Commentary on 2 Peter

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

3. Lastly, having got the knowledge of God, let us be sure to remember him. Remember thy Creator, in the days of thy youth. Where we have an act enjoined, Remember: an object presented, thy Creator: a time prescribed, In the days of thy youth. Job confesseth that GOD did write bitter things against him, when he made him to remember the sins of his youth: yet still in the days of our youth let us remember GOD. To remember, is sometimes used for consideration; Remember thy Maker: sometimes for prevision, Remember thy end: sometimes for Caution; Remember Lots wife: sometimes for Injunction, Remember to sanctify the Sabbath: and in respect of thanks-giving: so Pharaohs Butler forgot Joseph, that is, he was not thankful to him. The Romans had their Ancestors pictures in their houses, thereby to stir them up to the imitation of their nobleness. There can be no picture of an infinite and invisible GOD: but there is no creature, which doth not occasion us to remember him. The understanding is hardly wrought upon, therefore we have many precepts: the will is hard to tame, the affections are stubborn to be rectified: but it is easy to remember. No seal can be set on running water, nor goodness be begotten in a forgetful hearer. There is a sensitive memory that shall perish, but the intellective memory is the Soul it self. Know therefore, that thou mayest remember, remember that thou mayest practice. Without impression, meditation hath no ground: without meditation, impression hath no growth. GOD begun his Law, with Remember who brought thee out of bondage: Christ instituted his Holy Sacrament, with Do this in remembrance of me. We had better never have known him, than not remember him. The merciful and gracious Lord hath so done his marvelous works, that they ought to be had in remembrance. Therefore, Bless the Lord O my Soul, and forget not all his benefits. Let our memory be the Gallery of our Soul, hung all about with the Pictures and Stories of GOD'S mercies and blessings towards us. Let us remember him at all times in this our Pilgrimage; and He will hear us, when we pray with that penitent Thief; Lord, remember us in Thy Kingdom.

One day is with the LORD, as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.] Diuerse interpreters have derived this Sentence out of the Psalm: A thousand years in thy sight, are but as yesterday, when it is past. If two Harps be placed together, and tuned alike; when you strike a String of the one, you shall hear an Vnisone answer of the other, by reason of the Consent and Harmony between them: Such an Accordance hath the New Testament with the Old, being both tuned by the same Spirit; that the Sound and Tone of the one is rendered by the other: and it is true of them, what was fancied of those Twins; they neither frown nor smile, but both together. DAVID and PETER wrote in distant times, and with several pens; yea, they were the several pens of the same Holy Ghost: yet (without wonder) they Record the same thing. Face doth not more answer to. Face in the Water; than APOSTLE doth answer to PROPHET in the SCRIPTVRE.

Out of this place, and that other in the Psalm, have been collected dangerous Tenants. First, that the world shall last but six thousand years, as it was made in six days: because a thousand years with the Lord, is but as one day. The inventers of this opinion, I take to be the Hebrews: who have curio • sly observed, that Aleph, is six times repeated in the first verse of Genesis, for the beginning of the world: out of which they strangely pick the duration of a, which they limit to 6000. years. Those Rabbins, Solomon and Isaac are principally taxed for it. Among the Ancients, Jerome, Lactantius, Justin, Hilary, Ire • a • : of the later Authors, Picus, Mirandula, Franciscus, Venetus, Galatinus: to omit Trismegistus, the Thalmuds, the Sybils. But why should men presume to find out that which God hath hidden from the Angels? Secondly, there is an opinion, that because it is said of Adam, thou shalt die in the same day thou eatest of the forbidden fruit: a day is not there to be taken strictly, according to our account of days; but as it is with God, before whom a thousand years are but as a day: and because Adam died within a thousand years after, therefore he died the same day. God indeed appointed to Ezekiel forty days for forty years, each day for a year; but that he appointed Adam a thousand years for a day, is a strange and strained collection. So the Papists would have that thief to pass from the Cross into Purgatory; notwithstanding, that promise; This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise, because a thousand years with God are but one day. But it is not said, they are one day, but as one day; and in the sight of God, that is in respect of eternity. But my purpose is not to trouble you with these nice in pertinences. I come to some observations and conclusions.

1 Time is that inferior Parent and devourer of things: time gave them composition, and time will bring them to dissolution. Heaven and Earth shall wax old with time: The world began with time, and time with it. Quicquid movetur, movetur in tempore, That which changeth, habuit primum, & habebit ultimu • . The world changeth from Spring to Summer, and then to Autumn, till at last, w •• ter bury all in death, but that which shall be restored in the resurrection. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ▪ time is a wise workman: nay, but rather he was a wise workem • n that made time. We must distinguish of precedencies; what is first in Eternity, what in Time, what in Election, what in Original. In Eternity G • d go •• before all: in Time, Flos fructum, the flower is before the fruit: in E • c ••• , Fructus florem, the fruit is before the flower: in Original, Son • s can • um, the sound is before the song. If we ask what is first? God, the An • ent of d ye • •• der God and his glory, what appears beautifullest.? The world: what is g e • test? Place: what is swiftest? the Mind: what is strongest? Necessity: what is wisest? Time, the inventor of Arts. Time was, when ignorance and blind opinion did defy Asculapius, for drawing of a tooth: and Vulcan, for making a lock; for he knew not how to make a clock: There was no clock in Rome about three hundred years before Christ, if we believe antiquity. But now Time hath perfected skill, discovered new worlds, found out the artillery of Gunnes, those demolishing engines; invented Printing, a rare means to disperse knowledge, and opened unto us the mysteries of nature. It is called the Parent of truth: yet this beginner, is also a waster. Tempus edax rerum: therefore is Saturn painted, eating up his own children. Time saw the Creation, shall shall see the dissolution, together with all the changes and chances in the proceeding: yet I will tell you what Time never saw. It never saw the righteous forsaken, nor their seed begging their bread. It never saw God forget his promise, nor Christ lose his purchase: it never saw the soul of a believer perish. We may truly say of this great work of our Redemption: Neque Doemonis ira, nec ignis, Non ferrum poterit, nec edax abolere vetustas.

2 God is the Creator, Disposer and Preserver of Time: who spannes the world in his fist, and measures the waters in the hollow of his hand: Who brings forth W • zzaroth in his season, binds the sweet influences of Pleiades, and looseth the bands of Orion. It is not for us to know the times, which the Father hath put in his own Power, He made time, the motion of Heaven to measute it; hours, days and years to distinguish it: Only he can give time, that is above all time. Man may shorten thy natural term some years, he cannot lengthen it one hour. The Priest may do a thing which he cannot undo: he can tie a matrimonial knot, which he cannot loosen. The Prince may undo a thing which he cannot do: he can dissolve the marriage knot between the soul and the body, which being undone, he cannot tie again. Only God Omnipotent can do and undo, divide and reunite, kill and give life, increase our time or lessen it. He is Pater aeternitatis, and Dominus temporum. So he created it; Let them be for seasons: So he renewed it; Day and Night, Summer and Winter shall not cease: So he continues it; There is a time for all things; unto the dissolution of the world. For time had no being before, nor shall have after. Not before; therefore the Scripture says, Ante tempora seculorum, and Ante jacta mundi fundamenta. Nor after for the Angel swears, There shall be no more time. In that City, there shall be no night, but everlasting day, which is Eternity. What needs any Generation, where is no corruption? Or distinction of that by time, which admits of no accident, no permutation? I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end, saith the Lord, which is, and which was, and which is to come. Some think these three times belong severally to the three Persons: Because the Father is called o • , I am: the Son. He that was; In the beginning was the Word: The Holy Ghost, which is to come: The Comforter shall come. But indeed every term belongs to every Person; and all time, past, present, or future, is only the Lord's. Therefore • must say with the Apostle; doth any man lack time? as he, Doth any man lack wisdom, let him ask it of God? If men want silver, let them ask the rich: if counsel, let them ask the learned: if help, let them ask the strong: if countenance, let them ask the Noble: But with time, none can supply them but God. Yea, and let us return all time to his glory: He is our first letter, Alpha, let us begin with him: he is our last, Omega, let us end with him.

