Commentary on 2 Peter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Yea, we have many critical days, to prepare us for that great day of Determination; and them we may distinguish, like natural days, into seven. First, the day of Trouble and affliction, which is therefore called the day of visitation: because in trouble, the Lord, our good Physician, doth visit us. Men think that God is removed from them, when they suffer calamity: as the Israelites do but want water, and presently cry, Is the Lord among us, or no? As if God could not be with them, and they athirst? Either he must humor carnal minds, or be distrusted. If they prosper, though it be with wickedness, then God is with them: If they be crossed in their own designs, straight, Is God with us? It was the way to put God from them, to distrust, and murmur. If he had not been with them, they had not lived: if he had been in them, they had not murmured. We can think him absent in our want, and cannot see him absent in our sin: yet wickedness, not affliction, argues him gone. Yea, he is then most present, when he most chastises. We measure not the visitations of great persons, by their apparel, by their equipage, by the solemnity of their coming; but by their very coming. If the Lord come unto us, though it be in sickness, though in calamity, it is our critical day: and if we make him welcome, and entertain him with patience, it is an argument he would not lose us, that by any means seeks us. Secondly, penitent sorrow for our sins is a right critical day: when the conscience is molested with the pains of a bleeding remorse. This day hath an Evening and a Morning; a sad guiltiness in the soul, but a cheerful rising of the Sun. The Evenings and Mornings made days in the Creation, but there is no mention of nights: Our sorrows for our sins are Evenings, but they determine not in night: There is joy in the Morning; a day of solace; when the Spirit broken and dejected in it self, is aquitted and comforted by Christ. Thirdly, this Remorse sends us to a third critical day, to a devout hearing of the Word, and faithful receiving of our Savior, in his Institution of the Sacrament: conforming our life to those sacred Rules, and walking worthy of so inestimable an honor. Fourthly, thus having walked with God three days, we are prepared for the storms of the fourth, the day of our dissolution and transmigration from hence. Sins, sorrows, and troubles have so embittered our life, that there is no bitterness in the remembrance of death. Sickness hath disabled us to receive meat, and made it our fasting day, our Eve, to this great Festival of our Translation. Fifthly, this day of death shall deliver us over to the fifth, the day of our Resurrection: for how long soever that day be in the grave, there is no day between that and the Resurrection. Then shall all men be re-appareled with their own bodies; and they that have made good use of their former days, shall be super-invested with glory. Only the ungodly shall be condemned to their old clothes; their sinful bodies; and have no addition, but of immortality to torment. Sixthly, this day thus reinvesting our soul in our body, and our body in the Body of Christ, shall present us both body and soul to our sixth day, The day of Judgment: which is truly, and in a literal sense, the critical, the Decretory day; rewarding the wicked according to their demerits: And having passed upon the faithful the Judgment of Approbation, they shall also be assistant in that Session, and judge the world of evil men and Angels. Seventhly, after this, we shall be possessed of our seventh day; that everlasting Sabbath in the rest, the joy, the sight, and glory of the blessed Trinity: where we shall live, without reckoning anymore days forever.

2. The uncertainety of this day bespeaks our preparedness. When the disciples asked Christ concerning the Sign of his coming; he answers them with a Qualis, not with a Quando: he describes the manner, but conceals the Time, such signs shall go before, he does not determine the day when the Judgment shall come after. Only he cautions them, with an Attendite ne superveniat in vos repentina dies illa: for as a snare it shall come on them that dwell on the face of the earth. The bird little thinks of the snare of the fowler, nor the beast of the hunter; this fearless rangeth through the woods, the other merrily cuts the air: both follow their unsuspected liberty, both are lost in unprevented ruin. Against public enemies we fortify our coasts, against private thieves we bar our doors, and shall we not against the irremediable fatalitie of this day prepare our souls? It is favor enough that the Lord hath given us warning: the day is sudden, the warning is not sudden: the old world had the precaution of sixscore years; and that (we cannot deny) was long enough: but we have had the prediction of Christ and his Apostles, of above fifteen hundred years standing; besides the daily sound of those Evangelical Trumpets, that tell us of that Archangelical Trumpet in their Pulpits. Qui audit tonitrua, metuit fulgura: when we hear the thunder, in a dark night on our beds, we fear the lightning: Our Savior's Gospel, premonishing of this day, is like thunder; if it cannot wake us from our sins, the Judgment shall come upon us like lightning, to our utter destruction. But I will thank the Lord for giving me warning. The thunder first breaks the cloud, and makes way for the lightning, yet the lightning first invades our sense: All Sermons upon this argument of the last day, are thunder-claps; yet such is the security of the world, that the sons of thunder cannot waken them, till the Father of lightning consume them. Dedisti metuentibus te significationem, ut fugiant à facie arcus, saith that royal Prophet. The Huntsman doth not threaten the dear, or terrify him; but watches him at a stand, and shoots him. But God speaks, before he shoots: takes the bow in his hand, and shows it us, before he puts in the arrow, to wound us. Saint Gregory hath a meditation, which by way of similitude doth lively express this point. Mariners have made their voyage, and are returning home: when on a sudden the winds rise, and the seas begin to be troubled: first they are set upon with lighter waves, then with fiercer billows; then little bals of fire are seen rolling on the face of the waters: now they labor with all their powers, and unlade the vessels of those precious merchandize, for which they made their unhappy voyage. But still the unexpiable rage of the sea ceaseth not, till it hath swallowed the ship: some sink with it, and others by help of a little bark get to shore. We are all put into the vessel of mortality; & all those signs preceding the day of Judgment, are so many successive waves prognosticating this universal shipwreck: and now worldlings would throw overboord their unblest traffike; the covetous despiseth his riches, the voluptuous his pleasures, the ambitious his honors: they have ventured all their life for those sins, and now they would be rid of that venture with all their hearts. The main storm comes, the earth trembles, the Ocean roars, the elements melt, the heavens dissolve, the huge Caricke of the whole world perisheth: Those that have put all their fortunes and estate in that one uncertain Bottom, must perish with it: But the Children of Grace have a little Pinnasse, the Church of Christ; and this carries them safe thorough the fire, as Noah's Ark bore him thorough the water, and lands them in Heaven, where they are welcomed home with Songs of triumph.

We are all God's Creatures, and he hath an indefeisable right in every man: yea, we are his Factors, and he hath sent us into this world, as into a strange country to traffike for him. Estote Factores verbi, non actores: Be ye doers of the word, not actors, for that is but to play Religion, like hypocrites: Actors do but represent things done, and personate other men. But we are Factors; and the commodities we are trusted withal, are first heavenly Graces, and then a competency of temporal things. The trade we drive is our good Works, and all we can return to our Masters profit is but his Praise and Glory: the whole benefit of the voyage redounds to ourselves: not He, but we may be the better for it. At last that great Merchant calls us home, to this universal audit, when every Factor must bring in his accounts. They that have advantaged their Lord and traded to his honor, shall be honored by him forever: But these slothful servants, that have trifled with his Talent, or mis-spent it, shall be cast into that prison of unthrifts and beggars, which is full of all wants, but the want of torments. The wise Merchant; that preponders his future reckoning, will carefully look to four houses under his charge: His ware-house, his work-house, [unspec 1] his clock-house, and his Closet or counting-house. Our Ware-house is our Heart; wherein lie all those precious Commodities deposited to us from Heaven: our knowledge, with all our Graces, and spiritual abilities: if lusts and malicious thoughts break in like thieves, and robs us of those celestial [unspec 2] Wares, we are undone. Our Work-house is, as it were, the Shop of our good Actions, wherein by way of holy commerce, we retaile those dear Commodities of our Master, to his gainful use: if we have learning, we instruct the ignorant; if we have riches, we comfort the poor; if authority, we protect the innocent: whatsoever Grace we have in the Ware-house of our Heart, we [unspec 3] bring it forth into the Work-house of our life, and do good with it. Our Clock-house is to be regarded too: Whither we consider it in relation to our speech, and discourse, for the Tongue is the Clock of the Soul: if the Clock go false, if our talk be ungracious; lying, swearing, or profane; we are factors for hell, rather than for Heaven: Men may know by the Clock-house, what stuff is in the Ware-house; for out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. Or we may consider this Clock, in respect of our time: the good Husband still minds how the day goes with him; and therefore so follows his business, that he may have done before night. They are injurious Sextons to their own souls, that set the Clock back; that make it stand at two in the afternoon, when it is six in the evening, even near the Sun-set of their ends; that they might more securely follow their pleasures. No, let the Clock go right, think of the time, meditate on the uncertainty of thy life, the certainty of thy reckoning; and work out thy Salvation in time, that thou mayest rest when time shall be no more. All men are called to Repentance: do you hear some answer, Yes, tomorrow, Lord; or next week, Lord; or next year, Lord? Sure, their Clock does not go right. God hath another Clock; and it may be twelve by His, when it is scarce five by theirs: he summons them by death, when [unspec 4] they think they have many years to live. The last is our Counting-house, and that is our Conscience; where we find written all our receipts, and all our layings out. No false reckoning can be found in this Book; it will speak the truth to a penny. Trades-men's books may lie, stewards books may err; there is no error in this. In respect of our receipts, we cannot with that unjust steward set down fifty for a hundred: nor can we, in regard of our layings out, set down a hundred for fifty. This book is written by another hand than ours; even the Lord's: and certainly, the Lord can read his own hand. There have been some that could stupefie the voice of their Conscience; never any could obliterate the writing of their Conscience: they could stop the sound of it, as it is a Trumpet; they could not scrape out the Characters of it, as it is a Book. Happy are we, if we can get the blood of Christ, to wash out our debts; and the merits of Christ, to stand for our accounts: only this reckoning shall pass in the Day of Judgment. For as our Conscience leaves us here, so the Almighty Judge will find us hereafter.

