Commentary on 2 Peter

GOd in the Old Testament, Christ in the New, Angels, the Prophets, the Apostles, the Fathers, all Preachers, all Christians that have hope of heaven, yea all reasonable men that discern the vanity of the earth, have spoken against Covetousness. Now we shall come a step lower, and hear what an unreasonable beast doth say against it. So we have it condemned ex ore Domini, ex ore Christi, ex ore Angeli, ex ore Prophetarum, ex ore Apostolorum, ex ore Pradicantium, ex ore sapientum; and last and lowest ex ore Asinae: and if all this prevail not, we shall hear it ex ore eorum quae os non habent; from the mouths of them that have no mouths at all; The stone shall cry out of the wall, and the beam out of the timber; the silver and gold shall cry; even riches themselves shall cry out against the love of riches. Beasts have mouths, but not to speak: stones shall speak, yet they have no mouths. To prove it a worse than beastly sin, God hath enabled a beast to condemn it. We have these particulars. First, the Scholar, a Prophet. Secondly, the Schoolmaster, or rather School-dame; for it is Asina; an Ass. Thirdly, the lesson, which is reprehensive; she Rebuked, she Forbade. Fourthly, the manner of her teaching; which is not emblematicall, nor enigmaticall, but plain; with man's voice. Fifthly, the fault for which she corrected him, was Iniquity, and Madness.

The Scholar was a Prophet, but what kind of one? first, we find him sacrificing [unspec 1] in the Mount of Baal: had he been from the true God, he would rather have said, Pull down these altars, than built up new ones: the very place and number convince him of Idolatry. Seeing his seven bullocks, and seven rams smoking on his seven altars; he goes up higher into the Mount to receive God's answer. This happily he had learned of Moses: so nearly a false Prophet can counterfeit a true one. An answer he hath, and that from God: but will God meet a sorcerer? Will he put prophecies into the lips of a Magician? O man, who shall teach God the choice of his Instruments? He knows how to employ not only Saints and Angels, but even wicked men, beasts, and devils, to his glory. Why should we wonder that Balaam receives visions, when his very Ass hath her eyes and mouth opened; those to see the Angel, this to reason with her master. Those words were but transient, gliding through him, and could not be defiled because they were none of his. His heart did not conceive them, though his tongue uttered them. The trunk through which a man speaks, is not the more eloquent for that speech. The looking glass shows us our faces, yet is it self blind. The bells that ring us to Church, hear not their own noise. The wax that seals up the letter, knows not the contents of it. A book of morality may teach us good behavior, while it self becomes mouldy or ragged. Balaam's tongue shall convince Moab, and do good to Israel, not better himself. Many shall say, we have prophesied in thy Name; and speak it for their honor: to whom Christ replies, Depart from me ye wicked; turning it to their shame. How divine were the Parables that God uttered by Balaam? Stay but a while and you shall find the devil in the same mouth. That which came from God, was sweet and heavenly; that mere villainy, which came from Satan: the good was God's, the evil was his own. Nor was he saved for his excellent Prophecy, but lost by his hellish policy. There was no thanks to him for his good parable, but many plagues for his bad counsel. It is no wonder to hear God speak with a false Prophet: Pharaoh, Abimelech, Nebuchadnezzar had visions; Caiaphas had his inspiration; none of them had his gracious benediction. Yea, God spake unto Satan; and that in a familiar question; Whence comest thou? Men will bestow words, where they will not bestow favor: the argument of God's love is not the sound of his voice, but the matter of his speech. The Lord will speak peace to his people. He may speak to his enemies, he will speak peace to none but his Saints. It is a poor brag of the undeserving subject; The king hath spoken to me: but what did he say? The Judge speaks to the malefactor, when he gives him his sentence. Hath God spoken to thee? so he hath done to reprobates and devils: but what said he? Did he say to thy soul, I am thy salvation? Did he say, I am thy God, thou art my son? Thou canst not hear this voice and perish.

[Use.] Balaam was a bad man, shall we therefore reject his good Prophecy? God forbid. If men be mortally sick, will they refuse to be cured by a sick Physician? A lame steward may give a good alms from the purse of his rich master. Shall we think, the Spirit of God hath so tied himself to the goodness of the Speaker, that he will not open the heart of the hearer, unless he hear a holy Teacher? How doth this absurdity meet with Popery at the back-door! Why does the Novelist rail at the Papist, when they both shake hands in the same opinion? That the goodness of the Priest blesseth the word or Sacraments. What, shall not I be saved by hearing, unless the Preacher be saved whom I hear? Is the grace of God tied to the Ministry of man? Shall the servant share the honor with his master? Christ charged the people to observe their doctrines, that sat in Moses seat: yet were they such as he termed hypocrites, and on whom he heaped woes. Paul rejoiced that Christ was preached, whether in pretence or in truth: Yet they that preached him in pretence, were not likely to be sanctified. What Christ commanded, and Paul commended, these men censure. The picture may be excellent, and lively, representing the Person whereof it is a counterfeit; and yet the Painter be no handsome man. If the Limmer be unlik • his piece, the beauty of that disgraceth him, but it self is lovely. Thou art condemned, and the Prince sends thee a pardon by another that is condemned; wilt thou none of it therefore? The religious eye looks to the comfort of the message, not to the misery of the messenger. A bad man may bring good news, as God sent blessings to Israel by the mouth of accursed Balaam. Samson did not disdain the sweets because he found them uncleanly laid, in the Lions carcase. His diet was strict enough; he might not eat that which savoured of legal impurity: yet he ventures on the honey-comb in the belly of a dead beast. Good should not be refused because the means are accidentally evil: honey is honey though in a dead Lyon. They are more scrupulous and less wise than Samson, that abhor the graces of God. because they find them in ill vessels. One will not take a good receipt from the hand of a Physician, because he is given to unlawful studies. Another will not receive a deserved contribution from the hand of an Usurer. A third will not hear the Sermon, because he hath found some fault with the Preacher. How sullen is this neglect; not to accept the honey, because we hate the Lyon? As if Elias should have scorned his breakfast, because it was brought him by a Raven. God's children have right to their Fathers blessings, wheresoever they find them. Let the doctrine be good, and the heart good; this shall save the hearer, whatsoever becomes of the Preacher.

2 The School-dame is Afina, an Ass. This is not the first time that God hath taught men by beasts; though it may be the first beast that ever he taught to speak unto man. And what if the maker of all will teach one creature by another, the better by the inferior? There is none so contemptible, which is not useful. Howsoever the Ass, among all beasts, hath the most despised name; yet there be some things in him not unworthy of imitation. Some have made him an image of thriftiness, some an emblem of painefullnesse, some a pattern of temperance, others a miracle of patience. And be not Frugality, Industrie, moderation, and long-sufferance, lessons worth our learning? For Innocence, he is not harmful as the horse or ox. For usefulness; some few particular labors are exacted of other beasts; the Ass is good for all. For moderation, he will live upon thistles. For patience; he endures hunger, thirst, and stripes without murmuring. Their milk is precious against consumptions; and famine thought their flesh sweet, when an Asses head was sold for fourscore pieces of silver. Gaius Marius a prisoner in Flavia's house, seeing an Ass run hastily to the fountain, collected as from an augurie, that he had no way to save his life but by taking water. It was with the new jaw-bone of an Ass, that Samson revenged God on a thousand Philistines: nor could all their forces withstand that contemptible engine; till it had left ten hundred bodies as dead as that carcase whose bone it was. With that base instrument Samson gave death to the Philistines, and from the same God gave Samson refreshing. One bone yields him both conquest and life; and was both a weapon of war, and a well of water.

Thus useful hath this poor beast been; now indeed corruption hath made the name ignominious: and to all ridiculous purposes our common talk applies the Ass: As Ingenious as an Ass; as courteous as an Ass, as stupid as an asse, &c. Which the blind Pagan observing; being asked when he was ready to die, if love would grant him now to see only one thing and no more, (that had never seen anything) what it should be; he answered, I desire to see an Ass. Whereat they wondering, he replied; I have heard you a hundred times in a day mention the Ass, and apply it to every man, almost everything you talk on: therefore me thinks, if I must see but one thing, in that one thing I shall see all things.

But now the more despiseable this beast is, the more shame is it for man to be set under such a Tutor. As there be some good things in the Ass to be imitated; so she is an emblem of some vices to be shunned. We do not approve the folly, the stupidity, the misery, the slavery of the Ass. Therefore was the Teacher fitted for the scholar: a foolish beast to teach a man that was self-conceited: a stupid beast to teach him that was too precipitated: a miserable beast to teach him that placed happiness in riches: a slavish beast to teach him that was so basely subjected to his own affections.

1 For folly; when we speak of a defective understanding, we say, as wise as an Ass. But no Ass can be so foolish as the covetous. He lays up for tomorrow, and is not sure to live out this night; is not this a fool? He provides for himself, without any faith to depend upon God's finding: surely, the fowls of the air, and flowers of the field, are not such fools. To work himself into a rich fortune, he neglects to work out his own salvation; is not this a fool? He refuseth God's service, which would save him; for Mammons service, that will confound him; is not this a fool? O wealth, how many fools dost thou make in a year? The eagles are about carcasses, bears about honey, bees about oil, wolves about sheep, and fools about riches. Many of them are worse than asses: for the asse doth not use to bite, they pinch to death. The biting of a snake is cured by dittanny, of a mad dog by a crabfish; but an oppressors bite is mortal: he commits dry murder, and the last Jury shall find him a homicide. To end all controversy, God himself calls them fools: and what is it for men to deem them wily foxes, when the Judge hath pronounced them foolish asses?

2 For Stupiditie; the asse is a dull and blockish creature, and in one sense, so are the covetous; fit for nothing but taxes and subsidies, to bear the commonwealths burdens. The strength of the boar is in his tuske, of the elephant in his trunk, of the lyon in his paws, of the asse in his back, of the covetous in his back-burden. Where the treasure is, there will the heart be also: now the heart of an usurer is to be found where his money lies: if that be in danger abroad, he is heavy and heart-less at home. He so lodes himself with thick clay, that he cannot stir a foot toward heaven. He flies with no other wings, walks with no other staff, fights with no other sword, minds no other business, but his riches. Indeed, what hath he to do? He needs not sweat for his bread, others sweat for him. He needs not go to the market, the market will come to him. To visit the poor, he hath little stomach; to spend his time in prayer, less. He is both like the mill, and the mill-horse; turning and toiling within his Compass; grinding the bones of the poor; still there at night, where he begun in the morning. If he be a lay man, his journey is always for a purchase: if of the clergy, he will switch and spurr for a Benefice. Bees make the honey, and drones suck the hive: oxen plow the ground, and asses reap the harvest. It is said in Job; The oxen were plowing, and the asses feeding by them. Laborious oxen, painful preachers spend their time in plowing; and lazy Asses eat up their labors, being always feeding. Great revenues belong to the Contemplative Covent, while the devout and active Preacher is a mendicant. God appointed the Ark to be carried only by Levites, yet was it once carried by oxen, and then it was ready to fall: but when it is carried by ignorant Asses, how should it stand?

3 For misery; the asse is the poorest beast: he carries his master, and meat for his master, but fasts himself. He endures sore labors, and sharp blows a • l day; at night he is turned forth to seek his supper on the bare commons. The worldling is vexed with many cares; yet after all, hath not the power to give himself one comfortable meal. He abates from his guts, to add unto his coffers: and just like the asse, having borne a burden of gold all day, all night he feeds upon thistles. He thinks himself admired for his wealth; and therein he is an asse too: for as the Ass that carried the goddess, seeing the people bow in reverence as he passed by, did think that homage was done to him, which was meant to his burden. So the respect that is given, is not to the man, but to his riches. Wealth maketh many friends; they are friends to the wealth, not to the man. Now can there be greater misery, than to starve in the midst of abundance? Alas, he is but the Jailor of his estate, to keep the keys; till at last, death opens the doors, dischargeth the prisoner, and commits the keeper, and that to a strong and woeful dungeon. He is thirsty by the spring, and dares not drink for fear the fountain should fail him; yea, he cannot drink, that is God's curse upon him. He is not unlike an unhappy boy, that hath a great knot or truss of points to play withal; and but one at his clothes, to tie them together. No beast will starve in a fat pasture: if a man pinch his guts, when God hath afforded him affluence, sure the Ass himself is not so very an Ass as he.

4 For sl • very; the Ass is not only a sl • ve to man, but even to other beasts: the lyon toiles him, the ox goares him, the horse beats him, the fox cheats him; all are too hard for him: he dares deny none of them his service. He is animal subjugale, the word our Apostle here useth; ordained for the yoke. The worldling is not only a slave to his Mammon, but even to all the Brokers and Panders of filthy lucre. He rides his Ass, and Satan rides him: he spurs his Ass, and Satan spurs him: he bridles his Ass, and Satan may post him to hell with a golden bit. There is no sin he will deny, no baseness he can refuse, to be rich. The Ass is servile against his will: the covetous gives his full consent to this slavery. Justly therefore is one Ass set to school another: and if this latter will not be schooled, they shall change names and natures; the Ass shall be the man, and the man shall be the Ass. If there be a fountain, the beasts of the forest will drink, and the wild asses quench their thirst. But if a man will be miserable here, to become everlastingly wretched hereafter, O what an Ass is he? Now the grace of God direct us a better course, that we may find a better recompense: and by despising this world which Balaam sought, we may have treasure in that world which Balaam lost.

