Commentary on 2 Peter

Pharaoh, till he had learned his lesson of God. Esa. 40.6. The voice said, cry: the Prophet replied, What shall I cry? he will not trust his own invention, but take his Text at the mouth of the Lord: what was it, All flesh is grass. They that preach the visions of their own heads, have their woes shadowed out, and yet but shadowed, with wormwood and gall. Ier. 23.15. I will feed them with wormwood, and make them drink the waters of gall. Their cup is so tempered by Ezekiel, the head and foot of their curse being full of unhappiness, their welcome a Woe, their farewell an Anathema. Ezek. 13.3. Woe unto the foolish Prophets, that follow their own spirit. ver. 9, They shall not be written in the writing of the house of Israel.

Secondly, they that come in God's name, and are sent, but deliver a false message when they are come. They are called False, because they be falsifiers of God's holy word; like the cunning lapidary, that sells a Byrall for a Diamond. No messenger of the Lord must go beyond the bounds of his commission, by adding his own devices: nor come to short of it, by keeping back his Masters counsels. It is a fearful protestation in the end of the Bible, summing and sealing up all the curses and woes that went before. Revel. 22.19. If any man shall take away from the words of this book, God shall take away his part out of the book of life. If any man shall add unto these things, God shall add unto him the plagues, that are written in this book. It hath terror enough to amaze all those, that dare set their sacrilegious hands to these nice and religious mysteries. He that ventures to broach the dregs for wine, traditions of men for the constitutions of God; unwritten truths, untrue writings, for those sacred sanctions, to father lies on the Father of truth; and teach the bastards of his own brain to call the wisdom of heaven Father: He hath said it, when he said it not; this is the false Prophet. This was Saint Paul's earnest charge to Timothy. I give thee charge in the sight of God who quickeneth all things, and before JESUS CHRIST, who before Pontius Pilate witnessed a good confession. 1 Tim. 6. Keep that which is committed to thy trust: doubling his charge with intensive adjuration. Keep it, for enemies watch to purloine it: Quod tibi creditum, non quod a te inventum: a thing entrusted to thee, not invented of thee: a matter not of thy wit, but of thy learning; whereof thou art a Scholar, not a Master. How keep it; as the miser keeps in his corn? No, feed the poor with it, divide it in right order and matter: thou hast received gold, return gold: be sure to impart the same, neither more nor less, but just weight: ut cum dicas nove, non dicas nova; though thou speak in a new method, let it be old substance. Some have too many fingers on their hand, like the Giant of Gath: some too few, like those whom Adonibezek maimed: some offend in excess, some in defect. But keep thou a steady flight: so did a bad Prophet against his will; when his fingers itched for the gold, Numb. 24.13. so did a good Prophet resolutely; What the Lord saith unto me, that will I speak. If men add to that word, he that hath power to add plagues while everlastingness can add years, shall increase them to a thousand fold. If they diminish, he that can diminish blessings so low, that not the least dram shall remain, will retaile their doings into their own bosoms.

Among the people:] this is the intrusion of these false prophets, even among the people of God. But durst these black impostors press into so famous a light, and not fear discerning? Yes, examine, 1 King. 18.9. and 1 King. 22.16. they come by the hundreds. Corah had his confederates, who would with violence have snatched the Priests office out of their hands. Nadab and Abihu had their strange fires. Deut. 13.2. Eamus & sequamur deos alienos: was this charge in vain? were there never any such? These unblest tares have ever sprung up in God's field: and no man can doubt of such prophets on earth, that knows there is a devil in hell. It hath been his impudent malice, thus ever to oppose himself against God's omnipotence. God had his true Prophets to instruct the people, Satan had his false prophets to seduce the people. As the Lord had Angelos majestatis suae, Angels of his Majesty: so had Satan Angelos crudelitatis suae, angels of his cruelty. God had his laws written in two Tables, Satan had his counterfeit laws in twelve tables. God had Ponifices suos, Satan had Flamines suos. He had his Temples, Sacrifices, Altars, Oracles, in a bravery so well as God. If God's people sing, Great is the Lord, and greatly to be praised: the devil hath his people that can cry loud enough two hours together, Great is Diana of the Ephesians. God had his Levites to keep the fire perpetually alive on his Altar; Satan had his vestall virgins, Sacri ignis sempiternae custodes. Neither had he these false Instruments abroad only in the wild forest of the world; but he brought them into God's own garden. He that durst presume to be proud in heaven, and to play the devil in Paradise; trust him not in his own walk and Regiment. Well we may do our best to bar them out, and beseech him that keeps Israel to shut them out: but in they will come, into our doors, the HOLY GHOST keep them out of our hearts forever. I conclude.

It was thus with them, in it we may see, our own case. Cernimus in prisco jam nostra pericula mundo. They say, it is half a protection to foreknow a danger: behold the Apostles fidelity, and therein God's mercy, we are forewarned. Precedents give light to succeeding times: we see further than the Fathers; because like dwarfes we get up on their shoulders; we see with eyes and our own also. So Diogenes might brag that he had more wit than his mother; because he had his mother-wit and his own too. There is no treasure so much enricheth our mind as learning: no learning so appliable to our life as history, no history so directing as Example, no example so worthy our observing as that is written by God's own finger. It was an old saying, Optimum est alienâ insaniâ frui: to get knowledge by another's expense and experience, is as it were to feed fat on another's man's cost. Israel was God's people so well as we; yea in respect of their faith, our Fathers: therefore if they were tempted by false prophets and sinned, if they sinned and were punished: let not us having the same danger, and erring in the same manner, think to escape the same punishment. 1 Cor. 10.11. All these things happened unto them for ensamples, and are written for our admonition. God hath set up these sins as crocodyles to terrify us, and we entertain them as Sirens to seduce us. Ver. 7. Be not ye idolaters, as were some of them. Paul like a good scribe, brings out of his treasure things both old and new: there is both an historiall narration, and a theological application. Now lege historiam, ne fias historia: read the history of others, lest thou be made a history to others. If the errors of former ages cannot teach us for the time present, our delinquishments wherein we perish shall teach the succeeding ages for the time to come. Cannot the example of Judas teach thee to be no traitor? of Elymas, to be no Sorcerer? of Gehesi, to be no bribe-taker? of Achan, to abhor Sacrilege? of Nabal, to be no Churl? Then the wretched exorbitances coupled with God's fearful judgments, shall teach others hereafter, 2 King. 1.14. The third Captain seeing the two former miscarrying in the business, could learn to humble himself; Let my life be precious in thy sight. They were miserable, that thou mightest be happy: if thou will not repent, others shall be made happy by thy being miserable. This a very Jezebel could oppose to Jehu, 2 King. 9.31. Had Zimri peace, which slew his master? As if she had concluded; Seeing thou wilt not take example by Zimri, thou shalt be example to others. The Lord left not Israel without true Prophets: Yet he sent Prophets to them, to bring them again to the Lord, but they would not give care: therefore he suffered false prophets, and to them they hearkened. Behold now their example exposed unto us: God sends us Preachers that declare the right way of salvation, delivering their message from his own Word: for Scriptum, Praescriptum, the Scripture is their Theme. They say, Give obedience to Kings, Let every soul be subject to the higher powers: there be others that say, An heretical King (and he must be so that an heretical Pope so pronounces) can challenge no faithful allegiance: are not these false prophets? The true Prophets say, Of all that thou hast thou shalt give me the tenth; this is a Dixit Dominus, the Lord's reservation. Some say, thou art bound neither to give tenth nor twentieth, but what thou list; is not this a Dixit Sacrilegus? Is not this a false prophet? As the former absolve subjects of their duties to Kings: so these latter absolve men of their duties to the Church. The true Prophets say, Thou shalt not take usury of thy brother: some say, thou mayest, if not above ten in the hundred: are not these false prophets? Observe how Israel sped: In the time of this distress did he trespass yet more against the Lord: this is that King Ahaz. That, emphatically, that infamous, that impious King; branded with a note in the margent, a dash of the Holy Ghosts pen; like a sea-mark to point out a shelf, that no vessel be spilled by such a wickedness. What did he? He sacrificed unto the gods of Damascus, which smote him. Frantick idolatry, to do service to Idols that smote him! Then he turned to the gods of Syria: he would take no warning: they kill him; They were the ruin of him, and of all Israel: when you follow other gods, is it a wonder if God destroy you? Did he not for this cause cast out the nations before you? were not they your precedents? So saith Christ, Remember Lots wife. These things are recorded in holy Writ, not for imitation, but for prevention. When the comical Poet was accused, because he brought a profane fellow upon the stage, and so gave bad example to young men: true, replies he, but I hanged him before he went off, and so gave good warning to young men. Having such a caution, if we fall into the same transgression, we shall be rewarded with a double affliction: Therefore whosoever slayeth Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold. Therefore; because Cain's example of murder went before, so Lamech concludes to his wives, If Cain shall be avenged sevenfold, then truly Lamech seventy and seven-fold. Now the Lord give us wary hearts, that being warned of sin, we may be armed against sin. That dangers of others may make us circumspect, the troubles of others strengthen our patience, the sinfulness of others quicken our penitence; that the pride of others may make us humble, and the miseries of others occasion our eternal blessedness.

Even as there shall be false teachers among you.] Do not you think to speed better than God's beloved Church of Israel: for this is that kind of temptation wherewith he is wont to exercise his children. There is no other condition of the Church under Gospel, than was under the Law. When this trial comes, let not the novelty of it molest you: what was common with them, let it not seem strange to you. But the Prophets did promise solid peace, clear light, and the perfection of all good things at the coming of Christ; The wolf shall dwell with the lamb, and the child shall play at the hole of the Asp: They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain. To him was reserved that honor; That though the Law was given by Moses, Grace and Truth came by Jesus Christ. Therefore there is no disquietness expected in the state of the Christian Church. But there was no promise of such a peace, as should utterly acquit the faithful from combats and conflicts. There is peace from the dominion of sin, damnation of the Law, and terror of conscience. But there is still a Devil, and a serpentine breed; who finding that the Gospel hath given a wound to the peace of hell; are the more busy to give a wound to the peace of the Gospel. Let us quiet our hearts in the remembrance of this, which the Spirit of God hath pronounced; there must be expected on earth no immunity from this intestine evil. The same trial abides the children, which set upon the fathers: Non sum melior patribus meis, I am not better than my Fathers: Erunt, there shall be, an indefinite word comprehending all future times: so that no age hath had a vacation from these turbulent falsehoods. He speaks of them generally, and doth not paint them out in their particular kinds and colors: but Erunt, They will be: and Inter vos, among you, among us, God grant they be not of us. Now because these evil spirits threaten to haunt the house of Christ, and to run like familiars up and down the earth, to do the devils errands, that their purpose may be infatuated, let us unmask their faces. For I called this second general point, the caution or premonition: and I desire to method my discourse into these three circumstances: 1. Who they be that assault us. 2. Whither they press. 3. Their unavoidable necessity: the use of all which is in conclusion, how they may be discerned and eschewed.

False teachers.] What this falsehood is, you have formerly perceived; observe now how it insinuates it self: this is always in the semblance of Truth. For Error is so foul a hag, that if it should come in the own shape, nuda facie, all men would loath it. If Jezebel had not painted her self, she had not gotten so many doting adulterers. Those Wolves come evermore in sheep's-clothing: Sub pelle ovina Lupus rapax. As the fowler by the benefit of his stalking horse murders the fowls: who but for their familiar knowledge of the beast their friend, would mistrust the man their enemy. Mary, saith Christ, shall come in my Name: Nomine meo, non suo; not in their own name, for then their words would not be taken. The sects of former ages came in other names: as the name of Stoics, of Peripatetics: and in the Church, the name of Pharisees, the name of Sadducees: but since Christ all come Nomine meo, in his Name. Sub specie veritatis veritatem vulnerant; They wound the Truth in her own coat: as Jacob put on the garments of Esau his brother, to deceive Isaac his Father: so these in the apparel of their elder brother Christ, seek to beguile the Church their Mother. It is no wonder if there be false Teachers, when there shall be false christs. Strong impudence of men, that they dare call themselves by his Name on earth, that sits on the right hand of Majesty in heaven. Now that this Prophecy of our Savior was true, experience hath justified. Among the Persians, one Manes, with his twelve Apostles, called himself the Comforter of Israel. Bencosben was received of the very Rabbi's for thirty years together, as their Messias. Stella in Luc. reports that in Setuvall, in the kingdom of Portugal, in our time, arose one that called himself the Messias. Your selves have heard of David George, and of ungracious Hacquet, with his two prophets of mercy and justice, who impiously usurped that incommunicable name of the Messias

But what say you to our Pope-holy catholics; dare not they obtrude a thing that shall say, Ego sum Christus, I am Christ? Yes, if it could speak; but because it cannot, they will speak for it. Every Easter-day early in the morning the Priest fetcheth his wooden Crucifix out of the Sepulcher; and after walking about the Churchyard in solemn procession, goes to the Church-door, where he knocketh, and saith; Open O ye gates, and be ye set open ye everlasting doors, that the King of glory may come in. The Sexton knows his qu, attends within, and replies; Who is the King of glory? The Priest holding up his Crucifix, answers; This is the King of glory: the Lord strong almighty in battle; this is the Lord of glory. Is not this just according to our Savior's prediction; Some shall say, Loe, here is Christ? Alas, that is not a glorious King, but an inglorious Idol, unable to wipe the dust from it own face. Among them, who can make the well-favouredst god, is the best Catholic. The Baker and the Painter contended who should make the best christ: Hîc fuco doctior, ill foco. Paint. I can make a fair god with my colors. Bak. No, thou makest but the shadow; it is I that make the substance. Paint. Thy god is torn with men's teeth. Bak. And thine is gnawed with worms. Paint. My god lasteth many years, whereas one hour swallows an hundred of thine. Bak. Thou canst scarce make one god in a month: I can make a thousand in half an hour. Hereupon the Mass-priest came in as moderatour, fretting; I am sory sirs, you are no wiser: Who can make god? none but the Sacrificer. But we say of such gods, as Clemens Alexander. Ego didici terram calcare, non adorare; I have learned to tread upon the earth, not to worship it.

Thus doth false teachers come in the counterfeit of truth. Indeed the Jews were apt to embrace any that came Nomine proprio; in their own name, John. 5.43. If one come in his own name, him will ye receive. It is not so now: the world is wiser, therefore the Devil must double his subtlety. And if he would bring men to the kingdom of hell, he must make them believe that he is altogether for the kingdom of heaven. 2 Sam. 16.18. If Hushai had not said, I am for Absalom, and whom Israel chooseth, his will I be: He had not disappointed the counsel of Achitophel, which was then like the oracle of God; nor re-established David in his kingdom. So if these false doctors should not say, we are for Christ; they could not with-stand the true Ministers that deliver the words of God, nor in throne Antichrist in the Seat of Christ. Thus in our time, the Romish heretics cry, The Church, The Church: and the Schismatikes in their invective Pamphlets usually make bold with the Prophets words; For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace. But the one seek to bring upon God's Israel a tyranny; the other an Anarchy; both meet in one Tertio, corruption of doctrine, and destruction of conscience. Pro Ecclesia clamitant, & contra Ecclesiam dimicant, Cyprian. They both cry for the Church, yet fight against the Church. Omnes amici, omnes inimici, Bern. Their pretences are friendly, their intentions malicious. You see how they come, and but for so coming, their powder would not take: if the cup of their poison was not rubbed with honey, it would not down. There be two defects which make a man either an unfit Teacher, or a false Teacher. When either they have not learned their lesson before they come, and so lack ability: or do not deliver it faithfully when they are come, and so lack honesty.

1 They that want aptitude and requisite graces: God touched Isaiah’s tongue with a live-coal from his Altar: gave Ezekiel a roll to eat: shut up that sacred fire in Jeremiah's bones: teacheth the lips to preserve knowledge: to minister a word in due season to him that is weary, Isaiah 50.4. So ordering the words, that they shall be like Apples of gold with pictures of silver, Prov. 25.11. There is no ability to preach without God, Mic. 3.7. They shall cover their lips, for there is no answer of God. We look now for no enthusiasms, nor venture our Sermons upon extemporal rhapsodies; with a Dabitur in hora; no more but turn the cock, and let it run. It may run indeed, but still we complain as they did of the waters of Jericho: The water is naught, and the ground still barren. It may run, and run apace, because like Ahimaaz, it runs by the way of the plain. For this cause are Schools and Universities erected, to be Ecclesiae Plantaria, the nurseries of learning. Being like that Persian tree, which at the same time doth bud, and blossom, and bear fruit. Some are in the bud of hope, others in the flower of knowledge, others ripe for practice. Moses was learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, Act. 7.22. Paul was brought up at the feet of a great Doctor, Act. 22.3. Timothy knew the Scriptures of a child, 2 Tim. 3.15.. Augustine was beautified with variety of gifts; Jerome omnium trium linguarum peritus; Excellent at the three most famous Languages. The Apostles themselves went not immediately out of the Ship-boat into the Pulpit: they were first Christ's Scholars, before they became the worlds Teachers, Matth. 11.19. Wisdom is justified of her children. If they come without this qualifying, they are the worlds own changelings, wrongfully laid at Wisdomes doors. They enter in at a Non licet gate; and they that admit them, suffer wise-men's rights to be entailed to fools While barbarous ignorants steal into the Church, the same way that Totilas entered Rome; Porta asinaria. As Pope Adrian inscribed his College; Trajectum plantavit, Lovanium rigavit, Caesar autem incrementum dedit; The Bishop of Trajectum planted, of Lovaine watered; but Caesar gave the increase: no more. Another therefore in scorn subscribed; Hîc Deus nihil fecit; here God did nothing. So Simony planted, Ambition watered, and Covetousness gives the increase: but let them take heed lest they find this under-written; Hîc Deus nihil fecit; Here the Lord had no hand, here he will give no blessing.

2 They that have gotten knowledge, but want honesty; and these are the most dangerous seducers, 2 Cor. 11.13. Such are false Apostles, deceitful workers, transforming themselves into the Apostles of CHRIST. When Ahithophel's head stands upon Simon Magus his shoulders, there is a world of mischief towards. A will bent to do harm, and a wit able to prosecute it; like Cannon-shot makes a lane where it goes. Such a Prophet was Balaam, he could not make Israel cursed by his Prophecy, therefore he tries to effect it by his policy. He sends a troop of Moabitish whores among them: that so they might be tempted to offend GOD, and GOD might cease to defend them. He had confessed before, Numb. 23.23. That there could be no Inchantment nor witchcraft against Israel. No devils, but those she-devils could do it. A whore is that damnable witch that often brings a Saint in danger of a curse. In this rank is that rank rabble of Jesuits: they have fired their brains at Machiavels forge, and cast their hearts in the mould of Antichrist; and now they are fitted to steal away souls from JESUS. These are Satan's Emissaries, the Popes Seminaries, the Lands Incendiaries, the worlds Voluptuaries, the bane of a kingdom that habours them. The cruellest murderers. He that lets out the blood, the body kills: But he that breaks hearts-peace, the dear soul spills. O that these Foxes were un-earth'd from their thievish boroughs, and our Land preserved from that kind of false Teachers! Their very mercies are cruel; we know their bloody purposes both to souls and bodies. The Lord or his mercy cast them forever far from us; and let all people, that have, or desire to have, in themselves and their Posterity, the heads of good subjects, and the hearts of good Christians, say Amen.

