Commentary on 2 Peter

THE pretended title of that great usurper over the consciences of the Christian world, is fetched from the Succession of Saint Peter. How do his sycophants magnify Saint Peter? But it is their cunning, to reflect all that honor upon their Master. Otherwise, they would shuffle him up in the crowd of the Saints, and make no more reckoning of him than they do of Saint Paul; and that is little enough. But now they call him the Coryphe of the Apostles, the Prince of their souls, the Porter of Paradise, and supreme Lievetenant of the Crown of heaven: as we find it in a book of theirs, which they call, the Occupation of the soul: certainly, the vainest occupation that ever soul was bound prentice to. They tell us, that he was ever placed first, first mentioned, that he wrought the first miracle upon Ananias, that he made the first Sermon to the Gentiles • fter the coming down of the holy Ghost; that he did first visi • e such as were • ewly baptized, that he called and held the first Council that the Church prayed solicitously for him, as for her Head, when he was in prison: that Saint Paul did not hold his Revelations for assured and authentical, till they had passed under the approbation of Saint Peter: that the Churches where 〈◊〉 resident as Bishop are all Patriarchal: that by his appointment Rome is the Mother and Mistress of all the rest. They have a world of other glorious titles for him, all which they mean to themselves. As even a Pope said, Aenea •• Sylvius, that was Pius secun ••• : the former Popes did wisely in setting the 〈◊〉 on work to debate, whether the Donation of Constanti •• the great to Sylvester, were good and valid in Law, or no: the better to ship o • er the master in fact, whether there was any such thing at all, or no. So he doth now employ his Parasites, to heap mountains of honors and attributes upon Peters S • ccessor, and to strive who shall most defy him: by this means to smother up the question, whether the Pope be Saint Peters Successor, or no.

I need not tell you of other differences, they are too palpable: Peter forsook the world, and followed Christ: the Pope hath renounced Christ, and follows the world. Peter had neither Gold nor Silver, but he had gifts and graces: the Pope hath neither gifts nor graces; but for Gold and Silver, such store, that he could spare it to shoe his Concubines Palfries. Peter would not suffer Captain Cornelius to crouch to him: the Pope rides a cock-horse on men's shoulders, treads upon Emperors necks, and keeps a quoile like the devil in every kingdom. But to pass over these, Saint Peter refers us to the doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles, for our only direction: the Pope tries his own Title, and imposeth upon our consciences only by tradition. I hope, forbidding of marriage, was none of Peters commandment: worshipping of Images, none of his: prayer to the Saints, prayer for the dead, far from any rule of Saint Peters. He never taught subjects to shake off allegiance to their Sovereigns; he never allowed, much less Sainted Traitors. Fear God, honor the King; this is the voice of Peter. Fear God, kill the King; that is the voice of his Successor. He • quàm dissimilis! How diverse, averse, adverse, perverse is this Successor!

Let all them that will hearken to that which Saint Peter says, (and all they must hearken to it, that will come to the place where Saint Peter is) observe my Text; Be mindful of the words, &c. Let all human inventions, in the matter of salvation, die abortive: This is the way, let us walk in it; Be mindful of the words, &c.

Wherein he commends to us, first, a Treasure. Secondly, and the use of that Treasure. The Treasure is the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles: the use of that Doctrine and Treasure is our carefulness to observe it; Be mindful.

The general parts their are two:

• 1. The Object of their mindefulnesse; The words, &c.
• 2. Their mindefulnesse of that Object; Be ye mindful.

Of the Object first severally, and then jointly. The former specialty of the Object is,

The words which were spoken before by the holy Prophets.] Not to dwell upon the particulars; as that, first, they are worth, for their plain certainty; not shadows, and abstruse paradoxes. Secondly, spoken before, for their antiquity; not things of yesterday; no new devices. Thirdly, spoken by the Prophets, for the authority: men that had their commission immediately from God himself. Prophet hath ever been a reverend and honorable name. Fourthly, by holy Prophets, for the sanctity: they passed not through the lips of a Bal • am, 〈◊〉 Caiaphas; but from men whose persons God had sanctified, for his heavenly errands. They were the Pr •• nno • a • i •• of Heaven, the Registers of the Truth, the Secretaries of the holy Ghost, the Spokes-men of the Deity, the Mouthes of 〈◊〉 who is the Fountain of Wisdom, and Oracle of all Truth. We 〈◊〉 accomplished, what they fore-told, and their Prophesy become History.

[unspec 1] The words of the Prophets, is the Law of God. This is the Law and the Prophets. All the Prophets, and the Law prophesied until John. God hath joined them together, let no man put them asunder. But it is objected; The L •• and the Prophets were until John: Why then should we be mindful of them now? They were until John, as a preparation and prediction of Christ's coming. He being come, that prediction, that preparation is ended: but still the Law and the Prophets remain both to confirm us in the s • ith of Christ; and direct 〈◊〉 the way of obedience to Christ. A man doth not despise his Schoolmaster, because he hath learned his Lesson. The Prophets were expounders of the Law, the Law was the Text of the Prophets. The Decalogue was that Magna Charta; to which, as to their common Principle, all their conclusions were reducible. As in Arithmetic, when we pass the number of ten, all the latter numbers be but compounded resumptions of the former. So all the Doctrine of the Prophets is but the exposition and application of those ten words, which God's own finger wrote in two Tables. Therefore Malachi, the last of the Prophets, to make a transition to the Gospel, in the very point of his passage towards the prediction of Christ and of John Baptist, seals up the Old Testament in his last Chapter, with Remember ye the Law of Moses my servant. Moses was a Prophet, and a Servant; the Law-bringer, not the Law-maker: yet God calls it the Law of his servant Moses.

[unspec 2] The sum, then, of these words of the Prophets, is the Law of God: to this the Apostle here refers us; as Isaiah did before, To the Law and to the Testimony. How great is the honor of it, how honorable the greatness! The Law of God is perfect, converting the soul, &c. There is the great honor. I have written to them the great things of my Law: and, Fulfill ye the royal Law: there is the honorable greatness. Master, which is the great Commandment in the Law? (was the Lawyers question) whereas all God's Commandments were great, upon assignation of any one above the rest, he meant to take occasion of accusing him. Therefore Christ's answer is full of circumspection; Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart: this he calls Primum & magnum, The first and great Commandment. To this epitome of the first Table he subjoins, that the second is like unto it: and lastly adds, On these two Commandments hang all the Law and the Prophets. To this all Laws are subjected, and from this all good Laws are derived. For Authority, it gives all the Decrees of men the Checkmate. S. Augustine hath from Seneca a plain confession, That the Jews, otherwise a contemptible people, wheresoever they came, Victi victoribus leges ded • rum; the conquered gave Laws to their conquerors. To make a Law, is the chiefest point of majesty: and the best Law-makers have commended their best constitutions, by deriving them from God's Commandments: as if they could no way better confirm them, than by confessing where they stole them. Some of them have been so short of this conformity, that they have set down gross sins for their learned Statutes, and trespassed upon common Principles. Among some of them, murder hath scarce been punishable, adultery was pardonable, and theeverie commendable. But the pure, perfect, and unchangeable Law of God leaves no evil uncensured, no good uncommended: for which large comprehension, Peter Martyr compared the Ten Commandments, to the Ten Predicaments.

The best of this worlds wisdom, is but to drive corruption inwards; Vitia 〈◊〉 abscindere, sed abscondere: and in making men conformitants, many times to make them hypocrites. But God's Word hath a reach to the very secret purposes, and inmost affections: sharper than a two-edged sword, dividing between the joints and the marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intents of the heart. Like an Anatomist, searching and prying into every piece of a member, and reading a sound Lecture upon the smallest particle of a particle, spelling like a Criticke, the fractions of imperfect, and as yet unshapen cogitations of concupiscence. Whereas of a thought, kept within the compass of a thought, no Law of mortal man can determine. So that if a sinner can wash his bloody hands with Pilate, and not betray his bloody heart by word, deed, or writing, he cannot be by man found out.

Such is the perfection and majesty of this sacred Doctrine, though all advocates should be corrupt, and all champions cowards; that it is not a bare advertisement, [unspec 4] which is granted by the Papists; but a Rule: not a potential Rule, only in regard of fitness; but an actual Rule: not partial only, for that is contrary to the nature of a Rule, which admits of no addition; but totally definitive and directive for God's service, and all our actions. I have seen an end of all perfection, but thy Commandment is exceeding bread. Broad enough, but we have staggering feet: the drunkard can scarce keep his path, though it be as broad as the Kings high-way. Our souls legs are borne crooked, and by the custom of sin we warp them more and more. The Ideot could say of his crooked sticks, that would not fadge and work to his mind; that they never grew but in the night, and that was the reason they could not see to grow straight. We take perverse, irregular, and crooked steppes, because we walk in the night of our own willful blindness. The Way is broad enough, but the proud bear too great a breadth for the Way. The Rule is straight, but we are crooked: and, that which is crooked, can hardly be made straight. Crooked branches are straightened two ways; either by the hand of man, or by the fire. Those whom the hand of God's grace doth not rectify, are bound in bundles like thorns, and cast into that unquenchable Oven, the fiery Pit of Hell.

The Commandments of us the Apostles of the Lord and Savior.] This is the [unspec 1] other Specialtie of the Object. The Prophets were Legal Apostles, the Apostles are Evangelical Prophets. Both these came to the world with Commandments: they do often indeed persuade us, counsel us, beseech us; (I beseech you by the mercies of God; we pray you in Christ's stead) but even those requests be Precepts. Doth not God therefore command, because he entreats? The very suites of Kings are Imperative: they must not ask, and be denied: much more shall we find the persuasions of God, Obligations to us. It is his gracious mercy, that entreates us to do that, which we are bound to do without entreaty. Every wise man will be easily requested to do himself good. When God sues to us, to save us, yea, to accept of salvation; we are sullen and desperate fools, to hinder our own preferment. Paul pleads to Philemon, his age and bondage, for arguments; the power of his authority, and Patent for it, in Christ. Yet, as if love were the strongest charm; Propter charitatem petendo petos, for loves sake I rather beseech thee: Was not this Petition as valid as any Injunction, in the heart of a friend, of a brother?

That the Apostles had power to command, is so far from being a question, [unspec 2] that it is plain they could convey this power to others, by the imposition of their hands. I give thee charge in the sight of God, who quickeneth all things. And Charge them that are rich in this world, that they be not high-minded. I charge thee, to charge them. In the former, there is Episcopal authority: he that gives the charge, if he be not the chief on the Bench, yet is he greater than the Jury. In the other, there is Evangelical sufficiency; by virtue whereof, Timothy is enabled to charge men, that they receive no other Doctrine. Pracipe divitibus, Charge the rich: the rich are commonly great: nobility and wealth is joined together. Curse not the King in thy thought, nor the rich in thy Bed-chamber. That rich nameless Churl is guessed by some to be Herod, or some other King. The rich man is a little King, among his neighbors; a petty God, to his underlings. Dives, quasi Divus. Yet, be they rich or noble, they are under the command of an Apostle; yea, under the charge of a Priest, in the Word of Jesus Christ. Kings themselves are not here exempted, though they have absolute command over all men in their dominions: as the Fathers interpret that of King David; Against thee only have I sinned: because he could sin against nobody else: yet Nathan may reprove him in the Name of God. That transported Shaveling soared too high a pitch, when in his imperious Bull he commands the Angels. But we may safely say, that all Powers beneath the Angels are liable to our spiritual charge. Even the rich men, that speak with command to others, must be commanded by their Preachers. I am a man under authority, having soldiers under me. The Centurion had many under his authority, himself is under the authority of another. We have a spiritual charge over their souls, that have a temporal power over our bodies.

[unspec 3] God hath committed the Keys of Heaven to his Church: some let them rust in their hands, for want of use: Teachers, that do not teach; that can neither open the doors of Heaven for others, nor for themselves. Some alter the Wards, that they can neither open, nor shut: as it is feigned of Pope Sixtus Quintus, that after his death he went to Hell; but by good luck the Porter would not let him in, though he had highly deserved it; but sent him to a place under his own command, Purgatory: this he long sought, but could never find. At last he took heart, and went to Heaven, fearfully knocking at the gate: Saint Peter asked him, why he knocked, considering he had the Keys? he answered, Because the Wards were altered, and they could not now unlock the door. I would the Moral of this fiction were not too true: But alas, who sees not, that the Pontificians have so bruised the Keys with breaking men's heads, and so furr'd them with the blood of innocents, that they are not able to open the gates of Heaven? Some keep them bright, with fair and continual usage, whom God blesseth with the letting in of many souls.

[unspec 4] Surely, if now we shall appeal to your consciences; the fault is not in the Keys, but all the Rust is in the Lockes, your worldly hearts. God hath set us to Command; and we command, and go without. Alas, by this contempt we cannot gain; but you are sure to lose: for if our word have lost the power in you, you have lost your right in Heaven. We dare wager our own coming there, that you ordinarily come not thither without us. It is true, Spectaculo facti sumus; men come to Church, look us in the face, and give us the hearing: but we have not the credit with them, to believe us. Domine, quis credidit audit • s nostro? Lord, who hath believed our report? We are weak, and you are strong: you are honorable, and we are despised. But if we may not be your Commanders, yet let us be your Counsellers. Or if that place be too good for us, yet still we will be humble Petitioners to you, that you would be pleased to save your own souls. If your houses were on fire, and we should command you to quench them: if your bodies were sick, and we should charge you to send for the Physician; you would think it a kindness in us more than needs: you would do all this, though we held our peace. Of all your Utensils and moveables, do you make least account of your souls? Alas, that all our Precepts must be turned into tears, weeping over you, as Christ over Jerusalem, for her At noluisti! Alas, that we should give a charge, and no soldiers come in to the Standard of Christ! You will say, we are servants; and servants are not to command, but to obey. Indeed we are Christ's servants, and your servants for Christ's sake: and if you could set us to a meaner office, we would not refuse it, to win your hearts. But servants may be employed to bring their Masters commands to their fellows. God called Moses his servant, yet he gave him authority to make Laws for the government of his people. God hath sent his servants, and his Farmers will encreated them: he sent his Son, saying, They will reverence my Son; but they did not. If he now see men misuse his servants, he will no more trust them with his own Son Jesus.

But if men dis-regard our command, let them reverence a higher than ours, [unspec 5] the Apostles; yea, a higher than theirs, the Commandment of God himself. Nor can we here distinguish, but to the willful decei • ing of ourselves: for you receive from your Preachers none other command, than they received from the Apostles, and the Apostles from the holy Ghost. It is not our Word, but theirs; not theirs, but the Lord's. The Apostles were the Trumpets of the Word, the Corners of the living God, the Notaries of Heaven, the Secretaries of the Church, the first Princes and chief Peers of Christianity; whose mouths were filled with Oracles, and their hands with Miracles, and their pens with Mysteries: the publishers of Mercy, and ingrossers of the Covenant of Grace: the Master-builders of God's House, and the noble Columns in the Building. The twelve Patriarchs, from whose heavenly Seed of the Word descend all true Israelites. The twelve Princes, Generals and Conductors of God's Army, that camped about the great Moses, the Manhood of the Son, the Tabernacle of the Divinity. The twelve Searchers, sent to take a view of the Land of Promise; who have brought us certain news of the inestimable blessings there, flowing with the Milk and Honey of eternal joys and comforts. The twelve selected men, that took twelve Stones out of the Chanell of Jordan, and pitched them in Gilgal: not omitting to set twelve other Stones in the midst of Jordan, where the Ark of God had stood: placing their holy Monuments both in the River, for a witness to the Jews; and out of the River, for a testimony to the Gentiles. The twelve Fountaines, which the people found in the Desert, at Elim; those Wells of salvation, where thirsty souls sit down and drink. The twelve Loaves of Shew-bread, which stood before the face of the Highest; that only the High Priest Jesus brake in morsels, and gave to his Church. The twelve precious Stones, set in the Pectorall of Aaron: choice living Stones, taken into the breast of Christ. The twelve young Lions, which support the Throne of the great King; not the like in any Kingdom. The twelve Oxen, that carried the molten Sea of God's infinite mercies to all parts of the world; three looking East, and three to the West; three to the North, and three to the South. The twelve Officers of the glorious Solomon, our King of Peace; that make his provision of holy souls, throughout all the coasts of Israel. The twelve Stars in the Crown of the Church, that Spouse of Christ. We may call them the Twelve months, that make up the year of Grace. The twelve manner of Fruits of the Tree of Life, that yields her Fruit every month. The twelve Angels, the twelve Gates, the twelve Foundations, of the new Jerusalem; whose length, breadth, and heighth was twelve thousand furlongs. And they shall sit upon twelve Thrones, judging the twelve Tribes of Israel. So precise is the number of Twelve, that when one of them miscarried, another must be chose, to supply his place. From them, we are said to receive the twelve Articles of our Belief: from them we know, that we receive the Doctrine of the Gospel. Ye 〈◊〉 what Commandments we gave you, by the Lord Jesus. So work, as we have commanded you. They had power to command; I would we were as sure of grace, to obey.

Thus far we have considered these Objects severally: now take them jointly, and they afford us some more observations:

1. Neither Prophets nor Apostles did ever command in their own names: but the former came with, Thus saith the Lord: and the other in the Name of Christ. By virtue of this Commission and victorious Name, they commanded all things, even diseases and devils to depart, and were not disobeyed. By the Name of Jesus Christ doth this man stand here before you whole. As they did all by his power, so they referred all to his glory: and added, This stone, set at naught by you builders, is become the head of the corner. This is the fundamental Stone, We are b •• e upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets, Jesus Christ himself being the chief corner Stone. They are foundations to us, Christ is the sole foundation of all. The wall of the City had twelve foundations, and in them the Names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb. They are foundations of the wall, not of the City: not of salvation, but of the Ministry of salvation: not principal, but instrumental: Non authors, sed lapides. A foundation cannot lay it self, it must have a builder. Christ laid them first of all other, in the bottom of the wall; in that respect they are called foundations. As Ezra 7. In the first day of the first month, he began to go up, or was the foundation of the going up; that is, the first or chief Leader. Thus not one Apostle, but all are equally foundations.