The lesson is Reprehensive; she rebuked, she forbad. A Prophet, and come to be [unspec 3] reproved? this was preposterous. A Teacher taught, a Rebuker rebuked, is but a harsh hearing. Yet hath it been no strange thing: the praise of the Centurion, was the shame of Israel: the mercy of the Samaritan, the condemnation of the uncharitable Levite: the thankful returning of the strange Leper, an exprobration to all the nine; when God had his Tythe from a person where he least expected it. What meanest thou, O sleeper? Arise, call upon thy God; saith the shipmaster to Jonah. What an astonishment was this? An Infidel leads an Israelite to his prayers: the Preacher is become an Auditor, the sea-man a preacher: the patient heals the phycisian. Yet truth is truth, wheresoever we find it: call upon thy God, was good counsel, though it came from a Gentile. He says again, Why hast thou done this? They worshipped a false God, he the true; yet was he colder in his devotion to the true, than they were to the false. How pitiful is it, when a babe must c • techise a man, when a Turk shall find a Christian false, and say to him, Why hast thou done this? A child may think, speak, do as a child; but of a man there is more required. If darkness be on the hill, what light is in the valley? Errors of the eminent are eminent errors. If but one eye-brow be shaven, there is little taken from the body, much from the beauty. The tatterd beggar can spy • small rent in a silken coat. It is ill to deserve the censure of Inferiors; fearful, of beasts: when Israel shall be taught thankfulness by the Ox • ; when the Dogs sh • ll be mentioned to the confutation of the rich churl; when the rash Prophet shall be disputed with by his Ass. It was a shame for Sara, and no great praise for Abraham, when an Abimelech shall say, thy husband is to thee the covering of the eyes, &c. Let Prophets take heed how they give a theme to Atheists: they will quarrel at our good actions, much more at our manifest criminations. Our faults be their sport: if Samson stumble, the Philistines houte and triumph. Indeed God useth their declamations as a rod to whip his children with shame, to save their souls by the b • rgaine. But yet still it is preposterous to come behind them in goodness, whom we go before in knowledge. Balaam's book cannot save him. They tell Christ of their prophesying, casting out devils, and doing wonderful works, in his Name▪ Yet are answered with a Nescio vos, depart from me. In vain have they prophesied to others, unless they had also prophesied to themselves, and lived like Prophets. In vain have they cast devils out of others, retaining one in their own bosoms. In vain have they eaten in his presence, when neither the example of his life, nor the do • trine of his lips hath amended them. Indeed all faults are not to be taxed, all be not faults that are taxed. God opened that Asses mouth to reprove a manifest error; we have Asses that open their mouths to censure they know not what. They will blame their Pastor for no other fault, but because he is so; or because he doth not humor their fancies. It were better that such beasts would hold their peace.

She rebuked him.] Among all God's preventions and stoppings of us in our ways of sin, Reprehension hath a wholesome and necessary place. Our iniquities would be like rottenness in our bones, festering in our bowels to the day of judgment, but for this medicine. So Wisdom begins her lore, reproving simple ones, scorners, and fools; giving us names according to our corrupt natures. God, like a most accurate Musician, hath variety of notes and tunes: he hath spoken by a burning bush, by a cloud of water, by a pillar of fire, by visions, by dreams, by miracles, by Angels; and by some nearer to us, men; and by one nearest to himself, above all, Jesus Christ. Sometimes he speaks by sensible judgments: Miriams foul leprosy was a fair warning: Zacharias' dumbenesse was no dumb teacher to him: Paul's blindness took away his blindness, and made him see more into the way of life, than could all his learning at the feet of Gamaliel. Why may not Balaam be reproved by his own beast? The reprehension was not the beasts, but the Lord's. He is a wretched man whom God never chides: the first messenger to him is the first borne of death.

This is our Ministerial business; not only to teach, but to reprove. Otherwise we offer red, not scarlet: the tincture and die of our Preaching is not in grain, nor penetrating into the soul. Our fire gives light and shining, but kindles not in the conscience. It is oil without wine, to the wounded: a crutch to walk withal, when the leg is out of joint, and should be set: holy-days without Eves: a Passover without sour herbs: continual feasting without sweeping the house. As there is a Dicite of joy, Tell the daughter of Zion, Behold, thy king cometh: so there is a Dicite of sorrow too, Tell my people their transgressions, and the house of Jacob their sins. But most of our hearers are like wanton children; that care not to be mended, but to be commended: he that praiseth them, pleaseth them. They are all apt to conceit well of themselves: but this self-love is (in effect) self hatred. If we reprove not our brother, God says, we hate him in our heart: and if we suffer not our brother to reprove us, do we not hate our own hearts? How often hath a horse in his full speed miscarried by a precipice; whereas one check had saved him? Yes, I would be reprehended, saith one; but I would not have an Ass to do it: quis tulerit Gracchum de seditione loquentem? But as when God speaks, we regard quis, without examining the quid we do it, because he commands it. So when man speaks, we regard quid more than quis: What am I the worse, if the admonition of a fool can make me wiser? Our Maker, that sees our proneness to evil, thinks it best to hedge up our sinful ways with prohibitions. The first precept that ever was given to man was a prohibition; Thou shalt not eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and evil. Among those ten Laws, the ground of all other; there are but two affirmative; the last of the first Table, and the first of the last: the other eight are negative; leading us to good by the forbidding of evil. He that will not omit to judge us for omitting the good commanded; for the doing of forbidden evil, will not fail to punish us; if he have not punished Christ for us.

[unspec 4] The fault corrected is twofold; Iniquity, and madness. His Iniquity is discovered in three particulars.

1 He had a desire to Curse; and the brand of the desperately wicked is to love cursing. He loved to send it abroad, he shall feel it at home: he wore it about him, he shall have it within him. Let it come into his bowels like water, and like oil into his bones. When David's misery deserved compassion, Shimei's foul mouth loded him with maledicton. Hreof he complained; They persecute him whom thou hast smitten, and vex him whom thou hast wounded. The picking out of such an opportunity doubled his malicious rancor. Such words would have galled at another time, which now are ready to kill. Let an arrow fly against the wind 〈◊〉 will hardly stick upright; with the wind, it pierceth deep. While thy ene • ie stands, he may ward thy blows; but once fallen on his back, he is at thy mercy: and how base is that spirit, which will prey on prostrate fortunes? Little children have so much valor and justice, as to call him a coward that strikes his adversary when he is down. To insult upon those whom God hath humbled, and to draw blood of that back, which is yet blew from the Makers stripes, is even the murder of a virulent tongue. Nor will it be any rare thing at the day of Judgment, for cursers to be indicted of murder. They would kill, if they durst: they do kill so far as they can. I would be loath to trust his hand, that banns me with his lips. Balaam would soon have been the death of all Israel, if either tongue or sword could have effected his will.

Hear this, ye whose tongues run so fast on the devils errand: you love cursing, you are not heirs of the blessing. Christians are charged to bless their enemies, what are they that curse their friends? If every curse should stick a visible blister on the tongue, as it doth an insensible one on the soul; how many men's tongues would be too big for their mouths? In the discharge of a Gunne, the fire is given at one end, the report is heard at the other. In the charging of • he heart with malice, fire is taken at the ears or eyes, and presently the noise of cursing and railing breaks out at the mouth. Therefore have we been cursed and plagued, because our mouths were so full of cursing and bitterness. Why should we not expect that on our bodies, which proceeds so continually forth of our lips? Who can set his neighbors house on fire, and be secure of his own? Yea, cursing mouths be like ill made pieces; which while men discharge at others, they recoil in splinters on their own fates. Curse not the king in thy thought, nor the rich in thy bedchamber: for these arrows will return on thy own soul. Some men's maledictions are shot like fools bolts, without regarding where they light. In this throng not seldom they hurt their friends, their children: as Diogenes warned the bastard, when he saw him throwing stones at random among the people; to take heed he did not hit his own father. The wicked do not shoot directly at God; yet God shoots at them, and sendeth out his arrows as against persecutors. Blessing becomes Christians: Christ's heart was meek, he repined not: his tongue meek, he reviled not: his hand meek, he revenged not: The good man wronged, shoots not again: neither with the arrow of the head, nor head of the arrow; neither with the mouth of the sword, nor sword of the mouth. If this life prepares us for the next; then the mouth of bitterness shall be plagued with bitterness of mouth: but the lips accustomed to bless, shall be blessed with songs of joy forever.

2 He had Linguam venalem, a mercenary tongue. He that had mortgaged his soul for gold, would not stick for his tongue into the bargain. There be not many acts of sin, wherein the tongue hath not a part to play: that little engine is seldom ever left out. For uncleanness, the tongue woos: for dissimulation, the tongue walks: for ambition, the tongue flatters: to hide faults, the tongue lies: what business hath sin, wherein the tongue finds no employment? But a vendible tongue, that may be hired for a bribe to contradict the truth, is rooted in a most wicked heart. For the mouth is but the bell, and the tongue the clapper, the heart is the spring that sets all a going. For a man to sell his speech, is bad enough, but worse to sell his silence. He that speaks, does something for his reward; the other is fee'd for nothing. Christ said, He that is not with me, is against me: but many a client says of a famous Advocate; if he be not against me, he is with me. So the just cause may be lost both ways; by speech, or silence. But he that farms out his tongue, shall receive but a sory rent at the last.

3 He did strike his beast, for doing him good. She saw the Angel, and would not go on; for this he bestowed his fury and stripes upon her. If she had gone on, he had perished, yet he strikes her that kept him from being stricken. How often do men wish for those things, which it is mercy to go without? They find fault to be stayed in the ways of death, and fly upon those that oppose their perdition. It is our office and endeavor to save you from destruction, to guide you along through this wilderness unto Canaan, to discover your dangers, to clear your eyes, and deliver your souls: do not you like Balaam, requite us with blows, and use us worse than beasts for our service. An ape seeing himself in a looking glass, whether through wantonness, or dislike of his own visage; doth often break the glass apieces. Preachers are like Crystal glasses, declaring to sinners their spots and deformities; and these like apes, requite them with injuries and abuses. We would fain save you, why should you mischieve us? Travelers make much of their guides; so let us have your loving company in the way of obedience, that we may all arrive at the land of Promise.

Balaam's madness will appear in four fits. A foolish fit, a frantic fit, a desperate fit, a raving fit.

1. He knew the danger, yet incurres it; was not this madness? Until the will of God be known, we may dissent from it without sin. Saint Paul by virtue of his Apostolical commission would have preached in Bithynia; but the Spirit hindered him: yet herein he sinned not. Samuel prayed for Saul's good, otherwise than the secret counsel of God had determined; and this without sin: but when the decree was manifested, he ceased that duty. One good thing may differ from another: and the creature may will a good, which God in his secret purpose willeth not: yet the will is good, if it leave not out Fiat voluntas tua, submitting it self to a better: as the child prays for his fathers life, when God hath determined him to die of that sickness: yet without sin. But when Balaam is forbidden to go, and opposed in going, still to persist; this was madness. What Prophet ever spake better, what reprobate ever did worse, than Balaam? It is no less than madness, for Prophets to give light to others, and walk themselves in darkness; to distribute portions of meat to the family, and starve their own souls: to rescue others from the enemy, and suffer themselves to be taken: to forewarn others of that pit, whereinto themselves run headlong. If we hear a Mountebank undertake to cure the distempered heat of the liver, while himself hath a fiery face, will we believe him? It is fabled of a mad man that talking with a lean meager Cook, understood from him what dainty dishes he dressed for his guests; and hearing that they were all fat and fair liking, and thrived with it; he asked him why he did not feed on those meats himself, that he might be fat too: the cook answered, that for himself, he had no stomach: but the mad man replies; Take heed how you come near Bedlam; if the corrector find you, your punishment will be very sharp; for certainly you are madder than ever I was. If Prophets dress heavenly feasts, made up of God's gracious promises and infinite mercies: yet fast themselves, surely the very Ass may convince them of madness.

Now as there be mad Prophets, so there are mad people too: such as will not live as their Pastor teacheth, but as their Pastor liveth. Saint Paul tells us that faith cometh by hearing; he does not say, it comes by seeing. We live by precepts, not by examples. But these nice patients neglect the diet which their physician prescribeth, and follow the diet which he useth. I deny not but good examples have their profit: and to see others feed heartily, betters our stomach. But it is not their example, but our own meat that doth nourish us: no man is the fatter for another's feeding. The common exprobation is, Physician, heal thyself. Yet suppose those Prophets warn us of the tide, and lose it themselves; that they are careless of their own sores, so our wounds be healed: that they become infatuate salt, so we be seasoned: that they are cast into darkness, so we be enlightened: we have no cause to complain. Have they built us an Ark, though themselves be drowned? have they shone to us like tapers, though themselves go out in stench? Have they brought us to the Land of Promise, though themselves die short of it? Have they served us in the Temple as vessels of gold and silver, though themselves be carried into Babylon? Have they sown our fields, and miss their own harvest? Have they planted us vineyards, and none for themselves? Be it unto them as they have deserved: let us take our own portions, and be thankful. Indeed Prophets are in your mouths, as you will be pleased to take them; and everyone speaks, not as he sees, but as he susp • cts. What are we more than you? All are men of the like passions. Do you look for no passion in us, and find so much in yourselves? We bring you heavenly treasure, yet are still earthen vessels. Among the Apostles, one was a devil, and another was a Satan in his kind, none were Angels. We are the men of God, yet men: Prophets, but yet (as Moses said) like our brethren: not in the similitude of sinful flesh, as Christ was: but sinful flesh indeed. We are Stars, yet saith Job, the very stars are not pure in God's sight. We are Angels, by a more honorable style than our natures can bear; yet God hath not found steadfastness in the Angels. Our profession gives us no immunity from sin. But if we know the right, and bend our whole course the wrong, we are then mad indeed: and if you neglect our doctrine, and follow altogether our example, certainly you are as mad as we. This was his foolish fit.

2. He hears the Beast speak under him, yet slights it: this was a frantic fit. Who would not look that his hairs should stand upright, his blood forsake his cheeks, that he should alight from that strange kind of Beast, and stand amazed at the miracle? But such was his madness; as the frantic hath sense to hear a voice, but no use of reason to distinguish it; that as if no new thing had happened, he talks with his Ass, and gives her words again, not more full of anger than void of discretion. Who does not wonder, that this Magician wondered not? Two reasons may be alleged for it; though indeed there was no reason in it.

1. It might be, this was his trade; and that among other postures of his sorcery, he used to receive voices from his familiars in the shape of Beasts. So custom might take away strangeness, if he had been wonted to this before. But suppose the devil and he were so well acquainted at this devise: yet he knew his own Ass: she had long groaned under so unworthy a burden: he knew this voice came not from Satan; for then it should have been an encouragement to persist; whereas this voice sounded a retreat: yet still he puts her on, whose tongue had forbidden him to move further.

2. It might be, his rage and covetousness had so transported him, that he did not observe this unusual and unnatural accident. If a man had as many eyes, as the Poets fain of Argus, the melody of gain would play them all asleep, or make them blind. He that looks through a green glass, sees no other color. The worldling is like a man in a dream; you may talk what you will to him, but his dream goes on. Balaam's mind did so run on the gold of Moab, that he could hear a Beast speak, and never regard it. One man passeth by that with contempt, which another receives with astonishment. In dreadful thunders, when good men be at their prayers, some still ply their sports. They are as mad as Balaam, whom extraordinary Judgments cannot move. God made all his works to be observed: but they that do not wonder at his miracles, are miracles to be wondered at. The Papists fain a world of miracles, and they have men mad enough to believe them. Daily we see God's judgments; if we do not lay them to heart, we are as mad as they.