Among you.] This is the second point, the Place whither these false Teachers come; unto you, to the Church. So Mat. 7.15. Beware of false Prophets which come to you. Not to the Turks, or Gentiles, or other heretics only; but to you, that have the Gospel. They seem to come unto you, but indeed they come against you: they promise your good, but they perform your hurt. Here may be demanded, why GOD doth suffer such in the Church? For Paul saith, 1 Cor. 11.19. Oportet heresies esse; There must be heresies among you. Now there is an Oportet of necessity, and of duty: in respect of the latter, Oportet heresies non esse; saith Augustine; There must not be heresies. This is an oportet of consequence: the Apostle concludes it necessarily, upon the presupposition of Satan's malice and man's wickedness. Neither is this prediction any cause of it: a man sees some loose companions set close to drinking: hereupon he says, These men will be drunk: the necessity is not because he said so, but because they will do so. Another sees men quarrelling, and multiplying incensive terms, he says, These men will fight; he doth not cause their combat: they would have done it, though he had never said it. So we perceive the air cloudy, the weather muddy; we say, it must needs rain: it doth; yet never the sooner because we spake it. So Peters Erunt, and Paul's Oportet, do not cause this false teaching, but premonish it.

First, God suffers these for the trial of our faith, 1 Cor. 11.19. There must be heresies, that the approved among you may be made manifest. Deut. 13.3. When a Prophet or Dreamer shall say to us, Come let us go and serve other gods; hearken not to him; for now the Lord proveth you. Many pass for gold, whom this touchstone often proves counterfeit. A man is what he is, when he is tried: Accedit, te ••• , quasi interrogatio; A temptation is like a question; that examines what is in a man. Joseph's Chastity never shone out so fairly, as when he fled from the arms of his tempting mistress. He that hears the Sirens sing, and with an holy 〈◊〉 comes off fairly, God seals him up with a Probatus est. Thus was Balaam lost, when Balak told him; Am not I able indeed to promote thee to honor? Numb. 22.37. But not so Moses who chose rather affliction with the people of God, than the pleasures of sin for a season, Hebr. 11.25. Yet he well enough knew the delights of the Court, being the place where he had his education.

Secondly, God suffers them, that the true Pastors might more painfully and patiently exercise their knowledge. If Arius and Sabellius had not vexed the Church, the deep mysteries of the Trinity had not been so accurately cleared by the Catholic Doctors. Heresy makes men sharpen their wits, the better to confute it: as Worm-wood is bitter to the taste, but good to clear the eyes. Paul foretelling this danger, gave an earnest charge, Act. 20.28. Take heed to yourselves and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath made you overseers. Why? For after my departing grievous Wolves shall enter in among you, verse. 29. For this cause we root up the weeds of Rome in our Sermons as we go, because we fear that their pestilent seeds-men have cast them in. As Absalom said to Tamar; Hath Ammon met with thee? 2 Sam. 23.20. So hath the false Teacher met with thee? beware a ravished soul.

Thirdly, God permits them for men's ingratitude: because Ahab will not believe Micheah; therefore a lying spirit shall deceive his Prophets, to deceive him, Mic. 3.10. They shall build up Zion with blood. Because the true Prophets might not be suffered to build up Zion with good, therefore the false ones shall build it up with blood, Mic. 2.6. They had forbidden the sober Prophets to Prophecy; therefore they shall have drunken prophets, that shall prophecy of wine and strong drink, and walk in the spirit of falsehood, verse. 11. This is a sure, but a sore judgment, 2 Thess. 2.10. Because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved: For this cause God shall send them strong delusion, to believe a lie. Will they not adhere to the God of Truth? they shall be turned over to the father of lies. Tremble at this judgment, lest God deliver you up to erroneous teachers, who have despised his true Ministers.

Lastly, these false teachers intrude themselves; as sometimes a gamester being flesh'd with his luck: and they meet with three encouragements: 1. Auditorum frequentia & applauses; the numbers and applaudings of their auditors, Ierem. 5.31. The prophets prophecy falsely, and my people love to have it so. They tell you lies, and you thank them for it, Psal. 73.9. They set their mouth against the heavens, therefore the people turn in thither. And commonly, Major numerus, pejor populus; the more crowd, the worse men. 2. Favor & honor; the honor and respect that is done them. Baal had 450. prophets, while God had but one apparent: they were fed at the Queens table, while Elias was glad to be served by the Ravens. These are in favor with Ahab, while he says of good Micheah, I hate him, 2 Chron. 18.7. True Prophets are not for evil Princes Courts; they have chaplaines in ordinary to forbid them, Amos 7.13. Prophecy not at Bethel, for that is the Kings Court, said Amaziah, the Priest of Bethel. 3. Munera & ampla commoda; Large gifts and riches; Everyone for his gain from his quarter, Isaiah 56.11. Like soldiers in a Campe, or like cheaters in the City, they know their quarters. Rather than fail, they will be such as are spoken of, Mic. 3.5. Mouth prophets, trencher-chaplaines, held in by the teeth: and out they will not go, so long as their teeth can hold them in.

False teachers shall be among you.] The last point is their unavoidable necessity; they will press in, and we cannot easily stave them off. Therefore let me reflect this point upon ourselves, by way of use. Seeing we know there shall be such, be it our principal care to prevent them. To fore-know evil, and to prevent it, Sapientia est, is wisdom: not to foreknow it, when God hath foretold it, stultitia est, is foolishness: to foreknow it, & not to prevent it, socordia est, is slothfulness: to foreknow it & cannot prevent it, Desperatio est, is desperateness. Here is no such extremity; for God that doth Praedicere prognostica, fore-tell the signs; doth also Praescribere remedia, prescribe the remedies. The particular notes I refer a little further: only now in sum; it is Jesus Christ that must enlighten our hearts, to decline these false teachers. All wisdom cometh from him, that is called the wisdom of the Father. In him is the fountain of all spiritual knowledge, as all the senses are in the head, Zach. 4.12. There were two Olive branches, which thorough two golden pipes did empty the golden oil out of themselves. The oil that was in the gold, came from the two golden pipes: that which passed thorough the two golden pipes, came from the two Olive-trees: these two Olive branches were the two anointed ones; and they stood before the Lord of the whole earth. What knowledge soever, thorough what Instruments soever, we receive, it proceeds originally from Christ: In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. As at the creation, the light which lay diffused abroad throughout the rude mass of the world, was afterwards aggregated into the body of the Sun; that from thence it might be communicated to the creatures. So that Wisdom which spake in the Prophets and other holy men of God, may seem to concenter all in Christ. Now the means whereby Christ teacheth us, is the Scripture, Which is able to make us wise unto salvation, 2 Tim. 3.15. Here is the Sun and the beam, the Spring and the stream, Christ and his Gospel. The one the matter and end, the other the manner and means, of all saving revelation. On then, pray earnestly for the Spirit of Christ: but what success, if we do? Yes, we have it already promised, Luke 11.13. Your heavenly Father will give the holy Spirit to them that ask him. Christ's Spirit will more surely teach you to confute Christ's enemies; that learning and gold could teach Tertullus to plead for his own friends.

This shall instruct us to destroy and defy Impostors: and though heresy hath crept in like a Serpent thorough secret holes, and by subtle insinuations, scarce leaving a print behind it: yet if we find not the entrance by some slime or tract; wheresoever we do find it, we shall abhor it. Our knowledge so abounds, that scarce ever had nation more means to avoid false Apostles. That as Paul said, 1 Cor. 9.2. If I be not an Apostle to others, yet doubtless I am to you. So Christ may say to us; If I be not knowledge unto others, yet doubtless I am so unto you, Josh. 15.15 Mention is made of Kiriath-sepher, which signifies a City of books: sure this our Country may be called Kiriath-sepher: for 1 Cor. 2.6. We speak wisdom among them that are perfect. If not perfect in all degrees of knowledge, like the Gospels Champions: yet perfect in all parts of knowledge, like the Gospels children. Our eyes be good, we know: our hands be good, we can: God grant our hearts be good, that we will, defend Christ his cause. But as it is reported of a Roman Senator, a man somewhat over-matched by his wife; after he had discharged Catiline his house, and forbidden her to entertain him, which she obeyed not; he said of her, Opulentia valet, ingenium valet, lingua valet, animositas valet; tantum voluntas aegrotat; Her wit is in health, her purse is in health, her tongue is in health, her courage is in health; only her will is sick. And that is one reason why women are not suffered to make their Will when they die, because they had their will so much while they lived. So God hath charged our souls, his Spouse; not to admit his enemies, spiritual adulterers, false teachers; but to keep them out of his House, the Church. We have hands able to do it, stomachs able to do it, wits able to do it, wealth and means to do it: only our hearts are sick, we want wills to do it. What fools are we, when God hath shut our foe out at the gate, to let him in again at the Posterne? He that entertains a Seminary of heresy into his house, whereas God by his command, and the municipal Laws of the Prince, hath excluded him: will speed at last, as he that betrayed a City to a Tyrant; which when he had conquered, he first hanged up him that helped him to it. They that let in the Romish Enchanters, contrary to their express bond of allegiance, meet with the first bane themselves; the poison working to the very rupture of their heart-strings, and without extraordinary mercy, to the perdition of their souls. God tells them, such shall come; and they rejoice that they are come: now the Spirit of grace open our eyes, and fortify our hearts, that neither principalities nor powers, neither height nor depth, neither false Prophet, nor false Apostle, nor false Angel; may ever separate us from the love of God, nor from the truth of God, that is in Christ Jesus.

And let not this trial discourage us, nor discomfort us. Revel. 20. The devil is let loose for a season. For a season, to try the patience of the Church: and but for a season, to fortify the courage of the Church. Revel. 2.10. The devil shall cast some of you into prison, that ye may be tried, and ye shall have tribulation ten days. Into prison, why not unto death? no thanks to Satan; he would fain kill them. Some of you, why not all? no thanks to Satan; he would destroy all. And for ten days, why not longer? no thanks to Satan, he would enthrall them forever. There are three limitations to his power and malice: for time, but ten days, not ten months: for number, Some, not all: for extremity, into prison, not to death: they shall feel tribulation, not destruction: that they might be tried, not overwhelmed. These false teachers may prevail for a time; but we shall say truly by inversion, what the Aramites spake by supposition, 1 King. 20.23. Upon the hills they are stronger than we, but let us fight against them in the plain, and surely we shall be stronger than they. On the contrary, they are to hard for us in the plains, but we shall be too hard for them on the hills. they prevail against us in this valley of tears, we shall triumph over them in the mountain of blessedness. Let falsity vomit her poison, we shall find saving health in the truth of Christ.

Who privily shall bring in damnable heresies, &c. We come now to the description of these pernicious liars; concerning whom we find a threefold mischief. One that issues from them, another that abides in them, a third that is inflicted on them. Here first we are to consider their seminary mischief, offensive and noxious to others. They shall privily bring in damnable heresies. Here observe two circumstances, the Matter and the Manner, The matter, what they bring in; damnable heresies, the manner, how they bring them in, Privily. In the matter conceive four things. The Notion of the word, Heresy: the number of them, which is plural, indefinite, multitudinous, many heresies: the necessity of their being, they shall be brought in: lastly, the effect and malignancy of them, they are damnable.

Heresy was at first taken in a good sense: it signifies Election, and was referred both to good and bad Sects. It seems to be taken from the Schools of Philosophy, wherein everyone chose a faction to which he sided. Among the latines, it was called Secta, a secando: because that part did single out it self, and was ab aliis resecta & separata, cut off and separate from the rest. Tertullian used the word for true Religion, and a confession of the Christian verity. Lib. de Fuga. And Cyprian. Eph. 23. Celerinus confessor, timore nostrae Sectae verecundus, &c. Saint Paul is not afraid to use it, Act. 24.14. After the way which they call Heresy, so worship I the God of my fathers: yet he does not altogether justify it, because Tertullus had put a scandal upon it. Verse 5. a ringleader of the sect of the Nazarens, Act. 26.5. After the most straitest sect of our religion, I lived a Pharisee. In like manner, Magi at the first were but sages: but time adulterated the word, and made it magic. So that Heresy is now taken for that, which doth diametrally oppose the truth, and sets up an opinion against it.

There is difference betwixt Error, Schism, and Heresy. Error is when one holds a wrong opinion alone: schism, when many consent in their opinion: heresy runs further, and contends to root out the truth. Error offends, but separates not: Schism offends and separates: Heresy offends, separates, and rageth; making the party good vi & armis; if not with arguments of reason, yet with arguments of steel and iron. Error is weak, Schism strong, Heresy obstinate. Error goes out, and often comes in again; Schism comes not in, but makes a new Church: Heresy makes not a new Church, but no Church. Error untiles the house, Schism pulls down the walls, but Heresy overturns the foundation. Error is as a child, Schism a wild stripling, Heresy an old dotard. Error will hear reason, Schism will wrangle against it, Heresy will defy it. Error is a member blistered, Schism a member festered, Heresy a member cut off. He that returns quickly from error, is not a Schismatic: he that returns from Schism, is not an Heretic. Error is reproved and pitied, Schism is reproved and punished, Heresy is reproved and excommunicated. Schism is in the same faith, Heresy makes another faith. Though they may be thus distinguished, yet without God's preventing grace, one will run into another: error will prove a Schism, and schismatical follies will prove stigmaticall furies. When Augustine said, Errare possum, haereticum esse non possum; I may err, I cannot be an Heretic: it proceeded from the confident persuasion of God's mercy, and the resolution of his own heart, to adhere constantly to the truth. The Heretic exceeds the Schismatic: the one hates only peace, the other hates truth. Psal. 120.6. My soul hath long dwelt with him the hateth peace. But, Psal. 139.21 Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? He may dwell with them that hate peace: he will not endure them that hate the truth. All faults are not of the same degree; there is a mote and a beam, there is stubble and lead. 1 Tim. 6.3. If any man teach otherwise, and consent not to the words of Christ, If he consent not, that is Schismaticall: if he Teach otherwise, that is Heretical. Matth. 5.19. Whosoever shall break one of the least Commandments, and teach men so, &c. If he break the Law, that is a personal sin: but if he teach so, that is a pestilent sin. To teach, pulchrum est, is a commendable: Docere diversum, to teach that which is incongruent, is dangerous: Docere adversum, to teach that which directly contradicts the truth; haereticum est, is heretical. Si quis aliud senserit, if a man be opinioned against the truth, this is not answerable: Si quis docuerit, if a man teach such a doctrine, this is abominable. Let them Teach, but not Otherwise: for otherwise they had better hold their peace. We may say of doctrines, as Jeremiah said of his Figs, Ier. 24.3. Than the good and true, nothing can be spoken better: than the bad and false, nothing is more perilously worse. None sing more sweetly than the true musicians of Israel. None howl more tetrically than the dogs of Baal, of Babel, of Belial; that often the devil himself cannot roar out a more detestable cry, above ground, whatsoever he doth in hell. As the doctrine of murdering Princes, &c. Satan is then the most dangerous tempter, when he comes as he came to CHRIST, with a Scriptum est, It is written: and Heretics, while with this sound they tickle the people's ears; often for want of true discerning suck the blood of their souls. Lord, give not over our souls a prey to their teeth; but rescue them from destructions, our darlings from the Lions, Psal. 35.17.

Heresies, in the plural, to point at a multitude. The troubles of the Church seldom come single: but either they unite their forces, as the five Amorite kings combined against Gibeon,-Josh. 10.5. Or separately and a part, they vex her on every side; as Solomon was assaulted with Hadad the Edomite, Rezon the Syrian, and Jeroboam the Ephrathite; finding that true whereof his Father complained, Men enemies compass me in on every side, 1 King. 11. We read, 1 Sam. 13.17. That out of the campe of the Philistines, came three regiments, all with a purpose to destroy, yet all taking several ways: one company of spoilers to Ophrah, another to Bethern, and the third to Zeboim. This is too true a portraiture of the Churches condition: as Israel then was temporally wasted, so the Church is now spiritually assaulted; and will be so used, until hell hath swallowed up all her enemies. For these Egyptians will not cease pursuing Israel, till they all be drowned in the deep. There is a treble band of them, all bent to murder several ways. The licentious by his scandalous life, the persecutor by his drawn sword, the Heretic by his pestilent doctrine And everyone of these blows his trumpet to sedition, with Shiba the son of Bichri; Every man to his tents, O Israel, 2 Samuel Verse 20. Our case is not unlike theirs: there was three garrisons of enemies, all armed with all manner of weapons for offense: yet against all these, the Israelites had but two swords for defense: yet it pleased God that those two were enow. One is the sword of the Spirit, that is Doctrine; the other the sword of the Church, that is Discipline. That as Peter said, Ecce duo gladii; Behold two swords. But two swords for so many, and against so many? a word of extreme want. Satis est, saith CHRIST; It is enough, those two shall suffice; a word of supreme mercy. Mercy to them, comfort to us; that our God can defend us with small meaens, with no means. The sword of the Spirit shall overcome Satan's fiery darts; though the sword of the Church prevail not against their bloody fauchions. 2 Tim. 3.1. In the last days shall be erilous times; men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, &c. O what a rabble is there! you may say they are Legion; as the devil called his name. Luk 8.30. Legion, they are so many. Or here comes a company, as Leah said at the birth of Gad; A troop cometh, Gen. 30.11. Be they never so many, we weigh not their numbers, so long as CHRIST is with us. It is his good spirit that can stanch the wounds, and dry up the festerd blood wherewith our Syrophenician woman, the Church hath been so long vexed. Indeed we must spend the Inke of our pens upon these creeping ring-worms: but be God only implored to cure the Lazar of his inveterate sore. They have not so many swords, as he hath shields: there cannot be so much venom in the seed of the Serpent, as there is Antidotes in the seed of the woman; saving health in Jesus Christ.

They shall bring in;] here is the necessity, as the Apostle told us before of these Impostors; Erunt they shall be. Shall, though provision spend all her wit, and prevention all her strength; yet no avoiding it. Saint John tells us, that many spirits are gone abroad into the world, that would be tried before they be trusted. 2 Tim. 3.6. They creep into houses, and lead captive silly women laden with sins, and led away with diverse lusts, Iud. ver. 16. You have the picture of them drawn to the life. Do you think it impossible for the truth to forsake some private breasts, yea even whole regions? This were a Popish conceit; so they give out of their infallible Rome; that she hath clipt the wings of Truth, as old Rome did once the wings of victory, that it might not flee away. This were to imagine the Holy Ghost bound to every Pulpit, as they bind him to their Chair. No, there shall be some perverters: some? yea too many. There be some yellow seeds that abound; we might well spare them, they mar the field. We daily pray for laborers in the Lord's great harvest: but for such as labor for the Lord, not against the Lord. For such as row us in the vessel of the Church toward heaven; not such as hurry us in a man of war to bondage. For then we should complain of multitudes; Ier. 12. Verse 10. Many pastors have destroyed the vineyard. They were pastors, and pastores multi, sed stulti; many pastors, but evil ones: what do they? Diripuerunt vineam meam, they destroy my vineyard. We say not then, the harvest is great, and the laborers are too few: but the harvest is great, and these labourrers are too many. Would they all labor for CHRIST; but when will that be? Oh it were special news to be told in Gath, and would sound terribly in the streets of Askelon; it would go cold to the heart of the devil, and shake the gates of hell: that the Church had escaped the ingenious solicitations of these fiends, who not only trouble the waters of her peace, but poison her very springs of life. They shall bring them in, the Lord of his mercy cast them out.