To conclude; the weakest memory here present, may easily think on these four Houses: and if we keep them well, we shall prove happy Christians. But the Day of Judgment, thou sayest, is far enough off: It is more than thou, or any man, or any Angel knows. Yet grant it far off to the world; it may be near to thee. The day of Judgment is remote, Thy day of Judgment is at hand: and as thou goest out in particular, so thou shalt be found in the general. Thy passing-bel and the Archangels Trumpet, have both one sound to thee. In the same condition that thy soul leaves thy body, shall thy body be found of thy Soul. Thou canst not pass from thy death-bed a sinner, and appear at the great Assizes a Saint. Both in thy private sessions, and the universal Assizes, thou shalt be sure of the same Judge, the same Jury, the same Witnesses, the same Verdict. How certain thou art to die, thou knowest: how soon to die, thou knowest not. Measure not thy life with the longest; that were to piece it out with flattery: thou canst name no living man, not the sickest; which thou art sure shall die before thee. Daily we follow the dead to their graves, and in those graves we bury the remembrance of our own death with them. Here drops an old Man, and there a Child; here an aged Matron, there a young Virgin: with mourning eyes we attend them to their Funerals; yet before we lay the Rosemary out of our hands, the thought of death hath vanished from our hearts. When an Hog lies bound under the knife to be killed, he makes an hideous cry above any other Creature: hereupon the other Swine come running in, and they grunt, and whine, and keep a fearful noise: but as soon as the dying Beast hath ceased, they also are silent, and return to the filthy mire as carelessly, as if no harm had been done. When we lose a Neighbor, a Friend, a Brother, we weep, and howl, and lament, as if with Rachel, we could never be comforted: But the body once interred, and the funeral Ceremonies ended; if we do not stay to inquire for some Legacies, we run back with all possible haste to our former sins and turpitudes, as if there had been no such matter. Alas, that the farthest end of all our thoughts, should be the thought of our ends! Death is but our apprehension, like the taking of a Malefactor; but it sends us to the Session, and that either to forgiveness or execution. O then, let us repent in life, that we may find comfort in death, and be acquitted at the Day of Judgment by Jesus Christ.

3. The Integrity of the Judge, and of his Judgment, comes next to be considered. There is no Name of God so often mentioned in the Scripture, as that of a Judge; no action so often, as that of Judgment. Many Names of God be sweeter, none frequenter. Even where the Lord is glorious with all his Titles of Mercy, still there comes in one Title of his Judgment: where he is slow to anger, even there he does not acquit the guilty. The first coming of Christ was in weakness, because he was then to be judged: his second shall be in power, because he is now to judge. Then, like a feeble unweaponed David against that mighty Giant of Hell, that Goliath, Satan: now, like an armed and angry David against wicked and unthankful Nabal's. In vain have I kept his Flocks safe in the Wilderness, that will not give a little bread to my hungry followers. Have I been so bountiful to the rich Churls of the World, and do they deny a small relief to my poor members? Then he came like a soft Dew upon the Grass, now he shall come like Thunder in the Clouds. Then he came unto his own, and they knew him not; now all eyes shall see him, and all tongues confess him. Then he came in private, from the womb of his Mother; now he shall come in public from the Throne of his Father. Then, with a few Apostles; now, with thousands of Angels. Then, with a Star in the East; now, with the Heavens on Fire. Then, as a Lamb; now as a Lion: Then, to save the lost, now, to condemn the lost. Then as a Subject to Caesar; now, the King of kings. Then, O Man, Venit ut tuus, He came as thine: now, Veniet ut suus, He shall come as his own, and appear himself: Then He, poor Man stood before Pilate, to receive his Sentence; now Pilate and Herod, and all the Potentates of the Earth must stand before Him, and undergo his dreadful Doome. Then He had a Reed for his Scepter, and Thorns for his Crown: now, He shall break the Nations with a Scepter of Iron, and his Throne shall be like a flaming Fire. At his Birth, only Jerusalem was troubled; and at his Death, some tender-hearted Women wept: but at his Comming to Judgment, All the Kinreds of the Earth shall mourn before Him.

It is Christ then that shall be our Judge; He to whose contumely did tend all our misdeeds. He, whose Majesty we have dishonored, whose Mercy we have despised, whose Glory we have abased, and whose Goodness we have abused. He, whose Presence we have profaned, and whose Patience we have mis-interpreted, either for Ignorance or Allowance of evil. But we shall find neither of both in this impartial Judge: There are six principal Refuges of the guilty before the Judgment-seats of mortal men. If either the Judge may be deceived through Ignorance, or made partial with Favor, or overcome with Power, or melted with Pitie, or corrupted with Monie, or persuaded with Oratory: but all these Forts of confidence fail before this Tribunal.

1. This Judge cannot err through Ignorance, for All things are naked and open to his eyes, with whom we have to do. He knoweth our goings out and our comings in: The Lord knoweth the thoughts of man, that they are but vain. There is nothing so quick as thought, nothing so free as thought, nothing so secret as thought, (the Devil cannot know our thoughts, but by conjecture or inference) nothing so boundless as thought: nature hath set no limits to the thoughts of the soul. Yet, Thou, O Lord, understandest our thoughts long before. To know them, when they have being, is much: but to know them before they were, is only God's peculiar. Man himself does not know today, what he shall think tomorrow: God knows it, and knew it from all eternity. He understood what thoughts thoughts the soul would create, before He had created the soul. Adam would fain have hidden himself from God, when he found him naked in the cool of the day: such a desire is in every guilty sinner to hide himself from Christ, when he comes to Judgment in the Evening of the world: but it is not possible. The wicked shall call to the Mountains, Fall on us, and to the Rocks, Cover us; but to what purpose? Alas, In the Presence of the God of Jacob, the Mountains skip like Rammes, and the little Hills like young Sheep. Yea, at that Day there shall be neither Rocks nor Mountains left to hide them. As it is intolerable to abide his Presence, so it is impossible to avoid it. He saw Nathaniel under the Fig tree, and Elias in the Cave. He sees the Thief in his darkest night, and the Adulterer when all the doors and windows are shut. He saw Fa • lx, without the help of his dark Lantern, when he labored in that black Vault or Mine under the Parliament-house. He sees all the plots of the Jesuits against his Church: they delude all Princes, but the Prince of Heaven, and He sees their villainy. He sees them that are in Hell, who see nothing, not themselves. He knows our most secret sins; to repeat those we do not remember, to reveal also those we would hide, and to convince us of those we would deny.

2. This Judge cannot be forestalled with favor, for He is no Respector of Persons. The poorest Beggar shall find as good Audience in this Court of Justice, as the greatest Monarch in the word. Christ will judge most justly, even those that have judged most unjustly. Pilate shall find Justice from Christ, Christ found none from Pilate. Take Him, saith he to the malicious Jews, I find no fault in Him. No fault in Him, O Pilate, and yet doest thou condemn Him? Where was the fault then? Surely in thee, O Pilate. He will not deal so with thee; thou shalt have Justice.

3. He cannot be overborne with power; for All power is given Him both in Heaven and Earth. With many Judges on Earth, a Lord's Message, or a Ladies Letter may do much: and let the poor man's complaint be never so honest, if it trench upon great Ones, it must not be heard. Favor is the Mistress, toward which all the Bowles of Authority run Bias. Such Magistrates are like Spaniels, which ever hunt that way their Master looks. But those unrighteous Judges, that have been led by favor below, shall find least favor above. It will be a poor excuse for an act of Injustice, Such a Lord commanded me: Him for persuading, and Thee for yielding, the Lord of Heaven shall condemn you both. Now men deal with our Sermons, as they do with our Tithes: when we preach Judgment, they sue out a Prohibition from an higher Court, or a Protection from the Chancery, their Mercy-seat, or a Commission for Composition: but whither will they appeal from this Court, the great Star-chamber of Heaven?

4. He cannot be moved with pity. There was a time, when upon the condition of repentance, He proffered padon: but the time of Mercy is past, this is the Day of Justice. Time was, when He poured forth his precious Blood to expiate their sin: but now There remains no more sacrifice for sin. Time was, He wept over Jerusalem in compassion; now let Jerusalem weep out her eyes, there is nothing but indignation. His Meekness shall be turned into Wrath; and He that before wept for the misery of sinners, will now laugh at their destruction. The Lawyer, whiles he is an Advocate, pleads his Clients cause, though • t be not good: but being made a Judge, he sentenceth the cause, without respect to the Client. Christ is now our Advocate, and He pleads our cause; and mediates for our very sins: but at the last Day his Office is to Judge, and He will give a most righteous Sentence.

5. He will not be corrupted with Bribes; yea, those that have been so corrupted, He will condemn. The wealthiest Miser must come before Him naked and empty handed. In his Infancy the Wise Men presented Him Gold, and they are wise men that in this world bring Him such offerings. With thy Gold and Riches feed the hungry, and clothe the naked, while thou livest: else at the Day of Judgment it will not be taken. What wealth shall any man have left, when the whole world is on fire? Only what the hand of Charity hath given Christ here, He will abundantly repay there: And as we use, upon the wall of Hospitals and Almshouses, to write up the name of the Benefactors: so those beneficent souls, that have comforted the needy members of Christ on Earth, shall find their names written in Heaven. Other rich Churls shall undergo Magus his Doome, Themselves and their money must perish together.

6. He cannot be persuaded with arguments. Tullius is weak, and Tertullus a fool, to think that eloquence shall carry it there. Let not the greatest Clerks, who have led wicked lives, hope that at this Assizes their Book shall save them. They may be condemned for the former abuse of their Eloquence, but here their very tongues shall be put to silence. Even now, Theologia non formidat Dialecticam: Divinity will not be awed by Logic, nor will God be imprisoned in a Predicament: much less above. I speak not this to dispraise Learning; it is the gift of God, and useful to his glory. Moses a Priest, or (if that be doubtful, yet sure) a Prophet, and that with a Non sicut; was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians. The Scorners of Learning are like Wormes in Libraries: busy about it, but with an intent to destroy it. There be many arts in the world, but there is one worth them all; an holy life, the effect of a true faith in Jesus Christ. Saint Paul was a great Scholar, yet it was only his Didicisse Christum, that saved him. All arguments are lost but this; Lord, I bring thee thine ow • e righteousness, by imputation made mine; by this, I beseech thee save me: This argument will prevail.