3 After all this interruption, still he drives on; and runs upon that sword which was brandished against him: this was a desperate fit. The Ass saw the Angel, and gave back, common sense had taught her to avoid that dang • r, which reason could not work in her Master. The sword was drawn against him, not her; yet she would decline it, he rusheth upon it. Evils were as good no • seen, as not avoided: our happiness is in the prevention, not prevision of them. The wise man foreseeth the plague, and hideth himself; but fools run on, and are punished. We pity him that is hurt through want of circumspection: but he that sees the snare, and flies into it, scarce deserves compassion. The revenging Angel stands before us in the ways of disobedience; and though we know we shall as surely die as sin, yet we have neither the wit nor the grace to give back; though it were with the hurt of a foot to save the body, with the pain of the body to save the soul. Sin is a labyrinth, whereinto the entrance is easy, the extrication difficult. The Turk making an expedition into Persia, found the straits of Armenia somewhat troublesome for his passage; therefore they consulted which way to get in. But one among the rest, and he none of the wisest, said; Here is much ado how you should get in, but I hear nobody take care how you should get out. Suddenly doth a wicked Balaam set upon his mischievous design; but no persuasions can make him break off. How often doth the adulters conscience check him with the law, and dread of plagues; yet still he persists, and resolves desperately, as Esther did religiously, If I perish, I perish. Or as Pompey said in another sense, when he was to bring grain to Rome in a great dearth, and coming to the sea, found it tempestuous and dangerous, in so much that he was dissuaded to embarque; Necesse est ut vadam, non est necesse ut vivam; It is necessary that I go, not that I live. So they make a necessity of their sinning, and put it to the venture for their salvation.

Do we resolve ever to giveover the course of wickedness? Yes, one day. If one day, why not this day, why not now? We are not sure to live out this day. Pyrrhus opened himself to his friend Cineas, that he first intended a war upon Italy: and what then? saith Cineas. Then we will attempt Sicily: and what then? Then we may conquer Carthage and Afric: and what then, Sir? Then we may rest and feast, and sacrifice, and make merry with our friends. Cineas replied; And may we not enjoy this sweetness now, without all this ado? Vain man fancies divers projects; as first how to be rich: and what then? next to gild his gold with honor: and what then? Then to take his pleasure according to his sensual appetite: and what then? At last to repent, and prepare for heaven. O mad man, and why not so now? He that calls thee now, will not call ever. He that calls thee now, will now receive thee: will he receive thee, when he does not call thee? Cast away thy lusts, that they may not cast away thee. If the perverseness of our stomachs break through all oppositions, Balaam himself was not more mad than we.

4 His unmercifulness to the poor beast is a remonstrance of his raving fit. Quid meruit Asina? All the hurt she did him, was to turn him, to serve him, to save him: this he requites with blows. This was her first fault all her time with h • m, if it had been one; therefore she deserved not so cruel a revenge. We little think of it; but God will call us to account for all the unkind usages of his mute creatures. Of this the Angel first takes notice; of this wrong he first expostulates; Wherefore hast thou smitten thy Ass these three times? One blow had been unjust, three was madness. God hath made us lords of them, not tyrants; owners, not tormentors: he hath given us leave to kill them for our use, not to torment them for our pleasure. As they are our drudges by constitution, so they are our fellows by creation. Unless she had turned from me, saith the Angel, surely I had slain thee: that was somewhat; she was a means of saving thy life. Yea, I had slain thee, and saved her alive; that was more. To show that I respect an innocent beast more than a perverse man, her safety should have aggravated the woe of thy ruin. Canst thou tell, ô man, whether thy very beast may not be a means of thy preservation, that thou madly spendest thy fury, where thou findest matter of mercy?

Beasts have been a means of the deliverance of men: not seldom hath a dog prevented thieves, the swiftness of a horse saved the riders purse or throat: many of them have done more than ordinary service, all which pleads for them against our tyranny. Yet so bloody was this magician, that he wisheth for a sword to slay his harmless beast. A wand had been too much; yet he desires a sword. Whose beast would he have killed? was it not his own? and if he had killed his own beast, who should have been the loser by it? How impotent was this Madness! The good man is merciful to his beast. They cannot declare their wants, nor tell their grievances; otherwise than by moaning in their several kinds: to an honest heart their very dumbenesse is a loud language. David will venture on a bear, rather than lose a lamb: Jacob will endure heat by day, and cold by night, rather than neglect his flocks: Moses will fight with odds, rather than the cattle shall perish with thirst: only a Balaam wants this mercy. It was a sign that he would fain have smitten Israel with a curse, that wished a sword in the sides of his faultless beast. It is ill falling into those hands, which the very beasts find unmerciful. While they live, it is mercy to subaine them: when they must die, it is mercy to dispatch them: in all things mercy becomes the servants of God.

With man's voice:] this was the manner of her disputing. Balaam's madness had turned [unspec 5] him into a beast; and why might not one beast teach another? In some things the Ass excelled her master. First, she saw the judgment, he was blind: common sense better instructed her, than reason and religion had enlightened him. Beasts cannot examine the occasion of their employments, their masters should. Secondly, the Ass had a tongue of equity; the Prophet a tongue, hand, and heart of iniquity: we would do ill, she labors to prevent him: he intends Israel's destruction, she means his preservation. Not seldom have we seen a drunken rider on the back of a sober beast: insomuch that one said wittily; the horses stand at the Tavern-door like men, while their masters are playing the beasts within. Thirdly, the Ass was not capable of sin; and did therefore justify her self: the master was so mad upon sin, that he would needs ruin himself.

1 The weaker vessel may hold the better liquor. Surgunt indocti; the unlearned lay hold on heaven, whereas men of knowledge often wallow in the lusts of flesh and blood. We are ordained to judge the Angels; but if we degenerate from our prerogative, Angels, men, infidels, harlots, yea even beasts and stones shall be our Judges. Because when we ask in our daily prayers, that the will of God may be done on earth as it is in heaven; we are so far from matching this proportion, that there is not the poorest creature in the air, earth, or deep, but in their kinds go beyond us. But let us know, though we have the Beasts our servants in the labors of this world, they shall not be our companions in suffering the torments of hell. Howsoever the profane epicure in the pleasures of life would rather be a man than beast: yet coming to his answer, he would rather be a beast than a man. How willingly after death, would Balaam have changed conditions with his beast; vainly wishing that himself had been the Ass, and that Ass the Prophet.

2 As Balaam proceeds in frowardness, so doth the Ass in reprehension. First, he went aside out of God's way, and she went aside out of his way: so her error was a reproof of his. When things go cross with us, let us consider our crossness to the will of our Maker. Secondly, as he went forward with his wicked intendments, so she dashed his foot against the wall, to put him in mind of his malicious projects, and if it were possible, by the bruising of a limb to save the whole body and soul. Thirdly, because he was carried headlong with the hope of wages, she lay down to stay his course. Had there been the least spark of grace in him, this falling down of his beast might have taught him to fall down on his knees, and to deprecate that danger which an ordinary capacity would have suspected. In sin there may be security, there can be no safety. Wickedness makes guilty men fear where is no cause, Balaam had cause enough, but no grace to fear. Fourthly, because in his anger he smote her for stopping his hast, she opened her mouth to reprove his unjustice. Thus at every turn she answered him, in every passage she was quit with him. We cannot run so fast, but God can overtake us; nor be so cunning, but he can teach, even a beast to over-reach us.

3 The sensual creatures are set to condemn our sins, and to reflect our evils upon us. Peter hath a Cock to tell him his cowardice, and Balaam an Ass to reprove his avarice. There is no creature dumb, when God bids it speak: if there were no Preachers to declaim, no conscience to accuse, the very creatures themselves would cry: the beds, boards, walls, windows, markets, closets should have tongues to condemn us. We need not wish for Angels from heaven, or the dead from hell, to warn us: for besides Moses and the Prophets, besides Christ and the Apostles, besides the Gospel and a multitude of Preachers; the very stones would speak against us. Whither can we turn our eyes, and not see an object rebuking our iniquities? In their rebellion against us, they are dumb interpreters of our rebellion against our Maker. In their mute unhability to declare their grievances, they tax our stubbornness, that have tongues to speak, and yet will not confess our sins. When they pine for want of meat, they show us our demerits, that have brought a curse upon them and ourselves, and that we suffer in their ruins. When they are brutish, they do but their kinds when we commit uncleanness, we are worse than beasts. We can take signals by Ravens and Scriechowles, and presently talk of graves and corpses: superstition hath taught fools to understand the language of birds: would devotion could teach us to understand the groaning of all creatures under the bondage of our corruption.

There is vox Divina, that cries against our sins; The Lord gave his voice from heaven, and that a mighty voice. There is vox Angelica; An Angel cried with a loud voice, Woe, Woe, Woe to the inhabiters of the earth. There is vox Humana, the dictation of reason; every man's conscience condemneth sin: vox intra te, quae est contra te: a loud voice to every ones self, though not heard of others. And there is vox muta; so Abel's blood had a tongue to cry against murder: the Walls and Beams have a tongue against oppression: the fields and vineyards have a tongue against drunkenness and excess. Tot ora quot vulnera; Stephen had so many mouths, as he had wounds, calling for justice: and there be tot ling • a, quot creaturae, so many tongues as there are creatures. Yea, there is vox inferna, the devils have thundering voices▪ they become (as it were) hoarse with accusing us: day and night they cease not to put up bills and declarations against us. Yet there is vox penitentiaria; how ought we to lift up our voices and weep for our sins, lift up our voices and cry for forgiveness, when so many thousand voices cry against us? All our comfort is, there is vox salvifica, the voice of a Mediator that speaks for us: and it is vox Sanguinus too, a voice of blood; but such a voice as Speakes better things than the blood of Abel. This voice God will hear, when he stops his ears to all the rest. It is a voice that cries for mercy, and may it obtain mercy for us all.

4 There is no beast deserves so much wonder as this of Balaam; and that for three things: First, her common sense was advanced above the reason of her rider; so that for the time, the beast was the man, and the man was the beast: not by any transmigration or permutation of souls, after the fancy of the Pythagoreans: but by Satan's hand over the one, and God's power in the other, the Prophet became brutish, and the beast Prophetical. Secondly, her eye was enlighten'd to be capable of seeing an Angel. Among all the properties of this beast, I do not read any commendation of his sight: but rather find it to be dull and heavy, scarce apprehending a bodily object that is not too apparent. But to see a Spirit, and that Spirit which his rider could not discern, was far above nature. Thirdly, her mouth was opened to speak: now to hear a word come from that tongue, which was only used to bray, was strange and uncouth. Who could but stand amazed at such a sight, at such a voice, at such a discourse, from so silly a creature? That a beast, whose nature is noted for incapacity, should out-reason a man, her master, a professed Prophet, was in the height of miracles?

But what can hinder the will of the Almighty, that doth all things with the same facility? Non laborat in maximis Deus, non fastidit in minimis. There is no impossibility, where he is pleased to give a dispensation. Yea, as all extraordinary things are only done by him, so what ordinary thing can be done without him? Our eye could no more see a beast, than a beast can see an Angel, had he not thus enabled it. He that made all eyes, can easily make them dim or clear at his pleasure. The Syrians had eyes good enough, yet God so held them that they could not see the man that led them. The Ass had a dull eye, yet saw a Spirit: he that shut the one, opened the other. If his power can make stones to speak, how much more creatures of sense? That evil spirit spake in a serpent; why is it more that a good Spirit should speak in the mouth of a beast? The Heathens lie, if they did not receive their Oracles out of stones and trees. I could tell you wonders of that argument, if they were pertinent. We do teach birds to speak those sentences they understand not: if man can do this, how far can his Maker go? He can as easily create a voice without a body, as a body without a voice. We may not distrust, we may wonder: let us compare the Act with the Author, and all is easy.

5 We read but of one beast in the Scripture, upon which God wrought such a miracle. One to witness his power, and but one to show his wisdom: for wonders cease to be wonders, when they are common. The Antichristian Church hath made them superfluously frequent; and for this one, they have many beasts that speak and do strange things; if we will believe them. As that of Saint Anthony of Padua 's horse, that kneeled down to worship the holy Hoast: yet we had a man in England that taught his horse neater tricks, & we had not the faith to think it a miracle. They tell us how Saint Francis commanded a Wolf to hurt no more Lambes; and the Wolf came to him, and put his p • w into Saint Francis his hand, and thereby made him a promise: marry he said nothing. Not to speak of their Parrot, that being pursued by the Hawk, and flying over Saint Thomas of Canturburi's tomb, cried to him for help; whereupon the Hawk fell down dead, and the Bird escaped. Nor of Saint Francis his preaching to the Birds, and their attentive patience, yea thanks to him for his good Sermon: or the swallows holding their peace at his rebuke. They tell us of Bishop Trian, who having killed his cow and calf to entertain Saint Patrick, found them both feeding in his meadow the next morning; only we do not read of ought they said to him. And of a Woman, that to make her Bees fruitful, did put a consecrated Hoast into the Hive: where the Bees built a chapel with an altar, doors and windoores, a steeple with bells, and sung their canonical hours, and kept watch like monks in their cloisters: and was not here a goodly covent made in a Be-hive? It is no wonder that beasts speak words, when Bees can say their prayers, and receive the communion. Yea, they profess more, even to give language to Images, blocks and stones. Beasts have tongues, though no speech; sense, though they want reason: Images have neither reason, nor tongues, nor sense. So the Image of the blessed Virgin is reported to bid Saint Bernard good morrow; and to charge Hiacinth, when he fled from the Tartarians, to take her and her Son along with him: to bid the Sexton open the Church-door, and let in Alexius: and thus to encourage Thomas Aquinas, Thou hast written well of me, what reward wilt thou have? Were not these very proper miracles?

They refuse Christ speaking in his Word, and listen to his speaking in a Rood. But as when Agesilaus was told of one that did excellently counterfeit the Nightingale, and was entreated to hear him; he replied, why I have heard the Nightingale her self. So what need we listen to these counterfeit voices of Christ, when we have heard the Word of God Himself? He is too prodigal a spend thrift of the stock of his faith, that shall give credit to their forgeries. I had rather be of his mind, who when his friend told him of a strange matter, and added withal that he would not have believed it, had he not seen it; answered, And no more will I. This we find, that since the brightness of the Gospel, God doth rarely work miracles, but Satan is often permitted to do signs and wonders. We are not bid to expect miracles from heaven, we are to suspect the delusions of hell.

There be yet remaining certain metaphorical allusions, and moral observations; wherewith I conclude.