Damnable heresies.] This is the last circumstance, the malignity of them; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; they are corruptive, destructive, damnable heresies: doctrines of Perdition. 1. Because they are reprobated of God; so Judas was called the Son of Perdition, because God for his sin had rejected him. A wicked person is called the Son of Belial, because Belial had bred him up. The Son of strife, because contention had begotten him, and he begotten contention. So here the Heresies of damnation; because damnation did bring forth them, and they bring forth damnation. 2. Because they are exitiall and pestilent to the kingdoms and nations where they are admitted. How great a plague did Arianism bring to the East, Pelagianism to the west, now Papism to all the world. 3. Because they bring destruction to all their followers and defenders: sometimes temporal. Deut. 18.20. That Prophet shall die. Sometimes spiritual; the Lord turning their rivers into blood, that no man can drink of their waters to comfort: the increase of their labors being given to the locust, and all their vines destroyed with hail. Psal. 78.64. Their Priests falling by the sword: slain (if not with the sword of others) with their own malice: and their widows making no lamentation: no widows, or but one at the most, to make lamentation. For who can pity them that hate the truth? the wickedness of their cause drowns all compassion of their case. The last of all is the worst of all; their eternal perishing; for those transformed Ministers shall receive an end according to their works, 2 Cor. 11.15. For how should the Cross of CHRIST be a friend to them, that are enemies to his Cross? Phil. 3. Verse 19. Their end is destructino, that's much: but their destruction is without end that's more. There is nothing but damnation in their ways. Mic. 3. Verse 10. They build up Zion with blood. Hos. 6 9. As troops of robbers wait for a man: so the company of Priests murder in the way by consent. A robber waits for his prey, but being single he may either be avoided or conquered: but here are many robbers. Yet their divided forces may be subdued; Nay, but they join themselves in Troopes. Thieves may do thus, that profess not God; Nay, but even apostated Priests. It is much that they fall to robbery, but I hope, no further: Yes, even to murder. The Priest and Levite are condemned that did not succor the wounded man; what shall become of them that give wounds, yea murderous ones? It may be there is someone such reprobate; Yea, they do it by consent: or were it but one act; nay agendo agunt: they commit it, it is their practice. Let us all then pray with our Church from sedition and privy conspiracy, from all false doctrine and Heresy. Good Lord deliver us! Amen.

We see what kind of Heresies shall be; consider we then (pardon it, if it be a digression) what may be the causes that produce such inevitable effects. The efficient cause is double; Prima & remotior is the just will of God; who hereby proveth his friends, as some of the Canaanites were left to teach the Israelites war, Judge. 3. and punishtth his enemies. Secunda & propinquior; the natural rebellion, ambition, and cecitie that is in men. The end is double; that the good might be made good by their trial. 1 Cor. 11.19. that the evil might be left more evil. 2 Thes 2.12. That they all might be damned which would not believe the truth. The form is Ipse error, error it self. The matter, articulus ill in quo peccatur, the very point of their prevarication. The main fountain whence they are all derived, is the devil, that Father of lies, and depraver of all goodness. But seeing he cannot well effect this immediately by himself, how may he facilitate his plot? by corrupting certain Instruments. But what seeds of hell can he plant in their hearts, that should grow up to such pernicious fruits? For the devil can work no man to do evil to another, unless he hath first wrought him to admit evil in himself. No reprobate will serve Satan turn for nothing: but there must be some end propounded to his lust, for the satisfaction whereof he precipitates himself to such a hellish course. What may those infernal fires be, wherewith he sets them on burning, and with which they madly run like a rotten inflamed vessel among the whole Navy? Let us a little examine the motives to this pestilent sedition.

First pride, for that loves at all hands to be foremost. Heresies are set on foot by men that thought well of themselves; and perhaps had some cause so to do, if they could have done it within any good compass. Never mean parts set Schisms abroach against CHRIST: the stronger wit, the stronger Heretic. Excellent gifts bind to excellent modesty; in humilitate Sapientia; wisdom is seen in humbleness. They that blow abroad their own praises, justly incur the suspicion of windiness. Alienum laudet te, non os tuum; thy praise would sound better in thy neighbors mouth. Virtue never was a gadding Dinah, that runs abroad to be seen of the daughters of the land. But rather an Elizabeth, that hid her self six months together: loe, then was she fruitful, and bred child, and that so famous a one as John the Baptist. Stand further from me, I am purer than thou, this is vox superbientis, the voice of a proud sinner: Depart from me Lord, for I am a sinful man; this is vox paenitentis, the voice of a penitent Saint. The wise man never wrote upon his doors, here dwells wisdom: nor did goodness ever dwell at the sign of ostentation. It is for hypocrisy to declare the own worth, otherwise it would never be under stood for Sincerity. As the foolish Painter having pictured a Lion, so rudely and without such due shape that no passenger could know it: he was fain to help his apt with underwriting, This is a Lion. So it is for pride, when she cannot make her charity understood, to proclaim it her self, This is charity. Sincere ministers Nec pugnas narrant, nec cicatrices suas, never publish their own sufferings and virtues: it is enough for them if they be found one day among those, In quorum ore non est inventus dolus, In whose mouth was found no guile, Revel. 14.5. That is, according to Saint Augustine's gloss; who confessed meekly that they were sinners, and sought no other glory then Humility. Whereas Pride, saith Cyprian, is ever looking in her glass: Speculum consulitur: Cur? nisi quia timet ne sit ipsa: at least the glass must say she is fair: yet is, this Jezebels paint no better than the plaster of a leprous countenance, Rom. 1.22. Thus professing themselves to be wise, they became fools! A just judgment to light on them, that thought it nothing worth to be counted wise, unless the whole world were fools besides. None more thrust themselves forward into the battle, than these dwarfes and demilances; mere atomi in true being, yet big as Giants in their own opinion. But indeed, if only Artists might censure arts, and the common people were admitted no Judges in the Court of Faculties; never was dumbenesse more incident to him that is borne deaf, than ignorance is to heresy. 1 Tim. 6.4. He is proud, or a Fool; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : the word signifying, both, as if it would teach us, that every proud man is a fool: and 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , knoweth nothing. Alexander would be drawn in colors by none but Apelles, and graven by none but Lysippus, both excellent in their qualities. God will have none meddle with his Scriptures, but holy and illuminate minds; and they are most humble and circumspect. The most blind are the most proud, and soonest venture on the deepest mysteries. Of the two bad states, to be a Phatisie is worse than to be a Publican: to be proud of good endowments is worse than to have neither pride nor good endowments. To be proud then, according to Saint Paul's method in ranking their attributes, is the first brand of the Sectary: that same radical cause of every sin, especially of Schism. This is the common proceeding: first the devil brings in Pride, then pride brings in singularity, and singularity brings in heresy.

The next cause is envy and malice: if this fury be in the heart, the devil may save a labor of driving. As they talk of a coach that moves without horses, being set forward by some vices and devices within, certain wheels and weights: so malice hurries away it self, and tarries not for the Auriga, or driver. All Heretics are malicious, and carried with a rancorous hate to pervert others. As Ar • hytas took no pleasure in viewing heaven, with all the celestial beauties, unless he may have one to tell it to again: so the Sectary takes no pleasure in his error, unless he can work others to the same faction, Matth. 23.15. The Pharisees would • ompasse sea and land to make one Proselyte: it was but a trick of their Father, the • ivell compasseth the whole earth to spill a soul. Like men sick of the plague, they have an itching desire to infect others. Hoc fonte derivata clades, that does in patriam • epulúmque fluere: this is the head from whence springs all mischief. If Ahab must be deceived, there is no fitter means to deceive him by, than Spiritus menda • i, a lying spirit. Generally all the corruptions of Israel are fatherd upon the tongues of false prophets: their responsive oracles being not Dictum Domini, sed fictum cordis sui, not God's word, but their own conceit. This God acknowledged, that their sour grape had set the people's teeth an edge: and they might excuse themselves with Eve; The Serpent gave it them, and they gave it the people. But it was an old saying, Execrabilis ill qui ininxit in torrentem, cursed is he that poisons our current. The Jews did so once in England, and would have spilled lives: the emissaries of Rome strive still to be the Jews successors, but with a worse even for they spill souls. Now when the spring by the high way is poisoned, the poor traveler that drinks of it, dies for it. Psal. 104.11. Such a place is to give drink to every beast of the field, and there the wild asses quench their thirst. Now that being envenomed, infecteth all the beasts of the forest, all the birds among the branches, and especially the wild Asses, that there quench their thirst. Quid meruistis eves? Alas what have the poor Lambes deserved, that they must be thus deceived? alas, that they cannot be content to go to hell alone? He that hath once made himself a villain, studies how to make all others fools. Abner calls it Play, though it be with edge-tools: Samson's foxes make a sport to toss firebrands, though they burn corn fields. The skittish kine care not what becomes of the Ark, so they may be frisking. If the Church finds them, and smites them, strait they complained persecution: but indeed it is not the Church, but they that persecute. Hagar bears Sara, not Sara Hagar, though you would think it otherwise when you read the story. Hagar hath gotten a great belly, and now she domineers over her mistress: Sara doth but just, to strike when she is provoked. Thus the Jesuits come against us with new malice, though with old arguments: they cannot leave their old and own figure, Pseudologia. Therefore concerning their Tenants, let us not so much weigh virus, the malice; as vires, the validity and force. For they dip their pens in the gall of the red dragon, and write bitter things; as if they loved cursing, Psalm. 109. Verse 17. But LORD let blessing be the prayer of our lips, blessing the desire of our hearts, and blessing the end of our hopes, and crowned our heads forever.

Another cause or motive is discontent. He is not fed with such broth as he loves, finds not preferment as he would, and thinks himself worthy of, but nobody else thinks so. Hereupon he inveighs most lewdly and loudly, against them that scorned, and happily had good cause to scorn, to set his Fathers or his fathers fathers with the dogs of their flock. Now the Trumpet of Moses is made a trunk to shoot pellets at truths, and Moses his friends. And the characters of slander must be drawn in the oil of the Tabernacle, to the abomination of God and man. Arus driving ambitiously at a Bishopric, was prevented by Alexander his competitor, the worthier man, though not esteemed his match for heat of zeal. Upon the missing his suite, he pursued his spite, by broaching an Heresy: that after the repulse he might seem somebody, and draw a world of mal-contents after him, Theod. Eccl. Hist. lib. 1. Cap. 2. How many hath this motive sent oover to Rome!

Another cause is confidence of power and numbers. Seneca reports that the Senators of ancient Rome ordained, that the slaves should go distinguished from the free borne in apparel: as it might be the cap which made a difference between a slave and a Citizen. But at last they perceived that there might be inconvenience in this: for the slaves might chance to fall a numbering their own side, and upon the understanding of their own strength, might break forth into open rebellion, and shake off the yoke of servitude. So let every man do as he list, and every assembly assume what fashion it list; it will be at last considered who have the most of their side. And where is Major numerus, will follow Pejor populus: they will be followers of the campe, partly for company, and partly for bootie. So they will come to perform indeed, what Hushai dissembled in word, 2 Sam. 16.18. When the people choose, his will I be, and with him will I abide. Thus the ring leaders begin, not only to vaunt of their virtues, but to crack of their forces; and that by the hundreds and the thousands. But yet numbers should not, shall not prevail against the right. It was God's charge, Follow not a multitude to do evil. You have often a multitude of the simple led by one that is subtle: but one good man will not be led by a bad multitude. Error steals in at a little hole, through wantonness and neglect of order. Therefore to prevent it, Saint Paul did heartily charge us to observe order, 1 Cor. 14.40. Let all things be done decently, and in order. For God is not the author of confusion, but of peace. Coloss. 2.5. I rejoice in beholding your order, and the steadfastness of your faith. Such is the excellency of order, that the Apostle ranketh it with Faith. Cant. 6.10. The Church is compared to an Army; because of the goodly array and equipage wherein she marcheth. Without this so many assemblies, so many rents in Christ's garment: so many congregations, so many distractions. Quot capita, tot Schismata, Jerome. It is not well to see a Church like Jeremiah's speckled bird, Ier. 12.9. a bird of divers colors.

They shall privily bring them in.] We have done with the matter, let us come to the manner of this Induction. Latenter, under-hand, Privily. Which word notes to us their subtlety, their vigilancy, their hypocrisy.

First, their Subtlety and political craft, whereby they insinuate their unseen poisonous seeds, Ephes. 4.14. Paul calls it the Sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive. As scandalizers scatter their libels, if it be liked, they know the authors: if it be dangered to penalty, it is none of theirs. Sins agents are brought up in her own house, and taught the rudiments of her own discipline: as your Dequoyes teach young practitioners their trade of cheating. It is the brand of sin, to be deceitful, Hebr. Chap. 3. verse. 13. Take heed lest you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. This art of cozenage she teacheth to all her littor: O it is the subtlest Damme that ever the Devil engendered withal, and most pregnant in generation! He was in the Serpent when he begat iniquity on man; but now he hath made sin more subtle than the Serpent, Eccles. 21.2. We see the craftiest politicians over-reached by sin: they have tricks beyond all men, Sin hath a trick beyond them. Sin like the Fencer, may teach his scholars many postures, and wards, and tricks; but still reserves one for himself. They can cozen other men of their estates, but Sin can cozen them of their souls. Let us therefore pray for that blessed illumination, to find out the deceits and cunning of sin: that albeit it once deceived us of our Birth-right, it may not now deceive us of our Blessing. It stole from us the happiness of Nature, let it never steal from us the happiness of Grace.

Secondly, their vigilant care to spy out the opportunity, how they may privily bring Heresy in. She that will lay her bastard at an honest man's door, must watch the time when the whole family is either far enough without, or is fast asleep within. Never was more watchfulness, than where is most purpose of wickedness. The ungodly cannot sleep unless he do mischief, Mic. 2.1. They devise iniquity on their beds, and when the morning is light they practice it. They lie waking all night, that they may be working in the morning. Luke 16.8. The children of this world are Sapientiores, Wiser: yea, and Vigilantiores, Watchfuller; than the children of light. You seldom hear of them that watch all night to prayer, and the service of GOD, Job Chap. 24. verse. 16. In the dark they dignity thorough houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day. They spy their opportunity by day, but act their villainy by night. That is the private and secret season of bringing in their damnable traffic: they have found the key, and when all are asleep, they land their merchandize. The biting cur barks not beforehand: nor did he that meant to rob, send a messenger before to tell the passengers, Ware the thief. These repentine, serpentine mischiefs sting before they hiss: and like the Musket, kills dead before it gives the report. The Lion first roars and then preys; the Wolf first preys, and then roars: the Heretike preys, but roars not at all. As the woman that loves credit more than conscience, will sin, so it be in private: so this Incendiary resolves to adulterate the truth, and to prostitute his soul to falsehood; but his hope and help is in the the shadow of darkness; Privily. When all is cock-sure, (the good-man absent) GOD not preventing, (the good-wife suspectless) the Church without mistrust, (the servants asleep) the Ministers retired; then doth this incarnate fiend begin to work upon the children. And in confidence of his two confederate thieves, Place and Occasion; he so bestirs himself; that from poor innocent souls he often steals the best of blessings, a good conscience. Never did opportunity meet with one that makes more use of it: he will husband it to proof, and like a cunning antagonist, lose not an inch of his advantage. The diligence of such is admirable: the Pharisees would take great pains to damn a Proselyte, Matth. Chap. 23. verse. 15. The children of light are not always the forwardest in their generation. Besides, they have many obstacles, 1 Thess. Chap. 2. verse. 18. We would have come unto you once and again, but Satan hindered us. Our way is like Cushi's, full of rubs: but they like Ahimaaz, take the Plain way. Mischiefe is nimble, and he that intends evil, will break his sleep to do it, Matth. Chap. 13. verse. 25. It is the Servants that sleep, it is the enemy that watcheth to sow tares. I would we had their wings and speed, I wish not their tallons nor their flight. If Hazaels feet did belong to Solomon's head, and both these to David's heart, O there was a man for God, a man of God! The shepherd watcheth to guard his flock, the Wolf watcheth to destroy his flock: the Wolf hath the advantage, for he may sleep out of fear: but whensoever the shepherd sleeps, the flock is in danger. Our comfort is, that though the wolf be waking, though the lambes sleep, though the shepherd sleep, though the Church sleep, yet he that keepeth Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps; and this Keeper watch over us evermore.

Lastly, their hypocrisy, with the covertly carriage of their intended plagues, Rom. 16.18. By good words and fair speeches they deceive the hearts of the simple. Without this there could be no Privily: appearance would condemn them. Vice dares not walk without a borrowed shape: like an old courtesan, guilty of her own witherednesse, she never goes without a mask. Countenances furthest from native beauty, love artificial shadows. Never ill would appear it self, if it could be hid. Hypocrisy is the usher of Heresy, a marshall that makes way for her, and cries Roome, here comes my Lady. Like the wench that led Saint Peter into the high Priests Hall; but not with the same purpose, to declare him. Ignorant people are beguiled with glosses and colors, as boys with babies, and Indians with rattles, and such pretty toys. Satan himself seems fair, when he is dressed up like an Angel of light: and a Wolf cunningly appareled in a sheep-skin, coozens the poor lambes. That damnable Heretike Pelagius, was a man of austere conversation: and false prophets come with a rough garment next their skins, like a Gibeonite in his old shoes. Therefore we must learn to distinguish between Samuel and the Devil, which the Witch of Endor suborned in his likeness: and we may easily do it, by his ascending out of the earth. Hypocrites think, as Brutus said when he was dying; that virtue it self was but a name; that all piety is but a name, and that name they get. Who were they that opposed Paul's Sermon at Antioch? Act. Chap. 13. verse. 50. Devout and honorable women, and the chiefemen. Devout; that they were honorable persons, no wonder: that they were wise after the flesh, no wonder: that they were mighty, no wonder. For, 1 Cor. 1.26. Not many wise after the flesh, not many mighty, not many noble are called. But that Devout, religious, zealous persons should resist the truth; this is strange, yet true. Corah, Dathan, and Abiram, those three resisters of Moses, were the most famous and eminent men in the congregation. Let us therefore pray God, that they may be either inwardly Lambes, as they are not: or appear outwardly wolves, as they are: either to turn their hearts from their wolvish condition, or to pull their sheep-skin over their ears: that no jugglers may privily by their mists and mysteries, pervert the flock of Jesus Christ.

