins, make it fully ready for the last fire.

[unspec 2] The Executioner is Water: this is an excellent servant to us, so God made it; but durus magister, an ill master, so our sins make it. I will not instance to you the manifold benefits of water, our necessary use makes them familiar: yet is this the instrument of their confusion, which to others is an advantage of much accommodation. Nothing is so sovereign, which being abused by sin, may not of a blessing, become a curse. The very Manna that came down from Heaven, may be corrupted with faithlessenesse: as that foolish Israelite proved, which would be sparing the charges of God, and in a covetous diffidence lay up that for his breakfast, which he should have spent at supper. The next morning it putrefied: the Manna was from above, the worms and stink from his distrust. Christ himself, the greatest blessing that ever was, as he is the rising of son, so the falling of others: To believers, a corner stone, whereon to build their faiths: to unbelievers a millstone, that shall grind or quash their souls. Immortality, the greatest blessedness of the Saints, is the greatest misery of the damned. The Instrument is Water.

1. God hath variety of weapons to punish rebels: he destoyreth Corah and his confederates by the earth, the Egpptians by the sea, the Canaanites by the sword, Israelites by the plague, Sodomites by the fire, here the whole world with water. God hath a whole quiver of arrows, a magasin of artillery and judgments. Three are especially named for his arrows. First, Famine, an evil and destroying arrow. Next the Pestilence, a deadly shaft; habet sub arundine plumbum; it is headed with poison: Grandis terror mortalium: deaths chief Pursuivant. First, it is Sagitta volans, flies swift as an arrow: it flew such a pace through the coasts of Israel, that it slew seventy thousand in three days. Secondly, Sagitta ambulance, a roving arrow, that can reach a mark far off; He that is a far off shall die of the pestilence: no man can outrunne it. Thirdly, Ambulance in tenebris; it flies silently, without making any noise: Pavor nocturnus, a terror by night; it steals upon men suddenly, assaults them by night, and surpriseth them in their most secret chambers. This arrow when it flew, consumed our lives here and there, before us, behind us, spared none: only to his chosen, God did dip it in the blood of his own Son, to take away the venom of it: so though it wounded their bodies, their souls it did not touch. The last arrow is inundation: the fury whereof we have lately felt; when the earth like a pregnant mother was come to the birth, and wanted strength to be delivered. Our fair Fields, that in the Spring sang and laughed, now mourn upon the ground that bare them: and the Husband man sighed to see his hopes untimely buried, like abortive fruit in the womb that bred them. Her nurse did overlay her; and those clouds which brought up her children, did again stifle them. All that foul weather in our fields abroad, proceeds from the foulness of our hearts within.

2. The deluge may well be compared to an Arrow: not only because after the flood God is said to hang up his Bow, in token of his reconciliation to the world: when he had shot his arrow, he hung up his Bow. But as Famine is his earthy arrow, making the wounded look like earth, pale and wan: and Pestilence is his airy arrow, an infectious vapor, poisoning as it goes; and War his fiery arrow; where the brandishing of swords give fiery sparkles, Ordnance sends out fiery streams, and Cities are set on a flame, So Inundation is his watery arrow; whereby at other times he destroys parts and pieces of the earth; at this time, all the world. First, an arrow slies no whither but to the place it is sent, the mark whereat it is shot. Here he pours down, not there: in this place the sea shall break forth, while it is chained up in another. To lay immoderate rain to the charge of the stars, and eruptions of the Ocean to the weakness of dams; this is but to gnaw the arrow, as the Dog bites the stone, without minding the shooter: Secondly, an arrow after the loose makes speed to the mark: as Hercules told Nessus, when he ran away with his Deianira; that though he could not come at him, he would send after him: Vulnere, non pedibus te consequar: and he made it good too; Fugientia terga sagittâ trajicit, he sped an arrow through his loins. God did no sooner open the doors and channels, but the water begins to overrun the earth. Thirdly, an arrow pierceth deeply, and wounds deadly; especially when it is shot à manu potentis, from the hand of the mighty: much more à Manu Omnipotentis, from the hand of the Almighty; The Arrows of the Almighty are within me, was the complaint of Job. No target, no corslet, nor armor of proof can repel them: no barricado's can keep out the waters, no banks, nor fortifications resist them, no towers or Cedars overtop them, An impartial arrow? The old were not superannuated, Infants not under years, it swept away all. It was Exterminum, or Demonium meridianum; as Jerome reads the Psalm: an utter rooting out. Fourthly, an Arrow, if it be levelled with a just aim, never misseth the mark: God wanted neither aim nor mark, while he had the whole world to shoot at. Thus the Bow it self was the divine Justice: the Arrow, the Waters, the instrument of that Justice: the loosing of the Arrow from the Bow, the effusion of Clouds and Seas, the execution of that instrument: the mark it flew at, was the sinful world: it was headed with their wickedness, and the feathers it went withal was their sins. It is iniquity that the Lord lets drive at: if men had not offended him, they should never have been offended by him.

3. All God's Judgments may be called his Shafts, and He hath a mighty quiver-full of them. The dexterity of some men in shooting hath been notable. Two were brought before Alexander, famous for their activity in several kinds. The one could cast Millet seed through the eye of an needle without missing: but the King, rather wondering at his vanity, than admiring any excellency, gave him for reward Modium Liguminis, a Bushel of the seed to hold him play, and to keep his hand in ure. The other was an Archer, so skillful, that he could shoot his arrow thorough a finger-ring, without failing. We read of seven hundred left-handed Benjamites, that could sling stones at a hairs breadth and not miss: which is more wondrous. It is reported of Domitian, that he could shoot an arrow between the fingers of a man's hand a far off, and do him no harm. But the hand of God is more cunning, and his Shaft flies more steadily: like Jonathan's bow, whereof David sung in his funeral Elegy, that never returned empty from the blood of the slain: Consequitur quodcunque petit. We know not with what arrow he will shoot us, therefore Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. There is no running from God; let us never prepare our heels to run from him, but our hearts to meet him. There is a way to meet with God, yea, and to overcome him: this is not by scouring of armors, raising forces, and fortifying Garrisons: but by humiliation, repentance, prayers, and tears. If we will conquer heaven, it must be by yielding: not by standing out, but by falling down. As the only way to avoid him, is to run to him: so the surest means to escape his blows, is by throwing ourselves at his footstool. We have leave to resist the divine Judgments by our prayers, with favor and success: as wool meets Iron.

Indeed humble confessions, and devout penance, cannot always avert temporal Judgments: no child would be whipped, if he might scape for crying. Doubtless, David had spent those three dismal days in the saddest contrition, yet still God's Angel in that short compass of time destroyed seventy thousand. Historians have commended the Persian Bowmen for the most excellent Archers: yet in the battle betwixt Scipio and Antiochus they were wonderfully foiled. But how came it to pass? Imber superfusus Persicos arcus corruperat: a shower of rain falling in time of the conflict, so slacked their bows, and wetted their arrows, that they could not offend the enemy. The way for us to slack God's bow, and to dull his arrows, is by showers of tears falling from our repentant eyes. And as our tears must slacken his bow, so our prayers must get out his arrows, when they stick in our flankes. Pliny saith, that Dicta ••• pota sagittas pellit; Dittany, garden-Ginger being drunk, drives out the darts. Prayer is that true Dictamuum, that shall either prevent God's arrows, or keep them from rankling in our sides. Above all, let us furnish our souls with faith: this shall not only quench the fiery darts of Satan, but even the burning arrows of God. Let us lay hold upon that blood, which when God sees, either he will not smite us, or not smite us unto death. Rahab's token of safety for herself and her family, was a red cord tied in the window: this was the instrument of the Spies deliverance, this shall be a sign of hers. Red; this is the saving color: it is not without aptness and significancy, that they set the red cross upon the doors of visited and infected houses, together with [Lord have mercy on us] for if that red cross be thoroughly fixed on our hearts, the Lord will have mercy on us. The destroying Angel sees the door cheeks of the Israelites sprinkled with red, and passes them over. The Warriours of Israel see the window of Rahab died with red, and they save both her and her house from the common destruction. If our souls have this tincture of the precious blood of our Savior upon the walls or windows, we are safe. Under this red flag let us shroud ourselves, and the Justice of God, in the great day of his wrath, will spare us.

The conveniency of the execution follows: the water was not far to [unspec 3] fetch; either with danger, as David's water from the Well of Bethlehem, through an army of Philistines:: or with labor, as Jacob's water from a deep Well in penetralibus terrae: but near at hand, ready. And if it had been as far as the Center of the earth, the Semidiameter or space from that point to the circumference, which is judged by the most expert to be three thousand five hundred miles: or as far as to the starry firmament; as some have fondly imagined waters above those heavens, to cool them: because the Psalmist speaks of waters above the heavens: whereas those heavens are only the airy regions: yet God could soon have brought it, either up from the one, or down from the other. But the proximity of the Instrument is advantageous enough to the Destroiers hand: for the earth that is to be drowned, consists in the water that is to drown it. Me thinks, this is an Emblem to us of our threefold estate; either as wear mortal men, or militant Christians, or miserable sinners. It is considerable in all these respects.

1. As we are mortal men: our bodies are earth, which consist of humors, as it were in the waters: and while health continues, they have the predominance over those humors, as the earth is out of the waters: but when the humors get the mastery, then follows sickness and mortality. When God had made this earth of nothing, it was but a small matter to make other things of the earth; and as little to bring the earth back again to nothing. Nothing can be nearer nothing than this earth, and yet how little of this earth is the greatest man? Princes are but noble pieces of earth, Politicians but subtle pieces of earth. Man thinks he treads upon earth, that all of it is under his feet: and the brain that thinks so, is but earth, his highest region, the flesh that covers that brain, is but earth: and even the top of that, that wherein so many Absalom's take so much pride, is but a bush growing upon that turfe of earth. How little of the world is the earth? How little of the earth is man? And yet that is all which man hath, or is. How little of a man is the heart? And yet it is all by which he is. And this heart is so hot of it self; that if it had not the lungs as fannes to blow wind upon it, and kindly moisture to cool it, it would soon perish with the own heat: and yet when that moisture grows too redundant, it again drowns the heart. It is not only subject to foreign infections conveyed by others, and intestine poisons bred in ourselves by pestilential sicknesses: but even to an unnatural Flux or abundance of watery humors, that choke it. As moderate water makes the mill go merrily, but too much water will not suffer it to go at all. Our bodies in the world are but pieces of earth on the water: if the winds, and floods, and rain conspire against us, down we fall; as that house whose foundation was in the sand.

2. This may be an Emblem of our militant condition: as the earth consists • t of the water, and in the water: so we consist out of sin, and in sin. Our beginning is like the worlds beginning: there water covered the face of the earth, and corruption overwhelmed us. The sin of our first parents drowned us; and we were borne soking under that corruption, as the mass of the earth under that inundation. The deep was upon the face of the earth, and darkness upon the face of the deep. Corruption was upon us, and ignorance upon corruption, and pravity upon ignorance, and God's wrath upon all. But as after this congestion, God formed the world: so after this confusion, he hath reformed us. There he recovered the earth from the superinundation of waters, here he hath restored us from the dominion of wickedness. Let the waters under heaven be gathered unto one place, and let the dry land appear: so to us, Let the deluge of sins vanish, and the constancy of grace show it self: there, it was so: here, God grant it may be so. We are both redeemed de profundit: the earth verbo oris, we sanguine cordis. There his Dixit, his Word served the turn: here his blood was but sufficient. Out we are lifted from the water; but not so high as if the water could never more reach us; for we still consist in the water; as out of the water; in the flesh, as out of the flesh. Our head is above sin, as the land is above the sea: but still sin runs like a girdle about our loins, as the sea begins the earth. So to be removed from the water, as never to be touched by it, is the prerogative of the firmament, not of the earth. So to be delivered from sin, as never more to be defiled with it, is the privilege of the triumphant, not of the militant soul. When God had sequestered the earth from the regiment and tyranny of water, yet being unsufferably provoked, he readmitted the water to the first kingdom. The man that presumes he is redeemed from the power of sin, may so offend his Redeemer by sin, that the suppressed waves may return to their first home, as the evil spirit did, with seven worse, to the house out of which he was cast. Thou hast made my mountain strong: but avertisti faciem, thou didst hide thy face, and I was troubled: the waters return, sins prevail, and he begins to know himself.

