Commentary on 2 Peter

THis is the Apostles second exemplary argument against the indemnity of 〈◊〉 his first instance was, how it sped in heaven; now he expresseth the mischief it did upon earth: after the expulsion of Angels, the submersion of terr •• creatures. The first Judgment took hold on altitude, this prevails against multitude: for sublimity, they were Angels: for universality, this is a whole world There God used his own immediate power, in the dejection of those revolting sp • rits: here is the same offended power working by a mediate instrument. The A • gels were above the elements, therefore no element was exercised in their punishment: here is element against element, water against earth: that man, who was 〈◊〉 elements composed, and by elements preserved, might also by elements be destroyed. When man forsakes his own end, which is to glorify his Maker: the creatures also forsake their (less principal) end, which is to serve man their master The Elements rebel against man, when man rebels against God: becoming a trator to his Creator, they owe him no more service: but instead of serving him, they serve God against him.

Deepe calleth unto deep at the noise of the water-spoutes: Psal. 42.7. the del • ge of sins called for a deluge of waters: deep iniquity, for deep calamity. The world was grown so fowl, that God saw it was high time to wash it: yea so was the •• cleanness died in grain, that when the polluters were washed away, the poll ••••• stuck on still: as the plague cleaves to the house, even when the infecter of it is dea • . And as a sordid cloth lies long a soaking before it be cleansed: so deeply had imp •• tie siz'd it self into the earth, that God saw it meet to steep it long under the waters; even an hundred and fifty days, Gen. 7.

God's blessing did not more multiply, than Satan's curse: there came a Cres ••• & multiplicamini from them both. God spake it to his creatures, men: Satan 〈◊〉 his creatures, men's sins. Mankind began but with one: yet he that saw the fir •• • an lived to see the earth peopled with a world of men. Men grew not half so fast • s sins; As they were increased, so they sinned against me, Hos 4.7. One man could • one multiply a thousand sins, never man had so many children. So that still • e number of transgressions exceeded the number of persons: when the earth was • arce sprinkled with men, the whole world was filled with sins. So that the top • f the conspiracy bore up to heaven, and carried ill news to the Maker of all. Whereat offended, he sent down a watery messenger of destruction: which as it • me from heaven, so swelled up back again to heaven; with tidings, that God's • stice was now glorified on them, whose mercy would not be glorified by them • he corruption of the world is not less now, yea more: it is past all pu • ging by wa • r, therefore hath God reserved it to fire. Only as the Ark did save Noah in the • y of water, so Christ will preserve us in the day of fire.

And spared not the old world, &c.] Here is a double act; of Justice, of Mercy; • at of Justice on a whole world, the other of Mercy upon eight persons. It is of • n, Poena paucorum, terror omnium; God doth strike few, to save many: here he • ikes many and saves few. His judgments are sometimes particular, that his • ercy may be general: here his Judgments are general, and his Mercy particular. • o the whole may be distinguished into the

• Vengeance; Spared not the old world.
• Deliverance, Saved Noah the eight person,

In the vengeance or execution of wrath consider, the

• Matter passive, Sinful world.
• Instrument executive, The Flood.

The subject suffering is described, by the

• Universality, the whole World.
• Antiquity, the Old World.
• Impiety, the Ungodly World.

For the penal instrument let us meditate;

• 1. Whence it proceeded.
• 2. How far it prevailed.
• 3. How long it continued.

In the deliverance are two special things, the

• Manner implied, by the Ark.
• Number expressed, Eight Persons.

Thus are our meditations fetched a great way backward, that our souls may 〈◊〉 set somewhat further forward: let us consider the old world, that we may be • me the better for it in the new. History is delightful to all, and gives us means 〈◊〉 travel former times: that we may in some sort know what is done before us, • ough we cannot see what shall be done after us. In all this plentiful discourse, • ur good apprehension must be my best persuasion; your capacity, my oratory. • cure we ourselves first in the Ark, and then launch into this Ocean of water: th • • irit of God direct us in our voyage, and bring our souls to the haven of eter • l peace.

To begin with the uengeance, God was angry with the whole world because sin: neither was this a slight or easy wrath; but a fire long a kindling. It repen • h me that I made man: here is a displeasure indeed, when the Lord shall repent 〈◊〉 own work. The wrath of God came upon them to the uttermost. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , that is, • h an one as consumes either totally or finally. The wrath of God is either in re • ution or execution. In resolution, it is either suppressed in his bosom, or ex • essed in his threatening. In execution, it is either temporal in body, or spiritual • oule: as Peter said; Behold two swords, or rather one sword with two edges. This 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 The wrath: God hath armies of afflictions, but if the wicked scape them all, 〈◊〉 same Great wrath will surprise them. Neither must we think here God sub • to passions: what be affections in us, are perfections in him. But lippientibus etiam singularis lucerna numerosa est: to the pur-blind one candle seems many. As God is said to have an arm, because the arm is the instrument of our power: 〈◊〉 eye, because he discerns all things: a foot because he is present everywhere, &c. And that he will preserve unharmed, is called the Apple of his eye. His essenti ••• substance is called his Soul. Am. 6.8. Benephesho, by his life, or soul, that's by himself. And Psal. 11.5. Wicked men his soul hateth. Thus he is said to be a • gry, and to repent. But as man repents by retracting his purpose, so God by cha • ging his sentence. When GOD is said to alter his will, that he becomes offended with the man, with whom he was formerly pleased. Ille potius quam ipse mutatur: the man is changed not the Lord. He repents not as man does, for he cannot de ••• and err as man does. He is not angry, but all his actions proceed from a per •••• love of virtue, and hate of vice. We cannot properly Grieve the Spirit, nor C •• cifie Christ: but our sins do all that is possible to it; and so much as in us 〈◊〉 , we bring melancholy into heaven, that Court of joy. If the King lose a subject 〈◊〉 is so much the weaker: take a drop from the Ocean it hath the less: but what • the loss of thee or thy harlot to God; he is never the poorer nor are they mu ••• But when he repents of all the generation of men, this shows sin to be exceed ••• heinous. In a word, man's is a passive repentance; God's is an operative repentance. Let this teach us.

1. To glorify God, lest he repent that he made us. I am fearfully and •• derfully made; (all God's works are admirable, man wonderfully wonderful) • avellous are thy works, and that my soul knoweth right well. What infers he o • 〈◊〉 this? Therefore I will praise thee. If we will not praise him that made us, will 〈◊〉 not repent that he made us? Oh that we knew what the Saints do in heaven, 〈◊〉 how the sweetness of that doth swallow up all earthly pleasures: they sing h ••• and glory to the Lord: why? Because he hath created all things. When we behold 〈◊〉 exquisite piece of work; we presently inquire after him that made it, purposely 〈◊〉 commend his skill: and there is no greater disgrace to an artist, than having perfected a famous work, to find it neglected, no man minding it, or so much as casti •• an eye upon it. All the works of God are considerable, and man is bound to th •• contemplation. Psal. 8.3 When I consider the heavens, &c. I say, What is man? 〈◊〉 admires the heavens, but his admiration reflects upon man; Quis homo? There 〈◊〉 no workman, but would have his instruments used, and used to that purpose i • which they were made. The Cutler hath made thee a knife; to cut thy own me •• , not thy neighbors throat. If thou like the envious man will keep • thy 〈◊〉 in thy hand, and swallow thy meat whole: or like the fool, cut another's me •• and thy own fingers: this is to abuse that instrument, and pervert the end 〈◊〉 which it was framed. Man is set like a little world in the midst of the great 〈◊〉 glorify God; this is the scope and end of his Creation. If he shall apply hims ••• to proud desires, base designs, covetous courses; here God's meaning is mis- •• derstood, his work mis-applied. He is created for the service of God, if be ca • not be wrought and brought to that, he shall be beaten in pieces. As the Po ••• turns and works a piece of clay; frames it for such a vessel; it will not do; 〈◊〉 tries to make another fashion of it, yet it fadgeth not: till at last, after many 〈◊〉 trials, he dasheth it against the walls. God's spirit will not always strive with 〈◊〉 world, more than it did with that: but if we still strive against him, let us see wh •• the end shall have the worst of it. Ariosto going through the streets, and he •••• 〈◊〉 Potter basely sing his odes; took a cudgel and broke his pots; answering 〈◊〉 complaint: Thou hast mar'd my verses, and I have mar'd thy vessels. If 〈◊〉 abuse God's creatures, he will spoil our pleasures.

2 Let us repent of our sinning, lest God repent of our making. O that for 〈◊〉 of a little sorrow, we should hazard the loss of such a joy, as the delight of our C •• ator. When we sin, we give him cause to grieve at our doing, but while we c •• tinue impenitent, we give him cause to grieve at our being. Shall our Maker rep • • we are, and we not repent that we are so evil? Did he not make us of • hing? and is he not able to reduce us to nothing, to worse than nothing; yet do we provoke him, and put him to it by our rebellions? Repentance is a • ee of continual use, because sin is a thing of continual practice. It is better • ng to the house of mourning, than of mirth; saith Solomon; more expedient for 〈◊〉 souls health: through his own experience, he taught us this expedience. In • e we patch our clothes, in repentance we rend them in pieces. It unmakes a • n that which sin made him; whereas impenitence keeps him forever the same. • ey that lived unconverted sinners on earth, remain the same in hell. All that • e before me are thieves and robbers: in congruity of speech he should have said, • e thieves; yes, not only were, but Are so still. Saul is still a homicide, you can • say so of David, that he is still an adulterer; because he repented, and by that 〈◊〉 tenewed.

Our repentance is said Pacare Deum, to appease God: now appeasing presuppo • anger, and God's anger is twofold; Iudicis & Patris. As he is a Judge, offen • with his enemies, and this wrath is only appeased by Christ. As he is a Father, 〈◊〉 so our repentance may please him in Christ: not Ration subjecti, in respect of selves; but Ration Principij, God's Spirit. Thus our repentance through Christ 〈◊〉 pacify his paternal wrath. This is an excellent remedy, but not so easy: the • g of Nineveh and his people put on sackcloth, and fasted: yet but, Who can tell • ether the Lord will turn to mercy: we are not sure of it, it may be so, but Who • tell. Though the Jews rent their hearts, yet it is but Quis novit, Who knoweth • ether God will return? Though they gnaw their tongues for pains, yet they • nt not of their deeds: so hard a task is repentance.

Neither is repentance without amendment, anymore than continual pumping • hout mending the leak. The bird fighting with the serpent, ever anon flew to • erbe, which was her medicine, and cured her of the poison: but at last, the herb • ng wasted, the bird died. Repentance is that herb, which while opportunity • s, will help the poison of sin: but that once gone, and it will not be ever pre • to presumtptuous sinners, what remanies but perishing. The medicine is made 〈◊〉 the wound, not the wound for the medicine. The argument of our liberty is • entance: the bonds of servitude are broken with a broken heart Auditúrne vox • uris, Is the mourning voice of that Dove, the Holy Ghost, heard in thy bosom? • mosthenes would not plead for his client, till he cried to him; and then answered 〈◊〉 sorrow, now I feel thy cause: let our penitent contrition cry unto Christ, and • n he will plead for us.

God spared not the old world. Thus in general, now more specially to the parts. • ld hath diverse significations: it is taken. 1 For this whole visible engine, the • icke of all things contained under heaven and earth. 2 For the vicious and • enable condition of it, contracted by sin, and inherent in all things. 3 For the • lest and most excellent part of it, man and thus sometimes only for the Saints; • d was in Christ, reconciling the world to himself. Commonly for the wicked, 〈◊〉 whole world lies in wickedness. So the world is opposed generally, vel numero • atorum, vel numero electorum. The first circumstance we light upon, is the uni • sality of this destruction, which seizeth on a whole world. Wherein the answer • hree questions may satisfy us.