Who privily shall bring in damnable heresies.] I am not yet quite wound out of this Labyrinth of heresies: I could wish myself well rid of them, wish you all well rid of them, wish the Land well rid of them, wish the world well rid of them. But O that I could as soon turn them out of the Church, as I can out of my discourse. Now at most they do but trouble your ears; let them pass undiscovered, and they will trouble your hearts. All I have done, is but to show you the mazes and windings of error; and now I am ready to lead you out, and with due speed to bring you to a clearer coast. That remains is for application; to denominate those birds of this feather, whereof we at this present are in danger. I will discover to you three sorts; one that would disturb your peace, another that would pervert your faith, a last, that would corrupt your manners; all of which would wound your consciences.

They that would privily wrong your peace, are seditious Schismatics: who, when the bread of life is broken to the people, throw in crooked pins to choke them. These are they that vellicate authority, that calumniate our Service-book, because the form is uniform. When we beseech Christ by his Agony and bloody Passion; this they call conjuring: when the Minister to the penitent pronounceth absolution, this they call a Popes pardon. When we pray for all men, this they say is against God's Election. When we pray for all those that travel by land or by water; this they say, is to pray for thieves and pyrates. When, against lightning and thunder; this prayer they would have used only in Summer: otherwise they say, we pray against sparrow-blasting. When we pray that our forefathers sins may not be laid to our charge; this they say is to acknowledge Purgatory. Thus they have made our Service to stink in the nostrils of men: but our comfort is that it smells sweet in the nostrils of God. Our Surplices and Vestments, they say, are not made of the Camels skin, but of the Dragons tail. Take heed of these, who privily bring in offenses to your peace. And Bonum pacis martyrio praeferimus, Liber. Indeed they are zealous against all errors but their own: but Saint Augustine would not have men such confuters; ut error vincat errorem, & quod pejus est, major minorem; that one error shall be convinced by another, and the less by the greater. Is this holiness, to be always finding faults? Is this zeal, to like nothing but their own inventions? I remember what Augustine said to Julian the Pelagian; Cum animositatem viceris quâ teneris, veritatem poteris tenere quâ vinceris; When thou shalt master that stomach whereof thou art possessed; thou shalt possess that truth wherewith thou art mastered, Rom. 16.17. Now I beseech you brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offenses, contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned, and avoid them: for their conviction, and your own security.

They that would privily bring in corruptions to your faith, as the Papists. Here Antichrist had cause to be angry, and plead that he had not his right, if he were not brought in for the ring-leader: whose profession is to make your souls drunk with the wine of his fornications, Rev. 17 2. Beware of these Romish agents and instruments: all their desire is to intoxicate your hearts, and proudly to tyrannize over your consciences. He is that man of sin, that man of pride, that opposeth and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is worshipped; 2 Thess. 2.4. He rose first above Bishops, then above Councils, then above Kings, then above Scriptures, and now so far as it is possible, above God himself. All that are not dead in sense, know his malice; Killing all those that worship not the image of the Beast, Rev. 13.15. Saint Paul tells us; All things are yours; if all be ours, what unsufferable wrong doth he to us, that takes away from us half a Sacrament, the whole Scripture? For what purpose sends he over his Seminaries, those flies that come humming out of the Larder of Hell? They envy, they inveigh, they write, they rail. But as the Jews did with Stephen; when they could not confute him with arguments, they did it with stones: so what they cannot evince by the Word, they will convince by the sword. They have always powder in the panne; and when they spy their time, they will turn their pens into pen-knives, and their ink into blood. O but now they plead Kings truce: yet as in France, when it was said there should be a consultation at Paris, to hear complaints, to redress wrongs, and set all things even: and that the Protestants should have free access to declare their grievances, and safe-conduct to return: one answered, Promise what they list, for Saint Bartholomew-Eves sake I will not trust them. So how ever they show themselves, looking smoothly, and speaking-fairly: yet for the Fifth of Novembers sake let us never trust them. Only bless we our GOD, that though they do so much mischief as they can, yet they cannot do so much as they would. And if our sins provoke him not, Christ will preserve his flock from being a pity to their teeth forever.

[unspec 3] They that infect our manners are evil companions; Satan's agents: who is still scattering his firy darts among the Army of Israel. And when they light upon wood they kindle, when upon flax they flame, when upon gunpowder they blow up all. Infirmitie is as the wood; desire to sin, that is the flax; delight a sin, that is the powder. If we be naked, or only clothed with hypocritical our sides, or with the thin coat of reason, these darts will wound us: only the shield of faith rebates the points, and quenches all the fire. Some are afraid of meeting the Devil in a dark night: alas, he will not scare thee from himself: what should he get by that? No, it is worse meeting him like an Angel of light: by an Orator persuading, by a Poet delighting, by a friend flattering, by a wife seducing: thus is the Devil often brought in like concealed ware. Some make question whether there be a Devil or no, because they never saw any: but thou mayest see him in his effects, tempting thee to lewdness. In the time of Superstition, the Devil did often appear in some bodily shape, and he had reason for it; for by that means be drave men forward to desperation, to which in those days they were most inclined. But in these times of profaneness, he will not appear in his likeness, lest he should hold men back from presumption, to which they were running head-long. For he is never a worse devil, than when he comes lap'd up in Samuel's Mantle; privily under the cloak of holiness! so that now all the wisdom is to see the Devil. If a man's eye be too near the object, the beams of his sight will be confounded; there must be a mediocrity of distance. As in the Optickes, if a man would perceive the art of a perspective picture, he must go a distance from it, and then look on it with artificial eyes, or spectacles fitted for the purpose. So if a man would apprehend the prospects of Satan, with all his shadowings and deep deceits; he must not stand too nigh him, but go further off. And then he must look, not with the eyes of nature or reason, so he shall never descry him: but with the eye of faith in the glass of the Scripture; this shall plainly represent him.

Fear Satan then most, when with the fairest pretences of good, he seeks to justify evil. When the woman of Tehoah with a subtle parable procured Absalom's repeal from banishment, 2 Sam. 14.19. David replied, Is not the hand of Job with thee in all this? When thou beholdest Sacrilege coloured under the title of an impropriation. Is not the hand of the Devil in this? When oppression passeth under the name of reasonable and allowed Interest: Is not the hand of the Devil in this? If you see secret malice strike under the semblance of Justice: Is not the hand of the Devil in this? If covetous worldliness pass for honest thriftiness: Is not the hand of the Devil in this? If flattery creept up to preferment, under the title of humility: Is not the hand of the Devil in this? If plumes, painting, gawdie purfles, the ornaments of Popinjays, to the inversion of nature, and destruction of modesty; march all under the colors of comliness, and going according to their state: Is not the hand of the Devil in this? Let us find out this privy inductions of these damnable heresies, and resist him there, 1 Pet. 5.9. Resist him steadfast in the faith: this wrings his sword out of his hand; he and all his adherents shall fall before us, John. 12.31. The Prince of this world shall be cast out: What folly is it for the wicked to fight on his side, that is sure to be vanquished? Fear thy sin, never fear Satan? let him not have Lust that secret factor in thy city, that Intelligencer in thy soul; and he can do thee no harm. Through sin only is their force and fury so terrible to us, Ephes. 6.12. Spiritual wickedness, or wicked spirits: but spiritual wickedness is more to be feared than wicked spirits. But the God of peace shall shortly tread Satan under our feet, Rom. 16.20. Now the Lamb that hath the key of the bottomless pit, and the great chain in his hand, bind that Dragon with everlasting darkness. But for thy Church; send forth thy mercy and truth, and save us; and let thy face shine upon us forever.

Denying the Lord that bought them.] This I called their Criminall evil, a sin that seems to keep the circle of their own selves; and not to extend to the mischief of others, but only by the force of example. In handling whereof, I will first consider the general doctrine; what it is to deny Christ; and wherein these false teachers deny him: and them the application of it; who they be that in these times deny him. In special we find the aggravation of their apostasy in three heinous ascendings. First, They Deny: it were bad enough to slight him, worse to forget him, yet worse to forsake him: but to Deny him, this is fearful. Secondly, The Lord: not a creature, not a man, not a Father, not a friend, not an Angel, not themselves: but the Lord, this is more fearful. Thirdly, That bought: it is much to deny a benefactor, more to deny a Parent, more to deny a Creator: but yet there is a step higher, to advance this blasphemy to the full altitude; to deny a Redeemer; Him that with the precious blood of his heart Bought them; this is most execrable.

Denying of Christ.] is of two sorts: either in Judgment or in practice: denial in faith, or denial in fact. The latter is of infirmity, the other of infidelity. 1 Tim. 1.19. Some have put away faith and a good conscience; and concerning faith have made shipwreck. There is a denial of faith, 2 Tim. 3.5. Some having a form of godliness, deny the power of it, Tit. 1.16. They profess that they know God, but in works they deny him. There is a denial of fact. The former makes a man no Christian: the other makes him non nullum, sed malum; not no Christian, but an evil Christian. The denial of Christ in judgment hath many degrees. 1. Apostasy, a falling off from Christ, and from the known truth into willful errors. Heb. 3.12. Take heed lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, to depart from the living God. 2. A violent opposing that truth which they have rejected, both with tongue and hand: justifying and defending their own mischievous opinions against the Gospel of Christ, Lastly, the sin against the Holy Ghost. First men forsake Christ, then deny him, lastly blaspheme him. This is indeed that which truly rents a man off from Christ, and deprives him of all hope to be saved. The denial in fact is a dangerous pit, yet the mercy of God hath helped some out of it. So was Peter delivered; Servus negavit Dominum, sed Dominus amavit servum; The servant denied his Master, but the Master loved his servant. Paul did not only deny him, but persecute him; yet he obtained mercy, 1 Tim. 1.13. Many of the Jews did not only deny him, but crucify him, Act. 3.14. Ye denied the holy one, and the Just: yet were they pricked in heart at Peters Sermon; gladly received his Word, and were baptized, Act. 2.41.

Every action that gives way to God's dishonor, and heartens others to superstition, is a denial of Christ in some degree of fact, 1 Cor. 10.20. The things which the Gentiles sacrifice, they sacrifice to devils, and not to God: and I would not that ye should have fellowship with devils. He that tasteth the meat offered to Idols, Gustu negavit Christum, hath denied Christ with his tasting. If he doth not so, yet let him but touch those things with pleasure, Tactu negavit Christum, He hath denied Christ with his touching. Though he doth not touch, yet if he stand to look upon the Idolatry, Visu negavit Christum, He hath denied Christ with his eyes. Though he forbear to look, yet if he listen to those charms, Auditu negavit Christum, He hath denied Christ with his ears. Though he omit all these, yet if he smell to the Incense, Odoratu negavit Christum, He hath denied Christ with his smelling. He may be denied voice, vest, vultu, victu; with the voice, when men speak to dishonor him, though inwardly they reverence him: with the garment, when they wear idolatrous fashions of attire to escape notice: with the countenance, when they seem delighted to behold the breaden god carried in a box: with the diet, when only to give content to some popish spirits, they will forbear certain meats on certain days. These be all degrees of denial in them, that rather seek to please men, than to be the constant servants of Christ.

He that dissembles a false faith is thus guilty. Faith may be feigned; ex parte objecti, when it doth not credit all the Word: ex parte subjecti, in respect of the false heart of man: ex parte exterioris actionis, when a man keeps the true faith of Christ, but dares not profess it. Nicodemus had a good mind to Christ, but he durst not be known of it: now in that he did not openly acknowledge him, he did in a sort deny him. It is objected, Rom. 14.22. Hast thou faith? have it to thyself before God. Therefore a man may conceal his faith. But the Apostle speaks not there de fide necessariorum, concerning the faith of those things we must necessarily believe: but de fide adiaphororum, concerning the faith of indifferent things. Shall I change any faith in these? No, do not change it, but hide it. Shall my faith then be quite concealed? No, God sees it. To what purpose have I faith, and not to show it? Yes, show it to God. Thy faith is to be concealed, not cancelled. But then a man may hide his faith in time of persecution, and be present at idolatrous services? No, for the Apostle speaks not of that faith, Quae ad dogmata pertinet, sed de rebus medis; but only of things indifferent, and therein sometimes to hide our faith is not to offend, Chrysost. Our own faith, I say, for a man may sometimes dissimulare fidem propriam, dissemble his own faith: but he must never simulare fidem alienam, counterfeit a strange faith.

Here may be questioned, whether it is lawful to be present at a Mass, so long as we reserve our own faith; and whether this be to deny Christ in any sort. The Apostle clears it, 1 Cor. 10.14. Flee from idolatry. This exhortation he strengthens with two special reasons; the one verse. 20. They that partake of things offered to Idols, have fellowship with the devils. The other, verse. 21. Ye cannot be partakers of the Lord's Table, and of the table of devils. Besides offending of the weak Christian, and confirming the strong Papist. A Protestant cannot possibly communicate with the Papists, without sin: yet they may communicate with us, without sin. Our Service is without all fear of idolatry, even themselves being judges: so that a Papist remaining a Papist, may communicate with us: and it is rather out of pride, than conscience, that they refuse it. Yet it sticks upon the stomach of some toy-headed Professors, that they may lawfully see a Mass, going with their kindred, for sport; and rather than want excuses, that they might more detest it. But Paul cuts off all these reasons, 1 Cor. 10.22. Do we provoke the Lord to anger? are we stronger than be? God shall condemn all colorable shifts, and expose thee to his wrath. To exhort this allowance, nothing is more commonly cited than the example of Naaman, 2 King. 5.18. When my Master goeth into the house of Rimmon to worship there, and he leaneth on my hand, and I bow in the house of Rimmon; the Lord pardon thy servant in this thing. To which Elisha doth seem to give approbation; Go in peace. This place is their opinion doth prove it, when indeed this place makes most strongly against it. First, Naaman speaks of a civil worship to his Master, not a superstitious one to the Idol: the King leaning on his hand; either Majestatis or infirmitatis gratiâ; whether for weakness or for State. Secondly, He professed the resolution of his heart to worship only the God of Israel, that had healed him. Begging earth to make an Altar, erecting an Altar for sacrifice, and sacrificing that he might be thankful. Thirdly, He puts the doubt of his own weakness, that notwithstanding his resolved sincerity; yet being with his Master in that cursed place, he did not know how temptation might work upon him; therefore he says, God be merciful to me in this; Pray for me that I may not fall, pray for me that I may find mercy. Fourthly, Some think that Elisha did not approbare, sed tolerare; not approve, but suffer Naaman's fault; but there is no dispensing with sin. Fifthly, Go in peace, is as much, as God be with you Sir; a valediction: not the words concedentis postulatum, of one that granted a request: sed dimittentis abeuntem, but of one that gave him license to depart. Sixthly, Indeed the Prophets meaning was to comfort the Syrian in God's mercy; whose strength should be glorified in his weakness. Who would either wholly keep him from idolatry, or if he fell upon infirmity, afford him gracious forgiveness. If such a thing happen; but either thou shalt die, or thy Master die; howsoever God will prevent it; Go in peace. Seventhly, Naaman did confess that the bowing in the house of Rimmon was a sin, or else he would not have begged pardon for it. When I go to mass, I reserve my heart unto God: so did Naaman, yet he cried, Lord be merciful to me in this. He desired mercy, as fearing before hand: we have those that will do it, and never beg mercy afterwards; that never say, In this Lord pardon me. Thus they have a fair warrant from this place: for Namaan condemns it, and yet they would by his example find arguments to allow it. If it were not a sin, why doth he crave pardon for it? if it be a sin, why do we seek to justify it? But we go to behold it as a Player: but plays are for stages, not for Churches. Darest thou go to a Temple, to see religion made a mockery, and the Name of thy God a lest. But we would see it, that we may confute the absurdities of it. But would any sober man go to a drunken meeting, that he might learn to condemn drunkenness? he knew it was bad enough before. But we would go to convert others: goodly! as if the wool should undertake to turn the pitch white by touching it; will not the pitch rather black the wool? Peter durst abroad draw his sword against a whole troop, in defense of his Master: yet after all his protestation of inseperablenesse from CHRIST, he was infected with the air of the high Priests hall. But yet we would see it, that no longer by report, but by ocular testimony we might hate it. But would any man desire to see murder or incest, that he might more loath it? All reasons are lost that make for sin: therefore resolve against this danger of temptation, lest you be found to deny CHRIST.

This for the general doctrine; now for the application, that we may perceive who they are which in any measure or degree deny JESUS CHRIST.

1 The Jews and Turks. For the Jews, their refusal of him more strongly approves him: neither could he be justified to be that Messias, if they rejected him not. Loe now how the Lord hath requited them: they denied him, and he hath denied them. Their sin is capitally written in their long and desperate ruin. If they would compare their former captivities with their former sins; they should now find that they have committed some sin more heinous than all former sins, because they suffer a plague more grievous than all former plagues. This sin was the denial of CHRIST, and this plague for that denial. For the Turks they have taken the name of Savior from CHRIST, and given it to Mahomet that coozning Arabian. Their malice is not only to deny JESUS, but to murder him; and by all stratagems seconded with bloody violence to wast Christendom, and to bring his name to nothing. But arise ô LORD, thou and the Ark of thy strength; convert or confound thine enemies, and Remember those Tyrants that say of thy Jerusalem; Rase it, rase it, even to the foundations thereof.

2 The Greekish Church of the Ruffes and Muscovites have reserved from forgetfulness the name of CHRIST, but in the foundations of their religion have denied him. They are the basest dregs of all Christians, and so to call them 〈◊〉 to allow them the most favor that can be. They will admit none of the Christ an world to their font, but such as solemnly renounce, spit at, and abjure their former God, religion, baptism. They are as ignorant as Turks, as idolatrous as Pagans, as obstinate as Jews, and more superstitious than Papists. If the worst of the Roman, and best of the Russian, were compared, it would be hard to judge which were least evil. They give more honor to Saint Nicholas, if at lest he was a Saint, if an honest man, than they do to CHRIST. They usually put a scroll into the hands of their dead, when they bury him; it is this, A Russe of R • ss •• ; which they call a certificate to Saint Peter. It is their wickedness and infelicity to have denied Christ.

3 Such other Heretics as have kept the name of Christians, yet have spoiled the just honor of CHRIST. These differ from the other, and are not properly called Religions, but Opinions. Every Heresy though fundamental, makes not a religion: we say not the Religion of the Arians, Nestorians, Sabellians, Macedonians; but the Sect or Heresy. Not to discuss the propriety, no opinion challengeth the name of a Religion in our usual speech. Such were the Valentinian and Manichean heresies, that denied CHRIST'S Humanity. The Arian and Samisetanian, that denied his Divinity. The Nestorian, that distracted him into two persons. Eutychian, that confounded the two natures. The Sabellian, that mind him with the Hypostasis of the Father. Donatus, that denied his kingdom, that is his Church to be perpetual and catholic. Pelagius, that denied him to be the Redeemer of little ones in baptism. Novatas, that denied his grace and mercy to sinners fallen. There were innumerable such whom the Lord with his fan hath cast out, purging his Floore from such damnable chaff. The same gracious hand purge it still; that all men may come with heart and tongue, to acknowledge one true God, and one blessed Savior, Jesus Christ.