But God hath made us, (though earth) living, moving, rational, holy earth: we resist those waters that are, as Job's wife was to him, Counsellers of evil: we fight against sin, and not seldom are foiled: but our end shall be glorious victory. Though all enemies be not vanquished, yet the Christian Soldier shall be crowned. Yea, God hath delivered some of his Elect from sin, by sin: one extraordinary act of disobedience hath (through his grace of repentance) so broken their hearts, that it hath withal broke the neck of sin in those hearts: as he delivered David from Saul, by Saul: and Noah from the water, by the water: so many converts, from the power of sin, by the remorse of sin. The Spartans were deadly enemies to Rome; and as they were far from wishing them any good, so it grieved them to hear of any light mischance befallen them: as that fire had burnt one of their forts, or that a part of their walls was fallen down by casualty: because then they knew, they would build up those ruined places stronger than they were before: or if that waters had invaded and broke in upon them, they would fortify those dams and breaches far beyond their former strength. Satan wisheth us all nothing but confusion; that sin, like another deluge, might overflow the whole world, and sweep it all to his kingdom. But when the assaults of sin fail of destroying us, and we thereby take occasion to fortify our Garrisons, to redouble our guard and armor; this more vexeth him, than the other gave him hope. Sin winds about us, as the Serpent about Eve, or as the sea compasseth the earth, watching where it might conveniently get in: here it kisseth the banks with flattering waves, there it swelleth against it with roaring billows: whether by insinuation, or shameless intrusion, Satan cares not so he may have entrance. We are fearfully set in the midst of that raging element; sin is without us, yea, within us: when we offer to go abroad, sin lies at the door: if we open the casement, it is ready to creep in at the window; mors per fenestras. When we walk abroad, sin is a slough before us: keeping home, and reflecting out eyes inward, we find it a puddle within us. Sins are not unlike the Frogs of Egypt; no bed, no board could be free from them: their daintiest Ladies could not keep them out of their bosoms: neither could the Egyptians sooner open their mouths, than they were ready to creep into their throats. There be some places of the Land that want water, there is no man without abundance of sins. It is the Lord alone, that lifts up our heads above the waters; it is his grace, that keeps sin from having a dominion over us. The Poets feigned of Venus, that she was Orta Salo, suscepta Solo, patre edita Coelo; begot of Heaven, borne of the Sea, and entertained on Earth. We may invert it a little, and have a description of man's soul: It is Clausa Solo, vestita Salo, patre edita Coelo: It is housed in Earth, appareled with Sea, but inspired from Heaven: set in the body, defiled with sin, but made by God, and redeemed by Jesus Christ.

3. As we are miserable sinners, subject to innumerable calamities. Miseries, in the Scripture, are often called by the name of waters. Save me from the great waters: The floods went over my soul. Sorrowes compass our whole life, as the Earth is environed with the Sea. Yea, as the Sea is vaster than the Earth, so our happiness is exceeded by our infelicity. Few and evil have been my days, says that Patriarch: he speaks not a word of any good days. Man is of few days, and full of troubles: so full of troubles, as if there was no room for any comforts to crowd in. We say, that the World is made of Sea and Land; as though they were equal parts: but we know, there is more Sea in the Western, than in the Eastern Hemisphere. We say, that the Firmament is full of Stars; as though it were equally full: but we know, there are more Stars under the Northern, than under the Southerne Pole. We say, the Elements of man are Miserie and Happiness; as though he had an equal proportion of both: and that the days of man are vicissitudinarie; as though he had as many good days as ill; and as though we lived under a perpetual Equinoctial; Night and Day equal, good and ill fortune in the same measure. But if we put our Happiness into one Ballance, and our Miseries into another, we shall find a mighty difference; this last far out-weighing the former. We drink Miserie, we do but taste of Happiness: we mow Miserie, we do but glean Happiness: we journey in Miserie, we do but walk in Happiness. Yea, which is more, our Miserie is positive, and dogmatical; our Happiness is but disputable, and problematicall. All men call Miserie by the name of Miserie; but Happiness changeth the name, according to the man that either thinks himself, or is thought by others, to have it. There is scarce any Happiness, that hath not in it so much of false and base Money, as that the Allay is more than the Metall. And what other Touch-stone have we of our Gold, but comparison? Whether we be as happy as others, or as ourselves, at other times? All our felicity, is but like an Island floating in the Sea: it is now in such a Point, in another tomorrow, and the next day may be quite overflown. Troubles break in upon us from the world, as waters from the channels: God sends down some from above, as waters from the clouds; and still there be undique fluctus. All that will live godly in Christ, shall suffer persecution. Paul, Christ's Attorney, pleads our afflictions with an Oportet: and least some should look for a Dispensation, he backs it with an Omnis. Many are the troubles of the righteous, but the Lord delivers him out of all. Let us take a Paire of Oares, go down to the Water, and there see him deliver Jonah: Though the Waves require him of the Ship, and the Fish require him of the Waves, yet the Lord requires him of the Fish. The members swim, but the Head is above the Waters. Be of good cheare, I have overcome the world.

For Conclusion. When the Waters of the Deluge had done their Errand, and the World was perished, they return. And, as if God had repented himself, he promiseth no more to destroy it with Water. His Word was enough; yet withal, he gives a Sign; which may speak the truth of his Promises to the very eyes of men. I have set my Bow in the Cloud, and it shall be for a Token of the Covenant betwixt me and the Earth. Thus he doth still in the blessed Sacraments, which are as real Words to the Soul.

1. I am not of their mind, that think there was no Rain-bow before the Flood: we may as well say, there was no Bread or Wine before the Sacrament. But now after the Flood, God made the Bow the sign of his Covenant, as he makes Bread and Wine the signs of the Sacrament: both of them were before, but neither of them were signs before.

2. Nor am I of theirs, that think there shall be no Rain-bow forty years before the destruction of the World by fire: because (say they) the Air shall be rarified and prepared, by a continual dryness, for that combustion. But if there be no Rain-bow, then no Rain; if no Rain, then no Fruits; if no Fruits, a grievous Famine; if general Famine, then general sorrow. But it shall be a merry World when Christ comes; as in the days before the Flood, they were eating and drinking, and making Marriages: little suspecting the proximitie of Judgment. There shall be plenty of Fruits, and the Fruits of Plentie; which commonly are Pleasure and Wantonness.

3. Nor do I stand upon the various Colours of it; out of which, they pick mystical significations: As that the Blew and the Red, the watery and fiery Colours, should betoken the Baptism of Christ, by Fire and Water: Or, the two great Judgments of the World; the one past, which was by Water; the other to come, which is by Fire. These applications be rather pretty than pithy, and savor more of wit than of solid judgment.

4. Thus far indeed we may go, (not with Rupertus, to make it wholly mystical) as together with the sign of a temporal benefit, to conceive a type also of God's everlasting mercy in Christ. There was a Rain-bow round about the Throne: as if God could look no way upon his Church, but through the Rainbow, his blessed Covenant made with us in his own Son: whereby it comes to pass, that all those Lightnings, and Thunders, and terrors, proceeding out of the Throne of his Justice, are allayed by the Rain-bow. And as after the Flood God said, I will look upon the Bow in the Cloud, and remember my Covenant: so though our iniquities provoke him, he will look upon the Rain-bow, his Covenant of Grace, and spare us in Jesus Christ. The Jews, when they see the Bow, go forth and confess their sins, not daring to look upon it with their eyes. We hate Superstition, but I would we could mend our Devotion, and read in that Character the mercy of our God. This he saith, I will remember: alas, he cannot forget it; but he would have us to remember him, by it.

5. In a word, that heavenly Bow is the Pledge of our safety, which even naturally signifies the end of a Shower: all the signs, of God's institution, are natural and significant. I do not yet call it altogether a natural sign, though it agree with the thing it signifies. As the water in Baptism washing the body, hath some resemblance of the spiritual cleansing of the soul. The Rain-bow, as it is ordinarily a sign of fair weather, or of no long Rain: (Some say, in the morning it betokeneth Showers, in the evening fair weather: Aristotle and Pliny write, That it is found wholesome to the Plants and Herbs where it lighteth; giving them a more fragrant and delicious smell:) so is it a convenient sign to portend a privilege from inundation.

6. Lastly, if we observe all circumstances in it, they are arguments of mercy. First, it is a Bow indeed, but a Bow without an Arrow: And what can a Bow do, without a Shaft? Secondly, it is a Bow, and full bent, but without a String: And who fears a Bow, though it be joined with an Arrow, if it have no String? Thirdly, it is a Bow; but, besides that it hath neither String not Arrow, it is placed (as it were) the wrong way, the Bend or Arch is turned from us. He that shooteth Arrows, holds the back of the Bow from him: but of this Bow both the ends are downwards, and the back toward Heaven: the wrong side is always upwards; as if we shot at God, and not God at us: as if we were ready to send up Arrows of Rebellion against him, rather than he to send down Arrows of Vengeance upon us. Yet let us not be too confident: though God hath hung up that Bow, he hath divers others; he hath a Bow of Fire, as well as of Water: and we do not read, that he hath hung up all them. He hath bent his Bow, and made it ready: with another Bow shall the Lord shoot at the wicked. And if he have laid aside his Bow, yet he hath not hung up his Arrow: He sent out his Arrows, and scattered them: he shot forth Lightnings, and discomfited them: these were terrible Shafts. Arcus habet vulneris indicium, non vulneris effectum: the Bow makes a show of hurting, but it is the Arrow that wounds. Happy are we, if we have a place in the Ark: so shall God's Judgments be to us like a String without a Bow, or a Bow without a String, or both without an Arrow: or, if they all concur, yet his gracious Arm will forbear to shoot: or, if he do shoot, it shall be but a fatherly Shaft: the Ark shall protect us from his vengeance; and whether we live or die, we shall be safe in the Bosom of Jesus Christ.

Whereby the World that then was, being overwhelmed with Water, perished.] Thus far Doctrinally: now to some general observations, partly Historical, partly Moral, altogether useful.

1. The cause of this universal Judgment, was universal Iniquity: The Earth was first Inundata peccato; and then, Inundata diluvio. As a sick man, in his burning Feaver, pants within himself, and by groaning testifies his pangs to others, throws off the clothes, and tosseth from side to side in the Bed, seeking mitigation of his pains: yet whether he does, or does not, his sickness remains; and changing of places, doth not change his weakness, till the cause be examined, and removed. The Mariners in that fearful Storm, being sick of God's anger, as of a violent Feaver, panting with fears, and groaning with prayers, and casting over-board their Wares, as distempered impatient Patients hurl off their clothes; remove from action to action, tremble, pray, unlade, strike fayles, fall to Oares; but all in vain: the Vessel was sick, and had taken a surfeit, when she took in a fugitive Prophet: all the loss of their goods cannot expiate the cause of this Tempest: there is a Morsell that lies indigested in the stomach; throw out Jonah, and all is quiet. The World was sick, heart-sick; as full of pestilent humors as inhabitants, and could recover no health, till God had given her a Potion, a strong Vomite, such a Deluge, that shall spew out her offensive disease. We find Atheists that say, He that doth evil, prospers; such as our Apostle mentions: but Nature it self, which lies closer to a man than the marrow to his bones, cannot but inform him, that the mother and original of all woe, is wickedness. He that is notoriously facinorous, and thinks that in this he pleaseth the gods; hoc ipso primum sceleratus est, because he makes them aut fatuos, aut iniquos: said a Heathen. If his soul will not teach him, yet let him read God in his very body. He hath a mouth, and with that commandeth; let him there read the Soveraigntie of God. He hath eyes, and with them he seeth; let him there read the knowledge of God. He hath ears, and with them he heareth; let him there read how God observes and minds all things. He hath feet, and with those he walketh; let that show him the ubiquitie of God. He hath hands, and with them he worketh, and striketh, and revengeth his injuries; let him not deny God so much as God hath given him: The Lord hath a Hand too; and when he pleaseth to strike, a heavy one: Thy hand presseth me sore. Not the hand of Egypt, or Ashur; then were it hand for hand, a Duel of some equality: hand to hand; here forces and stratagems might achieve the victory: but Ma •• tua, Thy hand. The weight of a man's blow is but weak, according to the force and pulse of his arm. As the Princes of Midian answered Gideon, when he bade his son try the dint of his Sword upon them: Rise thou, and fall upon us; for as the man is, so is his strength. But, it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God: As Homer called the hands of Jupiter, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hands whose praise could not be sufficiently spoken: which some read 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , hands inaccessible, unresistable for strength: all the gods in Heaven could not ward a blow of Jupiter's hand. This hand never strikes, but for sin: and where sin is mighty, his blow is heavy.

General wickedness is like a dreadful Eclypse of the Sun: the darkness is seen presently, the effects follow after; not more slow, than sure. If we feel his blows, let us look back to the Propter quod, our sins. Man suffers for his sins. David may complain of his malicious enemies; They persecute me without a cause: no man could ever challenge God of this; he is provoked every day. Woe were us, if he should strike so often as he is provoked. We are ready to wrap up ourselves in the universal bundle of sinners; and neither think these times worse than the former, nor our forefathers better than ourselves. To confute this opinion, God hath written new Scriptures to us, bloody Characters in our own flesh. Why did he put a drawn Sword into the hand of his Angel, till it became drunk with our gore? Why did he kill us up by thousands every week? Was it without a Propter quod? Shall we call his Justice into question, with, Why hast thou smitten us without a cause? No: he found cause too great in us, to send the Pestilence: he found no cause, but in his own mercy, to remove it.

2. General sins will bring general Plagues; if upon a whole World, much more upon a particular Nation. Rebellious wickedness makes men Out-laws, depriving them of God's protection, and subjecting them to Tyrants, whose very mercies are cruelties. Who gave Jacob for a spoil, and Israel to the robbers? Did not the Lord, he against whom we have sinned? God resisteth the proud; his forces are against them, directed in battle-ray: the wrong was his wrong, the enemies are his enemies, the quarrel shall be his quarrel. Pride and Ryot, in human Policy, may bring a Kingdom to desolation; because they are contrary to providence. But the reason in Divinity is, because they are contrary to repentance: and God punisheth for impenitence, not for impurity. Go to my place in Shiloh, and see what I have done unto it for the wickedness of my people. Go to the old World, and see what he hath done to it: his Justice then, is his Justice now: and if our sins may compare with theirs, what is our privilege?