Why the creatures were punished with man's ruin, that were not guilty of • s sin. This was just with God. 1 Because they were all made for man's use, 〈◊〉 therefore man suffers in their loss. Terra propter hominem producta, terra propter • inem maledicta. As a foul traitor being executed, hath his house fired, his very • d harrowed with brambles, and sown with stones. 2 Seeing they were made 〈◊〉 man's use, he being taken away, they were of no further use. The general being • ne, the army perisheth: the head being cut off, the members die. 3 Such was 〈◊〉 greatness of sin, that it brought destruction, not only upon the sinner, but on all that belonged to him. 4 Because brutish men had abused the creatures by t •••• filthy riot and excess; therefore God saw it just to punish the Instrument wit •••• principal: so that there is not a Creature, which is not Subject to some vanity. 〈◊〉 that requites his Princes favors with treason, not only suffers in his own pers •• but everything about him feels the smart. His followers are suspected, his 〈◊〉 • rits disgraced, his children disinherited, his friends discomforted, his house 〈◊〉 all things droop with him, his gardens are over-run with weeds, his orchy •• lie uncouth, man and beast is made sensible of his judgment. Adam, that was 〈◊〉 holding to God for his very self, apostating into treason; his house grew out of •• shion to him, his pleasures were turned to thorns, the arms of his nob •• were defaced: and he that was made a Master of living bodies, breaking his all •• ance with God, became despised of his own servants: some of them shaking of 〈◊〉 yoke of our government, when we shook off our makers. Especially the greatest, 〈◊〉 the smallest of them: the greatest, as Lions, Tigers, Panthers, are hardly 〈◊〉 but the least, as bees and gnats, not at all. In a general destruction when the ene •• triumphs, not only men, women and children lose their lives: but the houses 〈◊〉 fired, the trees cut down, the walls rased, the horses slain in fight, the cattle 〈◊〉 in the stalls: as Saul had his charge for Amalek; Spare neither man nor beast. 〈◊〉 there not rottes of cattle, and murraines of beasts, so well as mortalities of m •• In a spoiling war or plague, who remains to fill the empty crib or marg •• Do they not suffer with their Masters? Do not the very beasts of the rich fate •• better for the prosperity of their owners: whereas the poor man's cattle partake 〈◊〉 the poor man's want?

I do not think that all manner of creatures perished in the waters; for be •••• them preserved in the Ark the fish escaped, Gen. 7.22. The Rabbins conc •••• that the fish also perished, growing hot in the flood, as in a caldron; but Moses ••• fines this destruction to things on the dry land. The fishes were spared. 1 M •• 〈◊〉 not so abused them, as the other kinds: and herein our sinfulness exceeds theirs; 〈◊〉 not only the delicacies of the land, but neither can the rarities of the sea satisfy 〈◊〉 riot. They were then more separate from man's sin, therefore from his punish •••• But in the fiery deluge, to show that even thither our excess hath reached, the 〈◊〉 fishes shall not escape. 2 They lived in that element wherewith God purposed 〈◊〉 overthrow the world: so that the same thing that was ordained in ruin am, for 〈◊〉 version, was to them in tutelam, rather for preservation. 3 They were not p •••• kers of the earth, now the earth was cursed, not the sea: because Adam did unlaw ••• eat the fruit of the earth, not of the sea. 4 Such was the good pleasure of C •• that among other creatures he would then spare the fishes: then I say, for at 〈◊〉 times he hath both threatened and destroyed them also; he slew their fish.

Further from the number of those preserved in the Ark, divines have pro •• bly exempted. 1 those Amphibia, creatures that live as well in the water, as on 〈◊〉 Land; as otters, sea-wolves, water-serpents, and water-fowls. 2 Such as co •• corruption, and do not breed by generation; as worms of dung, moths of p ••• fied herbs &c. 3 Such as are of a mixed kind, engendered by male & female of d •••• kinds; as the Mule cometh of the Horse and Ass: these needed not come in •• 〈◊〉 Ark, Sed parents eorum ibi fuisse sufficit; it was enough that the breeders of 〈◊〉 were there. Some of the Rabbins have conceited, that the seeds of herbs 〈◊〉 plants were kept in the Ark; but they might by God's providence grow in the 〈◊〉 under the waters; as did the Olive which the dove found at the sinking of the 〈◊〉 Yea some of them more ridiculously, amongst the living things preserved, 〈◊〉 thrust in the spirits of the air to the Ark. But neither are they male and fe •••• nor subject to the submersion of waters; and it were better for man to have 〈◊〉 kind destroyed than conserved. For the Phenix, amongst many ambiguit ••• 〈◊〉 yield to their persuasion, who think there is none; and that by the disagree •••• of her most justifying reporters. For her country, some make her of Ar ••• others of India. For her life, some five hundred years, others six hundred sixty. • r her death some say she sings and dies; other, that motu alarm, with the mo • n of her wings she sets her nest afire. Pliny, and Pompon. Mela write, that of her • es comes a worm, and of the worm another Phenix: which takes the bones of • e old Phenix with her nest, and carries it to Heliopolis, the City of the Sun in • gypt; there laying it on the altar, and solemnizing the Funeral. But who would • t smile at the non-sense of this fixion? For if the Phenix be burnt to ashes, where 〈◊〉 her bones left for this transportation? But on, say they; and what creature is • thout sex, among Beasts, Fishes, or Foules? God's (Increase and multiply) had 〈◊〉 a vain and superfluous charge to her. If there were but one before, then cer • nly that perished in the Flood; for none were preserved in the Ark but by pairs • d couples. So that if formerly but one, now consequently there is none. The • ing of S. Ambrose is objected: Phoenix cum mortua sit, reviviscit: solos non cre • us homines resuscitari. We answer, he doth not deliver his opinion, that the • enix being dead reviveth: but Ex concessis, by that which the heathen affirmed, 〈◊〉 of their own grounds, he proves the Resurrection which they denied. Let not • s first question pass without a double meditation.

It instructs our understanding what the horror of sin is, whose contagion hath in • ted all the creatures that belong to us. Cursed be the earth for thy sake: the earth • u treadest on, the earth meriting no curse, the earth made before thee, made for • e, and thou made of it; cursed be this earth for thy sake. Quid meruistis oves, what • e the poor creatures done? We are not content with their rule, without their • ne: though they be ad usum & esum nostrum; yet we tyrannize over them, and 〈◊〉 scarce satisfied with their spoil. O that the guilty should thus dare to domi • re over the innocent; and hold himself more absolute lord over his beast, than 〈◊〉 thinks God over himself! He that shows no mercy to his beast, (which yet • not his creature, but bought with his money) teacheth God how to deal with 〈◊〉 , who is his creature, and bought with his Sons blood. The Prophets, when 〈◊〉 Lord hath been angry, and the plague heavy, and no excuse for the people's • quity; not knowing what to say for themselves, ashamed in their own name to • ve pardon: have put him in mind of the brute creatures. How do the beasts groan, 〈◊〉 . Not that God is more respective of beasts, than of men; Hath God care of Ox • But when men become bruiter than beasts, God will pity beasts sooner than • n. The penitent Ninevites imposed a fast upon their very flocks and herds with • mselves. Hath God care of beasts, or have beasts care of God? Are they not • hout religion, yea, without reason? O pardon repentance, a greater absurdity • n this! It was a glass to reflect their own estate: the bellowing of half fami • d cattle, puts them in mind how themselves ought to be starved. Such an use • s of the Levitical Sacrifices: to see them slain, their blood exhausted, their flesh • nt to ashes; might well strike them at heart with the survey of their own de • rits. It teacheth the young Lion obedience; when he sees the dog whom he loves 〈◊〉 plays withal, cudgel'd before him. When the Princes garment is beaten, he • ne conceives himself blame-worthy by that representation. The moan and • ery of the dumb thing schools us, as stripes on our garments, to tell us we have • ts in that bargain. That which wants reason is punished: that we who have rea • might be humbled. Bestialior quàm ipsa bestia est homo ration vigens, & non rati • vivens. We are little better than beasts, if we find no other use of beasts, than • erve our own riot: they may teach us as well as serve us: the looking-glass • n insensible thing, yet it reflects to a man his own form. This is the first • on.

It also informs us to moderate our affections, and not to surfeit on this world • ich we have made so corrupt by our sins. What creature is there, on which our • iety hath not stuck some blemish? what do we use, whereon we read not en • • ven the characters of our own obliquities? Our apparel is but the cover of our shame: by our bravest accoutrements, we may take measure of our delinqui •• ments. Adam was more glorious without raiment, than all his posterity can be 〈◊〉 it: neither can the glory we seek in our clothing, conceal or countervail the i • nominy that came by our sinning. For our meat, is not our life maintained by 〈◊〉 death of other creatures? Our preservation, by their destruction: sin brought 〈◊〉 necessity; without that no creature should have lost his life to become our fo •• This was not from the Creation, creatures were not made to this end. Innoce •• would have preserved all to a higher and more excellent use. We should have 〈◊〉 meat far sweeter; and such as should have cost no creature the life. Let my 〈◊〉 thus meditate; this creature dieth not for it self, but for me; not for it's own f ••• but mine: if I had my desert, I should rather die than it. Do we not read, our •• ming and sordid lusts in the infected air? Our blasphemies in the blemished Moo •• Glimmering Stars, and blushing Sun? Our oppressions in the harrowed and woe •• ded earth? Our impieties in the groaning of all creatures? If a rich man sho ••• heap all his wealth together, and then set his house on fire; hath he cause of joy 〈◊〉 see this? There is an ataxie and disorder in all the world wrought by our sins: 〈◊〉 trees must fall under the wounding axe, the bowels of the earth be rent, to buil ••• a dwelling: and shall not this move us? Can we glory in our shame? with that i • sulting Monarch, This is my Babel. We had a better mansion, once, without 〈◊〉 of this violence; Paradise. Thus as he that rifled the poor scholar, robbed ten me ••• once: he having borrowed of one his horse, of another his spurs, &c. O ••• when Aesop’s jay was stripped of her brave plumes, there were twenty birds undone, 〈◊〉 had lent her their feathers. So when death deprives man of his life, he finds ma •• creatures to have spent their bloods and beings towards his maintenance. Our co • fort be it, that our Patent is renewed in Christ; the second Adam regetting 〈◊〉 the former had lost. And he that was content to become a creature, and to proo •• his blood to us; thinks now no creature too deer for us. For his sake they 〈◊〉 our servants, let us become his servants: to us the use, to him the thanks and glory forever.

[Quest.] In the next place we are to examine, whether no other creatures escaped the •• luge, besides the fore-excepted. The waters prevailed, until all the high hills that 〈◊〉 under the whole heaven were covered. Yes, saith Cajetan, those under the airy heave • nay, saith Moses, under the whole heaven. Some have wrangled about the mo •• taines: as Athao in Macidonea, so high, that it casteth the shadow to Myri ••• town in Lemnos, eighty six miles off. Atlas is said to have a top higher than 〈◊〉 clouds: and Tabor, to rise up thirty furlongs: Caucasus to be lightened with 〈◊〉 Sun above, when daylight is shut in below. But Moses affirms expressly, that 〈◊〉 these high mountains were surmounted, and covered by the waters. Cajeta • e • cepts the mountain of Paradise from this inundation: but where doth he find 〈◊〉 Paradise was situate on a mountain? Out of Eden went a River to water the G •• den; but Rivers do not use to run upon hills. His vain fear was, lest then E ••• should have been drowned in the flood, whom he supposeth to be in Paradise. 〈◊〉 indeed Enoch was taken up into heaven, a higher Paradise; where no flood 〈◊〉 reach him.

Bellarmine thinks that all the mountains were not over flown, but only 〈◊〉 where the wicked dwelt. And Josephus reports a hill in Armenia, where all 〈◊〉 fled thither for succor, were saved from the deluge. But what speak we of f •• tasticall dreams, against evident scriptures? Thus the Hebrews fable, that Og 〈◊〉 King of Bashan, who lived till Moses his time, was one of those Giants before 〈◊〉 flood. When I read in Pliny of a Giants body found in Crete, forty six Cub ••• length; I believe it, as I do the Ballad of Gargantua. The waters being fif ••• Cubites above the greatest mountains, those Giants must needs be of incre ••• height, that escaped.