Contrary to that senseless, ungodly, unlucky corruption of the Text, that would transfer all to Peter; under the color of super hanc petram: whereas the Scripture calls the twelve Apostles equally fundamental. Mind the commands of Vs, not of Me, saith Peter himself here. Christ himself indeed is that Petra, that Rock; Other foundation can no man lay, than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ. First, he is Lapis fundamentalis, the foundation of our faith: upon whom we build so sure and firm, that neither gusts nor floods, neither storms nor streams can overthrow us. Secondly, he is Lapis angularis, the Roote of love and peace, which binds us together in the unity of the Spirit. Malitious and contentious souls are loose rubbish and refuse, not stones in God's edifice. In all our book-controversies, and sword-controversies, let us refer the decision to him: then do we set the corner stone in the right place. Thirdly, he is Lapis pacificus, all sin is a make-bate, he is the Peace-maker between God and us. That Jacob's stone, whereon we rest our heads and hearts; and see Angels descending to comfort us: upon this stone we lie down, and have quiet rest. Fourthly, he is Lapis foedificus, a Stone of Covenant betwixt Jacob and his father Laban: the league between our heavenly father and us. Mizpah, a beacon or watch-tower, to warn us of our enemies. Fifthly, he is Lapis triumphalis, that shall give us the victory: David's stone, wherewith he slew the Giant: by this we shall be able to conquer Satan and the most monstrous sins, and triumph over them. Sixthly, he is Lapis petralis, which being smitten by the rod, gushed out floods of water. When he was stricken with death, there issued out streams of blood to save us: better than all their privileges, though they had Oile out of the rock, and honey out of the stone. Cantent inhabitatores petrae e vertice montium. But if a son ask bread, will his father give him a stone? Nay, but this stone is bread; a living Stone, the Bread of life; Lapis & panis. He did command this stone to be made bread: therefore we may as well say, Da Petram vivificam, as Da panem quotidianum. But let us take heed of offending this Stone: for whosoever shall fall upon this stone, shall be broken; but on whomsoever it shall fall it shall grind him to powder. We may fall upon this Stone, or this stone may fall upon us: and then it had been better that a millstone were hanged about our necks, and with us thrown into the sea. But blessed are they that conform their lives to the doctrine of the Apostles and Prophets, and build their faith on this foundation.

2. Saint Peter refers us to the words of the Prophets, and commandments of the Apostles, and precisely chargeth our mindefulnesse with these lessons. Not human traditions, not the constitutions and impositions of usurpers, that pretend the authority of the Apostles: fond men, that undertake to devise a better way to heaven, than he that dwells there hath set down; who will admit none that come not his way: these are but artificial paper-walls, set up against the Apostolical Canons. Not the inventions of men, though of those pure brains that pretend most, yea mainly for the word: for sometimes they prove but Lapwings, that cry, Here 'tis, Here 'tis; when their nests are far enough off. Athemeus tells us that the Stoics had an opinion, that no man could do well but a wise man; not so much as make good Lentil-broth. And therefore because no man was held wise but Zeno, no man would make Lentil-pottage but after his receipt: and that receipt was so curious and exact, that it prescribed the twelfth part of a Coriander seed. We have many simple men, and more simple and sinful women, that have little or nothing besides a will, and a tongue; yet are so conceited of doctrine, that if Zeno prescribe it not, the broth is naught, death is in the pot: and for every sup of broth they must run to Zeno: when (God knows) all at the best is but a poor mess of pottage. These men have coats of their own weaving, whose inside is altogether their own lining: only they face it with the words of a Prophet or Apostle, and have their Text from the Bible.

Not the wisdom of the Philosophers, nor all the morality that dropped in verse from the pens of the Poets; be the instruments of our building up to heaven. The wine that is made of the vines of the mountains, is finer and pleasanter than the Grapes of the valleys. What are the dregs of this flat bottom, man's knowledge, to the wisdom that descendeth from above, the Hill and Throne of God? I grant, there is use of the other: secular arts are like lobbies to the lodging chambers: nay, not so good, but rather the garnish and painting of the rooms: nay, inferior still, (for the former are for muniment, the other for ornament) but indeed stairs to the parlours, as we make them to our Pulpits: herbs in a glass of wine: sallets and sawces to tempt down our meats: but still the meat it self is the Word of God, that Christ may be all in all.

3. Neither the Prophets without the Apostles, nor the Apostles without the Prophets, but both together. The Gospel, without the Law, may lift men up to presumption: the Law without the Gospel, may sink them down to desperation. God hath provided a gracious remedy for both these fatal evils of man; the sweet composition of severity and mercy; the mixture of Law and Gospel; as Moses and Christ met upon the Mount. To direct our obedience, he hath given us his Law: to answer for our disobedience, he hath added his Gospel; that what we could not do in ourselves, we might see perfectly done for us by Jesus Christ. Lex imperando ligat, Fides impetrando solvit. The Prophets wrapped up the Gospel in the shadows of the Law: the Apostles opened the Law in the clear light of the Gospel. Lex data est, ut gratia quareretur; Gratia data est, ut Lex impleatur. The Law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. Woe to them that adhere to the Law, and think to fulfill it well enough without the Gospel: the Gun-powder shall sooner be able to stand the fire, and not be blown up. Woe to them that so stick to the Gospel, that they cast away all respect of the Law: they would be fed from God's own trencher, and that of his daintiest fare, and yet do him no service. But their Livery shall be pulled over their ears, and they sent away with a Nescio vos. But blessed are they that join them both together in heart and life: that have one eye upon the words of the Prophets, the Law of God, to give it obedience with all their powers: and the other eye upon the doctrine of the Apostles, the Gospel of Christ, to believe in it with all the hearts. The Lord shall bind them up in the bundle of life, lift up their souls to the participation of joy with the Prophets and Apostles, and make them heirs with the Lord of all, his holy Son JESUS CHRIST.

4. The rule of Truth is delivered to us by the Prophets and Apostles: Truth is God's peculiar, appropriated to his holy Word. He begat us with the Word of Truth. Sanctify them through thy Truth: thy Word is Truth. The Law is his Truth: The Judgments of God are Truth. The Gospel is his Truth, Ye have been taught, as the Truth is in Jesus. Yea, an eminent Truth; distinguished from Natural or Philosophical truth. Nature is true in her principles, Philosophy true in her deductions and conclusions, the Law true in her impositions: all true, but no man can rest his salvation upon them. The Law was perfect Truth, but we were weak. It could not save us, because we could not keep it. Natural truth is like the Sea; there is abundance of it, but so salt that it can never slake our thirst. For Legal Truth; suppose a malefactor comes before a just Judge; you may rest upon it, that he will do him justice, but he must look for no mercy: but on the Evangelical Truth we may repose our souls. The good man will yield to all truth, and never be ashamed of such a victory. What is more glorious than to be overcome of Truth? This Truth is the Word of God; let it overcome us with our willing submission, or it shall overcome us against our wills to our confusion.

This Word and Truth is written by the holy Prophets and Apostles: for both in Creation and Redemption, God wrought all by his Word. Peter shall tell thee words, whereby thou and all thy house shall be saved. This is that Rule which binds the Conscience; let us walk by this Rule. Our neighbors of Rome have set up new Lesbian Rules, which they prescribe as necessary to salvation. The Rule of Saint Francis, the Rule of Saint Dominic; their Augustine's, Iacobines, Benedictines: yea, they hold one man's Baptism better than another's, one man's Order holier than another's, one man's Rule perfecter than another's; any Rule better than that which Saint Paul so blesseth, the Rule of Regeneration: And as many as walk after this Rule, peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God. If that Apostle were now living on earth, to see their innumerable Orders, and ask them as they pass, what they are: and hear one answer; I am a Franciscan; another, I am a Dominican; another, I am a Carthusian; and scarce any one say, I am a Christian: he had cause to think them all Antichristian. He was angry enough at that, when one said, I am of Paul; and another, I am of Apollos; and called it Carnal. But now Moses and Samuel, Paul and Apollos are almost worn out, and we have Monks and Friars in their room. Yea, that teeming Whore of Babylon hath in these latter days brought forth a Monster, Iesuitisme; a Mungrill, begot betwixt Superstition and Policy. Which though Pope Nicholas the fourth, in a Bull, a blasphemous Bull, preferred before the Franciscans, and the Franciscans before the Angels; yea, that Ignatius Loyola lived a more perfect life than Christ himself: yet certainly, to all honest hearts they appear that Mystery of Iniquity, which Saint Paul prophesied should wait upon the Antichrist. If the manifest profession of Lying, of Murders, of Treasons, of the butchering of Princes, and raising tumults in States, be not Iniquity: what is? If again, for Kings to admit them to their Council-Tables, to follow their damned advices, to give them Colleges and mighty exhibitions; be not a Mystery: there is none. Put them together: that the horriblest sinners upon the face of the earth should skrew themselves into the favor of rich men, and Princes; surely can be no less than the Mystery of Iniquity: and this to me, is instead of a thousand proofs, that their Master is the Antichrist. That they should do all this under color of the Christian faith, and make God himself Carnificem suum, is a monstrous Mystery.

How does Ephraim and Manasseh, the Jesuit and all other Orders fight one with another, and all against Judah? In a City of Spain, a Jesuit in the midst of his Sermon fell into a Traunce, if we could believe him: and starting up, he told his Auditory, that he had been in a Dream, and the Scene lay in Hell. There he saw many souls of all conditions, (naming them whom he thought fit to traduce) from Cobblers to Emperors. Among the rest, he pretended to see abundance of Franciscans; whereat he stood amazed, that men so holy, and strict of life, should come thither. This Dream of his stuck in the Franciscans stomachs, till they could requite him with another. Therefore on the next occasion, in the same Pulpit, a Franciscan preaching, fell into the like Traunce: and waking, told them that he had also been in Hell; and could not deny, but some sprinkling of Franciscans and other Orders were there. But his wonder was, that in Hell he saw never a Jesuit: at which Belsebub laughing, told him his error; That the number of Jesuits in Hell did exceed all other Societies, put them all together. Where are they? replies the Franciscan. Alas, says the Devil, they are in a room below: the common Jail is too good for them, they are safe bound in the Dungeon, stowed in the Hold, under Hatches. For if they were suffered to come to the upper Deckes, they would set all Hell in an uproar. It was well it was but a Dream, for their sakes: it might happily have been a truth, for the Churches sake. Therefore as they that have made a new Gospel, Evangeliam Quintum, of Statisme; though not so plainly as those Monks of Paris, with their Evangelium aternum, which they offered to be canonized, but by good luck it was refused: yet as prodigiously, as blasphemously; whiles they teach the Prophets and Apostles to speak Treason and Murder, and to give dispensation for Lying: what Hell can be not enough for such Priests?

O ye blessed Secretaries of Heaven, how would you disdain to have their Decretals come in competition with your sacred Canons? How would it grieve you, to see Jesus persecuted by a Jesuit? That blessed Name hath always cast out Devils, it never brought in any: though these sons of Sceva have made bold to usurp it, and come in fiends, under it. Shall we call that Christ's Religion, which is not derived from the Prophets and Apostles; nay, which contradicts both Apostles and Prophets? Even the Prelates of their own Church have compared their School-men to Astronomers; who to save the Phoenomenon, framed to their conceit Eccentrickes, and Epicycles, and a wonderful Engine of Orbes, though no such things were: so they, in the Council of Trent, to save their Politiam Romanam, devised a world of distinctions, evasions, shifts, and Paradoxes: and instead of Prophets and Apostles, brought us Poets and Philosophers: that not only we, whom they hold adversaries; but many of their own have said, concerning the Laws of that Council; That they are beholding to Aristotle for diverse Articles of their Faith. This I thought good to touch; to show the difference betwixt Saint Peters direction, in my Text; and his direction, that pretends himself Saint Peters Successor; and that he can never err, out of that Chair. If they have forsaken the Prophets and Apostles, it is time for us to forsake them. If they allege, that they still retain the Scripture, and keep themselves to the words thereof: I answer, that Saul kept part of God's Commandment, in destroying Amalek; yet for all that, Samuel tells him plainly, Thou hast rejected the Word of the Lord, and the Lord hath rejected thee. Or if they should take nothing from these words, yet their adding to them, and equalizing their own constitutions with them, shall make them liable to that fearful Curse.

That ye may be mindful of the words.] This mindfulnesse consists in two things; our Observation, and our Conversation.

For Observation; God never meant his Word for a vanishing sound: that [unspec 1] which is kept upon eternal record in Heaven, and is a constant dweller in the elected heart; must not be a sojourner, much less a passenger, with us. The Lord takes it in foul scorn at the hand of his creatures, to speak, and not be heard; to be heard, and not minded. Most men hear Sermons, as they entertain news out of the Indies; matters unconcerning them. Let us mind these things: if any virtue be commended, to practice it: if any vice be condemned, to avoid it: if any consolation be insinuated, to appropriate it: if any good example be propounded, to follow it: so mind that thou hearest, as if it were spoken only to thyself. Is it Comfort? I repent, and 'tis thine. Is it Judgment? repent, and 'tis not thine. They minded John Baptists preaching, that came to him after the Sermon, with those material Quaert's, What shall we do? As Domitian, perceiving many of his predecessors in the Empire to be so hated of the people, asked, How he might so rule, as to be loved? and was answered, Tu fac contra: Examine what they did, and do thou the contrary. Hearing prepares us for the way of salv • tion, Minding disposeth us for the travail of it, Doing is the journey it self. The remaining flesh will tempt us: Joab's sword had not go a more usual trick of falling out of the sheath, than our corrupt nature to run into pollutions. Those Agags, that are spared by the indulgent eye of Saul, favored by the flesh, must be hewed in pieces by the sword of Samuel, by the Word of the Spirit. He that is furnished with weapons, and suffers a feeble unarmed enemy to overcome him, hath no courage in him. If the flesh, which in all regenerate souls hath received the deaths wound, foil us at every Boat, we do not mind our weapon, or (which is more cowardly) are afraid to use it. Some indeed feel no assaults; they have believed and minded the Word always; as they pretend: but the state which was always good, was in very deed never good.

[unspec 2] We are bound to mind both Prophets and Apostles: the large looking glass presents to a man his whole self: when it is broken into many small pieces, the least of them doth so still, but not so perfectly. Every line of the Law shows us our miserable estate, every promise of the Gospel yields matter of comfort: let this glass stand whole before us, that we may observe all our lineaments by it; then shall we be nobis noti, known to ourselves. He that receiveth the seed into good ground, heareth and understandeth, and brings forth fruits. The ground must be susceptible, fit to receive the seed. The seed must be conducible, fit for the quality of the ground. As we do not thunder Judgments to the broken heart, nor offer the dugs of mercy to the lips of profaneness. So let everyone mind his own portion: let sinners apply those threatenings that belong to them, that by repentance they may have right to those blessings, which yet belong not to them. The Word of God is like Gold, saith the Psalmist: Gold is so ductile that an ounce of it will be made to cover an acre of land. We can have no wants, which this riches cannot supply, if we mindefully apprehend it. Lex est instar speculi, quod maculas ostendit: Evangelium instar f • ntis, quod ostensas abluit. The Law is a glass to show our spots. (I had not known sin but by the Law) the Gospel is a fountain to cleanse them. Lex est manus, quae viam monstrat: Evangelium est brachium, quod in viam portat. They that mind not the Prophetical hand of direction, shall not have the Evangelical hand of comportation. Cui veritas comperta sine Deo? Cui Deus cognitus sine Christo? Cui Christus exploratus sine Spiritu sancto? Cui Spiritus Sanctus accommodatus sine verbo? Cui verbum profuit sine fidei obsequio? We cannot find the truth without God, nor know God without Christ, nor reach Christ without the Spirit, nor receive the Spirit without the Word, nor profit by the Word without faith. If we truly mind the Law and the Prophets, we find ourselves miserable sinners. Totus homo est inversus Decalogus: to stand in a full contrariety to all the Law, is the very definition of man. The minding of this, will work sorrow: Abraham cannot but be troubled with malapert Hagar: the flesh is a cursed concubine, as Anthony of Guevarra would not wish a man worse sorrow for his sins, than he had that had an ill Wife. The feeling of this smart will teach us to decline the cause: contraries are cured by contraries. Maledixisti? Benedicas. Hast thou cursed? Bless. Hast thou defrauded? Restore, Hast thou envied? Love. Hast thou offended in excess? Fast.

Many a sin had been avoided by this mindefulnesse; and yet that sin is the [unspec 3] worse that is done after mindefulnesse. There is a practical judgment in the heart; while it considers (on the one side) the danger of sin, in offending God: and (on the other side) the pleasure and profit of sin, which redounds to the flesh: while it puts in the one balance, God and all his Commandments: in the other, sin and all his appurtenances. If now after this poising, 〈◊〉 prefers sin, it had better never have weighed them: this is indeed to refuse Christ, and to choose Barabbas.