We see the Integrity of the Judge: the Conscience of the sinner shall be compelled to accuse, and the Devil suffered to urge, but no Advocate allowed to plead his cause. The Angels shall not, the Saints may not, Christ will not, and himself cannot. Not the Angels, for they are witnesses to his wickedness: Not the Saints, for it is their office to judge the world: Not Christ, for he despised his grace when it was offered: Not the sinner himself, for he shall obtain no audience. O the desperate extremities, which will then beset the ungodly! If they offer to speak, their sins stand up against them: if they hold their peace, they find nothing to comfort them. Every moment of our time is one step toward this Judgment: And yet we are so far from compassion of ourselves, that even going to our trial, we cease not to multiply crimes against him, that must give sentence upon us. With what countenance can sinners be able to look upon that glorious Majesty? It will be at that time a greater pain for them to stand before God, than to be in Hell. The severe acts of a Judge being discoursed, and his impartial censures; an hearer wittily and honestly replied; I mean never to trouble him. It cannot be so with us; our sins are so heinous and numerous, that we must come before him: there is only one way to help us; which is now by an appeal? To whom? Even to himself, let us appeal from Christ, to Christ: from him as an angry Judge, to him as a gracious Savior. How cheap an account do most men now make of Christ? No more than cunning Gallants do of a prodigal Heir; even to riot upon his score, and to lavish out sins on the riches of his satisfaction. But let them know, that though the Death of Christ have fully satisfied for all our sins; and borne the extremity of whatsoever, either the Law of God could lay against us, or the wrath of God could lay upon us: yet hath it left no liberty to build our sins upon his Death, but rather to bury our sins in his Death. We may not crucify him again by our sins, which for our sins hath already been crucified. For as in the Creation, the disobedience of the Creature caused the Creator to hate the work of his own hands: so in the Reconciliation, the peace that was made between God and man, did not stretch so far as to conclude of peace between God and sin. But he that was content in Christ to be reconciled to his enemies, is yet at enmity with their sins: and though he forgive great sins in Christ, yet doth he punish little sins in Christians. Yea, though the blood of Jesus do continually cry unto God for us; yet doth it not so possess his ears, that he can hear no cry against us. Still where is the due estimation of Christ? Atheist deny him, Papists dishonor him, Pagans persecute him, Worldlings oppress him, Hypocrites dissemble him, Time-servers make use of him, Politicians pretend him, Swearers blaspheme him, millions profess him, few rightly esteeming him, few indeed honor him. The price of Christ seems to go down, the Covetous will sell him for a Farm, the Adulterer for a kiss, the Drunkard for a Pinte of Wine, for a Pot of Ale; the fraudulent Tradesman for a Penny; the Swearer will sell Him for Nothing, and take no Monie for Him. This is the difference between God's Judgment, and man's: God valued man at more than his own Blood, man valued that Blood but at thirty Peeces of Silver. But the Day will come, when one gracious Word from the Mouth of Christ, one pleasing Look of his Countenance, shall be far more precious than all the World. Then shall All the Tribes of the Earth mourn before Him. Unbeleevers shall mourn, because they would not accept that glorious Way of Salvation: the Voluptuous shall mourn, that they have bought transient Pleasures with everlasting Torments. The Covetous shall mourn, that they have more accounted of a cross of Coine, than of the saving Cross of Christ. The Proud shall mourn, that they have despised the Humility of the Gospel. Blasphemers shall lament, that they have sworn away the Price of their Redemption. The Uncleane shall mourn, because they rather chose to be the Limbes of an Harlot, than Members of the Son of God. All Sinners shall mourn, and especially, because the Time of all fruitful Mourning is forever past. The World now rejoiceth, but let us mourn; that when the whole World is set on mourning, we may then rejoice World without End.

4. The Impartiality of the proceeding falls next into our Consideration. Such is the Perfection of God's Justice, Who is ever constant to his own ways; that He doth still proceed by the Book; openly, intelligibly, manifestly. When the Ancient of Daies shall sit upon his White Throne, the Books shall be opened.

1. Book is the Book of Life; never shut to God, but never thoroughly open to us. Whosoever is found written in this Book, shall not perish. We cannot unclaspe this Book, yet we may know something in it that concerns ourselves. There is a safe collection or gadation, à Posteriore. I deprecate all sin, I repent heartily of that is done, I abhor to commit it, I earnestly pray against it, I strive with all my powers to avoid it, I thirst for more Grace, I am ready to all good Works, I rest wholly and only on my Savior's Merits; therefore I rightly believe: I believe, therefore am justified: I am justified, therefore called: I am called, therefore elected: I am elected, therefore shall be glorified. We cannot, we may not conclude the contrary: I am a sinner, therefore God hath from everlasting rejected me: therefore He hath made me to be damned: this is an unwarrantable, yea, a desperate Collection. I believe in Christ, and endeavor to live like a Christian, therefore I am chosen: this as a safe and sound inference; and thus far God hath given our Humility leave, to look into this Book of Life.

2. Is the Book of Nature; wherein, though subobscurely and in shadows, God hath expressed his own Image, and written his own Law with indelible Characters. They that have sinned without the Law written, shall be judged by the Law engraven. Though this Law be much defaced in their hearts by the custom of sin, yet it shall no more help them, than a Thief is to be excused, because he hath torn the eight Commandment, Thou shalt not steal, out of the Decalogue.

3. Is the Book of the Scriptures, consisting of the Law and the Gospel: the one commanding, the other enabling; the one condemning, the other presenting a remedy: those two Testaments, wherein all that God wrote in the Old, He hath lighted us a Candle to read it by in the New. No exception can lie against this Book; for the Law of God is holy, and all his Commandments are pure. These are for Number few, for Understanding plain, for Equity approved, and only profitable to whom they are given. Sure there had not been such state in the promulgation of this Law, if God had not intended it for eternity. Every circumstance of the delivery, representing the fearful exaction of it at the last, may well deter us from the transgression. First, how could they think of having any other God's, that had such proofs of this? Secondly, How durst they make any Resemblance of Him, Whom they could not see, and might therefore perceive to be Infinite? Thirdly, How durst they profane his Name, Whom so dreadful a Majesty waited upon? Fourthly, How could they stand with Him for a day, Whom they see to be the Maker and Determiner of days? Fifthly, Why should they disobey his Deputies, whom they saw so able to revenge? Sixthly, How durst they kill a Man, that heard Him forbid it, Who can kill both Body and Soul? Seventhly, How durst they entertain the flames of Lust, that saw such Fiers of Vengeance? Eighthly, How durst they steal, that saw by such terrible Demonstrations, Whose both Heaven and Earth was to dispose of at his Pleasure? Ninthly, Or speak falsely, that heard the God of Truth speak in so fearful a Tone? Tenthly, Or covet others goods, that saw how weak and uncertain Right they had to their own? We men, that fear the Breach of human Laws for some small Mulcts of Forfeiture; How should we fear to transgress thy Law, O Lord, that canst cast both Body and Soul into Hell!

4. There is another Book annexed to this; a Codicill, a Schedule; the Book of just and useful Laws, established by them, to whom God hath committed his People. The Laws of that Church, and Laws of that State, wherein we have our Station. The Breaches and willful Contempts of this Book; will be strictly examined, and hardly answered, in this Audit.

5. Is the manual, the Pocket-book, the Bosom-book of our Conscience. The other Books will manifest what we should have done; this, what we have done. We cannot except against it, because it hath always been in our own keeping: and nothing shall be written in it, but what is subscribed by our proper hand. It hath three offices: First, to give in Testimony, of something acted or omitted. Secondly, to examine whether the action or omission were lawful or unwarrantable. Thirdly, to give Judgment according to that evidence. It can both ligare & solvere: it binds a man faster than the Philistines bound Samson, and looseth him sooner than the Angel loosed Peter. It is a private Law within man: when Law and Chancery too have done with him, (and that not seldom is long before it hath done with him) then Conscience takes him in hand. It is a true looking Glass, that represents all blemishes, without favor or flattery. It is Infra Deum, but Supra hominem, a vice-Deus; and deals with us here, as God will do hereafter. There is a Bill framed out of the Law, it is Crimen laesae Majestatis, against our high Sovereigns Crown and Dignity: our works are the Evidence, and Conscience is the witness, which will not be bribed to give a false testimony. If the main course of our life be gracious, and our Conscience will speak for our works, that they proceed from a sound faith and honest heart; we are then quit by proclamation, for nobody comes in against us: The world may not, our sins shall not, our Conscience must not, the Angels dare not, God will not, the Devil cannot: for he is the Father of lies, and his word will not be taken. But if otherwise, all these will be against us: there need no Subpoena's to fetch in witnesses; they come unsent for, and cannot be kept back: they will speak the truth, and all the truth. As Intelligencers for Statesmen mingle themselves with all companies, but use their best art to keep themselves concealed: So the Conscience is God's Informer, a Spie in the Soul, mixing her self with all our thoughts and actions: It is indeed the Reflection of the Soul upon it self. Though we know not what this Conscience is, yet this Conscience knows what we are. As Pilate asked Christ, What was the Truth? when The Truth stood before him: So many ask what is Conscience? when indeed Conscience is within them.

Origen calls it Paedagogam animae; that teaches all, and keeps all under the Ferula, in a perpetual pupillage. It is like an Italian Comedian, that can play all parts himself: It is Plaintiffe, Defendant, Witness, Judge, Executioner, and Punishment. The soul may say to the Conscience, as Mercury did to Ba •• an Et • e mihi perfide prodis? Dost thou betray me to myself? Yes, Me mihi pr • dis. The Conscience will accuse the Conscience; she brings in evidence, produceth the law, proves the forfeit, urges the penalty, gives the sentence, begins the punishment. It is a volume that no Jesuit can corrupt: No Index expurgatarius can strike a letter out of it: The only Book of all our Library that goes along with us into the world to come. Look in that Book, thou sinner, beforehand: Find there, the Title, Sin the Dedication, to the Prince of Sin: the several Chapters, so many several sins: yea, every letter, a Character of sin. As Averroes killed Avicen, by anointing his book with poison: so Satan labors to envenome this book of our Conscience, that we may uncomfortably perish. The Grecians are said to have an Hill so high above the force of the winds; that if a man had drawn his name in Characters, upon the ashes of the sacrifices; he might come the next year and find the same letters unblowne away. If any sinful heart be so securely placed, that Satan may now read in the sluttish dust, the sins that were written there long ago, if no thunder hath cleared the air about him, no wind scattered those guilty Characters, if all be hushd in rest & silence about the borders: Like the country of the Sabarites, where not so much as a Cock, the remembrancer of S. Peter, is left alive to trouble them; it is in a desperate case. But the Conscience that sleeps now, shall be wakened then: the book now clasped, shall be then opened. If ever sleep were the Image of death, it is this. Rather, ô Lord, let thy winds rage, and thy seas roar; than we thus be suffered to sleep with Jonah. It is fearful, when God will not so much as favor us with a frown, nor bless us with his anger. Cleopatra, that had not a mind to feel her death, poisoned her self with Asps, that she might die sleeping. Riot in sin is like the poison of Asps, so stupefying the desperate conscience, that until the day of Judgment this fatal book is not opened.