1. This Beast never spake before, never after; only this once, and that was but an expostulation, and a reply. Some dissolute sinners are like this Ass: their eyes are never opened, nor their tongues unloosed, but once: they see not the sword of God's vengeance, nor fall to their devout prayers, till they come to their death-beds. Sero sapiunt Phryges: these fools would buy knowledge, when Wisdom hath shut up her shoppe. Sera in fundo parsimonia; never to spare till we come to the bottom of the purse, is a frugality next to beggary. Men sing and take their pleasure in prosperity, and open not their mouths to heaven, unless in blasphemy: in the day of trouble they cry for help: but if they will not speak to God in their health, can they hope he should speak to them in their sickness?

But God hath said, Call upon me in the day of trouble, and I will hear thee. True, but this must be such a voice as he is acquainted withal. Hath he heard it daily in petitions and praises? then he will know it familiarly in distress. Otherwise he will count it a strange voice, and none of his families. Strangers hear not the voice of Christ, nor will Christ hear the voice of strangers. He that never would learn to read, and yet hopes at last push to be prompted with a Psalm of mercy, shall be put away with a non legit. God is fain to deal with wicked men, as we do with skittish Iades in a pasture, which we cannot take up till we get them at a gate; even to bring them to the gates of death before they will be tamed. Pray continually, saith the Apostle; mind that exercise that you may be perfect in it? Other duties have their several seasons: ^b there is a time to weep, and a time to rejoice; a time to love, and a time to hate; a time to speak, and a time to hold our peace: but Semper orate; Pray continually, Let us pray while we can speak; that God like a kind Father, may hear our groans and pity us when we cannot speak.

2. The Ass spake to better her Master, not her self: and so do many, that have heaven in their lips, and the image of hell in their lives; that are excellent at the Muses, but have no acquaintance with the Graces. We may say of their learning, as it was of Galba's wit, Male habitat. They are like some unfortunate swimmers, that save their endangered fellows, and drown themselves. Or Oculists, that make others see clearly, while themselves have sore eyes. Or Physicians that prescribe a good diet, and keep a bad. Or the Israelites in captivity, that made bricks to build the Egyptians houses, and had none of their own. Or the Indians that enrich the Spaniards out of their golden mines, and yet are themselves the most beggarly people of the earth. They use their gifts, as if a man should use monies, only Ad numerandum. Plutarch writes of an old man that found reverence of children in Lacedemon, and contempt in all Greece besides; Omnes Graci norunt quid sit honestum, sed eo soli utuntur Lacedemonii. Seneca commends to us such a Teacher, Quem magis admiramur visum, quàm auditum. He is a monster, that hath a tongue larger than his hand: many good words, and no good deeds. Thus the salt of the earth, after it hath seasoned others, may lose the own savor. They that are lux mundi, may carry the light behind them, guiding others, not their own feet. They minister occasion of their own sentence; Ex ore tuo serva nequam. They make their learning Artificium vaenale, qui alitur vivunt, quàm vivendum esse praecipiunt. The good Commander says not to his soldiers, Ite, but Eamus; what you see me do, do likewise; as Gideon.

Yet might the Asses counsel have done Balaam good, though not her self. Let not the hearer become a Judge, and turn his pew into a tribunal. What would such men have said, if they had heard Solomon preach after all his scandalous sins? Say thou with Samuel, Speak Lord, for thy servant heareth; and not, Hear Lord, for thy servant speaketh; and what speaks he, but judgment on the Preacher? It is enough for me to eat my own dinner, not to mark how much he eats that dressed it. Indeed I would have every Prophets life a martyrdom to his doctrine; for though his goodness gives not the esse of salvation, yet it may give the melius esse: this is to preach with a witness. Where the Spirit speaketh twice, by illumination and sanctification, he is more heard than where he speaketh but once: and guests mistrust that cheer, whereof the Host refuseth to taste.

3 Let no man plead simplicity, when a Beast sees an Angel; nor unhability to speak, when an Ass opens her mouth. Who can complain his own rudeness and slowness of speech, when a beast is enabled to convince her master? We excuse our own coldness, when we are occasioned to reprove impiety, by the want of eloquence: yet an Ass could do it. There is no mouth whereinto God cannot put words; yea so doth he glorify the wisdom of his own election, in confounding the prudent of this world by the foolish. Ex ore lactantium he will derive praise to his Name. He hides those things from the wise, which he reveals to babes. He that can exalt the eyes of a beast to see a spirit, can advance the dullest apprehensions, and make them capable of the mysteries of life. He chose his Apostles among none of the great Rabbins, yet whoever saw further into the secrets of heavē? The word of the Lord is able to make wise the simple. Some have capacity without honesty, and they have eyes without hands: some have honesty and small capacity, and they have better hands than eyes: some have both, but miserable are they that have neither. Say not, I hear and profit not, because I understand not; for thou art promised to have Wisdom for the asking. He that will not pray to be wise, may sit still and be a fool.

4 When the Ass had done this miraculous service, she remained an Ass still: her skin was no better after it than the rest of her kind. Many men have done God service, without any blessed recompense. Ashur was his Rod to scourge Israel: that done, they fell under a sharper lash themselves. We use rubbish to scour our vessels; when those vessels are clean, we fling away the rubbish. Achitophel could advise David well; he was the worst counselor to himself that might be. His words were the oracles of God to the State, to his own heart mere paradoxes. So we have heard some very judiciously discourse of good husbandry mean while themselves are the worst husbands in a country. They are like Bridges that help men over the stream, at last themselves rotte and sink in. When this Beast had done speaking Humana voice, she lived an Ass, and died an Ass. So many an unholy Machiavel, that hath been admired for policy, falls under Iehoiakims curse, to be buried with the burial of an Ass: he lived a Fox, but dies an Ass.

5 This Ass spake the truth: no matter who speaks, so he speaks good matter. Saepe etiam est olitor verba opportuna locutus. Sometimes a jewel is found in a dunghill; and wisdom is most applauded, where it is least expected. The Fathers have compared Human learning to Balaam's Ass: it may sometimes sp •• ke to purpose; and bring men to Church, as the Ass carried Christ to the Temple. Not the Lord, but we have need of it. Hath all Gentile knowledge a Noli me tangere set upon it? Is there nothing but Templum Domini with the Jews, but verbum Domini with us? Is there no water to be found in the Iaw-bone of a Philistian Ass? May not the Crown of the King of Ammon be set on the head of the King of Jerusalem? Saint Paul says, Be not spoiled with philosophy: some are spoiled for want of philosophy. Nor does he condemn all eloquence, but a sophisticate and meretricious eloquence. Would not the eloquence of Tully or Seneca have done good service in the cause of Zion? Indeed, that which is against Zion, is venenata facundia. Nor doth he dislike Philosophers simply, but the Philosophers of this world. Hagar may serve Abraham for procreation. The slavery of the Gibeonites is an ease to the free borne Israelites. Not Jews only, but Gentiles had a hand in the building of God's Temple. Even Pagans have their arts from heaven, and therefore may justly be improved to the honor of the Giver. If there be a Tyrian that can work more curiously in gold, silk, or purple, than an Israelite, why should he not be employed about the Sanctuary? Their heathenism is their own, their skill is their Makers. Many a one works for the Church of God, which yet hath no part in it. Veritas ubicunque est, mea est. We may salute Athens in our way to Jerusalem, as Saint Paul did. The vessel of water, that is human knowledge, may be turned into wine, that is divine knowledge. Indeed Sic transiendum, non hic haerendum: we pass by this knowledge, we dwell not on it. What Aristippus said of other sciences and Philosophy, is more true of all other Arts and Divinity: they that study the other, and neglect this, are like Penelope's, wooers, that made love to the waiting-women. Whatsoever we learn or know, we submit and refer all to the knowledge of Jesus Christ.

6 But one Ass spake; this is no privilege for others; the rest can do no more than bray. One swallow makes no summer: nor do singular examples constitute general rules. Presumption encourageth it self by one of a thousand: and Despair will not take a thousand for one. If a thousand men be assured to pass over a foord safe, and but one to miscarry; Desperation says, I am that one. If a thousand vessels must needs miscarry in a gulf, and but one escape; Presumption says, I shall be that one. We read but of one sinner that was converted at his last hour of life: millions that had less iniquity▪ yet have found less mercy. The dissolute flatters himself, If one, why not I? Other beasts have not attempted to speak, because this one did. Yet brutish men look for heaven dying, that never looked toward it living, because one sinner sped so happily. Christ was then upon the Cross fast by him; art thou sure he will be so near thy death-bed? Lazarus and some few others were raised from their graves; the whole world else must sleep till Doomesday. Enoch and Elias were translated, and did not see death; which of all the sons of Adam had this privilege besides? Paul was rapp'd up to the third heaven before his dissolution: none were so before him, none so after him. It is no trusting upon precedents, where we have manifest rules. The rule is, Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth; least he forget thee in thy age. Seek the Lord while he may be found: this were but slender counsel, if he might be found at any time. We use to mend our ships in the harbor; and not let their leaks alone till we come into the main. We harness ourselves before we go to war; and not have it to provide in the battle. The walls of a city that are not repaired in peace, will hardly be mended in a siege. Let us speak when we should, or not look to be heard when we would.

One Ass spake in her life, one sinner was saved in his death: there was one, why should we despair? there was but one, why should we presume? In the mean time, we can never make that too sure, whereof while we live, we can never be sure enough. Grace to repent, without space, is uncomfortable to our friends. Space to repent, without grace, is unprofitable to ourselves. Grace and space, shall both comfort them, and save us.

FRom many things doth the word of God draw comparisons, that it might speak according to our capacities. Every creature hath this emergent use, to teach us. The heavens declare the glory of God: how can we look upon them, and forget their maker? The stars not being pure in his sight, may put us in mind of our uncleanness, which reached so far as even to blemish their glory. The Sun gives us beams of obedience, while he keeps his course, knows his rising and going down. The wind breaths upon us a similitude of the Holy Ghost; which comes and goes, and no man knows whence, or whither. The dew drop upon us the memory of that dew of Hermon which fell upon the hill of Zion. The hen gathering her chickens doth (as it were) clock us under the wings of Christ. The Crane chatters to us how poorly we shall speak in death. The lilies and ravens forbid our sollicitousnesse for apparel or food. The Camel at the needles eye, is an Image of the Covetous man at heaven-gates. In the last verse, a Beast taught a Prophet to obey: a wondrous one; some have assigned her a place in the Zodiac, in the Sign of Cancer. Whereat other astronomers storming, they were asked, whether they would have Noah's Raven, or Samsons Foxes, or David's Lion, or Elisha's Bears, or Babels Dragon, placed there, rather than Balaam's wonderful Ass? Now we are come to certain Wels: out of which, if they were full of water, we might draw to quench our thirst: but they are empty, and without comfort: Wells without water &c.

These ungodly deceivers are here described by Their

• Vnprofitablenesse; Wells without water.
• Vnstablenesse; Clouds carried with a tempest.
• Vnhappinesse; To whom the mist of darkness, &c.

Wells without water.] A fountain to a thirsty traveler is expectatum Spectaculum, a welcome sight; but if it be without water, 'tis Infelix mendacium, a grievous mokerie. Pastors are like to Wells in diverse regards.

1 Fontes immobiles, they are wells for constancy: they keep their residence, men know where to find them. Passengers may abuse the fountains, they cannot remove them. You fetch water at these wells every Sabbath, yea even on common days when your thirst calls for it: we teach you on the Lord's day; there is no day wherein we are not ready to comfort you. Indeed you should give us leave to fill our fountains: if we do perpetually draw, and not suffer the springs to have their time of supplying; we must be empty. You sometimes shut up your conduits on the week-days, or else they would lack water: they are so full on Sundays, that they run over. Therefore we study all the week, and fill our Cisterns, that on the Sabbath you may fill your pitchers. Fishers are allowed time to mend their nets; mowers to whet their scythes: bees to gather sweetness, before we eat their honey. God's Temples be our Hives; there you are sure of our honey; yet you must not deny us the flowers, the holy Scriptures, Fathers, and other good books, together with our own meditations, out of which we suck it: and to do all this, requires time. But still we keep our orbs, and therefore are called Stars: we have our stations, and therein are Wels. It is true, that our waters do good as they run in the channels; but they are best drawn from the well-head; Dulcius ex ipso fonte bibuntur aquae. They that content themselves with reading at home, and neglect the public ministry in the Church, omit the spring, to quench their thirst at the channel.

2 Fontes sacri, they are Wells of piety; the water of life, the word of salvation is in them. We must distinguish the Waters that be above the heavens, from the waters that are below the heavens: the well above is Fons gloriae, the fountain of glory; a spring that multiplies it self into a river; that pure river of the water of life, clear as Crystal, proceeding out of the Throne of God. The well below is Fons gratiae, the fountain of Grace; and this is Fons saliens in aeternam vitam, a well of water springing up into everlasting life. Either of them is Fons vitae, a well of life; the one inchoate, the other consummate: the one preparatory, the other satisfactory: the former a prelibation, the latter a fruition; that a well of comfort, this a river of pleasure. Indeed Christ is the well of life; without whom our thirst can never be quenched: that fountain opened to the house of David, that well of Jacob; fons irrigans terram, watering the whole face of the ground. A well of infinite depth, without bottom: of everlasting abundance, for it hath eternal springs: of satisfying virtue, for he that drinks of it shall never thirst more. This is that Fountain which supplies all the Wells, which fills all our cisterns: of whose fullness we have all received. It never failed the thirsty passenger, never offended an humble receiver, never was shut up or denied to the faithful seeker. We are His Wells; and the water he puts into us, is the word of the Gospel. With joy shall they draw water out of the wells of salvation. We are earthen vessels, yet do hold an heavenly treasure; Wells of clay, yet full of the water of life. He that refuseth the water for the wells sake, shall perish for that contempt sake.

3 Fontes puri, puti; they are wells of Sanctity, and therefore must be clean. Indeed their uncleanness cannot defile the water; it is of it own nature so pure, that it will work it self from all infection. Yet may the foulness of the glass cause men to dislike the good liquor. For the sin of Eli's sons men abhorred the the offering of the Lord. If they had not been sons of Eli, yet being Priests of God, their very calling (one would think) should have infused some holiness into them. Yet may the white Ephod cover black sins: and vices, like those Spyes, may be hid in the well, while there is wheat spread over the mouth of it. Who are devils, but they that were once glorious Angels? If the lantern be broken, an easy wind will blow out the light. There be commonly two buckets belonging to a Well: the one bucket draws doctrine, the other example; and this latter is more employed. Dum negligunt quod dicimus, imitantur quod agemus. I have heard of here and there a Pastor, that hath out-lived all the people of his parish: I never heard of any that hath out-lived all the sins of his parish. Yet must not the infirmities of the Wells bring the water into contempt: let none dislike the service of God for the sin of man. This were to make holy things guilty of our profaneness; and to offend God because he hath been offended.