There was never more need of motives to mindefulnesse: (for this connexeth [unspec 4] the two verses.) If the pure minds had need be warned and awakened, what shall we say to the dissolute and indisposed souls, that love on the Lord's days their own private thresholds, or a room in Taverns, better than the Courts of God's House? We cry to drunkenness, that wallows in the puddle of excess; Be mindful, lest the day of judgment find you beasts; and leave you no drink, but a draught of the lake of Brimstone, that shall ever inflame, never cool your tongues: Yes, and they are mindful, upon the next occasion to follow their cups. We cry to adultery, • umbling in the luxurious bed of uncleanness; Be mindful: lest yourselves and your Strumpets be bound up in bundles, and cast into an unquenchable bed of flames: and they are mindful; but it is to watch the next opportunity of their former wantonness. We cry to Idolatry, that kills herself in the bosom of that Babylonish Whore; Be mindful: or God shall throw you and your Jezebel into the bottomless pit: and they are mindful; but it is for the next Mass, to worship that Stepdame on their knees. We cry to voluptuousness, that swaggers in the supposed Jubilee of her endless pleasures; Be mindful: lest your pastime be shut up in weeping, and howling, and gnashing of teeth: and they are mindful; but it is of their next Rendevous appointed for riot. We cry to oppression, that crusheth the bones of the poor with her bloody jaws; Be mindful: and they are mindful, but it is of the next cruel purchase. It were great pity, if all their violence and extortion should not extort from the hands of God, their own portion of vengeance. We cry to blasphemers, with whom oaths be as common as the stones in our streets; Be mindful: or God shall fill your mouths with lamentations and curses. We cry to all sinners; Be mindful of the words of Prophets and Apostles: but as Marius said, he could not hear the laws of the noise of Arms: so they cannot be mindful of these things, for being mindful of their sins and pleasures.

This is the fullness of time, wherein God gave his Son unto sinners: and [unspec 5] this is the fullness of sin, wherein this gift is despised by sinners. Salvation is preached to the lost, and it is lost among them: Life is offered to the dead, and it is become dead with them. God came unto men, and men will not come unto God. Wonder O Heaven, and be amazed O Earth, at the dullness of our unthankful hearts. It is time for you to be mindful; yea, the time is almost past: now is your salvation nearer than when you first believed: and now is your damnation nearer, than when it was first threatened. We are come to the eleventh hour of the day; there is but a twelfth; a few minutes of time between us and judgment. The Son of man hastens his coming, more than the Sun of Heaven hastens his going down: O be mindful. Shall we tarry to be started with the shrillest Trumpet that ever was blown? Our mindfulnesse shall then grow perfect, and we shall be wise, but too late. Then will it only serve to revolve those infinite favors of God, that could not win us; and those innumerable persuasions, that could not work upon us. The Foxes have boles, and the Birds of the Air have nests, but the Son of man hath not where to lay his bead. The Foxes have holes in us; crafts, deceits, and subtleties lodge in our hearts; the Birds of the Air have nests in us: pride, vain-glory, and ambition, dwell in our heads; but neither head nor heart will give any room to Christ: he hath no chamber, no bed, no pillow in our souls, whereon to rest his weary head, that is wer with the dew of heaven, while he stands waiting at our doors. It will grieve all the veins of their hearts, to be mindful of these things when they are past recovery; to think in hell how easily they might have been saved, while they lived on earth, and did not regard it. But now let us be mindful of God, and he will be mindful of us. Is he so near us, even within us, and do we forget him? Shall a whole day pass, and neither we speak to God, nor hear him speaking to us? This were too much between man and wife. No Lord, we will be mindful of thee, in giving heed to thy Word. Be thou mindful of us in thy mercy, and remember us in the day of JESUS CHRIST.

[unspec 1] Next, this is for our conversation. It is a barren mindefulnesse that does not declare it self in an holy fruitfulness. I have heard of a child of nine years old, that could say every syllable of the New Testament by heart, and not fail in returning a line in the right Chapter and Verse: here was an admirable memory. But if all this mindefulnesse be so confined, if it extend not to practice, we had better never have heard of God's Word. The use of operative arts is all in all; especially in Divinity: without which the Vine (through mindefulnesse ) may yield sweet juice: but (through want of practice) it will not make so much as a pin or peg for service. The Prophets and Apostles did not only teach, but do the will of their Master: as we are mindful of their doctrines, so let us also heed their examples. A speechless life hath more force in it, than a lifeless speech. Good works are unanswerable syllogisms, invincible demonstrations; and make any men Preachers; even Preachers like the Sun and Moon; that their sound goes over all the world, publishing God's glory; not in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, which many barbarous nations understand not: but in a common language, the mother tongue of every country. The bells that towled to the Sermons of the Prophets and Apostles, were their miracles: these made way into men's hearts for their doctrine. Miracles are ceased, and now good conversation comes in their place. They carried, as the soldiers of Gideon, in one hand the burning lamp of a good life; in the other, the shrill trumpets of Preaching: with these weapons they conquered the Midian world. Two things are to the esse of a Christian; Profession and Practice of the truth. The best argument of our conversion, is our good conversation: our works do justify that faith, which doth justify us.

The Apostles did not only preach heavenly Sermons, but do gracious [unspec 2] deeds: therefore a whole book was written of their Acts. Saint Luke wrote of all that Jesus begun to do and teach: who was a Prophet mighty, not only inward, but in deed. Go and tell John what things ye have heard and seen. Words are but wind, and vanish into wind: a ship leaves as much impression in the Sea, as they do in many an heart. There is an inartificiall argument, which is all the country-man's Logic: as the Martyr answered Bishop Boner; My Lord, I cannot dispute for the Truth, but I can die for the Truth; and that was a taking argument. To do well, is the art of a Christian: to do, is every man's: to do well, is the Christians. Bene is of few letters, of great operation; for it is the force of all arts. Rhetoric, is the art of speaking well; Logic, the art of disputing well; Magistracy, the art of governing well: so Christianity is the art of living well. Every Magistrate that governs, doth not govern well: nor doth every Christian that lives, live well. Estote factores verbi: we must distinguish between agere and facere: the first is to do a business whereof nothing comes after it: facere is to make a thing; as when a building is made, it remains. Actors present a show on the stage, which being spoken, and ended, there is an end of it; it hath no farther extent. But Factors trade and traffic in foreign countries; and bring in their masters commodities and adventures, out of which ariseth profit. All the gain of our souls comes from the doing of these things: without which knowledge leaves us but dishonorable to God, uncomfortable to ourselves, scandalous to others: in no nearer terms to happiness, than Balaam, and Judas, and the devil himself; who the more they know, it is the worse for them: they do but teach God how to condemn them.

Thus he that increaseth knowledge, increaseth sorrow. Erasmus in a Dialogue [unspec 3] calls such a man, Cyclops Evangeliophorus; a swaggering Ruffian that would be thought a Christian. He had hanging at his girdle, on the one side, a Testament fairly gilt, bound, and bossed: on the other side a bottle of rich sack. To convince him, he is asked; what if he were tied to carry that bottle always at his girdle, and never to taste of it; or to taste it only, and never to drink it down: were not this a punishment as real, as that of Tantalus was Poetical. But what if he did, as his manner was, drink soundly of it; would it not then warm his heart, quicken his spirits, cheare his countenance? Yes, but much more would that Book do so, if he would spiritually feed on it, concoct, digest, and turn it into nutriment, in this life and conversation. Otherwise, it was but a poor use and benefit of his Bible, that one day in a rage he had broken a fellows head with it, that inveighed against the Gospel. Alas, to carry a Bible in our hands, and not to have a lesson of it in our hearts; not to be mindful of this Doctrine in our practice; is but like the Ass that carries dainty burdens, and feeds upon Thistles. In effect, a man knows no more than he does: as the worldling hath indeed no more riches, than he useth to his comfort. The Hebrews had an imprecation; If I forget thee, O Jerusalem; let my right hand forget her cunning. If men will not do the good they know, they shall soon lose the knowledge of the evil they do. It being just with God to punish the shipwreck of a good conscience, with the loss of the fraught of knowledge. He that never gave prescript, does not write himself Physician: why doest thou refuse good deeds, and call thyself Christian? The Angel called his Name Wonderful, because he did wonderfully, and made good his Name by his action. If we lay claim to that honorable name of Christians, let us do the works of Christians. Here lies the difficulty of all: the Doctrine of the Prophets and Apostles is contained in a little room: the Sanctions and Rules to be done, are set down in brief Summaries: so they are soon learned, easily known. But the motions, directions, reprehensions, persuasions, and such appurtenances of practice; these have enlarged the Volume of the Scriptures: these lengthen our Sermons, and multiply books. Line upon line and precept to precept: not for new laws, but pressing obedience to the old. To be effectually mindful.

1. Let us desire the faculty and facility of doing: earnestly to desire it, is one half, yea the best half. Bene velle est dimidium rei. Socrates could say; he that would be an honest man, shall soon be one; and is past the hardest part of the work. An hearty affection to goodness, is the first step to goodness, a great help to goodness, a special sign of goodness. This will breed prayer for goodness, to the fountain of all goodness, Christ: without whom we can do nothing, but lie be calmed, unable to move or promove; as a ship on the Sea, or a mill on the land, without the wind, and breath of his Spirit. Thus let us begin the morning in a serious acknowledgement of our own disability and deadness to every good work; praying for will, as if we had none; and begging grace, as if we were quite empty: grace preventing and subsequent, grace operative and cooperative, grace preserving and perfecting. Let us beseech him not only to regenerate us with new principles of motion; but to renew his inspirations upon every act of ours; that we by Christ, or rather Christ by us and in us may do all things.

2. Let us be thrifty husbands of time and means to be spiritually rich. If a man neglects the occasion, the occasion will neglect him. As we desire that all Sermons should be pertinent and applicatorie to us; (as if, like our Sutes of apparel, they were made for us, and for nobody else, they do so fit us) so let our ears drink in the matter, that our eyes be fixed on our own conscience. Let us lay ourselves to the Rule, and examine how we and that do agree. At the end of every Period let us ask our heart, How have I obeyed this Precept? How have I been bettered by this reproof? How comforted by this promise? Wanton hands gather only the flowers, but good huswives look to the • uit and herbs of the Garden. Some like little children, mind not the Liquor in the Cup, but only the paint and garnish; and in fondness of that, spill the Liquor. Or like Monkeyes, who looking in a Glass, think they see another Monkeyes face, not their own. We are so kind to ourselves, that we can find any man's fault in the Glass of the Scripture, sooner than our own. We have piped to you, but you have not daunced: All that you observe, is the sound of our Pipe, not how your own feet do dance unto it.

3. Let us reduce all to practice. Charmes are said to have no effect, unless one go with a belief unto them. Surely, Preaching shall do us no good, except we come with a mind to be bettered by it. Now it were hard, if after all this discourse of mindfulnesse, you have not been mindful of the discourse. The Alarm of a Clock is set, to summon us to business at such an hour, but if we wake not with the Alarm, all is lost. It is a common saying, Now the Sermon is done; and it may be, you long to say so at this time. But consider, it is not done, till you have done it. The Christian Tell-tr • th speaks of a Lady, who asked her servants whether the Sermon was done, or no. They answered; Yes, it is done. But she smartly replied; Dicta, non facta concio: It is spoken, it is not done. You have had many Sermons; for constancy against backsliding, for patience against murmuring, for charity against covetousness, for sobriety against excess, for refraining your tongues from profane speeches and ungodly Oaths; for obedience to the words of the Prophets and Apostles, against the formal profession of perfunctory hearers: Sermons ever spoken, never done. O these were tedious Orations: but on whose side lay the tediousness? How unhappily are all these holy discourses lost, through unmindfulnesse? How is mindfulnesse it self lost in the want of practice? The Doer is blessed in his deed: It is our deed, to speak God's Word unto you; to do it, is both ours and yours: Doing crowns all. I will hold you no longer: Now you may say, This Sermon is spoken and done by the Preacher: God grant we may say, It is practiced and done by the hearers.

THe main scope of the Apostle, both in the latter part of the former Chapter, the beginning of this, and the connection of both, is to cautionate his Converts of relapsing into those sins, from which they are redeemed by the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This strong Bulwark or Skonce he hath fortified against all the battery of the world, and assaults of Satan, by many arguments: First, by discovering the policies and villainies of seducers, those fatal engines of Hell, set to bring back escaped souls, to the kingdom of darkness. Secondly, by the miserable cozenage of those that are perverted by them: who leaving the true liberty, which they counted a bondage; do fall into the true bondage, which they vainly count liberty: so of God's servants, they become Satan's slaves, and sins drudges. Thirdly, by the execrable event of this Apostasy; whereby they become besotted men, entangled birds, polluted beasts, incarnate Devils. Fourthly, by redoubling his Epistles, to inculcate and drive this holy Naile of admonition into their minds; that they may never forget the wretched estate from which they are delivered. Fifthly, by way of encouragement, comforting them in the benefit of their happy progress: wherein if they persevere with steddie faithfulness, their end shall be everlasting life. Sixthly, and lastly, by preventing a scandal, and removing a block, which the malicious spirit might lay in their ways; the Atheistical impiety of many in the latter times: who both by their mouths and manners, persuasions and examples, call Christianity into question, and move a doubt, whether there be a God, or no. Nor do they only dispute this by way of problem; but are impudent and audacious in the negative, and labor to destroy all opinion of that Deity in the world, which made both the world and them. This then being the main Centre, the Pole, and cardinal Axletree whereon this place moves, I will in general say a little of it.

What man hath so steadily trode on God's earth, that he hath not stumbled; [unspec 1] or stumbled, and not fallen: yea fallen, and hath not layne some space on the ground? With what a trembling heart may we look upon the miscarriages of some of God's dearest servants? Noah and Lot by Wine, David and Samson by women, and Solomon worst of all. Who can do other than yearn and fear, to see the woeful wrack of so rich and goodly a Vessel? Was not Solomon He, whose younger years God honored with a message and style of Love? To whom God twice appeared in a gracious Vision, renewing the covenant of his favor? Whom he singled out from all the generations of men, to be the founder of that glorious Temple; which was as clearly the type of Heaven, as himself was of Christ? Was not he that deep Sea of Wisdom, which God had ordained to send forth Rivers and Fountaines of all divine and human knowledge, to all Nations, to all Ages? Was not he one of those select Secretaries, whose hand it pleased the Almighty to employ in three pieces of the divine Monuments of sacred Scriptures? Yet even this Solomon fell into a soul defection. Which of us can hope to aspire unto his graces? Which of us can promise to secure ourselves from his ruins? We fall, we fall, even to the lowest hell, if God do not prevent us, if he do not sustain us. Vphold me according to thy Words that I may live: all our weakness is in ourselves, all our strength in God. Let the Lord be strong in our weakness, that our weak knees may be ever steady in his strength. If we fall from our God, as Mephibosheth from his nurse, we presently grow lame. If these holy ones fell, we have cause to look to our standing.

[unspec 2] Sin hath a thousand tongues to plead for it, God hath lent me a weak one to plead against it. Let us think thus, when we are tempted to sin; that we are now about to lose our God, to cast away all the hopes and comforts of another world, to rob ourselves of all those sweet mercies we enjoyed; to thrust the Spirit out of doors, which cannot abide to dwell within the noisome stench of our sins; to lock ourselves out of the gates of heaven; to open the g •• es of hell, and cast ourselves down headlong into that dungeon. Thus let f •• re teach us to repel temptations, but love more prevailingly. Have we found our God so gracious to us, that he hath denied us nothing, either in earth or heaven: and shall we not deny our own lusts for his sake? Hath our dear Savior bought our souls at such a price, and shall he not have them? Was he crucified for our sins, and shall we by our sins crucify him again? Do we take his wages, and do his enemy service? Was his blood so little worth, that we should tread it under our feet? Hath he honored us, that we should dishonor him? Is this the fruit of his beneficence, our thankfulness? Doth he mean us blessedness, and is this the way we take to come unto it? Hath he prepared heaven for us, and do we thus prepare ourselves for heaven? Is this the recompense of his love, to do that which he hates? If we would make surer this remedy, let us look upwards, backwards, inwards, forwards. First, upwards, at the omnipotent greatness, and infinite goodness of that God, in whose face we sin. If we could truly discern the holiness of his nature, the nature of his mercy; though there were no hell, no punishment, we would not transgress. Secondly, backwards, to the innumerable favors, wherewith he hath blessed, graced, honored us: all which are so many bonds, that oblige us to obedience. Thirdly, inwards, to that noble calling wherewith he hath dignified us; the holy profession we have made of that calling, the eye of the world fixed upon that profession; the vow and covenant whereby we have confirmed it; the gracious beginnings of God's Spirit in us, which by this present sin we are about to extinguish. Fourthly, forwards, to the joy which will follow upon our forbearance: compare but the momentary and unpleasing delight of a sin in doing, with that sweet peace of conscience and blessed expectation of glory, which we preserve by avoiding it. If we could think of all this in a temptation, we would fling defiance in the face of Satan; and refuse for the short pleasure of a filthy sin, to lose all these happy and lasting comforts.