But then say they, the flood seemed to ascend unto the middle region of 〈◊〉 a • re: for it was so many cubits higher than the mountains, and some mountain tops • scend to the middle region, yea above the clouds. As Olympus, which Zinagoras by • athematicall instruments found to be ten stadia high: insomuch that the ashes re • aining of the sacrifices, are neither dispersed by the wind, nor dissolved by the • ine. So the waters should seem to rise higher, than the place where the rain is 〈◊〉 gendred. Answ. The report of Olympus is found to be untrue, by the testimony • f Philadelphius, who went up the hill on purpose to make experiment. Besides, no • ill is above four miles in height: and the middle region is at least 50 miles from •• e earth. Again, diverse inhabited those places, who are said to live half as long • gain as other men. This shown it to be a wholesome scite for air, which could • ot be the middle region, full of clouds and foggy mists.

The Conclusion then goes strong for the universality: a whole world perished, •• ve only what the Ark preserved. The day of vengeance is come, the guests are •• stred their wooden castle, the door of the Ark shut, and the windows of heaven • pened. Now those deriders, seeing the violence of the waters; some rising up, •• her coming down, both joining their forces to drown the earth: come wa ••• ng middle-deep; and bitterly crying out for safety in that vessel floating, which •• ey had flowted in making. But now they are justly rejected, and find no room in • ods mercy, whose word could find no room in their hearts. Others hope to •• x-run the destruction; and being clambred up to the tops of the highest mountains, •• ey look down upon the waters with some transient flattery of hope. Still the • aters rise, and their hills appear to them like floating Islands: they give many a •• oke when the heavens will clear up; and those bottles of rain be exhausted. O • ow would one hours Sun-shine have cheered their hearts! And yet suppose it • old cease spouting down, where was the provision which should keep life and •• ule together; till the channels of the sea, veins and hollow ventricles of the earth, • old suck up that inundation? The beasts & fowls hovering in those mountains, • ere rather ready to prey upon their carcases, than become their food: hunger will • ache those devourers of men, which before yielded to be devoured by men. There • ere Wolves howling, Dogs barking, Lions roaring, Owls screeching, Cranes • attering, Serpents hissing; men, women, children crying; all in one forlorn place.

Still their death comes nearer, and overtakes the refuges of their confidence. • hen from the drowning hills they clime up to the highest trees, and there with •• lenesse and horror behold their threatening death which they would strive to avoid, •• d know they cannot. From the tops of all they descry afar off the Ark floating 〈◊〉 the waves: and now look on that with envy, which they formerly beheld with • orne: cursing their impenitent hearts, which God must needs kill ere he could • aken.

But in vain they flee, whom God pursues: there is no mountain so high but 〈◊〉 hand can reach it: no depth so low, but his eye sees it, and power rules it. There 〈◊〉 no way to scape him, but by coming to him. Fugimus à manu vindictae, cùm • urrimus ad manum misericordiae. At last their destruction surpriseth them, poor • iserable creatures, half dead with fear and hunger, and now wholly dead with • ater. Loe here the full conquest of Justice, and the whole world overwhelmed • ith an universal ruin. God hath fetched back again all that life, which he had •• ven to his unworthy creatures: and the world was reduced to that form wherein it •• od in the third day of the Creation; Waters being over the face of the whole earth.

Let this • ontemplation be useful to us: the season of repentance is before •• e beginning of vengeance: but if Judgment be gone out, men cry too late. While •• e Gospel moves us, the doors of the Ark are open: if we now neglect it, we •• y seek it with tears, and not find it. Mercy to impenitence, would be injury 〈◊〉 Justice. Let every soul take this very time to redeem the time: for he is so fu ••• ive, that he will not tarry the pleading of his own cause.

Lastly, we are to examine, [Quest. 3] how in all this the righteousness of God may be justified. What, all the world? might it not have been satisfied with a family, a • the monstrous children of Lamech? Or with a City, as Sodom? Or with a Co •• trey, as Canaan? Or with a fourth part of the world, as Europe? but all? Because a man's garden, that hath been fruitful, is ove • •• n with cankers; will he therefo •• destroy it? Doth not God threaten only the Barren Tree, such a one as cumbers 〈◊〉 ground: not the whole vineyard. The husbandman feels not all his green and •• ripe corn, because some weeds are grown up in it: yea Christ himself forbid ••• with a Sinite crescere. Nor because a man's servants have abused his house, and le ••• sluttishly noisome, will he therefore strait pull it down: but rather see it cle ••• and air'd, the rubbish swept out, and the uncleanness washed away. The Lord 〈◊〉 no more here; he punisheth the defilers with due destruction, washeth and scour •• this great house of the world, but then lets it stand: he makes it clean, he doth 〈◊〉 make it nothing. But to clear this point, two subordinate questions must 〈◊〉 scanned.

1 Whether all that were temporally destroyed, also everlastingly perished. 〈◊〉 so, then Abraham could object, Far be it from thee to destroy the righteous 〈◊〉 the wicked: shall not the Judge of all the earth do right? Shall Infants and innoce ••• share in the same confusion with obstinates? 1 Some say, that all were tempor ••• punished, that they might be eternally saved: as S ^t Jerome of the Sodomites, 〈…〉 received in this life their full punishments. But if Rreprobates might scape thus, 〈◊〉 would not be so full. 2 Some extenuate their sin, as Cajetan; that they were 〈◊〉 wholly void of faith, but believed not Noah in this particular. But it is not saf • 〈◊〉 man to extenuate, what the Lord does aggravate: that the whole earth was 〈◊〉 with violence, and all flesh had corrupted his way. They were not only full of inc •• dulity, but foul with all manner of impiety. 3 Others say, that they were conde • ned to hell, yet redeemed thence by Christ's descension: who Went and preach ••• the spirits in prison, which were disobedient in the days of Noah. Thus the Pontif •• ans have conceited, that Plato at Christ's Preaching in hell, believed; and was 〈◊〉 many others, delivered: as the soul of Falconilla, by the prayers of S ^t Tecl • , 〈◊〉 Traians at the intercession of Gregory. But these imaginations cross God's denominations, who hath interposed a great gulf: their worm never dieth, and o •• 〈◊〉 hell there is no redemption. 4 Others, that they were not cast into hell, but ma •• of them into Purgatory, and from thence delivered by Christ's descending. B •• answer both these errors, so falsely grounded on the Apostles words. 〈◊〉 quickened in spirit, he went &c. Christ's soul could not be said to be quickened, for 〈◊〉 soul never died: therefore by his soul he did not preach either in hell or Purgatory. Christ hath two spirits; one as man, another as God: so the holy Ghost 〈◊〉 called the spirit of Christ. But the spirit here is properly neither of these, but 〈◊〉 Divine power: by which he preached in Noah, in all the Prophets before him, 〈◊〉 the Apostles after him. But if it be not meant of Purgatory, what is then this P •• son? Augustine says, this prison was the Body: and the men were called spi ••• from the better part; men's cujusque, is est quisque: but we seldom find living 〈◊〉 called Spirits. Montanus says, this Prison was the Ark; but then there had be •• in the prison too few spirits, for in the Ark were but eight. Some will have 〈◊〉 prison to be Ignorance, according to that Prophecy of Christ; that he was 〈◊〉 preach Liberties to the Captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are 〈◊〉 But to those Christ could not be said to preach in spirit, but in Person. Some 〈◊〉 have this prison, the Grave: but then souls should lie in graves by that consequ ••• Others, to be hell: and that is indeed a prison, without light, without liberty, 〈◊〉 out comfort. Let us keep ourselves free men, and beware of multiplying our del ••• that we be never cast into this prison. But certainly there is no Preaching in 〈◊〉 because there is no repenting in hell. Shall thy loving kindness be declared in hell 〈◊〉 To conclude, the Scripture never called the receptacle of believing souls a pri ••• to think therefore, that first they were condemned, and afterward redeemed, i • point of contradiction. The same Christ that came in his flesh, and preached the • ospell to the world; came to them in the days of Noah by his Spirit, and in •• ah preached repentance to those unbelievers: who because they repented not, but •• ntinued in disobedience, are now damned spirits in hell. This I take to be the true •• se and orthodox exposition.

Charity may seem to except from everlasting ruin, Innocents and Ignorants. •• nocents, as Infants, that were not capable of faith and repentance. Ignorants such 〈◊〉 did not here of the forewarned vengeance. The one could not believe for want 〈◊〉 discretion: the other, not be called unbelievers if they had no premonition: on •• ese our charity hopes there was mercy. In the first judgment, when the Angels •• l: in the last judgment, when Christ shall come; only the elect shall be saved, •• d only the Reprobate condemned. In this middle and intervenient judgment, •• c soli electi conservantur, nec soli reprobi suffocantur: some were preserved, that were •• t elected, as Cham, cursed of his father: so we think, some were drowned, which 〈◊〉 were saved. Our probable reasons ten.

1 It is not likely that the whole posterity of Methushalem and Enoch, and of •• er holy Patriarchs, were condemned: for the Lord hath promised to be good to 〈◊〉 children for their Fathers sakes.

Howsoever they believed not Noah at the first, but thought him a fantastical fell •• w: yet when they saw the event answering his prediction, and death climbing up to •• eir latest refuges; their souls might be humbled to repentance. Many having learned •• t godliness in on dais misery, which many years prosperity could not teach them.

• The Apostle resembles Baptism to the Ark but as all dying without Baptism, 〈◊〉 not damned, so neither all that were without the Ark, eternally perished. They •• ght be drowned in the deluge on earth, yet escape the abyss of hell.

4 If God had meant to destroy their souls with the confusion of their bodies, he •• uld not so have lingered the execution. It was Fourty days a coming, whereas • od could have dspatched it in four hours: that by degrees their hearts might be •• tned with sorrows, as the earth was soaked with waters.

But if they repented, why is it not recorded in Scripture? So neither is Adams •• pentance, nor Solomon's: it expressly says they sinned, not expressly they re •• ted: though of their repentance their is no question to be made. But it is con •• led to deter us from the like rebellion, least it become so doubtful of our con ••• sion. But if they did repent, why then were they not saved from the deluge? Be •• use they repented not in time, at Noah's preaching. Repentance is never too late to ••• e the soul, but it may be too late to deliver the body.

Let us repent betimes, before the Judgment come: for if it be once come, we ••• y save our souls, but our bodies must perish. They that were even a kin to •• ah, because they repented not at the preaching of Noah, could not be saved with •• ah: but losing this opportunity, they too late wish themselves in the Ark: all ••• mercy shall never be denied to true repentance, yet speed well their souls, they •• st lose their lives. When the Lord strikes a City with his Pestilence, many sin ••• s begin then to relent, and bleed in contrition for their offenses: this shall happily •• liver them from hell and the wrath of God: yet this exempts them not from death 〈◊〉 that plague. Men commonly fear God's temporal blows, more than his eter ••• l: yet of both they neglect the antidote and prevention. This will make him •• ke, if not home. A wise man will not be drunk, if only for the head-ache: nor a • od man sin, if only to avoid the heart-ache. If we have not repented so early, but 〈◊〉 he will punish us: yet let us not repent so late, but that he may save us.