4 The religion, or rather faction of Papism. It is most wonderful to read, how Feuardentius and others of them upon this Text, do challenge us for the principal men that deny CHRIST. But when we come to examine the weight, their very arguments against us do strengthen us, and we find ourselves the more comforted in being so scandalized. Let indifferency be judge! we adore and trust upon CHRIST for our only Savior, and ascribe to him the whole of our redemption: they join other Savior's, other mediators with him; now which of us do most deny CHRIST? do you look for more evidence? you shall have it that both the cold neuters who treat of a reconcilement between us; and the hot separatists that say we have not left them at all because we retain some ceremonies which they use; may be at once satisfied and ashamed. It is not matter of order, but matter of faith that hath divide us; nor ceremony, but substance: not a bush, but a wall of stone, that we can scarce imagine the separation greater which divided Abraham from the rich man in hell. 1 John. 2.2. Who is a liar, but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? he is Antichrist that denieth the Father and the Son. But they deny not the Father, albeit the Son: yea, in this they have denied the Father: where CHRIST is but half a Savior, God is but half a Father. Verse 23. Whosoever denieth the Son, the same hath not the Father. They worship images, adore relics, invoke Angels; here they deny Jesus. They sacrifice for the sins of quick and dead with a wafer cake, hold a Purgatory for the scouring up of souls, as I CHRIST'S blood was not able to do it; here they deny Jesus. They tread down the deputies of God from their Thrones, and set up an usurping Prelate, whom all ages have acknowledged a vassal to Prince; here they deny Jesus. They take away Scriptures, mangle Sacraments, license Stews, condemn marriage, wrap up the obsequies of our conscience in the strange livery of an unkowne language; sell pardons for sixepence; open heaven where Christ shuts it, and shut heaven where Christ shuts it, and shut heaven where Christ opens it; here they deny Jesus. They mingle the blood of Martyrs, yea of traitors, with the blood of the Lamb of God which is spotless; which only taketh away the sin of the world, only quencheth the wrath to come, only abateth the edge of his Fathers Justice, even that sword cherubicall which glitters before Paradise: this, this is to deny the Lord that bought them. They are all for Traditions, we for the Scriptures: the goods of our Father are in question, whither shall shall we go but to his will and testament? thither we fly, we do not deny thy word, ô Lord, we do not deny thee: but they that deny the word of Christ, deny Christ himself.

Under this rank of deniers come those whilome professors of Religion, that have now accepted the mark of the beast who are so foolish, that having begun in the Spirit, they will now be made perfect by the flesh, Gal. 3.3. They despise the chaste spouse of their Savior, and are bewitched with the painted beauty of an ill favored strumpet. They that have seen her in her gavest dress with Christian eyes, have loathed her: others have looked on her with the eyes of flesh, and adored her. Diverse have come to Rome with a purpose to be confirmed Papists: by hearsay they magnified her; they came, saw, and scorned her. They looked for religion, and found rank idolatry: the fire of their zeal brought them to the flames of martyrdom. We have some that suffer their zeal there to die, where those good men's zeal began to live; and delight to live, where they would but die. Our mother weeps for them, not for need, but for pity, for piety, for love. Troopes of better informed souls flock daily into her bosom, disdaining their late Antichristianism, and embracing her knees on their own. The mighty one of Israel, that leaves the ninety nine to reduce one lost sheep; fetch them home to his fold, though with shame, though by death. That they may shame the devil, forsake that harlot, love their own mother, bless their own Father, and lastly save their own souls.

5 The Renegate, that being once baptized unto CHRIST, is afterward circumcised, unto Mahomet. It is in vain to charge them with Paul's Testimony. Gal. 5.2. If ye be circumcised, Christ shall profit you nothing: for they desire not that CHRIST should profit them. Miserable men, that forsake the blood of their Savior, to accept the tyranny of an Impostor! I have read of a Christian, that to save his life turned Turk; but it could not save him: for they presently in derision hanged him up, with these words; Morieris in fide Turca; However thou livest, thou shalt die a Turk. They are so conscious of their own great Prophets weakness; that if any man deny Christ, they will never trust him in the acknowledgement of Mahomet.

6 The Neuter, that is of either side, of neither side; today a Romist, tomorrow a Protestant, next day no man can tell what, nor himself; this man denies Christ. They think him theirs, we think him ours, his own conscience finds him neithers. O but our differences trouble him: but shall a man deny Christ, because his coat is divided? In religion and faith there is no wavering: he that doth not believe and profess the truth, denies it. There is no medium: we must be either for it, or against it. Judge 5.23. Curse ye the inhabitants of Meroz, because they came not to the help of the Lord against the mighty. They did not fight against him, but because they did not fight for him they are cursed. Let us say, as that Martyr answered, when he was offered both torments and rewards; rewards if he did deny Christ, torments if he would not; with time of deliberation. In re tam justa nulla consultatio: the case is so clear, that I need not study about it. Let us much rather lose ourselves, than our Savior Christ.

7 The Separatist, that speaking of his country, cries he is fled out of Babel, he hath forsaken his mother, therefore denied his Father. And whither runs he? out of the free and clear air of the Gospel, into the stench and irksome mixture of Jews, Arians, Anabaptists. Who but a mad man would forsake the Church of England, which Rome envies, all the world admires; to go to Amsterdam? It is their delight to be thwartingly peevish: and where the gate stands open, to be ever seeking for a style. They will be cross, though they be absurd: and because the Law enjoins abstinence on some certain days; therefore their greatest seals shall be on frydayes. Like certain Ilanders near to China, that salute by putting off their shoes, because the men of China do it by their hattes. He that wrongs the wife, is no friend to the husband: in refusing the Church, they have denied Christ.

8 The Persecuter, that invades the liberty of those who love the Lord Jesus, denies Christ, Joab smote Absalom's body but therein David's heart. The rebel says, he means no hurt to the person of the king: but because he doth it to the subjects, he is therefore a traitor: so he that strikes the Christian, strikes Christ. Such shall not escape unpunished, either here or hereafter. Not even Paul himself was transmitted, without feeling what he inflicted. Examine his own testimony, 2 Cor. 11.23, &c. Did he make havoc of the Church? the world made havoc of him for it. Did he hale men and women to prison? himself was often claped up for it. Did he help to stone Stephen? himself was stoned for it. Did he afflict his own countrymen? his own countrymen afflicted him for it. Did he lay stripes upon the Saints, the Jews laid stripes upon him for it. Was he weary, painful, diligent to beat down the Gospel? he was in wearynesse, painfulness, frequent watchings and fastings; in hunger and thirst, cold and nakedness, to defend the Gospel, 2 Cor. 11.27. Thus Quod fecit Saulus, patitur Paulus: he endured when he was Paul, what he inflicted as he was Saul. They that persecute Christians, and escape judgment here, shall find everlasting judgment hereafter. Let this point bind us all to the good behavior, that we do good to them who love the Lord Jesus.

This is the superior and more immediate manner of denying CHRIST: there is also an inferior and more remote manner. Which is of such as turn the grace of God into wantonness, and evacuate to their own souls the virtue of his cross: who being redeemed to serve Christ, deny that service: there is a world of these. Tit. 2.11. The grace of God that bringeth salvation to all men, hath appeared: Teaching us to deny ungodliness and worldly lusts, and to live soberly, righteously, godly to this present world. It persuades to holiness by this token, that it brings salvation with it. It is grace, a sweet nature: that brings salvation, ô more sweet, most welcome but it might lie hid in unknowen obscurity, nay it Appears: not to Paul or Peter only, but To all men. Deliverance from danger binds to gratitude: this was David's security to Bethshabe concerning the succession of Solomon: As the Lord liveth, that hath redeemed my soul out of all distress, 1 King. 1.29. But advancing to great preferment bindeth more: this was Joseph's apology to his tempting mistress: My Master hath entrusted all to my hand; there is none greater in his house than I: how then can I do this great wickedness? Gen. 39.9. We were all justly condemned for treason, to hell; the stroke of damnation was near us: at an instant and exigent cometh our pardon; not by the hand of an Angel, God's special courtier, but in the hand of a mediator; not written with ink, but with blood; not vulgar blood, that runs in common veins, but blood royal; no meaner than ran from the side of his own Son. Now our Sovereign Creator commends a suite to us; that we would serve him; by this Token, that he hath redeemed us at such a prize. If we break the covenant, vilipend the mercy, refuse the service, trample under our prophet feet the precious token, deny him that bought us; what remains but a fearful expectation of judgment, and firy indignation to devour us? Hebr. 10.27.29. under this kind I will touch but four offenders.

1 The dissolute and scattering rioter, that draws his patrimony through his throat; he denies CHRIST, will be not believe it? let him read, 1 Tim. 5.8. If any provide not for his own, he hath denied the faith, and is worse than an Infidel. Where is no humanity, there can be no piety: he that is not a good moral man, will never be a good Christian. He is worse than an Infidel, because he transgresseth name, which teacheth us all providence even the very beast, much more man. He sinneth • gainst the knowledge he hath received, therefore is the worst offender. The pu •• st ivorie is turned by the fire into the deepest black. We use to extenuate the •• fullness of such a one; He hath no fault, but a little too kind hearted: it is 〈◊〉 one; He hath no fault, but that he hath denied the faith. He is no man's foe but his • wne; yes he is his Posterities foe, and no friend unto Christ.

2 the oppressor: Paul says directly, They have erred from the faith, 2 Tim. 6.10. •• a the very uncharitable. Matth. 25.40. In that ye have denied it to my brethren, •• e have denied it to me; saith CHRIST. Little thinks the Engrosser, that he •• nyes CHRIST: what, to take advantage of the Law, is this to deny the Gos • ell? Yes, the poor hath lost their right, thou hast multiplied unjust gain; prefer • d Mammon before the Lord; thou hast denied him that bought thee. But that who •• ever refuseth to do mercy to the poor, denies CHRIST; this is a point of • octrine which the world will not receive; let God say what he will. But he that •• d; Whosoever giveth you, giveth me: hath said also, whosoever denieth you, de • yeth me. I send to my friend for a poor courtesy in his easy power, that have •• ne him many great favors; he denies it, it is all one, he denies me •• r his friend. 1 John. 3.17. He that hath the worlds goods, and takes no compassion on him •• at hath none of them; how dwells the Love of God in him? He that being able, gives not 〈◊〉 them whom the Lord hath bought, denies him that bought them.

3 The blasphemer denies CHRIST; for doth any man love him, against • hom he inveighes? Matth. 12.30. He that is not with me, is against me Indeed, •• e greatest denial of all is verbal, and the greatest sins against God are words. • bliquities in speech offend more than those of action: therefore the sin never to •• e forgiven, is called Blasphemy against the HOLY GHOST, Matth. 12.31. He • at commits a sin, offends the Law: he that blasphemes, striketh God himself. • here is no greater grace than thankfulness: no greater grace than thankfulness: 〈◊〉 greater sin than blasphemy. I would the common swearer would think of • is, that rashly, yea rancorously blasphemeth that sacred side, those wounds, that • oud, whereby our souls are redeemed: he doth in this deny the Lord that • ught him.

4 The desperate, that rejects the offer of salvation by Christ; this is a fearful • enyall. Let all the rivers and streams that make glad the City of God, run un •• it, they are driven back: there is no entrance for the graciousness of God, • ough it be preached a thousand times. When the Lord like a loving Physician • romiseth to cure the sore, the desperate patient thrusteth his nails into it; Nay, it • all not be healed. What can be more derogatory and injurious to Christ, then 〈◊〉 change his truth into a lie, and Satan's lies into truth, and to justify the devil • ore than God? When God on the one side shall bind by promise, confirm by •• th, ratify by seal, exhibit by the blood of his only begotten Son; pardon •• d mercy to all accepting Penitents: that though he hath broken, he will bind up; •• ough he hath made a wound, he will heal it; though he hath killed, he will give •• e: yet he is not believed. When Satan on the other side shall suggest, that the •• stice of God will never be satisfied, the heinousness of sins cannot be pardoned, •• s if he had lost the name of being the Father of lies) he is credited. God hath • ade a decree in heaven, it belongs to the New Testament, sealed by the death of •• e Testator, witnessed by three in heaven, and as many on earth, never to be altered:

At what time soever a sinner shall repent of his wickedness heartily, I will forgive him. 〈◊〉 heaven before heaven, and he that denies it finds hell before hell, and damna •• on before his time. The greatest sins are those that are opposed to the three The • logical virtues; Faith, Hope, and Charity: such are Infidelity, Hatred, Desperati • n. The other be monstrous sins, to the denial of God's justice; but desperation 〈◊〉 this is the worst, because it denies his mercy; and his mercy is over all his works. • ehold the Lamb of God, accept your remedy, deny not him that bought you.

Denying the Lord that bought them. We have considered the general Doctrine, let us come to a particular examination of the words, and an aggravation of their wickedness. Which discovers it self in three degrees.

The Quality of their Act; They denied. So far from fearing or loving, that they fall to Denying.

The Excellencie of the Object; no mean person, not a servant, not an equal, but their Master; The Lord.

The near relation that was between them, and the right that he had in them, by purchase; That bought them.

They denied.] It had been very much not to have feared him, especially seeing himself so warned us. Luk. 12.5. Fear him that can cast into hell. The wrath of a king is frightful, we fear an ague, wonder at a Comet, tremble at thunder: and fear we not God the commander of all these? Oh he is of infinite majesty! Mathematicians wonder at the Sun, that being bigger than the earth, it does not burn it. But this is the wonder, that God being so infinitely great, and we so infinitely wicked; we are not confounded. Amo. 4.13. He formeth the mountains, createth the wind, makes the morning darkness, and treadeth upon the high places of the earth: can he do this, and not punish sinful man? To fear him is Totum homini, the whole duty of a man: not to fear him, is the way to be left worse than if we never had been. To want this fear is a wretched orbitie, but to deny him, this is worse 〈◊〉 had been very much not to have believed on him, considering the oracles that he spake and the miracles that he wrought. They that hated him, were forced to testify bo •• these of him; Never man spake as this man doth: and we never saw it on this fashion: Ye, This ye have seen, and believe not. They saw, they heard, they wondered, they were convinced, yet they not believed. Their own eyes in seeing, their own eats in hearing, their own hearts in wondering, their own convicted reasons, shall witness against their unbelief, John. 16.9. The Holy Ghost shall reprove the world of 〈◊〉 because they believe not on me. Accedente fide discedit peccatum, accedit peccatum discedente fide. If faith comes, the guilt of all sin departs: if faith departs, the god of all sin remains. Israel had gross sins, as tempting of God, unthankfulness, adultery with Moab, idolatry with Baal-poor: everyone able to have kept them out of Canaan, to have swept them out of the world: yet Paul imputes all to their want of faith, Hebr. 3. Verse 19. They could not enter in because of unbelief, Rom. 11. Verse 20. Because of unbelief they were broken off. There is destruction enough wrapped up in this, not to believe on him that bought us: but to deny him, is yet worse.

It were very much not to have loved the Lord, who is every way so beautiful, that no soul can behold him, but she must needs affect him! But the wicked never saw him, they look after him with carnal eyes, which are no more able to discern him, than a blear eye can look upon the Sun: their spiritual eyes, and intellectual faith never saw him. They behold him pendentem in patibulo, dormientem in sepulchro, not Sedentem in throno; as a man of sorrows, forsaken of his friends, afflicted by his enemies, exercised with terrors, killed with torments; yet even that he was lovely. But look upon his innocence, that immaculate Lamb; upon his righteousness, Christ the Just one: behold him waited on with Angels, worshiped with prostrate knees, holding out a white hand of mercy, speaking gracious words to penitent suitors, smiling upon his Saints, kissing the souls he bought: Loe, 〈◊〉 his beauty! If any ask the Church; What is thy beloved more than another beloved? Cant. 5.9. She answers that knoweth; My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand. His head is as the most fine Gold, &c. Si pars, quid tum? If every member of him be so beautiful, how excellent is the whole composi ion? He is altogether lovely. Take your choices where you will; This is my beloved, and this is my friend. Ver. 16. This is my choice. Psa. 45.2. Thou art fairer than the children of men: all that are fair, are fair only in thee. Therefore do the virgins love thee, Cant. 1.3. Suppose in a Country there is a young Shepherd, whose face hath but newly discovered to the world of what sex he is: his exquisite proportion and admirable beauty far transcending all the rest. The Virgin Shepheardesses desire his company, are glad to be in his sight, to do him any service, to tend his flock; and all for a kind word or a smile: striving like rivals one with another, who shall be most near him: and if it were possible, would everyone enjoy him. So ten thousand times fairer than all the sons of men is the Shepherd of our souls, Jesus Christ: all the virgins love him, every good soul seeks him, and remembers his love more than wine, striving in a holy emulation who shall be most acceptable to him: they will do him all service and worship, honoring his Name, feeding his flocks, making much of his followers; glad of a smile, but ravished with a kiss of his lips: all would possess him, and loe, all shall possess him that truly believe on him. On earth one husband is for one wife, but our infinite Savior is a husband for all faithful souls. So many as believe on him, he makes the sons of God, John. 1.12. Christ being thus sweet, it were much not to love him! They that love not thee, O Lord, shall be written in the dust. If any man love not the Lord Jesus, Anathema maranatha, 1 Cor. 16.22. But now to deny him, &c.

It was very much not to acknowledge Christ. Tacere laudes Dei, to hold a man's peace when his honor is in question, is to mistake the end of our redemption, 1 Cor. 6.20. Ye are bought with a price; therefore glorify Christ in your body and spirit, which are the Lord's. Now he is poorly glorified, when his Name is concealed. It is said of John the Baptist, John. 1.20. That he confessed and denied not. If he confessed, it might seem a Pleonasme to say, He denied not: but this declares that whosoever doth not openly confess Christ, doth secretly deny Christ, Judge. 5.23. The Merozians opposed not, they denied not, they only stood still, did nothing, said nothing: they were cursed. Think of this ye that hide Christ, as the woman of Bahurim hid the Spies, in the deep well of your hearts, and cover the mouth of it with corn: that would keep in with Christ, and yet not fall off from the world. Rom. 10.10. With the heart man believeth unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. Confession is the effect of faith; I believed, and therefore I spake. Si sufficeret fides cordis, non creasset tibi Deus os, Chrysost. If it were enough to believe in the heart, to what purpose did God give thee a mouth? If it be sufficient for thee to know Christ, and not to acknowledge him thy Lord: then it shall be sufficient for Christ to know thee, but not to acknowledge thee for his Servant. Christum deseret, qui se Christianum non asserit; He denies Christ, that doth not profess himself a Christian. Nor is it any help for thee, to say that Silence argues consent: for thou art bound Consentire & confiteri, both to consent and to confess: and indeed here Tacere is negare. Christ loves this free and humble acknowledgement, and commands it. 1 Pet. 3.15. Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you, with meekness and reverence: Thus you sanctify the Lord God in your hearts. Doth the persecutor question thy faith? Fear him not: what then? Sanctify the Lord in thy heart: • ow? by giving an answer, not silence: to whom? not only to the Magistrate, but to every man that asketh, whether friend or foe, home-borne or stranger: of what? the reason of thy hope, the ground of thy expectation of eternal bliss: where and when? not only in time of peace, and assembly of Saints, but Always, be ever ready to do it. Christ no sooner said to her, Mary; but she presently confessed him; Rabboni. It was but one word, to him that is the Word, it was taken for an acknowledgement. And • an it be that we should not acknowledge our Savior? He that will not confess a benefit, hath arrived at the utmost confines of ingratitude: but he that denies his Benefactor, is fallen so low, that he can fall no lower, except it be into hell. It may be we have not feared Christ with due reverence, nor believed with true confidence, nor loved him with sincere affection, nor acknowledged him with free confession; but Lord keep us from denying him: let us never deny the God that bought us.