[unspec 3] But alas, there be many that sin and live not, but there are none that live and sin not. Our comfort is, we have a constant God; who, whom he loves, to the end he loves. I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed. My loving kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faithfulness to fail. The fall of Solomon was a spectacle able to affright all the sons of men; yet not without some glimpse of comfort. Sensible grace might seem to leave him, not final mercy. In the desperate Winter, the sap was gone down to the root, though it shown not in the branches. Solomon removed; the Word of God removed not: My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing th •• is gone out of my lips. The Lord's favor doth not depend upon man's obedience. If Solomon shall suffer his faithfulness to fail towards his God; God will not requite him with the failing of his faithfulness to Solomon. If Solomon break his covenant with God, God will not break his covenant with the father of Solomon, with the son of David. His correction is limited, he shall smart, he shall not perish. This is our only tenure; The mercy of God endures forever: his promise is Yea and Amen in Christ: and whiles we change, his Word shall stand. This is that which gives strength to the languishing, comfort to the despairing, to the dying life. Whatsoever we are, God will be still himself; true to his Covenant, constant to his decree. The sins of his chosen can neither frustrate his Counsel, nor out-strip his mercy. Their offense hath gone before, their repentance shall follow after; not more slow than sure. Almost ten months doth David run on impetuously in a way of his own, rough and dangerous: at last the conscience of his sin, and fear of judgment shall bring him on his knees; I have sinned greatly in that I have done. It is possible for a sin not to bait only, but to sojourn in the holiest soul: but though it sojourn there as a stranger, it shall not dwell there as an owner. The heart that shall be saved, after some rovings of error, will not be long ere it return home to it self; and fall out with that ill guide wherewith it was misled, and with it self for being misled. Now it is resolved into tears, and breaths forth nothing but sighs, and confessions, and deprecations. Solomon, of a wanton lover, shall become a grave Preacher of mortification; and quench those inordinate flames with the tears of his repentance. You might hear him sighing deeply betwixt every word of that his solemn penance, which he would needs enjoin himself before all the world; I have sinned, and am weary of my vanities: Hear now the end of all, Fear God, and keep his Commandments.

But as they that fear the Lord, will not from this mercy fetch matter of [unspec 4] presumption; so if any do presume, let them hear their correction. The justice of God is inseparable from his love: there be rods for the backs of sinners, though they be the children of his own Fatherhood. All their devout penance cannot avoid temporal punishments; no child would be whipped, if he might scape for crying. Nothing but love and peace sounded in the name of Solomon: nothing else was found in his reign, while he held in good terms with God. But when once he fell foul with his Maker, all things began to be troubled; and he found many enemies. God that did put away David's sin, even his adultery clothed with murder, upon his penitence; did not yet forbear to strike him; not only in the death of a mis-begotten infant; but in the ruin of his children that nearer concerned him. When with great humiliation he sought for pardon of that needless muster; yet he hath but the choice of three terrible scourges, with which of them he had rather to bleed. He shall have the favor of an election, not of a remission. God would have us make account that our peace ends with our innocence: the same sin that sets debate between God and us, arms all creatures against us. It is pity we should be at any quiet, while we are fallen out with the God of peace. Sleep pays no debts, but debt breaks many a sleep. When the household-stuff of a Merchant that died far in debt, was set forth to sale; there was one that bought only a pillow: because he thought it had some rare virtue in it to get one asleep; seeing he could sleep on it that ow'd so many debts. But if men be deep in arrearages with God, far in his debt; and yet can sleep and be secure; God bless me from their bed or pillow. Surely I will not go up into my bed, nor give sleep to mine eyes, until I find out a place for the Lord: yea, till the Lord find a place in me. If the father be angry with the son, no joy will down with him: he refuseth not only his sport and pleasure, but even meat and sleep, till he be reconciled. Only then we can be merry, when God hath spoken peace to us in JESUS CHRIST.

Knowing this first, &c.] There be some that allow of the Prophets, not of the Apostles; as the blinded Jews. Some stick to the Apostles, and mind not the Prophets; as profane Libertines, that would have the benefit of the Gospel, but not be tied to the Law. Some deny neither the Prophets nor Apostles in word, but both in effect: while they prefer to them both their own traditions and constitutions, as do the Papists. There be other that deny all, reject all; which are the Atheists: upon whose discovery we are now fallen.

Knowing this first; be not ignorant of so infallible a truth. That there shall come; if none such yet appear: they will be manifest too soon. In the last days: all times have been evil, the last are the worst: some perhaps may antedate this term, for the Apostles time was not free from Infidels. Scoffers; such as make a mock of all religion and godliness, and labor to disgrace the worship of God with foul aspersions. Walking after their own lusts: this is the end and scope of all their forced and forged imputations: they would put out the candle, that they might walk the more securely in the dark. The Word of Truth controles their vicious affections; therefore they, to maintain those affections, control the Word of Truth: but the truth shall confound them all.

In the former verse Saint Peter charged us with the mindefulnesse of the Prophets; now he is become a Prophet himself, fore-telling future things that shall happen in the latter times. The parts of the Text are A

• Preparation; Knowing this first.
• Prediction; There shall come in the last days.
• Description; Scoffers, walking after their own lusts.

In the Preparation we have to observe three things:

1. The carefulness of the Apostle to remove a scandal, that might trouble them in their way of integrity. If this be the way of truth, why is it not generally embraced? Why do the great Politicians of the world, which have so deep an insight into the nature of things, despise it? Why do they expose it to contempt, if it were the infallible Rule of verity? To clear this Dilemma, to resolve this doubt; know this first, that such men shall come in the last times; it stands with God's Ordinance: not a scoff shall fall upon his Gospel, nor any mis-usage be done to his servants, without a Providence. It is his just will to befool all those, that will be wise without him. Yea, therefore is it the more likely to be the truth, because the wits of the world dispute against it. Where shall you find Tertullus, but fee'd and retained against Paul? If a stranger come, all the Dogs of the Town will be barking at him. There is nothing causeth so much noise and wrangling, as the opposition of goodness.

Example is a cruel Tyrant, and commands Imitation. There is one artless persuasion, that prevails more with the world, than all the places of reason: Thus did my forefathers: Thus do the most: I am neither the first, nor the last. How many millions miscarry upon this ground? Men commonly think that either safe or pardonable, for which they can plead a precedent. But they sails in a weak Bottom, that have no more warrant for their resolution; than the practice of others. The mind can never be steady, while it stands upon others feet; nor until it be settled upon such grounds of assurance, that it will rather lead than follow: till it can say with Joshua; Whatsoever becomes of the world, I and my house will serve the Lord. Woe be to him, whom the scoffs of the world can flowt out of his faith. Say, the stream of the time doth run against godliness, shall we not swim against the stream? You will reply, What can one man do against a whole throng of wickedness? Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance, that God forbears to plague where he finds but a sprinkling of faith. As the celestial bodies, which being carried about with the sway of the highest Sphere, yet creep on their own ways: so let us continue the course of our own holiness, against the swinge of common corruptions. Thus shall we both deliver our own souls, and help to with-hold judgment from others. The howting of the Owl stops not the •• ging of the Nightingale; nor doth the Eagle forbear her flight, because there is a Raven in her way: the barking of the Dog stays not the shining of the Moon. Never let the taunts of Ishmael make Isaac out of love with his inheritance.

2. Knowledge is needful, not only of the main substance, but even of circumstances: there is no concerning matter whereof God would have us ignorant. The way of Salvation; that's the best knowledge; that unum necessarium, without which we cannot be happy. Seek for it as for hid treasures. The Mine of God lies not within the teach of the first spade; we must dignity deep to find it. First seek the Kingdom of Heaven; then refuse not temporal things. There be some things we would know for avoidance: Mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them. It is a true saying, Knowledge is no burden: the more a man hath, the less he feels the weight. That he wants, you may hear him confess: you never hear him complain of too much. He that sits down with an imagined sufficiency of knowledge, is not at all delivered from the mist of ignorance. The Pontificians flatter their people, as those Confederates of Corah did Israel; The Congregation is holy enough. The people are wise enough. But what, Do we look to be made wise by miracle? To have all knowledge inspired into us at once? Must not Moses be trained up in the wisdom of Egypt, and Paul in the School of Ga • aliel? It may be, we are but newly dedicated to the Lord, and God hath but begun with us, because we have yet but begun with him: we may not look for sudden motions, and strange inspirations, without time, growth, and degrees. Scholars do not shoot up in a night, like Mushromes: nor is their coming to knowledge like Caesars expedition to conquest; Veni, vidi, vici. Some early wits have presumed to wrest knowledge from their mother in a short space; as the prodigal son did wring his portion out of the hands of his father: much good might it do them: and I would to God, that what they got by sudden and uncouth achieving, they would not, as he did, waste it again by riotous living. Shall they that never sweet at their deskes, so quickly know enough to serve their turns, that they should sit down, and sing Plaudites, to their own brains?

A little knowledge puffs up, much humbles. The famous wits of the time, that are the Gardens and Ornaments of secular learning, scorn to hang on the lips of a Priest for knowledge. Who can teach them? Preachers are but bunglers: they will scarce consult the Book of God, except it be for niceties and criticismes. Daniel humbly went to the Lord for his Revelations: Nunquid in sapientior Daniele? Are they wiser than Daniel? Proficiendo lego, legendo proficio: and yet he was no small Clarke that said so. Other men are fain to search the bowels of the earth for gold: they are strangely happy that find it in the superficial skin. What, are they the heirs of Solomon, and so have wisdom by entailement? Alas, he could not give this to his own Son for a Legacy. He bequenched all his labor to him; yet he saith; Who can tell whether he shall be a wise man, or a fool? As the greatest persons cannot give themselves children, so the wisest cannot give their children wisdom. He that reads the Story of Reb • l ••• shall find that Solomon's wit was not propagated. Many a fool hath had a wiser son than that wisest Father.

There is store of wit in the world, I dare not so much commend the plenty of wisdom: This is pure, peaceable, gentle, &c. But the cavils of the age bewray, that men contend rather for credit, than for instruction: as wrangling •••• sters show they play for money, not for recreation. Pride is the fruit that no commonly grows on this Tree of knowledge. Thou thinkest thyself a knowing man, quick in apprehension, present of invention, sound in judgment: praise God for this; thou wast not borne so. Another is neither witty, nor intelligent, nor judicious; despise him not for this. God 〈◊〉 whether thou thyself mayest not die so. Presumptuous knowledge may be overcome with distraction, and subtlety and in an apoplexy; yea, and beat out her 〈◊〉 brains. Common experience maketh it more than probable, that unless we be seasoned with grace, and understanding with sobriety; a man may most miserably survive his own wit, and out-live his own understanding. Knowledge, only for private satisfaction, is but a courtezan, more for pleasure, than for propagation. Yet God would have us know, and that both good and evil; not only his friends, but even his very enemies; as here the scoffing Atheists. As himself hath Scientiam apprehensionis, whereby he knows all and 〈◊〉 approbationis, whereby he only knows his elect. So we are to know 〈◊〉 good and evil; both by the knowledge of distinction good only by the knowledge of approbation.

But many refuse to know, because they would not be bound to do they are mere Skeptickes, because they would not be practickes. They care not to ••• mine which is the true Religion; that of Rome, or this of England; because they desire to be of neither the one, nor the other. So the slothful 〈◊〉 hears, how one neighbor is troubled with preserving his young Lambes, another with plowing his grounds, weeding his Graine, inning his Harvest; how unseasonable showers cross their hopes; therefore he applauds himself in his stupid sluggishness, and cries, Well fare nothing once by the year. The indifferent worldling sees this man vexed for his zeal, that other hated for his knowledge; a third persecuted, martyred for the profession of his faith: and he says within himself, Well fare a quiet ignorance. So his body is but like a lump of scarce-moving earth, and his soul a standing puddle in the midst of it. He cares not to put any difference between the right and the wrong, between the suffers and the contemned: the holy and unholy are all one to him. Sed quia s • ire noluis quid sit distinguere, sentire cogetur quid sit distingui. Because they will not know what it is to distinguish, they shall be forced to feel what it is to be distinguished; when Christ shall put them on the left hand, among the Goats, with a Go ye cursed. Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked; between him that feareth God, and him that feareth him not. Alas for the common Religion of our times, which is scarce better than Socrates his uncertainty: the people perish for want of knowledge; not that there is any lack of Manna, but they will not gather it. Nesciunt, quia nescire cupiunt. I know there be some, that of evident truths make disputable Problemes; as, Whether Rome be the true Church, Whether God may be worshipped before Images, Whether the Sabbath be not a fit day to play and revel on, Whether the elect can finally fall from grace: shortly it will come to this, Whether the Scripture be Scripture; and, Whether there be a God, and Christ, or no. But woe to them that doubt, where God is plain. The Lord shall come in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the Gospel of Jesus Christ. If flaming fire be their portion, that knew not God, and could not: how terrible shall be their vengeance, that might know him, and would not?

3. We must know this; that is granted: and then the place is assigned; we must know it first. The Apostle doth not mean a priority of excellency, but of conveniency: not a primum, that is, Omni lo •• • essarium; sed h •• loco 〈◊〉 dissim •• m. There be far greater and more noble objects of ou • knowledge, which he had formerly propounded, and presumes they had happily digested. But now he comes to discover certain spirits of contradiction, and chargeth them to take notice of this first; that such men shall be in the last d •• es: when they may know when they meet them, by these qualities, as a Thief is deserved by his marks. As a Traveler is premonished; there will Robbers and B •••• lers lie in the way: lest they close in with you unsuspected, by these tokens you shall discern them, and avoid them. If you there with profane beasts in the shapes of men, scoffing at all Religion, and giving themselves over to sensuality; you see nothing but what you did foresee. You know first there would be such, and you see now there are such: it falls but bu • 〈◊〉 according to my prediction. Behold, I have told you before.

This then be the Sum of it: Know this first, learn this lesson before you take out a new: when you have rehearsed this well I will read you another. There be some that car • not to know, and there be some that care for nothing else but to know▪ Ev •• •••• ing, 〈…〉 able to come to the knowledge of the truth. Yea, ever knowing, but never coming to the practice of the truth. Like some sick men that lie bed-rid, having the • senses, memory and speech; but no faculty loco-motive, no power to stir hand or foot. Or like changlings, ever sucking, never battering: or tedious Musicians, ever tuning, never playing. They would devour ten Sermons a week, but digest not one rule or doctrine. Still they are calling for more lessons, not minding to learn this first. He was no common fool, that being somewhat fearful of the water, when the King had him ride in further and deeper, for fear of soundring his Horse; answered him; Soft and fair, let him drink up this first. Let those unnatural appetites be so served; that are calling for their afternoon-bevers, before they have concocted their dinners; Soft and fair, digest this first. Hoc primum scite, saith our Apostle: let us see some good proof of that you have already heard, in your new lives: and then we shall cheerfully come to you with new lessons. Be content to know first one thing, and then another; that by degrees you may come to the fullness of knowledge, and grow up to the measure of the stature of JESUS CHRIST.

Thus for the Preparation: the Prediction follows; wherein are two points. First, they shall come. Secondly, when they shall come; In the last days.

1. They shall come. Far be it from us here, to touch God with the least aspersion of sin. Shall any man inquire, how there can be such stirs, tumults, and garboiles in the world, when as God sits at the Helme? The question is hard, and being pressed too far, may prove dangerous. Saint Augustine himself confesseth, That after it had racked and tortured him, to find out the cause of evil, it turned him into a Manichean heretic. A modest and short answer is that of the School. In particular administrations, a provident Ruler preventeth, what in him lies, all inconveniences. But in the universal Government, it seemed best to the Divine wisdom to suffer some evil: not for want of power to hinder it, but out of his abundant goodness. If God did not permit some evil, we should want much good: the good of his Justice and Mercy, which shine forth both in his severe Judgments, and gracious Indulgence. Goodness (without this) had not been so illustrated; her opposite makes it more amiable. As out of the salt brackish Sea, sweet showers are exhaled: so from man's evil, the Almighty power hath drawn the comfortable dews of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. These deriders of religion cannot fetch in God as a Patron of their impiety: God shall fetch in them as unwilling instruments of his glory. They are not thus wicked because God foretold it: but therefore God foretold it, because they will be thus wicked, that their wickedness might not hurt his chosen.

As sin is a punishment of sin, it is a part of Justice: the holy One of Israel doth not abhor to use even the grossest sins to his own just purposes. Whiles our wills are free to our own choice, his decrees are as necessary, as just. The house of Judah would have fought against Israel for Rehoboam; but God forbad them; For this thing is from me, saith the Lord. We may observe, Jeroboam plot, the people's insolence, the young men's mis-advise, the Princes unseasonable austerity; all disposed by the omnipotent providence to accomplish his just decree: he had purposed it, what shall hinder it? All these might have done otherwise, for any sense that was offered to their wills: all would do no otherwise, than if there had been no preordination in Heaven. Israel had forsaken the Lord, and worshipped Ashtaroth, and Ch ••• s • , and Milchom: God owes them a whipping: the frowardness of Rehoboam shall pay it there. Who would not have looked any whither for the cause of this evil, rather than to Heaven? yet the holy God challengeth it to himself, This thing is for me. But so, as neither their sins shall taint him, nor his decree justify them. He will be magnified in his Wisdom and Justice, whiles sinners wittingly perish in their follies. It shall double our guiltiness, if we place the necessity of our finding in God's decree. The Philosophers servant being reproved for filching, excused himself, that it was his destiny to steal: but his master answered, so it was also his destiny to be hanged. Desperate wretches may talk thus now; it will be no plea at the last audit, against a Go ye cursed into Hell fire.

2. In the last days.] There is much questioning, when these last days be. Saint Paul says it was not at hand: Saint Peter says, it is at hand. They are thus reconciled. Peter seems to speak of ulti ••• tempus, and that is at hand. Paul of ultimum temporis, and that was not at hand. The end is at hand; but ultima periodus vel linea finis non instat: the last period and line of the end might not be at hand. But how then is it called by Saint John ultima horae, the last hour? Because there is no alteration to succeed it. In the former ages God still altered the condition of the Church: after the covenant made with Adam, it stood in the same state till Noah; then was the world drowned. After the reparation of it, so it continued to Abraham; then was there a renovation of this covenant. From Abraham to Moses, it remained a stranger in the world: then God settled it in the promised land. From Moses to David, it was governed by Captains and Judges; then God stated it in a Monarchy. Thus it abode until the captivity: and again (after that time of bondage expired) was restored to some glory. In the fullness of time God sent his own Son: before it went through many changes and sundry conditions: one while it had only the light of nature, then was it informed by the law written, now it is blessed and established with Grace. And this is ultimus status, novissimum tempus, the last state, because it shall not be followed with any renovations, or alterations: the condition of it by the grace of Christ shall endure to the end of the world: nor can we look for any change but one, which shall be at the universal dissolution of all things. There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins: lose this, and lose all; for he shall come no more to die, but at once to judge quick and dead. Thus the time from Christ's ascension to the worlds end, is called Dies extrema the last day; because it immediately (without any general alteration) goes before it. The end in the Apostles time was not far off; now it must be very near: if that were ultima dies, this is, ultima hora: or if that were ultima hora, the last hour; this is ultimum hora, the last minute.