We hear no noise of War: the most dangerous War comes without a noise. The Turk hath bid himself welcome, where he was sometimes as little looked for. We think ourselves a mighty Nation; whose Bulwark is the Sea, whose confederate neighbors round about are our Sentinels: yet forget not Nahums question to Nineveh; Art thou better than popul •• No, whose Rampart was the Sea? We have lived in long peace, without interruption, though the year Eightie eight should be blotted out of all Records of Time. And though Peace be better than War, as Croesus said; because in Peace, sons bury their fathers; but in War, fathers bury their sons. And though War be repugnant to the fruitfulness of Nature, yet it is consonant to the direction of Nature; it destroys her numerositie, but preserves her propriety. Yet jam patimur longa pacis mala, we suffer the mischiefs of long Peace; and our estate is not the better, but through security much the worse. Pride is grown up with our glory, like the Ivy with the Oke, to the height.

For our sins, God hath sent a bloody Arrow among us: (Pardon my digression; yea, you need not, the application is fit enough) If we did not perish every mothers son and daughter, by the Pestilence, as this old World did by the Deluge; it was not because we were less wicked, but because God hath been more merciful. If they had betaken themselves in time to that happy ward, Repentance; and first made the Earth flow with their tears; it had not been overflowed with waters. If we had smitten our own breasts with the sorrow of penitential contrition, God had not smitten those breasts with the Spots of a Visitation. He hath not yet done with us: he feels our sins warm still under his Rod, and therefore finds it not time to give us over.

O let us bethink ourselves: Universal Judgments call for universal Repentance: the Land mourns, and shall any inhabitants of the Land be merry? Some do not feel, in their particular, the sharp Wounds of that angry and hungry Sword: Can they be members of Christ, and not feel it through the sides of their brethren? No part of the body can be ill affected, and the whole at ease. Others afflictions must move our affections: as Queen Elizabeth to the afflicted States; Non ignara mali, miseris succurrere disco. Besides, who are they that mourned for the abominations of the time? Not they that committed the abominations: alas, their cheeks were dimpled with laughter. They whose crying sins had pierced the Heavens, and brought down these Plagues; will not cry for themselves: therefore God requires us to cry for them. We must weep with them that weep; yea, weep for them that will not weep. Their excessive Pride, impudent Prophanenesse, beastly Drunkenness, insatiate Covetousness, desperate Sacrilege, dreadful Blasphemy, unclean Luxury, have provoked God's wrath; and we must mourn for them, that will not mourn for themselves. Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Although he be offended with the whole Land, yet there be some that he will own for his: he is still Thy God, O Israel. If these do not stand in the breach, we all perish.

There is a time to rejoice, and a time to mourn: the best actions are not always seasonable, much less the indifferent. He that evermore takes liberty to do what he may, shall offend no less than he that sometimes takes liberty to do what he may not. David persuades Uriah home: but what was his answer? The Ark and Israel are in Tents, my Lord Joab and the Army encamped in the field; and shall I go home, to be merry with my Wife? The Ark of God is fittest to lead our Times: as that is either distressed, or prosperous, we should frame our mirth, or mourning. Is it a time for you to dwell in ceiled houses, and my House lie waste? This is the ground of God's just quarrel. If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning: such is the heart of the Saints. As every man is a Limbe of the Communitie, so must he be affected with the estate of the universal Body; whether healthful, or languishing. As it did aggravate David's sin, that while the Ark and Israel were in distress, he could find time to loose the reins to wanton desires and actions: so did it magnify the religious zeal of Uriah, that he abandons allowed comforts, till he see the Ark and Israel victorious. Common dangers or calamities must (like the wrapped motions) carry our hearts contrary to the way of our private occasions. When God was offended, Moses and all Israel grieved, the Princes hanged, the people plagued; yet an Israelite dares bring a Whore of Midian to his Tent. This at any time had been abominable, at that time most execrable. Were they all weeping; and must he even then, in the face of all, run to uncleanness? Was that a time to dally with Strumpets? They both bought it dear. Shall men follow their pleasures, laugh, and sing, and be merry, while God is killing up their brethren by many thousands every week? Is this a time to receive Money, and Vineyards, and Garments? saith the Prophet to his servant. Is this a time to Drink, and Carouse, and Feast, and Play; when so many hearts are bleeding, and all good eyes weeping? They have desperate Souls, that can rejoice and be merry, when the God of Heaven and Earth shows himself so angry.

Before the deluge there were but eight persons, yea, scarce so many, to oppose the wickedness of a whole world: how could it but perish? If the whole nation apostate to lewdness, and there be none to stop the course, how should it look to stand one hour? In Sodom Old and young, all the people from every quarter, given over to villainy: none to resist, but Lot. The whole city came out to send away Christ: not a Gaderen is found, that either dehorted his fellows, or opposed the motion. It is a sign of people given up to Judgment, when no man makes head against the projects of wickedness. Generality of assent is no warrant for any act: common error carries away many; who inquire not into the reason of ought, but the practice. The way to hell is a beaten road through the many feet that walk it: when vice groweth into fashion, singularity is a virtue. If we had not some to strive against the stream of general wickedness, though this paucity prevail not, and to weep because they prevail not; we should cease to be a Church: and ceasing to be a Church, we could not long be a people.

There is great need of mourning, need of great mourning: for heavy Judgments will not be turned away without deep sorrows. As a late Doctor of the Jews seriously expostulates in a relenting letter to one of his fellow-Rabbins; what might be the cause of this so long and desperate a ruin of their Israel: and comparing their former captivities with their former sins; argues, that this continuing punishment must needs be sent for some sin so much greater than Idolatry, oppression, or Sabbath-profaning; by how much this Judgment is more grievous than all the rest: which his fear tells him, (and he may believe it) can be no other but the refusal and murder of the true Messias, the Son of God. We have had many plagues in this land, and the hand of God hath been often heavy upon us for our sins: but as this great pestilence exceeds all the former pestilences, so certainly the sin that brought it, exceeds all our former sins: which our fear justly tells us, and we may believe it, is the contempt of the Gospel of Jesus Christ: for a greater effect could not proceed but from a greater cause. As our sin therefore is more mighty, so our repentance must be more hearty, or we cannot expect the removal of this calamity. Indeed our prayers can never be so loud as our sins: in it self, one sin is able to drown many prayers. But for our comfort; in Christ, one prayer shall drown many sins. O then let us pray and repent, repent and pray, join with them both abstinence, and with them three patience, and with all, faith and obedience, and amendment of life; and the Lord our God shall deliver us.

3. The vicissitude of God's Mercy and Justice in their actions is observable. First, Mercy; as it doth always, begins; giving them an hundred and twenty years warning before their drowning. Such is his special Mercy, to foretell us of ensuing mischiefs. He does not owe us so much: he might take us unprovided. Then he strikes indeed, when he strikes and says nothing. The anger is so much the more, as it is less notified. In the hewing of wood, the blow is not heard, till the edge of the axe be seen to have struck. When God is not heard before he be felt, it is a fearful sign of displeasure. Among men, the still and silent revenges be ever most dangerous. But sure the Lord will do nothing, but he revealeth it to his servants the Prophets. Thus he consulted Moses, and threatened ere he punished. Take Incense quickly, and make an Atonement, for the plague is begun. Wrath is gone out from the Lord; Moses is quick-sighted, and sees it at the first setting forth. As they which are well acquainted with men, know that by their looks and gestures, which strangers understand but by their actions: or as finer tempers are more sensible of the changes of the weather. The faithful are familiar with God, and can descry his Judgments a far off. If another had seen a cloud of a hand breadth from Carmel, he could not have told Ahab that he should be wet. Holy men out of their acquaintance with their Masters proceedings, can foresee punishments. The wise man foreseeth the evil, and hides himself: but fools run on and are punished. We men will not reveal our secret purposes to enemies or strangers. All the favor of the wicked is to feel the Judgment, before they espy it. But shall I hide from Abraham the thing that I mean to do, saith the Lord? Yea, for Abraham's sake, it shall not be concealed from Lot. Noah shall be told of the deluge, to foretell the people. David saw the Angel that smote the people: common eyes saw the botch, the marks and tokens of the plague: his clearer and advanced sight hath spied the Angel, shaking his sword over Jerusalem, and hovering over Mount Zion.

Thus doth his mercy call upon sinners; Prepare to meet thy God. O admirable favor! When God's anger is marching forth against us, that his mercy should step before to tell us; Prepare to meet your God. Before he strikes, he sends his Prophets to us, as Heralds with the conditions of peace, if they may be accepted. That great General gives ut fair quarter; yea, so unwilling is he to spill our bloods, that our penitent yielding shall save us: and therefore he adviseth us to be in a readiness to meet him. If this mercy of our God should not sometimes withhold, often forewarn, always abridge his Judgments, what room were there for us out of hell? But he delighteth in mercy. His mercy being abused, gives place to his Justice, by which the world perished. And then again his mercy succeeds, and the waters bated: as he dealt with us; he heard our unworthy prayers, and the plague decreased. So soon was he weary of punishing, that is never weary of blessing. David prostrates himself at the avenger, and lays his life ready for the fatal stroke of Justice: the posture of an humbled and anguished soul. This the eye of justice took notice of; It is enough: stay now thine hand. How just and easy had it been for God, to have made the shutting of that evening red with blood? But so little pleasure doth the Father of all mercies take in the death of sinners, that his goodness repents him of the slaughter, and calls for that sacrifice wherewith he will be appeased. It was his own pity that inhibited the destroyer: ere David could see the Angel, he had restrained him; It is enough, hold thy hand.

4. At his command, the Heavens did shut up their windows, and the Sea her channels, and it began to be fair weather: yet may not the Ark rest suddarnely. If we did not stay some while under God's hand, we should not know how sweet his mercy is, and how great our thankfulness should be. This was done by degrees.

1. A wind came, and the waters asswaged: not by way of exhalation from the earth, for it was then covered with water: but as it came from an extraordinary cause, so it had an extraordinary effect. Two properties the Scripture ascribeth to the wind. First, to force the waters, as in the division of the red sea. Secondly, to purge the Air, disperse the clouds, and dry up moisture. The North-wind driveth away rain. Otherwise Non solent aquae ventis imminni, sed potiturbari.

2. Noah opens the window of the Ark, and looks out: God doth not reveal all things to his best servants. He that told Noah six score years before, what day he should go into the Ark; does not foretell him when he is entered, what day he should come out. Therefore he sends out his Intelligencers, the Raven and the Dove; which by help of their wings, might easily descry farther than his sight, in that vaporous Air. The Raven of quick sent, of gross feed, of tough constitution. Not that he was sent away for his intemperancy: or, that this was the Raven which afterward fed Elias: these be the ridiculous fables of the Hebrews: but that fowl was the fittest for discovery. Yet the likeliest things do not always succeed: for neither will the Raven venture far into that solitary world for fear of want, nor come into the Ark for hope of liberty: but went and came, to and fro, hovering about in uncertainties. Carnal minds are ready to fly out of the Ark of God's Church, and to embrace this present world: and had rather choose to feed upon the unsavory rubbish of sensual pleasures, than to be restrained within the strict lists of Christian obedience. Then he sends forth the Dove, a fowl both swift and simple: she like a true Citizen of the Ark, returns with faithful notice; first, of the continuance of the waters by her restlessness, and then of their abatement by her Olive leaf. None can stray out of the Ark into the world, but they must receive some aspersion; as Josephus thinks, she returned with foul and dirty feet. The Dove is an Emblem of those messengers, who with innocence in their lives, bring the glad tidings of peace and salvation in their mouths.

3. Noah believes, and rejoiceth at the news; yet still he waits seven days more. It is not good to devour the favors of God too greedily; but so to take them in, that we may digest them. Some would have been impatient of this delay, and so hungry of the open air, after so long a closenesse; that upon the first notice they would have voided the Ark. But wise Noah will stay seven days ere he open, and almost two months ere forsake the Ark; and not then, unless he command him to depart, that bad him enter. Siccata erat terra, quare non exit Noah? He stays for his Nunc demittis. There is no action good without faith, no faith without a word. We are then holy and happy, when in all things we neglect the counsels of flesh and blood, and depend upon the commission of our Maker.

4. He builds an Altar, and offers sacrifice. Ambrose observes, that God did not particularly command this; Ne quasi avarus mercedem gratiae postularet: but certainly he did it not without divine directions. He builds as soon as he is forth; but not an house for himself, but an Altar to the Lord: true faith will ever teach us to prefer God to ourselves. And though he desires mercy before sacrifice, yet he will have sacrifice as well as mercy. Of these few creatures that were left, God must have some: it was a privilege to them, that they were saved from the water, to be offered up unto God in fire. Happy men which find that favor, to be reserved from the common destruction, that they may be sacrificed to their Maker and Redeemer. Noah blessed God for the preservation of all the creatures, both clean and unclean; but he offered only of the clean: our best things are not too dear for the Lord, whose both they and ourselves are.