3 Our whole life, be it never so long compared with God, or presented to measure with eternity, is so short, as if it were nothing. The longest liver reached not to a thousand years, and that is not a d • y unto God. Thou art the same, and thy years shall have no end. Are thy days as the days of man? Aeternitas Dei est interminabilis: vitae ipsius tota simul, perfectaque possessio. He is called The living God: It is an ancient and usual title to the Almighty; especially when he would disgrace an unworthy rivall. As Saint Paul in his speech to the Lystrians, opposes to their vain Idols, the living God. I need not make man worse than he is, nor his condition more miserable than it is: but could I, though I would? As a man cannot flatter God, nor over-praise him: so he cannot injure man, nor vndervalue him. He is made to possess months of vanity. Menses, ecc • brevitas: fatuos, ecce vanitas. Paul calls the whole time of our life, Hodie, today: Long life is but a summers day: short life, a winters day: troublesome life, a gloomy day. But it should seem, a day is too long a word for it▪ therefore Isaiah calls it momentum, hid • thyself for a moment: and David, Nihilum, mine age is nothing. The several laborers that were called into the Vineyard at several hour, received an equal reward; because a thousand years to God are bu • as one day. The Prophet Haggai, foretelling the coming of Christ almost five hundred years before hand, calls it but Modicum, a little while. So vain a thing is man: but, As I live, is the oath of God: neither do I remember anything, besides his holiness and his life, that he swears by. He is, he lives; • nd nothing is, nothing lives absolutely, but he: all other things by participation from him. In all other things, their life and they are two: but God is his own life, and the life of God is no other than the Living God. And because he is his own life, he is Eternal. Of such validity was the argument of Thomas against the Gentiles: Nothing ceaseth to be, but by a separation of life; and nothing can be separated from it self: for every separation is a division of one thing from another. But the Living God is a simple, absolute, and eternal Being. There is no similitude that can bear any proportion, in the illustrating of this point. A furlong is a great journey to a Snaile, to a Horse or Hound it is nothing. A hundred miles is a greater journey for a man by Land, than a hundred leagues by Sea. A Ship with a forewinde, will reach far in a day: what is it to the voyage of the Sun, that every day surrounds the world? In all these there is an intervenient necessity of place, time and motion; which belong not to the infinite eternity of God.

4 We may read hear the great difference between the Divine blessedness, and our happiness in this world. All our pleasures or benefits have their times, and are denominated according to the seasons wherein they befall us. Of so poor elements is our happiness made, that time must concur to the being of it: and that we can scarce call anything, is the something; the main thing the essential part of our false happiness. All things are done in time, and what is time, but the measure of motion? It may seem to have three stations; past, present, and future: yet the first and the last of these are not; one is not now, and the other is not yet. And that which we call present, is not now the same that it was, when we began to call it so: Before we can pronounce the word [Present] or the monasyllable [Now] the present and the now is past. Well then, if this imaginary half-nothing, Time, be of the essence of our felicity, how can it be durable! Time is not so; nay, how can it be at all? Time is not so; not so, considered in any parts of it. How poor a felicity is that, which consists in a watchfulness to lay hold upon occasion; which yet is but a little piece of that which is nothing, Time? And yet the best things are beholden to this Nothing, for all their something. For what content do we find in things out of season? Let the Prince give a title of honor to a man on his death-bed, can it mitigate one pang he feels! What is the name of a Lord to him, that shall not live to hear himself called so? that shall never come into the people's eyes, to receive honor from them who give it? Pleasures and possessions, presented to us out of time in our decrepit age, lose both their names and natures: They are not pleasures to us, who have lost our sense to taste them: they are not possessions to us, who are departing from the possession of them: we will soon be weary of them, when we are once weary of ourselves. Youth is the time that denominates them; the season that makes them pleasures or possessions: And when they are presented to us in an unapprehensive age, they come as a Cordial when the bell rings out, as a Pardon when the head is off. Thus are we bound and bounded with time: but God is eternity, and into that time never entered. For eternity is not an everlasting flux of time; but time is a short Parenthesis, in a long period: and Eternity had been the same as it is, though time had never been at all. There is Eternity, that hath neither beginning not end; which is God himself: and there is perpetuity, that which we call everlasting Life, the state of our Souls in glory: this hath a time to begin in, but it shall out-live Time, and be when Time shall be no more. Now what a minute is the life of the durablest creature, compared to this Everlastingnesse? What a minute is man's life, in respect of the Suns, or a Trees? The world is not a minute to eternity, Mans life, but a minute to the worlds: Occasion is but a minute to our life, and yet we scarce apprehend a minute of this occasion: we do not lay hold on this opportunity, wherein we may receive good, and become blessed.

4 I am loath to pass this point, without some useful application. God is eternal, and may do all things at his own leisure: whether it pleaseth him to do the work of a thousand years in a day, or extend the work of a day to a thousand years. But we are limited to time for all our actions: and as we are sure our life shall not reach to a thousand years, so we are not sure that it shall last out a whole day. He that observeth the wind, shall not sow: but he that observeth not the time to sow, shall never reap. It is a preposterous course, while the ground is ready, the weather seasonable, the Oxen in heart, the Instruments at hand, to sleep: and then to begin sowing, when others are ready to reap. He that plays all Summer may dance all winter, but he shall have sory music to it. The old world had a time, while Noah preached: Sodom had a time, while Lot admonished: Pharaoh had a time, while Moses wrought wonders: Jerusalem had a time, during Christ's doctrine and miracles: the rich churl had a time, while Lazarus begged crumbs: but both they lost time, and time hath lost them; for they are cast into that darkness, into which time cannot enter: It is a long night, when it will never be day. Abraham, Samuel, David, when they went about their holy businesses, rose early. Christ, with his Auditors, came to Church early. Mary came to the Sepulcher early; In the first day of the week, and first hour of the day. Too many defer it till the last week of their life, the last day of the week, the last hour of the day, the last minute of the hour. But let us not build upon Mercedem adepti undecimae horae operarij, that they had their pence, which came into the Vineyard at the eleeventh hour: For it was not operis, sed misericordiae; his mercy that gave them, not their merit that earned them. There can be no more earnest way of getting in, than knocking; nor more innocent souls than Virgines: And then think there can be but small hope, of that mercy at the last hour, which hath been so strange as to give no ear, to so great a suite, as knocking, and of so young and innocent, as Virgines. But it may be you stick at that singular example of the penitent malefactor, who found favor at the last, a good death, the conclusion of a bad life, and went up from the Cross to the Crown. Do not venture on the hope of that happiness with the loss of present repentance. Athanasius says of that thief, that he was always a thief: Living, he was a thief, and stole from men: dying, he was a thief and stole from God. He stole from men the goods of this Earth, by an injurious surreption: He stole from Christ eternal good; even the kingdom of Heaven, by his humble confession. All men have not the luck to steal themselves into Heaven, in spite of Hell: many have the fate, to cozen themselves into Hell, in spite of Heaven.

5 Let us be covetous of no worldly thing but time: and of this not for the duration of our pleasures, but to work up the salvation of our souls. For he that desires time to gratify the sense of his lusts; is not unlike that Epicure, who wished a Cranes neck to prolong the sweetness of his meats. There is no usury lawful but this: not that men should sell time to improve moneys, but husband time to improve grace: If otherwise, a long time shall bring but a long reckoning: For Quantum temporis nobis impensum est, exigetur à nobis qualiter expensum est. When God gives us time to do the business we came for; it leaves us either without imperfection, or without excuse. Sicut non capillus de capite, sic nec momentum peribit de tempore. Neither a hair shall perish from our heads, nor a moment from our times. Redeem the time saith Saint Paul: Many things are far fetchd, and dear bought, fit for rich purses, and curious palates: But there is a poor contemptible herb in the Garden, more precious than they all; Time: this we pass by in neglect, yet this is especially worth our gathering. The price of it appears in the diminution: nothing besides, is of that nature, for it is diminished by addition. Every hour added to our time of life, is so much time taken from life. If a day be added to our beginning, we are by a day nearer our ending. Each step sets us forward to our graves; and we are nearer now, than when we entered the Church-doors. Yea when it is past, it is past recovery. If a man lose his health, it may be recovered again by physic and diet. If he lose his goods, they may be found again; as we have heard of Jewels lost in the cease, and yet brought home again in the bowels of fishes. Though he lose his life, it shall be restored him in the resurrection. Yea, some have lost the feeling of the favor of God, and found it again by repentance. Only time once lost, is never to be found. We may say of opportunity, as he wrote of virginity. Jewels once lost are found again, this never: It's lost but once, and once lost, lost forever. Time goes away by minutes, therefore is not perceived: the shorter steppes it taketh, the more insensibly it passeth. Therefore as it steals upon us, let us welcome it with good industry: and as it steals from us, let us send it away with a good testimony: Thus though it quickly leaves us, it shall not leave us worse than it found us.

6 The narrow capacity of mortal men, wonders how it is possible for God to dispatch so much business in so short a space. The last Audit is called The day of judgment: a day consists but of twelve hours: what are twelve hours to try the several causes of twelve millions, as the Disciples said: Here are five loaves, but what are they among five thousand. Two Judges have much ado to hear two hundred causes at a Session: this last universal Assizes shall have the appearance of all the world; and can they all be judged in one day? Yes, why not in one day, as well as in a thousand years, seeing a thousand years with God is but as one day? Are thy days, as the days of man, that according to his measure thou shouldest search after sin? Man must take his times for doing justice, as some read that of the Psalm, not disagreeing from the Original: When I shall take a set time, I will judge uprightly. It was a temptation able to shake any man, but a David, when he sees Saul in his cave, and hears such an argument urged by his followers: This is the day of which the Lord hath said, I will deliver thine enemy into thine hand. The time, the place, the color of Justice, and a pretence of the promise of God, seem to carry such command; that David must be wanting to Heaven and himself, if he let slip this occasion. Malice is ever provident, and lays hold upon opportunity: that more subtle enemy of Hell will lose no time, but hath great wrath, because he knows he hath but a short time. The Priests came up by steppes into the Temple: The Angels came down to Jacob by steppes upon the Ladder: But we find no stair by which God himself came to Adam in Paradise, or to Sodom in his anger: for he and he only, is able to do all at once. Thus easy is it for him, in a day to judge the causes of many thousand years, to whom a thousand years is no more than a day.