The Lord.] One that by just right callengeth their service. Not a creature, yet the natural man will not deny his own horse or dog that hath done him service. A man will not deny his own house: wilt thou Agnoscere domum, & rejicere Dominem; Acknowledge thy house, and deny thy Master, thy Maker? Not a servant: Philemus would not deny Onesimus a runagate servant, when Paul had written for him: wilt thou Praeponere servum tuum Domino tuo; Prefer thy servant before thy Lord? not a friend: he is a prodigy that denies his friend. Nabal was branded for a Churl, because he shown not kindness to David his friend: and such a friend as protected him, his whole family, his substance, 1 Sam. 25.15. It goes near when a man's own familiar friend shall do him a mischief; This Absalom objects to Hushai; Is this thy kindness to thy friend? Indeed men are sometimes so drunk with the honors of this world, that they forget their friends. Like as I have heard of a Lawyer, that pleaded a case very strongly on the one side, yet before the trial of it being advanced to the Bench, adjudged it on the other: yet thus answered all imputation; I spake then as an advocate for my client, I speak now as a Judge of the cause. Or as when another challenged his friend; You were wont to visit me every day, now you keep at distance: he plainly answered; I then needed you, now I am afraid you will need me. A good man would not thus use his friend, but is there any friend like the Lord? Not a Father, how unnatural is it for the fruit to deny the tree? and to forget the rock whence he was hewn? Solomon a King did not despise his mother, but set her at his right hand. There is nothing but the love of the Lord Jesus must make a man leave his parents, Luke 14.26. Indeed a man is bound to forsake his father and mother to adhere to his wife, Mat. 19.5. But this is to be understood with a limitation, if the competition be unpossible. But for Christ, Hearken O daughter, forget thine own people, and thy fathers house, Psal. 45.10. But otherwise how cursed a thing is it to deny parents? Let them that glister like the Sun, and deny to their poor obscure parents part of their superfluities, remember the doom. Prov. 30.17. The Ravens of the valley shall pick out that eye, and the young Eagles eat it. But what is the father of our flesh, to the Father of our spirits? Not a wife, and yet she is not to be denied but in case of known adultery, Mat. 19.9. Hath God made you one of two, and shall one deny the other? Deny yourself? no man doth this, but he lapseth into fornication; denying a chaste wife, to embrace an unchaste harlot. Not a Sovereign: Rome only hath broached those Lees of rebellion, and unloosed the bonds of allegiance? And no marvel though she hath denied God's deputies on earth, which hath first denied God himself in heaven. If Kings do not serve her, she forbiddeth all subjects to serve them: she excommunicates them as profane. Yet Saul himself, though he had not sanctity of life, had sanctity of calling. Therefore David, honoravit vivum, vindicavit •• scissum; Both honored him living, and avenged him being dead, Aug.

These be all sinful denials in their several degrees: but now to deny the Lord that is the supreme apostasy. If it be ill to deny the creature, what is it to deny the Creator? If to deny a servant that fears thee, what is it to deny a Master whom thou shouldest fear? If ill to deny a friend that may change, what is it to deny Christ that is the same yester-day, and today, and forever? If to deny a father that begat the body, what is it to deny God that created the soul? If to deny a wife with whom thou art made one flesh, what is it to deny the Lord with whom thou art made one spirit? 1 Cor. 6.17. If to deny a Sovereign be treason, what is it to deny the King of Kings? We are subject to the Prince propter Dominum, for the Lord, to the Lord propter seipsum, for himself. The very word the Apostle here useth is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Lord hath reference to a Bondman, Master to a free-man, Varin. Intimating in the very propriety of syllables, that man is a very bond-man under the despoticall power of God.

Here is then the second aggravation of their sin; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . The LORD that hath given them his livery, allowed them maintenance, to whom they have vowed homage, and who can pour on them vengeance. 1. His livery, they take and wear. Question them, as the mariners did Jonah; What art thou? they will answer with him; I fear the LORD GOD of heaven. Yea, they will profess with David, Psalm. 116.16. O LORD, I am thy servant. But, alas, they put on this cloak that they may be the more securely wicked under it: and if you trust them not, you shall be sure they will not deceive you. But how can they profess him, and deny him too? Yes, they may profess him in words, and deny him in works. They bear Caesar's stamp upon base metal. There was one condemned for coming to the marriage without his wedding-garment: these have the garment, but they come not to the wedding: God shall pluck their coat over their ears. Secondly, his maintenance they take and live on: the bread they eat, the air they breath, the clothes they wear, all are his: they are maintained only at his cost and charges: yet they deny the Lord that feeds them. We are to worship God, ration immensi Dominii, impensi beneficii; both for his glorious Sovereignty, and gracious bounty. Si non colis, iniquus es: si negas, ingratus es; If thou do not worship him, thou art unjust; if thou deniest him, thou art unthankful. Me thinks thou shouldest fear, that the bread should choke thee, the air infect thee, the water drown thee: when thou considerest, I have denied the Lord of all these. Think of his ye that forget God and his benefits: he that riseth from the table without giving of thanks, goes his way and owes for his ordinary. And because he will not pay God in his thanks, God will pay himself in his torments. Shall I take my Masters food, and deny my Master? Thirdly, they have vowed homage to him, and faithful adherence: Christ covenanting with his blood to wash away their sins; they to forsake his enemies, and continue his faithful soldiers and servants to the end of their lives. Now what kind of soldier is he that runs away from his Colours, and denies his General? Fourthly, they deny that Lord, who can destroy all those that rebel against him, Luke 19.27. Those mine enemies that denied me to reign over them, bring hither, and slay before me. They have not refused a weak, titular, mortal Lord, but the Lord of heaven and earth; that spake the word and they were made, that can speak again and they shall be mar'd. Psal. 18.7. The earth trembled, and the foundations of the hills were moved, because he was wroth. It was this Lord, Isaiah 30.33. Tophet is ordained of old, the pile thereof is fire and much wood, and the breath of the Lord, like a stream of brimstone, doth kindle it. It was this Lord, Matth. 18.34. The Lord was wroth, and delivered him to the tormentors. It was this Lord. A Lord that is everywhere to see his wrongs, that hath a just hand to requite them, and an almighty power to revenge them: from the wrath of this Lord, the Lord himself deliver us. Lord, who knows thy greatness, and dares deny thee? who knows thy goodness, and will deny thee? who knows thy mercy, and can deny thee? Thou art our God, and we will praise thee: thou art our Lord, and we will serve thee: thou art our Father, and we will honor thee: thou art our Judge, and we will fear thee: thou art our advocate, we will not deny thee: thou art our hope, our joy, our blessedness, our salvation, and we will love thee forever.

That bought them.] This last aggravation is derived from the consideration of the unspeakable good which this Lord hath done them: in that they were delivered by the most excellent benefit that ever came to mankind, which is Redemption by the blood of Christ. For howsoever it was a singular work and favor of God, to give us by creation a blessed being: yet was it no otherwise given us, than with a possibility to keep it or lose it. But Redemption hath instated us to a blessedness never to be lost. Here then is a doubt to be resolved: how they may perish from Christ if they were redeemed; how were they redeemed if they can perish?

First, we must lay this ground of truth: that no soul which Christ hath truly bought can perish eternally. This is the Fathers will, that of all which he hath given me, I should lose nothing. But all they are given to Christ, whom he hath purchased. John. 10.28. I give unto them eternal life, and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hands. If I give them eternal life, nothing shall bring them to eternal death: and to pluck them out of his hand that is Almighty, requires an adversary stronger than himself. And our Savior there adds, Vers. 29. My Father which gave them me, is greater than all: and no man is able to pluck them out of my Fathers hand. Hereupon Paul makes a free challenge to all the actors, and pleaders, and powers that ever damnation had. Rom. 8.38. Neither death, nor life, nor Angels, nor Principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depts, (and if all this be not enough) nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus: none can do it. And whether they be Romish or Arminian, that seek to weaken the grace of God, and permit the redeemed ones of the Lord to perish; let us know them for the brokers of Satan, the Seminaries of despair, and Denyers of Christ.

But against this Doctrine is opposed, Rom. 14.15. Destroy not him with thy meat, for whom Christ died. 1 Cor. 8.11. Through thy knowledge shall thy weak brother perish, for whom Christ died. But those places may be understood not 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : not that they can perish through thy default, but that thou dost what thou canst to make them perish. But here it seems most plain, that they may be lost in Denying Christ, whom he bought. To clear this, we say that Reprobates may be said to be redeemed in divers respects.

1 Secundum sufficientiam pretii; In regard of the all-sufficient price paid for them. So Christ is said to be that Lamb which taketh away the sins of the world. Though he meant not to save all, yet he died for all, quod suum erat adimplens, performing his part, Chrysost. For he doth not really take away all sin from the world; and this himself declares by not praying for the world, John. 17.9. I pray not for the world. Otherwise the two main parts or offices of his Priest-hood were disjoined; and he should sacrifice for them, for whom he doth not supplicate. Now for his mediation, concludes his own in it, excludes the world out of it, I pray not for the world.

2 They are said redeemed, secundum apparentiam, in respect of outward appearance. So all the Jews were called the elect people of God; yet Paul saith expressly; That with many of them God was not well pleased, and they were destroyed, 1 Cor. 10.5. Now, Electorum si quisquis perit, fallitur Deus; If any of the elect perish, God is deceived; but God cannot be deceived, Aug. They were then of his Court, they were not of his Council; I mean, not of that number which in his eternal Council he decreed to save. Inward sincerity is not without external profession, but external profession may be without inward sincerity. If the form of godliness could save, hell should be filled with none but Pagans and Infidels; not a Christian should come thither. But we know that a man may unhallow that blood wherewith he was hallowed; and so deserve sorer punishment, Heb. 10.29. And a wicked spirit rejected, may make his re-entry with seven other worse than himself, Mat. 12.45. And their fire in hell shall be hottest, that re-admit a devil, which the grace of God had once cast forth. As the wicked here say of the elect, That his life is madness, and his end to be without honor: in regard of their estate so outwardly miserable. So the elect judge of the reprobate; We number him among the children of God, and think his lot to be among the Saints: in regard of visible appearance. At last they find him cast like an unprofitable and hypocritical servant into outer darkness.

3 They are said to be redeemed, Secundum ipsorum opinionem, in respect of their own opinion: they thought themselves to be redeemed, and did apportion Christ. There is a temporary faith, which for a while believes, and in time of temptation falls away, Luke 8.13. neither should it be said, Be thou faithful unto the death, unless there was a faith that might fail before death, Rev. 2.10. S. James says, there is a faith without charity: which indeed Potest esse, non potest prodesse, saith Augustine, may be, but never be good. This faith is like an high ladder; if men have got up many rounds, and then let go their hold, they take the greater fall, Heb. 6.4. Some reprobates may taste the heavenly gift; and yet fall so far away, that no repentance to renew them. They tasted it, but it seems they took it but upon liking, and could not digest it. Some are so impudently bold of their salvation, and presume themselves so familiar with God, that they dare challenge him to talk ex tempore with him. They may think themselves God's darlings and favorites, that never had their names registered in his book.

4 They seem to be redeemed, Secundum charitatis judicium, in respect of the judgment of charity: which holds all men partakers of redemption, that are of the profession. We must cast off none, until we are sure that the Lord hath cast them off. Let us not abridge or limit God's mercy: how often have our sins deserved his wrathful doom, which yet our prayers and tears have reversed? How often hath the scroll of divorce been drawn and signed; and yet again with-drawn and cancelled upon our submission? Let us not grudge others that mercy we have found: Why is man cruel, where God relents? If the Creditor be pleased to forgive the debt, do standers by complain? Well then, we hoped that these men were redeemed, they were not: we desired it, we endeavored it: our charity did them no good, it did ourselves good: Our prayer returned into our own bosom.

This truth then remains, that Christ only bought his Church, and salvation for his Church. Act. 20.28. Feed the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood. Ephes. 5.25. Christ loved the Church, and gave himself for it. Matth. 1.21. His Name is Jesus, yet he shall save only His own people. For the rest, 1 John. 2.19. They went out from us, but they were not of us. Howsoever; the price was paid for them, and there was a sufficient ransom in the blood of Jesus, if their faithful apprehension had made it theirs. The King hath granted a Pardon for all malefactors at the Parliament; we say, they are all pardoned: yet perhaps some afterwards are condignly punished, because they never sued out this pardon, nor took the benefit of it. First, therefore consider what God hath done for them, then what they have done against him: the height of his mercy adds to the weight of their iniquity.

God in his love redeemed us by the blood of his Son: Now there are four kinds of redemption: First, when a slave, gratuito manumittitur, is freely released to liberty: we could not be so discharged; for besides that God is just, and his debts must be paid; Satan would not so part with us. Secondly, when a man is set free, per mutationem alterius, by commutation or exchanging another into his room: we could exchange no creature to supply our servitude. Thirdly, when a man is rescued, violentâ ablation, by a forcible surprisal; as Abraham redeemed Lot: but herein God was far too strong for us. Fourthly, Dato pretio, by a price paid; and thus were we bought with a price, even the blood of that unspotted Lamb. His payment consisted in Patiendo and Faciendo; in suffering for our delinquishments, and in performing a sufficient obedience to God for us.

Here admire we the infinite love of God! The Egyptians in their Hieroglyphickes, or expressions of morality by pictures; used to paint Love naked, Minerva veiled: to show that wisdom may be concealed, love cannot be smothered. The Cherubims covered their faces, which is the seat of wisdom: but not their breasts, which is the seat of affection. David by his dissembled madness, kept his wisdom unseen from Achish: but spying Bethshabe from the battlements of his Palace, he could not smother his affection. God reserves his wisdom to himself, and the reason of his actions: but his love is visible, breaking forth, and read by every running eye, Cant. 8.7. Many waters cannot quench love. It is an unsuppressible fire; much water cannot quench it; water and blood could not put it out. Now whom did GOD thus love? The World: not the frame of heaven and earth, but the little world, Man: the compendium and abridgement of all creatures. That whatsoever is imprinted with capital letters in that large volume, as in Folio, is sweetly and harmoniously contracted in Decimo sexto, in the brief Text of Man, who includes all. Planets have being, not life; Plants have life, not sense; Beasts have sense, not reason; Angels have being, life, reason, not sense: Man hath all; being with Planets, life with Plants, sense with Beasts, reason with Angels. Therefore he is called the World. This world God loved, affective before all time, effective in time.

But what good could man do to him, to induce this love? None: Our well-doing extendeth not unto him, Psal. 16.2. When we were made, we added nothing to God: if we were dissolved to nothing, we take nothing from God. That which the Lord saw in us, was apostasy and rebellion. Every creature obeys God, in running that course which he disposed to them. But how was this true: when the Sun being appointed to move his incessant race, did yet stand still in Gibeon? When the sea being charged to keep within his bounds, doth yet burst out with inundations? I answer; God bade them do so, dispensing with his former command, and they obeyed him. Well, yet man, rebellious man he loved: What did he give for him? Paradise, large kingdoms, or mines of gold? No, they are but a farthing token to the price of this purchase. He gave his only begotten Son: as he says, What could I do more for my vineyard? so, what could I give more for my vineyard? This Son he gave pro ingratis, for unthankful men, that said not so much as God-a-mercy for him: pro injustis, for unrighteous men, that denied him that was not denied to them. Here was a Sic dilexi, no man could ever find a Sicut for it. Augustine supposeth that some great Prince had a poor desertlesse subject, maimed in mind, without reason or honesty; leprous is body, without any soundness; yea, so full of stench that none could endure him: yea, more than all, so arrant a traitor to the same Prince, that he would vex him, kill him. He hath one only son, a sweet and hopeful Prince, the joy of his heart, the light and delight of his eyes, the singular heir of his kingdom. Yet when nothing will cure this forlorn wretch of his leprosy, but only this young Princes blood, he freely gives that to bathe and cleanse him. This is much, and such as never was found, yet still short of this precedent. For if the life of a Prince was given for a gnat, it is not so much as for God's Son to be given for man. He is worth ten thousands of us, more worth than all: O unspeakable love, gift, price!

Saint Peter tells us what was the price of this purchase, 1 Pet, 1.19. The precious blood of Christ, a Lamb without blemish. Had he emptied the veins of the earth, and spoiled them of their richest oars: had he plucked the spangles from heaven, and impoverished the firmament of her sparkling beauties: had he given the whole inheritance of the world; yet all had been infinitely less. When David said to Mephibosheth; Thou and Ziba divide the Land: he answered; Yea, let him take all, seeing my Lord the King is come again in peace. This was much, yet Mephibosheth's content was for David, a friend, a King: but God parts not with an Inheritance, but with his Son; and this for man, an enemy, a servant. Let death seize on my Son, that my servant may come again in peace. O never was so poor a purchase at so high a price! That he might show love to us, he forbore love to himself. Now see, O renegate, whom thou refusest: Nescis temeraria, nescis, quem fugias, ideóque fugis; Thou knowest not whom thou deniest, therefore thou deniest. If thou hast bought honor by thy valor, thou callest it Thine: if endeared a friend by thy loyalty, thou callest him Thine: if purchased an house with thy money, thou callest it Thine Christ hath bought thee with his blood, and yet thou deniest to be his. This ransom is paid, and now in a merciful offer he tenders it to thee; wilt thou in a peevish sullenness refuse it? Conceive this dialogue between the Redeemer and the Denyer. Red. Open to me. Den. No, I know not whence thou art. Red. Rise and see. Den. No, I am in my warm bed of pleasures and carnal satisfactions, I will not rise: who art thou? Red. I am JESUS, thy Redeemer: wilt thou still swear and for swear, I know none such? I bought thee, thou art mine: I come to embrace thee, deny me not. Den. Yes, take me, when all other delights forsake me: let me be thine when I am not mine own: till then keep thy cheare to thyself, I have married my pleasure, and I cannot come. O obstinate hearts, whom the King of heaven must buy with his blood, woo with his grace, wait upon with his patience, enrich with proffers of mercy; and yet at last be denied? LORD turn to sad as love thee, we deny not thee, deny not us, O good LORD JESUS. Amen.