5. The great Judgments of God have gone off with sacrifice: the plague in David's time, by the burnt offerings in the threshing floor of Arcunah. Aaron with his Incense, stood between the dead and the living, and the plague was stayed. Had he thrust himself in with empty hands, he had not prevailed: but his Censor was his protection. When the fire of God's anger is kindled, our Censors must smoke with fire from the Altar. Every man must pray for the removal of vengeance: much more they whom God hath deputed to mediate for the people. Every man's mouth is his own, but they are the mouth of all. Let the Priests stand weeping between the porch and the Altar; Spare thy people O Lord, and give not thine heritage to confusion. When the world hath poured out all his contempt upon us, we are they that must reconcile men to God, and without us they perish.

6. Lastly, this little fire of Noah, through the virtue of his faith, purgeth the world; and reacheth up to those heavens from which the waters fell, and procures a glorious Rain-bow to appear therein for his security. Which as it is a monument of God's Justice, to remember us of those sins for which the world perished: so is it a Covenant of his Mercy made with man and beast; bound with an oath: I have sworn that the waters shall no more go over the earth: and not depending upon any condition of man's obedience. The Lord smelled a savor of rest. All the sins of the old world were not so unsavory to God, as this smoke was pleasant. If it had not been made, in faith, it had been a stinking sacrifice, like Cain's: now there is no perfume comparable to it. It differs from all sensible savors: for there may be safety in the most pleasant odors, but God is never wearied with the sweet savor of the prayers of his Saints.

He that was before annoyed with the ill savor of sin, smells now a sweet odour of rest. Behold here a new and second rest, and there was a third following that, and there shall be a fourth to conclude and perfect all. First, when God had done making the world, then he rested. Secondly, when he had done destroying the world, again he rested. Thirdly, when he had done redeeming the world, in the grave he rested. Fourthly, when he shall have done preserving the world, he will rest forever. The first and the third have a resemblance, and the second with the last. God when he had made the world, rested the seventh day. Christ when he had redeemed the world, rested that seventh day: Sabbatizavit in monumento, he kept his Sabbath in the Sepulcher. So when he had destroyed the world with water, he smelt a savor of rest; and that rest from that destruction was to last during the measure of time. When he shall have dissolved it by fire, that rest shall be forever. Even whiles we do not rest or cease from sin, he doth cease from a public revenge: so doth his infinite goodness, swallow up our wickedness. The remainder of my observations on this argument is two moral allusions; how this present state of the world may be compared with that.

1. Calamities are presented to us in the name of waters, and deep waters, and seas of waters. But must we then look to be drowned? Are they boundless, are they bottomless? No, that is not the dialect of God's language: who hath provided a remedy against the deepest water, and that by water: against the Inundation of sin, by the immersion of Baptism: water against water; Littora littoribus contraria, fluctibus undae: and the foulness contracted by the torrent of natural corruption, is washed away by the sacramental Font of regeneration. The first creatures in the world to whom God gave life, were in the waters: Let the waters bring forth: and the only creatures (excepting those in the Ark) to whom God preserved life, were in the waters; the Fishes. At the first, that which had no life, brought forth that which had life; The waters produced the Fishes at the command of God. Therefore though our afflictions be a sea, they are not irremediable: God can give us life in a Deluge of waters; and deliver us, as he did Jonah, out of the depth of the sea. Indeed our miseries are great, if we consider only ourselves. So Gennezareth, which was but a lake, and the waters not salt, yet is called a Sea: they that dwelt there, thought a lake a Sea. The Mediterranean was called the great Sea: they that saw no other, thought a little sea the greatest. We that know not the afflictions of others, call our own the heaviest: every small Current is a Torrent, every Brooke a River, every River a Sea. But that is truly a great water, which overflows the Chanell; and that is really a great affliction, which is above our strength. But the Lord is our strength; and what inundation of sorrows can get above those banks? The rain descended, the floods came, the winds blew, and beat upon the house, and it fell not, for it was founded upon a Rock. What a coile is here? As if Heaven, Earth, and Sea had conspired against one poor Cottage? Take them all, not severally, but with their united forces; yet this foundation stands. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril of sword? What voluminous waves be here, for number, and power, and terror? Yet they shall not separate the Ark from Christ, not a soul from the Ark, not a body from the soul, not a hair from the body. The mountains shake with the swelling of the Sea: secular mountains, men strong in power: spiritual mountains, men strong in grace; are shaked with afflictions: Concussi erunt, non excussi. Affliction is a Sea too deep for us, What is our refuge? God's Ark, that draws four Cubites above the waters, when they were fifteen Cubites above the mountains, God layeth up the depth in store-houses: even his corrections are of his treasure, and he will not waste his treasure: when they have done their service to humble us, he will call them in again. All our water shall run into Jordan, and his Israelites passed over Jordan dry-foot. All our sorrows shall run into the red Sea, the Sea of Christ's blood: and as that red Sea did not hurt an Israelite, so this red Sea shall never drown a Believer. Thus putting to sea, may be a change of life, not of condition: when Saint Paul mentioned his perils, he is briefer in reckoning up those by water, than the other by land. He was a day and night in the deep, and did thrice suffer shipwreck: so much by sea. But by land, his dangers were innumerable; once stoned, thrice scourged, five times bastinado'd, often imprisoned, and almost killed. Even on land we have our risings and falls, calms and cross gales; forewindes but seldom. Yea sometimes, which is worse than any wind that can come, we have no wind at all. But pleasure and security deading our course by a calm, does us more mischief than adversities cross-gale. Indeed there is some difference: more perish on the Sea by storms than by calms: more perish on the land by calms than by storms: for afflictions, like tempests, make us look to our tackling, Patience; and to our Anchor, Hope; and to our Helme, Faith; and to our Card, the Word of God; and to our Captain, Christ: whereas security, like a calm, makes us forget both our Danger, and deliverer.

2. As troubles be compared to waters, so are pleasures: Stolne waters are sweet. So we distinguish of our lusts; calling them, earthy riches, aiery honors, watery pleasures. Covetousness is a desire of earth, ambition of air, wantonness of water: it is the watrish humor of the soul. To pump a ship, and to shrieve a voluptuous heart, would be an alike noisome excercise. He throws away all his estate upon the riot of his lust; as if a Mariner should throw all his fraught into the Sea: now a Whore and the Sea are two insatiate Devourers. The Devil is the grand Pirate upon the Ocean of wickedness. A Pirate is one plague above those of nature, to make the Sea more terrible, more dangerous. He is called the Merchants Book, wherein he may reckon up his losses: a perpetual Foe to noble traffic; the earthquake of the Exchange: not only robbing men of their goods, but even of themselves, and making them slaves: a desperate Thief, that steals though he be in a prison; and looks every day, by fight or tempest, for execution. The devil is yet worse; for he does not only make slaves of those he taketh, more grievous than the Turkish Gallies; and damage them whom he cannot take; tempting even the best Christians to foul sins: but labors also to sink all to the Abyss, even the bottomeless depth of Hell. Only this Pirate kills more by his Flag of Truce, cunning flattery; than by his thundering Ordnance, and defiance of enmity. He would be Lord of the Sea, as well as Prince of the Air, and god of this World; and promiseth all those that sail under his Colours, a happy Voyage. But when Bion was shown in a Port-City, in the Temple of Neptune, divers Pictures of such as had in Tempests made their Vowes to Neptune, and so were saved from shipwreck: and was asked, Whether he did not now acknowledge the power of Neptune, and the gods? Yes, saith he; these be the shadows of them, that after their Vowes were delivered: but where are they painted, that have been drowned after their Vowes? Worldlings may prosper for the time under this Neptune; as they write of the Witches of Lapland, That they can fell Winds to Sea-men, and buy them of the Devil: But what's the end of the Voyage? Where is the Harbor? Alas, there is no Haven for such, but Hell. No Wind can be that man's friend, that hath no Haven: And yet it is better to have no Haven at all, than eternal destruction for a Haven. Lord, rather cross us with storms, yea, bless us with crosses, than suffer us to steer such a course, to so unhappy a Point. Let our enemies be what they will, so thou be our friend and Pilot, O Jesus Christ!

SAtan persuades Atheists that this world is eternal: that there is no other Heaven but what they see: and because they see not Hell, that there is none at all. Through this Imagination, they only labor about the present, and cast off all hope or fear of the future. If they can make good to themselves their condition (and they think it good, if it be pleasant) in this life; for the next, it is no Article of their Creed, no Creed of their heart. Therefore they live like beasts, because they think they shall die like beasts; without any answer for ought they have either acted, or left undone. But the Justice of God teacheth, that there shall be a Day of reckoning, when all the world shall be summoned to one universal Audit, and receive a reward according to their works. To prove this, the Apostle argues conveniently and comparatively: God made the world by his Word, therefore by his Word he can destroy it: and that we may be sure of his power, he hath given us an example or proof; for he hath destroyed it once already: and that we should not doubt of his will, he hath said he will do it. Qui potuit creare, non poterit cremare? His Word does all: by his Word he created it, by his Word he drowned it, by his Word he restored it, by his Word he preserveth it, and by his Word he will burn it.

But the Heavens and the Earth which are now, &c.] Here, first we must look upon the world in the present state, wherein it is preserved: and secondly, then the future condition, to which it is reserved. In the former are two considerations. First, the composition, The Heavens and Earth that are now. Secondly, the reposition, Are kept in store by the Word. In the future state, which is the destruction of the world, we have First, the manner, By fire. Secondly, the time, At the day of judgment. To begin with that axletree whereon the world moves.

The Word of God:] This is indeed the Will of God. At his fiat gave the world [unspec 1] being, so his maneat gives it continuance and abiding. For as when he said, Let there be Light and a Firmament; what cares had the Light or Firmament, or any other creature, to hear his Word, if he had pronounced it? The words of the Tempter was Dic, say, command these stones to be made bread: but what capacity had there been in stones to hear his saying? God spake to the fish: what intelligence had the fish to answer him? But as speech is interpreter of man's heart, signifying his secret purposes: so the Lord hath some way, (which, is easy for him to do, not for us to conceive) whereby he imparteth to insensible creatures what his pleasure is. Speech is not of God's nature, but an action of his will: and he that goes without feet, seeth without eyes, reacheth without hands, so also speaketh without a tongue.

[unspec 2] Observe we here, what a Divinity there is in the Word of God; how imperious to command, how omnipotent to prevail. One fiat is enough to make that which never was before, or to shape that which otherwise had lain in everlasting informity: to establish nature where it is not, or to change nature where it is: to create Angels, Men, Birds, Beasts, Fishes: to store Heaven, Earth, and the deep with innumerable armies of creatures; and to make them bow their knees to their maker, and render unlimited obedience to all his decrees. The believing Centurion, in a suite that dearly affected him, desires not the travel of his feet, nor any receipt of Physic to heal his servant; no not so much as the imposition of his hand, which some had requested; nor coming under the roof of his house; but only a word from his lips: Dic verbum, speak the word only, and my servant shall be whole. Man neither liveth by bread, nor recovereth by physic, but by the Word of God's providence. Lord, if thou wilt, thou canst make me clean: voluntas tua opus est: thy will is thy work. I will, be thou clean: as if with the breath of his mouth, he had spoken to the Leprosy, Be gone: as he afterward spake to the Devils, Be packing; and they went with a vengeance, as if a whirl wind had driven them. He rebuked the winds and the seas, with far more authority than Peter did Ananias, and with the like success: for he smote the breath from the winds, and the motion from the sea. They not only hear him, but hear him with effect: they go, and run, and stand still, like dutiful servants at his bidding, and live and die at his command.

[unspec 3] God hath one voice that is of a sensible sound indeed; smiting the ears and hearts both of men and beasts with astonishment. It maketh the Cedars, and breaketh the Cedars, formeth and quencheth the flames of fire, planteth and supplanteth Forrests, absolveth and dissolveth the World at his pleasure. O ye obsequious Heavens and Earth, how do you convince rebellious man? Hear O Heavens, and give ear O Earth: and Hear O ye Mountains! • he Lord's controversy. The Sun stands still, the Earth cleaves and opens her jaws, Rivers run back, Lions forbear their prey, all at the Word of God, and yet man refuseth to obey it. There be some indeed that will give it the hearing; as a man sees a remote object by his opticke instrument, yet it is not his: so many come to Church, as if they meant to learn the way, and know the Will of God; and so they leave it. Our fathers were more devout than we; for they did what they heard, though it were but the device of man: we hear and do not, though it be the Word of God. They had base metals, but good manners: we have base manners with our good metals. They had their coin of brass, and men of gold: we have coin of gold, and men of brass, or lead, or if there be a courser metal. The abundant waters of the sanctuary have bred two diseases; Curiosity, and Satiety. We are full of honey, and will not hear much: and what does not humor us, we will not hear at all. Indeed Schismaticall Teachers have always the most busy swarms of hearers: so they make the people Idiots, that the people may make them Idols: and we truly say of them, as of Idols; Qui colit, ill facit. But it is not fit that we should leave the Word of God, and listen to fables; as the Apostle said, It is not reason we should leave preaching and serve tables. Let us keep the Word, for the Word doth keep us: yea, as it keeps Heaven and Earth in store; so it keeps us on Earth, in store for Heaven, that we may be eternally blessed.