These being the last days, the last day of them must be at hand. Concerning that day, there are two errors in the world. First, curiosity of Critics; and they ask, Quando erit? When shall it be? Secondly, security of sluggards; and they never ruminate of an Erit quando, whether it shall be at all. That is the excess, and possesseth the wit: this is the defect, and disables the will. The former is of men over-wise, and they hasten the judgment: the other, of men too supine and careless, and they would slacken the judgment.

[unspec 1] First, for the busy Inquirers; they be such as refuse the plain ground, to walk upon pinnacles. Like the Bethshemites, that were not content with seeing the Ark, but they must see into the Ark, and so perish. Praterita ante mundum, & futura a post mundum, scire non possumus: media tantùm contemplamur. There be some things which the wisdom of God desires to conceal; wherein unreverence is not more faulty than curiosity. Secret things to God, revealed things to us and our children. Why doest thou inquire my name, which is secret? says the Angel. In that Vision of theirs, the moral whereof was good, inquiry was made what became of Samsons soul. The answer was, It is a secret; that none might dare to destroy himself after his example: whose act was rather for wonder, than for imitation. What became of Solomon's soul? It is a secret: that none might dare to fall from the light of knowledge, into the works of darkness. What became of Origen's soul? It is a secret: that none might presume to dally with the Scriptures, and make a shadow of a plain History. What became of Trajans soul? It is a secret: that none might venture to do all that Trajan did. Men may soon be too bold with hidden mysteries: he that modestly looks upon the Sun, sees a glorious Torch, and receives a comfortable light: but he that fixeth his eyes too earnestly upon it, is struck blind: and because he will see more than he should, comes in the end to see nothing at all.

If we stand a moderate distance from the fire, it warms and comforts us: if [unspec 2] too near, it will scorch and burn us. Our God is a consuming fire. Every Seraphin had six wings, with two he covered his face, with two his feet, and with two he did fly. He covered his Face, keeping us from the secrets of God's eternal predestination, in the Beginning: he covered his Feet, not disclosing when he will come to judge the world, in the End. Therefore Ne nos addamus inquirere, quod Deus non addidit dicere. Solomon tells us, that the locks of the Spouse are curled, and his hairs black as a Raven. The secrets of God's providence are curled and intortled, we cannot unfold them: his hair black, his ways past finding out. O the depth of the riches of his wisdom; how unsearchable are his judgments! As a man wading into the Sea, when he comes up to the neck, and feels the water begin to heave him up, and that his feet fail him; he cries, O the depth, and goes back again. Paul's last Doctrine (God hath concluded them all in unbelief, &c.) was a secret enough to swallow up any created understanding: therefore he sets a bar against all further search; O the depth; not to be fadomed by any reach of man: We may sooner fetch mould from the Center of the earth, or dig through it to the Antipodes. His ways are past finding out; a Metaphor taken from quick-scented Hounds; who will be at a loss, when there is left neither tract, nor print, nor sent of the pursued Game. We may as well line out the way of a ship on the waves, or the walk of an arrow through the air; as find out the reserved ways of God. Such is man's parvitie and nothingness, in comparison of his Maker.

Let us not dote about questions that are too high for us: we may think it a [unspec 3] wisdom, Saint Paul calls it a dotage. Though the Lord dwells in light: yet is it such a light as no man can attain unto. Some are more busy to learn what and where Hell is, than the means how to escape it. Or, what God did before the world began, than what he will do with them when the world is done. Or, whether we shall know one another in heaven, than to know that themselves have an Inheritance there. Or, whether Christ did locally descend into hell, in soul, or in power; not suspecting their own ways of sin which lead them thither. It is good to leave off learning, where God hath forborne teaching. Tutum est nescire quod tegitur: we shall never be condemned for being ignorant of that, which we are not bound to know. Let us neither have tongue to ask, nor ear to listen, nor brain to examine, where God hath no will to speak. This Well is deep, and the Spirit hath not given us a bucket. Ne inquiras prohibitum, ne •• ittas concessum. It is not for you to know the times and seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. Content we ourselves with Paul's knowledge, only Jesus Christ, and him crucified.

Yet it is a wonder to see, how many desperate wits have adventured on the [unspec 4] discovery of that, which God hath secreted: and how many insensate hearts have given credit to such Merlins Oracles, and prophecies out of hollow vaults. There is a Judgment belonging to them, whereat they have just cause to tremble. God shall send them strong delusion, that they shall believe a lie; that they all might be damned who would not believe the truth. Aedificantur ad credenda fata, ut eorum cordafiunt fatua. If they will seek to know more than they should, they shall know more than they would; even the heat of that unquenchable fire, whereof wisemen never desire to know more than by speculative meditation. In all ages there have been such drunken Prophets. In the Apostles time, there were such as would have fastened their dreams upon Paul. In Saint Augustine's time there were some that determined the end of the world four hundred years after Christ's Ascension: Quos omnes elusit ipsa temporis experientia: so that the latter days have mocked their former dotage. Such have been their strange collections from divers mystical numbers, in Daniel, and the Revelation; and from the observation of sevens. From Adam to Enoch, in the succession of persons, and then Enoch was translated: from Enoch to Elias, in the succession of ages, and then was Elias taken up: therefore in the seventh thousand years (they infer) all bodies shall rise. Others gather no less from the proportion of the three states of the Church; Millia inane duo, duo lex, duo millia Christus: two thousand years Nature: two thousand years the Law: and two thousand years Christ. But they were deceived in their just computation: and he that could not keep number for the time past, we will never take his reckoning for the time to come. Again, there be some that acknowledge, that neither the day nor the hour can be known; because Christ expressly saith so: therefore (for evasion) they attempt only to find out the year. But most absurdly: for if the last day be unknown, then the day before the last, and the week before that day, and the year which contains that week, and the age which contains that year. But as Saint Augustine saith; That one Text in the first of the Acts, hath bred the Gout in the fingers of all our Pythagorean Count-casters. Saint Bernard better approves an humble ignorance, that confesseth, but presumes not: than a brawling knowledge, that presumeth, but understands not. And Lactantius saith, that the vulgar are not seldom the wiser, because they are no wiser than they should be: light footing makes the better speed in so deep a sand.

[unspec 5] Paul was wrapped up to the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words: not a word of the last day. The Angels know much, by the excellency of their nature, and nearness to the Deity: they know not that. John was the beloved Disciple, he leaned on Christ's bosom, wrote a whole Book of Revelations: he revealed not that Day to us, nor was it revealed to him. Solomon by his miraculous wisdom, spake three thousand proverbs; not one that told us this: a thousand and five songs, yet he never sang of this; otherwise than in this harmony; There is an appointed time for all things: or thus, God shall bring every work unto judgment. Yea, forever to frustrate and prevent all hope of man's attaining to this secret; Neither man, nor Angels know that day, nor the Son himself; but the Father. Not because he could not, but because he would not know it: Ne illam molestiùs feramus ignorantiam, qua nobis cum Angels & Christo communis est. The coming of our Christ, is the Kingdom of our Christ; and this cometh not with observation. He was the expectation of nations: his first coming was long looked for; yet the day not precisely known. He promised to send the holy Ghost; yet his Apostles knew not the day when; but were commanded to abide at Jerusalem, till they were endued with power from on High: they must tarry the good hour. Much less is the term of his last coming notified to any son of man. Let all our care be to find Christ in our hearts, before we see him in the clouds. It was wittily said of Thales, who gazing on the stars, fell into the water; That if he had looked into the water, he might have seen the stars: but looking up to the stars, he could not see the water. While we elevate our curious minds to find out that abstruse mystery, whereof there is no record but in God's own bosom, and thus have our eyes busied above; we cannot see the state of our conscience here below: let us look down to the book of our conscience, and there we shall read the necessity of Christ's coming to Judgment. For if our heart condemn us, God is greater. He was a famous warrior, that if his own Son asked him, when he would remove his campe, would only answer, that he should have notice by the sound of the Trumpet. God hath given us all a sufficient testimony of his future coming; Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in righteousness, by that man whom he hath ordained. If his own dear children shall ask him farther, he refers them to the sound of the last Trumpet: They must wait till those days be fulfilled: this is all their answer.

Next for the secure neglecters of this day; this is the main sin of the [unspec 1] times. In the last days we live, and yet on the last day we do not meditate. The former are so impudent as to point out illum diem: but the most are so impudent as to point out nullum diem: so the last day falls on them, while their first and last and all their sins are found in them. We have such Scoffers as say, Non est finis: Scribarum pennae mendaces: that all God's threatenings are but terricalamenta nutricum: the last fire but an ignis fatuus, and brutum fulmen. Thus the Lord's forbearance hath been made but the fuel of their presumption. The former were too curious, these are too careless. First, to convince those, God hath hid the day of Jesus, as he did the body of Moses; that they may fight among themselves with their own distractions. So that the Poles are not farther asunder, than the opinions of these Calculators. Other times have been expressed; as four hundred years, seventy two weeks: but the determinations of this time are dull incantations to flesh and blood. The eye of neither Eagle nor Kite, Man nor Angel can look into it: Quomodo pectoris angustiae comprehendent vias Domini? Secondly, these other would have no end at all; or such an one as is far enough off. These we tell, It comes; and that as the Scripture ever speaks of it; with celerity. Yet a little while, and he that cometh will not tarry. Behold, I come quickly. They that put far away the evil day, shall find it nearer than they were aware of. Let them fear, that lie folded in the bands of a long night, lest they never see day, but the last day, and that be the beginning of their eternal night. Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night. Let our armor and spiritual furniture be ever ready, propter pavores nocturnos. Doubtless it is near, we even see it, hear it, handle it: Ecce in nubibus: his chariot is made ready.

Of these latter days, one must be the last of all; Ex his extremis diebus una est [unspec 2] extrema dies. That Epistle which Saint Paul so earnestly charged to be read unto all, contained especial exhortation to provide ourselves against the last day. The end of all things is at hand: in which words we see, first, at end. Secondly, and end of all things. Thirdly, an end of all things at hand. An extremity, an universality, and a vicinity. An end; this implies a beginning, proceeding, and declination. Mea • um aequaliter distat ab extremis. The worlds eternity was a brainless do •• ge of some Philosophy. An end there shall be, but Qualis? There is Fi •• s consumem; so the earth with her works shall be burnt 〈◊〉 : and F •• is consu •••• ; so the creatures shall be restored to their original 〈◊〉 and integrity. ••• s • eficiens; The end of all flesh is come▪ and Finis perfi ••• ; There shall be a 〈◊〉 heaven and a new earth wherein dwells righteousnessse. Finis dissolvens, that shall destroy all the vain works of men: and Finis absol ••• , that shall crown all righteous deeds. The ungodly shall find it a destructive end; spoiling their labors, ceasing their pleasures; but beginning their endless 〈◊〉 : they shall die, and not die; as Moses his bush burned and wasted not. Death shall feed on them, as a Vulture on Carrion, and not be satisfied. Quàm miserum est mortem optare, & non posse mori? This is a fearful end; the miserable beginning of that which shall never end. Their end is damnation, and that damnation is without end. The righteous have a perfective end; Behold the just, the end of that man is peace.

[unspec 3] There is one universal end, and last day to all; and this cannot be far off. If you ask for the precedent signs, they may be reduced to fixe, and called thus; a Drumme, a Trumpet, a Famine, a Flood, a Comet, and a new Troope.

1. The Drumme beats up Wars and Massacres, Plagues and Pestilences: And how do the bloody prints of all these stick upon the breast of the world? This Drumme hath beaten too loud; abroad in War, at home in Pestilence: The God of peace and mercy unbrace it, and make it quiet, to our comfort.

2. The Trumpet, is the preaching of the Gospel: This hath not only been heard in Zion, long blown in the Church of God; not only set to the walls of Jericho and Babylon, Rome hath not been free from the sound of it: but it even hath reached the ears of Paganism; and with the shrill noise proclaimed to them either Peace or War, from Jesus Christ.

3. The Famine, is the general decay of all the fruits of goodness: the Vine casts her Grapes, the Earth starves her Trees, the Corn is blasted, the Olives are rotten: I mean all this in a spiritual sense. Religion loseth her honor, for want of good works; the children of piety are become abortive; there is much faith, and little faithfulness; abundance of love, and not a spark of charity. When we look for those holy fruits of the Spirit, Love, faith, meekness, temperance, &c. alas, we must cry out, Famine, Famine.

4. The Flood, is the mighty torrent and inundation of iniquity; which hath so over-run the face of the earth, that the holy Ghost, that most sacred Do •• , finds not a place where to set his foot. In the last days perilous times shall come: for men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, traitors, &c. Oh what a Deluge is here? Good men are like the gleanings of the Vintage, here and there a Grape; far more precious than Gold.

5. The Comet, is that Prodigie of the Christian world, Antichrist in the Seat of Christ: whom the Jesuits direct us to seek, in the Tribe of Dan. And herein they are like those birds, that commonly draw us away from their nests, by their fluttering and noise, for the safety of their young. When they point us to Dan, they cry as the Lapwings, Here 'tis, Here 'tis; that we might not seek it where indeed it is, even at Rome. That Antichrist is come, the horride Treasons, Murders, Massacres, that rage under his Warrant, are too loud and demonstrative arguments.

6. The new Troope, or Band, that shall come into the Church militant, are the elected Jews; whom God, after so long obduracie, shall call home to Jesus Christ. Some think, that their reparation shall begin with our ruin, as with their ruin began our conversion: that as few of the Jews believed, when the Gentiles came in; so few of the Gentiles shall believe, when the Jews return. Indeed the goodness of the Gentiles much faileth, and their state is like a Vessel running at the Tilt, at a low ebb. But why should 〈◊〉 so understand that of Paul: Blindness is in part happened to Israel, until the full •• sse of the Gentiles he 〈◊〉 in? Why should not rather the conversion of the Jews add riches to the •• nesse of the Gentiles?

From all this we may gather, that so deep are we fallen into the latter end of these last days, that (for ought we know) before we depart from this place, we may look for the last fire to flash in our faces. We are they, 〈◊〉 the 〈◊〉 of the world are come. Oh that as they are Termini aetatum, so they were also Termini iniquitatum: that we might see an end of these things, before we see an end of all things. The Heavens wax old as a garment: it is even time for them to have a new Sute. As this little world, Man; so that great Man, the world, hath his childhood in Adam, his youth in Abraham, his middle age in Solomon, his declining in the time of Christ; and now his old age and last days in this decrepit proximitie of death and expiration.

1. An old man decays in his senses: so the eyes of the World wax dim, like Isaac's, and cannot distinguish betwixt Jacob and Esau, between the righteous and unrighteous: hereby it acquitteth the guilty, and condemneth the innocent; both equal abominations to the Lord. His ears are thick of hearing, deaf to all holy counsels: the Word of the Gospel knocks at those doors, and finds none or very cold entertainment.

2. An old man decays in his members: so the World hath Palsy-hands, the keepers of the house tremble; fingers so gowtie, that he cannot distribute the alms of charity. He hath weak and feeble knees, not able to stand under the weight of God's Precepts: The very Grasshopper is a burden, the lightest Commandment held insupportable. His grinders fail, and cannot chewe that heavenly food: His feet double under him, when he should walk in the way of godliness. His Almond-tree flourisheth, a Snow is upon his head: as our Savior said of the fields, Albae ad messem; yea, even Siccae ad ignem. The Pitcher is broken at the Fountain, and the Wheel at the Cistern: he cannot draw the Water of Life, whether from the Deepes or Shallowes. Only his tongue is live and nimble; you may hear him tumble out Oaths as fast as words, though he be dumb in the praises of thankfulness. Now if we see a man, whose Lights grow dim, his face furrowed with wrinkles; either white hairs, or instead of them, baldness; unactive and bedrid limbs; we say, his living date is done: No less be these the last days of the superannuated World.

3. An old man is full of Coughes and Catarres; sensible of, and subject to the least Colds. What find we in the World, but salt rheums and malignant humors of hatred and envy; the choler of unbridled rage, the adust melancholy of self-love; symptoms of an unhappy dotage?

4. An old man is wayward and pettish; nothing can please him: the World is so full of morositie and frowardness, that it is neither well full nor fasting. Prosperity makes it dissolute; crosses, desperate: it is ever querulous, contented never.

5. Old age is Curvata, crooked: so the World is groveling; and hath changed natural erection, to an unnatural minding of earthly things. Still the older, the more covetous: the fewer days it hath to live, the more it provides for. Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue forever: but they abide not, yea, even perish as the beasts. They victual themselves for a year, and their journey is done in an hour.

6. Old age is Verbosa & mendax; talkative, and lying: two Birds that commonly fly out of one Nest; Multiloquus, vaniloquus. The World promiseth wonders; Content, and Riches: but it performs Vanities, Discontent, and Wretchednesse; yet looks to be believed.

7. Old age is Lassa & pigra; weary, and lazy: like a Traveler, that longs to be at his journeys end. The material things of the World hasten to their Center and last period: the whole creature groans to be at rest.

8. Old age is Effaeta, exhausta: the Spirits are spent. The World is ready to say as Sarah: Shall I bear a child now I am old? It bears few of those lively fruits of Piety, and Charity, and Fidelitie, that it did in former times.