4 Fontes profundi; they are Wells of knowledge; and of sufficient depth; skilled in the Mysteries of salvation. Shallow pits are full of mud and frogs: they may make a noise in the pulpit; but it is a harsh sound, which rather offends the ear, than profits the soul: nothing but frothy stuff comes from them. Welles are deep: the Priests lips preserve knowledge: they can tell how to resolve the doubtful, to hearten the fearful, to convince the willful, to comfort the sorrowful. They are good Physicians, and have medicines for all diseases. They are able to clear difficulties, to reconcile antilogies, to answer objections, to confute errors, to apply their discourse to all occasions. So Saint Augustine professeth of Saint Ambrose, who went from Afric to Milan to hear him; that Dum intravit quàm diserte diceret, simul & intravit quàm vere diceret. He is no babbler; neither Spermologus, qui mera vox est; nor Mataeologus, qui mera nox est. But he hath a key to fit every lock, a gracious faculty to take every ear, to pierce every soul. Moses was a Prophet learned, and that with a Non sicut; none like him in Israel. Indeed I do not like the welles that are so deep, that we can draw no water out of them: men that have excellent talents, but they lie buried; that know much themselves, and impart little to others. A man of meaner gifts by his assiduity of preaching, shall do more good, than he that breeds a Sermon, like Elephanti partum, a years conception, which being borne, only amazeth the hearers, and makes them at their wits end with admiration. We put down the bucket into these wels, hoping to draw water, and bring up nothing but air. Conceal'd learning is but like a candle in a dark lantern, or the fowlers light, to see which way his game lies. The good Pastor is light in a Crystal glass, that shines every way, to the good of men and glory of God.

5 Fontes misericordes; they are wels of pity, full of compassion; bowels that yearn for the danger of men's souls. Jeremiah had such a well in his head, or at least he wished such a well in his heart. Oh that my head were waters, and mine eyes a fountain of tears. The Prophet before him, is not in this behind him; I will weep bitterly, labor not to comfort me. David contends with them both, who shall weep most; Rivers of waters run down mine eyes, because they keep not thy Law. Among all, our Lord Jesus is the chief mourner; who having no sin of his own, wept and bled for the sins of others. Obstinate offenders are dry pits: nothing can pump the water of repentance out of their eyes. For their wickedness GOD plagues the land; that thousands cry in pain, our bowels, our heads, our hearts: thus they give others cause to mourn, while their own mouths are filled with laughter. All that tempest was for Jonah, yet Jonah alone is fast asleep: that unspeakable agony of Christ was for the sins of his Disciples and chosen; yet even then the Disciples were asleep. The destroying Angels sword lays heaps upon heaps, and multiplieth his deadly wounds, and are we still dry welles, that have no tears to spend for our sins? The fire is kindled, and what shall quench it, if these fountains be without water? If there were not some Ezra's, and Joshua's, Isaiah's, Joel's, and Jeremiah's among us, pouring out their souls before God in cries and lamentations for our iniquities, what should become of us? The Lord hath mark d the houses where these mourning welles be: and if we would not only scape the judgment ourselves, but even turn away wrath from others; let our heads be fountains, and our eyes conduits, sending out floods of tears, not so much for the punishments we feel, as for the cause of those punishments which too many feel not. The crown of Preachers is the tears of their hearers: when we find you with moist eyes, we then hope there is good wrought on your souls.

6 Fontes pacifici; they are wels of peace and amity, such as reconcile feuds, and appease discords; as the water of a well serves to quench flames. In such a combustion, for want of rivers, we run to welles and conduits: yet alas, for the quieting of jars and controversies, you seldom appeal to your Pastors. A f • ult which St. Paul long ago condemned in his Corinthians; that they were too apt to consult Lawyers. And yet many of them, like Lachesis, wind off more in one turn, than they span in five. Were your welles full to the brim, there be buckets enough belonging to the law, to drench you. There is an holy water able to put out the fire of contention; the Gospel of peace: or of the Covenant: so was the Well of Bersheba called, the Well of an oath. Indeed when this water is offered to a peevish and perverse stomach, it turns into bitterness; and makes him swell yet more against his neighbor, yea against his Teacher. If the suspected wife were guilty, she would swell after a draught of those waters of trial: so dissolute souls swell against their reprehender. Our message is the message of peace, our Doctrine is the Gospel of peace, our office is to make peace; we are all for reconciliation; Reconciling God to you, you to God, one with another, all with everyone, everyone with all. We speak peace, we speak for peace, we wish you peace; peace with your neighbors, peace in your houses, peace in your hearts, peace in your consciences, and above all, that peace which passeth all understanding.

7. Fontes Benefici; they are Wells of charity; that do not only give good counsel with their lips, but good relief with their hands. The Loines of the poor bless them: they are fountains where the beasts of the forest drink, and the wild Asses quench their thirst. Charity becomes all men, but above all, the men of God. Yet alas, in these times, non habemus unde, we want wherewithal. What quantity of spiritual water soever be in us, there is little enough of temporal. Our springs be cut off: Sacrilege hath besieged us; as Holofernes did Betulia, and taken away our springs. While you had Wells that yielded you nothing but foul puddle-waters superstitious ceremonies instead of pure doctrines, all your channels ran into those pools, and swelled them to the brinks. Now you confess in your consciences that you draw from us the water of life, yet you deny us the water of livelihood, whereby we may subsist. We sit like disconsolate Elias, by the Brooke Cherith; and if we have sustenance, it must be by miracle, and for want of your just supply the brook is dried up. If we have sown unto you spiritual things, is it any great matter to reap your carnal things? Will you not give the water of your Wells, for the water of Life? The tenth of your increase is God's portion; do you look he should give you the cup of salvation, that deny him the cup of retribution? Do you live in him, and yet fear not to defraud him? The Priest was wont to give alms, now he must be glad to receive it. If all his means can reach above necessity, to buy but one book to his study, one spring to his Well; when that fails, he must sell it to buy another: his cloth is ever too short for two coats, the world will not allow him two springs. If the poor do not find our charity, it is because we are sick of their own disease, Poverty. Quomodo sint benefici qui coguntur esse egeni? Yet howsoever our temporal waters fail, God grant our springs of grace to hold, that you may be saved.

Sine aqua. Thus Pastors should be like Wels, but these false teachers are wells without water. A blind guide, an ignorant Physician, a candlestick without light a penuary without provision, a well without water, is a miserable privation. When the thirsty traveler, after much labor and grief, spies a fountain, he rejoiceth but coming to it, and finding it dry, his joy is turned into sorrow, and he is ready to curse it for such a mockery; as our Savior did the fruitless fig-tree, when he was hungry. Suppose, we are thirsty and would drink, foul and would wash, hot and would be cooled, our houses are on fire, and we would have them quenched; if we come to the well with our buckets, and find it empty, we know not whither our grief or indignation be greater. When we are to build a house, we first look to the conveniency of water, and refuse to dwell in a dry land. Yet whether the Pastor that should moisten our souls, be a well without water, a formal fountain with never a spring to feed it, we examine not. We love a Physician with abundance of medicines, a Lawyer with variety of tricks, a Merchant with choice of wares, a rich man full of moneys: we affect abundance in all perishable things. But for the water of life, so little serves us, that we do not mind whether the Well be full or empty. But indeed, while the clouds above are restrained, the Wells below will be soon dried. Unless the Spirit of grace distill down his holy dew into the hearts of his ministers, all will turn to barrenness, and the visible Church appear like a wilderness.

1. Let all this teach us to thirst for the water of these Wells, as the Hart pants for the river when he is embost: Or as David longed , O that one would give me drink of the water of the Well of Bethlehem: or as the woman of Samaria did, for the water not of Jacob's Well, but of Jesus Well, Lord give me this water, that I thirst not. There is no corporal appetite so violent as thirst; when the extremity of heat hath wrought upon •• e radical moisture. Victorious Samson complains of it; yea even that almighty Samson, Christ himself on the cross cries, Sitio, I thirst. How sensible are we of this want in our bodies: yet our souls are dry, and we neither moisten them, nor pity their thirst. He is a rare man that never drinks till he be thirsty: nay, it is too common a fault, not to stay for any such occasion. Men drink before they are dry, they drink until they become dry: and thirst overtakes drunkenness; as fools run into the river to avoid a shower of rain. But for this living water, a little draught on the Sabbath is enough for all the week. My soul longeth for thee, saith David, as the thirsty land; that opens it self in rifts and crannies, as if it would devour the clouds. Tot linguae, quot fissurae so many chops, so many mouths, as it were crying to heaven for moisture. Blessed are they that thirst after righteousness, for they shall be satisfied.

2. Let us duly prize and esteem the water of these Wels: It is an unhappy way of learning, when we will not know the worth of a benefit, but only by the want of it. Three kings were confederated to make war upon Moab; and they were not sooner come into the parching wildes of Edom, than they are ready to die for thirst. If there were channels, yet no waters: the scorching beams of the Sun had dried them up, and left them rather ditches than rivers. How precious now had a cup of cold water been? There is a season, when so poor a benefit will not be poorly valued. Even with this may a soul be comforted, even for this shall a soul be rewarded. We read of a king, that sold himself and his City for a draught of water. This caused three kings to walk down and visit one poor Prophet. Religion and necessity are (either of them) able to humble the stoutest heart: either zeal or need will make a Prophet honored. O what are the greatest monarchs of the world, if they want but water to their mouths? What can their crowns, and plumes, and rich arms avail them, when they are abridged of that which is but the drink of beasts? Therefore with dry tongues and lips do these three Princes confer of their common misery. So highly is water esteemed, that some Philosophers have thought it a kind of Seminale Principium: Aqua, quasi, A qua omnia.

Now what is elemental water to the water of life? What is a corporal thirst to the souls necessity? The Jews smarted for vilepending it, when they were driven to wander from sea to sea, and from north to east, to seek it; their young men and fairest virgins fainting for thirst. Our forefathers would have been glad of a concealed fountain, some few drops of this water; we have full Wells, yea, rivers and streams, yet let it run at wast. We come to Jacob's well, but bring no pitchers with us: our ears are at Church, our hearts are at home. The waters of the Sanctuary grow and flow, from the ankles to the knees, from the knees to the loins, from the loins up to the neck: but we have not vessels to receive it. Either to this Well you come not, or come and drink not, or drink and digest not: but 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , aut bibendum, aut abeundum. This fountain is the word of comfort; but many can find no sweetness in it, because their palates be made so out of taste by the world. Christ refused the vinegar, because it was vinegar: these men taste the powers of the world to come, and will none of it, though it be the water of life. As Hannibal leading his army through the deserts of Africa, came to a fountain; Exercetque sitim, & spectato fonte recedit. Or as David would not drink the water of Bethlehem, because it was the price of blood: and yet this did cost no blood, but the blood of Jesus Christ.

3. Do not abuse these Wells, nor defile the waters: a troubled fountain cannot look clear. Of all men, the Minister should be suffered to lead a quiet life, undisturbed, free from vexations. Vae illi qui minxerit in fontem: there is a woe due to him that polluteth the fountain, that shall cast aspersions on his Pastor, to disable him in the hearts of his hearers. When Homer had spent many lines in dispraising the body of Thirsytes, he briefly describes his soul thus, that he was an enemy to Ulysses. We need say no more of a bad man; He is an enemy to his Pastor; that is enough to brand him. While thy Preacher is studying to apply the warm blood of Christ to thy heart, thou art studying to vex the best blood in his heart. We take care to save your souls, and many of you take care to molest our souls. While you deny us due maintenance, respect, and peace, you put us to spend that time in temporal provision for our bodies, which we should and would spend in spiritual comfort for your consciences. Supply us with springs, hearten us with encouragements, trouble not our waters, and we shall be to you the wells of salvation.

Clouds that are carried with a tempest.] In this comparison is shadowed out their variableness; where we have three considerations. First, the fitness of the metaphor or similitude. Secondly, the levity of these hypocrites, that are carried with a puff. Thirdly, the event of their dealing, which is to promise a shower, and yield nothing but a Tempest.

For the metaphor, it is frequent in holy Scripture. Drop thy word toward the South. My doctrine shall drop as the rain upon the tender herb, my speech distill as the dew and showers upon the grass. First, Clouds are made to contain water, and Preachers should be fitted and filled with wholesome doctrine. Secondly, Clouds are drawn up by the Sun, and Teachers called to that holy profession by the Sun of righteousness. Thirdly, Clouds are nearer to heaven than common w • ters, and Ministers are advanced nearer to the secrets of God than other men. Fourthly, Clouds hang in the air after a strange manner, and Preachers live in the world, in a wondrous sort: all the winds of the earth, and furies of hell, band against them, yet still they are supported by their ordainer. Fifthly, Clouds are set to distill rain upon the dry places of earth, and Preachers to satisfy the t •• s • y soul. To give drink to the thirsty, is in other men Debitum Char ••••• s in us Debitum justitiae. A necessity is laid upon us, and woe unto us, if we yield not the former and the latter rain; that God's ground may fructify. The rain coming down, returneth not again, but watereth the earth, that it may give seed to the sower, and bread to the eater. So the word of God shall never return void, but accomplish the thing whereto it is sent: not a drop from these Clouds shall be lost: but will either work to the confusion of them that resist it, or to the conversion of them that embrace it. The ground where these showers fall, must yield either flowers, or weeds; and so be either blessed, or nigh unto cursing. If they fall upon a proud heart, like some great mountain, off they glide, and leave it barren: if in the valley, an humble heart, they dwell there, and make it fruitful. As that royal Prophet sings; Thy waters stand in the valleys, and they grow thick with corn.

But how can it be conceived, that the clouds above, being heavy with water should not fall to the earth suddenly, seeing every heavy thing descendeth? It cannot be denied, but the clouds are heavy: yea the very winds, which are lighter than clouds, have their weight. Philosophy is here too defective; all the human learning in the world cannot give a sufficient reason for this. Only the word of God decides it: Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters; and le • it divide the waters from the waters. This was God's ordinance in the creation; and such is his providence in the disposition of the clouds. He bindeth up the waters in his thick clouds, and the cloud is not rent under them. There he bad them hang, till he that called them up, sent them down. There are those bottles of rain, as it were in orbe non suo, thin as the liquor they contain: there they move up and down; and when his finger crusheth them, they drop again to their own place. By virtue of this command, the waters hang in the clouds, and the clouds in the air, and need no supporters. He can as easily hang water in the air, as he can hang the earth upon nothing. Some by that firmamentary division of the waters, have dreamt of a watery heaven above the stars, for the better mitigation of their heat. But the celestial bodies are of no firy or elemental nature: nor have they such heat in them, as needs to be refrigerated. By the firmament is meant the Air: the waters below it are seas and floods: the waters above it are the Clouds. Which helps us to understand that of the Psalm; Praise the Lord, ye waters that be above the heavens: that is, above the lower region of the air. So, the Lord thundered in the heavens, with hailstones and coals of fire. Now thunder, lightning, and hail, come not properly from heaven, but from the air.