[unspec 4] This is not only a creating, but a preserving word: such a one as reserves Heaven and Earth in store, as if it laid them up in a Treasury: till the great Emperor of the world, who is his own Lord Treasurer, calls them forth to further use. The Peripatetickes housed the Divine providence above the Moon; allowing it no descent beneath that Circle, to intend inferior businesses. The Epicures, by the Relation of Eliphaz, say no less. How can God know? Can he judge through the dark Cloud? He walketh in the Circle of Heaven. Averroes the Spanish Physician, thinks that vilesceret Dei intellectus, if he should mind these lower things. But the Glass is not deformed, because it represents deformities: nor is the Sun defiled by reflecting upon dunghills; nor the Divine Providence vilified by ordering the most contemptible things. His Creation is their Mother, his Providence their Nurse: the one brings them forth, the other brings them up: the one set up the frame of Heaven and Earth, the other keeps it in reparation. That he is the God of the Mountains, not of the Valleys, was a Syrian dream: that he looketh to the greater, and scorneth the smaller employments; is a blasphemous assertion. No, his Providence extends to the feeding of Ravens, to the falling of Sparrowes, numbering of Haires, and casting of Lots. Saul is appointed to the Kingdom of Israel by God, and anointed by the Prophet; yet still he must be designed by Lot: was nor this to leave a certainty, and put it to hazard? No, for of all the Tribes Benjamin is taken: of all the families of Benjamin, Matri: of all the kindreds of Matri, the house of Cis: of all the house of Cis, Saul is chosen to be King. Saul had hidden himself; yet he could not hope that this subducing should disappoint the purpose of God. He that designed his name among the thousands of Israel, (he might well think) could easily find out his person in a Tent, and bring him forth to honor.

As the same Word of God that made the Angels, made also the little [unspec 5] Wormes: so the same Word again that preserves the stars in heaven, preserves also the very dusts of the earth. Nec laborat in maximis, nec fastidit in minimis. The moving of all those glorious Orbes is no more to him, than the setting of a fly upon her wings. The whole world is but a Ball in his hand, which he turns about at his pleasure: and when he will, he can throw it into the fire. He keeps them in store: without his Providence they could not subsist, not stand a day; but fall like an Infant, when the Nurse puts it from her bosom. Indeed he does thesaurizare, sed ad ignem; treasure them up, but for the fire: as the wicked do reponere thesaurum, sed in vindictam, treasure up wrath against the day of wrath. But till that appointed day, he does conserve them in their pristine state: and though our intolerable sins would soon ruinate the world, yet for the Elects sake the time is prolonged, and for the Elects sake the days shall be shortened. As a Monarch sustains even a city of rebels for a time, which otherwise would perish; but at last sets it on fire. Well yet, to that day it is laid up as a Treasure: now if God be so provident over heaven and earth, what is his respectfulnesse of man for whom he made them? He that is so rich in goodness, and in the communication of that goodness, as to feed the Birds, and cloth the Lilies; will he neglect us and ours? We and our Children are the household of God: and will not that great Master and Father of the whole family in heaven and earth, provide for us? If a man provide not for his own, he hath denied the Faith, and is worse than an Infidel. We are certainly more precious than Fowls or Flowers, yet the Lord cares for them. Will the householder take care to water the herbs of his garden, or to fodder his cattle; and suffer his men and maids to famish through hunger and thirst? Or will he provide for his men and maids, and let his own children starve? I know there is a double difference, between his keeping of heaven and earth, and his provision for us.

1. They are insensible things, and obey only by natural instinct; as we move a stone, which otherwise would lie still. We have life, sense, reason, and natural abilities, to work together with his Providence. Therefore he enjoins us means, and would not that the works of his wisdom should be idle. He can save without means, but he hath told no man that he will: he hath told every man, that (ordinarily) he will not. When the Centurion believed the Master of the ship more than Saint Paul, they were all exposed to a great danger: that was a preferring of the means before the Author of the means. But as it is little short of Atheism, to use God only for a shift, and at second hand, when our own powers fail: so it is no less than sluggishness to thrust all our business wholly upon him: as if we were masters, and might sit idle; whiles he like a servant, must do all our works for us. We must not look to be fed as the young Ravens, without sowing: nor to be clothed as the Lilies, without spinning. God works upon the Clouds, and we must work upon the clods; or expect no fruits.

2. They are stored up for destruction, God hath set us apart for Salvation. Indeed the heavens and earth shall pass through a refining by fire to their original purity; and we must pass through death, our changing, to the perfect Glory. Now, he that is the keeper of these, is much more the Preserver of man. When we were enclosed in the womb, he took care that we should not be stifled in darkness, nor borne an abortive and untimely fruit: he planted love in our parents hearts to provide for us, milk in our mothers breasts to nourish us, strength in their arms to bear us, and vigilancy in their eyes to watch us. He gave them ears willing to hear our cries, compassionate hearts to pity our wants, providence to lay up portions for us. He made this great House for man; Heaven for his Parlour, the Air for his Hall, the Earth for his Kitchen, furnished with all necessary Viands; and the Sea for a Cistern to serve it with water, not without Fire for a Chimney, and the Sun for a window. Thus was man priùs ornatus, quàm natus: cui Deus benefecit, antequam fecisset. For if God had given him life, before he provided him living, he had entered upon want; and this stood not with the riches of his Maker. If he had given him life and living, without comfort and happiness in them, he had fallen upon misery, and that did not become his Creators mercy. Therefore in those six days did he make a Magazine of provision for him, that should last to the end of the world. And for this purpose he useth these Creatures; Quasi imperans, non quasi mendicans. He employeth these instruments, non indigentiae, sed indulgentiae causâ. The very hairs of our heads are all numbered: The least things that concern man. Things that be numbered, are therefore numbered, that none of them should be lost. He says not, They shall be numbered; but They are, long ago: not some of them, but All: not covered, but numbered: not the days of our life, but the hairs of our head: if a hair do grow on our head, it is the Gift of God; or if a hair fall from our head, it is the will of God. Now he that numbers our hairs, what account doth he make of our souls? Illi sollicitiserant de animabus, Christ secures them de capillis. Thus hath he stored up heaven and earth, but their end is to be burned: he hath treasured up us for a better heaven, wherein we shall be blessed.

[unspec 6] To borrow an application from the Metaphor, which is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 the Apostle speaks of a Treasury; let us all be treasurers; not of gold, or Jewels, or riches: these shall perish with the world, because they be laid up in the world, and belong to the world. Death like a severe Porter, shall examine all men at the gate, as they go out of the world, and not suffer them to carry one penny along with them: nothing they brought in, and they shall carry out nothing. The Spaniards never so narrowly examined the poor Moors, when they drove them out of their Kingdom. Nabal of his three thousand sheep which he shore in Carmel, could not bear one lock of wool with him to the grave: nor the rich man out of his enlarged barns, one straw toward the making up of his pallet: nor the other Churl, out of all his Cellars & Fountains, one drop of water to cool his tongue: nor Croesus, out of his abundant treasury, one broken fragment of coin, not an end of gold or silver. Wealth is but like unto words; by imposition, not natural: for commodities are but as they are commonly valued: and in the next life they bear no value at all. The space of human life how short soever, is the utmost extent of the use of worldly riches. As all Principalities have their limits, and kings are but chief in their own Dominions: so Pecunia, the worlds Queen (I mean, that worlds, whereof the Devil is king) extends her regiment but to the brim of the Grave, and is not currant one step further. Or if it had any validity afterward, yet it might not be suffered to pass: men may beguile the Law that forbids them to carry coin out of the kingdom; but God will admit none with coin into his Kingdom. Well then, there is another Treasure, which we may carry with us, and be welcome: of this death cannot hinder us, and with this Angels shall receive us. Good works are a Treasure, and they do follow us. Good Prayers are a treasure, and they go before us. Good Faith and Hope are a treasure, and they go with us. Works follow; Blessed are they that die in the Lord, for their works follow them. Prayers precede, Lord Jesus receive my spirit: Thy Prayers are come up for a memorial before God. Faith does accompany, To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise. The Graces of God are called Talents; if we improve them to his use, we make them our treasure. If a Traveler bear treasure in bullion, or in a wedge of gold, and have none coined into currant monies, his treasure will not defray his charges, as he goes. All our knowledge, and whatsoever ability, is God's Gift; and that Gift is treasure in the Nature of it: but it is not currant money in the use of it, except we get nearer and nearer to heaven, our home by it. Good works are the improvement of Grace, and that is the treasure which will pass currant in heaven: For God will reward us according to our works. Our Conversation is in heaven: it is there already to entertain us when we come. Lay up for yourselves Treasure in Heaven: this is a treasure, which when the earth is on fire, shall not be burnt with it: for that fire shall but consume the Elements; but this is above the Sun and stars, in the Repository of Blessedness, the gracious hand of JESUS CHRIST.

But the heavens and the earth which are now, &c.] Weak Philosophers easily become wicked Atheists: If the Scripture do not in all circumstances jump with their Plato and Aristotle, they will believe Aristotle and Plato against the Scriptures. It is the madness of vain man, by his own line, to measure the works of God: as if a blind man should not believe there is a Sun, because he cannot see it. Out of this black and tetricall vault, the Devil breathes forth those pestilent damps; quarrels and wranglings against the Divine truth. As, How could the world be destroyed with water? Grant that the earth was overwhelmed, yet what is this to the world? The heavens remained still untouched. Yet even their own philosophy might teach them to distinguish of the heavens. There is an airy heaven, as well as the starry: and so far this deluge might well extend. For the earth, it was not only at the first covered with water, but with water it is still cimented. And the air doth challenge the name of heaven: so God is said to Cover heaven with Clouds, and to thunder out of heaven: and the Cataracts of heaven were opened, when the Clouds poured down, whilst all the winged inhabitants of the air, and mortal dwellers upon the earth (saving those in the Ark) perished; what, can they say, became of the world?

Some would have the water, a kind of Principium from which other things were derived; and observe it from the very Etymology of Aqua, à qua sunt omnia. People and Multitudes are called by the name of waters. The Primum mobile, which they call the Chrystaline heaven, appears, either as if water were congealed into Crystal; or through the diaphanous transparencie of it, did represent Water as clear as Crystal. The Blessedness of Heaven is called, a Pure River of Water of Life, clear as Crystal. Such is the excellency of Water, and necessary Concurrence to all Elementarie things: Yet was this God's Instrument to destroy the world. What force is there then in Nature, to cherish and conserve the world, when the seed and matter of it own destruction is wrapped up in it? That which cannot stand by the own power, must be upheld by another's; and must it not then needs fall; when the Supporter lets go his manutenencie? Now what perpetuity, O Atheist, canst thou find in that whole, whose parts are so flexible.

1. The heavens and the earth.] The earth is indeed a muddy, sordid, and feculent place, the receptacle of all corruption: well may that perish. But the heavens are pure, bright, ceruleous, sublime, and refulgent; why should so glorious and magnificent a Machine suffer? The earth is but the Nurse of our mortal bodies while they live, and their grave when we die: when there is no more use of her office in that ministration, let her be dissolved. But heaven is full of beauty and solace; and though we shall dwell far above these airy or starry regions; yet it cannot but be some delight to look down upon these inferior objects; and to see that become now our pavement, which was once our seeling. Though the Presence-chamber of the King be most stately and sumptuous; yet his Courtiers disdain not to look into the public hall. Why then should the heavens, so rich and illustrious a Creature, be exposed to this last fire.

Yes, for whatsoever was created for man, was infected by the sin of man: and it is necessary, that this conflagration should reach as far, as did the former corruption. The heavens, Sun, Moon, and stars, though they did not fall under so deep a curse as the earth, yet were all blemished with man's fall. Even these must also be purged; and the means by which God will reduce them to their original integrity, is by fire: It is not then pity that this goodly frame should be dissolved; whether we respect the Maker, the creatures, or men for whom they were created. For God; he was dishonored in their contamination; therefore it is fit he should be honored in their repurgation. That infinite Majesty, who is Pureness it self, will not suffer the least out-room belonging to his Palace or universal Court, to remain unclensed. For themselves, this loss shall redound to their gain: for there shall not be an abolition, but a restitution of them: Nothing shall they lose, but what they may well spare: that substance and perfection which they received from their Creator shall abide: only the defects and blemishes which they had from us, shall be done away. We intend not the perishing of our Ore, when we refine the Gold from the dross. In respect of men, they may well vanish: for the good have a better place, and the wicked deserve a worse. These latter are but rebels, and therefore must be laid up in prison, or the place of execution: the other are God's loyal Subjects, and shall dwell with him in peace forever.