9. Old age is frigescens, because exanguis: an old man through the wasting of his blood grows cold: that nature requires helping by an accidental heat. The zeal of the world is so cold, the fire of the Temple so spent to a spark, that for want of fuel and blowing, it is almost out. Much adventitious warmth must be put to it, to keep life in it: as a young virgins was laid by the side of blood-spent David.

10. Old age is somniculosa, drowsy and prone unto sleep. The world hath laid it self down in the cradle of security; the Devil sets his spirits to rock it asleep, and thus it is possessed with a quiet slumber.

Thus are we fallen into the depth of Winter: the Spring is past, the Summer hath had her season, Autumn hath spent her fruits, and now Winter hath shaken down the very leaves, and left us nothing but naked, bare, and barren trees. The last month of the great year of the world is come upon us; we are deep in December: these last days be all Saint Lucies days; short, foul, and dirty. Crampes and convulsions stupefy the nerves of the world, pale coldness sits on our faces, the pangs of death gnaw our heart-strings: the good Angels that visit us, see nothing but signs of departure in all our carriages. O that, as dying men have commonly a little reviving before their ends; (as the wasted candle gives a bright glare at the going out) which they call a lightning against death: so we could a little recover ourselves, and give forth some comfortable beam, some clear testimony of grace, before we go hence. So shall our last day be our best day; ultimum, optimum: and as it puts an end to all the days and nights of measurable, miserable time: so it shall begin that day which neither admits of night nor time: even the eternal day, enlightened with the Sun of righteousness, and glorious presence of our blessed God.

It can be no great wonder, that such profane sinners should be found in the fag end of the world: which is like a false bottom when it comes to be unwound; worst at last. Infelix morbus, Senectus; as Bellarmine called that age wherein Ecclesiastical Writers were so scant, In felix seculum. Much more unblest are these last days, where blessed deeds are so geason: where the enemies of Christ dare show their heads, and ex professo fight against him. Therefore let me a little farther parallel these last days of the world, with the last days of a man.

11. An old man fetcheth his breath thick and short, especially when sickness adds to the decay of nature: so that death sits often like a churl at the door of his lips, and keeps in his words: or like a covetous Executor, that grudgeth a man the disposing of his own goods. O how short be the fits of goodness? How small a space do good motions, the breathing of God's holy Spirit in us, tarry with us? They may bait at our doors, they keep no residence in our hearts. We have some transient ejaculations, which with a short-winded devotion we utter (or rather mutter) to God. But our lusts do so haunt us, and call us off from these holy thoughts, that we may complain with Job; they will not give us leave to swallow down our spittle.

12. In old age, especially when it surpriseth a foul and surfeited body, all the corrupt humors gather down to the feet: the heart, and those more noble parts drive them back to the extremes: and because the feet are lowest, nature repels corruption thither; and not seldom it issueth there: or if not, it wracks them with Gout, Dropsy, and such torments. These last days be the feet of the world, whereunto all the vicious customs of former ages are gathered: as the kennels of a city run to the common Sewer. Ignorance was predominant in one age, Idolatry in another, Hypocrisy in a third, Sacrilege, Oppression, Fraud in another: these mischiefs then had their times to reign single. Now, like so many land-floods from the mountains, they meet in one channel, and make a torrent of united wickedness, in these lower and latter days. Thus after the Golden Head, the shoulders of Silver; the Brazen ribs, and Iron-legs, these last are the feet of Clay, the basest and most rude material of all. Thus are we the grounds, the dregs, and lees of the vessel: the dust in the bottom of the mow; the dross and refuse of former ages, that lick up their vomit: decking ourselves with those iniquities as the ornaments of our pride, whereof our forefathers made a sick acknowledgement with remorse and shame.

13. Dying men are fumbling of the clothes, and plucking the coverings to them: as if they would prevent the hand of charity, and wind up their own almost breathless carcases. Men of the world, in these days so sick of avarice, scrath together all within the reach of their fingers. No fish must escape their draw-net, no water pass by their mill: as if like Behemoth, they would drink up Jordan: and as the flying Jews swallowed their Gold into their gu • s, for which they were ripped up by the Romans: so they seek to devour the world, as if their heirs should never find it but in their excrements. We see men encroach upon liberties, hedge in monopolies, enclose commons, multiply barns and granars, join houses, engross commodities: alas, they are dying souls, Lodices & stragula trahentes, plucking up the blankets and coverlets about them; and giving up the ghost, as they had long before given up the holy Ghost. Thou fool, saith God: they lived wise in their own conceits, they shall die apparent fools,

14. Dying men are troubled with fantasies; full of melancholy dreams, and solicitous imaginations. So these last days of the world are fraught with errors: a thousand peevish opinions crawl out like vermin from putrefied brains: strange worms are bred in old dunghills. These pester the world, disquiet the peace of the Church, and inveigle weak capacities; Problemmata delirantium. Do we wonder that these uncoth singularities transport multitudes? Alas, these are the last days; the brains of the world are cracked; it labors of extreme dotake: and among fools, the Haberdashers shop of trifles hath the most customers. This is the cause of hatching so many new devises, strange tenets and paradoxes, raising mutinies in Religion: the world is brain-sick, fantastical, fanatical; setting up factious opinions, as fast as Solomon's wives did their groves: which I forbear the naming, for fear of teaching. Men love anything better than sobriety of Judgment; which shows that the world hath but few minutes to live.

15. Lastly, an old man comes back again to a child: semel senex, bis pure. The world is so old, that it goes upon crutches; as a child cannot go but by the hand of a Nurse. The understanding and memory of it is so decayed, that it even ceaseth to know, what in the childhood it began to learn. Such is the old ages infirmity, that it is come round to infancy. Mundus quando senex, incipit esse p • er. Not as it is with the material world, whose old age is blessed with an annual reparation: that when the Winter hath deadened all, all are again restored by the cheerful Spring. It is not so in the mystical world; but Se • esce • s mundus est evanescens mundus: a child indeed it is; as prattling as a child, as ignorant as a child, as feeble as a child, as wanton as a child; but far from being as innocent as a child. For levity and vanity, it is altogether childish. An infant is made to grow up to man: but for man to grow down again to infant, is unnaturally preposterous. The Seminale principium is for the creature: the seed is made for the tree: the child, not to remain so, but to be a man. The Oke doth not grow back to a young sprout, nor the Ox to the Calf: alas, that man should degenerate and ungraduate himself to a child, • eneca calls children's works nugae, men's negotiia: if we shall set our minds on p •• rile toys, what is this but to evirate ourselves? For Magistrates not to hear, but whom they list, and when they list; this is to play boys tricks. When a King, Demetrius of Macedon; answered a petitioner, a poor woman, that he had no leisure; she boldly replied, Why then give over to be King. We need not stick to tell an unhearing Magistrate more; Give over to be a Magistrate, yea give over to be a man. If men long for toys, set their delights upon vanities, vex (as children cry) when they may not have their wills, spend their bodies before they get information to their souls, as children slubber out their books before they have learned their lessons; worship puppets and painted images, as children play with babies; what be all these, and the like, but playing of boys tricks? Thus Old men and children; the Psalmist puts them both in a form.

All these arguments prove the world to be exceeding old, and drawing on, even near the last gasp. Quod antiquatur & senescit, prope interitum est; That which decayeth and old, is ready to vanish away. Let us fall from it, before it fall upon us; and be but so wise as Spiders, to forsake a rotten house: not by going out of the world; but by driving the world out of us. I have been prolix in this point; yet desire not to part from it without some considerable and appliable uses.

[unspec 1] First, though this be not the last day, it may be thy last day. The world cannot last long, yet thou mayest prevent the world. Strong bodies hold out many fits, yet at last yield to the necessity of nature. Weak constitutions are dissolved with a little sickness, as a childes paper-house is with a puff of wind. If our life be wrapped up with the world, it must needs be momentary. Heaven and earth are of a strenuous composition, compact together with more powerful sinews and ligaments: so that they have held up their heads through many passages and destructions of mortality: otherwise when the Son of God suffered, it would have broke their hearts. Our bodies are made of elements, weak and fluid principles; and therefore sooner resolved to their first materials. Flowers have but their months, when Okes and Cedars stand many years. Nothing but extreme and supernatural fire shall be the death of the world: Water, Air, Earth, a Thorn, a Vapour, anything is able to dispatch us. If we be not bound up in the bundle of a better life, we are vain wretches.

[unspec 2] Remember therefore, The end is near, thy end is nearer. Whether the end of this day shall not be the end of all thy days, thou hast no assurance. To day hear his voice: be sure to repent one day before thy last day: and hereof thou canst not sure, unless thou repentest this day. Let us think, if the Judge were now coming in the clouds, in what case we were to meet him. Perhaps we are wrapped up in a cloud too; a cloud of dark ignorance, and blind security: let us know that this cloud will dissolve ours, and lay us open with lla our sins to the view of men and Angels. It is time to repent, and make even our reckoning: which we can no ways do, but by transferring all our reckonings and upon debts Christ. As Alcibiades told Pericles, when he was troubled with studying how to give his accounts; that if he would be ruled by him, he should rather study how to give no account at all. The Lord graciously calls us to cast our burden upon him: Christ adviseth us to lay all our reckonings, arrearages, and debts upon his score; promising to discharge them to a penny with his treasure of merits; the only coin that is currant in the Exchequer of God's justice. If by faith we have borne them thither, and given up ourselves, body and soul, to him for security, we need not fear. The Judge will never condemn us for that debt, which himself hath undertaken to pay. Lord here is our hope and confidence; Thou wilt not find those guilty, for whom thine own person suffered the penalty: nor punish the sins thou hast remitted: nor cast away the souls thou hast redeemed.

[unspec 3] To others it shall be a black day; alas, What shall they do in the day of visitation? To whom will they fly for help, and where will they leave their glory? when they shall peep out of the grave, and see the world on fire; and have lost all interest in the Judge. Why do men neglect the means of reconciliation? Agree with thine adversary quickly: if thy sin hath made God thine adversary, go quickly, delay no time to recover his friendship: Take thy Incense quickly, saith Moses to Aaron, and make atonement for the people. Quickly fall to thy prayers; put that Incense in the Censor of Jesus, entreat him to entreat God for thee, and to make a blessed atonement between you. As our own last day leaves us, the worlds last day shall find us; we are presented above, as we went forth below. Oh then judge we ourselves, that we be not judged. Volo vul • ui irae praesentari judicatus, non judicandus. Our Passing-Bell, and the Archangels Trump, have both one voice: for God will reverse no particular judgment. If the former give a heavy and doleful Knell for us here, that louder Instrument shall keep the same Note hereafter. But if the one sound comfort at our last hour in this world, the other shall sound joy at the last hour of the world.

Secondly, if the world be ready to end, why do men covet, as if it were but [unspec 4] now to begin? Peribundus mundus, & tu mundana quaeris? Who would plant or build upon that ground, which is troubled with earthquakes, or sure suddenly to sink? God chargeth us first to seek the Kingdom of Heaven, and then earthly things shall find us, unsought. But foolish Nature takes a false method: she first seeks the world; and if she light upon God by the way, it is more than she thought on, desired, cared for. How deservedly do they fail of both, that sought neither aright? Many had been great, if they had cared to be good: but because they willed not what they ought, they are crossed in what they would. If Solomon had made Riches his first suite, he might have been poor and foolish: but asking Wisdom, as the principal, Wealth came in for interest: because he chose well, he received what he asked not. Such is the bounty and fidelity of God; to them that ask the best, he gives all. Earth shall wait upon them, that attend upon Heaven. Happy is he that affords the best services of the world, but the less half of himself; while the greater and better part is better bestowed.

I do not wish men to abandon themselves to willful beggary, because of [unspec 5] the last days proximitie; or not to repair the house, because their time in it is so short. For worldly things, we may use them, without loving them; and distinguish betwixt a Stoicall dullness, and a Christian contempt: There is difference between making the world a god, and a slave. This latter is the respect it deserves; and they are fools that give it veneration. But rich men think, the only reason why Preachers love not the world, is because the world loves not them: That she shows us only her heels, not her amiable face: That we have nothing but her refuse; her best jewels she keeps for her Sweet-h •• rts. Yet a beggar may look upon a Lordship; and we may see those heaps of Gold, whereof never one piece shall be ours. We know what others dote on, and wonder at their madness; that they should fixe their hearts on that which is not fixed it self, and build their happiness upon a rolling stone. I deny not, but God hath given some abundance of riches, and more grace: and to those, to whom he hath been so liberal, he will be more munificent, for he will give them also glory. While they look up to their future hopes, they esteem but meanly of their present fortunes, and count them scarce a taste of that full Cup. Militant Saints are sometimes (besides their Inheritance above) granted fair Possessions below: yet they value not this with the other. Here they command a little pittance of mould; great to us, little to the whole: there the immense Heaven shall be theirs. Here they command as subjects, there they shall reign as Kings. Here they are gracious among men, there they shall be glorious among the Angels. Here, together with their honor and affluence, they want not crosses and envy; above there is nothing but noble peace, and pleasant eternity. Here they have some short joys; there they are both perfect, and everlasting. Here they are strangers; there, at home. Here Satan tempts them, and men vex them; there, Saints and Angels shall sing with them, and the glory of God shall satisfy them. In a word, they are only blessed here, for that they shall be blessed hereafter.

[unspec 6] Thus take the world at his best, yet good men despise it. But for fear, lest we should be fond of it, God presents it generally to his children in another shape; a miserable, troublesome, inconstant world; whose joys are but the crackling of thorns. Whiles Naomi's husband and sons were alive, we find no motion of her retiring home to Judah: let her earthly stays be removed, she thinks presently of removing to her country. We cannot so heartily think of our home above, whiles we are furnished with these earthly contentments below. But when God strips us of them, straightways our mind is homewards. Besides, what assurance can there be of those things, whereof our going home may strip us? What man can say of the years to come, Thus will I be? Most justly do we contemn this uncertainty, and look up to those riches that cannot but endure, when Heaven and Earth are dissolved. Riches are a flood; ut fluunt, defluunt: this City cannot call the water of a flood, hers; nor those inhabitants, theirs: all may take enough to serve their own turns, the rest glide by, and wait upon nobody. When we are bidden to a great man's Table, where the Meat is served up in Silver Dishes, and the Wine in Bowles of Gold; we may eat the Viands, and drink the precious Liquors. But if through simplicity we should offer to carry away the Vessels, the Porter would stay us at the Gate, and tell us plainly, they are none of ours. The Divine Bounty affords the use of riches, for the comfort and sustentation of our bodies. But when we rise up from his Table, and think to bear away the riches themselves, Death is a severe Porter at the Gate of Life; he will examine our going out: we shall carry none of them with us. Saint Augustine seems to borrow it from Democrates; Qui animam curat, seipsum curat: qui vero corpus, non se sed sua curat: qui pecuniam, non se nec sua, sed valde aliena curat: qui voluptates, nec se, nec sua, nec aliena; sed prorsus inimica curat. He that loves his soul, loves himself: he that loves his body, loves not himself, but something that is his own: he that loves his money, neither loves himself, nor that which is his, but another's: he that loves his pleasure, loves that which is neither himself, nor his own, nor his friends, but his enemies.

[unspec 7] Lastly, seeing therefore that both these be the last days in general, and our last day may antedate them in particular: seeing either the House must be pulled down, or the Tenant cast out; let us provide for ourselves betimes, as the wise Steward did, some trusty friend. He was loath to be harborless: though he had not justice enough to keep in at his Masters house, yet he had providence enough to get another house in store. Make your unrighteous Mammon a means to procure you everlasting habitations. When Christ fore-warned the Jews of the destruction of their Jerusalem, did he not impliedly advise them to shift for themselves in another country? Merchants that would soon be rich, take the old course, to buy cheap and sell dear: therefore they buy their Commodities in the country that affords good penny-worths, and vent them in other countries, which must take them on any price. We do not buy Wines in England, to sell them in France; nor buy Spices in France, to carry them to the Indies. Non omnis fert omnia tellus: thither we traffic a Commodity, where it is precious in regard of scarcity. I presume, we would all go to Heaven: we are foolish Merchants, if of all Lands we would not trade in the Land of Canaan; if we had rather trucke with Savages for Gold and Jewels, than exchange with the Saints for glory and graces. But now what fraught shall we carry thither? What Wares and Merchandise will be vendible and welcome in that Kingdom?