7. He, to whom one day and a thousand years are of equal length, can make our days longer or shorter, though they seem not so to us; or make them seem longer or shorter to us, though they be the same. Joshua might be thought to command the greatest Planets of Heaven, to stay their courses; Sun stand thou still in Gibeon, and thou Moon in the valley of Aialon. For Him that gave them both Being and Motion, to bid them stand still, is no difficulty, though the rareness deserves Admiration: But for a man, that lives by the influence of the Stars, while he is below on Earth, to command those glorious Lights in Heaven; it is more than a Wonder. It was not Joshua, but his Faith that did it: not by way of Precept, but of Prayer. God never got Himself so much Honor among the Heathen by one days Work; when five Kings and their huge Armies fell together, It appeared to the Israelites a longer Day than ever they saw before: but to the bleeding Amorites, a longer Day than it was. Faine would they have been shadowed under the Curtain of Night, and still they looked when the Evening should cease all pursuit: but the Sun had his Lesson; he must not go down, till they were all down before him: and the Evening must be red with the Sea of rebellious blood. The Sun and Moon were the ordinary gods of the Pagan World: and who did not look that their standing still but one hour, should be the ruin of Nature? But now they shall see, there is an higher God than these; to Whom they obey as Servants, and must do what He will have them. He that can extend the day at his Pleasure, doth no less for Hezekiah, than He did for Joshua. Shall the shadow go forward ten Degrees, or back ten Degrees? As if Heaven it self lay open to his choice; and were ready either to mend his pace, or retire for his confirmation. He that commanded the day a certain course of going on, doth now countermand it, to a retrait. All days are alike to God; one day shall be longer than another, to satisfy the Faith of his servants. Hezekiah fastens rather upon that sign which is more hard, more disagreeing from the course of nature; not without good reason. Every proof must be clearer than the thing to be proved; neither may there want a meet proportion between both. The going forward of the shadow was a motion no other than natural: the recovery of his health was against the ordinary current of nature: therefore the more difficult the sign, the surer the evidence. Now, either the Sun goes back in Heaven, that his shadow may go back on Earth: or no less miraculously, the shadow goes back on Earth, whiles the Sun goes forward in Heaven. Indeed the Prophet speaks of the Shadow, not of the Sun: either because the motion of the Sun is best discerned by the shadow, or the motion of the shadow is led by the course of the Sun. So the demonstration of this miracle was local in the Dial of Ahaz. It might be, not universal, in the sensible length of the day. The retrait of the Sun had made a public and noted change in the frame of nature: this particular alteration of the shadow in places limited, might satisfy no less, without a confusive mutation in the face of the world. Whithersoever; to draw the Sun back together with the shadow, or to draw the shadow back without the Sun; was a proof of that divine Omnipotency, With which a thousand years is but as one day, But it is probable, that this miracle was not so confined; for presently upon it, the Chaldees, who were curious searchers into the secrets of nature, especially into the motions of the celestial bodies, were brought by this Astronomical wonder to Jerusalem: that they might see the man for whose sake, the Sun forsook his place, or the shadow forsook the Sun. All this doth testify O Lord, that the day is thine, and the night is thine, thou hast prepared the Light and the Sun. Nature is forward to run her enjoined course; regular and pregnant to bring her work to perfection and light: and will not endure either the hastening, or retarding of man. She will not admit of preventions, nor anticipations, nor obligations upon her; for they are a kind of precontracts, and she will be left to her liberty: she will not be spurred, or forced to mend her pace, when she is disposed to bring forth vigorous and durable effects. We cannot make the July-flower spring up in January; nor keep back the Cowslip to August, nor the Vertumnall flowers to Autumn. We cannot bid the Fruits come in May, nor the leaves to stick on in December. A woman that is weak, cannot put off her ninth month to a tenth, for her delivery, and say she will tarry till she be stronger: Neither can a Queen hasten it to a seventh, that she may be ready for some other pleasure. The day will be but a day, and the night will be but a night to us: and our Equinoctial comes but twice a year. But with God it is perpetual Equinoctial; before Whom one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day.

8. The Hope of man is nicely and dangerously placed: It hath a snare on the right hand, Presumption; and a pit on the left hand, Desperation. The presuming Conceit flatters a man, that he need not make such haste: one day any one day is enough to repent in: God is no Respecter of Time; but At what time soever a sinner repenteth, he shall be forgiven. I cannot but be thus far indulgent to a sinners Conversion; that though his former life hath been blemished with infinite spots, yet if he now return, and begin to wash them away in his penitent tears: all that foulness contracted in so many years, shall be forgotten, as yesterday when it is past: and the Divine eye will behold him, only as he is in the present state of grace. But let me not conceal from him withal; that as repentance makes the sins of a thousand years like one day; so apostasy from righteousness, makes the sins of one day appear like a thousand years. The wicked heart so extenuates his malice, as if it were nothing: and esteems his sin, as Paul speaks of an idol, that it is nothing in the world. Philosophy says it is nothing. First, Propter defectum, because it is a privation. Secondly, Propter effectum, because it is an aversion. Thirdly, Propter despectum, because it makes a man contemptible: Ens & Bonum are Termini convertibiles. But they shall find it something, when the sin of one day shall be punished with the torment of a thousand years, yea, of everlastingness. There will soon be an end of the reprobates sinning, there shall be no end of his suffering. The least moment of time, compared with ten millions of years, (because both terms are finite, and the one a part of the other) beareth, though a very small, yet some proportion. But one day to a thousand years on earth, is more than a thousand years to the perpetuity of Hell. So long as God shall live, so long must the damned die: and when he shall cease to be happy, then they also shall cease to be miserable.

9 For some use of this meditation: Seeing all times have an equal regard with God, who spans it in his hand at once: but time is a fugitive with us; and having past the morning, we are not sure to see the end of the day: Let us not protract our conversion, lest we losing our time to repent, repent forever that we once lost our time. Remember thy Creator in the days of thy youth: And wherewithal shall a young man cleanse his ways? A young man? why not rather an old man; whose hairs, if they have any left, like a white field, put him in mind that the Harvest is near? Barre him of drunkenness, that like Barzillai cannot taste. What should he do with music that cannot hear? withdraw delight full objects from him, whose Lookers out of the windows be darkened. Let not him riot and revel out the night, that riseth at the voice of a bird. Loade not him with the robes of pride, to whom The Grashoppers is a burden. Forbid him the society of beauties, whose desire doth fail. Let him forsake the vanities of life, that must forsake life it self; and get one foot into Heaven, that hath the other foot already in the grave. Desinat malum esse, quijam desinit hominem esse. Was not the Prophet mistaken? Is it not the old man, to whom this charge is given? But to take the young man from that pleasure, to which the heat of his blood invites him; to decourt young Absalom, the gallantest courtier of his time: to pluck the young man from his voluptuousness, that cleaves to it as the green Apple to the tree: so fetch lusty Sampson, from the lap of his Delilah: to strip the young man of his brave garments, pleasant companions, merry cups, proud revenges; and set him to seek humility in the dust, or tax him to the severe rule of mortification: it seems as unreasonable to flesh and blood, as for a man to have meat and a stomach, and be forbidden to eat: to have fire in his blood, and be forbidden to burn: he is ready to challenge us, as the Devil did Christ; that we torment him before his time. Vel tolle juventutem, vel concede voluptatem. But none can be too young to amend, that is old enough to die. Tantillus pure, tantus peccator: we are apt to sin, before we are able to sin. Youth is a petulant time, that courts vanity with a passionate fondness. Fly youthful lusts: fly them for they will haunt thee. Vicina est lapsibus adolescentia, Remember not the sins of my youth: Let us remember them, that God may forget them. And what age is fitter for the Service of God? Why are we called God's Primitiae, first fruits; if we do not offer him Primitias, the first fruits of ourselves? They had their Primitias Spicarum, ears of Corn: Panum, of loaves; and Frugum, of fruits in Harvest: The first were offered at Easter, the next at Whitsuntide, the third in September: Youth, middle age, old age, all must be dedicated to God. But the fruits offered in September, in old age; if none were presented before; are not acceptable to the Lord. Will he accept of our dry bones, when Satan hath sucked out the marrow? A tool that is broken in the work of the world, is not fit for God's building. Our middle age is given to ambition, our old age to covetousness: therefore in our youth, let us remember our Maker. The Market is open till the last bell rings; but contrary to the custom of the world; our penny-worths will not then be cheapest. Nehemiah complained, that they laid the heaviest burden on the oldest men: how unjust are we to ourselves, when we lode our most feeble old age with the greatest weight of all our holy business? who presents a torn book to a king? The book of religious conversation; begun only in thy old age, hath the leaves come out: God cannot read the beginning.