It is Satan's method; first to make men so senseless, as not to feel their sins at all; and then so desperate, that they feel them too much. In the first fit, men live as if there was no hell: in the last, they die as if there was no heaven. There be some diseases called Opprobrium medici, the shame of Physicians: Is this Lethargy the shame of Divines? No, there is a way to cure it. Let sinners lay to their hearts, all the curses on mount Ebal, the terrors of the law, the sting of death, the darkness of the grave, the horror of this Judgment, with some glimpse of hell. O wretched man, do but dream of them sometimes: talk to God, though it be in thy sleep: Down with thy knees, though thy heart be stiff: up with thy hands, though thy soul be down. Let but out an ejaculation, a piece, a shred of a Prayer; though it be no longer than the Publicans, Lord, be merciful to me a sinner.

6. There is another book, wherein the Registry of our transgressions is written; the infinite and universal knowledge of God: this is his particular book of all our particular sins. These records will present unto us all our offenses, done from our birth to our burial; and lay those things to our charge, which now we either remember not, or regard not: which we esteem either lawful, or tolerable: And we shall be compelled to answer to many things, whereof now we would scorn to be questioned. He that writes our members in his book, hath also in that book written the sins of those members. The concupiscence of our eyes, the violence of our hands, the intemperance of our throats, the virulence of our tongues, the forwardness of our feet to evil, together with the unseemly behavior of our whole body, shall be rigorously examined. Nor is this Indictment made up only of actual trespasses: but even the very blanks are crimes; and the not doing of good shall be punished with the suffering of evil. If our feet have not frequented God's walks, in his holy Courts: if our tongues have not vociserated our Makers praises: if our eyes have not pitied the poor, if our hands have not ministered to their necessities: even these omissions are damnable. Such is the sincerity of Christian Religion, that it not only imposeth upon us pure innocence, but profitable honesty. Here, not only action, but the intermission, the suspension of action; both our speech, and our silence; as well the vacancy of thinking well, as the positive thought of evil; not only cursed fruits, but the barrenness of good; shall be questioned. Not only for making wealth an instrument of cruelty, but for not making it an instrument of mercy; there is a Go ye cursed. If a Magistrate do not support the just cause, though he never took bribe, he shall be condemned. The Father shall be accountant for the education of his children, the Master for the discipline over his servants, the Prince for the government of his subjects. O the great charge of that high calling! Every king is a brief of his land, and he hath a pattern of the ordering of it always about him. The honor he gives his Magistrates, is but a charge, and so is that which God gives him: and as he requires an account, so he must give. Happy is it for him, when true Religion and sincere Integrity, shall be made the Eye of wisdom in his counsel, the ear of Justice in his Deputies, the hand of valor in his Nobles, the tongue of persuasion in his Preachers, the head of government in himself, and the heart of obedience in his people. Private men shall not only be judged as men, but as subjects: they that will not obey, are neither good subjects, nor good men. To obey well, is as great a thing as to govern, and more men's duties: they that think not so, know not the Christians part, which is to suffer. Public Rulers shall not only be judged as men, but as Magistrates. Not only our images, but our offices shall never return ad nihilum. The Image of God it self may uri, it cannot exuri. The image of a lawyer, of a Judge, of a Commander, may burn, but can never burn out.

Nor be only our gross sins recorded in this Book, but even our loose speeches: Of every idle word we must give an account in the day of Judgment. Yea, our very thoughts shall not escape; He will judge the secrets of our hearts. If the private sins of the most innocent soul here, should be revealed to this whole Congregation, it would put us to the blush: how terrible will it be then, to have them opened before the eyes of all the world, both of men and Angels? We write that in the forgetful dust, which God writes in everlasting marble. David pressed far upon the Lord's pardon, in that petition; Clense thou me from my secret sins. Can any sin be secret? for a great part of our sins, though we conceive them in the dark, on our beds, yet we do them in the light. And there are many sins which we glory in doing, and would not do, if nobody should know them. S. August. confesseth of himself, that in his wilder times, he was ashamed of his shamefastness, and the tenderness of his Conscience: and that he often belied himself with sins which he never did, lest he should be unacceptable to his sinful companions. But if we would conceal them, can we? God knows not only the sins we have committed, but even those we would have committed, if we could. Lord, thou hast forgive • me those sins which I have done, and those sins which only by thy grace I have not done; saith S. Augustine. They were done in our inclination to them, and even that Inclination needs God's mercy, and that mercy he calls a pardon. These are truly most secret sins, because they were never done; and because no other man, nor we ourselves, but only God knows, how many and how great sins we have escaped by his preventing grace; which without that, we had multiplied against him. We have abundance of sins out of the compass of our knowledge: we can accuse ourselves of original sin; yet, do we know what original sin is? We know not enough of it to satisfy others, we know enough to condemn ourselves, to solicit the mercy of God. Our youth hath been full of sins, and we have forgotten what those sins were. We remember them not so well as to name them all: not are we sure to live hours enough to name them all: for we did them faster then, than we can speak them now; when everything that we did, conduced to some sin. Yet we know them so well, as to know that nothing, but the mercy of our heavenly Father is so infinite as they. We have sins of thought, word, and deed: sins of omission, and of action: sins against God, against our neighbor, and against ourselves: sins against the Fathers Commandments, against the Sons Prayer, and against the holy Ghosts Office: sins against our own Creed, against the Laws of that Church and State wherein we live: sins unrepented, and sins relapsed into after repentance: sins of ignorance, and sins against the testimony of our conscience. If this Arithmetic cannot reach home to the number of our sins, we know what will: O Lord, pardon us all those sins, which thy Son Christ Jesus suffered for, who suffered for all the sins of all the world.

If one man have so many sins, how infinite an heap do the sins of all men amount unto? And how immense must that Book be, where all those sins are engrossed? We may say of our evil deeds, what the Evangelist speaks of the holy acts of Christ; that If they were all written, the world it self could not contain the books. Yet so capacious is this Book of God's omniscience; that every transgression, from the highest blasphemy to the least infirmity, is not omitted. Quid i • Babylon tutum, si in Jerusalem tale scrutinium? What shall the shrub of the desert do, when the Cedar of Paradise shall be shaken? If they do this in the green tree, what will they do in the dry? The Lambes may well be afraid, when the Lions tremble. It shall not be a summary, confused, or indigested examination; but exact and particular, as it were by the book. The adulterer shall not only be charged with that filthy act, but with all the circumstances preceding, preparing, conducing, and attending on that uncleanness: Thus he plotted, thus he persuaded, and thus he acted; as if all were now done over again in presentation. Where then be those Peccadillo's, which sinners now rather make a matter of sport, than the occasion of repentance? Alas there are no sins small, but comparatively: Christ died for all sins, and the least sin might be a thorn in his head, or a lash on his side. Many little boys at the Market-cross, make as great a noise as the crier. Even our little sins have no little cry in the ears of the Divine Justice: But they are rather now like little children, which by the day of judgment will be grown up to strong men, and with confusion challenge us to our faces.

7. The last Book is that with the Seven Seals, which only the Lamb that was slain, was found worthy to open. This is the book wherein lies all our comfort; containing the promulgation of their pardon and righteousness, that are washed in the blood of the Lamb. If we be tried by the Book of Nature, we shall be cast; for we have done unnatural deeds: Nature is depraved, corrupted; and who shall bring life out of corruption? The first man that God made, was saved; Adam was a Saint. The first man that was begotten of man, was damned; Cain was a Reprobate. Such difference there is betwixt God's workmanship, and ours; betwixt nature created and nature corrupted. If we be tried by the law written, O wretched men that we are, who shall deliver us? Even the very thought of that law, which condemns our very thoughts, is for the present a burning in the hand, in the private Session of our Conscience; before we come to hold up that hand at the bar of eternal Justice. If we must stand to the book of God's knowledge, and be judged by those everlasting Rols; we are so far from being aquitted, that we have not done one justifiable action all our days. Our transgressions are sealed up in a bag: but if we thrust our hand into that bag, there is not one good work to be found: Every line of this book is a sin, every leaf an age of sin: there is not a tittle of anything but sin. Only when God doth blot all our sins out of his remembrance, he doth (as it were) throw this book into the fire. As Caesar after the defeat of Pompey, having in his custody a casket, wherein he found letters written with his enemies own hands, sufficient evidence to condemn them, he burnt thē all, and forgave them; that no monument might remain for a future grudge. So doth Christ cancel & annihilate all the records of the sins of his chosen, that there might be no quarrel against them in heaven. If we should appeal to the book of our Conscience, we are condemned before we come to the trial: there sits a little Judge within, that tells us plainly what we must trust to: It is as a malefactor should labor to purge himself before the Judge, with the evidence of his crime sticking apparently in his bosom.

Well yet, though we cannot be saved by our book, by our own conscience; nor by the other books, the Registry of our iniquities: yet there be two Books of comfort for us, and by them we desire to be tried. The first is the Book of Life, God's eternal decree for our election; that sacred and immutable Record, out of which never was any name razed. The other is the Book of the Lamb, and the shedding of his blood upon our Souls. This book is not of a dark print, hard to read; but a fair large manuscript; the leaves of it pure untainted flesh; the letters, blood; the pens that wrote it, thorns and scourges: the clasps, nails: the binding, wood: the name of it, Jesus of Nazareth: the contents of it, mercy and Eternal Salvation. If my Conscience be at peace with me, I am not condemned yet: if this Book be afforded me, I shall not be condemned at all. O Lord, we humbly confess, that there is no vein in us, which is not full of the blood of thy Son, whom we have crucified, and crucified again, by multiplying many, and often repeating the same sins: That there is no artery in us, which hath not the spirit of error, the spirit of lust, the spirit of giddiness in it: That there is no bone in us, which is not hardened with the custom of sin, and nourished with the marrow of sin: That there be no sinews, no ligaments, which do not tie and chain sin and sin together: That our fantasie is in labor with the study, invention, and imagination of sin: That our memory is tenacious of nothing so much as sin: that with delight, it revolveth the remembrance of sin. That all these sins are upon Record, in those books which thou hast ordained for that purpose. Yet, O gracious Father, there is a Book which abrogates all these: and as the Sanctuary had the end in the Temple, and the Temple in Christ; so all these books have their end in the Book of the Lamb; if thou please to write our names there. There, O merciful God, write them; in that Book of satisfaction to thee, and of Redemption to us: and write the assurance of it in the present book of our conscience, the copy of that blessed Original: That when the day of judgment shall come, and all books are opened, nothing may be found in ours, but the righteousness of thy dear Son, and our sweet Savior Jesus.