This is the latitude and dimension of their wickedness; wherewith I will have done, when I have declared the Penaltie of it. Their punishment is proportioned to their fault: they denied him that bought them, and he that bought them will deny them, 2 Tim. 2.12. If we deny him, he will also deny us. How, where, and when will he deny them? They surfeit on pleasures, and enjoy the wish of their own hearts; how then doth he deny them? Doth not God bless whom he loves and love whom he blesses? Alas, those blessings to such men prove curses: Conceditur opulentia, abscinditur misericordia: wealth is granted, but mercy is withholden. The earth seems their own, the world applauds them; and is not Vox populi, Vox dei; the voice of the people, the voice of God? No, for the whole world lieth in wickedness: but here they are honored, where then shall they be denied? The echo answers, Here: even where Saul would be honored, there was he denied, before the people. They spend their days in peace, their minds are not troubled, they sit not sighing and blubbering for their offenses, sure God is not angry with them; when shall they be denied? Now, even in that they lament not, their case is most lamentable: their pulse hath left beating, this argues God's direliction; that their life breath is painted out, and they have given up the (Holy Ghost.) Will you hear how, where, and when? Take it from CHRIST'S own mouth. Matth. 10.33. Whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven. For the manner, How; I will deny him, not conceal him, nor excuse him, not hold my peace and silence it, but deny him. For the place where; Before my Father, where my word will be taken: for I have the key of heaven, to let in and keep out whom I please. Coram Patre, who hath committed all judgment to me, and set me to sentence every man according to his works. Coram Patre, if it had been only. Coram hominibus, before men, where thou deniest me, they would approve my justice: if Coram daemonibus, before the devils, they would be glad of thy company, and with a hasty rape hurry thee to perdition: if only, Coram Angels, before the Angels, (which is also expressed, Luk. 12.9. He that denieth me before men, shall be denied before the Angels of God. ) They would witness how often I have sent them to guard thee, how little thou didst regard me. But what is the detestation of men, the rejection of Angels, the derision of devils, to the loss of my Fathers love? This Coram Patre, shall strike thee with horror Matth. 21. Ver. 37. When the Father sent CHRIST, he said, Sure they will reverence my Son: but they conspired, This is the heir, come, let us kill him. Reject them ô Father, for they rejected me. Away must their faces be turned, from joy, from light, from blessedness; to wander in horrid darkness, to lie bound in the chains of torment; where unquencheable fire, and insatiable death shall not be denied them, that denied everlasting life. For the time when; In heaven: when they knock with hope to be let in at that gate, when they shall see millions of confessors enter in and be made welcome: In heaven I will deny them, that is in the day of judgment. On earth they spake their pleasures, their tongues were their own, they denied me without control: but when I have denied them in heaven, and they have acknowledged me in hell, then shall they gnaw those tongues for pain, and wish that they had been borne dumb, never to have denied him that bought them, Revel. 16.10.

This is a fearful plague, when God will suffer men to fall off from CHRIST, and to reject their Redeemer: alas, they do no less then split and sink that Ship in the midst of the sea, which alone should save them. Whom shall they trust to make them righteous? none can do this but CHRIST, and they have denied him. Rom. 6.33. Who shall condemn? it is CHRIST that justifieth: so who shall justify, when CHRIST condemneth? They have sinned, and God is offended, who shall make an atonement for them? Only CHRIST can do this; If any man sin, he is our Advocate and propitiation: and this Advocate they have denied. Whom shall they call upon for love and favor? there is none to be had but in CHRIST, and him they have denied, Revel. 2.4. I have somewhat against thee, because thou hast left thy first love. He that hath once broken his faith, will not easily be trusted. Him, that hath once vowed love to a virgin, and after fallen off with breach of covenant, no wise maid will ever admit within distance of liking. They wax wanton against CHRIST, having damnation, because they have cast off their first faith. Whom shall they call upon in the day of trouble? the Lord. This was the voice of Elias in his agony, of Jonah in his fury; Lord, take away my life. Of the Apostles in their fear. Matth 8.25. Lord save us, we perish. Of the malefactor dying on the Cross. Luk 23.42. Lord, remember me in thy kingdom. Of Stephen under the stones, Act. 7.59. Lord, into thy hands, &c. Of Saul cast down from his horse. Act. 9.6. Lord, what wilt thou have me to do? This is the echo of misery, the suppliant for mercy: but alas how shall they call on this Lord, that have denied him, Rom. 10.14. How shall they call on him, in whom they have not believed: Yea, whom they have denied? What wonder is it, if God doth not hear, where he hath not been heard? if he shut against them, that would not open to him? complainest thou, Why hast thou forsaken me O Lord? he replies, why hast thou denied me ô servant? There is grievous punishment for them that fear not God: Pour out thine indignation upon them that fear thee not, saith the Prophet. Grievous, for them that seek him not. Psal. 10. The wicked will not seek after God, therefore are lost in the devices of error. Grievous, for them that call not on him; for he will be a stranger to their acquaintance. Grievous, for them that trust not on him, for they shall be left to themselves. Grievous, for them that love him not, for they shall be written in the dust. But most grievous for them that deny him here, for they shall be denied forever hereafter.

The use that we are to make of it, is by this consideration to fortify our faithfulness and loyalty to CHRIST. Let us not deny him, yea let us deny all things for him. For saith Jerome; if necessity require it, Odium in suum, est pietas in deum; it is godliness to hate our own delights in respect of the Lord. What good thing can be lost by our profession, which Jesus requites not in himself? lose we riches? In him dwells all fullness. Liberty? The Son makes us free indeed. Wife? he is a husband. Children? he is a Father. Life? Ego sum vita, he is the true life. Therefore is he called All in all: ut qui omnia propter Christum dimiserit, 〈◊〉 pro omnibus inveniat, & libere clamet, Pars mea Dominus, Hieronym. That he which hath left all for CHRIST, many find CHRIST instead of all, and sing cheerfully, The Lord is my portion. Why should we deny him? he never denied us. Not to the Pharisees, Matth. 9.12. Why eateth your Master with Publicans and sinners? this was their question. I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance: this was his answer. Not to Pilate. 1 Tim. 6.13. Before Pontius Pilate he witnessed a good confession. Not to the Angels, for he makes them Ministring spirits for our good. Not to GOD the Father himself, John. 17. They are all mine, and thine. When he was betrayed and tken, he denied us not to Judas; Ego sum, I am he. When he was scourged, he denied us not: when he was condemned, and nailed to the Cross, loe, he did not then deny us, Though enemies denied mercy, by-standers denied him pity, Angels must deny him help, God himself seemed to deny him ease and comfort; so he cries, My God, why hast thou denied me? yet even then he did not deny us. But he confessed us to the death, Luk. 23.34. Father, forgive them: and after death, as appears by his charge to Peter, Feed my sheep: and forever, Matth. 10.32. Whosoever shall confess me before men, him will I confess before my Father in heaven. A way then with all excuses of denial: there are two temptations or causes of it; Infirmity, and Infidelity. Infirmitie rise • h from fear of pain, Infidelity from love of pleasure. Is any pain like the separation from CHRIST? think of that Discredite, Matth. 25. Depart from me 〈◊〉 cursed. Is any pleasure like the pleasures at the right hand of God forever? Away with that coldness of heart, that like Northern cloth shrinks in the wetting, I mean in the floods of persecution. Away with that thin-danw'd profession, that like mown grass withers in the sun, with the heat of prosperity. Let us deny our own worth, and become nothing in ourselves, that we may be wholly all in CHRIST. The poor man depends not upon the relief of others, till he find nothing at home. Until our hearts be purged of pride and self-love, we never depend on the favor of God. Be everything denied that is not in ordine ad Deum, and hath no relation to Jesus Christ. Let us deny our pleasures, deny our lusts, deny our wills, deny our covetous desires, deny our seducing friends, deny ourselves: but let us never deny the Lord that bought us. To this blessed Lord of our redemption, with the Father of our creation, and the Spirit of our adoption, three Persons and one most holy God, be praise and glory forever, Amen.

They bring upon themselves swift destruction. We have anatomised the fault of • hese false teachers, in denying their Redeemer. Which haply was not with an open and manifest recusancie, for then orthodox Christians would have refused conversing with them, and the Church excommunicated them. But rather, because such a denial did arise by just consequence out of their dogmatical, stigmaticall assertions. For if we understand Saint Peter by Saint Jude; the very parallel • nd harmony one of the other: we find these heretics challenged for Turning the grace of God into licentiousness, Iud. ver. 4. Whereupon is inferred, that they deny the only Lord God, and Jesus Christ. So that to turn Grace into wantonness, is to deny CHRIST. Neither was this only exemplary in their practice, but also doctrinal in their pofession. For he that calls himself Christian, and teacheth that in CHRIST is granted liberty of sinning, denies the Redeemer. Luk. 1.74. We are delivered out of the hands of all our enemies, that we might serve him without fear. That we might serve him without fear, not sin without fear. CHRIST came to unbinde us from Satan, and to vex him at our new goodness, not to make him laugh at our wickedness: that we should sin less; not sin more, and more securely. Rom. 6.1. Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. An sit, quia sit? absit. Shall there be presumption in sin because there is abundance of grace? God forbid. This is a true position: Quicquid Christus operatur pro nobis, hoc • peratur in nobis. Whatsoever the Lord Jesus worketh for us, that he also worketh in us. If he hath freed us from the damnation of sin, then also from the dominion of sin. If with his blood he hath quenched the fire of hell for us, he hath quenched the fire of lust in us. They are miserable men, qui luxuriantur in Christo, that are wanton in Christ: as if the Law had lost it self in the Gospel: and the Statutes against blasphemy, adultery, idolatry, covetousness, were now repealed, to stand in no more force: but like an Almanac out of date, to be sacrificed to forgetfulness. This is a left-handed taking of Christ: Non consolatur Christi infantia garrulos, non Christi lacrymae cachinnantes, non panni ejus ambulantes in stolis, non praesepe amantes primas cathedras, Bern. Christ's humility doth not comfort the proud: his patience shall do no good to the revengeful: nor his love to the uncharitable. He was a prodigal young heir that encouraged his companions; come let us drink, revel, throw the house out at the windows; the man in the scarlet will pay for all; meaning his father, who was a Judge: but he adjudged the patrimony from him to one of his younger sons more obedient. So say the luxurious; let us swear, oppress, abuse, be wanton, be merry, be mad; the man in the Scarlet hath paid for all; meaning Christ, that he is in his Scarlet and bloody robes shall justify and acquit them. But be not deceived; as good men as we, and as jolly they were, that stood upon the Fatherhood of Abraham. (We may put away our wifes, we may swear, we may hate our enemies. We may kill the Prophets, subject God's word to our Traditions, and follow our own ways. Why? Abraham is our Father, John. 8.39.) But by their leave, Christ calls them bastards, and finds out another father for them. Ver. 44. Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. So ye profane wretches, bear yourselves so long as you will upon CHRIST, and flesh your lusts on his merits; if you think to take willful sin in one hand, and Christ in the other, you shall find both your hands full indeed, b •• Christ in neither of them: the one being full of wickedness, the other full of vengeance; you have denied the Lord Jesus.

They bring on themselves swift destruction.] This is the punishment. The •• are plagues enow, that wound the flesh, and fetch blood of the soul, without perishing; but this the utter ruin, Destruction. But yet this may be far off, and happily doth wait the succession of ages, and intervention of many years: and when it cometh, it shall give warning of the approach, like a Porcpose before • storm: nay, it comes on a sudden, it is Swift destruction. But who shall inflict this, that they may fortify themselves against it? Themselves: here need no e • gines, no enemies, no invasions; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Superinducunt sibi, Themselves bring it, or, They bring it on themselves. So that their punishment is described, by the Autho •• , Measure, and Manner. The Author, Themselves: the measure, no less than Destruction: the manner, Swift and sudden.

They bring on themselves.] Very kind men! what would they do with others, that destroy themselves? Cui bonus, qui sibi nequam? He that is evil to himself, 〈◊〉 whom will he be good? Every man thinks, that he loves himself far better than his enemy: yet while he affecteth sin, he loves his enemy better than himself, Vnusquisque vult esse beatus, etiam sic vivendo ut sit miserrimus. All men would be happy, albeit most men take the course of infelicity. We hate our foes; thou hast no worse foe than thyself: hate thy sinful self. If there were no harlot, no drunken associate, no thief to cry, Cast in thy lot with us; no devil to do his office; wicked men would beget destruction on themselves. Accersunt, so some read; They send for destruction; as a man dispatcheth messenger after messenger, because the expected party delays his coming. So as if damnation were leaden-heeld, they send anger to fetch it to them, after that malice, after that murder, a bloody messenger. So worldlings send covetousness for it, after that lying, after that swearing, after that Usury, after all oppression. Lest vengeance should be too slow, & forget it self, these be the messengers to bring it. Hos. 4.2. By swearing, and lying, and killing, and stealing, and committing adultery, they break out, and blood toucheth blood. Therefore shall the land mourn, and every inhabitant languish. Now whe • the plague comes, and says, Ecce adsum, Here I am: they cry as the devil did to CHRIST, What have we to do with thee: why comest thou to torment us before 〈◊〉 time? Before your time, replies destruction? Why, did you not send for me? was not pride rapping at my door, blasphemy thundering in mine ears, Sacrilege pulling me by the hand? all crying, vengeance come away, thou art sent for? And especially, when sacrilege hastened me, it was high time to come. As Aha • i • three Captains and their fifties that were sent to fetch Elijah: one said, come down: another, come down quickly: the last on his knees entreat; loe then God saith g • down with him, 2 King. 11.14. Wickedness says, wrath come down: presumpti •• says, come down quickly: but rebellion begs it without nay: and then G •• saith, Go down with it. Yea, as if sending for it were not speedy enough, and th • y would not in this business trust a messenger; they put off all state, and go themselves to fetch it. They bring it on themselves, Isaiah. 5.18. They draw iniquity 〈◊〉 cords of vanity, and sin as it were with a cartrope. That same threefold cord, 〈◊〉 easily broken, that Saint John speaks of, 1 John. 2.16. The lust of the flesh, the last 〈◊〉 the eyes, and the pride of life; this draws it home. But lest all these cords shall 〈◊〉 hold, hard-heartedness is the cartrope that shall fetch it with a mischief. W •• then doth a man complain for the punishment of his sins? Lam. 3.39. Punishment reassons with the wicked; why doest thou murmur in thy sufferings? Hast th •• been so many years a bringing me, sent so many messengers for me: and now I am here complainest thou? I was long a coming, I will be longer a departing. Ne • o fit repent miserrimus: no man becomes miserable on the sudden; such is God's patience: but being once made miserable, it is long before happiness returns; such • s God Justice. Miserie comes come on horse-back, but goes away on foot: sin quickly brings her, long repentance must drive her gone. From this point of doctrine may be deduced three collections.

1 That the wicked are the causers of their own condemnation. Esa. 50.1. Which of my creditors is it to whom, I have sold you? Behold, for your iniquities ye have • old yourselves. I took no money saith God, no price of any creditors for you; • ee have sold yourselves. Prov. 5.22. His own iniquity shall take the wicked him • else: there need no ginnes nor snares, nor plots to surprise him; his own sins • hall do it. Thou mayest say of thy sin, (as of thy son:) it is a child of • hine own begetting: concupiscence the mother lays it to thee, and thou must fa • her it. Psal. 64.8. They shall make their own tongue to fall upon themselves. Let • here be no plaintiffes to endite, no devils to accuse, their own tongues shall condemn them. Ier. 2.17. Hast thou not procured this unto thyself? Self do, self have. Procuring is a diligent laboring of a business: so they study to bring evil on themselves. Mic. 2.1. They meditate mischief; study to be naught. Let our • rovidence be never so vigilant, our circumspection heedful; sorrow will come: • ut these men study for it; they beat their brains, and break their sleeps, plot, consult, contrive; and all to bring on themselves swift destruction. It is true, that • his is not their immediate proposed end, but it is a necessary consequent. He that • o dignity for some hidden treasure undermines the foundation of a house; his end • s wealth; yet he knows the whole building will fall on his head, and quash him to pieces: if he do perish, let him thank himself.

2 Observe that God is not the cause of man's transgression or damnation. I am. • .13. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God. Seneca hath a saying not • nlike of the gods; Hii nec habent, nec dant malum. But it is objected; It is God's will that I should thus sin, and thus fall. Rom. 9.19. Why doth he yet find fault? who • ath resisted his will? My will is borne by the stream of his inevitable will, I sin by • ompulsion; why doth he then complain? ô detestable speech, that charges God with our iniquity; than which the grand devil could not roar a worse above ground. Consider their dilemma: evil is done, and God doth suffer it; whether then doth • e suffer it against his will, or with it? If against his will, this takes away his omni • otence: if with his will, than he willed it. For answer, the will of God is partly • ecret, wholly just: it is two ways considered. First as it is Signata, written in tables • ublished by a trumpet, seconded with blessings, curses, Then as Reservata, con • ealed, written in another book, wrapped up in the counsels of his own breast. What God formerly wills, is not done always, yea is done seldom: what in the • there respect he wills, is infallible. Sennacherib is a fool to challenge to himself; What God can deliver out of my hand? Nero to plead; my authority gives me license • o do all things. Rome, to challenge to her chair an impetuous, imperious, and • asterlesse will; to whom no man must say, as to the Lord, Cur ita facis, why doest • hou so? Thus they ground it. Esa. 10.15. Shall the saw magnify him that shaketh 〈◊〉 ? The saw must not lift up it self against him that moveth it; ergo let no man • udge the Pope. But they shall find to their woe, that this is only true of God; who • oeth whatsoever he will. If we press further into his secrets, we are bid stand back. Adam was driven out of Paradise for affecting too much knowledge: the Israelites • ad died the death, had they past their bounds, and climbed up to the Mount. Fifty • housand threescore and ten men of the Bethshemites were slain for looking into • he Ark. 1 Sam. 6.19. There are some unsearchable mysteries, as high as the • ighest heavens, covered with a curtain of sacred secrecy, not to be drawn till the • ay come, wherein we shall know as we are known. Now when men have spilled blood, defiled the marriage bed, provoked heaven with rapes, treasons, depopulations, blasphemies; what, have they then done the will of God? Indeed, in respe • t of his hidden purpose they have done his will, spite of all their malicious 〈◊〉 sworn contradictions. For De his qui faciunt quae non vult, facit ipse quae vult. Upon them that will not do as he would have it, he will do himself as he would 〈◊〉 it. But in respect of themselves the wicked have done what God willed not, for 〈◊〉 commanded the contrary; and hath expressed that will in his word.

But yet he wills their destruction, therefore they bring it not on themselves? G •• found them revolted to sin, indisposed to believe, and so he leaves them: he 〈◊〉 not give them faith, he needs not, he is not bound to it. This is God's hardeni • g Nolle emollire, when he will not soften. His making blind is Nolle illuminare, whe • he will not enlighten. His casting off is Nolle vocare, when he will not call ho •• Neither is this only a mere permission; for their is a degree of some forwarder disposition in God concerning the actions of unrighteousmen, than a bare toleration There is great difference between these speeches; Non vult, and Vult non: between he hath not a will to do it; and, he hath a will not to do it. The former arg ••• 〈◊〉 careless neglect, this a bent and resolved decree. A poor man asketh alms, so •• are not willing to relieve him, as not waighing his necessity: another hath a will not 〈◊〉 do it, a determinate refusal of mercy. This is then the conclusion; Multi 〈◊〉 laberentur detenti, nulli ut laberentur impulsi: God lifteth many up, there are 〈◊〉 whom he properly casteth down. Ab illo est quod statur, a nobis quod ruitur: b • him we stand, we fall off ourselves. O Israel, thou hast destroyed thyself; if the •• be any help, it is in me. Indeed it is my hand of justice that strikes, but thou by thy wickedness didst draw out the sword, and put the arrow into my bended bow: thy pestilent and stinking sins have conflated the plague wherewith I strike thee. Go • would have spared them, they would not be spared; Accelerant sibi; They bring destruction on themselves; and still Thou continuest holy, Oh thou worship of Israel.