Some read that, In the days of thy youth; In diebus electionum, in the days of thy choice: And shall we choose no time to serve God in, but our old age? Sure, so long as we are able to choose that, we are able to choose a better than that. He that walks in the night, is ready to suspect every bush for a thief; nothing appears in the true shape: to him that repents not till he comes to his death-bed, shadows seem substances, a sigh passeth for true Repentance, a Lord have mercy on me for assured forgiveness; and a little dormitory Opium, for a saving cordial to the Soul. Say thy remorse be hearty, thy compunction bitter; yet is not this sorrow of thy Soul beholding only to the pain of thy body? Hadst thou rather a sickness should bring thee to God, than a Sermon? Is this the Physicians office, or the Preachers? If only Judgment can bring us to remember God, it is but a stormy day. Saint John wisheth to Gaius, That he may prosper in his health, so as his soul prospers: For if the Soul be lean, the marrow of the body is but water: if the Soul wither, the verdure and good estate of the body is but an illusion, and the goodliest man a fearful ghost. So let us wish to the younger age, that their souls may prosper as their bodies do, and that they may grow in Grace faster than in years; otherwise, a wrinkled and de • ormed soul may dwell at the sign of a fair face. It is usual with luxurious sinners, to lay the imputation of all their errors upon their bodies; as if their constitution were the sole cause of all their prevarication. But he that chargeth hi • body with the whole discredit of the vices of his Soul, is as very a fool, • s he that carries his saddle, to shame his horse. The pain of the body hath often been a means of good to the Soul: I never knew the anguish of the soul conduce to the health of the body. Then we wisely redeem the time, when in the greatest reluctance of the body, we devoutly turn our hearts and souls to the service of our Maker.

Give me leave to explain this point by an Apologue, familiar to the weakest capacity. Four travellers were returning to their own city; a day was their limitation: they must be there before night, or else being shut out, they shall become a prey to the Robbers. The first is assaulted by some Ruffians, who so provoked him with uncivil language, that he draws and fights; and in that quarrel received such hurts that for want of a Surgeon, he is left behind: no city could he reach. The second meets with some boone Companions, who after the Preface of their drunken Complements, show him a Bush that promiseth wine: this went so liberally and merrily down, that the Sun was almost set before he thought of rising: then he would fain have reeled away, but neither he nor time could stand to it. The next hears of a Mine of Treasure by the way, but buried somewhat deep in the ground: he gets instruments, delves for it, and finds it: the more he digs, the more he gets; and still the more he gets, the more he digs. On a sudden it grows toward night; now he trusseth up his gold about him, and would be gone: but the burden was so heavy, that he could not travel with it, and he would not go without it. So the barred Gates frustrated all hope of his Entrance. The last went seriously on; and though many flattering friends still interrupted his speed, and persuaded him that he need not make such haste, he had time enough, it was but a little way home, and a great while to night; and so far importuned him, that he exchanged some words and Courtesies with them, took here and there a taste of their kind offers: Yet still thinking on the time, away he speeds; and make what haste he could, (though toward Evening he mended his pace) yet it was almost night before he arrived thither; and by staying a little longer, he had been shut forth forever.

The Moral is easy and useful: The City is the Heavenly Jerusalem, the four Travelers are four conditions of men, the contentious, the voluptuous, the covetous, and the Religious: the Night before which they must attain thither, is the End of their Life: the Gates are the Opportunitie of Grace and Mercy: the enemies that surprise them if they be shut out, are Satan and his Angels. The first resolves to be at Heaven by Night, but Trouble meets him in the form of a wicked Law-broker, and puts such tricks into his head, whereby he may vex his Neighbors; that he presently draws his Sword, which is some Writ or Processe, and furiously lays about him. Till, having tired out all his Adversaries, he wearies the Judge, the Advocate, the Attorney, and (which is most strange his indefatigable Solicitor, and makes his peripatetical profession tedious to him. The Lawyer hath his Terme and Vacation; but this man hath no term of his term, no vacation; till death serve a Sub-poena upon him from the Star-chamber of Heaven: Now perhaps he would make his peace, and be quiet; but now, alas, he must enter into everlasting disquiet, and fall into the hands of worse furies than ever before he either found, made, or employed. Or perhaps the Whimzies of a factious Sectary have crept into his head; and then he will quarrel with his Brethren, abuse the Word of his Father, and scratch the face of his own Mother; neither sparing God nor his Church, though he forfeit all their Blessings.

The next is the profane Wanton, and he would also be saved: but Temptation meets him in the shape of Pleasure; a delicate Lady, which so bewitcheth him with her painted Beauty, that he thinks her all sweetness, and multiplies kisses on her coozening cheek. Not unlike Issachar, he sees the land pleasant, and he even lays him down, couching like an Ass between the two burdens, of riot and lust, excess and uncleanness. Alea, vina, venus, is the tripartite division of his Life. Time remembers him by his Looking-glass, and diseases pinch him by the Arm, to break off his Method of sensuality and vicissitudinary sins: but he will not believe them; pleading against them, yea rather against himself, that his bones are full of marrow, his Roses are not withered, old age and he are strangers, he hath nothing to do with Time. But Time will have something to do with him, and sends him that unwelcome Messenger, Sickness, to warn him of the near approach of impartial Death. Now he calls for his Physician, Repentance; he would leave all vanity, and begin his journey. But alas, his Time is short, and the way is long: there is no hope of his seasonable arrival.

The third is the covetous Churl; and I promise you, saith he, Jerusalem is a goodly place, I will thither sure. But Temptation meets him in the form of a wedge of gold: he likes it well, it dazleth his eyes, and fires his heart with a desire to get it. He is advised to betake him to his tools, and refuse no labor for it, without which he cannot hope to obtain it. What are those Engines? The Mattocke of oppression, to strike into the bowels of the Innocent: The Spade of laboriousnesse, wherewith he must toile and tire his own flesh: The Hooke of plausible Attraction, to draw in cheatable Customers: The Rake of penurious baseness, whose teeth are always scraping together: The Shovell of dissembling closenesse, whereby we may accumulate and multiply his heaps and hoards: The Mine of policy, to take all advantages: The Petarre of Usury, to blow up whole estates. With these instruments he must work, starving the poor, his servants, himself: for he is good to none, worse to himself; he lives miserably, to die damnably. Old age, like dark night, comes upon him; and now he would Lode himself with his thick clay, and if it were possible, carry it all with him. But, Oh the weight of his unjust gains sinks him down to the lowest pit. Perhaps with some unwillingness, he would buy a little time, but he cannot tell who should sell it. If he could, yet while he goes to buy that fresh oil for his old lamp; The Bridegroom is gone in, and the door is shut. But he will give some superfluous Legacies to the poor; they can open the door for him, And receive him into everlasting habitations. No, they could have done somewhat all day, they can do nothing for him at night. Then he forgot the poor, now the poor must forget him: They can be no friends, where GOD is an enemy. This, you see, is not altogether a Fable, and it is to be feared, that three parts of the world go this way; even by the loss of time to perdition.

For the last; he that fears God; and loves the Lord Jesus, travels on toward Eternal Life; yet not without some interruptions. Sin is sometimes wrapped up in the temptation of wealth, and he may stay to look upon it: sometimes in a beauteous face, as Mical was given David to ensnare him, and he may cast a transient eye upon it: often, in the disguise of Friendship, and that prevails so far with him, as to discourse with it. He meets with divers assaults: but though like Jonathan, he tastes of the worlds honey, he will not feed on it: And whensoever he wanders, the Spirit of Grace recollects him; and draws him, as the Angels did Lot out of Sodom: otherwise, he were in danger of being benighted, and do what he can, he hath time little enough. Therefore, he concludeth, If I loiter, I shall be locked out: Vnloose me from the bonds of sin, happy Repentance, defend me Faith, hold me up Patience, strengthen me Zeal; I come; Lord Jesus, open the Gate, I come, I come.

WHERE is the Promise of his Comming? that was their Challenge: God hath not forgot his Promise; this is their satisfaction. He is not slack in any business he undertakes; much less in that which so nearly concerns his honor, as the making good of his word, the justification of his truth, the performance of his Promise. He will not put off those that depend upon his Covenant, with dilatory excuses: but meets our zealous Prayers at the door, as they are coming forth to solicit his merciful remembrance. That which seems dullness and slackness to our impatient desires, is rather an argument of his goodness; for the intent of his longsuffering is to bring us to Repentance. Thus while the afflicted Righteous think God forgets them; wandering sinners shall find that God remembers them: And it is fit, that the guests bidden to the same Feast should stay for their fellows. Is God content to tarry for their conversion? and dost thou think much to tarry for thy reward? The consideration of the Divine Patience is a bridle to our preposterous hastiness: therefore doth Christ defer his coming, to invite mankind to Salvation: Therefore he forbears to accelerate the last day, that the world might have space to provide for their last account at that day. When we perceive that he doth accommodate the respect of times to our safety, and means only our good in this forbearance, we have no cause to complain of his slackness. Oppressors presume that God hath no more regard of his Servants, than of themselves, because they are not visibly delivered: as the Jews thought he did not own Christ, because he did not save him out of their clutches. But they reckon one way, and God another; and the event will declare which of them was deceived. The Lord is not slack, &c.

The Text moves upon two Poles. First, what God is not; He is not slack concerning his Promise. Secondly, what He is; He is longsuffering toward us. The former is a Removall of a suspicion, the other is a Proof of a gracious Indulgence. In the negative Proposition, we have three Particulars. First, Quid non sit; The Lord is not slack. Secondly, In quo non sit, Concerning his Promise. Thirdly, Quomodo non sit, as some men count slackenesse. The affirmative Proposition appears to me like Rachel with her two Children, Joseph and Benjamin. First, the Patience of God is the Mother,: and the two fruits are, that none perish, but all come to repentance.