5. The fatalitie and horror of this dreadful day to the wicked, is beyond all mortal Imagination. When at the sound of the Trumpet hell shall shake, all graves shall open, and yield up their prisoners. Though all this shall be done at once, yet our understanding cannot conceive it but through divers passages.

1. The suddenness of the Summons shall amaze them. Adonijah was justling himself into the not-yet-vacant Throne of his Father David: he feasts his friends, he jeeres his opposites, he boasts the prosperity of his design. On a sudden, the Trumpet sounds out King Solomon's Coronation, and this braving troupe is dispersed; and if you ask for their new Prince, he hangs upon the horns of the Altar. The ungodly will be banketing and solacing their sensual souls at the last day: But the Archangels Trump resounding the Almighty Solomon's Coronation, will put them to desperate shifts; and so much the more desperate, as they have no Sanctuary, whereunto they may fly for refuge.

2. The amazedness at the resurrection will be terrible; when the body shall be forced to rise, though it would lie still; and the soul be compelled to lie still in the body, though it would rise. Both their salutations shall be nothing but curses: the soul shall curse the body, that for the pleasure of that earthen dunghill, she hath lost inestimable joys: and the body shall curse the soul, that for the gratifying of such sensual desires, they must both suffer intolerable pains. Thus shall they meet together, not as companions, but as enemies: not as mutual helpers, but as reciprocal tormentors: not the body, as the house of a tenant, but as the prison of a malefactor. The prisoner had rather lie still in his comfortless dungeon, than be brought forth into the open air, to receive his sentence of condemnation. There is horror enough in the grave, yet is it a paradise to hell.

3. The very assembly shall daunt them: for this Judgment shall be before the whole Court of Heaven: in the presence of all the Angels, of all the Saints, like so many stars before the glorious Sun, the sinner shall be brought forth naked, deformed, leprous, monstrous. Then the proud harlot, that so admired her own beauty; and did set one hours fruition of it at a thousand crowns, shall appear more foul than any Gipsee, in respect of those whō for Gipsees she once despised.

4. The devils accusation shall distract them, because they know not what to answer. Thus will he plead; O just Judge! I never did this sinful man the least good turn, I never endured the least pain for his sake: yet still he bore a nimble ear to my directions, and a willing heart to execute all my devices: how perfectly is he transformed into mine Image? He knew me for his vowed enemy, yet he served me: Thee for his Maker, Savior, and best friend, yet he rebelled against thee. For him, thou hast done much good, and suffered much evil; thou hast opened the treasures of heaven to bless him, yea opened thine own side, and shed that precious blood to save him; yet he hath turned all that grace into wantonness, all that mercy into contempt. Nor is the devil the sole accuser of the ungodly; but all the sins they have done, shall be so many devils against them. Yea more, all the Creatures, which they have either not used to good, or abused to evil, are bound over to this Sessions, to join in their indictments against them.

5. The very goodness of the Judge shall make to the further aggravation of their wretchedness. When he shall ask their perverse Consciences, what they ever saw in him worthy of contempt? What want, either of perfection in himself, or of liberality towards them, did they ever find? What though I became poor? it was to make you rich. What though they stripped me naked? it was to clothe you with my garments. What though I died? it was to give you life. Would you despise my humility, who only therefore admitted it, to bring you to glory? Just cause shall they have to mourn before him, who have so ingratefully sinned against him. The covetous Churl shall mourn before that Judge, who despised all worldly riches. The proud shall mourn before him, that was both the Teacher and Example of humility. The ambitious aspirer to greatness shall mourn before him, that refused it when it was offered him: The drunkard shall mourn before him, who to expiate his intemperance, had a draught of gall and vinegar. The malicious and revengeful shall mourn before him, who did put up both contumelies and blows with patience. Whatsoever the Judge hath suffered in himself, he will commiserate in others: but what he hath ever detested to do, he will not forbear to punish. He will say to such as have been patiently miserable; You have been hungry, so was I: you have been persecuted, so was I: you have been scandalized, so was I: you have been killed, so was I. But to the rest; You have been uncharitable, so was not I: you have been proud, so was not I: you have been rebellious, covetous, luxurious, profane, intemperate; such I never was myself, when I was a mortal man, such I will not pardon now I am an immortal Judge. Most men are now rather afraid of miseries than of sins; yet miseries, not sins, shall find pity at the day of Judgment.

6. The horror of the sentence shall confound them: Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire. Few words, but full of bitterness. Depart from me, those are the words of separation: Ye cursed, the words of malediction: Into everlasting fire, the words of desolation: Prepared for the devil and his Angels, the words of doleful exemplification. Depart from thee, O Christ? Why thou art all sweetness, all Joy, all Peace, all Blessedness, All in all; therefore to depart from thee, is the universal loss of all. Thou art the greatest Good, therefore to be deprived of Thee, is the greatest evil. This Sentence is intolerable, and irrevocable. First, intolerable; if Belshazzar was so confounded at a temporal doom, which reached but to the loss of his Life and kingdom: what is it to lose Eternal Life, and the Kingdom of Heaven? When Christ was to be judged, he said but, I am he; and his apprehenders were stricken down with the word: How shall they be able to stand before him when he comes to judge, and shall say, I am he? He, whom you have contemned, abused, persecuted, crucified, by your obstinate rebellions? How will they look then? Loe, these are the men, that neither regarded the Lord's Promises, nor trembled, at his Judgments, and now they are confounded at his sentence. Secondly, it is irrevocable: here can be no appeal, for there is no higher Court. And whither should they go to complain? To God, whose Spirit they have grieved? To the Angels, whose Ministry they have abused? To the Saints, whose Righteous Souls they have vexed? Alas, There is no Vmpire, when God and man are at odds. There can be no writ of error to reverse the Judgment: but as Isaac said of Jacob, I have blessed him, and he shall be blessed: So will the Lord conclude upon the reprobates; I have cursed them, and they shall be cursed. This is a time of punishment, not of pardon. When we persuade men to work out their Salvation, by mortifying their sensual lusts, by abridging their voluptuous appetites, by a peremptory and resolute denying of themselves, that so they may enter into Heaven by the straight Gate; they answer us with our Masters flinching followers, This is a hard saying: But did they consider that final Sentence upon the neglect of this; Go, ye cursed, into everlasting fire; they would find, that that were a hard saying indeed. To day if you will hear his voice, harden not your hearts: Otherwise at that day, your hearts shall melt at the voice you would not hear. For they shall tremble at the voice of his condemnation, that have shut their ears at the voice of his exhortation.

1. This convinceth all unbelief, all hesitation concerning the certainty of this day of Judgment: The devils believe and tremble: are there any Christians that come short of the faith of devils? They object to Christ; Art thou come to torment us before our time? There is no time wherein those evil spirits are not tormented: there is a time when they expect to be tormented yet more. They knew that the last Assizes are the prefixed term of their full execution: and this they also then understood not to be yet come. Though they knew not when the day of Judgment should be; (a point concealed from the glorious Angels of Heaven) yet they knew when it should not be: and therefore can say, Before the time. Even the very lost spirits confess, and fearfully attend a set day of universal Sessions: They believe less than Devils, that either doubt of, or deny that day of Judgment and final retribution.

2. This teacheth all men to be afraid of this day. When a King comes in State, and with royal Equipage, into a City of his Kingdom, there to solemnize his nuptials, or to be feasted by his Subjects; he salutes some, he graceth others, he looks and speaks cheerfully to all: But when he comes against a City of Outlawes, that have shaken off the yoke of allegiance, and fortified themselves within the walls of Rebellion; then fury sparkles from his eyes, Death and Destruction flameth from his sword. The first coming of Christ was to take a Bride, and therefore he appeared like a Bridegroom; mansuete and gracious to all; with Angels singing his nuptial Anthems: But his next coming will be against traitors, when his Countenance shall be as a flaming fire, and pity shall be hid from his eyes. When the Pharisees brought the adulteress before Christ, he held his peace, but he wrote on the ground. God now is silent, and we think all safe: but he still writes up all our arrearages against this day of Audit. When the Law was given to Israel, Moses comforted them; Fear not, for God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before you. What a charge was this? Fear not, and yet fear. Indeed this glorious appearing is dreadful, while the Lord gives his Law: but fear not this so much, as that second appearing, when he shall call for an account of this Law.

3. Let us admire that wonderful Patience of God, that to wicked men and spirits, respites the utmost of their torment, and forbears it to the day of Judgment. He might upon the first instant of the fall of Angels, have inflicted on them the greatest extremity of his vengeance. He might upon the first sins of our youth, yea of our Nature, have swept us away, and given us our portion in that firy lake: he stays a time for both. Yet so much doth his mercy exceed to us lost men, over it did to the lost Angels; that he affords us not only a delay of punishment, but a fair conveniency of utter prevention: which to the evil spirits is altogether denied. They do suffer, they must suffer: and though they have now deserved to suffer all they must, yet they must once suffer more than they do.

4. What would a man give for a sure friend at that day? One good friend is a good Conscience; and happy is he that hath that friend in a corner: for when all the corners of the world shall be on fire, this shall stand forth to plead for him. But the best friend of all, and without whom we can have no friend at all, is the Judge himself. To make him on our side, let us now think no pains too great, no prayers too fervent. Let us trample underfoot these sinful vanities; and shake them off quickly, as Paul did the Viper into the fire; lest into the fire those Vipers shake us. Let us prostrate ourselves before Christ in the lowest degree of sorrow and shame, with the same confusion, wherewith an adulterous wife would in her penitence present her self to her injured husband. Pour we out our tears at his feet, and say; Lord, though we be full of impiety, yet thou art more full of pity: If we confess the one, wilt thou therefore deny the other? If our sins be greater than they ought, yet thy mercies are not lesser than they were wont. It could be no goodness in us, that procured thee to make us, but even thy love. It was no merit in us, that did win thee to redeem us; but even thy Mercy. Sweet Jesus, let that love which moved thee to make us, move thee also to save us: let that mercy which won thee to die for us, win thee also to save our life. It is late enough, but yet not too late, to call for mercy: and why should we languish away in silence? As it is impossible that Christ should forget the passions which he suffered; so it is not credible that he should not have compassion on us for whom he suffered.