Seeing that sin had so contagious an extent, as to reach unto the very Heavens; well should the remorse of it reach unto the bottom of our hearts. Whither can we turn our eyes, and not read the Characters of our own transgressions? If we look downwards, we read them in the barren and cursed earth: every Thistle may sting us, and every Thorn be a prick to our consciences: Praesentemque refert tibi quilibet herba reatum. If we look inwards, there we find a depraved soul, a mortalized body: every error and distemper in either of them, may well represent unto us the force of this fatal infection. If we look outwards; the creatures groan under the burden of our vanity, they labor to shake off the yoke of servitude; and tell us to our faces, we are their bloody and cruel masters. If we look upwards, the Sun blusheth at our impiety, the Moon looks pale with fear of our imminent vengeance: the Air is troubled with our murmurings and blasphemies. They are sacrilegious fools, that offer to read men's destinies in the stars: but they are ignorant and careless souls, that do not read their own iniquities in the stars. That were a strange pestilence, which could send the infection to a remote country, over the seas: but there is no plague so malignant as sin; that could disperse the contagion through the vast Air, make it pierce through the Clouds, and stick pestilential spots upon the very Heavens. The Heavens do not more send down their kindly influence to the earth, than the earth doth send up her unthankful corruption to the Heavens. The son hath just cause to lament his fathers treason, when he looks upon the ruins of that goodly Manor, wherein he dwelt, and whereof he is disinherited. Let us cast our eyes which way we will, we cannot but behold the loathsome marks of our sins. Well may we say with David, My sin is ever before me: that leaf of the Book was always open. We may give it a kind of ubiquity or infiniteness, as that royal Prophet ascribes to God: Whither shall we fly from the presence of sin? If we should compass the Earth, in every nooke and corner of it we find sin: not our fields and houses, our beds and boards, scarce our Temples, are without sin. In our walks, sin meets us: if we dig, we turn up sin. When we view the desolate footsteps of war, we say, The enemy hath been here: no less may we say of every foot of ground we tread upon, Here hath been sin. If we fly on the wings of the morning to the uttermost seas, we descry sins in greater multitudes, than either fishes in the Maine, or sands on the shore. In the day we see Clouds of sins, In the darkness we stumble upon sin. If we could ascend up into Heaven, there we behold the dear Son of God that died for our sin: Could we look into Hell, there be millions tormented for sin. Sin hath possessed our reins, and covered us in our mothers wombs. There is not a point of the compass to which we can turn our faces, but our sin is ever before us. Shall the Hypocrite hide his sins, as Rachel sat upon her fathers Idols? Alas, Heaven and Earth shall discover them, in their contracted stains. But what should we do to cleanse them from this pollution? The Heavens are high; what instruments of man can reach them?

Yes, we have two helps, whereby we may do somewhat towards the purging of the Heavens. Both the breath of our faithful prayers, and the dew of our penitent tears, hath a cleansing quality. Elias opened Heaven by his prayer, and by his prayer David purged the same Heaven from that infection: The prayers of the Saints are sweet odors and Incense, perfuming Heaven and Earth. Let them rise up like pillars of smoke, and mountains of Myrrh; till they pass through the Clouds, the airy regions, the Sun and Stars, and present themselves before the gracious Throne of Jesus Christ. The sighs of a broken heart are like pleasant suffumigations from the hills of spices. Our tears have no less virtue: and against the force the course of nature, they rise upwards, and besprinkle Heaven it self. Mary stooped down when she wept, because Heaven was then upon earth: the drops of our contrition mount aloft, because earth is now in Heaven: even Christ, whose body was made of earth, in the glory of his Father. This happy moisture, if it cannot purify the Heavens, yet can wash our souls; so that Heaven will not disdain to receive us. Our tears are the Sea, a good Conscience the Vessel, Faith the Wind, Charity the Sails, and good Works the Oares whereby we sails unto Blessedness. The Israelites went about by the dry wilderness, yet they must cross Jordan, before they enter into Canaan: certainly, our shortest cut to Heaven is by water; I mean, by our tears. Yet still so far is the sickness of the world, taken by our sin, beyond any Physic that we can minister to it; that nothing but the extreme fire shall be able to purge it.

2. The Heavens and the Earth:] Why not the Water also? Shall that escape only in this universal confusion? Shall the water be too hard for the fire? Or shall that flame only work upon the Earth with her fruits, upon the Heaven with his Elements, and not upon the Sea with his floods? Yes, Etiam in aquam grassabitur ignis. As when the Angel poured out his vial upon the great River, Euphrates, the water thereof was dried up: Or, as the fire that came down from Heaven, at Elijah's sacrifice, licked up the water that was in the trenches: so this supernatural fire shall consume the vast Ocean; and his deep bottom shall be but the great harth of a chimney for this general combustion. The Apostle mentions not the water, as being comprehended under the terms of Heaven and Earth: and this burning shall be more conspicuous in the Air and Earth, than in the water.

Seeing the Earth shall be dissolved, Why do we seek so greedily to ram and cram our desires with it? Worldlings think that their houses shall continue forever, and their dwelling places to all generations, and therefore call their lands after their own names: They do but think so: alas, when the Earth perisheth, What will become of their habitations? Doth Peter talk of Tabernacles on Mount Tabor; the glory whereof was scarce to last an hour? A weak old man leaning upon his weaker staff, does not trust his whole weight upon it, lest it mock his vain confidence with a fall. Miserable is that souls condition that rests upon this worlds supportation. When we would disperse a swarm of Bees, we throw up dust amongst them: all the imaginations of political worldlings are scattered abroad and extinct with a handful of dust: the grave shall afford them Earth enough. Isocrates compared Athens to a fair Curtesan, with whose beauty every man was taken: they would all know her as a Mistress, but not one of them would accept her for his wife: They would fain enjoy her beauty, but not be clogged with her levity. Every man thought himself too good to be her husband; to be her Paramour, none was good enough. Wherein he taxed the inconstancy of that famous City; which having lifted men up to the highest pitch of honor, would instantly hurl them down again to the depth of ignominy. Such a whore is the world: we are caught with her painted fairness, and long to lie with her: but we know her false-heartedness, and count him a fool that marries her. Do we see a covetous Earth-worm, denying cherishment to the poor, to his family, to his own bowels, to his own soul? there is a fool married to a whore. Do we see another swollen with the Dropsy of ambition, doting more on popular honor, than on virtue and goodness? there is a fool married to a whore. Agrippa came into the Judgment seat, with great pomp: the Greek is, with great fantasie: all the pomp of the earth is but a mere fancy. A Philosopher said, that Athens was a pleasant City to travel thorough, but not safe to dwell in. We may make some use of this world in our journey or pilgrimage; but if we purpose to inhabit here, death and fire will say No to that. We shall at last think of this world, as that Harbinger answered a noble man complaining that he was lodged in so homely a room: You will take pleasure in it, when you are out of it: The remembrance of those troublesome vanities shall not a little add to the felicity of our peace in heaven: Olim haec meminisse juvabit. Socrates was wont to observe, that the argument of Tragedies was the death of Tyrants and bloody Princes: and that none of the Poets ever presented a hog to be slaughtered on the stage: common persons are not noted; but the fall of Princes is humanae gloria ludibrium, the mockery of all mortal glory. Lysimachus noting what power Lamia the Curtesan had with Demetrius King of Macedon, and that by her instigation he did many unjust and cruel acts; said, That it was the first time, that ever he knew a whore play in a Tragedie. But as a whore is the tragedy of the world, so the world it self is a whore in all the tragedies of the sons of men. The goods of the unjust shall vanish with a noise, like a great thunder in rain. The air is troubled, lightnings fly about, the thunders rend the clouds; and now every man leaves the field, and seeks for shelter: but when the storm is over, what remains of all this terror, but a little dirt composed of earth and rain, which men tread under their feet? Great and rich men make such a noise in the world: what with the bravery of their followers, the acclamation of their flatterers, the adherence of their confederates, and the imperiousnesse of their humors, they keep such a thundering, as if they would confound nature it self: Tarry but a little, and death comes down upon them in a shower: then all this noise is husht, and their glory turned into dirt. O then Lay not up treasures for yourselves upon earth: You may lay up for your children; that is providence: you may lay up for the poor; that is charity: but lay not up for yourselves, for that is a vain confidence. Why should we love a sluttish and vanishing earth, that have an eternal heaven prepared for us by Jesus Christ?

3. The heavens and the earth.] Why not the highest Heaven? why not hell also? No, for the sin of man never reached so high as heaven. The Angels indeed fell there, and fell from thence: but man's sin extended not so far. The Court and Throne of God is pure, and needs no purging. And for hell, there is fire enough already; a tormenting flame, never to be put out with any inundation of tears. Both these places are to remain for everlasting, without any change. This fire shall only work upon mortality and corruption; upon heaven and earth, with all things contained in them, saving only those, which God hath redeemed with the blood of his own Son.

Seeing this world shall pass away, but Hell abides forever, it is a mad improvidence, of all places, not to take heed of that. Could our misery last so long as our life, and our life so long as the world, yet all were terminable in time: but what shall put an end to Eternity? The longest life must die: the Stag falls, the Raven vanisheth, the Oak withers; and could a man reach to the years of Methusalah, yet he must yield to the necessity of Nature: yea, Nature it self is subject to a final change: time shall abolish all, and this last fire shall abolish time: But hell is an ever-dying life, an ever-living death. If there might be any end of those torments, though after so many millions of years, as there are drops in the Sea, or dusts upon earth, or as there have been moments of time since time began; it would be some comfort to the damned: But eternity is intolerable, infinite eternity breaks their hearts. Indeed, Eternity is the very hell of hell. If those punishments were no greater than the stinging of Ants, yet eternity is enough to make them intolerable. The present sense of their pain is grievous; but the endlesnesse of it is their desperation: to think that after so infinite a space, they shall be as far from either end or ease, as they were the first day of their beginning! There is no calamity in this life, but either reason, or time, or hope of end may qualify it: but all comfort is excluded, where the suffering can never be concluded. What shall we call it? Life? why then does it kill? Death? why then does it not kill? There is neither life nor death, but hath some good in it: for in life there is some ease, and in death an end: but hell hath neither end nor ease. Of death it hath the torment, without any end: of life it hath the continuance, without any ease. All that is good, whether in life or death, God hath taken away: the residue he hath mixed together, and thereof composed that fearful cup of vengeance. Yet alas, many men so live as if they were never to die, and so die as if they were never to live again. O sinner, thy life is short, the worlds is not long, but hell is eternal: of whose torments there is no cessation, and from which there is no redemption. Thou canst not have a Redeemer in hell, One thou mayest have upon earth: make him thine own while thou livest, that thou mayest escape that dismal place when thou diest.

Again, seeing these lower heavens must vanish, but there is a Heaven of eternal joy, unto which corruption never could, never shall extend; why do we not unite all our powers to the attainment of it? who would build upon a quagmire, that might build upon Marble or Crystal? Or place his hopes in a Region destined to fire, that might have an inheritance above the danger of mutability? If the joys of this world were durable, yet are they not perfectly pleasant: if they could be truly pleasant, yet they cannot be durable still, duration is the accomplishment, whether of pleasure or pain. The perpetuity of that heavenly Crown is the Crown of assurance. The infiniteness of that Glory were not enough to make us happy, without the Everlastingnesse: For the more sweet it is to be enjoyed, the more grievous it would be to be determined. The very thought of ending, would abate the comfort of possessing. But eternity does not add more continuance, than contentment to this happiness. What can we find in this life, but wanting and wishing; from whence arise those two tortures of the mind, hope and fear? We rejoice in health; an Ague shakes us: in honor; an affront crosseth us: in riches; a night robs us: in friends; a trifle bereaves us: in peace; a rumour disquiets us: in the Sun; a cloud debarres us: in the favor of Princes, a frown dejects us: in long life, and death a thousand ways disappoints us. O vain soul, to fixe upon that, which is subject to man, which is subject to death, which is subject to time, which is subject to the last fire! The earth is harrowed with war, countries over-flown with water, cities demolished with fire, the sea enraged with storms, the clouds hurried with winds, the air troubled with thunders: none of all these come near heaven. There is no noise, but the songs of Saints and Angels, but the shouts of praises; nothing but tranquility and eternal Comfort within those blessed doors. There, O Christ, establish us in thy rest forever.

4. The heavens and the earth that are now.] Now, why, are they not the same that they were before? Is there another heaven, another earth, than those that God made at the first? No new creation hath abrogated the old: I do not think, there was a mountain lost upon earth, much less a star in heaven, by the deluge. The Orbes keep their courses, the Stars their motions, the Sun knows his rising, and the Moon her going down: They all continue this day according to thine Ordinances, for all are thy Servants. The earth retains her steadfastness, because thou hast established it: One generation passeth, and another cometh, but the earth abideth forever. When God promised the seasonable vicissitude of cold and heat, Winter and Summer, Seed-time and Harvest, day and night, after the Flood; this was no new thing; but only that he had ordained from the beginning, and which had been suspended during that great Inundation. Why then doth the Apostle seem to make a difference between the former heaven and earth, and the present? I answer, that he does not ascribe to the world another being, but another condition: nor does he intend to oppose substances (there being an Identitie) but the several states of the same substances. The world then perished by water, now it shall be dissolved with fire: here is no opposition between world and world, but between destruction and destruction.

The Conclusion we may gather from it, is this; The world is not eternal, because is hath suffered, and is still subjected to ruin. All Creatures are of their own Nature prone to decay; whatsoever was made of nothing, may be reduced unto nothing. Not the souls of men, not the Angels of heaven are exempted; they all move upon the same poles, they bend to the same Center. And if they were not made immortal by preservation, their Nature could not keep them from sinking to annihilation. Only that is Eccentrique, which was never made: that light, which is the very emanation of the light of God, in which the Saints shall dwell; that Garment, with which they shall be apparel'd; that glory, which we can imagine, but not demonstrate: only that bends not to this Center, Ruin. That which was not made of nothing, is not in possibility of annihilation. All other things are concentrique: there is one common Center to them all; Decay and Ruin. The heavens contain the earth, the earth contains cities, cities contain men: this is Natures nest of boxes; and they are flexible to fate, made to be changed, and there is a time appointed for their permutation.