1. The Lord is not slack. Tarditas or Slacknesse is here usurped for a Vice: for otherwise it is laudable, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Festina lente: which is the golden mean between those two extremes, of Sluggishness, and Precipitancy. Gellius well expresseth it by the word maturare: according to that of the Poet; Maturate fugam. To Agamemnon was objected 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , to Achilles 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : Medium tenuit cunctator Fabius; using neither more delay, nor more hast, than might consist with good speed. Certain coin of Vespasian did seem to hieroglyphicke this; wherein was figured a Dolphin upon the middle of an Anchor. He is Tardy, who negligently pretermits his occasion: not he that comes not suddenly, but that comes not so soon as he should. As Tobias excused himself; My father counteth the days, and if I tarry long (that is, one day beyond the limited time) he will be very sory. In this sense must those precepts be understood, Thou shalt not delay to offer thy Tithes and first Fruits; that is statuto tempore, in due time: for until then, there is no Slackenesse. Thou shalt not slack to pay thy Vowes; in thy prefixed times. That is then Slackenesse, when we defer to do what we ought, when we ought. Let us take a short view of both these extremes.

The first is a precipitant overhastinesse; which so flies Slackenesse, that it runs into rashness; and is so greedy of doing, that it omittes to deliberate, either what is to be done, or how it may best be done. This is like that which the Physicians call Predigestion; which doth rather fill the body with crudities and secret seeds of diseases, than conduce to sound nourishment. There be some that care only to come off speedily, to contrive some false periods of business, and to dispatch things in a hurry. But it is one thing to contract that which is tedious, by reducing it to a method: another thing, to abridge or huddle up that which is necessary and essential, by an abrupt cutting it off. That which is made shorter in the several pieces, is commonly made longer in the whole. Let no man so run into action, that he leaves deliberation behind him. They are too hasty, that will mount into the Pulpit before their wings be grown: not unlike to Ahimaaz, who would needs be running, though he had no errand to deliver: Let me also run, I pray thee. But wherefore wilt thou run, my son, seeing thou hast no tidings ready? saith Joab. Howsoever let me run. And what will he say when he comes into the Pulpit? I saw a great tumult, but I knew not what it was: a confusion or tumult of words is all they can deliver. Suddaine and rash attemps, if they meet not with sudden destruction, retreit with sorrow and shame. If we be put out of our way in the beginning of our journey, we wander all the day.

We cannot charge God with this overhastinesse; for if He should be angry so often as we sin, and strike so often as he is angry, what man could escape? It was a big word which Caesar spoke to Metellus, Tribune of the people, when he violently resisted his entrance into the sacred Treasury; knowing he meant to seize upon the monies, there stored: Presume no further, or I will lay thee dead. And when he saw Metellus something daunted with these words, he added; Young man, it had been easier for me to do this, than to speak it. This was but a bravado in Caesar: the powerful truth of it only belongs to God's; with whom it is as easy to kill, as to say the word. But our merciful God is not so hasty: men are long in making anything, quick in destroying: A city, which the succession of many years hath brought to her beauty, may soon be razed and demolished by the enemies fire. Only God is quick in making, but pauzeth upon destroying. When he came to question apostate Adam, it was in the cool of the day, not in the heat of his anger. He that made the World in six days, and could have done it in six hours, spared it above a thousand years, before the flood came. He allowed Nineveh the respite of forty days: but who can number the days, months, and years, that licentious Nineveh had enjoyed in former times? Yet, as if God were content to sustain the loss and profusion of all this forbearance, there is an addition of forty days. Not longer, lest they should grow wanton by his patience: nor shorter, lest they should become desperate by the suddenness: But a convenient space; both to preclude all presumption of impunity, and despair of mercy. His patience hath enlarged it self toward us: that if We should plead with our mother, and she with her children, and God with both, we were even speechless. Our unthankfulness hath striven with his Goodness for the Victory, as Absalom strove with David; whether the Father should be more kind to the Son, or the son more unkind to the Father: we have been fatted with his blessings, and then spurned at his precepts. Could he brook the innumerable adulteries of this land, the desperate homicides, the continual violation of his holy Sabbaths, if he were hasty? Could he endure our presumptuous oaths, if he were hasty? We cannot walk in the streets or fields, but our ears are full of such dreadful blasphemies, sworn even by them that have scarce a good rag to their backs, as if they would send up defiance to Heaven, and challenge the Almighty to meet them in warlike arms. With these weapons we fight against Christ, and ourselves: these have scattered our regiments, and strawed the ground with our slaughtered corpses: these were the Ordnance, that have played upon our own ships: these have crossed our designs: not Dunkirke, not Spain, not Rome, not Hell, have done us so much mischief, as our own mouths. It is true that the State may in some measure clear it self, by making good laws, against such wicked lips: but the want of execution frustrates all hope of reformation. That the profane swearer is ever suffered again to open his mouth, dischargeth God from all imputation of hastiness: praised be his Patience for evermore.

The other extreme slackness, is not incident to the Lord. Though the vision tarry, wait for it, because it will surely come; Yet a little while, and he that shall come, will come, and will not tarry. He that believeth, will not make haste, but wait the Lord's leisure. There be men placed high, in the eminent seats of Authority, that cannot vindicate themselves from slackenesse, when the poor have repaired unto them for succor. Some of them will give, will pardon, will do Justice, but it shall be when they list; according to their own humor, not the others necessity: and the oppressed Client, that knows not the Great-ones fits, and moods, and seasons; may starve before that gift comes, and ruin before the Justice right him, and die before the pardon save him. Some trees will bear no fruit, except much dung be laid about them: and Justice comes not from some men, till they be manured with bribes. Some trees require much watering, and some Magistrates will yield no fruits of equity, except they be haunted with assidual importunity. Some trees require incision, and pruning, and lopping: and some men must be threatened, and intimidated, before they will deliver the fruits of Justice. Some trees require the early and often access of the Sun: and some men will not be won to do good without Court-mediation. Some trees must be housed and kept within doors: and some will not open their Favor and Compassion, till the solicitation of a wife, or a Son, or a friend, or a servant turn the key. Reward is the motive of one man, and importunity of another: Fear the incentive of one man, and favor of another: Friendship is prevalent with one man, and natural affection with another: And till a persuasion is fitted to their dispositions, they are culpable of Slacknesse, and regardless of doing any good. They will hear with others ears, and determine by the report of others. But the poor may well answer, as that great soldier did to Caesar, when he was put off in the like manner: I fought for Caesar in mine own person, not by my Lieutenants? therefore I expect that Caesar should hear my cause in his own person, and not by deputies.

But who can challenge God of such retardation? He is indeed Slow to wrath, but he runs to show mercy. No sooner doth the penitent sinner turn his face toward Heaven, but the Divine compassion meets him at the first step, and entertains him with peace. He did not stay to leavy, arm, train, muster, and present Troupes of Soldiers to overthrow Sennacherib: but he took a nearer way, and in one night, by the hand of an Angel, slew almost two hundred thousand of his Army: Here was no Slackenesse. Dorham is besieged, the Prophets servant distressed: a very apparition in the Clouds shall secure him: not a squadron shall be raised, and yet the enemy is surprised: here was no Slackenesse. The Midianites invade Israel, and are suddenly confounded by a dream: Here was no Slacknesse. Full often hath this Island been endangered by foreign invasions, by intestine treasons: when even in the Article and point of our enemies hope, and of our peril; our gracious God hath stepd in with his wonderful deliverance: I hope here was no Slackenesse. If we may believe our own Chronicles, in the reign of Richard the first, before that great famine and pestilence; there appeared two Suns in the Firmament: which apparition hath eternized that day to all posterity, nor is the fame of it yet dead. Our times have yielded as great a wonder; when instead of two Suns, two Moons were seen in our Hemisphere at once; the one in the Sky, the other on the Sea: a fatal prodigious Crescent, whose horns like the horns of that Ram in the vision, so pushed Westward, Northward and Southward, that they supposed none could stand before him: therefore they antichristened it, The invincible Armado: yet the Moon above laughed at the Moon below: and as the one hath dominion over the Sea, the Sea got dominion over the other: and that daring Crescent, like a meteor, waned, and went out. A meteor indeed, made up of squalid matter and corruption drawn out by pride and presumption, dissolved by the wind in derision, and so scattered in pieces, that nothing but the shame and ruins were left to testify, there had been such a Navy. When they made themselves so sure of our destruction, that they shared our Possessions by lots, and threw dice for our patrimonies, the Lord presented our unexpected deliverance; here was no Slackenesse.