In sum; Priests are Clouds; this is no ignoble Title. How often did the Lord appear to Moses in a Cloud? How long did he walk with Israel in the pillar of a Cloud? I will appear in the cloud before the mercy-seat. The Cloud was a figure of Christ; without whom we should never have seen God appear in the mercy seat. When the glory of the Lord filled the Tabernacle, the Tent was covered with a Cloud. Our glorious Savior sits upon a white cloud: Saint Paul speaks of a Cloud of witnesses. It is a happy Church that is encompassed with a cloud of Preachers. Mans heart is a plot of ground; which before it be fruitful, must suffer a spiritual husbandry. First, It must be plowed, and broken up: it is so cold and stiff a clay, that it needs undergo the coulter. God was fain to shake the earth before he could move the Iailors heart. When the terror of sin and Judgment works upon the natural conscience, then the plow-share reacheth the quick. Secondly, once plowing is not sufficient; for it will quickly harden again of it self; there must be a second stirring. In prosperity it will never tell truth; but rather flatter that it may be flattered. But when the ground is softened, then put in the plough: the heart broken by affliction is fit to be tilled with it the word. Thirdly, cast in the seed with joy and hope of a blessed harvest: sow it with the precious promises of Jesus Christ. Fourthly, then come the clouds and they do their seasonable office, in pouring down kindly showers, both to raise and ripen the fruits of grace. Fifthly, after all this, weeds will grow: therefore we must fall to weeding, and hook out our lusts with the sickle of repentance. Thus the valleys shall stand thick with corn, till we rejoice and sing.

The next point is their levity; Carried with a wind. Some are not stable in the truth, but it is not possible for any man to be constant in errors; for the next fancy will take him off from the former. As wanton children are won to be quiet with change of toys; so the devil is fain to please such men with variety of crotchets. He forgets what he hath been, understands not what he is, and knows not what he will be. But like a banished man, when his back is upon his own covntrey, all the world is his way. He is fled, with Jonah, from the word of God, and now it matters not whither he makes his voyage. From a Brownist to Anabaptism, from an Anabaptist to Arianism, from an Arian to the Family of love: still he is carried with a tempest; and does not more eagerly embrace the air where he is first a Cloud gendred, than he rails on it when he is removed. He is water, and water hath ever been an emblem of Inconstancy. So Jacob called his son Reuben, unstable as water. Whether it be a cloud above, or a billow below, it is carried with the wind. There is a rack-wind, and that drives the clouds: there is a ground-wind, and that tosseth the waves. So Saint James compares the inconstant to a wave driven and tossed with the wind.

To exemplify this unstablenesse. First, Water is continually running from coast to coast, and as it changeth currents, it changeth name and colors. Names according to the countries it saluteth. Colours; for in puddles it is black, against rocks foamy, in the sea green, in sweet rivers clear. Such a cloud as here is meant, is at Rome a Papist, at Munster an Anabaptist, in England a Protestant. Indeed he tarries nowhere; for his heart is but an Inn, and all his thoughts travellers: if they lodge for a night, they are gone in the morning, and leave him without taking leave of him. Secondly, water runs to the lowest parts, seeking out holes and receptacles where to hide it self. So these wavering clouds love corners and private conventicles, and leave the beaten way, though it lead directly to heaven. They scorn with every common understanding to go through the gate, and therefore will climb over the wall. Thirdly, water poured out leaves nothing behind in the vessel: oil and wine will leave their favor, and milk the color: but there is no remaining sign of water that it was there. So their steps be fluide, and no more stable is their memory; ⁱ either buried in oblivion, or famous for infamy. A cloud both alters the shape with the wind, now appearing like a house, then like a camel: and the seat with the wind, now hovering over this climate, then over that. They are wax ready tempered, that soon taketh a new impression. Or chaff, which when the good grain sinks down and is saved, becomes the sport of the wind. Their plague is answerable, They shall be chased as chaff of the mountains before the wind, or the thistle-down before the whirlwind. The tempest hath driven them to and fro upon earth, at last it shall blow them to hell. They are like loose teeth in the mandible, of more trouble than use. They set themselves for so many things, that they are good for nothing. A Pluralist in religion is indeed a neutralist; and seeks the truth by all ways but that where he is sure to find it. The moon spake to her mother to get her a coat made; but no tailor could fit her: for if he made it fit for her in the change, it would be too little in the full: if it were fit for the full, it would be too large for the wane: so we must have for every day a new coat, or none. The inconstant soul is as hard to suit: only, after the change of many places, there is one that will hold, the place of darkness: after the change of many fashions, there is one that will last, a coat of torment. But for us, let us stand fast in the faith, and bold that we have, that we may never lose our Crown.

Carried with a Tempest.] They promise a shower, and bring a storm. This is their mockery: they have four inconveniences of the Clouds.

1 They hinder the Sun from so clearly extending his beams to comfort the earth. An Antichristian Priest is a cloud gotten before the Sun; whose very doctrine tends to darken the light. That Ignorance makes Saints; how much is hell beholding to them for such an opinion? They call that the mother of devotion, which was indeed the daughter of transgression. We use to say for the body; If nature lose some vigor or virtue in one sense, she recompenceth and mends it in another: they that see ill, hear the better: and he that wants his smelling, hath the better taste. But if the soul lose her eyes, she will hardly find the way to heaven: nor can we say, any faculty is improved, any grace advanced in her, for being blind. There is a woe to them that withhold the truth in unrighteousness. Not sanctity, but Iniquity is the child of darkness. Sin was begot in secret, betwixt Satan and Eve: and Vice is the brood of N • x and Acher •• , say the Poets.

2 Clouds are unthankful: for they are drawn up by the Sun, and set in the lower region of the air: there being placed, they not seldom dishonor that Sun which exhaled them, by darkening his refulgent beams. I do not say that false Teachers are called by Christ: they rather prefer themselves without invitation; making the Church a market, and buying their places; and those too often, of eminency: which they fill, like clouds, with a blustering and stormy presence. But in the mean time they obscure that light, which the Sun of righteousness would give to his Church by better instruments. Thus they have Loca Christi, and Arma Antichristi: and most ingratefully dishonor that Name by which they would be called.

3 Clouds do harm when they vent themselves in a Tempest: their moisture is not so profitable, as their violence is hurtful. They that never preach but in thunder, whose words be flashes of lightning; hell and damnation being almost the period of every sentence, are lurida, turbida, horrifica nubila, black, pitchy, and pernicious clouds; presenting the face of God tempestuous, and the brow of heaven cloudy: for so we call the frowning, a cloudy forehead. These are Nubigenae, engendered of clouds, as Poets write of the Centautes. They that hang their faith on such men's lips, do but like Ixion, embrace a cloud instead of Juno. Fabius Maximus resolving to prolong the war, waited on Hannibals progress, and encamped himself on the high grounds. Terentius gave Hannibal battle, and was put to the worst: but then Fabius came down the high grounds, and got the day. Whereupon Hannibal said, he ever thought, that same cloud which hanged on the hills, would at one time or other give a Tempest. So these Clouds never spend themselves, but with a storm to the Church of God.

4 They are unprofitable clouds; Nubes sine aqua, as Jude calls them; empty bottles, which promise the thirsty earth relief, and have never a drop in them. Or if they have any water, they let it fall where it can do no good. As sometimes we have seen dry pastures and chopped grounds, as it were with open mouths calling upon the clouds for rain: anon a cloud gathers, and comes down; but where? It misseth the needy fields, and falls in a dirty lane: balking the place where it is expected, and fouling the way where it might be spared. This the natural clouds do by God's disposing: but I speak of rational, willful, spiteful clouds: Many rich men are such condition'd clouds: they have store of wealth, and some they will part with: but it shall be to such as have no need of it; and that either for fear, or favor, or in hope of honor: which is in the proverb, pouring water into the sea. But to the poor, distressed, and thirsty souls, they will not afford a drop. While they live, they will empty a bag to the Lawyer; which is to fall in a dirty lane. When they die, they make rich men their heirs and executors; not in imitation of God, To him that hath shall be given: but to witness their dear regard of money; which when they can keep no longer, they bequeath to them that will keep it: as if they durst trust anything sooner than their Maker. So do they love the world, that they love all them that love it: and when the hand of death crusheth these Clouds, they fall into a quagmire.

You see by this time what clouds they are, against which our Apostle inveighs. Nubila procellosa, tempestuous clouds; that raise storms and factions, and trouble the peace of the air. Nubila picea, black clouds; that turn day into night by their errors. Nubila coelivaga, wandering clouds; that never keep any station. Nubila fictitia, dissembling clouds; that promise moisture, and have none. Nubila liventia, malicious clouds; that intend nothing but mischief. Nubila fatna, foolish clouds; that make mire, rather than cause fertility.

But withal, there be commendable clouds: there is difference between Nubes umbrifera, a shadowing cloud; and Nubes Imbrifera, a showring cloud. There is Nubes carulea, a bright, azure, sky-coloured cloud; like that heaven to which it is near; whose life is in heaven. Nubes frugifera, a fruitful cloud, that causeth the earth to fructify. The Lord fills these clouds with his holy dews, which they let fall in due time and place. They water the earth, and come down like showers upon the mown grass. In their days shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace so long as the Moon endureth.

Besides the former resemblances; Preachers are Clouds in spending themselves upon the dry earth. When a cloud hath emptied it self of water, it ceaseth to be: so we consume ourselves to do you good. Love turns us into lamps, that we wast ourselves to give light unto others: into silkewormes, that we spin out our own bowels, to make you garments. The Olive would not leave her fatness, nor the Fig tree her sweetness, nor the Vine her cheerful liquor: we refuse not to part with our fatness and sweetness, our blood and marrow, our rest and quiet for your sakes. Yea, like clouds, we willingly consume ourselves in showers, that you may bring forth fruit unto Jesus Christ. This riseth to the conviction of them that will not be bettered by the good clouds.

1 Some refuse to come under the clouds, and of all places love not the Orbe of the Church. The fruitful grounds are covered with clouds; they that shun this rain for fear of being wet, shall have barren souls. There is Daplex Coelum; Gloriae & Ecclesiae: the Church is a heaven upon earth; her Priests be the clouds of heaven: she denies not her showers to them that seek it; the rest must remain a wilderness. The Jews, while the Church of God was national, were commanded in their devotions to look toward the Temple, when they could not come to it. We have those that may come to it, but will not look toward it. In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord. Not anywhere, not everywhere, but in his own house: as if this blessing were confined to his holy walls, In this place will I give peace. I know not whether the blessing doth more honor the place, or the place the blessing: both grace each other, and make God's people happy; In this place I will give peace. This flower grows not in every garden, but only in that which these clouds have watered. If ever we would have peace; outward, inward, private, public, secular, spiritual; peace in our Land, peace in our Church, peace in our State, peace in our own Souls; we must pray for it: and if ever we will pray for it, we must pray here; for In this place will I give peace, saith the Lord. It is true indeed, that we are bidden everywhere to lift up pure hands unto God: but those hands cannot be pure that are profane; and they cannot be other than profane, that contemn the Church, the clouds, and showers, and ordinances of God. If ever men would have their prayers heard at home, let them pray at Church: else their devotion is but the sacrifice of fools. For he hath said it, who hath good reason to appoint the circumstances of his own beneficence; In this place, where those holy clouds are, I will give peace.

2 Some bring forth no fruit at all, though they dwell under the clouds. They are barren and beaten grounds, like the streets or high ways, over which such a throng of lusts fetch their continual walk, that nothing can rise or prosper. The more rain falls, the more dirt. Or if they produce any fruit, it is weeds instead of herbs; stinking weeds; yea even briars and thorns, to scratch and wound the husbandman that tils them. If a displeasing drop falls from the clouds, they rage and swell; as Pharaoh did when he received a command of Israel's dismission. The showers and monitions of God make ill men worse. Corruption, when it is checked, grows frantic: as the waves do not beat or roar anywhere so much, as at the bank that restrains them. Or as the vapor in a cloud would not make that fearful report, if it met not with opposition. A good heart yields at the stillest voice of God; but his most gracious motions harden the wicked. Some would not have been so desperately settled in their sins, if the word had not controlled them. But that ground is reserved for the fire, which would not be bettered with the water. What the element of mercy could not mollify, the element of wrath shall cruciate. For the earths sake which we bear, the earth that bears us, is often cursed therefore our works are weeds, because we concoct the moisture of the clouds into venom. So Spinas & tribulos, velut ignis escam, ferimus: briars and thorns are fit fuel for the fire: Secundum ea quae mali proferunt, ipsi efficientur. If the lustful limbs burn in flames, it was lust that made them fit matter for those flames.

3 Others look after the infirmities of the clouds, and never mind their virtue or benefits. They will follow their Teachers own way, not that which God teacheth by him. Israel indeed did follow the cloud in the wilderness: when it stood still two years together, they moved not: only then they went on, when that went before them. And we do well to follow the pattern of those holy clouds, that direct us the way to Canaan. Yet this, not absolutely, but with limitation. The Cloud that guided them had two parts; a light part, and a dark one. The Egyptians who were God's enemies, had only the dark part; which following, they rushed into the red Sea, and were drowned. The Israelites had the light part, the direction whereof safely delivered them. Wicked eyes see only the dark part, the infirmities of these clouds; that example they follow, and perish. Faithful souls look upon the light part, the graces of God in them; this doctrine they follow, and are saved.

To conclude. Be thankful to these clouds, in returning answerable fruits. If showers fall on a dunghill, they make but dirt: if in a kennel, they make but stink: if in desolate places, they spring up weeds: but in the garden, they raise up herbs and flowers: in the tilled field, corn: in the meadows, grass: in the groves and orchyards, plants and fruits. If the ground of your hearts be foul with uncleanness, rank with covetousness, or sown with lusts, our rain will cause the appearance of weeds. But the mind that comes hither like a well tilled field, receives these showers with comfort, and recompenceth them with increase. Then shall the earth bring forth her increase, and God, even our own God shall give us his blessing.