3 Observe that themselves bring it; therefore not any fatal necessity out of themselves, but their own malice within them. There be some that say, It is 〈◊〉 destiny to do this or that sin, the stars have signed it. Mercury committed the theft, Mars the murder, Venus the adultery. This is a barking at God's Justice indirectly, involvedly, and somewhat afar off, to charge the influences of heaven. As if forsooth, God did not instigate them to sin immediately by himself, yet by other instruments. Thus Adam insinuated an imputation upon God; M • li •• quam tu mihi dedisti; The woman which thou gavest me: as if God had given him 〈◊〉 woman to tempt him. Sed haec ruina est maxima, Deum putare causam ruinae: this i • the fearefullest ruin of all, to accuse the Lord for the cause of our ruin. There i • no fatal necessity from above, that drives man to sin. Saint Augustine confi ••• them that used to charge the stars with their impiety. A woman was given to 〈◊〉 , and often played the harlot: which when her husband found, and objected to her she excused her self, and pleaded that it was Venus which caused her to do so. H •• upon he took a staff, and cudgel'd her for it: then she complained of his un •••• ralnesse, to strike his own flesh: that she was his wife, dear unto him, and he o • g •• not to beat her. He replied, it is not you, wife, that I strike but Venus: declari •• that as it was not she that played the whore, but Venus in her: so it was not she 〈◊〉 he did beat, but Venus out of her. A thief hath stolen thy goods, thou takest 〈◊〉 in the manner: he cries, let me alone, and charge Mercury with it, he stole •• goods. No wise Judge would indite or arraign Mercury, call a star from ••• ven; but cut off an ill member from the earth. Thus neither can the wicked ch •• the stars or any other creatures with their destruction. True it is that God 〈◊〉 their instrumental means often in executions. Judge. 5.20. They fought from he •••• the stars in their courses fought against Sisera. In the days of Noah the windo • 〈◊〉 heaven were opened so wide, that they drowned the world. 2 King. 1.10. Fire 〈◊〉 down from heaven, and consumed those that came to apprehend the Prophet. But there could be no destruction about us, if there were no corruption within us, 1 Pet. 3.13. Who, or what shall harm you, if ye follow that which is good? nothing. It is our wickedness that makes the earth barren, the air infectious, the influences of heaven unkindly. If Pharaohs heart had not been hard, all those plagues had fallen besides him. Let us go into ourselves; the head aches, the members are sick, but the stomach is in fault. Neither man nor devil could destroy us, if we did not destroy ourselves. GOD makes a wicked man Heautontimoreumenon, a self-troubler▪ it is a sore pu • ishment, when men are forced to punish themselves. The whip that must scourge the wicked, is of their own making; every cord whereof they have curiously • wisted. The potion of bitterness which they must drink off, hath all the ingredients of their own putting in. Indeed, saith the Psalm; The Lord hath mixed it; • e may compound it, but of their materials: he need not put in a dram more, • or they afford themselves destruction enough. Psal. 109.18. As he clothed him • else with cursing, like as with a garment, so let it come like water into his bowels, and like • yle into his bones. He made cursing his clothing; it is fit he should wear his own garment. Indeed Hell was not made for nothing, and Tophet was prepared for them: • ut they should never feel it, till they had prepared themselves for Tophet. GOD in his Justice would not bring them to destruction, unless they first by their wic • ednesse did bring destruction to themselves. We see the punishment of denying Christ: O let us never be such enemies to ourselves, that have so good a friend as I • SUS CHRIST.

Destruction.] This is the measure of their punishment. O yet if the Justice of God would but chide them, not beat them: or if it did beat them, yet with rods, • ot with scourges: or if it did scourge them, yet with whips, not with Scorpions: or • f with Scorpions, yet not with burning flames: or if with burning flames, yet not with unquenchable flames: Oh yet it anything might serve but utter and endless • uine; Destruction! This is an indefinite word, of full latitude, that knows neither measure nor cessation; but comprehends all plagues, external on body, internal on • oule, eternal on both: a punishment of extremity, of universality; Destruction.

God concealeth the m • nner, but denounceth the measure. Destruction is either • emporall in this world, or eternal in the world to come. If we first consider it • emporally, we shall find it heavy enough: Incerti generis, sed certissimi ponderis. • onas 3.4. Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be destroyed. He lets them know of a de • ruction, but he tells them not how: the quantity is plain, the quality is hidden. • iniveh might have been plagued many ways, and yet stood upon her foundation • ill. With want of rain, as Samaria in the days of Ahab: with want of bread, • at women did eat their own children, as in the days of Jehoram: with pestilence, • s in the days of David: with the siege of enemies, as was Betulia: with the ty • annie and exaction of her own Kings, as once was Rome. But these are all too • ght in GOD'S balance, and nothing will satisfy his Justice, but her final subver • on. So is it denounced against the wicked, Hosea 7.13. Destruction unto them, be • use they have transgressed against me. Prov. 16.18. Pride goeth before destruction. • hus they understand the general, not the special: this holds them in suspense, • d adds to their fear, when they know not what they should study to prevent. • OD hath always enow to do it; Mille nocendi arts; he speaks of four grie • ous plagues, Ezek. 14.21. The sword, the famine, the noisome beast, and the pestilence. 〈◊〉 he should particularly threaten the famine, how would they hoard up corn, like • seph; fill their barns, their grainars, penuaries, and store-houses? If the Beasts, • ow would they be provided of engines to kill them? If the Pestilence, how would •• y shift ground, and run from their country, as vermin from an house on fire? If • e enemies Sword, what mustering of men, scouring of armor, preparing of muniti •• , levying of forces, exercise of arms, would there be? Cities would be victualled, • piers repaired, Holds fortified; art and labor would study the best prevention, at least so far as their wisdom reached. Though indeed the best is flying to God by penitent supplication. Amos 4.12. Thus will I do unto thee, and because I will do th •• , Prepare to meet thy God, O Israel. Divers plagues are threatened in that Chapter; from which the prophet proves there is no evasion, but by repentance. Yet are men so averse from goodness, that as a guilty person before the Magistrate, seeks not 〈◊〉 amend his fault, but to know his accuser, and to be quit with him. Which of these shall be it, God knows: the least will serve, what havoc will the greatest make.

Destruction.] there is nothing to be bated of total ruin. Ier. 49.9. If Grape-g • therers come, would they not leave some gleaning grapes? If thieves by night, they will 〈◊〉 till they have enough. This justice will leave none, but the wicked shall be preyed upon by insatiate judgment, till nothing be left. Mat. 18.25. His Lord commanded him to be sold, &c. That servant ought ten thousand talents; what had he received? But to pay this debt, non habuit unde; he had not wherewithal. Nec aurum, nec arvum, nec amic •• ; No works, no prayers, nothing. Then the Lord commanded him to be sold, and his wi •• , and children, and all that he had, to make payment. He might have been sold Hims ••• e▪ but his wife? Or, himself and his wife, but his poor children? Or, if himself, wi •• , and children, yet also All that he had? Nothing to be left him, not so much as bread 〈◊〉 sustain him, nor apparel to hide his nakedness? No, all must be sold, that all may be paid; here is utter destruction. God's judgment like a canker on a tree, first ears 〈◊〉 the leaves; but leaves not there; at last consumes tree and all.

Let this teach us how to think of our sins, and their violent precipitating 〈◊〉 to destruction. Unless we value the wealth of our country, the health of our friends, the peace of our consciences, the life of our bodies and souls, at so low a rate: as H ••• rius lying quietly at Ravenna, prised Rome. When he heard that Rome was taken, he looked pale, fearing it had been his Hen, called Roma: but understanding it • o be no worse than the Cities loss, he laughed at the news. So except we esteem our own lusts and vanities, more than the well-fare of the whole Land, and think the loss of all no more than if a Fly were taken in the web of a Spider: let us confess and redress our sins. Do we marvel in this rebellious age, why the barren turfe yields pale and hungry grass, if the hail spoil the Vine, whirl-winds the Olive; if pestilent breaths corrupt the air: let us look to our sins, and ce • se marvelling. Not that there is destruction, but that there is not destruction, is the wonder. No marvel if miseries come, the marvel is that they stay so long. Let it not be so with us, as Josephus thought of Jerusalem; that if the Romans had not invaded them, the very earth would have swallowed them. Let us fall to our seasonable deprecation, that the LORD destroy us not. Ierem. 3.22. Return 〈◊〉 backsliding children, and I will heal your backslidings. Behold, we come unto thee, f •• thou art the Lord our God. Be our sins less, and our prayers more, that we may find mercy.

We have yet but lightly weighed the unsupportable lode of their punishme •• , and confined it to the circle of this present world. Now this wound will be deep enough, especially when an almighty hand shall give it. Ezek. 21.27. I will ov • rturne, overturn, overturn it, and it shall be no more. If the first subversion serve n •• , the second shall effect it: if they both leave anything undone, the third shall acco • plish it. Overturne his Diadem, (for there it is spoken of the evil Princes cro ••• yet he remains a man: overturn his life, yet there is hope of another: nay, 〈◊〉 overturn his soul, here is Destruction in her extremest spoil. So verse. 14. I • 〈◊〉 sword be doubled the third time; if the two first blows should leave any life be •••• them. Joel. 1.4. What the Palmer-worm leaves, let the Locust eat: what the Locust 〈◊〉 let the Canker-worm eat: what the Canker-worm leaves, let the Caterpillar devo • re. 〈◊〉 the sword have left ought, the plague shall consume it: if the glutted plague 〈◊〉 any scrappes, the famine shall eat them up. So Exod. 10.15. what the hail h •• 〈◊〉 that the Locusts devoured. Punishment shall grow like a gangrene, and never rest •••• ling, till all be festered. Isaiah 1.5. Why should ye be stricken anymore? He smites 〈◊〉 when there shall be no need of a second blow. Nah, 1.9. He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time. Here destruction is like Sodom fire, that left nothing behind it: they were stricken but once, that once was enough. As Abishai said to David concerning Saul in the trench, 1 Sam. 26.8. Let me smite him with the spear even to the earth at once, and I will not smite him the second time. Let this destruction take away their friends, yet they can live of themselves: let it take away their riches, they can begin the world again, and set up their trade afresh, though they were broken. Let it take away their liberty, they can beg thorough a grate: let it take away their life, they are then destroyed. This is part of their potion, one bitter ingredience of their Cup, Psalm. 75.8. In the hand of the LORD there is a cup, and the wine is red: it is full of mixture, and he poureth out of the same: but the dregs thereof all the wicked of the earth shall wring them out, and drink them. It is a Cup; well, there is a cup that David thirsts for, Psalm. 116. I will take the Cup of salvation. There is Wine in it, better: for wine cheers the heart, and puts alacrity into the spirits. That wine is Red, better still: so it should be, this argues the luster and goodness of it, Prov. 23.31. Look not upon the wine when it is red, and gives the color in the cup: the color adds to the pleasure. But now it is Full of mixture, alas this mixture spoils all: it is compounded, brewed, made unwholesome: this changeth the condition of the cup, of the wine, of the color, of all. It is mixed with the wrath of God, malice of Satan, the anguish of soul, the gall of sin, the tears of despair: it is Red, that is, of a sanguine color, the wine of blood. But yet so long as it is in the cup they need not meddle with it: nay but the Lord will pour it out, he shall hold their mouths to it, and make them drink it: the rankest poison in the world, the gall of Dragons, and venom of Asps, is pleasant and healthful to it. Yet be it but a little of the top, let them but taste it: nay they must drink it off, to the very bottom, the sediments, dregs, lees and all; even the very filth of vengeance. And lest any drops should be left behind, they shall wring them out, and suck them down to their confusion. The Cup is all bitter, and full of sorrow, saith Augustine: the godly do often taste the top, and feel the bitterness, but then it is suddenly snatched from them: but the ungodly shall drink the very grounds, and extremest poison. Prov. 16.5. Though hand join in hand, they shall not be unpunishmed. Though head be laid to head for council, and hand knit in hand for strength, yet shall there be no prevailing against it. Though Achitophel side with Absalom, Herod conspire with Pilate, Dathan confederate with Corah: though the drunkard join hands with the blasphemer, the blasphemer with the adulterer, the adulterer with the Idolater, the Idolater with the persecutor, the persecutor with the traitor, the traitor with the Jesuit, the Jesuit with the Devil; yet they shall not escape unpunished. Destruction shall stick as faithfully to them, as the skin to their flesh. Our sins deserve destruction, our repentance is no satisfaction; it is only God's mercy in Christ that gives absolution.

Yet is all this but a temporal or corporal subversion, there is more behind, even eternal perishing. This is the sore extent, which reacheth to hell it self. Therefore we find these two, Hell and Destruction, most commonly united, Prov. 27.20. Hell and destruction are never full. Phil. 3.19. Their end is destruction, that is miserable: their destruction without end, that is more miserable. If man only smarted with the dislodging of his soul; alas, she might by Jesus find a better bed: Death being to the faithful but a busy dream; When they awake, they shall behold the face of God in righte •• snesse, and be satisfied with his likeness. Like the red-sea, puts them over to the Land of Promise. There is a lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and false prophet are, and •• all • e tormented day and night, forever and ever. This is the place of residence for • hese false prophets: this is Destruction in her full pay, weight, and measure.

They bring on themselves swift destruction.] Swift: You see the Authors of their • unishment, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Themselves: the measure, which is beyond all measure, Destruction. Two full aggravations of their unhappines: Themselves; O yet, Si alienâ manu, non propriâ; that they might complain of others, and acquit themselves! Needs must those sins be sown like hemp-seed with curses, which must make halters for themselves. They might say to an enemy, or to their old companion in errors. Liceat perituris •• iribus ignis, igne perire tuo; and this might seem Cladem author levare. But themselves bring it; not that they lay violent hands upon their own flesh or spirit, but by con •• quent. As no man properly and immediately calls the dropsy to him, yet by insati • e drinking of unwholesome liquors he procures it, Rom. 6.21. For the end of these things is death. Destruction is tied to the end of sin, as Sampson tied fire to the foxes tails. Or, as a great weight of lead is bound to a small cord; it seems nothing to pull the cord, but the lead comes withal, and quasheth the puller to pieces. Th •• is the vexation, when they feel extreme torments, they shall curse themselves 〈◊〉 the cause. True it is, they shall blaspheme God desperately, Rev. 16.11. Curse the devil maliciously, and execrate other company: expressed by gnashing their teeth, the effect of an impatient fury: but at last they shall be convinced, and have this • cknowledgement extorted from them; Proprijs configimur armis, we have destroy •• ourselves. Besides, the measure of this self-procured woe, is destruction: all the dregs of the violl, all the plagues in the storehouse of Almighty Justice; so far 〈◊〉 man's passive nature is capable; infinite in extension; what falls short in breadth, to be supplied in length; infinite in everlasting passion. Now the last ingredient to 〈◊〉 bitter potion remains: to the author and measure, the manner, Swift. When i • shall come, it makes no sparing; before it do come, it gives no warning. Nothi •• is more sure to dispatch them, nothing more quick to attach them; it is Swift destruction.

Suddaine destruction seizeth on the wicked. There are judgments that creep on a man by degrees, every pull of pain being a warning of dissolution. These are easier. 1. Because preparation is rendered, and so the mind begins to be fortified against them. The first seen Cockatrice is less noxious. Either we may hide ourselves, Prov. 22.3. The prudent man foreseeth the evil, and hideth himself. Where? Psalm 9.6. The Lord is a Refuge in the time of trouble. Under the wings of mercy, he hideth himself in the Lord, from the Lord. Or, by a well furnished and resolute opposition; Pugnent arma armis: put • ing it to a courageo • s venture for the victory. Or, by a well-tempered patience to sustain; as woo • meets iron, and turns the stern violences to soft embraces. 2. Because the mind is the better inured to bear or encounter those evils, to which it hath been exercised; as with wooden weapons men learn to fight at the sharp. Lam. 3.27. It 〈◊〉 good for a man to bear the yoke in his youth. In the Fable, when the new and old Ca • went together, the new made a creaking noise under the lode, and wondered at the silence of the old: which answered; I am accustomed to these burdens, therefo • e bear them and am quiet. This is the benefit of sustaining crosses in youth, such a one knows how to bear them still. Thus death becomes welcome to us, because we are acquainted with his messengers. Fot when life which is held a friend, becomes an enemy; then death which is an enemy becomes a friend. It was promised to o •• Israelite, that he should beat ten enemies: now he that conquered the odds, will 〈◊〉 cowardly shrink at the equality. 3. Because the sense is weakened by much ••• fering: usual beating makes the child less to fear the rod. The faithful are 〈◊〉 well acquainted with God's gentle chastisements, that they know it is the same h ••• that strikes still: perhaps now in death a little smarter at once, that it may ne ••• strike them more. Thus a consumption doth so by degrees spend up the choleric •• mours, exhaust the spirits, and weaken the sense; that the tyranny of death is 〈◊〉 in the want of our feeling. Some of the martyrs that were tumbled down from exceeding high rocks, left the bitterness of the pangs of death in the mid-way 〈◊〉 their journey; and their souls went up to heaven, before their bodies came down to earth. 4. Lastly, threatened punishment hath lost the nature of suddenness, though • gh not in the passion, yet in the person: it may dispatch with speed, but the pati ••• before expected it. So when God menaceth, and formerly gives notice, he means not to destroy. Jonah comes to Nineveh, and peremptorily threatens destruction, with the determinate limits of forty days: but God gave a feeling of it in the heart, that there might not be a feeling of it in the flesh. Non est eversa, sed conversa; The sin of the City was overthrown, the City stood. All menaces are not categoricall, some are hypothetical: neither doth this argue in God levity, but mercy. Novit Deus aliquando mutare sententiam, nunquam novit mutare consilium. God sometimes altereth his sentence, but he never altereth his purpose. Minatur quod faciat, ne faciat quod minatur; If men's apprehensive hearts repent, there is a retraction of the judgment. If God give not his preventing sorrow, the punishment shall be new enough to the sufferer, how old soever it be in respect of the decreer. Isaiah 10.22. The consumption decreed shall over-flow with righteousness.

But this is Swift perdition: Quo celerius, eo severius; A man thinks lingering evils swift enough, though they come the Tortoise pace, pedetentim, yea, serpentim, sliding on. Though the fabric of his body be as long a plucking down, as the Temple of Jerusalem was a building up; six and thirty years. Yet still they say to sickness, as the devils said to Christ; Why comest thou to torment us before our time? Matth. 8.29. Yea, could it give us as long warning, as Noah gave the old world; a • hundred and twenty years; yet Festinas Domine, Lord thou art too hasty: they find fault with the precipitation. Let the siege to thy life be as the Grecians to Troy, of ten years continuance; yet still thou sayest, it comes De improviso, I did not look for it so soon. But we know whose mouth hath spoken it. Psal. 55.23. Men of bloods and deceit; non dimidiabunt dies suos; shall not live out half their days.