God needs not the tongue of Men nor Angels to justify his goodness, yet he graciously accepts it. Let me therefore give you some other sensible demonstrations, to clear him from all suspicion of Slackenesse. What an artificial Hell had those desperate Traitors devised, to blow up the head and representative body of the land? How closely did they conspire, how securely proceed, with what sacramental forms did they adjure secrecy? Catiline bound his conspirators with a drink of human blood: but these wretches sealed up their Treason with the precious blood of the Son of God. The night was theirs, the vault was theirs, the opportunity was theirs, silence was theirs, the Pope was theirs, the Devil was theirs: who could discover this project but themselves? Yet even when Faux was giving fire to the Match, that should have given fire to the powder, which should have blown up Men and Monuments, even the whole State together; our never sleeping Father prevents him, and discloseth the whole design: here was no Slackenesse. Let that day the fifth of November, be ever branded with a black cool of mischief. It hath been observed a fatal inauspicious day in History. Among the Grecians it was kept with sad solemnity for the loss of noble Aratus, the often preserver of his country. Among the Jews it was famous for the slaughter of Zacharias the Priest, who was that day butchered between the Porch and the Altar, which fact Christ upbraided many years after. Among us, let it never be forgotten; but inserted with a Rubric or capital letter in every Kalendar; for the Pow-der-treason hath added everlasting infamy to it. It was a danger ever to be thought upon with horror and sadness; and a deliverance ever to be remembered with joy and thankfulness Blessed be our God, who without Slacknesse, did turn our intended funeral into a festival. The Jews were wont once a year to celebrate a Feast unto Sorrow, wherein they went barefoot, and with bitter imprecations they cursed Titus and Vespatian, for the destruction of their Citty and Temple. I am persuaded that the Jesuits, Priests, and Papists, that have evil will at our Zion, do still upon every fifth of November keep a feast to Sadness, and shut up themselves in their melancholy cells; if not for grief that this their hopeful plot miscarried; yet for shame (unless they be past shame) that ever it was attempted. Let their sorrow increase our joy, let our joy increase our thankfulness, to Him that was not slack to deliver us.

We cannot forget our clear deliverance from that late woeful judgment of the Pestilence. How sorrowful were those times, when every month swept away thousands from among us? When a man could not set forth his foot but into the jaws of death: when piles of Carcases were carried to their pittes, as dung to the fields: when it was cruelty in the sick to admit visitation, and love was little better than murderous. The more sad and horrible the face of those times looked, so much greater cause have we to proclaim the mercy of God in our present freedom. All the land was afraid of this Citty, now this Citty is clearer than many places of the land. We may now throng together into God's House without fear, and breath in one another's face without danger. How gracious was this deliverance! yea how speedy! To abate so fast, as in three months to decrease from a thousand a week to ten, yea to none: certainly it was little less than miraculous: when we consider this, O Heavenly Father, who can accuse thee of Slacknesse?

As some men count slackenesse.] It is the madness of vain man to take the length of God's foot by his own Last; and to interpret that for a slow pace, which is the precise opportunity he hath determined for his coming. We must be passive in receiving God's secret mysteries not active in contriving his ways. Too many are ready to suspect God's Power or Purpose, to succor those, who in foreign parts groan under heavy pressures in matter of religion, or are devested of their ancient possessions, and the inheritance of their Fathers; And because he hath not yet restorcd them, nor yet raised up such means, as in their apprehension are likely to effect it: therefore they think that God likes not the cause, and begin to stagger in their own religion at home, as if God neglected it abroad. We have attempted some designs against our enemies, to redress our manifold wrongs, by an invasive war, the warrant of vindicative justice; and have come to the worst: Shall we therefore challenge God of Slackenesse? or our religion of weakness? God will do all in due time, that is, in his time, not in ours. The land to which he brought his people of Israel, was their own land before: they were the right heirs to it, lineally descended from him, who was the first possessor of it after the Flood: but so long were they out of possession of it, that they were not able to set there Title on foot, nay, they did scarce know their own Title. Why were they so long kept from it? was there any slackenesse in him that should give it? At the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the self same day, they went out from the land of Egypt. That was the precise time appointed, and the self same day it was accomplished: If it had been deferred a day longer, than they might have accused him of slackenesse. If at any time the Lord delivers us, it is more than he owes us. Let him choose his own opportunity, that so freely grants the mercy. Let us tremble to challenge God for that, the fault whereof lies wholly in ourselves. Let us seriously examine the causes, why that wonted providence seemeth now so slow to help us.

1 The principal cause is our own sins: those are the Remor'as, the obstacles that retard the mercy of God. The Israelites assault little Ai, and are beaten: what was the reason? was Ai, too strong for Israel? No, but the sin of Israel made them too weak for Ai. Dunkirke is a greater scourge to us, than Ai, was to Israel: what is their strength greater than ours? No, but our wickedness is greater than theirs. When we are crossed in just and lawful quarrels, we may well think there is some secret sin unrepented of in us: This though we see not, yet God so hates, that he will rather be wanting to his own cause, than not punish it. If before we had put to Sea, about our warlike attempts, we had penitently cleansed our hearts, then we might have expected better success. Joshua sees this, rends his clothes, lies upon the Earth, and mourns, yea expostulates, What wilt thou do to thy mighty Name? The Lord replies, Wherefore liest thou upon thy face? That he might see, God took no pleasure to let the Israelites lie dead upon the Earth, before their enemies, himself is taxed for lying all day before the Ark, Get the up Israel hath sinned: he does not say, lie still and mourn for the sin of Israel. It is to no purpose to pray against punishment, until the cause be removed. Though God loves to be sued to, yet he holds our requests, unseasonable, till there be care had of satisfaction. When we have risen and reformed sin, then we may fall down for pardon. Victory is ever in the free hand of God, to dispose where he will: and it is no marvel to see the dice of war run with hazard on both sides: yet he tells us plainly the cause of all our discomfitures; We have sinned.

One Achan is enough to trouble all Israel: a lewd man is a pernicious creature: That he damns his own soul, is the least part of his mischief: he commonly draws vengeance upon a thousand, either by the desert of his sin, or by the infection. The same God, who for ten righteous men would have spared five wicked Cities, sometimes will not be content to drown one sin in the obedience of many righteous. But so venomous is sin, that one dram of it is able to infect the whole mass. How much more dangerous is it, when it is common. God usually measures the state of any people by the most: and though there be some righteous, yet the greater part carries both the name and censure. Sins are so much the greater, as they are universal; so far is evil from being extenuated by the multitude of the guilty, that nothing can more aggravate it. With Men, commonness may plead for favor; with GOD it pleads for judgment. Many hands draw the Cable with more violence, than few: The leaprosie of the whole body is more loathsome than that of a part. We are all still looking outward upon someone eminent and notorious sinner; concluding that he is the plague of our Nation, and the sole cause of our ruin: But O vain man look inwards, and find an Achan in thine own bosom: apprehend, condemn, execute thine own sin. If a Mote be in our brothers eye, our eye is still upon that Mote. We all complain, and yet add to the common heap. Redresse stands not in words; let each man amend one and we all live. If everyone pull a brand from this flame, the fire will go out alone. A multitude is but an heap of unities: the more we take away, the fewer we leave. Begin at home, and take thine own conscience to task: there thou shalt find work enough: whiles everyone censures, and none amends, we all grow worse. If we could deduct our own evils from the evils of these days; God, the land, and our own conscience shall find the less. It is better for us to complain on Earth, that others offend our Maker, than to howl in Hell, because we have been of that number. Though we cannot turn the stream, yet let us swim against it: It is glorious to have resisted, though we cannot prevail. Insensible sinners deny that the days are evil: but themselves are the greatest part of this evil; and but for them we had not such cause to complain. Their own conscience shall one day rack from their lips that sad confession, which Aeneas made of the Trojane miseries; Et quorum pars magna fui: we have been no small part of these calamities. Sin makes a Country like Jezebel; whereof nothing will be left but the feet, and palms of their hands. Invisible persecutions be ever the worst; when Satan persecutes us by pride, by oppression, by malice, by profaneness. Alas, what hope of success can there be, while sins are the ballast of our ships, oaths the Ordnance, Pride the Tackling, and security steeres the Helme? Our springtides bring in our Merchandise, and the Spring-tide of our sins will bring in God's judgments. We cannot complain that God is slack to succor us, it is well that he is not hasty to confound us. He made man, and yet man so degenerated from his creation, that He repented that he made him. He hath crowned this Island with many blessings, yet we may so far provoke him, as to repent him of all his favors. No, but let us with speed turn unto him, and he will make haste to help us: If we be not slack in our conversion, he will not be slack to give us salvation.