2 How was this just, to punish the Infants and Innocents for the sins of their ••• ents? Doth not God say, The son shall not bear the iniquity of the father? •• th not he not make this to the enraged Prophet, an argument of sparing Nineveh; 〈◊〉 many thousand little ones, That cannot discern between their right hand and •• r left? That cannot speak, cannot help themselves; that stick to their mothers breasts, as apples to the tree; if you pluck them away, they perish. Is this 〈◊〉 babes welcome into the world, the milk to feed them; when they cry, to quiet the • with death? Is this the nursing of their tender and ungrowen limbs, to wrap the • up in waves of swaddling clouts, and to rock them asleep with pitilesse destruction? Whose ears can endure the lamentable and confused cry of so many infants, 〈◊〉 not cry for company? The Midwives of Egypt had more mercy; Ph ••••• daughter was moved to take up weeping Moses. It is the property of a cruel Na •• on, Not to show favor to the little ones. When the Prophet foretold Hazael of 〈◊〉 cruelty, in dashing infants against the stones; he asked, if he thought him a D ••• so brutish he held such a villain: men have more years and sins, but what 〈◊〉 infants done? The Scripture hath many circumlocutions of their ignorance 〈◊〉 simplicity. God gave a special charge concerning them, in the bloodiest vic ••• y of war, unless for some nations which he had accursed. Christ took them 〈◊〉 his arms, blessed them, and placed one in the midst; proposing them as pa ••• for the imitation of riper years. Whose eyes can behold the shrinking of their 〈◊〉 members at every pull of grief, their limbs sprawling on the ground, their 〈◊〉 scorched with heat, as a scroll of parchment, or sinking on the waters, without per •

Thus justly concerning little ones, doth God expostulate with men, but 〈◊〉 may not thus expostulate with God: for to him alone they are not innocent. Ma • rule is to punish him only that offends; and not to put the children to death for 〈◊〉 fathers. Yet so far as afflictions go untouching life, children oft suffer for th • parents; being deprived of liberty, goods, honors; as in cases of treason. T • Lord threatens to visit the sins of the fathers upon the children, even unto 〈◊〉 fourth generation. So long, that (by the course of nature) their parents may li ••• see their wickedness plagued in their posterity: yet if the son repent, the s •• God hath promised that he shall scape. And howsoever this judgment be not •• ways verified, yet it is enough to terrify us all. But it never misseth, where the parents sins are become the children's by imitation. They are then called their Fathers sins; because they were by their age the Founders, by their example 〈◊〉 Teachers, and in their own persons the beginners of those sins. As it is come ••• lie said; We may know what house such come of, by some tricks of their Ancestors.

Jew and Gentile have excepted against the Divine Justice for this. Bio • took on against the gods, that the parents demerits were devolved and translated upo • the progeny: which he scornfully matched, as if a Physician for the fathers 〈◊〉 ease should minister physic to the son. The Jews had such an ungracious proverb; The fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children's teeth are set on 〈◊〉 But the Lord answers them, Plead with your mother: for the husband may ••• fully put away his prostituted wife, and her adulterous brood, because they are 〈◊〉 of his children? All souls are mine, the soul of the father, and the soul of the son mine. If it were as Horace sung to his friend; Delicta majorem immeritus l •• : 〈◊〉 who can say, My heart is clean? Is it possible to be borne Morians, and to have 〈◊〉 of their tawny and swarthy complexions? Again, is it not just with God to p •• our fond indulgence, in the very object of our idolatry? We hope these you • plants shall succor us with their fruits, when we are grown sapless: but doth a • the staff we so nourish to bear us, become often a cudgel to beat us? Devil •• sed the wicked both ways; in their Descent, Let his children be vagabonds, and 〈◊〉 their bread in desolate places. In their Ascent, Let the iniquity of his father be 〈◊〉 remembrance, and let not the sin of his mother be blotted out. We have seen 〈◊〉 blood of the Church exhausted by sacrilegious parents, required at the hands 〈◊〉 their posterity with ruin: God so cursing their generations, that we might read 〈◊〉 nature and quality of the sin, in the visible characters of the punishments. T •• whole world was so foul, that the very fruit of their bodies (without contrac •• of actual sins) seemed odious to God: and in his Justice he punished those innoce • babes with a death temporal, whom he migh yet deliver from the wrath 〈◊〉

But some haply were not so heinous transgressors, but would have belee •• d had they been informed; Why should they suffer? They had all sin enough 〈◊〉 drown them in one deep, if some found the mercy to save them from the other •• epe. God doth not punish many for the sins of some; but all men are sinners. • lthough one be not principal in respect of the fact presently inquired; as David • as in numbering the people: yet none fall but for their own offending. He may be •• cessary in consenting, or concealing: if he be neither principal nor accessory in • at, yet he may be culpable in a thousand others; secret, perhaps to men, but • own to God. The Serpent hath a sting, though he doth not always put if forth: • d man hath malice, though he show it not.

Who then can say, I have paid the things that I never took? Jonah is the of •• der, the whole ship is in danger: but he that had not sinned with the Prophet, • d sinned in somewhat else. They had all offended at sundry times, what wrong • t if they were all whipped at once? Here is all the difference; their faults had se •• rall places, their punishment shall have but one. All Israel smarts with David, 〈◊〉 for David's, but their own disobedience. The Lord need not beat his brains, 〈◊〉 break his sleep, to invent an accusation against us. We have no thought, word, • orke, but yields him cause and matter enough. It cannot be denied, but the sins 〈◊〉 sever in our conceits, according to the distance of time or place; some of old, • me late; some in one quarter of the world, some in another: these the knowledge 〈◊〉 God unites, and views all at once. In France one hath followed incontinence; • ay not that Country-disease overtake him in England for it? A young man is a •• uptuous rioter, shall not his old-age rue it? Will any time or place exempt him •• m diseases incident to that sin? Thou art the same person still, unless repen •• ce have made thee new.

It is true that some are more noxious than others; as Bias said to a savage crew a dangerous storm, when they cried to their gods; Silete, ne vos hâc dii navigare • tiant; Do not speak so loud, lest the gods should hear you. Intimating them wicked, that is, was the hazard of a worse vengeance to have them taken notice 〈◊〉 But the best of all have sins enough; and Optimus ill est qui minimis urgetur; •• eeves are brought out of divers quarters, have trespassed at sundry times, come •• ed several offenses: yet are all imprisoned in one Jail, punished in one day, • nged upon one and the same tree. A company of men makes a body, and the •• ole body is punished for the fault of one member: The tongue talks treason, the •• ole man is plagued for it. In felony (which is Contrectatio rei alienae invito domi • animo furandi, as the Law defines it) the hand only takes, and bears away: but 〈◊〉 feet are clapt in iron, the belly pinched with famine, the bones lie hard, and the • ke is in danger. The eye may before, and a vein pricked in the arm to cure it. •• e hoof of the beast is tender and weak; the top of the horn anointed for re • dy. Besides, God hath several intentions in one Judgment. The principal he • gues, the same punishment shall teach a second obedience, try the patience of a •• d, prevent some grievous sin in a fourth, humble another, call home another to • ce and repentance. In all, he judgeth some, bettereth others, honoreth himself, 〈◊〉 gets glory to his blessed Name. But to conclude the generality of this ruin.

Universal sin brings universal punishment: Quot in culpa, tot in pana. If all 〈◊〉 be corrupted, all flesh must be destroyed. Find me one just man in the City, • h God, and I will spare it. How great had been this mercy, if there had not been • enerall apostasy? Sodom had been spared for ten, Jerusalem for one; and yet he • ght rather have looked for ten in Jerusalem, than for one in Sodom. By swearing, 〈◊〉 they break out, till blood toucheth blood: their sins were rounded into a ring, • room for piety to get in amongst them. Therefore the whole land shall mourn, 〈◊〉 everyone therein languish: universally wicked, universally punished. If the • d should make such a judicial scrutiny, and strict inquisition for sinners, as Ie • did for true worshippers, who could plead not guilty? Lactantius reports a prophecy of Sibylla; The Fishers hook shall take the Roman Empire. If they mean b • the Empire, all the souls in the Empire; I could wish that Saint Peters 〈…〉 caught and brought more to heaven than it hath. But if by Empire they 〈◊〉 the imperial dignity, titles, privileges, honors, and royal august • ity; I could 〈◊〉 for their own sakes (that now usurp that office) they had caught less tha • 〈◊〉 have. For when the Majesty of a Prince came in, the piety of a Priest went 〈◊〉 . But will you hear the Hook that hath caught them and all; the hook of covetousness, baited with riches. Doubtless there are some elect, otherwise the w •• could not stand: but major pars vincit meliorem, the greater part drowns the be •• part. Is the fear of God amongst men? Who would ask such a question? But if 〈◊〉 fear God; we will serve him: if we love him, we will obey him: Now the quest • grows bitterer & bitterer; from wormwood to gall. The devout man is even •• ted out of his holiness, and zeal counted an irregularity. Hypocrisy is the woe ••• apparel, malice his diet, pride his wife, greediness his dog: and thus he so ••• himself in a willful rebellion. We have all run into a Praemunire against our 〈◊〉 Sovereign, and deserve confiscation of all we have, of all we are.

But I am willing to leave this spittle of incurable sinners: for who can en •••• to look long upon ulcers? Therefore to touch at Methodum medendi: the way 〈◊〉 cure universal wickedness, is by universal repentance. We may perceive 〈◊〉 willing God is to save us: for all this while, Dum non cessavimus a scelere, Deus o • savit a verbere; We forbore not sinning, yet he forbore plaguing. None can be 〈◊〉 bad as God is good. Sin reigning in men is a tyrant, Satan's possessing them, woe •• Christ threw them out both. Man may be will to forgive a mite, the Lord a 〈◊〉 on: three hundred pence, and ten thousand talents, are all one to his mercy. Satan hopes well of our sins, but let Christ hope better of our repentance. Tent •• 〈◊〉 sustentat iste. Let us all disappoint Satan, and answer the gracious mercy of our Redeemer. He made us in the world, he made us not for the world, but choose us before the world, and came himself into the world, to call us out of the world, that 〈◊〉 might not perish with the world, but live after the world, in a blessed and glorious world, his own immortal kingdom in heaven. This for the universality, the 〈◊〉 the antiquity of it.

The old World.] Old? It rather seemed to be the young world, and this 〈◊〉 old: according to David's prophecy; They shall wax old as doth a garment. A 〈◊〉 of twenty is young: he of eighty, old. The world of a thousand years standing 〈◊〉 young in respect of the same world grown up to five thousand years. The more time upon the back, the more aged a thing is. That then seemed to be the woe •• infancy, this the veterity: that the non-age, this the dotage. The world then bro •• forth Giants; now in comparison, dwarfes: and it is the youth of a woman, 〈◊〉 makes her bear the goodlier children. In age The womb faileth, and brings 〈◊〉 of a less statute.

Old is like Ianus, and looks two ways: to the time longe praeteritum, and 〈◊〉 futurum; long since passed, and long hence to come. SO Olim among the La •• extends both to past and future times. That which hath been, is called Old; as 〈◊〉 old: that which shall be hereafter, is said in older days, Psa. 102. It is used 〈◊〉 ways verse 25. Of old thou hast laid the foundation of the earth; where old si ••• fies a thing done long ago, verse 26. They shall wax old like a garment; 〈◊〉 old is a quality hereafter to be fulfilled. If we take the World in respect of the • ter and structure of it; that was the young world, this is the old. If for the 〈◊〉 who are daily borne into it, that was the old world, this is the young. This is 〈◊〉 clear, as that the child is younger than the father. From those that were in the Ac • is the whole world of men descended: therefore it is so called the Old world. Wh •• gives us three observations.

1 That Antiquity, if found in impiety, is no privilege of impunity. Inde •• arguments of commendation are often derived from ancientness; and men 〈◊〉 love the things, wherewith time hath made them long acquainted. It come • endeth Rivers, as in Deborahs song; That ancient River, the River Kishon. It come • endeth Customs; Remove not the ancient land-mark, which thy fathers have set. It • ommendeth Friends; Thy own friend and thy fathers friend, forsake not; Forsake 〈◊〉 an old friend, for the new is not comparable to him. It commendeth Wine; No man •• ving drunk old wine desireth new: for he saith, the old is better. It commendeth an • heritance; The Lord forbid that I should give the inheritance of my fathers unto thee. 〈◊〉 commendeth Wisdom; Rehoboam forsook the counsel of the old men, and that •• ned to his ruin. Concilia Senum, hastae juvenum. It commendeth Truth, Id ve • quod prius. Seek out the wisdom of the ancient: and Enquire for the old way. 〈◊〉 commendeth service in the Field; as Clitus to Alexander; despisest thou the • ouldiers of thy father Philip? Hast thou forgotten, that unless this old Atharius • nd called back the young men refusing to fight, we had yet stuck at Halicarnassus.