Shall we carry honor and dignity thither? There is abundance of that already: [unspec 8] we may more truly say of that City, than was of Tyre; All her Merchants are Princes: yea, all her inhabitants are no less than Kings. To traffic worldly glory to Heaven, is to hold a Candle to light the Sun: that greater Light doth not so swallow up the less, as the glory of God doth all honor of the creatures. They can add no glory to him, that have all their glory from him. What then? Shall we carry rest, quiet, and peace with us? Will that have any better vent or acceptance? No: for there is all peace, all rest, and quiet. It is Regnum Pacis: Here we may have in some measure the peace of the King, there in a full measure we shall enjoy the King of Peace. It is called the Lord's Rest: we have no true rest, but in him; no perfect rest, till we come unto him. He hath made this earth wherein we live, militant, troublesome, barren of rest: it would be bootless for us to gather up the base dregs of a supine security, and offer to sell them in Heaven. They have plenty of better peace, and we have none but from their store. They that arrive at that Port with such a Merchandise of carelessness, must back again; the Citizens of Heaven will not trade with them. What then say you to pleasures and joys? Will not they pass currant in that holy Land? Not; if they be brought from any foreign coast. Lord, in thy presence is the fullness of joy, and at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore. There is fullness, perfection, and everlastingness of joy: ours are feeble, fickle, empty pleasures. Why should we pour water into the Sea? Why, proffer our addition to fullness, our vanity to perfection, our shortness to eternity? Such a Commodity will not be tolerable in that Mart. Vae ridentibus: Woe to them that laugh, for they shall weep: that Ware is for the Shop of Hell: there it shall be exchanged for sorrow; and the clapping of hands in irrision, for wringing of hands in endless lamentation. Rejoice, O young man: do; but thou shalt smart for it. The seed of carnal joy will not be good Chaffer in Heaven: no fruit comes of it, but woe and torment. Well; yet I hope riches will pass for merchantable stuff; money is currant all the world over: Some things are not precious in some countries; nor other in other: but no country refuseth money. Yet this country will: Alas, what should the beggarly dross of this perishing world do in that heavenly Havilah; where the Gold is more precious than the Gold of Ophir? Yea, what is the Gold of Ophir to that City which is it self pure Gold? It is said of Solomon, that Silver was not accounted of in his days; he made it as common as stones: how more infinite be the riches of the heavenly Solomon? Where there is no use of things, their valuation ceaseth. It was a drop of water that the Churl wished for in hell, not a bag of Gold; not a Lordship of many acres; he had too large an inheritance there before. Away with this trash: it hath no estimation in the Jerusalem above. There is an eternal Easter: and in vain did the Fisherman bring in his boat of Herrings when Lent was done; or the Merchant carry Sugars to Valen • i • , and Silkewormes to Granata. What then shall we load ourselves withal, that may be acceptable? Yes, there be things whereof there is great scarcity in heaven; carentia, I say: there is no indigentia there. We may see what they lack, by his description that discovered the Land; There is no death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain; no tears, nor fears. Let us carry with us thither,

1. Humility; a lowly contempt of our own selves: there is none of that in heaven. There is abundance of honor, without pride; of glory, without envy or disestimation: for the Saints love themselves, because God loves them. God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. They that bring a lofty conceit of themselves to that coast, shall be repelled. Humility is a commodity, for which God will exchange the Crown of glory. Moses, David, Paul went thither with this traffic; Non sum dignus: and Christ gave them for it the kingdom of heaven.

2. Poorenesse in spirit: there is none of that in heaven, this merchandise will pass. Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of heaven. Not only shall be, but is already. This will pass, and we with it.

3. Hunger and thirst: there is none of that in heaven. They are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thine house. They that are satiated with more than they can desire, be far from want. We need not therefore carry provision with us, but a stomach; an earnest desire to feed on those unspeakable comforts. We groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our bodies; mourning for our absence from Zion. This hunger will pass; and instead of it we shall have infinite satisfaction. We bring abstinence and devout fasting to heaven, we shall find affluence and royal feasting there,

4. Mourning, repentance, and tears: there is none of this in heaven. Never came sorrow over those joyful thresholds; never came godly sorrow to those thresholds, but it was entertained with joy. They that sow in tears, shall reap in joy. As the Barbarous traffic with some remoter Pagans; they lay down salt, and take up Gold. So we set down the burdens of our sorrows, and the vessels of our tears before the Lord: and he likes this merchandise so well, that he gives us for them everlasting joys. Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted: there's a blessed exchange.

5. Labor and work: there is none of that in heaven. It is an everlasting holy day with them: they rest, rejoice, and sing; no travel, no pains there. Therefore good works and Christian labors are good traffic. Blessed are they that die in the Lord; for they rest from their labors, and their works follow them. They dare not go without their fraught: a Merchant without his commodity hath but a sory welcome. God will ask them that arrive there, Vbi opera? His reward shall be according to our works: if no good works on earth, look for no riches in heaven. Indeed that wealth is too precious to be bought with our works: nor doth God exchange it propter opera, but dispose secundum opera. Work out thy salvation with fear and trembling: there is neither fear nor trembling, nor working in heaven: but after our working, trembling, and fear, God will give us salvation. Thou hast riches here, and here be objects that need thy riches; the poor: in heaven there is riches enough, but no poor. Therefore make over thy monies to them in this world, that thou mayest receive it by bill of exchange in the world to come.

6. Patience in afflictions and troubles: there are none of these in heaven: neither trouble to try their patience, nor patience to overcome their trouble. The things to be battered, are Patience and Conquest: Patience is our commodity, Conquest is Christ's. If we bring him our virtue of Patience, he will give us in exchange his honor of conquest. He speaks of patience as of a Triumph; Here is the patience of the Saints. Through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven. Our voyage is Tribulation, our vessel is the Church, Pirates and Tyrans are our enemies, rocks and sands our dangers: our tackling, fails, oars be patience; and glorious victory our reward.

7. Faith and hope: neither of them is in heaven: the beatifical vision and fruition hath quite annihilated them. This then is happy merchandize: Give me thy faith, saith God, and I will give thee my glory: let me not fail of thy hope, thou shalt be sure of my felicity. No traffic will pass without this: divers say of moral men, If they go not to heaven, Lord have mercy upon us: yet Christ saith, Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, you shall not come there: yea, Publicans and Harlots shall get into heaven sooner, because the other believed not. Civil justice is not in it self evil, but good: but it is not good enough to save a man: it may be without faith, but faith cannot be without it. Goodly works, building alms-houses, enriching monasteries, feeding beggars, are the Popish merchandize: this they carry to heaven in a presumptuous confidence, that God must needs require them. So they come upon equal terms with him; ware for ware: If he give them heaven, they give him earth, and so he hath a penny-worth for his penny. But they shall find with the Pharisee, that for want of faith and humility, these wares will not pass with God; nor will he afford the kingdom of heaven upon such conditions. Moralities without true belief, are like the fair picture of a beautiful Woman; pleasing to the eye, but there is no warmth in it; nor is it fit for society: he that takes it as his Wife to lie withal, finds it a cold painted Boord. But faith is the obedience of the soul, the soul of obedience: he that believeth, shall be saved: to believe, that's our part and commodity: to save us, that's God's reward and mercy. Thus I have shown you a truly Royal Exchange, a blessed Mart. If we be as good husbands for our souls, as we are for our temporal estates; we have learned here how to make our Markets. Let us never seek to lode our vessels with honors, pleasures, or riches: there is no want of them in heaven; nor will God deal with them in a gracious commerce, that bring no better Merchandise. But with humility, poverty, labor, hunger, repentance, patience, faith and hope: these be the riches of grace, for which God will exchange his riches of glory. Such Merchants make a blessed voyage; for they shall never depart from that joyful country, where they are so happily arrived, and gloriously entertained.

There shall come scoffers, walking after their own lusts.] Irridentes alios, arridentes sibi. The devil knows that the world cannot last long, and therefore bestirs him. He hath great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time. He is grown more wrathful, we should therefore be more watchful. He is a malicious Tenant, that perceiving his term almost expired, does what he can to ruin the house: a bloody Tyrant, that daily suspecting the loss of his usurped Sovereignty makes havoc among his subjects; and like a worse Herod, falls apace to cutting of throats. Indeed his main spite is not at the body, but at the soul: for he knows if he can get the soul, the body must come after. To effect this, he deviseth all the ways he can, and puts in practice all that he deviseth. And to this purpose, sometime he is a roaring Devil, in Lion-like Tyrants: sometime a flattering Devil, in his Spaniell-like Parasites: sometime a dissembling Devil, in his Fox-like Hypocrites: and here a flowting Devil, in his Ape-like Scoffers: that live as if they were neither beholding to God, nor afraid of him; both out of his debt and danger. It is their least ill, to do evil; they speak for it, joy in it, boast of it, enforce to it, mock them that dislike it: and so at once send a challenge to God, as if they meant to meet him in the plain field, and let him choose his weapon: they make love to destruction, as an Amorist courts his Mistress.

Here first we have to observe the contrariety of the dispositions of divers [unspec 1] men. We heard of some in the first Verse, that seek the Lord with a pure heart, and follow his Word with their best endeavor of sincerity, and sincerity of endeavor. Now we are fallen upon those, that with a foul and rancorous mind deride all goodness, and load Religion with disgraces. Then we camped in Elim, a place of water and Palme-trees; now we are come to a Wilderness of Briars and Brambles. Then we lay in a sweet Harbor of comfortable meditation; now we are put into the Ocean of Rocks, and Pirates, and boisterous waves. There we found Zion, here we have Babylon; even a Hell of malignant Devils, for that communion of Saints. Fire and water are not more contrary, than the just and unrighteous: they wonder, each at other; the graceless, that the just can be so strict; the just, that the graceless can be so dissolute: Clay and Iron will not wield together. Where is a good man hunched at, but where the profane finds indulgence? Why doth the world seek more to rich men, than to wise men? The Philosopher could answer; Because it is possible for them to be rich, never to be wise. Why are holy men depressed, and the irreligious honored? Because men have a liking to be licentious; but to be holy, is none of their purpose. No body hates an Israelite, but an Egyptian or a Canaanite. Put fire to fire, or water to water, there is no commotion: but put water to fire, and then you have a thundering coile. When riotous men meet, there is shaking of hands, and the other Quart: but the temperate cannot pass by, without a scorn.

[unspec 2] This is the reason why the good and virtuous be always opposed and exposed to the fury and malice of cruel men. It is indeed res mira, but not res nova: it was so from the beginning. As then, he that was borne after the flesh, persecuted him that was borne after the spirit; even so is it now. No sooner was God worshiped and served, but hatred and spite fell to the portion and lot of Religion. The first man that offered the better sacrifice, was slain: Liver sacrificii, Seminarium fratricidii: the acceptable sacrifice was the seminary of death. Who would think that brethren, and but two brethren, should not love each other? Dispersed love grows weak, and paucity of objects useth to unite affections. If but two brothers be left alive of many, they think that the love of all the rest should survive in them: that the beams of their affection should be so much the hotter, because they reflect mutually in a right line each upon other. Yet behold, there were but two brothers in a world, and one is a Butcher of the other. Who can wonder at disention among thousands of brethren, that sees so deadly opposition betwixt two, the first roots of brotherhood? Who can hope to live peaceably and securely among so many Cain's, when he sees one Cain the death of one Abel? It can be no otherwise: dissimilitude and distance of manners breeds alienation of affections. There is nothing doth so condemn the lives of the wicked exemplarily, as the conversation of the godly: the fat kine make the lean seem more ill-favored. A swarthy and hard-featur'd visage doth not love the company of clear beauties. From hence grows their rage and savage behavior. Besides, it is the pleasure of God, thus to try and honor his servants, and to produce their patience. What pictures could Apelles draw, if he wanted a table to work upon? What building could the Architect rear, without timber, stones, and materials? Their scorn doth both prove and improve our patience. So that we have both a testimony of God's favor; If the world hate you, it is because ye are mine, saith Christ: and of our own integrity, for that must needs be good which evil persecutes. Their lewdness calls for our sorrow and more zealous obedience; that our God may have as faithful servants, as he hath unfaithful enemies. As we see natural qualities increased with the resistance of their contraries; so must our grace, with others sins. We shall redeem something of God's dishonor by sin, if we shall thence grow holy. It hath been an old and happy danger to be godly: indifferent actions must be careful to avoid offense: but let us not care what man or devil be angry that we do good, or receive good. It is contrariety, that makes Babylon wonder at Jerusalem, and Jerusalem at Babylon. We refuse the fair proffers of the world, that come upon sinful conditions; they laugh at us for fools: it will not prove so in the end. All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me. O if a covetous worldling had been there; How ready had been his knes? How would he have catched the promise out of the devils mouth, for fear lest he should have gone back from his word? Alexander after the battle of Granicum, had very great offers made him by Darius: consulting with his Captains about them, Permenion said, Sure I would accept of these offers were I as Alexander: Alexander answered, So would I were I as Permenion. The Christian may grow rich (not seldom) by remitting the rigor of his conscience; the worldling saith, Sure I would take it upon these terms, were I as that Christian: and the Christian saith, So would I were I as that worldling. Such contrary natures are appointed to contrary places, that differ as far as Heaven and Hell.

Scoffers!] The depth of sin is the chair of the Scorners: they are set down in the resolute contempt of all goodness. Of these there be two sorts and degrees; first, the Despisers of them that be good: then the Despisers of goodness it self.

For the former; the Saints of God have complained, of them in all ages: [unspec 1] David of his busy Mockers: the abjects jeered him. Job was disdained of those children, whose fathers he would have scorned to set with the Dogs of his flock. Joseph was nick-named a Dreamer, Paul a Babbler, Christ himself a Samaritan; and with intent of disgace, a Carpenter. Libanius asked a Christian what his Master the Carpenter was a doing; whom he answered, He is making a coffin for thy Master Julian. Lucian jested in contempt, that he had gotten nothing by his Christendom but a syllable to his name; of Lucius, Lucianus: but he was torn in pieces of Dogs. Even the very boys of Bethel had learned to scoff at a Prophet: who would have thought the rude terms of waggish children worthy of anything but neglect? Elisha looks at them with severe brows; and like the heir of him that called down fire upon the two Captains and their fifties; curseth them in the name of the Lord. Two she-Bears are his Executioners, two and forty of them are torn in pieces. O fearful example of the divine Justice! This was the revenge of an angry Prophet; it was the punishment of a righteous Judge. The spite of their idolatrous parents was seen in this vile behavior of the children; they do but according to their instruction. Infancy is led altogether by imitation: it hath neither words nor actions, but what are infused by others: the good or bad language it hath, is but borrowed; and the shame, or thank of either, is due to them that lent it. God and his Seer looked through these children at their parents: if they misnurture their children to the contemptuous usage of a Prophet; they shall be punished with the death of those children, whom they taught no better manners. If we love our children, let not our indulgence give way to their despising of goodness: for then, either destruction shall snatch them away young, or there is hell provided for them when they die old. And if God would not endure those contumelies unrevenged in the mouths of boys, what vengeance is due to aged persecutors? Ishmael did but flowt Isaac; yet Paul faith, he persecuted him. God calls the scorn of his servants by no better name than Persecution. David thought it no disgrace, to dance in the Ephod: Mical does: she looks through her window, and seeing the attire and gestures of her devout husband, despiseth him in her heart. Nor can she conceal her contempt, but like Saul's daughter, casts it proudly in his face; How glorious was the King of Israel today? Even like one of the vain fellows. David's heart did never swell so much at any reproach, as this of his wife: his love was for the time lost in his anger: and as a man impatient of no affront so much as in the way of his devotion, he returns her a bitter check. It was before the Lord, who chose me before thy father, and before all his house. Had she not twitted her husband with the shame of his religious fervor, he had not upbraided her with the shameful rejection of her father. But seeing she will forget whose wife she was, she shall be put in mind whose daughter she was. Mical was barren, yet she hath too many children, that scorn the holy habit and exercises. There cannot be a greater argument of a foul soul, than the deriding of religious services. Worldly hearts can see nothing in those actions, but folly and madness: Piety hath no relish, but distasteful to their palates. But what was Micals reward? Her scorns shall make her childless to the day of her death. Barrenness was held in those days none of the least judgments: she thought to lay a sudden disgrace upon David, a perpetual disgrace shall be her recompense. So doth the Lord revenge David's quarrel; that she shall not be held worthy to bear him a son, whom she unjustly contemned, for showing himself an humble son of God. How just is God, to provide whips for the back of scorners? It is no marvel, if those that mock at goodness, be plagued with continual fruitlesnesse.

[unspec 2] And this is that other, and higher degree of wickedness, to scoff at Religion it self. I have heard of some desperate Patients, that have fleered at their Physicians: but death is too mild a punishment for them, that scoff at all Medicines. The wretched Gergesites repelled Christ for fear; they are worse, that drive him away with scorn. If Christ will be ashamed of them when he comes to judge, that were ashamed of him when he came to suffer; how will he reject those with indignation, that rejected him with derision? You have set my counsel at naught; therefore I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when your fear cometh. Themistocles in his lower fortune, much desired the love of a young gentleman; but he scorned him. Soone after, when he grew to his greatness, the gentleman sought to him: but Themistocles answered; We are both grown wise, but too late. Now Christ offers them his Gospel, and they scoff at it: at the last day they will sue for the benefit of that Gospel, but they must not have it. If the Prince grant a gracious Pardon, and malefactors despise it, it were pity they should have the benefit of it. Never shall that mouth kiss the Hand, that hath mocked the Majesty of the King of Heaven.

[unspec 3] The children of God must be content to receive taunts from their Fathers enemies: we would hardly endure wounds, if we cannot brook words, for the cause of our Savior. When he was reviled, he reviled not again: this was his patience for us. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, &c. this should be our patience for him. It is enough to quiet us, that all the disgraces done to us, redound to him. He that despiseth you, despiseth me. Saul, thou persecutest me. He that takes the cause from us to himself, will not resign the revenge from himself to us. I deny not, but there is sometimes a fair way of repairing unjust contumelies: and to be meal-mouthed in the scorns of Religion, is not so much the praise of patience, as the want of zeal. If all the aspersions of Antichristian slanders could flowt us out of the integrity of our devotion, we were fearful cowards. Let them bellow with their mouths, and gore with their horns; yet neither the roaring of their Bulls, nor the licking of their Calves, must daunt or cool the fervor of our sincerity. The blind world in those former times, made it a capital Crime, and loaded it with reproaches, for any man to call himself a Christian: yet the faithful did not give over the name. Pantùm mali, quia Christiani: which Tertullian shown to be most unreasonable; for nudi nominis nullus est reatus. This Sect is everywhere spoken against; like Markes in the Butt, at which every fool shot his Bolt. Yet as David said; I will be more vile than thus, and base in mine own sight: This very abasement is heroical; and the only way to true glory, is not to be ashamed of our lowest humiliation unto God. Yea, the honor of such shall break forth in the midst of their contempt; and find a secret reverence, even where they have outward indignities. The hearts of men are not their own: he that made them, will over-rule them, to honor those that honor their Maker: and if they do not, yet God will honor them, to their shame: as David's lowliness blessed his house, while Micals scorn brought a curse upon her self. When they arise, let them be ashamed; but let thy servant rejoice. God crowned that head with honor, which the Boys of Bethel would needs cover with shame, and supply the wa •• of hairs with reproaches.