2 The next cause is our slackness to concur with the means of our recovery. For though God made all things of nothing, and can do all things with nothing; yet he will have something from us. Do we fit still in our sins and sorrows, and complain of his slackenesse? Would we have him help us altogether without our selves? Christ was able to have done as the Devil bad him, even to have made bread of stones, when he had so great a number to feed in the Wilderness, but he does not so. He asks his Disciples, How many loaves have ye? Though they were but five, yet since they were some, he multiplies them, and satisfies five thousand with them. Though he foresaw, that the augmentation of Gideon's Army, would be the diminution of his honor, and therefore disquantitied his forces, from thirty two thousand to three hundred; yet a remnant he will have to fight his battles: a remnant of believers in Israel to make up his Kingdom: a remnant of thy soul▪ his seed wrapped up somewhere, to save thy soul: a remnant of thy mind, of thy purse, of thyself, to deliver thyself. God is a good Steward of men's contributions, but contributions he will have: he requires a concurrence and cooperation of persons. He goes low, and accepts of small sacrifices, a Pigeon, a handful of Flower, a few ears of Corn: but a sacrifice he will have. If Christians do not assist Christians, if neither our Neighbors of the same faith confederate with us, nor we with them; if we fight for none, and none fight for us: at last, neither we nor they shall fight for Christ, nor Christ for them nor us; but all become a prey to the general enemy of the Name of Christ. Though he be infinitely able to avenge his own cause, yet he requires our assistance; and when we have done our best, still we pray with that humble clause of acknowledgement; Give peace in our time O Lord, because there is none other that fighteth for us. The honor of this Nation in noble achievements, hath been the terror of enemies, and matter of envy and admiration to the Christian world: what is become of this valor? Is it dead in the heads, hands or hearts of men? In their heads that they know not; or in their hands, that they cannot; or in their hearts, that they dare not, to do as they were wont? Of that I cannot determine: but this I dare speak, Fidenter, quia fideliter; wheresoever the fruit appears, the tree is rooted in our sins. The Philosopher could say, A ship is a ship forever, if you repair it, and honor is honor forever, if you repair it. But Aliquid fama addendum ne putrescat: Honor will putrefy, if it be not repaired. The reparation of our honor must begin at the reformation of our lives: Till we have put our sins to the worse, we shall never get the better of our enemies. God will not be wanting to us, if we be not wanting to him, and ourselves. Do we expect a forward God, while we are a backward people? I may not meddle with persons, but generally conclude this: It is our slackenesse to repent of our sins, our slackness to amend our lives, our slackness to render God service, and the Church her dues, our slackenesse to comfort the poor in their miseries, our slackenesse to guard our own selves, which makes our God so slack to help us.

3. Another cause of the Lord's seeming Slackenesse to deliver us for the present, is our slackenesse to praise Him for the Deliverances past. Unthankfulness; this is the Witch, the Sorceresse, whose drowsy Enchantments have made us even forget God Himself. If we forget Him, can He be blamed for Slackenesse to remember us? Christ chargeth us to to remember his Words, what He hath said unto us: but how shall we remember that, when we forget the good He hath done for us? What is become of all God's Wonders? Whither is the memory of all his Deliuerances fled? We may ask after them as of the Sculpture on Monuments almost worn out, or as that insulting Tyrant did of the Kings of the Nations which he had destroyed? where is the king of Hamath, and the King of Arphad? Where is the Memory of 88. or of 605? Neither of these have worn out the age of a man, and yet they are almost worn out themselves. Is the Chronicle of that invincible Fleet written in the same Element, that the Deliverance was wrought on, Water; so that no Tract of the story, nor Character of the divine Hand remains to be read? Sure, that Wonder might even fill a Volume, and give life to a story that should outlast the World; if our hearts were not drowned in unthankfulness, as that Navy was in the Ocean. What is become of the Gun-powder plot? Hath three and twenty years quite extinguished it? Is the Memory of it buried in the same womb where it was begotten, the Vault under the Parliament-house? Or is the Record blown up, though the matter escaped? Those Pioners failed in their plot to blow up us, but the Devil still goes on with his plot, to blow it out of our memories. Is the remembrance of our woeful Dearths, choked with our present Fullness of Bread? Hath our Health and Iollity put to silence all those dying Grones, which the dreadful Pestilence rang in our affrighted Ears? Have we forgot the language, which our very Doors did speak; Lord have mercy upon us? These Deliverances abide with us, and is their memory vanished? The grave of Pompey had not so much as an Inscription, to distinguish the dust of his victorious body from ignoble stains and cowards; or to signify, Here lies Pompey. And have these times, these once glorious times, no difference in our remembrance or estimation; Shall they lie promiscuously raked up in the dust of time, without any monument set over them, to tell they once were?

When Saint Paul reprehended the Galatians, for observing days and months, and times, and years: when he forbade the Colossians all critical, Indicatory days: Let no man judge you in respect of a holy day, or of a new moon, or of a Sabbath: he did not intend to take away all consideration, all distinction of days: though he remove them from being of the essence of our salvation: yet he leaves them for assistances, and for the exaltation of our devotion: to fixe our selves at certain periodicall and stationary times, upon the consideration of those benefits, which in those days the Lord hath bestowed upon us. When in such a day we consider such a Deliverance, and upon another solemn day are occasioned to remember such a Blessing; we may the better judge ourselves, how these things have wrought upon us, and disposed us to a spiritual convalescence. Out of the common heap God hath chosen some, and made them high days and hallowed them. The several companies in this City have (at least) their annual Feasts; which want no ceremonious forms to set them forth: especially the Pulpit must do them grace, and the first dish is a Sermon. I censure not that, but this I would have; that those times, whose memory should be precious, might be better observed. Those two great Feasts, Easter and Whitsuntide, may have some observance: But one day is not enough to celebrate either of these inestimable benefits, the Resurrection of Christ, and the Mission of the holy Ghost: therefore the Church thought good to join with each of them two others; and of what estimation are they among us? Even of such, as if they were ordained to play in, not to pray in. Can we meditate too much on those blessings, that give so little honor to that double pair of attendants, ordained to wait upon those solemn Feasts? There be divers other, instituted upon particular occasions, which we pass by, and scarce give them so much as the courtesy of the day: we mind no annuals or yearly Feasts to keep them up; but instead of a mention, there is a blank; and a solemn silence, instead of an Anniverse. But why should the main Deliverances of the Land, not be distinguished from the common heap of days piled up in the Almanac? Certainly, he hath neither zeal to Religion, nor love to his Country, who doth not on those days bind the Sacrifice with cords to the Horns of the Altar, and send up to Heaven some Incense of thanks. Why should God remember us for the future, that have forgot the former? Can nothing but new misery put us in mind of our old Preserver? When a stubborn Delinquent, being committed, was no whit mollified with his durance, but grew more perverse than he was before, one of the Senators said to the rest; Let us forget him a while, and then he will remember himself. If our God should deal so with us, if he should forget us a little, our own calamities would teach us to remember both Him, and ourselves. He that dwelleth in the Heavens, looked down upon us, let us look up to Him: Since by his Mercy we live and breath, let us live to breath praise and thanksgiving to his blessed Name.

4. The last Cause, is our Slacknesse to repent of our iniquities; and why then should God hasten our Deliverance? Nineveh upon the first summons, did not only fast, and mourn, and humble themselves, and turn from their wickedness; but they did all this presently, without delay: It is our duty to turn first; Do we defer this, and complain of God Slacknesse? Would we bind God to our times, and have ourselves free? All times are his, there is not a moment we can call ours: Though it be not given to us to know the times and seasons: yet we know there is a time and season given us; which if we neglect, we forsake our own Mercy.

Concerning his Promise] The Promise here meant, is the second Comming of Christ: and because this is not done suddenly, and so soon as they brag, they would have it: they arm themselves either with Infidelity, that there is no such matter, that He will never come at all: or at least, admit of a wanton security, that it will be long enough ere He do come. But whither they wrangle, or dream, Christ is not slack concerning his Promise, and he will come soon enough to their cost; when they shall see Him with fear, whom they would not receive with Faith. But to leave them in their desperate unbelief, it it satisfy us, that all the Promises of God are Yea and Amen: He is faithful that hath promised: He hath commanded his Covenant forever; holy and reverend is his Name. Men are not so faithful: first, some will promise what they cannot do; as the Devil proffered kingdoms to Christ, when he had none upon Earth, only one in Hell. Secondly, some promise what they can, but mean not to do; as the Shechemites did to the sons of Jacob, and the sons of Jacob to the Shechemites; when they meant on both sides to deceive one another. Thirdly, some promise what they meant for the time, and afterwards recant; as Laban promised Rachel to Jacob, and gave him Leah. Fourthly, some promise what they do give, but unwillingly; as Herod did not deny John's head, but he was loath to grant it. Fifthly, some promise, and willingly perform; yet together with truth of performance, they are sorry for their promise; as Joshua dealt with the cunning Giheonites. But these infirmities are strangers to the nature of God, who will remember his Covenant to a thousand generations even forever.

1. Here is matter of imitation; if we be the children of our heavenly Father, we must (after his Example) make good our promises, or we cannot assure ourselves that we are no Bastards. Though we perform with our loss and prejudice, there may be no retraction of a lawful promise. Peter in effect, so pleaded to Ananias; The inheritance was thine, thou needest not have sold it: being sold, the money was thine, thou needest not have parted with it: but promising all, and retaining part, thou hast lied to the Holy Ghost. Israel enters into a league with Gibeon, and binds it with an oath: within three days they find the deceit: may they not now violate their promise? Fraudulent conventions oblige not; God hath forbidden all league with the natives; and Israel had put in a direct caveat of their vicinity: why then does Joshua hold himself bound to his covenant? There is no trusting to shifts for the eluding of promises: we must faithfully perform, what we have rashly promised.