Seeing the world goes round, and all things it contains, follow that circular and changeable condition, Why are we inamour'd of it? It is but like a bullet shot from a Piece of Ordinance; that runs and danceth on the ground; which when the ignorant Soldier thinks to take up with his hands, it knocks out his brains. The best of it, is but vanity; the worst, vexation. The very pleasures of it are as a smoky fire in cold weather, whereof the smoke is more noisome than the heat is comfortable. If he that built thy house, should come again after divers years, and upon a review of it, assure thee that it will suddenly fall, wouldest thou not depart from it, to save thine own life? Behold, he that made the world, and is best able to survey the present state of his own workmanship, forewarnes us of the imminent ruin: are we so stupid, that for love of these forbidden vanities, we will suffer it to fall upon our heads? He loves Gold dearly, that will run into a room on fire, to fetch it out. What is there in the world, whose center is not Decay? Take the pride of it, which is Greatness; the Preeminence of man over men. What can be wanting to a Prince, which the earth may afford? The confluence of all pleasures, of all riches, waits upon the hand of Sovereignty. Yet alas, what stability is there in earthly greatness? Dionysius the second was Lord of four hundred ships, had an Army of an hundred thousand foot, and nine thousand Horse, besides the richest Magazine or Penuary of any Prince in the world; yet he lived to see himself dethroned, his sons cruelly butchered, his daughters first ravished, and then massacred, all his Allies one way or another destroyed. How mighty was the honor of Haman in the Persian Court; What could not he do with the King, with the State? When the Sun shines upon the Dial, every Passenger will be looking at it. There needs no command of reverence, where the King is pleased to countenance. All knees will bow alone even to forbidden Idols of honor: How much more where royal authority enjoins obeisance? Yet is this lofty man advanced fifty foot higher; and (which aggravates the vexation) is hanged on his own Galhouse. One hour hath changed the face of the Persian Court: and he, to whom all knees bowed in the morning, as more than a man; now hangs up like a despised Vermin, for a prey to the Ravens. Mordecai, that was in the morning destined to the Galhouse, before night rules over Princes: and Haman, that in the morning ruled over Princes, is a spectacle of shame on the Galhouse. Oh the vanity of worldly honor, that mistress of fools and mad men! Haman was not the first that fell from such an height, nor is the last. Many an one hath sped no otherwise; to borrow the (not common) words of an English Poet:

A Gallant goes to some public Duel or tourneament, accompanied with music, many friends, and encouragements: But when he is beaten and wounded by the adversary champion, home he returns solitary and forsaken, in shame and silence. When the May-pole is first set up, there is dancing, and shouting, and rejoicing about it: after a while, boys defile it; and when it is blown down with the wind, they cast it into the fire, and burn it. The world goes round, and all things in it, follow the same motion: At first it was in the hands of plain dealing Laborers and Husbandmen: then was it seized on by tyrants and men of might: From them it was devolved into the dition of Princes: Soldiers and Warriers then invaded it, and it was usurped by Emperors: Indulgent Emperors resigned it into the fingers of Church-men, the Popes challenge it: Now the greater part of it is fallen into the clutches of Lawyers; and who shall get it from them again, is yet uncertain: but round it must go; this is certain. The Sun doth not more duly run his course, than do all things under the Sun. The conditions of men are but as the Spokes of a Wheel; which sometime turns up Prince, and sometime Peasant; now Wise man, and then Fool; today Rich man, tomorrow Beggar. Still it goes round, and changeth, and we change with it; until that universal change of all things shall determine it, in the great Day of Jesus Christ.

Are kept in store: Ad verbum, Are treasured up. The Word of God is a kind of Treasury, out of which He bringeth all his Works. He bringeth the Wind out of his Treasuries. He layeth up the Depth in Storehouses. The Lord shall open to thee his good Treasure, the Heaven to give thee Rain. Hast thou entered into the Treasures of the Snow? Or seen the Treasure of the Hail? Through his Commandment the Treasures are opened, and Clouds flee forth as Fowls. The Winds, the Clouds, Snow, Hail Rain, Lightning and Thunder; all pass under the name of his Treasure. Even his very Judgments are his Treasure: Saint Paul calls his Patience and Goodness, His Riches: and those punishments wherewith He scourgeth the wicked, His Treasure: for they treasure up wrath unto themselves. And although his Riches be greater, than his Treasure, and He delighteth in Mercy more than in vengeance: yet properly a man's treasure is the best part of his riches. If men despise his Riches, He will open his Treasury: for He that is rich in Mercy, is not poor in Justice; both being infinite in that infinite Essence. Men commit sins by pieces and snatches, like broken fragments of coin: God gathers all these together, lays them up in store, and seals them up among his Treasures. Mala quae facit bomo, servat ei Deus, depromenda in tempore suo. Ditescimus bonis Divinis, & Deus quodammodo ditescit peccatis nostris: the Mercy of God makes us rich with his blessings, and we (after a sort) make the Justice of God rich with our sins.

Seeing that for the sins of men, the Heavens are treasured up unto fire, and even those sins be also a kind of treasure, enriching God with fit matter for the execution of his Justice; let us all break them off by a seasonable repentance. Many men make a cursed treasure: as the Apostle chargeth rich worldlings; that they hoard up wrath with their wealth, and pain in the midst of their coin: This last fire shall melt their coin, and consume their wealth: but their sin and their pain remains treasured up forever. Why should a man desire to be rich in woes, or to abound with torments? No man ever counted dirt a treasure: Is there any mire so filthy as sin? Are we so foolish, to make much of that, which procures destruction? We think sin a pleasure, and sorrow a troublesome copesmate: indeed Sorrow is no good Fellow, no boon Companion, therefore few desire to meddle with it. But at the last, we shall find our sins the greatest troubles, vexing our souls, and gnawing our consciences: but our tears and sorrows are such a treasure laid up in the storehouse of Mercy, that we shall be infinitely rich in comfort and glory.

Reserved unto fire.] The various questions concerning this conflagration of the world, wherewith the Schoolmen have troubled their own heads, but not satisfied others, I omit as impertinent and unprofitable. Only concerning the power of fire something would be said. Even natural fire works ad ultimam potentiam, so long as the matter lasts: but this fire shall be of another nature, even of a nature (if I may so speak) above nature. Do they say, the Heavens are not exustible? How then be spirits and souls, made of a purer nature, subject to torment in the fire of Hell? The Prophet saith, Tophet is prepared of old: the Judge of men and Angels saith, Go ye cursed into everlasting fire, prepared for the Devil and his Angels. If with fear, and without curiosity, we may look upon those flames; Why may we not attribute a spiritual nature to that more than natural fire? Though spirits have nothing material in their nature, which that infernal fire should work upon: yet such is the powerful Judgment of that Almighty Arbiter of the world, justly willing their torment, that he can make spirits most sensible of those fiery tortures: and such is the obedible submission of their created nature, that they may be immediately wrought upon by those appointed pains. The spirits of living men are incorporeal, yet how great a sorrow may they conceive to be imprisoned in a loathed and painful body? And may not then mere or separated spirits of Angels or men be held as easily in those direful flames, and be tormented with the insufferable horror which ariseth from the place, whereto they are everlastingly confined? We may distinguish of fire, as it is it self, a bodily creature, and as it is an instrument of God's Justice: so working, not by any material virtue or power of it own: but by a certain height of supernatural efficacy, to which it is exalted by the omnipotence of that supreme and righteous Judge. If then God hath from eternity created a fire of another nature, proportionable even to spiritual Essences? What should hinder but that the pure quintessentiall matter of the Sky, and the elements themselves, in the end of the world, may be dissolved by fire? Yea, of so different a nature shall the last fire be, from that which it consumeth, that the element of Fire it self shall be dissolved by fire.

All miraculous creatures are better than ordinary natural ones: The Water that Christ turned into Wine, was the best Wine: the same bounty that expressed it self in the quantity of the Wine, shows it self no less in the excellence: Nothing can fall from that divine Hand not exquisite. It was fit that the miraculous effects of Christ, which came from his immediate hand, should be more perfect than the natural. The fire that came down from Heaven upon Sodom had more in it than nature. How strange was the fire that consumed Elijah's sacrifice? Many hands are employed for the making of a large Trench round about the Altar, and the Prophet causes it to be filled with those precious remainders of water, which the people would have grudged to their own mouths. But as those that pour down a pailefull into a dry Pumpe, they part with this little in hope of fetching more. The Altar, the Trench is full: a barrel full is poured out for each of the Tribes, that every Tribe might be afterwards replenished. Elijah prays, and instantly the fire of the Lord falls from Heaven, and consumes the burnt Sacrifice, the Wood, the Stones, the Dust, and lickes up the water that was in the Trench. With what terror must Israel needs see this fire rolling down out of the Sky, and a lighting with such fury so near their heads: heads no less fit for this flame, than was the Sacrifice. They might well have thought, how easily might this fire have dilated it self, and consumed our bodies, as well as the Wood and Stones; and have licked up our blood, as well as that Water? I know not whether they had the grace to acknowledge the Mercy of God, they could do no less than confess his Power, The Lord is God, The Lord is God. Cannot the same Power provide another fire, to make a whole burnt sacrifice of the world? Far be it from us to doubt it, when he hath said he will do it.

Seeing the whole world is but a great house, and the end of it is to be burned; happy are they that have provided themselves of another not subject to fire. Wherefore is it called Immobile regnum, a kingdom that cannot be shaken? An eternal house? An immortal mansion? Into which no Thieves can break through? But to show that this fire cannot come at it, that it is far above the reach of ruin? The joys of Heaven should lose one privilege, which they have above the pleasures of Earth, if they could be mutable. If men find such fair contentments in this their prison, What will the liberty of God's own royal Court afford us? If in this stormy time of tears we meet with such comforts, What may we expect in that everlasting Sun-shine? If this corruptible world, set up for a short time, as some Tent or Cottage, be so gorgeous; that many desire no other Heaven: What estimation should we make of that eternal Palace, prepared before all worlds, for the greatest manifestation of his glory? This world of ours, which holdeth a middle state between Heaven and Hell, and (in some sort) participateth of both; doth not so far surpass Hell in beauty; as it is excelled by that Imperial Court of Heaven, contrived by his own wisdom, as agreeable to the State of almighty God. There, there let us lay up our hearts; that when this whole world is on a flame, our Inheritance may be safe, and ourselves established in it forever.

Reserved unto fire.] Here is offered to our observation, the great difference betwixt the former destruction of the world, and this latter: That by Water, this by Fire.

1. The Heavens then had their Dropsy, and drowned the world: now they shall have their Feaver, and burn the world. It seems the world was then too hot, and therefore was Water sent to cool it: now it shall be too cold, and this Fire shall come to enflame it. Indeed, before the Flood, men were given to inordinate and unnatural Lusts: to fury and wrath, which is Excandescentia, a chafing or fuming sin: and to uncleanness, which the Apostle calls a Burning: these sins were fitly punished with an Inundation of Water. Toward the latter end of the World, Charity shall wax cold, Piety be nipped with a Frost, and Faith almost starved to death: and the World thus benumbed, shall be set on Fire. Or shall we rather say, this Judgment of Fire shall be proportionable to the present state of sin? As many heats contracted in the body are a preparation to the Fever: so Pride, Ambition, Drunkenness, filthy Concupiscence, Envy, Malice, and such intemperate heats in the soul, do justly provoke and call for a Dissolution of the World by Fire.

2. Of the Flood, the world had a fore-knowledge one hundred and twenty years before it came; whereby men might lay hold on the opportunity of repentance. Hereupon some made provision against it, and were saved. But this last Fire shall break out in an instant, and consume all. Noah knew when the Flood would come, and by God's Direction furnished himself of a sufficient Refuge. But this Day of Fire is known to no man, to no Angel. The Dog-star hath a pestilent breath, an infectious exhalation: yet because we know when it will rise, we clothe ourselves, we diet ourselves, and we shadow ourselves, to a sufficient prevention: But Comets and blazing Stars, whose significations or effects no man can interrupt or frustrate, no man foresaw. No Almanac tells us, when a blazing Star will break out, because the matter is carried up in secret: No Astrologer tells us, when the effects will be accomplished; for that is a secret of an higher Sphere than the other. Some Prognosticators have guessed at the time of Thunder and Lightening, and been deceived: but which of them could foretell, that in such a Yeare such a City should be burned, or such a Country overflown? The last Day shall suddenly break in like a Thief, and entrap like a Snare: like some unexpected Thunder-clappe, awaking men from their quiet sleeps. If a man should suddenly start from his slumber, and see his house on fire about him, his Friends bewailing, but not being able to help him; it were cause of strange Amazement. Death is but a sleep in the bed of the Grave: in how terrible a plight must the wicked man rise, when he shall be enclosed within those comfortless extremities? He shall have on the one side his sins accusing him, on the other side Justice threatening him: Above, an angry Judge condemning him: Beneath, Hell open, and the boiling Furnace ready to devour him: Before, those merciless Fiends haling him: Behind, the Saints and some of his nearest Friends not only forsaking him, but rejoicing and praising God for Justice in his damnation: Within, his conscience tearing him; without, the powers of heaven shaken and dissolved, the elements melting, the whole world flaming, and all damned souls crying and cursing round about him. O intolerable indignation of the Almighty; which he shall neither have power to resist, nor patience to endure, nor place to avoid!