Yet if Age be blended with naughtiness, the older the worse. An old Ri •• without water quencheth not our thirst. An old Custom without warrant of •• odnesse, is as authentical for practice, as an old tottered garment is for handsome • sse, or an old cough for wholesomenesse. An old friend, that hath lost his ho •• sty, is worse than an old picture that hath lost the color. Old wine no man come • ends; when it is turned to vinegar; let them take it that like it. An old house is no 〈◊〉 harbor, when it is ready to fall on the inhabiters head. An old man that hath • st his experience, is like a boulter: much good flower hath groan thorough it, but • ere is nothing left in it but branne. Days should speak, and multitude of years • uld teach wisdom, saith Elihu. But geat men are not always wise, neither do the aged •• derstand judgment. Gravity should speak first, but if it speak worst, better hold • e peace. Better is a poor and wise child, than an old and foolish King. Who will no • ore be admonished. If an old man speak lies with the same confidence, that known • ths; and so vehemently praise former customs, that are ridiculous; and teach • e younger as scornfully, as he would do a dog to fetch; here age hath lost the • edite. The hoary head is only then A crown of glory, when it is found in the • ay of Righteousness.

Custom is a second nature, an Old habit is not easily forgotten. Natura non • itur repentinas mutationes, say Physicians: nature endures no sudden alterations. • herefore for a man Consenescere cum vitiis, to grow old with his errors, is to be • ad to all virtues. And he will find it as hard to become good, as to reenter the • ombe, and be new borne. And Old Dog bites sore, an Old ulcer is hardly cured, • d an old vice within a degree of impossible to be amended. Age therefore hath no • viledge; look back upon Shiloh saith God. Shilohs antiquity could not coun • ance Shilohs iniquity. Indeed with us, gray hairs require reverence, though • xed with some infirmities; Thou shalt honor the face of the old man, and fear thy • d. And they are wretched days, when Puer tumul tuabitur in senem; the child • ll behave himself proudly against the ancient. Yet no wounder, if the children de • e the parents; when the parents despise God. That world might say to the Lord, Esau to Isaac; I am thy first borne. Aetate primus, impietate summus. Like a tree • rew crooked from the first planting, no art could straiten it, therefore the axe • st hew it down. But whether we the younger children, or that world the eldest, 〈◊〉 and Lamech the first borne; all have sinned, and all must have perished, but for 〈◊〉 sufferings of the first begotten of God.

2 In this glass we may behold the state of the world before us. Even the for • times abounded with sins: they had their aberrations and delirements as well • e. It is the fashion of people to admire former days. Laudamus veteres, What • e cause that the former days were better than these? But Solomon taxeth that en • y of folly. Because we feel not our forefathers evils, therefore we think they 〈◊〉 no evils at all The deluge of Popery in this land is still commended by divers • me-affected, Rome-infected spirits. Why? O then men lived neighborly together, without quarrels and suits of contention. Did they so, and is the Gospel the cause why men do not so now? Is it not the Gospel of peace, teaching us to love others as ourselves? Shall men be litigious furies, and lay the fault on God • mercies? Hath the Lord opened our eyes for no other purpose, but to see to sc ••• and wound one another? But then were men merry and jovial, and not tro • bled with melancholy cares? If they rejoiced in Dolio, non in Domino, in their riches and not in their graces; it was a mirth for the Devil. If it were in the Lord, 〈◊〉 the Gospel sad us? The Statutes of the Lord rejoice the heart. Is any mirth like the meditation of our peace made by Christ? Cannot we answer the join •• world (as the grave Musician being called into company, that sang wanton ca ••• , and expostulated why he did not bear his part) I am as merry as they that s ••• 〈◊〉 is God that puts more gladness in our hearts, than all their abundance can fill 〈◊〉 withal. Shall men bait of their mirth, because God is near them in his favor? Or a man be afraid to walk abroad, because it is fair weather?

Pleasure is not gone, when sin is gone: it is not Isaac which is sacrificed, th • is, our Laughter and mirth; but the Ram, that is, the brutishness of it. Yea, • there let us count it our chiefest delight, that we have lost our former delight. Because our forefathers sat uncontrollably at the Pot; and had Priests without 〈◊〉 virtue, than to take up differences at the Ale-house; were those the better ti ••• But then, say they, was more plenty of all things, to demonstrate that God loved 〈◊〉 Corn was cheap, and men were charitable, they kept good houses: and well s •• the Religion that made us fare so well. Deo gratias, qui nos satias, &c. As if God had no better blessings in store for us, than Acorns. This was the argument of t • apostate Jews, We had plenty of victuals, and were well, when we burnt in •••• the Queen of heaven: But since we ceased that sacrifice, we have wanted all things. Part of their reasons strength they fetch from Antiquity, Thus did our Fathers: 〈◊〉 from their own prosperity, Thus sped we. But how easily doth the Prophet 〈◊〉 and dissolve this ridiculous Sophistry! Therefore, for this cause, is your Land a •• lation, and a curse without an inhabitant. Did this bring you a blessing? No, 〈◊〉 a curse and ruin. Our Fathers bestowed their Cakes on the Queen of Hea •• , but did not the King of Heaven plague them for it? Say he fed their bodies w •• Quails, did he not put leanness into their souls? Shall we call Nabal's Sheep- •• ring a blessing? All their superstitious peace was no better than the very Revels of Bacchus, and an holy-day to the Devil. Shall we seek Christ no further than amo •• the Loaves? JESUS was in the ship, yet Panem non habemus, We h ••• bread: JESUS was at the Marriage, yet Vinum non habemus, We want wine. W • may want bread and wine, and yet have Christ's company. If food fail, it 〈◊〉 because Manna is to come. If Wine be absent, yet Grace and Salvation is pre • If God take away Flesh, and give Manna: deny Sun and Moon, and give H • self, he does us no wrong. As the Israelites repined for a King, when the L • was their King: so our Ancestors refused Christ for their Head, and chose 〈◊〉 Pope. But God answered, Dedi in furore, I gave them an Head in mine 〈◊〉 He fulfilled on them what was written; this Head took away their fields and v • yards, and gave them to his servants, Monks and Friers: he took away the 〈◊〉 of their sheep and seed, and put their goodliest young men to his work; and made t • all his Servants: that they were forced to cry out, because of their King which they 〈◊〉 chosen. Such have they found their Romish Heads; that like ill Physicians, 〈◊〉 purged away the good humors, and left the bad behind them.

Loe now the praise of Antiquity, when it hath swerved from the rule of Piety • Where is now the validity of that Pontifician argument, concerning the ancien •• of their Church? This plea might the Jews still make; We are the sons of • ham: but Christ told them of another Father. As much say the Turks, We 〈◊〉 the sons of Abraham by Sara, so called Saracens: but they were none of 〈◊〉 sons. It hath been un-answerably proved, that the fundamental Heads of 〈◊〉 present Romish faith, had their several births; some two hundred, some four hun • red, some eight hundred, some a thousand, some a thousand and four hundred • ears after Christ. But say they were old; yet wanting the warrant of sacred • ruth, they are no better an argument of purity, than the old world was of innocen • e. Consuetudo longa sine veritate, vetustas erroris est: Truth is not to be rejected, • or mere novelty: for old truths may come newly to light, and God is not tied to • is times for the gift of illumination. Yet is this the foundation, whereon they rear • eight Babel, their Bable; whose top must reach up to the firmament, and command • f Earth only, but Heaven it self: and thus they mean Celebrare nomen suum, ne • ssipentur: The world was good when God framed it, must it therefore be good • hen he drowned it? Isaac was strong when he married Rebecca, must he therefore • taine the same corporal strength when he blessed Jacob? The Cathedral Church • f Saint Paul two hundred years ago, might haply be in good case, may it not • erefore now want reparation? The Church of Rome was pure when Paul plan • d it; must it now be so when Antichrist hath corrupted it? Shew us the same in • grity that Rome then had, and we are of the same faith that Rome then was. O • erwise, not how old a thing is, but how good it is, should be the enquiry of Chri • tians. The Old man is corrupted and lost; he must become New that will • e saved.

3 If that was an Old world, how old is it now? Have not the accession of so ma • hundred years made it somewhat weaker? Yes, Rerum atque hominum nunc sunt • crementa: The world is sick at the heart; not only in some superfluities, as warts • d swellings, but in the integral and essential parts. The Air like a prodigious • other, produceth strange and abortive births. She was lately delivered of a bur • ng child, a portentfull Comet: which divers have took the altitude of, but God • ely knows what it meant. The Springs, instead of nourishing the young Plants, • ove sepulchers to bury them. Nature is so preposterous, as if her brains were • n'd, and she knew not what she did. But the God of Nature knows, and tells us 〈◊〉 these tokens, that the world is old. As a tree, it was green in the Spring, yellow Summer, white in the Autumn, is now stark and cold in the Winter of his age. 〈◊〉 man which is the little world, so the world which is a great man, had his Infan • , Youth, Middle-age, Old-age. From Adam to Noah was the worlds Infancie: •• m Noah to Abraham, the Childhood: from Abraham to David, the Youth: from • vid to the Captivitie, the Middle-age: from that to Christ, the Old-age: from 〈◊〉 , to the end of all things, the Dotage.

God hath made man's life shorter, that his sins might be fewer. From nine • ndred, it is fallen to seventy; and how few see half those! Methushalem lived 〈◊〉 one day to God; he saw not a thousand years, which with God is as one day: 〈◊〉 we scarce live one hour in respect of his day. Of nine hundred and sixty, our • htie is but as the twelfth part. If a man live to the tenth part of Methushalems age, • is a child again, when the light is sent to his windows, and the glasses there • mbred cannot receive it: when the hollow receptacles of sounds are shut up: 〈◊〉 the faltring discourse is interrupted with harsh parentheses, coughes: We are • w old in as short time, as they were scarce past children: We are but of yesterday. • d as our lives are abridged from a fathom to a span, so are our bodies contracted. • en the age was long, the proportion was great: that a man could grapple with a • ge beast on some terms of equality: as Sampson coped with a Lion, David with • are, and came off with victory. These were bred in the worlds prime and youth • esse; we now in the withered and decrepit age. We are scarce the shadows of • forefathers, whether in length or strength of life, whether in stature or force • ature. We are not sooner grown up to be men, but straight we are none; death • es so quick a riddance of us, as it will do of all things. The worlds stomach • g old, is weak of retention; and the crudities of sin are so hard of digestion, 〈◊〉 the vessel must soon be broken. Magistrates are the arms of the world, Counsellers the brains, Lawyers the tongues, the Rich the stomachs, the poor the backs, Merchants the feet, Officers the hands, and Divines the hearts. Now there is a general corruption in all these, (Let it not be understood de singulis g ••• rum, sed de generibus singulorum; not all of every kind, but every kind of all) this epidemical distemper witnesseth it is Old, and near the dissolution.