Of the two, the derided ever speedes the better: for derision dasheth in a [unspec 4] puddle, and the dirt flies about his own cares; whiles it lights shore of innocence. The mocker would cast aspersions on his brother; out when he goes to bed, he finds them all on his own clothes. Every stand • makes a deeper wound in the scandalizers conscience, than on the others credit: it is like a Bullet riding on a string, wherewith while he seeks to strike another, it recoiles and winds about his own loins. It is fit that the lavish tongue should always come by the worse; as the errant Scold is overcome by silence. It may be the Lord will look upon mine affliction, and requite not good for his cursing this day. Innocence needs not stand upon her own justifying; for God hath undertaken to vindicate it. Ill tongues will be walking; neither need we repine at their insolence: we may well suffer their words, while God doth deliver as out of their hands. Livia wrote to Augustus Caesar, concerning some ill words that had passed of them both; whereof she was over-sensible: but Caesar comforted her; Let it never trouble you, that men speak evil of us; for we have enough, that they cannot do evil to us: Indeed, above Hell there is not a greater punishment, than to become a Sannio, a subject of scorn. Samson bare with more patience the boring out of his eyes, than the ludibrious scoffs of the Philistines. They made a feast to their gods; no Musician would serve, but Samson: he must now be their sport, that was once their terror. That he might want no sorrow, scorn is added to his misery. Every wit, every hand plays upon him: who is not ready to cast his bone, and his jest at such a captive? So as doubtless, he wished himself no less deaf than blind; and that his soul might have gone out, with his eyes. Oppression is able to make a wise man made and the greater the courage is, the more painful the insultation. Alcibiados did profess, that neither the proscription of his goods, nor his banishment, nor the wounds received in his body, were so grievous to him; as one scornful word of his enemy Ctesiphon. Good Queen Esther, in her prayers to God for her people, doth humbly deprecate this height of infelicity; O let them not laugh at our ruins. And David held it for a singular token of God's favor; that his enemy did not triumph over him. Yet what if they do traduce, is there none to justify? Philip of Macedon was wished to banish one that spake ill of him; but he answered; It is better that he speak where we are both known, than where we are both unknown. Lewd men may believe their mis-reports, the wise know their tongues to be no slanders.

They Scoffe at us, God laughs at them. He that sitteth in the Heavens shall [unspec 5] laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision: Laugh? this seems a hard word at the first view: are the injuries of his Saints, the cruelties of their enemies, the derision, the persecution of all that are round about us, no more but matter of laughter? Severe Cato thought, that laughter did not become the gravity of Roman Consuls; that it is a diminution of States, as another told Princes: and is it attributed to the Majesty of Heaven? According to our capacities, the Prophet describes God, as ourselves would be in a merry disposition, deriding vain attempts. He laughs, but it is in scorn: he scorns, but it is with vengeance. Pharaoh imagined, that by drowning the Israelite males, he had found a way to root their name from the earth: but when at the same time, his own daughter, in his own Court, gave Princely education to Moses, their Deliverer; did not God laugh? Julian rearing up the Jewish ceremonies, projected to supplant the new Religion by the old; and therefore would be at the cost to build up the Temple again: but when from under the foundation, as from the Hill Ves • vius, flaming fire brake forth, and dissolved all his works; did not the Lord smile? The Philistines surprise the Ark of God, and carry it away; thus far they are suffered to laugh and triumph. But when their Idol D • g •• fell down, to do it reverence; when themselves were so tormented with sickness, that they were fain to restore their pilfer with shame: did not God smile? When Superstition and Idolatry were re-advanced in England, by Queen Mary; how did the Papists mock and scoff at true believers? Yea, would they had only stowted us out of our credits, and not out of our lives. But when five years shall determine all that bloody Persecution, did not God laugh at all their Boners and Butchers?

[unspec 6] Short is the joy of the wicked: Is Dagon perked up to his place again? God's smile shall take off his head, and his hands; and leave him neither wit to guide, nor power to subsist. How did our enemies swallow an invincible hope, to swallow us up with their Invincible Navy? But when the winds and seas, fire and water fought against them; did not the Lord laugh them to scorn? Vid •• , & ridet. How did the Enginers of Antichrist applaud themselves in their sure Design, and laugh in their hellish Vault at our prepared ruin? But God did also laugh; and blessed be God, we may laugh too. As Caesar said of Phr •• rus; he was prius victus, quàm visus: so that Treason was knetched, before it was fully hatched; undertaken, but overtaken: He that dwells in Heaven, laughed it to scorn. We may not judge of God's works, until the fifth act: the case deplorable and desperate in outward appearance, may with one smile from Heaven find a blessed issue. He permitted his Temple to be sacked and rifled, the holy Vessels to be profaned and carowsed in: But did not God's smile make Belsbazzar to tremble at the hand-writing on the wall? Oh, what are his frowns, if his smiles be so terrible? Let us never be too busy in washing off false aspersions: too earnest diligence puts a suspicion of guiltiness into the cause: it is enough to say with David; Lord, thou knowest mine innocence. When the Boy, in the Fable, got up into a Dung-cart, to throw dirt at the Moon; another (more charitable than wise) Boy came running with a Bason of water to wash the Moon. It is more than needs: Religion will look like her self, fair and beautiful, maugne all her imputations: and the righteousness of the Saints shall break forth, as the light at noon-day.

[unspec 7] Here is the character of profane persons; Profani, quasi procul à fano. F ••• à fando; it was the Speaking-place: where God spake to man, by his Precepts; and man spake to God, by his Petitions. They are called Profane: first, that are not entered into the Church; whose unhappiness, is to be without: secondly, that are entered, but conform not themselves to the Doctrine of godliness. It is good indeed, to be within; for in our Fathers house is Bread enough: without, is nothing but Hogs-meat. Out of the circle of the Church, rains nothing but fire and Brimstone. But here, quaerendum est de modo, we must examine the manner of being within. Men may be within, as Cham was in the Ark, as Judas in the College, or as Chaff in the floor: in respect of their abode and residence, many are within, that in respect of their faith and obedience, are without. It is all one, to be without, and not to be holy within. Thirdly, that destroy holy things, spoil the Church, and rob their own Mother: as Pope Leo said; He could have no place in Heaven, because he had sold it. We have too many of these sacrilegious Scoffers, that either detain part, as Ananias; or take away all, as Bolshazzar. Observe the offense and success of that wretched Paire: First, they did not collere, take away but detimere, heepe back: Secondly, not that which was the Churches before, but their own; to be disposed at their pleasure: Thirdly, this was not all, but a part of the price: Fourthly, yet the Scripture speaks of them, as it doth of Judas; Satan had filled their heart: Fifthly, and they are smitten with sudden death. How many smile in their hearts at the close conveyances of their sacrilegious frauds? God laughs at them as f •• st; for he sets that their day is coming.

Again, fourthly, they are profane, that disgrace holy things; by giving great places in the Church to loose persons. This was Jereboam's sin. God's Clergy was select and honorable, branches of the holy stem of Aaron; but Jeroboam rakes Priests out of the Kennell. Religion cannot want her sacred Masters of Divine Ceremonies; and so must needs receive either much honor or blemish, by the quality of those that serve at her Altars. They do but mock God, that thrust the blind and lame into his service. Men that have deformed bodies, are accounted fitter for Spittles and Hospitals, than great employments. It is but a Scoffe, to fill Christ's Grammar with such Heteroclytes. No man is too good for the Priesthood; the Priesthood is too good for many men. Fifthly, they are profane that contemn God's Ministers; for they put a Scoffe upon God himself: as David could not but feel himself dishonored, in the abuse of his Ambassadors. Woe be to those Ammonites; God hath Messengers of wrath, for them that despise the Messengers of his love. The scorn and insolency done to us, is not buried with us; God will remember it in the day of vengeance. There be Sawes, and Axes, and Harrowes of Iron, yea, a Brick-Kilne of fire, for such Scoffers. God hath ranked Priests next unto Kings; He hath made us Kings and Priests. The King must have a Priest to direct him, and the Priest must have a King to protect him. Christ was both King and Priest: nor was this a Political Union, of both Persons in one State; but an Hypostatical Union, of both Offices in one Person. So the Priesthood hath ever been held a Flower of the Crown. What shall become of them, that can find no more pleasing subjects for all their scorn, than Priests? Woe, woe to England for this sin; which hath so universally conspired in the contempt of the Ministers of the Gospel. Lastly, they are profane Scoffers, that scandalize holy things; reproaching virtues, while they blanch vices: that call evil good, and put light for darkness. Thus they call the humble man, an hypocrite; the proud, a man of a brave spirit: the drunkard is a good fellow, while the sober man is no fellow of theirs at all. What is this, but to stamp God's Image on the Devils dross; and to stamp the Devils Image on God's Silver? These be the Scoffers, the profane sensualists of our times.

I conclude: We see the state of the world, in these contrary conditions of mankind: [unspec 8] some seek the Lord, others flout them for their labor: some are fearful to sin, others scoff at all goodness: some are the friends of Christ, and they must look for all the rest to be their enemies. This world is a Sea; and they that serve the Lord, are in a Ship of Peace: but if we look up, we shall presently ken a Man of War; and then we must be for War too. There be two Ships under sails, a Pirate and a Merchant; we must prepare for a Skirmish. The Gally that hath our Pinnace in chase, is the Pyracie of Hell; the Synagogue of Satan: her name is Persecution; a hot Ship, and full of wild fire. In which, the Devil is Master, Malice the Masters-Mate, Hypocrisy the Boat-swaine, Covetousness the Purser, Lust the Swabber, Furie the Gunner, and Sedition the Trumpeter. Vices are the Sayles, the Wisdom of the Flesh the Card, the Mystery of Iniquity the Compas; Atheists, Scoffers, profane, all the rabble of Hell, the Mariners. She hath two Tyre of Ordnance planted in her, Heresy and Irreligion: (she is either for a false God, or none) and these spit fire, smoke, shot, and sulphur, against all that worship the Lamb, or fight under the Ensign of Faith. The Flagge in her top, is Infidelity; the Motto, Lucrum est pietas, There is no God but gain. We may see her parallel in the Prophet: she hath her choice materials out of all Kingdoms; especially, her Ballace from Turkey, and her Tackling from Rome. Antichrist is her Steeres-man or Pilot, and steeres her course. Th •• she goes swiftly, proudly, securely; scorning and scoffing at all oppositions. But her worst is, she hath no Anchor: so when the storms of God's wrath arise, down she sinks to desperation, and perisheth.

The other vessel is that wherein we sails; the name of it is the Church: In which Christ is the Master, and he hath no Mate; his Cross is the Mast, his Sacraments the Sails, the Tackle Patience, Divine wisdom the Card, God's Word the Compass: the Soldiers are Prophets, Apostles, Preachers: the Mariners, Angels: the Fraight, the souls of Men, Women, Children: the Foredecke, Humility; the Armor, Innocency; the Sterne, Charity; the Anchor, Hope; the Flagge in the top of her, Faith; with this word written; Premi •• , non opprimimur; being cast down, we perish not. These two meet, and fight: the one invading, the other defending: the one striking, the other warding the blows: the one proudly insulting, the other patiently suffering. One would think that the patient Ship should have the worst of it; and that after so many assaults, it must needs be at last sunk and overwhelmed. But Christ is in it; he hath the charge of it, and that charge he will make good. Though the Elements were all on fire, the Earth a dissolving, and Heaven a falling, this vessel should not miscarry. It is a Body, whereof he is the Head; a building, whereof he is the foundation; the Spouse of his Love, the purchase of his Blood. When the Pyracie of Hell shall sink to Hell, and all the workers of wickedness shall perish: He will bring this Ark to the mountains of Armenia, the harbor of peace, the kingdom of glory, through the greatness of his Merits, and the goodness of his Mercies, which shall never fail us.

[unspec 1] Walking after their own lusts.] All this their scorn of religion is but to maintain their lusts: did not the Gospel cross their sins, they would not cross the Gospel. To be carnally minded is death: this troubles them. Death is the end of sin, though not the end of a sinner. A wicked man sins not purposely that he might be damned, but damnation follows his wickedness. Not seldom we seek for one thing, and find another; as Saul sought Asses, and found a kingdom; as Absalom sought a kingdom, and found a Galhouse. The adulterer in his sin, seeks pleasure; the covetous, riches; but they find another thing, that is, Death. The Word of God sets down the wages of sin, and ties punishment to it as an inseparable effect to the cause. Because they cannot dissolve this knot, they fly upon the Word it self; and through the sides of the Law, wound the name of the Law-maker with reproach. As thieves, that would put out all the light, that in the dark they might more securely ransack the house. The conscience that is guilty of flagitious crimes, could wish the Heavens blind; as knowing that they look upon unlawful things with sore eyes. Why have the Pontificians, instead of clasps, hung padlockes upon the Bible; but that they might uncensured Walk after their own lusts? Why, but that their lusts might be laws, and those laws guide the lusts of the people? So the very sins of Teachers become rules to their Scholars. If Paul preacheth, Demetrius roars: of all professions, the Ministry is in this the unhappiest; because we fight against those sins, which men love better than their own souls. The Covetous Pharisees derided Christ's Sermon against covetousness: Christianum dogma vertitur in scomma. As a tyrant demolisheth all the Forts in his dominions, that the right heir of the crown may find no refuge of defense; so his own will may have the full swindge without means of resistance. Profane Libertines could wish that all Preachers had caught an everlasting cold, that they might carry away those sins without reproof, which they have perpetrated without shame.

[unspec 2] Every evil man hath lusts of his own: which he is as resolute to maintain, as a father to keep his own children. It is easy for men to dislike Copidita •• 〈◊〉 suas; to condemn Peccat • m ali ••• m: but our own lusts be dear into us. What wonder is it, if a dumb man be no swearer, an Eunuch no adulterer, a beggar no Broker? Where is no assault, there can be no victory. I am not •• other men are, saith the Pharisee; extortioners, unjust, adulterers, nor as the Publica • . No extortioner; it may be so: What if he were so rich, that he need not; or so poor, that he could not oppress; or so base, that no man would trust him? What needs a rich man be a thief? Not unjust; it may be so too: his privatenesse might exempt him. How should he fail in doing justice, that never had an act of justice to do? No adulterer; it may be so: either his unchaste offers have been repelled, or his concupiscence hath wrought out it self another way. Not a Publican; very true: for worse, he was a Pharisee. He durst not say, his conscience would not let him, That he was no sinner. There is variety of lusts; and that old experienced fisher of souls hath more baits than one. For an hypocrite to decline open randing, rambling, noctivagating, swaggering garments, and revels; it is no wonder: he hath another kind of lust: To make the end of all his Religion, the advancement of his own ends; and to cozen them as a Saint, that would defy him as a Devil: this is the desire of his lust. He deals with his conscience, as the untoward Husband did with his Wife: he speaks her fair, and makes much of her abroad; but he cudgels her in private, at home. The dissolute person thinks to justify himself: I am none of those that rail at Church-government; that will not suffer a spoonefull of Aqua-vitae to be sold on the Sabbath, though it should save a sick man's life; that will run two miles to a Sermon: As if there was no other way to Hell, but hypocrisy. He that never kept the Sabbath himself, what cares he to keep others from breaking it? Or, to go two miles to a Sermon, that had rather go twenty to a Strumpet?

So the riotous clears himself from avarice; that he doth not keep empty his bowels, to fill his bushels. I had as lieve he had said nothing: he may have l • sts no less foul. Yet of all extremes, covetousness and profuseness are lusts most compatible. Though it be true naturally, that Simile generat simile; yet is it often otherwise politically. War is the Parent of Peace; and Peace, through some degrees, begets War: yet what more opposed, than Peace and War? So Prodigality begets Avarice, and Avarice begets Prodigality: yet what so contrary as these two? As the Sea drinks up all Rivers, that it may feed all Springs; or the Liver sucks juice from the stomach, which it sends in blood into all the veins: so the great oppressor derives all from poor laborers, that he may indulgently lavish it among his flatterers: and he is careful to supply his own inordinate lusts, as the Devil studies errands for his Spirits. Whither doth the lust of Ambition, arising from the conceit of a little Inheritance, transport the Gallants of our time? The Thistle courts the Cedar, riches lust for honor: But there is a wild beast, or a tame beast, or worse than both, that treads down the Thistle; the Usurer. The sluggard quits himself from pragmatical meddling, the busy-body from lazy slugging: one drives up the Hill of Presumption, another down the Hill of Security; both these Ways meet at Hell-Gates. One is an Atheist, and believes no God: another is an Idolater, and worships many gods: one will be of a new Religion, another of no Religion: No matter, thinks Satan, what way they follow, so long as they do him homage, and travail to his Kingdom. Herod could yield to reform many things; but not Herodias, that was his lust. Saul smote many Amalekites, and much Cattle: but he spared the king, and the fat beasts: that was his Lust. We are all ready like Abraham, to plead for our Ishmael: Take my country, I leave it; my wealth, I forsake it; But O that Ishmael, my darling lust, might live in thy sight: Gold and Silver, homage and fealty, will Ahab afford Benhadad: but still there is something Pleasant in his eyes: he is loath to part with that. The Mariners will cast over-board their goods, their wares, their victuals, and freight; but they stick hard at Jonah: and yet nothing but Jonah can serve the turn. Other men's lusts we impartially censure; and pry, like Laban, into