3. The Deluge did but invade a piece of the world: it did no harm to the heavens, from whence it fell: it did not put out those lights, it did not quench those heats: but this last fire shall burn the furnace it self, and annihilate those heavens that breathe it out. If Noah's Dove found no place for her foot by reason of the water, what room will be left for the sinner in the midst of this universal fire! If the just shall scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly appear? To go forward, it will be intolerable: impossible to go back: to turn aside, unavaileable. So extreme will be the astonishment, made up of sorrow, shame, and fear; that the guilty sinner will be desirous, if it were possible, even to hide himself in hell, rather than stand his trial: like some desperate malefactor, that had rather go to the galhouse in private, than be brought to the public Sessions.

4. The Deluge came upon the world Paulatìm, by degrees: this fire shall come Sabito, on a sudden. God was then forty days a raining upon the earth, before the Flood did bear up the Ark: so that still men shifted places, according to their best conveniences: from the valleys up to the higher grounds, from thence to the loftyest mountains, and again there, to the towers and tallest Cedars; Death and Destruction following after them in a slow march. Beside that fear and hunger did in many of them save the Flood a labor; they had time to take breath, the happy space of repentance; and though the waters would not be entreated to spare their bodies, yet that other Deluge of their own Tears might eternally save their souls. But this destruction by fire is altogether sudden: it shall not begin with one piece of the world, and so proceed on to another, as material fire does in an earthly building; but consume all at once. Therefore He that best knows it, because He will do it, compares it to Lightning, which quickly flies from East to West, and that chosen Vessel says, it shall be done In a moment, in the twinkling of an eye. Those are the greatest mischiefs, which are least discerned: the most insensible in their ways, come to be most sensible in their ends. In the societies of men, States and Common-wealths; twenty rebellious drummes make not so dangerous a noise, as a few whisperers and secret plotters in corners. The Cannon doth not so much hurt against a wall, as a Myne under the wall: nor a thousand enemies that threaten, so much as a few that take an oath to say nothing. It is the concealment of the last day, that will be terrible to those men one day, that have not prepared themselves every day. It was a noble answer of a mean favourite to his Prince; who had threatened one day to come and see what cheare he kept in his house, and understanding afterwards how bountiful and expensive he was at all times since, far above his state and revenues, reproved him for a prodigal waster of his fortunes: but he humbly replied; Your Highness promised to eat with me one day, and because I did not know which day, I made the better provision for you every day. We are sure there is a day when our Lord will come: therefore to trim up our houses, our Consciences; to furnish our souls with the best Viands, Faith, Charity, and Repentance; is not to our loss, but gain: He will not tax us of lavishnesse; but rather having supped with us in grace, take us home to his Kingdom, to sup with him in everlasting Glory.

But if this fire be so universal, how then shall the Righteous escape? [Question.] Can they avoid so supernatural a flame? Yes, how were those three mortal Servants of God delivered in the midst of that firy furnace? Were the hairs of their heads sindged? or was the smell of fire upon their garments? Their persecutors were destroyed with the very breathing of that Oven, themselves were not hurt with the flame. What was the reason? There was a Fourth among them, and his form was like the Son of God. So when the whole world shall be turned into a burning furnace, the godly have One among them, that will secure their preservation; even their blessed Redeemer, the almighty Son of God. If he could keep mortal men from the power of natural fire, he can as easily from the force of this supernatural fire save his immortal Saints. I deny not, but that even the Saints and Angels may be touched with the terror and astonishment of this dreadful day: not for any danger which they can fear towards themselves; but at the greatness of the Lord's Indignation: As a harmless child will be afraid at the fury of his father, though it be against his bondslave: or as a tempestuous sea will strike some astonishment even into him, that standeth safe on the shore. If the heavens and earth fly before his presence, well may the sons of men be abashed. When Gideon went against the Midianites, instead of whetting swords, sharpening spears, and fitting of armor, he only gave order for empty pitchers, and lights, and trumpets. The cracking of those pitchers shall break in pieces that Midianitish clay: the kindling of those lamps shall extinguish the light of Midian: those trumpets sound no other than a soul-knell to all the host of Midian. There shall need nothing but noise and light, to confound that innumerable Army. Now if the pitchers, and brands, and trumpets of Gideon, did so daunt and dismay the proud troupes of Midian and Amalek: who (can we think) shall be able to stand before the last terror; when the trumpet of the Archangel shall sound, and the heavens shall pass away with a noise, and the elements shall be on a flame about our ears?

Seeing the world shall be determined in fire, let us look in time to our own preservation. No denial, no defense, will serve at that day, either to countenance or to cover our sins: It will be in vain to offer, whether excuse or entreaty: no place remains for the on, no pity for the other. Nothing will be granted, which shall then be required; because nothing was performed, which was before commanded. When a man's house is on fire, he does not so much look to his lumber, and trash, and ordinary stuff, but he labors to preserve his treasure and Jewels, his deeds and evidences: This great house of the world will shortly be on fire: it will be our vain folly, to seek the saving of any temporal things; for they shall not escape this combustion: but let us save the Jewels, our dear souls: the evidence, our faith in the Covenant of God, made unto us in Jesus Christ. Let not him that is on the house top, come down to take anything out of it; there is nothing in it worth his care. No, let him make sure his Jewel, and his Charter in the blood of his Redeemer: if that be safe, pereat mundus: Let Christ be ours, and our souls his, and though the world be on a light flame, we shall not perish.

Reserved unto fire.] The Law of God was given in fire, and in fire it shall be required. That they might see what was due to their sins, they behold the fire above, representing the fire that should be below them. We may all tremble at the resemblance. The trumpet of the Angel called only Israel to the one: the voice of an Archangel, the Trumpet of God shall summon all the world to the other. There mount Sinai was only on a flame; here the whole world shall burn. There was fire, smoke, thunder and lightning: here a firy stream issuing from the Lord shall melt the elements, and dissolve the heavens. If such were the proclamation of God's statutes, what shall the Sessions be? What shall become of the breakers of so firy a law? Only the fire wherein it was delivered, was but terrifying: but the fire wherein it shall be required is consuming. Therefore will the supreme Judge hold his Assizes in fire: nor is only the Law thus required, but even the Gospel. He will come in flaming fire, taking vengeance, not only on them that know not God and his Law; but even on those that obey not the Gospel of Christ.

To recover us from our willful fall, he came down from heaven, was borne in poverty, and lived in pain, and died with intolerable torment and scorn. Witness the wounds he endured, witness the earth that trembled, witness the heavens that drew in their light, when his death was in action. Where is our thankfulness, where our obedience? How have we answered his holy inspirations? How have we used the means and opportunities, which were presented us for our salvation? What desire had we of those works of mercy which he commanded? Where appeared in us that Charity which he commended? Is this the account we make of his sufferings? Is this our estimation of his more than precious blood? Rebellion against God's mercy is so much worse than disobedience to his Justice, as his mercy sweetens all his works, as his mercy redeemed us, when we were forfeited to his Justice. Even this Ingratitude shall be required in fire, and the Lord will judge it in that universal burning. When Joseph said to his brethren, I am Joseph your brother, whom ye sold into Egypt, they could not answer him, for they were astonied at his presence. When Christ shall show that blessed Head which was crowned with thorns, those sacred hands which were pierced with nails, that holy side which was thrust through with a spear, and say, Behold I am Jesus your brother, whom your sins once sold into the hands of Pilate, and have ever since daily crucified by your unthankful relapses, and repetitions of the same iniquities; they must needs be speechless. O then let us follow the counsel of him, that would be our Advocate, before he will be our Judge! and enter into Judgment against ourselves, that when we shall appear in that great Audit, he may find us beforehand judged, & forever forbear to condemn us.

Against the day of Judgment.] We find four Advents of Christ. 1. Verbum ad carnem, when the Word took flesh. 2. Caro ad verbum, when he began to execute his office. 3. In carne soluta, when we lie on our death-bed, then he comes to comfort us: the God of life comes in the hour of death. 4. In carne restituta, at the Resurrection: when our old mother shall be delivered of her last burden, when a fever shall calcyne the corrupt body of this world. There is Iudicium Discretionis, which is done here; For Judgment I am come into this world: and there is Iudicium Retributionis hereafter; God shall Judge the secrets of man by Jesus Christ. There is a judgment of election, before the world began: and there is a judgment of reward, when the world is done. Concerning this last and great Day of Judgment, I desire briefly to touch upon these particulars: The certainty, the uncertenty, the integrity, the impartiality, the fatality to the wicked, the consolation to the Just.

1. The certainty of it: Heaven and earth shall pass away, but not that word of God, which hath decreed this judgment. Of this infallible expectation we have frequent warning: The Sun shall be darkened, the Moon shall not give her light, and the Stars shall fall from heaven. Great Eclipses have been terrible to poor mortals, and the darkness at our Savior's Passion was the wonder of the world: If it were such at his suffering, what shall it be at his glorious appearing? When the Master of the family dieth, the house is troubled, the servants lament, and put on mourning garments: When man, the Tenant of the world is near his end, and coming to answer for his rent; his old friends and servants, the Sun, Moon, and Stars, clothe themselves in black, and become his mourners. Nor do these only wait upon this great funeral; but the earth shall tremble, and the seas roar, when men's hearts shall fail them. Vehement earthquakes, and the inundations of mighty waters have been terrible: how much more when the vast Ocean shall rage, and the massy globe of the earth totter?

How obdurate be those hearts, whom this consideration does not terrify. Physicians, in dangerous diseases, give a special regard to the 7. day, which they call critical; and observe what strength nature hath to repel it, & thereby judge of the patient. We all labor of the spiritual sickness, Sin: and the day of Iudgemēt is truly a critical day: if the remembrance of that cannot discover some hope of reformation in us, we are not like to escape. We are busily intent in our observations upon climactericall years for particular persons, and periodicall years for the life of states and kingdoms: but we consider not our own critical day, and what assurance we have of the everlasting Kingdom. We exercise our curiosity in marking, that Adam, the eldest of the eldest world, died in his climactericall year: and Sem, the eldest son of the next world, in his: and Abraham, the Father of the faithful, in his: and the blessed Virgin Mary, the Garden where the Root of faith grew, in hers. But they whose Climacterickes we observe, did spend their observation upon other critical days; the expectation of the Messias, the end of their lives, the preparation for death. The Pharisees pretended that if they had been in their Fathers days, they would not have been partakers of the blood of the Prophets: and shall we, who live in the days, not of the Prophets, but of the Son, kill those Prophets again, and again crucify that Son, for all those evident Indications that are afforded us? Shall we study, and seek, and find out such critical days, as are fittest to forsake Christ in? Now, Religion is in a neutrality in the world, and this is my day, the day of liberty: Now I may make new friends, by changing my old Religion, and this is my day, the day of advancement. This is a fearful Crisis or indication of spiritual death. Physicians speak of their critical days, that the first is Index, the next Iudex. So we have two main critical days, our life, and our death: the former is Indicatory, the latter Judicatory: that declares what we are, this concludes what we shall be: the one is for consultation, the other for Sentence. There may be some hope of convalescence in the first: but if we amend not before the second, we must perish. In the first we have leave and time to judge ourselves: otherwise, the Lord will judge us in the next.

Yea, we have many critical days, to prepare us for that great day of Determination; and them we may distinguish, like natural days, into seven. First, the day of Trouble and affliction, which is therefore called the day of visitation: because in trouble, the Lord, our good Physician, doth visit us. Men think that God is removed from them, when they suffer calamity: as the Israelites do but want water, and presently cry, Is the Lord among us, or no? As if God could not be with them, and they athirst? Either he must humor carnal minds, or be distrusted. If they prosper, though it be with wickedness, then God is with them: If they be crossed in their own designs, straight, Is God with us? It was the way to put God from them, to distrust, and murmur. If he had not been with them, they had not lived: if he had been in them, they had not murmured. We can think him absent in our want, and cannot see him absent in our sin: yet wickedness, not affliction, argues him gone. Yea, he is then most present, when he most chastises. We measure not the visitations of great persons, by their apparel, by their equipage, by the solemnity of their coming; but by their very coming. If the Lord come unto us, though it be in sickness, though in calamity, it is our critical day: and if we make him welcome, and entertain him with patience, it is an argument he would not lose us, that by any means seeks us. Secondly, penitent sorrow for our sins is a right critical day: when the conscience is molested with the pains of a bleeding remorse. This day hath an Evening and a Morning; a sad guiltiness in the soul, but a cheerful rising of the Sun. The Evenings and Mornings made days in the Creation, but there is no mention of nights: Our sorrows for our sins are Evenings, but they determine not in night: There is joy in the Morning; a day of solace; when the Spirit broken and dejected in it self, is aquitted and comforted by Christ. Thirdly, this Remorse sends us to a third critical day, to a devout hearing of the Word, and faithful receiving of our Savior, in his Institution of the Sacrament: conforming our life to those sacred Rules, and walking worthy of so inestimable an honor. Fourthly, thus having walked with God three days, we are prepared for the storms of the fourth, the day of our dissolution and transmigration from hence. Sins, sorrows, and troubles have so embittered our life, that there is no