Now the greater the corruption, the vaster the destruction. Some think the the Igneum diluvium, fiery deluge shall descend no higher than did the watery; It may be the earth shall be burned; that is the worst guest at the table, the common sewer of all other creatures: but shall Calum transire, the heavens pass away? It may be Coelum aëreum, the airy heaven; but shall Sydereum, stellatum, the starry heaven, whe •• God hath printed such figures of his glory? yes, Coelum, elementum, Terra, when Ig •• ubique ferox ruptis regnabit habenis. The former deluge is called the worlds wi •• , the next the worlds summer. The one was frigido elemento, with a cold and 〈◊〉 element: the other shall be calido, with an element hot and dry. But what then 〈◊〉 become of the Saints? they shall be delivered out of all; walking like those that servants in the midst of that great furnace, the burning world, and not be scorc ••• , because there is one among them, to deliver them, The Son of God, their R • d • mer. But shall all quite perish? no, there is rather a mutation, than an aboli ••• of their substance. Thou shalt change them, and they shall be changed: changed, 〈◊〉 abolished. Transit mundus & concupiscentia egus; the concupiscence shall pass, nor the essence: Figura non natura. In the altering of an old garment, we destroy it not, 〈◊〉 trim it, refresh it, and make it seem new. They pass, they do not perish: 〈◊〉 dross is purged, the metal stays. The corrupt quality shall be renewed, 〈◊〉 all things restored to that original beauty wherein they were created. The 〈◊〉 all things is at hand: an end of us, an end of our days, an end of our ways, an 〈◊〉 of our thoughts. Qui ab universalitate te excipit, te decipit. If a man could say 〈◊〉 Job's messenger, Ego solus aufugi, I alone am escaped, it were somewhat; or might find an Ark with Noah. But there is no Ark to defend from that heat, but 〈◊〉 the bosom of Jesus Christ. I have seen an end of all perfection: if perfection 〈◊〉 earth have an end, imperfection cannot long continue. una dies dabit exitum, e ••• . There shall be an end of our eating, an end of our building, an end of our cove •• scraping, an end of our works, and end of ourselves, but no end of our souls: an • if we be found in the faith, no end of our blessedness, for then begins a w • without end. Of these three observations, I desire to make three application.

1 Let us turn good with all the speed we can, for how far off soever the ge •• rall end may be, our particular, end is near. I know that long life was God's •• mise to his servants: but when long life ceaseth to be prosperous, it ceaseth to 〈◊〉 his promise. He shortens our life. 1 That we be not afflicted with evils; the right • are prevented of the evil to come. 2 That we be not infected with evils, cor ••• by the times, as Joseph was caught with the Egyptian oath. 3 Their me • lives though they die: Discessus volito viva per ora virûm. If the good name • preserved, a man is alive though he be dead. 4 If God take away temporal, 〈◊〉 gives eternal life for it, there is no hurt done us. He that promised ten piec • silver, and gives ten pieces of gold, breaks no promise. When Herod pro • half his kingdom, if he had given it all, he had broke no promise. God's pro ••• shall stand, when the mines of India shall fail. All men's lives are short, why 〈◊〉 I think mine long? Our end is near, our days be fulfilled, for our end is come.

O then let not the end of our days, and the strength of our sins, come 〈◊〉 together. It is said of S ^t Chrysostom, that Nihil finivit praeter peccatum, he ma •• 〈◊〉 end of nothing but of sin. Let it not be said of us, Omnia finivimus praeter pecca •• that we have put an end to all things except our sins. A man hath be • build, he would fain end: begun to travel, he would fain come to 〈◊〉 joureneys end: Commenced a suite, he desires an end. Before all, let us 〈◊〉 to end our sins: if we end them by repentance, though the end of our lives 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 end of our other businesses, we shall never find cause of sorrow. It is a saying Schools, Ex malis praemissis sequitur non bona conclusio: From evil seeds come • ll plants. The body is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory. If we would reap a • rious body, let us sow a gracious body. Let us not be of their number, Quorum 〈◊〉 est interitus: Whose end is a destruction without end. Let repentance make an 〈◊〉 of our sins, before death make an end of our days; and then our end is not • perly an end, but a better beginning. Seeing the world must be changed, let us 〈◊〉 have corrupted it, first change ourselves. If fire must purge the elements, let us that celestial fire of the Spirit to purge us. That when all the dross and fecu •• ie of the world shall be on a light fire, we may be found pure, and presented • re at the appearing of JESUS CHRIST.

2 As this teacheth all this old world, so it specially directs it self to all that be • n the world. I know that age is subject to infirmities, and hath endangered 〈◊〉 Saints to a relapse. If all must once err, error falls less unhappily in youth, 〈◊〉 image. Covetousness, pettishnesse, sluggishness, pride, are incident to old • res. This David knew, when he prayed so earnestly; Cast me not off in the time • ld-age, forsake me not when I am gray-headed. Some strive to keep themselves • n any need of that prayer; either by artificial tinctures, dying their hairs into • er colors. So though they cannot make white black, yet they can make it ap • re black. They study Colorare capillos mendacio, as a Father speaks. Or by • d and wanton lusts they prevent the baldness of age, and leave themselves not so • ch as one hair of an honest man.

Apostasy in old-age is fearful: He that climbs almost to the top of a Tower, 〈◊〉 slipping back, hath the greater fall. The patient almost recovered, is more • dly sick by a relapse. There were Stars struck from Heaven by the Dragons 〈◊〉 ; they had better never have pearched so high. The place where the Israelites 〈◊〉 into that great folly with the daughters of Moab, was in the Plain, within the • spect of the holy Land: they saw their Inheritance, and yet fell short of it. So • tched is it for old men to fall, near to their very entry of heaven. As old Eli • is Indulgence; old Judah in his Incest; old David with Bethshabe; old Asa • ting in the Physicians more than in God; and old Solomon built the High-places. • e have walked like Cherubs in the midst of the stones of fire, yet been cast as • hane out of God's mountain. Thus the Seaman passeth all the Maine, and suffers • cke in the Haven. The corn often promiseth a plenteous Harvest in the blade, shrinks in the ear. You have trees loaden with blossoms, yet in the season of • ectation, no fruit. A Comedy that holds well many Scenes, and goes lamely • in the last Act, finds no applause. Remember Lots wife: think on that pillar • alt, that it may season thee.

Old-age is best in three respects: 1. Because it hath past the follies and disor • of youth, which Job calls bitter things to the memory. 2. Because the in • veniences of it, albeit numerous, are but corporal: commonly bettered with good estate of the mind. 3. Because it is nearest to dissolution; within a short 〈◊〉 of blessedness. Yet of all, it is then most miserable, when it desires to spin out • ger thread. When it is far from Elias mind, Let me die, Non sum meltor pa •• meis; I am no better than my Fathers. There is nothing more pitiable, than • ld man that for his pleasure-sake would be young again. We can scarce say of 〈◊〉 an one, that he hath been a man in his days. Art thou young? look for • d, propound goodness to thy life. Art thou old? look backward, be sorrow • • or sins past. Art thou middle-aged? look both forward and backward: • nt the past, amend the present, be armed for the future.

Let the life of man be distinguished into three ages, the last is fully in proof, good or never. First, all is in hope: a woman hath an Embrion in her womb, • it be borne living? she hopes so. It hath life, will it have proportion? she • s so. It hath proportion, will it have the exercise of reason and understanding? she hopes so. In process of growing, reason appears, will he have grace and f •• she hopes so. He professeth, is his profession sound at the heart? she hopes so. H •• hath all these, will he live long? she hopes so: all is in hope. Now middle 〈◊〉 half in proof, and half in hope: in proof, how good it is; in hope, how much better it may be. Old-age is all in proof, it is then seen what good a man 〈◊〉 what interest in heaven, what contempt of the world is in him. Let us bew •• • tergiversation in our old-age. Ye did run well, who did hinder you? Let our • pha and Omega be good, our first and last alike gracious: that we may comes with 〈◊〉 to him, who is Alpha, and Omega, first and last, the beginning and end of all co ••• JESUS CHRIST.

3 Let the terror of this parallel destruction humble us all. Lord, what a • rible day will it be, when Christ shall appear in the clouds, all the world rise 〈◊〉 their graves, and the whole heaven and earth burning with flames! If ever 〈◊〉 could sample it with a day, it was the intended Gunpowder-treason day. Gu •••• der invented by a Monk, taught by the Devil, that great master of Fire-woe • It hath been said, that Africa brings forth every year a new Monster: it 〈◊〉 brought forth such a one as this, to which nihil nisi nomina desunt. Herod slew 〈◊〉 the children of Bethlehem, yet there was some mercy in that, for the men esc • Haman's plot was damnable enough, even the ruin of Israel; yet they had a mou • day of preparation. But this was worse, with suddenness it would have prev • Doomesday, and sent up bodies before the Resurrection. It was cross to all 〈◊〉 kinds of death: that at other times sends the soul upwards, the body downw •• this would have sent the soul downward, and the body upward. Let the m •• of it live to their shame and our thankfulness. Shame, said I? Alas, they mak • their glory! O but the Papists condemn it, and call the plotters Vnfortunate • tlemen. Vnfortunate, because the fortune did not succeed as they would have i • . 〈◊〉 is the success they blame, not the villainy. But the Papal Chair never app •• it: and who can say the Papal Chair ever disliked it? The actors are see •• e, 〈◊〉 ever the Poet lies hid: and the Pope hath not to this day Iudicially condemn ••• Powder-treason. It should have been a dead day, let it be a Red day in or K • lendar. Their rage was without measure, so let our thankfulness be without end.

That was a little Image or figure of the general fiery Deluge to come. If the • rour of the former be able to shake us with the remembrance? thinking how 〈◊〉 it had been, by a sudden blast to have our souls sent upward with our bodies; 〈◊〉 perhaps both to come down again with the weight of unrepented sins: 〈◊〉 then was no thought or time to retract. How should the meditation of this 〈◊〉 make us tremble; which as it shall be more sudden for the time, so more univer • for the ruin. Shall we still slumber in our old security? The Apostles said of • zarus, Lord, if he sleep he shall do well: but Lord, if we sleep we shall do 〈◊〉 ill. Worldly men are like Nicodemus; they would fain come to Christ, but 〈◊〉 are loath to go till it be Night; that is, till death sends them. But, Poenitent •• 〈◊〉 moriene petitur, timeo ne ipsa moriatur: The repentance that is wrung out by death 〈◊〉 may fear it will be dead sooner than he that lies sick. Now, now let us break of 〈◊〉 sins, by the contrition of our souls: for now repentance is a Supersedeas to disc •• all the bonds of sin. And lay hold upon JESUS, who as he saved Noah in the 〈◊〉 Water, is able to preserve us in the day of Fire. Sampson found honey out of 〈◊〉 Lion which himself had killed. Our sins have killed the Lion of Judah, O let 〈◊〉 faithful prayers suck honey out of him: there is no honey so sweet as his mercy.

Thus having considered the universality, that it was a whole world; the A ••• ty, that it was the Old world: I come in the next place to the Impiety, that it was 〈◊〉 Ungodly world.

The world of the ungodly.] The sins of that world were very grievous, 〈◊〉 too heavy for the supportation of the earth: nec medium in malo, nec remed ••• • lo. These sins began to multiply with the multiplication of men: the seeds of 〈◊〉 • ischiefe were sown before the birth of Noah's sons: at their birth, like ill weeds, • ey sprung abundantly: at last they were so rank and ripe, that God could forbear • em no longer. But it seemeth that the great defection was about the seventh age: • en Lamech, of Cain's race, fell to bigamy; then was Enoch translated, that his soul • ight be no longer grieved with the wickedness of the times. Then the righteous • horring the filthiness of Cain's posterity, separated themselves, and began to call 〈◊〉 God. At length the very righteous seed declined, by falling to folly with the •• ghters of the wicked.