THat Atheistical Dotage of the worlds eternity being sufficiently refuted, our Apostle proceeds to satisfy and remove a scruple, which might arise in some better persuaded Conscience. If the Maker of this world hath determined an end unto it, Why is it so long deferred? Why are the wicked allowed so large a space of time, to domineer over the Righteous? It is answered, Though this space seem long to them, that Measure the Length of Time by the sharpness of their Affliction, as Minutes seem Houres, and Daies Moneths, to the Miserable: Yet it is not so with God, to Whom all things are present; Who hath neither beginning nor ending, but is the beginning and end of all things. If we be sick, and the Physician promise to visit us tomorrow with his best relief; With what a tedious longing do we expect his presence? When we have a long journey to go, With what weary Paces do we measure the way; peecing every step with a Furlong, and extending every Furlong to a Mile? Our imagination makes every Day of our sorrow appear like Joshua's Day, when the Sun stood still in Gibeon. The Summer of our delight is too short; but O the Winter of our Affliction goes slowly off. We cannot consider Time, otherwise than by numbering of Daies and Yeares: to Day, we speak of yesterday, and tomorrow: all these are as one moment to God. The first man that ever was, and the last man that ever shall be, is now as present to God, as our living selves. He that stands upon the bank of a River, sees only the passing stream: but another upon an high Tower, sees the water past and coming, as easily as the present. Time lies asloape before God, and with one glance of his Eye, He beholds all parts of it.

Could we but comprehend what eternity is, this mystery would be plain unto us. This life is preserved by feeding, digesting, sleeping, excercise: all which require the expense of time. Eternal life thinks of these temporary passages, as of a very dream. The dead body of a man lies buried in the Earth, moulders to dust, and knoweth nothing: yet when he riseth at the last Day, he will think he hath scarce slept an hour. Had he lived all this while upon the Earth, and seen the Generations of men succeeding one another, the innumerable multitudes rising and falling in this space; he would have judged it a great while. To our eternal Creator, all things are present; One day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day. For Method, instead of a curious distribution, I will orderly raise such conclusions and observations, as are willingly colligible from the Text.

1. Beloved. This Evidence of his Love is used as a Preparation to his Lesson. No Doubt, Saint Peter wished the Conversion of those Unbeleevers, who contradicted his holy Doctrine: But these better informed Souls, under his Charge, were far more dear unto him; to whom he was tied in an higher Bond than that of Nature, even the Grace of Jesus Christ: these he calleth his Beloved. You cannot esteem it a Point forced, or altogether begged at the Door of my Text, if I touch a little upon that Question, concerning the Degrees of Charity: For as we are bound to love all men, so (with our Apostle) a greater Measure of Love is due to some men. Charity looks to the preservation of three things; Piety to God, Purity in ourselves, Equity to others. There be different Degrees, but still it is the same Charity. God must be loved above all, Thy self next, and then thy Neighbor: and him As thyself. As sometimes imports a Likeness, not a Truth: in the Psalm, Righteousness is as the wings of a Dove. Sometimes a Truth rather than a Likeness: We saw his Glory, as the Glory of the only Begotten of the Father. Sometimes both: God manifested his Love to us, as to Children. Etsi non idem modus diligendi, tamen idem affectus diligentis. The Objects of Charity have their Degrees: Diligibile quod supra est, Deus: quod intra est, anima propria: quod juxta est, anima proximi: quod infra est, corpora nostra & aliena. A man is to love himself Priore Charitate, majore Charitate, both with the former and greater Charity: but it must be understood In bonds ejusdem ordinis, in good things of the same rank: for otherwise, he must love his Brothers soul before his own body. And that same, Thy Neighbor a • thyself, is a sicut of quality, not of equality. Friends have their due places in Charity, and their love is often great, as was David's and Jonathan's. Yet is it not allowable in Love, one Friend to die for another. If in a shipwreck, one having a plank, gives it away to his Friend, and perisheth himself, he is guilty of self-homicide. No man must let the Tenant out of the Tenement, till God the Landlord call for it. This is not to love another sicut teipsum, as thyself: but Plus quàm teipsum, more than thyself: yet to save a soul, Love bids us venture a Body.

If a man curse his father or mother, he was to suffer death for it; not so for cursing another: therefore we are not bound to love all alike. A man is to love his Wife more than his Child: he is tied to his Child with a natural Bond, to his Wife with a sacramental Bond. Howsoever the Romists disgrace Wedlocke, yet we appeal from them as not competent Judges. Men ought to love their Children above their Parents; according to that of Paul; Parents lay up for their Children, not Children for their Parents. Greater Reverence belongs to Parents, greater Love to Wife and Children. As Elkanah said to Anna, Am not I better to thee than ten Sons? We must love the tree better than the fruit: the Wife is the dearest. A man shall leave his Father and Mother, and cleave to his Wife: and they shall be one flesh. Therefore is the Wife put in the highest Gradation, by Moses: If any shall tempt thee to Idolatry, be it Neighbor, Kinsman, Brother, Father, or Vxor ipsa in sinu, thy Wife in thy Bosom; the nearest to thine Heart, thou shalt not consent. The nearer the jar or breach of Love, the more grievous: Betwixt Neighbor and Neighbor, bad: betwixt Brother and Brother, worse: betwixt Man and Wife, worst of all.

Among all these Degrees of Love, that of the good Pastor to his Flock hath not the lowest place: Those Children cannot but be dear unto us, of whom we have been the Instrumental and Ministerial Fathers, to beget them to Christ, of the immortal Seed: they are our Beloved. Infants cannot help themselves, therefore God hath lent them Aliorum brachia & ora, the Feet of others, and the Arms of others, to bring them to the holy Sacrament; the Tongues of others to covenant for them, wherein they make their Proxey-Vowes: and it were unjust in us to deny them those helps of Charity. Some deeds of Love are Actus Innocentiae, to do no harm: others, Actus Beneficentiae, to do good. Job was so far from rejoicing at the destruction of his hater, that he did o • en his Door to the Stranger. Saint Paul saith that Love is the fulfilling of the law. First, because without this, the Love of God may be dissembled, and falsely professed. Next, because by this, our love to God is expressed, and our obedience to the Law manifested. We are not commanded to love everything in every man, no more than our Apostle did love their infidelity, to whose souls he wished felicity. I am bound to love another's Carnem non carnalitatem, corpus non corruptionem. Be Pagans no neighbors to us? yes, Proximus omnis homo. Even Beasts, though they be not Proximi, are yet Proximorum; and within the compass of our charity. There is Bonum cui, the person to whom we wish well: and Bonum quo, wherein we wish them good. May we have charity to the d • mned in Hell? No, there may not be so much as sorrow for them, but rather joy in the Justice of God. They are creatures of God naturally, but they are not so morally. No charity comes out of Hell, therefore no charity must descend into Hell. But the Devils do us some good; for while they assault us with temptations, and afflict us with crosses, they in effect help us to crowns? Yea, but this is not ex intention Daemonum, sed ex providentia Divina: Thus Iuvat vel ab host doceri; yet still no thanks to Satan, no charity to that enemy.

To conclude this point; Charity is Novum mandatum, Totum mandati, and Gratia praestantissima; the propriety of Christians. There is Amor among beasts, Dilectio among men, Charitas among Christians: that is their peculiar. All other Virtues may offend in the Excess: a man may be overjust, overwise, too humble, too patient; but he can never be too charitable. No man's Charity i • perfect upon Earth, because it may be increased: but that which is perfect admits of no Augmentation. He that feareth, is not made perfect in Love. Some have affirmed, that Charity was more perfect in Paul, than in Adam ante Laps •• , before his Fall: It might be so Ration durationis, non ration vera perfectionis. As Demosthenes said of Pronuntiation or Elocution, that it was all the Points of Rhetoric: so Charity is all the parts of of Religion. Faith and Hope do ourselves good, Charity spreads to others. Faith and Hope, like the Ship, bring the Passenger to Heaven, but then go no farther: Charity dwells with Him forever. It hath a glorious Reward: yet the Reward may be Causa ex • itans 〈◊〉 finalis. Amor deus est, Love was a god, among the Heathen: Deus amor est, God is Love, saith the Christian.

If Charity be a Lamp in common persons, it must be a bright Star in the breast of Divines. Such a Jewel was in the heart of Paul, more precious than all the Stones in the Breastplate of Aaron; that he wished to be anath • matized for his Brethren. Acerbius tulit illos non salvari, quàm seipsum perire: sure they were his Beloved. He wept for the Enemies of Christ's Cross: Nullus sic sua destevit peccata, sicut Paulus aliena. For this Love, Christ pepared our Apostle, by his threefold Question; Lovest thou me? If thou doest, Feed my Sheep. Doth not the same God invert that speech now to the People: Love you me? If you do, Feed my Shepherds? The Sheep are well provided for Spirituals, but the Shepherds are discouraged for the want of Temporals. In Love to you, we wear out our Daies, and weary out our Lives: cannot you, in Love to us, minister of your superfluities? You give your servants meat, that they may do your work: and shall your Minister be out of heart, through defect of maintenance? The Rabbins have a traditional conceit, that Abel or Seth, or some of those holy Patriarchs, burning their sacrifices on the Ground, did melt the Gold and Silver that was in the superficial Veines of the Earth: which they perceiving to be useful or commerce, did so employ it: As therefore it was found out in the service of God, to the service of God let it return? Let your painful diligence, and pour thankful beneficence, be real arguments, and mutual testimonies of our Love to each other, that we may all be blessed with the Love and favor of JESUS CHRIST.

Be not ignorant of this one thing] Here is an Antithesis, in respect of those Unbeleevers mentioned Vers. 5. They are willingly ignorant of this; but Be not you so. He that hath tasted and digested the sweet juice of knowledge, would be ignorant of nothing. But it is dangerous to be ignorant of that, whereof the knowledge is necessary. An Impostume bred secretly and insensibly in the body, is as perilous as an outward Ulcer, seen and medicined. The Day goes away nevertheless speedily, because a blind man does not see the Sun. He that travels securely without mistrust of Thieves, may yet fall into their clutches. Ignorance of our danger is so far from saving us, that it exposeth us unprepared to ruin.