This Heart of ours is the best or the worst ground that lies between heaven and earth. The worst, if it be thorny, weedy, mirie: but if fair, pleasant, fruitful, it is the best. There be two that lay claim to it: and howsoever the propriety be God's, for he made it; yet Satan will try his title, and sues to have it. First, let us weed this ground, and that betimes, for old weeds will hardly be destroyed. Sins are weeds, the weeding-hook is Repentance: let not a weed appear, but presently by contrition cut it down. God indeed said of another field, and in another sense; Let them both grow together until the harvest: but it must not be so here, for then the weeds will eat out the corn. Secondly, keep it in heart; for if the soul have not her chearings, she will grow faint and barren. The way to keep thy heart in heart, is by devout prayers, meditation, hearing the word, and receiving that which is Pabulum animae, the blessed Sacrament. Thirdly, look to the expiration of thy farm, and be sure to leave it in good case: that when the great Landlord shall call the Tenant out of the Tenement, the soul from the body, it may be entertained into his own house, the glorious Court of heaven. Fourthly and lastly be, sure to pay thy rent always, and that is Thankfulness. For temporal farms we pay our rents by quarters and half years: but this rent is due every month, week, day, hour. Seven times a day, yea seven times an hour, will I praise thee. We forfeit many of God's favors, for not paying the rent of Thankfulness. It is an easy rent, it costs us no labor. It is a cheap rent, we are not out of purse for it. It is a ready rent, never to seek. If it be easy, ready, cheap, why do we grudge it? We can do little, if we cannot th • nke God for his goodness. Yet for the ground it self, for the seeds that sow the ground, for the clouds that water the seeds, for the Sun that draws up the clouds, for the influences of heavenly grace that bless all, God requires no rent but our thanks. Hoc nil dici br • vius, nec audiri laetius, nec gratius intelligi, nec agi fructuostus potest. Nothing is more easy to be spoken, or more comfort • ble to be heard, or more acceptable to be understood, or more fruitful to be done, than thankfulness. If we cannot requite gifts, yet let us return thanks. Debitam Deo nunquam refer • e gratiam potero: tamen hoc non desinam, ubique confiteri me refer non posse: I can never give unto God sufficient thanks; yet I will ever acknowledge that I cannot give him thanks sufficient. He that return • this • o man, makes half the amends: to God, it is all the amends we can make.

But the least gratitude lies in the tongue; when the heart, when the life is thankful, this is better than the sacrifice that hath horns and hoofs. Then is the earth thankful to the clouds, when it returns answerable fruits; when it does confess and recompense the good it hath received, when the valleys stand thick with corn, the meadows yield fat pasture, the trees flourish with fruits, that the birds sit and sing in the branches. We call a barren earth, an unthankful earth. What is the worst fruit that the earth bears? I find a great complaint of Tares, of Thorns, of Weeds, of venomous creatures, noxious, and baneful plants: yet all these are good in their kinds, and useful to the wise. But the worst things that the groaning earth bears, be ourselves, our sinful and unprofitable selves: Telluris inutile pondus. Therefore God more than threatened, to destroy both man and beast from the face of the earth. The earth as a good mother, rejoiceth in good children: but she mourneth for them that dishonor their Father, and are a shame to their mother. Non laetatur super bestiis & rapidis feris: but in men, tame and gentle creatures. So long as there is pride in us, contention among us: while covetousness and cruelty in our hands: unmercifulness in our hearts, and lust in our loins remains unweeded out; we are those wild beasts. Is this our thankfulness to the clouds? Is this our requital for all their showers? Do we rain down holy dews, and find you springing up profane weeds? Alas, for the sins of the Land! for this cause the clouds melt themselves into tears. As all our Sermons be public showers, to refresh your thirsty souls: so we have also our private showers, dissolving ourselves into tears for the obstinacy of your hearts. We weep in secret for your pride, and are still dropping this rain from our eyes, together with the exhortation of our lips. Remember that God who gives you the former and the latter rain: showers to soften the earth before the seed be cast in; showers when it is cast in, to bring it forth: showers to ear it, and showers to ripen it. If all this will not make you fructify, the clouds weep again, because they have labored in vain, and spent their strength for naught. Mortals quoniam nolunt sua crimina flere, Coelum pro nobis solvitur in lacrymas. O that it would fall out by you, as the Bishop comforted Monica concerning her son Augustine; Fieri non potest ut populus istorum nimborum pereat: the children of so many showers and tears shall never perish.

Open therefore your breasts to receive these holy dews: lest with that rich Churl, you cry hereafter for some of this water, when you cannot have it. How many showers and buckets of grace had he despised in his jollity? now h • calls out pitifully, for one drop to cool his tongue. Do not neglect the least drop o • grace when it falls, lest you be driven to beg one drop of mercy when it must • o • fall forever. Now God draws near unto you, dr • w you near unto God, and be enlightened: so shall you no more be tellus arida, but terra florida, bearing 〈◊〉 for the Lord's harvest. Thus you shall restore the golden age, and make the place you live in, were it worse than it is, a very earthly paradise. Earth shall return to earth; but such fruitful earth shall possess the earth, and be possessed of heaven. Now the grace of God make us the one, and the glory of God crown us with the other.

To whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.] Private offenders are not so much plagued, as public. Bis peccat, qui exemplo peccat: for he teacheth evil by doing it, and so again does evil by teaching it. Exemplare malum, capitale malum: the exemplary sin is a mischievous sin: he that gives bad example, shall be made an example himself. A sinner, by his true contrition and hearty repentance, may get pardon for his own sin; but how shall he procure it for them whom he hath taught to sin? Nothing more troubles the mind of a good man, than his tempting of others to offend God. Thou hast been a blasphemer, and art converted: but how shall this medicine cure the inf • ction which thy foul breath hath conveyed to others? Thy excesses may be forgiven thee, but ho • art thou sure of those Uriah's, whom thou hast inebriated? The adulterer, after the fact may repent of his own wickedness, yet it cannot but trouble him to think what may become of his harlot. So grievous and dangerous it is to be guilty of oth • rs sins. An eminent offender draws many with him into evil. When David fell in with Bathsheba, many of her servants and his courtiers must needs be conscious of that adultery. When Uriah must die, Joab must be fetched in as accessory to the murder: how did that example harden his heart against the conscience of Abner's blood? He might well think, how can my master revenge that on me, which he acts himself? Great men's sins are seldom secret, and no less secret shall be their sh • me. These heretical Teachers have brought on men's souls a mist of d • rknes, and done what in them lies, to send them blindfold to hell: now therefore such a lot abides them, even a mist of darkness forever. In which punishment observe three things.

The

• 1. Quality of it; Caligo tenebrarum, the mist of darkness.
• 2. Congruity of it; It is prepared or Reserved for them; and they were such as loved darkness more than light.
• 3. Eternity or duration of it, For ever.

First, the nature or quality of it; a mist of darkness. If hell had no other anguish in it but the very darkness, it were a formidable place. How uncomfortable would that night be, which had no hope or possibility of day? But as it is said of heaven, the gate, of it are not shut by day, and there shall be no night there: so it is contrary of hell the gates of it are not open by night, and there shall be no day there. Night is f • in • d to be Terrae filia, the daughter of the Earth; and that is dark enough: so Job c • ls the Grave▪ a Land of darkness, and the shadow of death. If our bodies h •• • ny sense when they lie in that dark bed, how tedious, how odious would it be un • o th • m? But there is that which Christ calls 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , utter darkness • ; uncomfor •• ble, unligh • able: The Hebrews by Light, understand joy and felicity: by darkness, sorrow and confusion. To give light to them that sit in darkn • sse. Such • mist shall be on their souls, as comes upon a swouning man: who cannot see though his eyes be open: the organs being (for the time) uncapable of illumin • tion. So lie the damned, as dying men in the very pangs of d • ath, with a mist of darkness over their underst • ndings, yet cannot die.

But there is fire in h • ll; shall not this give light? No, it diff • rs from elemental fire; First, for violence, it is more subtle and searching. Secondly, for durin •• 〈◊〉 is a wildfire that cannot be quenched. Thirdly, for operation, it con •• ne • n • t what it burns. Fourthly, for obscurity, though it sl • ine terribly to the vex • tion of the wicked, yet it shines not to their comfort. Cremationem habet, lumen non habet. John was a burning and a shining light. There is a fire th • t shines without burning, and a fire that burns without shining. It is as easy for God to make fire without light, as light without fire. All the prisons and dungeons devised by man are palaces in respect of hell: as all pains mo • tall are Vmbra ad haec tormenta, a mere shadow to these torments. The darkness of Egypt w • s wonderful, and fearful: wonderful, in that it was so thick that it might be felt: fe • refull, therefore reserved for the ninth of the ten plagues. But this far exceeds; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the blackness of darkness: so doth the Hebrew Idiotisme express • it in the uttermost extract of darkness. If thou couldst see in a dark prison some looking pale and ghastly, others bound in chains and fetters, others tormen • ed with famine, all shut up in a loathsome dungeon, howling with lamentation how would it fright thee from such a course, as might endanger thee to such a place? Thus let us meditate of this darkness here, that we may never feel it hereafter. The body that is surfeited with repletion of pleasant meat • , must be p • rged with bitter pills. Let the due consideration of those insufferable horro • s cl • anse our hearts from all filthy lust: • nd let us follow the way which the light of grace leads us, that the light of glory may crown us.

Reserved for them: this is the proportionableness of it. The punishments which God's justice inflicts upon sinners, have always a respect of condignity, not seldom of congruity: so that we may read the matter of the offense in the characters of the penalty. These black clouds did wholly endeavor to superinduce darkness on the Church, therefore the mist of darkness is reserved for them forever. Some read, Paratur, is Prepared: and this refers us to God's decree, who had preordained the darkness of hell for such cloudy souls. Not Paranda, nor in Parando, but Parata. As a king prepares a prison for such of his subjects, as shall prove rebellious. But God made not darkness; and whereas in the beginning of the creation it is said. Darkness was on the deep; this was not a thing created, but a mere privation or absence, or not being of that light which was made afterward. Nor do we think this mist of darkness a positive thing; but as when the Sun is hidden, darkness necessarily follows. Not a beam of God's countenance, not a spark of his light comes into hell, and thereupon follows this intolerable darkness.

Tophet is ordained of old: non casu, non subito, sed deliberante judicio. For the antiquity of hell, I refer you to the fourth verse of this chapter; where the lost Angels are said to be cast down into hell: now they could not be cast into that which was not. God hath ordained but two places to receive all, whether Angels or men. For those Fustian-weavers of Rome with their intermedia loca, they make but Chimaera's, and imagine places without a foundation. As Limbus Patrum where (they tell us) there is Poena damni, non sensus; and Limbus Infantum, for children dying without Baptism; where they likewise say is, Poena, non sensus, sed damni. The former whereof they would have dissolved by Christ's descension into hell; the other to last forever. And their Purgatory, where is both Poena damni, and Sensus; which shall cease at Christ's coming to Judgment; unless some better informed and more merciful Pope unlock the doors, and let them out for money beforehand. These be pretty tales for a winters night, and not unlike their legends. The holy Scripture hath this plain truth: There is but election and reprobation, grace and sin, the narrow gate and the broad way: but two places, Light and darkness, Joy and pain: but two ends, heaven and hell, to one of these must all flesh come. They that tell you otherwise, flatter you with error: we tell you the truth, though it be with terror; and testify to you our brethren, (albeit with another mind) that you come not into that place of torment. And howsoever you may storm against us, for disquieting your security with such menaces; yet we had rather you should be offended with us for preaching hell to you here, than that for not preaching it, you should curse us in hell hereafter.

But I rather read it, Is Reserved; and then it denotes the fitness of the plague to their sin: darkness to darkness, inward to outward, temporal to eternal darkness. The Egyptians drowned the males of Israel, themselves were drowned for it. They had bloodied the waters from those innocent veins, their waters are turned into blood. That law of Retaliation which God will not allow us, because we are fellow-creatures, he justly practiseth on us. He would have us read our sins in our Judgments, that we might both repent of our sins and give glory to his Justice. Cham sinned against his father, and therefore is punished in his children: whereas Japheth was dutiful to his father, and finds it in his posterity. Because Cham was an ill son to his father, therefore his children shall be servants to his brethren. But because Japheth joined himself with Sem in bearing the cloak of shame, therefore he shall dwell in the tents of Sem, and partake of the blessing. Samson abuseth his strength among women, therefore he lost his strength by a woman. Saul divides himself from God, God divides the kingdom from Saul. David committed three sins in the business of Uriah, adultery, murder, and dissimulation; for all these he receives just payment: for adultery, in the deflowering of his daughter Tamar: for murder, in the stabbing of his son Amnon: for dissimulation, in the contriving of both, Did you not hate me, and expel me out of my Fathers house? and why are you come to me now when you are in distress? saith Iepthah to the elders of Gilead. The suits of necessity are justly upbraided with the errors of prosperity. The same expostulation that Iephtah makes with Gilead, God at the same time makes with Israel; You have forsaken me, and served other gods, wherefore should I deliver you? Go and cry unto the gods ye have chosen. God tells his children of their faults, while he is whipping them. It is a wise and safe course, to make much of those in our peace, whom we must make use of in our extremity: otherwise it is but just, that we should be rejected of those whom we have rejected. We call upon God in our trouble, and are not heard: Why? because he was not heard, when he called to us in our jollity. He will say, Did you not drive me out of your houses, out of your hearts, in time of health? Did ye not plead the strictness of my charge, the weight of my yoke? Did not your willful sins expel me from your souls? what do you now crouching and creeping to me in the evil day? It is but justice, if God be not found of those that were content to lose him.

Thus he once plagued the inundation of sins with an inundation of waters: Sodom’s unnatural lust with unnatural fire. He proceeds still in the same course; the dearth of charity he punisheth with the dearth of plenty: the surfeits of peace, with the sharp physic of war: malice and wrath, those burning sins, with burning fevers: the languishing of piety, with consumptions of body: whoredom and uncleanness, with loathsome diseases: riot and profuseness, with fluxes: drunkenness and excess, with dropsies: pride and swelling, with tumours: curses and blasphemies with the plague and pestilence. That which men have so many years tossed in their mouths, is now fallen upon their loins the plague hath been their imprecation, the plague is become their common destruction. What is it that infects the air, but the contagious breath of oaths and curses, vented every moment from the lips of men and children? Every sinner teacheth God how to punish him, ex ore suo, out of his own mouth. And there is no particular wickedness, but God hath a particular rod to scourge it on earth, and a particular torment to vex it in hell. Only they escape, that have answered all the variety of their sins, in the variety of the sufferings of Jesus Christ.