Some Hebrews think that this pregnancie of sin began with the encrea • of women; whose number gave more occasion of lust, Genicis 6.1. But this • gues no special multiplying of that sex more than the other: but when both were • creased together, both were corrupted together. If any ask how the world could 〈◊〉 so soon peopled; I reply, how was it after the flood? Ninus King of Assyria, • ho reigned some 230 years after the deluge, is reported to have in his army 700 • ousand footmen, and 200 thousand horsemen. The earth was corrupt with their • hy sins: and they are said to be all flesh: not only their bodies for that is come • on to all, but even their souls were carnal. For flesh is taken vel secundum naturam, • l secundum culpam. Man is called flesh, when he is subdued to carnal sense. All • e imaginations of his heart continually evil. Wickedness is enlarged by these re • ects. 1. Ration universalitatis, for generality; all flesh was corrupt: so Adams • ne did spread over all. 2. Ration durabilitatis, for continuance; they were ex • cised in it a thousand years. Continuall habit had made it so alimentall, so ele • entall to them, that they could not live without it. 3. Ration inseparabilitatis, for • hesion: as covetice cleaves to a man, even while he sleeps, or wakes, or walks, 〈◊〉 works, or lives: waxing younger, when all other sins decay with age. 4. Ra • me Superfluitatis, for abundance: not only addicted to some special vices; but to 〈◊〉 wickedness which their profane hearts could conceive. If their fancies could • t imagine it, their hands were ready to do it. 5. Ration Securitatis, for supine • elesnesse: let Noah preach what he will, and build as he will, let it rain how it • ll, they are the same men still. 6. Ration impudentiae, for shamelesnesse: they • re grown to such presumption, that they durst sin God in the face: They de • e their sin as Sodom, they hide it not. Therefore their corruption is said to be • efore the LORD. Thus in general, now for the particulars.

The first act of degeneration was unlawful marriages: The sons of God 〈◊〉 the daughters of men, &c. Some think these sons of God were Angels, and • t they fell for their intemperance with women. But. 1. God destroyed the • rld, not for the Angels sin, but man's. My spirit shall not always strive (he says 〈◊〉 with Angels, but) with man. 2. The devil was a murderer from the beginning: 〈◊〉 if the Angels had fallen for the love of women, then they had not sinned until • housand years after the creation. 3. In heaven they neither Marry, nor are • en in marriage, but are as the Angels of God: therefore Angels are not subject • carnal lusts. Some have thought these were devils who companying with woe •• n, begat Giants. But this is ridiculous, for the devils have not generative fa • ties: and if they could have, yet they are none of the sons of God. We read 〈◊〉 a whole legion, six thousand devils in one man; this could not be, if they • re corporal. If elemental was their nature, then were they subject to mutabi • e, to mortality: as Plutarch writes of the death of Pan, a famous devil among 〈◊〉 Pagans. And how should man's soul be immortal, if these more subtle spi • were mortal? Others think that they were Incubi, who assuming aëry bodies, the act of generation are called Succubi: and so they imagine that Merlin was be • ren of a spirit. Indeed spirits may assume Male and Female shapes; but are not • e bodies. They appear so to the eye, not to the feeling: visible, not palpable. • andle me, and see, for a spirit hath not flesh and bones. But it is objected, that Abra • washed the Angels feet, and discerned them not. For answer, this is the difference between the apparitions of good and bad Angels. Unto the good God gave the use of true bodies during that ministry: so that they did eat and drink. The other are not so allowed, therefore are called Phantasmata, Visions, fancies.

Others think that these Sons of God were men tall, and of a great stature: as things excellent in their kind are ascribed to God. Great cities, the Cities of God. Tall Cedars, The trees of God. But indeed, they were called the Sons of God, because they were of the righteous seed: and the other, the daughters of men, because they descended of lewd parents. Even the wicked are the sons of God according to nature, according to their works they are not.

Now see the issue of this unhappy conjunction; Giants: which as they were men of a monstrous stature, so of a fierce and tyrannous nature. Thus they were called Nephalim, mighty oppressors: Enim, terrible: because of their pride, Ha ••• kim; as it were, in chains of Gold: for their strength, Gibborim: for their naughtiness, Zanzummim. Such were Goliath, Ishbibenob, and Og. Here they are called Nephilim, of falling: both because of their terror, they made men fall to the ground: and for their error, falling themselves from virtue and goodness. These were not from the commixtion of spirits with women, but procreated of men: which is no more against nature, than for dwarfes to come from well constituted parents: who are as admirable for their smalenesse, as the other for their tallenesse. Not were all thus, but only those borne by this unlawful conjunction. For as the root, so was the branch: the marriage impious, and the issue ungracious.

That which was the first occasion of sin, was the occasion of the increased sin. A Woman seduced Adam, women betray these sons of God. The beauty of the Apple betrayed the woman, the beauty of these women betrayed the holy seed. Eve saw, and lusted, so did they: this was also a forbidden fruit. They looked, liked, lusted, tasted, sinned, died. Sins first creep in at the eyes: except we have made a covenant with them, there is no safety for our souls. This marriage did not beget men so fast as wickedness.

Consider here how dangerous it is for the believer to unite himself to an ungracious spouse. I know that marriage is honorable: Bonum nuptiarum semper est •• num. The wife before man sinned, was for his society: after he had sinned, for a remedy. Man in himself was only but begun, in woman he was perfected and made up: till then a great part of himself he had in vain and useless. And they that have placed in Virginitate culmen, the chief glory in virginity; could never fi •• in Connubio crimen, any fault in matrimony. Man and wife are Primum Par, & 〈◊〉 damentum parium; the original match of all others. All other relative pairs are couples, as father, and son, Master and servant, King and subject; come from this. When God made Adam, he made only one. When he made Eve, he made not only her, but in her all the world to come. While man was alone, and had both sexes in himself, what could he do to fill the earth? Therefore in his body he bred a She-man: Adam being the mother of Eve, as Eve is the mother of us all. Therefore she is called Mater viventium, because she is a means to continue a kind of immortality among the mortal sons of men; and in some measure to shadow ou • that immortality which is in heaven. Families, Cities, countries, the whole habitable world, the militant, yea triumphant Church, no small part of the kingdom of heaven, ariseth from marriage. Mater matris Ecclesiae. Laudo connubium 〈◊〉 generat virgins. Saint Jerome himself praiseth marriage, because it begets virgins. The wife being no virgin, is the mother of Virgins that be no wives. No marriage, no Saints: no generation, no regeneration: no increasing below, no multiplying above: if the earth be not replenished with men, how should heaven be so furnished with Saints?

But as the blessings that come by good marriage, are innumerable: so be the curses by ill matches, many and mischievous. For marriage is a new foundation, whereon men build the future state of their mortality. A man cannot choose himself, he may choose his wife: and in her choice it lies much to mend or mar himself; and which is more, even his posterity. Be not unequally yoked with unbelee • ers. From hence follow an Iliade of evils, and the whole infelicity of life; when matches are made of such as match not; when plants are set together of an unhappy conjunction, malevolent effects must needs issue from them. But it is objected; that the Vnbeleeving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, and the wife by the husband: and what knowest thou, O wife, whether thou mayest save thy husband? and, O man, whether thou shalt save thy wife? This may be; and was not in those times a sufficient of cause of divorce. But are not the good perverted by the bad, sooner than the bad converted by the good? Often have you heard how much a superstitious wife, by her certain lectures, hath wrought upon her Christian husband: when did you hear a b • leaving husband prevail with his misbeleeving wife? marry not thy son to a Canaanites daughter, for she will turn away his heart from following the Lord: he is not so likely to turn her.

This hath been full in examples: the Israelites were won by these forbidden matches, to serve other gods. When Ahab sold himself to wickedness, it was Jezebel his wife, that stirred him up. Thus was Samson the strongest, and Solomon the will • st, beguiled. His wives turned away his heart after other gods. This was Ieho • am's ruin; his wife, the daughter of Ahab, undid him. When water and earth are tempered together, they make but mire and dirt. What crueller tyrant was ever begotten then Mahomet, who was yet the Son of a Christian Lady? As the sons of Jacob said of Dinah, We cannot give our sister to one that is uncircumcised: so let parents say, we may not give our daughter to a person unchristen'd. Albeit irreligion be not a cause of divorce, yet it is of restraint. We may not marry with all those, with whom we must live being married. If Adultery may separate a marriage consummated, may not Idolatry hinder a marriage not begun? L • t no man separate whom God joins, so let no man join whom God separates. We would not have our children marry without our will and consents: and shall they marry without the will, liking, and consent of our Father in heaven?

This was Rebecca's care. If Jacob take a wife of the daughters of Heth, what good shall my life do me? Manoah's for Samson, Is there not a wife among thine own people but thou must go to the Philistines? Is there no friend but an enemy? no tree, but the forbidden? no helper, but a tempter? no wife but the Canaanite? can none please us, but such as displease God? He that is married to such a wife, careth more to please • er, than God. Of all the guests bidden to the great feast, he that was married, (like • y to such a wife) desired not to be excused; but impudently protests, that he cannot come. If from Ish, and Isha, you cast out Yod and He, there remains to that couple nothing but fire; say the Rabbins. So wretched is it to couple without God. When the eye makes the match for beauty, or the ear by hearsay, taking a wife upon trust • or the hand for money; marrying (though not by picture, yet) for pictures. The •• stocles being consulted, whether it were better for a man to marry his daughter to an honest poor man, or to a rich of small virtue and goodness; answered; I had rather have a man that wants money, than money that wants a man. How base is that love, which hath no other weight than riches! How do parents breed an A • gue in the bones of their children, that shall shake them to their very graves! When the tie of their loves is either portion or proportion only, without regard of either • eligion or conscience. One said truly; He that weds for state or face, buys a horse to lose a race. There is Caesars stamp, and God's stamp: most men marry for Caesars stamp, and these are worse than the old world; for they married for Adams stamp. God's stamp is grace, Caesars money, Adams beauty.

The motive of the old world to this unfortunate conjunction, was Beauty; They saw that the daughters of men were fair. This is the common attractive; men place their loves upon Adams Image in the face, rather than upon God's Image in the soul. Yet what is that same goodly frame of flesh and blood, but only a natural color which the Creator hath laid upon dust and ashes? but the effect of well digested sustenance, not much above that we behold in pictures. A thin weak ve •• drawn over a corruptible body: a transient delight of the eye: a glory that fades with life, yea, often before life: a piece of fine glass, that sickness or old-age will soon break; yet is this the snare that hath caught many souls: to enjoy this, David lost his peace for a while, Sampson lost his eyes forever. Thus the Midianites entrapped Israel with their dancing whirlegigs: and the wisest King was wrought to folly. I do not lay the fault on Beauty, God's admirable workmanship upon clay: for who blames a clear and crystall river, because some melancholy distracted man drowns himself in it? And when this outward ornament is joined with inward luster, it graceth all actions. Gratior est pulchro veniens e corpore virtus. But it is the minds beauty, that keeps the other sweet and delectable: a fixed and constant goodness, which as it disdains all the tinctures of painted hypocrisy, so is far beyond • he ruin of time, sickness, or any other mutability. Like Heaven, which is fa •• e outwardly to our mortal eyes, but shall appear fairer within to our immortal • oules. Without this, all affection is ill placed, and will soon perish. He that loves for no other end, but to please his senses, hath a sensual love, little better tha • brutish.

It is the soul that requires love; and for that only cause which makes it lovely, Virtue. The outward worth of Beauty is nothing, it is the Soul within that makes it precious. When grace and holiness have beautified the principal, then admit the other circumstances and additions, as Beauty, Birth, or Wealth. For these indifferents, by goodness are made good, as fire turns all the objects into it self. The love built upon Beauty without this, is not long-lived: but running mad with extravagant desires, rests still unsatisfied. Hence it comes, that Quos conjunxit Ecclesia, disjunxit camera: yea worse, Conjungit Dominus, disjungit Diabolus: God and the Church puts them together; the Devil and lust puts them asunder. He that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver: So nor, he that loveth women, for one is no • lusts limits. H • that affecteth many, shall be satisfied with none. Vnus, unam, u • : One God ha • h ordained one woman for one man. One is Loves number, he which trespasseth upon plurality, and loseth that content, may be all his life seeking it, b • shall never find it. To the reproof and reproach of them be it, that walk the streets. • ea, frequent the Church, for no other purpose but to feed their eye with such spectacles. When a Gallant had the name of a brave soldier; one observed how 〈◊〉 in his walking, he would turn about to gaze upon women: concluding, that the man could not have a valiant and constant mind, whose head every weak woman could turn and wryth about with her very look. Let this breed in our hearts 〈◊〉 abhorring of carnal lusts; a sin the very Devil does not commit: Pride he knows, malice he knows, flattery, hypocrisy, murder, treason he knows: but inco •• nence of fl • sh he wonders at. Let no beauty that sticks upon mortal cheek, so 〈◊〉 prevail over our affections; as to prostrate those bodies to the service of Harlots, that are the dear bought members of Jesus Christ.