Of this one thing] What so especially a thing is that? That one day with the Lord is as a thousand years. Why, Is there such an absolute Necessity of this Knowledge? May not a man be ignorant of that, and yet be saved? No, for it is a familiar expression of the Eternity of God: and he that is ignorant of the Nature of God, is out of the Way to salvation. Indeed his Majesty is so great, that no man can behold it, and live: the very Angels cover their faces, when his Glory passeth by. Natural we are prone to fashion God to some form of our own: and according to our conception of some glorious Creature or admirable Light, or what other Image best pleaseth our fancy; such we imagine Him: for we are all borne Idolaters. These gross Conceits must be suppressed; and with Jacob, we must bury all our strange gods under the Oak of Shechem, before we set up God's Altar at Bethel. Let us banish all mental representations, as incorporeal Images, and conceive of Him simply, purely, spiritually; as of an infinite, omnipotent, and eternal Being; without Form, without Matter, without Composition, without all Limit of Thoughts. Whose Wisdom is his Justice, whose Justice is his Power, whose Power is his Mercy: whose Wisdom, Justice, Power, Mercy, is Himself. Adorare possumus, comprehendere non possumus. He is Good without Quality, Great without Quantity, Everlasting without Time, Present everywhere without Place, Containing all things without Extent, and Ordering all things without Trouble. We must think of Him, as One not to be thought of: at which height let us stay, and be content to wonder in silence: otherwise we shall lose ourselves in his Infiniteness. Howsoever, though we cannot conceive of Him as He is, let us never conceive of Him as He is not. It is observable, that when God did reveal his Glory to men, He did first exanimate them. So Daniel was enervated, John fell down as dead, the Apostles were cast into an Extasie. In that terrible Demonstration of the divine Power, Elijah wrapped his since in his mantle, and stood in the entering in of the Cave: his obedience drew him forth to the mouth of the Cave, his fear still hides his head. Had there not been much courage in the Prophets Faith, he had not stood out these affrightments, the forerunners of that awful Presence, though with his face covered. The very Angels do no less, before that all-glorious Majesty, than veil themselves with their wings. Far be it from us once to think of that infinite and omnipotent Deity without an humble Awfulness. Paul was so transported with his Rapture, that he could not tell whither his body about him or not. He had once said, Quod facio, nolo; I do what I would not: but now, Quod facio, nescio; I do what I know not.

Be not ignorant of this one thing] This binds us all to an holy Diligence, whereby we may fill our hearts with the knowledge of God. Scientia est Deum noscere, virtus colere: In Illo Sapientia, in hoc Iustitia. There was in Paradise a Tree of Knowledge of good and evil, of which our first Parents were forbidden to eat. Either Sacramentally; because by it, they might know how good it was to obey, to disobey how evil: Or Experimentally, because the Event so fell out: as they were called The waters of Strife, because there was strife about them. Let us study to know good, the knowledge of evil will come fast enough. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty in his strength, nor the rich in his wealth: But let him that glorieth, glory in this, that he knoweth me, saith the Lord. Why, the wicked know Him, the Devils know Him; they believe and tremble; they have a kind of belief, therefore they have knowledge. But the knowledge that saves us, is more than a bare apprehension of God: It knows his Power, and therefore fears Him: knows his Justice, and therefore serves Him; knows his Mercy, and therefore trusts Him: knows his Goodness, and therefore loves Him. I do not mean a comprehensive knowledge of God's Infiniteness; for so He only knows Himself: and when with that Philosopher, we have taken a seven nights time to consider of it, we may ask a fortnight more; and at the fortnights end, a month; and be at our wits end, at the worlds end, before we can make a satisfying answer; otherwise than his was, That the longer he thought of it, the more difficult he found it.

But knowledge to the Christian, is like his soul to his body; a kind of all in all. As it quickens, it is Anima: as it resolves, it is Voluntas: as it thinks, it is Animui: as it knows, it is Intellectus: as it deliberates, it is Men's: as it remembers, it is Memoria: as it judgeth, it is Ratio: as it desires, it is Affectus: as it breathes, it is Spiritus: as it feels, it is Sensus. So knowledge concurs to every grace: They that know thy Name will trust in thee; so it is Faith. Know the Lord, and tremble before Him; so it is Fear. Abraham knew God and called himself Dust and Ashes; so it is Humility. They that know Christ, will become New Creatures: so it is Sanctity. The Faithful know Christ, and relieve his poor Members; so it is Charity. Be wise, Know the Lord, and Serve Him; so it is all Piety. I have determined to know nothing among you, but Christ crucified; so it is all Christianity. Let us know the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom He hath sent; and so it is Eternal Life. As Feeling is inseparable to all the Organs of Sense: the Eye sees and feels, the Eare hears and feels, the Palate tastes and feels, the Nostrils smells and feels: So Knowledge is involved in every Grace: Faith knows, and believes: Charity knows, and loves: Patience knows, and suffers: Temperance knows, and abstains: Humility knows, and stoops: Repentance knows, and mourns: Obedience knows, and does: Confidence knows, and rejoices: Hope knows, and expects: Compassion knows, and pities: Thankfulness knows, and praiseth the blessed Name of God. As there is a power of Water in everything that grows: It is fatness in the Olive, sweetness in the Fig, cheerful Wine in the Grape, strength in the Oke, tallness in the Cedar, redness in the Rose, whiteness in the Lily: So Knowledge is in the hand Obedience, in the knee Humility, in the eye Compassion, in the mouth Benediction, in the head Understanding, in the heart Charity, in the whole body and soul Piety. How miserably are they deceived, that think they can find the way to Heaven blindfold; as if Holiness were the Daughter of Ignorance? Alas, it will be more possible for them, and more easy, unto them, to weigh the Fire, or to measure the Wind, or call again the Day which is past, or recover the Verdure of the withered Grass, than to get Salvation without Knowledge. If there be such an answer to such as have known Christ, and so known Him, as to have prophesied in his Name, as a Nescio vos; How will He pour out his Indignation among the Heathen, that know not his Name; and in flaming Fire take Vengeance on those that know not God? But let us know Him, that we may love Him; and love Him, that He may both know and love us in Jesus Christ,

Be not ignorant of this one thing that one Day &c. Our Apostle, here, bends his full Artillery against the Despisers of the Deity: They are not only ignorant, but willfully ignorant: and so far from knowing God aright, that they will not confess Him at all. Light it self is so dim, that they cannot see it: and themselves are so far from themselves, that they cannot discern themselves, God is Light, so saith the Truth: and their souls are themselves, so saith their Philosophy. They and their souls are Strangers: as he complained of his sullen Neighbor; In urbe tota, Nemo tam prope, tam proculque nobis. Or like incestuous Myrrha, who could not enjoy her father as she would, because he was her father; Nunc quia tam meus est, non est meus, ipsaque damn • Est mihi proximitas. Like our pair of eyes, which easily see all foreign Objects, never see one another. O Wonder! That this great Light from Heaven, able to dispel all the powers of Darkness, should not make the scales of malicious ignorance to fall from their eyes. Now their quickest Sense is too slow to descry, one day their slowest will be quick enough to feel that there is a God. Do they live, without a soul? Can their Temperature consisting Ex quatuor mortuis, the four elements, subsist of it self one moment? Of dead, added to dead, no Life can arise: as of nothing, multiplied by nothing, will never arise something: millions of Cyphers will not so much as raise one Unit. They must needs find a capacity in themselves, which distinctly, and in a moment, can present them with the Heavens moving, the Stars shining, the Fire mounting, the Air peercing, the Sea swelling, the Earth resting, Gemmes glistering, Varieties entertaining their thoughts. By their own Rule, everybody is so limited, that it cannot contain a thing bigger than it self. They are very little, and the World is exceeding great: How then can this Great be comprehended in that little.: The Body cannot be thus capacious, therefore it must be a Soul. While they are living, there is a thing within them, that waxeth as the Body waineth; and is wisest to prescribe, when the Bones and Sinewes are weakest to execute. It may be ere night, this Tennant departs, and then that earthy Bulk is no more able to grow, speak, or move, than a dull stone. Cannot this Soul within them, get so much credit of them, as to believe they have a Soul? The very natural could feel with one hand, that he had another.

But say they, we talk of GOD and a Soul, but they could never see either of both. The Poet brings in an old Strumpet jeering her spent Customer, with whom the World was at so low an Ebbe, that he was driven to ask days of payment for his Pleasure; with these words; Ocu • atae mihi sunt manus, credunt quod vident: Women of our Trade have eyes in their hands; if your present be so fine that they cannot see it, they think it so far off, that they shall never have it. Our gallant infidels have so long sucked the breath of their Courtesans, that they are come to Credunt quod vident too: Nothing will sink into their heads, that cannot be seen with their eyes, or felt with their fingers. They cannot see a GOD, the Fountain of all Natures, in so clear a Glass, as the Mirrour of all Creatures. Why should not a work so wonderful prove an Author as skillful? We are now in a Temple, and we never can think, that an Infants wit, or a Childes hand did build it. Can we behold a World so admirable, for the Capacity, Majesty, Firmenesse, Use, Order and Motion of it: and not find the Tract of Omnipotence in that firmness, of infiniteness, in that capacity, of Glory in that Majesty, of Goodness in that Use, of Wisdom in that Order, of Life in that Motion of it.

Were one of these political depose-God's an ingenious Alchemist, and should show us one of his rarest Magistrals or extractions: If we should judge it the distillation of some Peddlar Aqua-vitae man, would he not t • xe us of an Ignoramus. And yet shall this man observe an Heaven, abundant in variety of influence, managed by a consort of Motions, thwarting and yet not disturbing one another? Shall he tread upon an E • rth, which yields Bread to strengthen him, Wine to comfort him, Gold to enrich him, Drugges to heal him, wonders to astonish him? Shall he sails upon a Sea, which is an humor naturally spreading, and see it surging above the solid Earth, without superinundation? And not acknowledge a GOD to be the Maker and Moderator of this Heaven, the confirmer of this Earth, the controller of this Sea. The Earth, Water, Air, are huge Elements: who over-awes them to give their Substance, Moisture, and Breath; to the nourishing of little Plants and Hearbes? Is it not GOD? Who over-rules the fierce and sturdy Beasts, to yield their backs to serving, and their lives to feeding weak l • ttle Man? Is it not GOD? Could the greater be so subdued to the less, without an umpire of impeachable right, unmatchable power, unsearchable Wisdom? The Prince hath a power over the land and life of his Subject; yet should he command the greater to serve the less, how ill would they brook it? Would Nobles willingly condescend to serve a Groome? Would they fast to feed him, watch to guard him, die to save him? How then must we admire that Almighty Power, which hath commanded the Heavens to serve us, the Sun to give us light, the Earth to give us meat, the Creatures to obey us, the Angels to guard us, and his own Son to dy for us? Who else could compel honor to bow to baseness, learning to be taught by rudeness, power to be manacled by weak ••• se, Millions to be won by Twelve, and the World to be caught by Fishermen? What Soul can revolve this wonderful variety, and be ignorant of the Deity?