For ever. Such is the perpetuity of this darkness. And this is also a just recompense, that they which might have found life, and would not seek it, should at last seek for death, and not find it. There is a shame never covered, a worm never dying, a cry never ceasing, a fire never wasting, an intolerable pain, an interminable time. They shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. A good day makes amends for a bad night; but to this night belongs no day; it is everlasting darkness. The roughest tempest, the weariest journey is not without comfort, because there is hope of an end: but these pains be as endless in quantity, as they are easeless in quality. Joshua had a long day, when the Sun stood still; yet that day had an end; the Sun did go on his course again, and set: but here the Sun and Moon shall utterly cease to measure time by their motion. That is a long sentence that hath no period, a doleful night which shall have no morning; a woeful darkness, where no star shall give a glimpse, no taper burn for the damps and foggy mists. Thus they lie like a malefactor pressing to death, calling for more weight to dispatch them, even rocks and mountains, and cannot get it. They are those serpents that will not be charmed, those tormentors that will never be entreated. It is to no end, to compare them with piles of grass, sands or stars: if a million of years should stand for every dust of the earth, there might be an end: but this is mors sine morte, finis sine fine: time shall be no more; and after time, it is as possible for that damnation to be temporal, as it is for God not to be eternal.

Sins greedily hear that the mercy of God endures forever: but they shall as sensibly feel, that the wrath of God also endure forever. It was a pitiful complaint, Will the Lord cast off forever, is his mercy clean gone for evermore? God did not deal so with David, he will deal so with the damned. Let this meditation touch thee now, that the matter it self may never hurt thee hereafter. That heart is hard frozen, which nothing can thaw but hell-fire. If a rebellious city were threatened by the king to be tythed for their conspiracy; that one of ten should die in justice, though nine were spared in mercy; would not everyone tremble, lest the lot should fall upon himself? If among ten passing over a bridge, one were assured to fall in, would not everyone look to his feet? The Supreme Judge in his last great Assizes, will execute his wrath upon many: not one of ten, but rather nine of ten are in danger; for all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God, deserving ever-burning fire in everlasting darkness; shall we not make sure our Advocate to plead for us; even Him alone whose plea is unanswerable, because he died for us? He that is For ever, suffered that we might not suffer forever. But will he plead for those above, that care not to be his below? Shall they challenge his covenant then, and trample on it now? Do they not abuse that Covenant, while they break the conditions, Faith and Obedience? Let not men flatter themselves, that they may sin in aeterno suo, so long as they can: and yet that God will not punish them aterno suo, so long as he can: Hell was not made for nothing: there be two fatal engines, the devil and sin, that will supply and furnish it, and keep it from being empty.

Thou art sick, think how uncomfortable it would be, to be confined to that bed and that pain: if no worse, for a thousand years: where thy friends are fiends, and thy Physicians tormentors. Consider them that are shut up for the plague; how irksome it is to want help and society, to lie fearfully expecting death every hour; when as yet there is a Lord have mercy on us upon the door, and the prayers of thousands sent up to heaven for their comfort. Who would for the pleasure of an hour, be racked a whole year? Or for a mass of gold, lie burning in the fire one day? Yet how many for the satisfaction of a lust, hazard themselves, souls and bodies, to more exquisite tortures, and endless flames? Let us not pass over this meditation superficially, but in time make an end of sinning; otherwise beyond all time there will be no end of our suffering. For our Creators sake that made us, for our Redeemers sake that with his own blood bought us, for that Comforters sake who would heal us, for the Angels sake that guard us, for the Churches sake, our mother that mourns for us, for our own Souls sake, that should be dear unto us; let us break off our sins by repentance, and live the life of grace and obedience, that we perish not in this mist of darkness forever.

FLesh and blood is pleased either with no religion, or with a carnal one; yea with a carnal religion rather than none at all. For without some boundaries to the unlimited rage of sensuality, they could neither enjoy their goods, nor their sins in peace. Therefore among the Heathen politickes, that State where nothing was lawful, was preferred to the State where all things were lawful. The adulterer, that cares not whose bed he dishonors, yet would think himself wronged, if he might not keep his whore to himself. He would be loath to have his own goods stolen, that makes no conscience of robbing others. The wicked are neither sensible of doing injury, nor patient of suffering it. Unjust tradesmen will have the Law open to fetch in their debts, and that with rigor: but for payment of their creditors, they would have the Law shut, and nose them under a protection. Thus if they can shuffle out for this world, they never dream of any reckoning in the world to come. That religion therefore, which can humor flesh and blood, and give corrupt nature leave to be her self, proud or wanton, is the only plausible doctrine, and sure of entertainment. Every bad man would have all others bound, and himself free: and he easily connives at that in himself, which he severely censures under another skin. Silly understandings adhere to that rule, which is indulgent to their carnal affections; as fishes are taken with the bait that is agreeable to their natures. Wanton souls are caught with wanton allurements. When they speak, &c.

This verse is spent upon two sorts of men; the Seducers, and the Seduced: the subtle and the simple; the thieves and their bootie. In the Deceivers we have Their

• Posture, they speak great swelling words of vanity.
• Imposture; they allure or beguile souls.

For the Deceived, we have three circumstances;

• 1. What they were for their former condition, escaped, &c.
• 2. What they are for their present estate, wrapped in error.
• 3. How they become so; which is their own weakness, or proneness to sin, whereby the Temptation works upon them, here called wantonness.

The Posture of the Seducers appear in three passages; In

• Multiloquio, many words.
• Stultiloquio, vain words.
• Grandiloquio, great swelling words.

For the first, they think to carry it away with words. That is a very ill cause, which wants colorable reason for it; that is a very ill reason which wants a Tertullus to plead it: and he is an ill Tertullus that wants words to defend it. Yea, error hath always most words; like a rotten house, that needs most props and crutches to uphold it. Simple Truth evermore requires least cost; like a beautiful face that needs no painting; or a comely body, which any decent apparel becomes. We plaster over rotten posts and ragged walls: substantial buildings are able to grace themselves. We cannot but suspect that cause, whereon the Lawyer wastes so much of his time and tongue. Multitude of words is not unlike the thick painting in some Popish Church-windows; a mere devise to keep out the light. Why doth the Hare use so many doublings, but to frustrate the sent of the hounds? A great deal of oratory bestowed on a vain subject, is but like an onion; when you have taken off all the pills, there is nothing left. Falsehood is a gaudy harlot; strip her of her borrowed garments, she will appear, we know not whether more hateful or ridiculous. Loquacity hath ever been a note of folly; In multiloquio stultiloquium: it is very difficult to speak much and well. The ship that hath more rigging and sails than ballast, will never make a good voyage. The tree that wanted fruit, might have abundance of leaves; and commonly they have the worst course of life, that have the volublest discourse of tongue. They think to be heard for their much speaking: as if God could not hear them at first; as if he could not understand them at once; as if the blessing of heaven depended on the labor of the tongue: whereas indeed, it is not many words, but hearty desires, that can fetch down heavenly blessings. No Prince will grant a suit ever the sooner for a long petition. Certainly, if twenty Ave-maries and five Paternosters were all that God required, many a Papist hath done his duty. But alas, how can they hope to merit by that, for which God hath said, they shall not be heard, much babbling. The Publican used not so many words as the Pharisee, the Pharisee had not such commendation as the Publican. Frustrà fit per plura, quod fieri potest per pauciora. There is little of a long-winded exercise, except to bring men asleep. Many words must not carry it; for then the brawling woman would have the better, who will not give over without the last word. But not to catch the disease, which I declaim against, prolixity of speech, I pass to the next, which is

Their full-mouthed speeches, Great swelling words. Nothing is more loud than error: the more false the matter, the greater noise to uphold it. Paul can have no audience, the truth must not be heard: but they all cry out for Diana. In that bloodiest and most unnatural custom of Idolatry that ever the Sun be held: the sacrificing of their children in burning fire to Moloch, it was the noise of the Instruments that drowned all sense of the madness. Thus Ahab shall be deluded with great words and numbers: the clergy of four hundred Prophets conspire to his destruction one: single Michaiah can do no good, they bear him down with multitudes. Four hundred to one, is odds: everyone will have as much talk as he. Yet indeed, one Prophet speaking from the Oracle of God, is more worth than four hundred Baalites. Truth is not ever to be measured by the Poll: it is not number, but weight that should carry it. Solid verity in one mouth is worthy to preponderate light falsehood in a thousand. But falsehood hath the more swelling words, the louder noise: as Cyprian mentions one that challenged him to dispute; who though he wanted learning to urge any argument, yet he amazed the people by ingrossing all the talk, and holding the conclusion.

False Zedekiah not only speaks, but acts his prediction, with swelling words, yea presumptuous signs; Horns of iron, and Thus shalt thou push the Syrians. The horn is forcible, the iron irresistible: by an unresistible force shall Ahab do this: as if the certainty of his tongue were not enough without his hands. He had a forehead of brass, a heart of Lead: the one for impudence, the other for flexiblenesse to humors and times: therefore he devised horns to gore his King unto death. One silly Prophet affronts the 400; whereupon Zedekiah, having swollen first into words, now swells into blows, and smites God's Prophet on the face. Micaiah gave him the lie, and he gives Micaiah the fist; and with the blow expostulates. Before two Kings, the Guardians of Peace and Justice, swaggering Zedekiah falls to blows. For a Prophet to strike a Prophet, in the face of two Princes, was intolerably insolent: the act was much unbeseeming the Person, more the Presence. Prophets may reprove, they may not strike. It was enough for Ahab to punish with the hand; no weapon was for Zedekiah but his tongue. And if Ahab had not been well content to see that hated mouth beaten by any hand; if malice had not made authority insensible of such an usurpation, this rude presumption had not past unrevenged. Falsehood doth not more bewray it self in anything, than in swelling words, in unjust blows. Nor is it any new condition of God's servants to smart for speaking true. Truth suffers, whiles error persecutes. None are more ready to boast of God's Spirit, than they that have it not. The full vessels are evermore silent. Brasse makes a great sound when it is beaten: the gold is more malleable with less noise. A fools voice is heard in the streets, but wisdom speaks low. Therefore hath luxurious behavior been called Roaring, for the dissolute cannot rule their tongues. As Bias was sailing, there fell out a great tempest, and the mariners (who were lewd persons) cried to their gods: but Bias said, Peace, make not such a noise: for if the gods know ye are here, we are all like to perish. Peacocks have a louder voice than Nightingales, no man thinks a sweeter. Empty caskes in the cellar return the greater sound; the good liquor lies in them that are dull. The light housewife is the scold, and can put down the grave matron in words, no less than the other excels her in honesty. The frogs of Egypt were no small plague: who besides the annoyance to their nostrils, and trouble to their bosoms, with a dismal dinne filled their ears. Swelling words are like the reports of Ordnance: they blaze, and crack, and smoke, and stink, and vanish. They proceed from diverse causes; there be in the soul six swelling diseases.

1 Pride, which is an unnatural tumour, and puffs a man up, as if he had eaten a spider. And indeed, Pride is a poison, and the nature of poison is to cause a swelling. He swells for place, not only above his fellows; The man with the gold-ring looks to sit uppermost: but even above the Angels; and Similis ero Altissimo, I will be like the most High. He that rides on his foot-cloth, or in his caroch, how big does he look on the inferior passengers? We wonder; it was not so with him the other day. Alas, since that time, he hath swallowed the venom of pride in a pill of wealth, and now you may see it by his swelling. He fears an affront, more than he fears hell: if by his equal, he puffs like one out of breath: if by his inferior, he swells like the sea in a storm. The proud man is a kind of mad man; he thinks himself brave in another's clothes, and glories in that which is none of his. He is sick of a swelling in the brain.

2 Malice, which is a higher degree of poison, swelling inwardly; and when it cannot vent it self in revenge, bursts the entrails. How did Joab swell against Amasa? Jezebel against Elijah? Nothing but a poultisse of their warm innocent blood can abate the tumour. After the defeat of that great Armado, the Duke of Ossuna presented himself to the King of Spain, with a distaff at his side, and a spindle at his back instead of sword and dagger: the King hereby understanding that a woman had foiled them, hastily step'd to the Altar, and taking a silver candlestick in his hand, swore a monstrous oath, that he would wast all Spain, yea his whole Indies to that candlestick, but he would be revenged on England. But God be praised, those swelling words were but the effect of his own malice, without our ruin; Rumpantur & ilia Codri. The malicious is troubled with a swelling of the spleen or bowels.

3 Vainglory, which is a kind of wood-sere or venomous froth, that swells men with a rank opinion of their own worths. So the Fly that sat on the axletree of the Chariot wheel, gave out that she made that glorious dust. Things that move upon greater means, they ascribe to themselves; and strut like Colosses, that the world may not scape their notice. Mighty are their words, as if they would shake mountains, and speak thunder-claps. Come, saith the Philistine to David, and I will give thy flesh to the fowls of the air, and to the beasts of the field. What big words were here? But how seldom ever was there a good end of ostentation? Presumption at once is the presage, and the cause of ruin. He is a weak adversary that will be killed with words. Swell on proud Giant; a small pebble from the brook shall confute thee. Hath any of the gods of the nations delivered his land from the King of Assyria? Swell on Sennacherib: an Angel shall confute a 185 thousand of thy soldiers with the argument of death in one night. Many a foe hath spoke bravely, who in the push hath made more use of his heels, than of his hands. When one vaunted of hurts received on his face, Julius Caesar knowing him to be a coward, bad him take heed the next time he ran away, how he did look back. This is a swelling in the Throat.

4 Hypocrisy, which is a malignant humor, swelling the parts affected or corrupted with it, as some kind of grass doth the kine, or sweet worte hogs. Methinkes the hypocrite should smile at himself, being so conscious, how he rails at the world which he worships; how he condemns the belly which he serves; how he persuades men to contemn the gold, which is dear to him as his life: how he commends the cross to others, which himself abhors. How like the kite, he flies aloft, but is ever looking down to the earth for his prey. He hath an ill-affected spleen, that grows big while the other members wast: or an obstructed liver, which blows up the cheeks and legs, while the vital parts want blood and livelihood. God I thank thee, that I am not as other men. Hypocrite, so thou sayest, so thou swellest: but what a tabe or famine of goodness there is within, thou dost not, thou darest not ask thy conscience. Like a decayed Merchant, that studies tricks to uphold the credit of his wealth; and still the nearer he comes to poverty, the more show he makes of sufficiency; till at last the bladder is pricked, and the wind flies out, and there is rather a merchants case than a merchant. Still the more a man swells in pretence, the less he is to be trusted in deed. This Swelling is a Tympanie.

5 Blasphemy, which is the highest excess of words, when they swell against God himself.