The next Apostasy of the old world, was by Sensuality: They did eat, they drank, they married, &c. But were these sins, or matter of reprehension? Nature hath made them necessary, discretion voluntary, and only some circumstances arbitrary. Did God drown them for this? No, but their sensuality and security in these brought destruction. Soul, thou hast much goods laid up for many years, eat, drink, and be merry. This was not his fault, that he thought he had enough, but that he meant to lie down and wallow in it. Lawfull actions depraved by bad circumstances, become damnable sins. Is this a time to receive money, and garments, 〈◊〉 vineyards, saith the Prophet to his servant? All which at another time, and in another manner, had been approved. Things beneficial in their use, are dangerous in their abuse or mis-carriage. Without a wooden conveyance we cannot cross the Seas: yet if that vessel sink, all the passengers are lost. That worldly things are good, is easily perceived by our care to get them: that their abuse is deadly, many souls feel, that cannot return to complain. It is easier for a Camel to enter a needles-eye, than a rich man to enter heavens gate. It is not certain, it is not easy, it is not likely, and (it may so fall out, that) it is not possible for a rich man to be saved. Riches commonly cool all heavenly heats, force away the Divine meditations of spiritual causes, as too melancholy fits: and bring a man to such a fools paradise, as one among Penelopes suitours, that went so oft with his friend, till he was caught himself.

It is likely, that more go to hell for abusing lawful things, than for using things simply unlawful. Cross sins appear in their own ugly forms, terrible as deformities and devils: but who suspects his eating, his drinking, his common discourse? Who fears that his building should be laid in the foundation of sin? Or that his marrying a wife should unsaulder his conjunction with Christ? But there is nothing better for a man, than that he should eat and drink, and let his soul enjoy good in his labor. And doth not Saint Paul call the forbidding of meats and marriage, The doctrine of devils? We grant it; neither would we have any man make the way to heaven harder, and more rugged than God himself hath made it. This is the liberty (and indeed of whom else, but) of Christians.

Pleasures have their allowance, with two limits. The one of Quality, they must be good and lawful: for God that hath given leave to be merry, hath not given leave to be mad. There is a good mirth, if men could hit on it; called, To be merry and wise. It is no praise to be sparing of a vicious delight, for the very t • ste is deadly. Admit the Serpents head, his body will ask no leave. The other of Quantiti • ; for measure God hath hedged in man's appetite, like that fo • ming element: if he break over those dams, the inundation is perilous. As delights • ave their warrants, so also their terms: and it is no hard matter to fault in this indulg • nce. Is the work of our salvation effected, our common duties performed? We may then eat, drink, and be merry. Non nascimur in Ludum, we are not borne for play; but for labor, as the sparks fly upward. Our recreations should be like our physic, not our diet: the latter we take when we are well to keep us so: the other when we are sick to make us well.

Some things are to be avoided, not because they are ill, but near to ill: Et mala sunt vicina bonis, error sub illo, &c. Saepe prohibetur licitum, propter proximitatem illiciti: it is good to leave something that we may take, for fear of taking that we should leave. There should be difference betwixt a beast, that devoureth all within his teddar: and a man, to whom God hath given reason to rule his app • tite. It is Sins policy, to steal in by the Law; when men range in the borders and extremities of their freedom. And even from that takes an argument for us to allow it, which was made on purpose to condemn it. The Jews might give forty stripes: yet Saint Paul confesseth he received but nine and thirty: their reason of forbearing the full number, was lest their fingers should itch to give another. What folly is it, when a man hath field-room enough, to ride on the brink of a River? The note that comes too near in the margent, will skippe into the Text at the next Impression. It is a dangerous Quaere, how near a man may go to hell, and yet scape the Devil. Will any wise man try how near he may come to the infected house, and yet scape the Plague? Or holding by the rotten rails of a Turret, presumptuously vault over, in a proud glory of his venturousnesse? Israel had room enough in the Plaines of Moab: but venturing too far, they were snared with Midian. Let no man cast with himself, how old • ee may be before he needs return, lest he reckon without his host. If I forget Jerusalem in my mirth, &c. It is easy to forget heaven in our mirth. If God allow an handful, men are apt to fathom an armful. Pleasures are like the Popish Relikes; the Interest is more than the Principal.

Through all creatures let us look to their maker: through all delights to their giver, Phil. 4 4. Rejoice in the Lord always: then mutata materia delectationis •• m • nae, non mutatur causa delectandi: in the midst of all the changes and chances of worldly contents, there will be an immutability of joy in God. There are two sorts reprehensible.

First, they that avoid all lawful delights for fear of sin. As if it were not possible for a Christian to separate the gold from the dross, but he must needs cast away the oar! Will any simple Jew condemn the clear streams of Jordan, because they run into the dead sea? We see some proud of their fantastical clothes, dressed up like children's puppets, or Antics in a Pageant: must we therefore go naked? Some are drunk with wine, may not therefore a sober man drink it? Is there no physic, but Opium? must we either be sensually wicked, or senselessly stupid? why did God place man in Paradise but to solace himself? why hath he given us such variety of creatures, but for use? Doth the Lord invite us to this feast, and we depart (like sullen guests) from so rich a table hungry? This pretence of mortified strictness doth injury; & nostrae libertati, & creatoris liberalitati; both to our liberty, and our Makers liberality. Every good gift comes from above; there is nothing but good from heaven: he that rejects the gifts, wrongs the giver. God cannot abide such a discontented answer; Dan. 5.17. Keep thy rewards to thyself, and g •• e thy gifts to another. Many great Kings have been blessed Saints: they could not have been Kings without a number of earthly pleasures: they could not have been Saints with earthly affections. If God therefore have mingled us a pleasant cup, let us cheerfully drink it, and give thanks to Jesus Christ. Charity is not strait-laced, but yields much latitude to the lawful use of indifferent things. These are fit for those that are fit for them.

Next, they are to be blamed, that with neglect of better things, settle and fixe themselves upon these. It is the heart that makes all evil, when that lying speech of Satan is borrowed, All these are mine. Christ teacheth us, first to seek the kingdom of heaven, then shall the rest be cast upon us. When the bargain is made for salvation, the rest come in like lumber. When you have fed heartily on the body of your Savior, and gotten assurance to drink the wine of heaven, then eat, drink, and be merry. First marry thy sons soul to CHRIST, then his body to a virtuous wife. The Factor employed in foreign parts, first dispatcheth his Masters business, then his own. How preposterous is it, to omit that only thing in this world, for which we came into the world; to serve our maker!

The last sin of the old world, was Security. The Lord's forbearance did so little stir them, that they were scarce waked with his vengeance. The savaged creatures, Lions, Tigers, Bears, by God's instinct came to seek succor in the A •• men did not seek it. Even brutishness is more sensible than corrupted reason. The Sybarites, that no disturbance might come near their beds of violets; banished all • cockes and clockes: the former must not break their sleeps, nor the other vex them with report of the fugitive time. Epimenides the Cretian slept fourscore year • in a Cave; some say but forty, and that was enough in conscience; beyond a miracle, and doubtless beyond the truth. But the old world slept a hundred and twenty years, and all Noah's hammering about the Ark wakened them not. O that the conscience of man, in the midst of so many sins povoking God, so many temptations assaulting his own soul, so many enemies against him, so many dangers about him, should still be secure! She is observed by her own eye, when none else mark her: chased by her own foot, when none else follow her: hath a thousand witnesses within her, when there is no outward stir against her: and yet the wicked sleep.

Satan, like Jael to Sisera, or Judith to Holofernes, watcheth till a man be a sleep and then kills him. Preachers cry, but sinners will not waken: and as in places of Judicature they often determine to hear causes, but do not hear to determine causes: so men commonly remember to hear, but do not hear to remember. Pliny writes of some Bears so sleepy, that they are hardly roused with blows and wounds. Many discourse of religion, as men talk in their dreams: they speak wonders of goodness: yet are no such manner of men; neither the one working, or the other waking. Formal hypocrites are like the Cock, and meriting Papists like the Dormouse. Gallus bibit & non mingit, Glis mingit & non bibit. The Cock drinks and never pisseth, the Dormouse pisseth, and never drinks. The former drink much preaching but there is no good deeds come from them: the other vent some alms, and evacuate their superfluities, but they will not drink a drop of the water of life.

Let us take the Apostles caution; Be sober and watch: Be sober, for Ebriety is a drink-offering to the Devil. And watch, for a Security is Porcpose before a Tempest: Keep your souls waking, then shall your bodies sleep in quiet. As there may be a corporal watching when the mind sleeps, so there may be a spiritual watching when the body sleeps. Temptations, like Delilah, tells us a fair tale, but their end is to bring us asleep, and pluck out our eyes. But if in all our earthly business we still carry an heavenly mind, the Judgment of God shall not, as it did the old world, ever take us napping. The house doth every day get some dust, therefore let it every day be swept: the soul contracts some sins, the be some to sweep it is made of examination and repentance. At night ere we shut our eyes, let us open our hearts, and cleanse our consciences: before we shut the door let us cast out the dust. He never breaks his sleep for debt, that pays as he takes up. Let us watch in righteousness, this is the way to sleep in peace. When the stomach is obstructed, the body takes but ill rest, and the slumbers are broken off with distracted dreams. If the conscience be oppressed; in vain the soul looks for quiet. If hardness of heart, like Opium, shall consoporate it, that sleep is mortal. The shepherds were, Luk. 2.8. Watching over their flocks by night. As Christ found the shepherds watching over their flocks at his first coming; so may he find us all watching over our souls at his second coming, in the glory of his kingdom.

I conclude; in this glass let us see the present state of this world. Certainly we may vie sins with them, and stand upon comparisons, without bating them one ace for heinousness. If the world were then fowl, it is now foulness it self. Some things are so clear, that they refuse trial: and some so filthy, that they abhor purgation. Nor do I confine this corruption to some parts of it: as there be national sins, peculiar to age, to country, to constitution: Mores sequuntur humores. But all the world is sick and rotten: paganism possessing a great moitie of the whole, and heresy perverting the half of that is left. We may say of it, as Tully to Anthony; Miser si sentis, miserior sin non sentis: it is wretched if it feel it, more wretched if it feel it not. Ideo pereunt, quia nesciunt se perire: ideoque magis pereunt, quia nesciunt se nescire. Men perish because they are ignorant of their perishing: yea they more perish, because they are ignorant of their not knowing.

Let us hear Saint Paul delivering the state of our old world, and see how our experience accords with his prophecy, 2 Tim. 3.2. Men shall be lovers of their own selves. Have we not seen this self-love stalking in the garb of impudence, vomiting disgraces against all men, and arrogating to it self? fly-blowing good things to deter others, that himself might devour them? Covetous; O they swarm like the frogs in Egypt: that as a shrewd censurer said, stand where you will, and of every 10 men that pass by, nine and three quarters are covetous. When the uplander wondered to see a white Crow, the Fen-man answered, In our country we wonder to see any black ones. It is no marvel to see one covetuos, it is marvel to see one not covetous. Boasters; a great rabble. Some boast their portion, others their proportion: rather than want matter of ostentation, they will boast their vices: as if one should • rathroud of his scabbes, or make a scarfe of his halter. Proud; an universal disease: • e pich display it in their wearing, the poor in their swearing. I will not tell you, that this Idol goes in strange and fantastical dress: that is indeed an inseparable sign, yet but one, you shall have her sit as pertly under a broad Felt pulled down to the eyes, as upon a Bever: and find her as soon in a little