I wonder whether these men believe, That they breathe in Summer, as well as in Winter: In Summer, they cannot see their own breath: but as cold grows on, it begins to appear. God's Providence, and their own Souls, are things of so subtle a Nature, that they cannot see them during the Summer of their pleasures. But when the Winter of Judgment comes, this will show them a GOD in their just sufferings; and in that Soul of theirs, which they would not believe they had, they shall feel an unspeakable torment. Then shall their pained sense supply the want of their Faith; Where lies all this anguish? It cannot be the Aking of a Head, nor the Gout in a joint, nor the Collicke in the Bowels; not a Hand or Legge, not a Back or Brest, that are thus vexed: But something so much more sensible than a mortal body, as the pains be greater than a mortal power can inflict. Their teeth have raged with pain; yet was it ease to this. They have lain under the Racke of the Wind or Stone, and found it ease to this. That they have felt was but momentary; but, What time shall put an End to that they do feel? Surely, it must be an immortal Soul, that suffers these indeterminable torments. And though they feel some strange thing which Eternity can inflict; yet it hath somewhat to inflict which before they never felt. O that man's fore-sight were as sharp as his sense?

Nullum elementum suo loco ponderat: in the bottom of the Sea, all the waves are no burden: out of the Ocean, to carry a Pitcher of Water is some Trouble. Within the sphere of sin, Men feel no weight: out of it, the easiest is very heavy. Therefore Ne doleas quae sentis, quia quae sentis, evasisti. Do not so much grieve for the sins thou feelest; because those thou feelest and sorrowest, thou hast escaped.

In the Old Law, when Violence was offered to a Virgin, if she cried out, she was not to die by the Law: but if she cried not out, she was to be punished. When the temptations of Satan set upon the Soul, and his assaults offer her violence; if she cries, and strives, and resists, she shall not die. Sin may hang like a Viper upon Paul's hand, and not poison him: it may bring a potential guilt, not an actual: or a damnabilitie, as the School speaks, but not damnation.

Oh how happy were I, if I could work in your hearts a true sense of these things? How joyfully should I present such a Soul to GOD? With what sweet Hymns of consorted Angels would Heaven entertain us? But if more would come in and our company increase, how then would that spacious vault ring? How great would the joy of all be for each ones part, how full would each one make the number of all?

[Use.] 1. Let us learn to know GOD, that we may avoid the things that offend him. Every sinnner is ignorant: not that all do sin out of ignorance, but they become ignorant by reason of sin. They shall walk like blind men, because they have sinned against the LORD. The first punishment of a sin is caecitie of Mind; and caecitie of Mind is the cause of future sin.

If a thief should lose his eye in the very act of his robbery, would not all men call this a present Judgment? Oculum cordis amisit, & ei pepercisse putatur Deus? When Joseph was thrown into the pit, his brethren sat down to eat, with no more compunction, than Esau having sold his Birth-right, fell to his pottage. What stranger can think of poor innocent Joseph, crying naked in that desolate and dry pit, saving that he moistened it with his tears, and not be moved? Yet his hard-hearted brethren sit them down carelessly, with the noise of his Lamentation in their ears, to eat bread: not once thinking by their own hunger, what it was for Joseph to be affamished to death? Covetous oppressors, after they have sold all Conscience of Religion for money, and laid up their poor debtors in the pits and holes of prisons; fall with as good a stomach to their dinners, as if they had never known Jesus, nor his distressed members. Put out Samsons eyes, and you may easily bind him to the Mill, as the hooded Hawk is bound to the Perch. Have you not read the Eagles policy to kill the Hart? She gets to the sand, and there rowles and involves her self, till she hath filled and laden her wings with th • t dusty burden: then springing up to the head of the be • st, sh • e so shakes this gathered sand into his eyes, that it blinds him: thus she claws out his eyes with her talons, and by degrees kills him. It is the devils plot, with the dry earthly dust of these worldly things, to blind the understanding of sinners, and so to take and lead them captive at his pleasure. Fantasie puts up the Game, the Affections hunt it full cry; if Reason once blow the horn, we are lost. How could it be else, that men should seek for content in vanities and vexations, whiles they vilipend those precious merchandize of Heaven, which can only enrich them: but that the Devil shows them things that are not, as though they were; as Painters draw Pictures, rather according to their own Imaginations, than the true Nature of the things they represent? As Merchants show the best of their wares, and magnify that; but conceal all the blemishes and defects: or as blind affection takes even deformity for beautiful: so to the ignorant, Satan can pass odious vices for absolute virtues. If Christ should ask us, as he did that blind man, What wilt thou have me do for thee? We might well answer him, as he there did; Lord, that I may receive my sight. Till we know the Lord, we cannot be happy.

2. Let us learn to know Christ, that we may know God: for we cannot know the Father, but by the Son. I know my sheep, and am known of mine. Indeed Christ is called The hidden Manna. First, hidden to Nature, for that could not see it, till the Gospel did reveal it. Secondly, hidden to unbelief; for that cannot see it, though the Gospel hath revealed it▪ Thou, O Father, hast hid these things from the prudent: they are hidden to the wi • est Naturians. If our Gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost: so it is hidden to lost and unbelieving Christians. It is not so much Scientia capitis, as Conscientia cordis, that knows Christ. He is a Treasure, which many know where to find, but they will not go to the price of it: not the being, but the worth and value of him is hidden. He is not only our Teacher, but our Example: in both easy to be known. The conclusion of his gracious works was, Exemplum dedi vobis. Bear ye one another's burdens: why? So you shall fulfill the Law of Christ: The Law not only of his Precept, but of his Example. Forgive one another: how? As Christ forgave you. Love one another: how? As I have loved you. Be ye humble and meek: how? Learn of me. Be ye patient: how? As Christ hath left you an Example. Still as we run our Race, let us Look unto Jesus. For this cause he was lifted up like the Brazen Serpent, that we might behold him. If a man's occasions compel him to travel in the night, he will follow him that carries the Light: Christ is the Light; let us be sure to follow Him, and we shall not stray in darkness. As ye have received Christ, so walk in Him: how can they walk in Him, that have not received him? He that would be drawn to the life by a Painter, patiently and intentively sits him: if we would be conformed to the Image of Christ, let us fasten our eyes upon him, and never so much as turn our countenances to the world. The lives of the Saints, to the Life of Christ, in regard of example; are as the writings of the Fathers, to the sacred Scripture: Even the stars that are obscured in the Light of the Sun, are profitable in his absence, to give light to the world. But what are those borrowed and glimmering sparks, to that glorious Sun of Righteousness, Christ himself?

Jesus is the subject of all tongues, but not the object of all hearts: The School disputes of him, the Pulpit preaches of him, Profession talks of him, profane ones swear by him, few rightly know him. This Manna is near enough to their doors; Sed non colligunt, quia non diligunt: non diligunt, quia non intelligent. God meant him the public Redeemer; his Life approved him openly, his Death was executed openly, his Resurrection was published openly, the Gospel proclaims him openly, Preaching manifests him openly; all these ways he is open: it is only unbelief that keeps him hidden. The Kings of the Earth look for Allegiance in their Subjects, though they never saw their faces. And the Kings of Persia and Mexico were wont seldom or never to come abroad, or to be seen of the people, to beget in them a more awful dread, and greater opinion of their State and Majesty. But our heavenly King exposeth himself to all: Voluit omnibus nosci, qui voluit pro omnibus nasci. It is we that are blind, the Sun denies not his Light: God does not hide Christ from us, but we hide ourselves from Christ. The Peasant in the Country knows there is a King in the Court: but he apprehends not his Magnificence: and not knowing his person, passeth by him as an Neighbor; and it may be, at their meeting, takes the way of him. In many things, Familiarity breeds contempt: but here, strangeness and ignorance hath made men so profanely insolent, that they scorn, their own humor should give place to the Prince of Heaven, the Son of God. Would not a man be ashamed, to have the name of a Physician, and be utterly ignorant of Medicine? Or a Mechanicke to be called a Carpenter, and know not what belongs to a Rule? What other is it for a Christian, not to know the Rules of Christ, the way to Eternal Life? Therefore do the evil persecute the good, because they are evil: and therefore are they evil, because they are ignorant. Had the Princes of this world known it, they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory. But as it fared with Israel in Egypt, after the indulgence of the former Pharaohs, there arose up a new king which knew not Joseph: Persecutors, that know neither Joseph, nor Jesus, will be far from Mercy. Those things which the ground naturally produceth of it self, she brings forth in abundance; but what is sown, not without much labor: because she is to those a Mother, to these a stepdame. The World favors and honors her own: but the Righteous are Strangers to her, whom she neither knows nor respects. There can be no Love without Knowledge: Zeal it self will grow wild without this corrective. Iron may be hot and softened in the fire; but without the hammer, it puts on no new form. A tall man upon some high Turret, seems to us on the ground, scarce a boy in stature: Therefore we think nothing in Heaven to be worth the having, because we grow upon Earth, and all there is out of kenning. Ignorant people think that the Moon is the biggest star but the Sun; whereas the Learned find it by Demonstration, to be one of the least. But Mercury, our Evening-star, though it seem the greatest next those former two, is in truth, the least of all. The reason why they appear so big, we easily conceive, because they are so low. Things of this world, for their short lasting, and often changing, are compared to the Moon; whose motion is swift, and her face diverse. For their pliablenes, they are like to Mercury, whose property is to be either good or bad, as the star is with whom be is joined. Yea, there is a third reason of similitude; for these temporal things, like those planets, show fairer because they are nearer; and bigger, because they are lower than better things. But could we get up to the top of Jacob's ladder, there to see and know our God, we should both descry the sophisticated greatness of things transitory, and the infiniteness of eternal glory.

3. Lastly, having got the knowledge of God, let us be sure to remember him. Remember thy Creator, in the days of thy youth. Where we have an act enjoined, Remember: an object presented, thy Creator: a time prescribed, In the days of thy youth. Job confesseth that GOD did write bitter things against him, when he made him to remember the sins of his youth: yet still in the days of our youth let us remember GOD. To remember, is sometimes used for consideration;