2 Here is matter of faith; shall we not believe the promise of God? Hath the Maker spoke it, and will not the creature believe it? The Almighty hates to be distrusted, and accounts infidelity so much a greater sin than others, as he magnifies his mercy above all his works. He that will not take his Word for good, shall feel his sword for evil. Impotent man holds it a disgrace, not to be credited; and will he that is eternal truth, put up such an indignity? So near is unbelief to Atheism, as the Word of God is to the nobleness of his own Majesty. It was a sweet ditty of the Psalmist, Bonum est confidere in Domino, It is good to trust in the Lord: Good in respect of him, and good for us. First, it is our own good, and that we are enabled to trust him, is more of his mercy, than that we do trust him, can be merit in our fidelity. Our goodness reacheth not up to him, but his goodness reaches down to us, in filling our hearts with confidence in him. There is nothing in all the world that can work our hearts to so comfortable and unconquerable a resolution, as our reposall upon God. They that put their trust in the Lord, are as Mount Zion that cannot be moved. Faith can remove mountains, but the mountains that are raised on faith, can never be removed. Secondly, it is good in respect of God: for it is one of the best pieces of his glory, to be trusted unto: as Joseph held, when Potiphar trusted him with all, that he could not do him a greater honor. The glory of God is so precious to him, that he will not part with it to any other. What other things does not he impart willingly? Being, Life, Knowledge, Happiness and such blessings, are originally, eminently, essentially in God: yet Being, he gives to all things; Life, to many things; Knowledge to some kinds of creatures, and Happiness to some of those kinds: only his Glory he reserves to himself. Riches he gives to his very enemies, and so gives them to others, that he keeps them not at all to himself: but he will not endure his Glory to be communicated to Man or Angel; not to the best guest in Heaven, much less to the worst dross on Earth. Our belief is a part of his glory, and shall we nor do him that justice, as to give him his own? Him let us esteem above all, to him let us look up in all, on him let us depend for all, from his goodness and mercy let us acknowledge all, in him let us delight with contempt of all; and this is the confidence we owe our Maker.

3 Here is the ground of hope, even in the midst of delay. The deferring of our desires must not discourage our Faith: it may be God hath long granted our request, ere we shall know of his grant. When God shall find patience mixed with faith in his Clients, the Cause shall go well with them. In the fervor of their expectation, he may hold them off: but when they least think of it, and have forgotten their own Suite, he graciously condescends. Zacharias a long time failed of a son, for all his prayer; but when he had even forgotten that prayer, he had a son. The Angel brings him good news; Thy prayer is heard. When did he make this prayer? He was grown old, and h • d given over all hope of a child; so that this request was past over many years since. Yet God had laid it up all this while; and when Zacharias least looks for it, brings it forth to effect. The Word of that God must needs be sure, who is so often better than his Word. God is infinitely free, yet his own promise binds him: He can owe us nothing, except he engage himself, and that engagement is debt: Can we distrust him to give us that he haht promised, who gives us ten thousand blessings which he never promised? The favors of God, though they be most free, have a price set on them, and require a rent to be paid for them. Faith is the price, and the rent is thankfulness. Crede, & fruere that is the price. Gratus esto, & beatus esto; that is the rent. There can be nothing easier than he requireth; there can be nothing richer, than he giveth. O God, that undeserving man should grudge, to return thee so little, for so much!

4 Here is matter of Obligation to us; for if we expect God should perform his promises to us, we must be careful to keep touch with him. Our promise in Baptism obligeth us to his Service; have we never broken this holy Covenant? If there be any so profane, as to pretend that that promise was only made by proxey: and a contract made by a Virgin in her childhood, doth not bind her to the betrothed husband: yet what beggars daughter, espoused to a hopeful young Prince in her nonage, will refuse that match when she comes to years? shall the miserable soul of man disdain marriage with the glorious Son of God? But didst thou ever receive that other Sacrament. There was thy voluntary consent to that former vow: a repetition, a consummation of thy plighted faith. Sinners that we are, have we kept this promise? Have we done all for God, and nothing for Satan? Did we never confederate with the flesh. nor take part with the world? See have three enemies, and against them we have sworn resistance: we have but one King, and to him we have sworn allegiance. If we keep faith with our King, he will save us: if we revolt to those enemies, they will confound us. Yet for one act of duty performed to our King, we have done three thousand services for those three enemies: Is this to keep our promise? Christ died to give us life, these live to give us death; and yet shall we cast of loyalty to our Sovereign, and desperately put ourselves upon the mercy of Traitors? Is this to perform our promise? The flesh works upon the world, the Devil works upon the flesh, the conscience works upon all three, and God works upon all four: If we leave Christ, and cleave to these abjured rebels, all these shall convince us of forsworn apostasy. Forsake thee O Savior, the most graceless sinner denies it: But as a cowardly Ancient, that ran away from the battle; afterward perceiving the victory to fall on his side, when he had returned home and there boasted: I bore colorus for my King and Country; another replied, but you never stroke blow for your King and Country: So many bear the colors of Christ, that will not stand one stroke for Christ.

Nor is this fidelity only due to God, but to our Neighbor. He that is not faithful to God, will never be true to man: and he that is not faithful to man, was never true to God. Promises fly up and down like chaff, rais • d with every breath of wind: but performance is the good grain that lies close in the floor. The tongue is a nimble member, and good words are cheap; but performance is an action, and it troubles a man to do. He may lie in bed and promise, but he must rise up to do. One Son plainly told his Father, I will not go, but he went: the other promised to go, but he went not. Some do and say not, but a thousand for one say and do not. Promises are like some Princes servants; when a stranger comes to the Court, he shall see abundance of them: but performance is like the Prince himself, who keeps state, and seldom comes into the public eye. Nor unlike some great man's policy, who had two chests; the one he called Promise, the other performance: the former was easily opened, the other was lockd and barred: to the one he sent all his Clients and Sutors, and there they found Hope: Betwixt his Promise, and their Hope, being long deluded; they resolved to surprise that other chest, and break it open, but he told them plainly, that that chest could never be unlocked without one singular key, which he called Necessity: implying that men promise with facility, but they will not perform except it be for necessity. It is reported of Antigonus, that he never denied any suite that was asked; but withal he never did perform anything that he granted. In promising the Beggar may be as rich as the King: and without performing, the King may be as poor as the Beggar. The one is willing and not able, the other is able and not willing: the former is in want, but the latter is in fault. Cujusquam est promittere, honesti solius praestare. Failing of promises, of friends makes enemies: he that held thee his friend for thy fair grant, for illuding his trust becomes thine enemy. Let no man so demean himself, as by his own desert to procure hatred. Every lawful promise made to God or man, is written in Heaven; while we perform not, our score runs on: and what we do not pay while we live, we shall be forced to pay forever when we are dead. O then let us mend our pace, and God will mend his: if we be not slack concerning our promise, to serve him; he will not be slack concerning his Promise to save us.

But is long suffering to us ward.] I know not whether I should more wonder at man's perverseness, or at God's patience. The more that Divine goodness suffers, the more this wickedness of dust and ashes presumes: and it is long before▪ the fury of the one, can provoke the lenity of the other. I stand at the door and knock. He stands at a mortal door, whose seat is in the Heavens: and knocks at the gate of sinful dust, to whom the everlasting gates of glory willingly open. He stands calling, while we sleep unregarding: he knocks in love, while we are ready to return him knocks for his love. He is worthy to come under our roof, but our roof is not worthy to receive him, and do we not open? If we knock in prayer, he opens in pity; and when he knocks in compassion, shall not we open in duty? He stands, yea how long hath he stood? How many grievances of attendance hath he digested, without withdrawing his foot? Me tuo long as pereunte noctes, Lydia dormis. As if that immortal lover did court the soul of a sinner: In medi • pace quid armatimes, quid faceres hosti, quae sic excludis amantem? Tempora noctis eunt, excute post seram. What mean thy barred gates in the time of peace? what courtesy wouldst thou afford an enemy, that showest so little kindness to a friend? The night passeth away, and My locks are wet with the dew of Heaven. Open unto me, my fair one: Behold thy King cometh unto thee: A King, no common person: Thy King, no foreign Prince: cometh to thee, not against thee: meek and humble, not with troupes of armed soldiers: alone unaccompanied, save with his inseparable love. How unspeakable is this patience? when he is angry, doth he presently strike? No, but like some noble warrior, that hath laid siege to a renowned Citty, viewing the goodly buildings, considering the number of infants and innocents, having no delight in blood; out of his own heroical disposition, sends a Herald with the proffer and conditions of peace. All courses are to be tried in war, before the sword be bloodied. Theodosius never smote a city till after ten days siege, with the offers of mercy: but God allowed Nineveh forty days to make their peace It was the rule of his law, when they had beleaguered a City, first to proclaim peace unto it. It was the order and practice of his Gospel, when they approached any house, first to say, Peace be to this house. Great works were wrought in Chorazin, before the ruin came. He spared his rebellious people forty years: but how long hath he spared us? He lent not our forefathers so much time before us: his mercy strained it self for six years, and then persecution and superstition broke in among them. We have had Evangelium pacis, and pacem Evangelij, The Gospel of peace, and peace with the Gospel, continued amongst us through the reigns of three gracious Sovereigns, threescore and ten years: yet as if the commonness hath quite taken away the sense of the blessing, we esteem it like the Air, cheap, because there is enough of it, whereas nothing is more precious and nearer to life. He is long suffering towards us.

But that it may not seem lost time to rove in generals, let me point at particulars: God is longsuffering toward thee, and me, and everyone. How often, and how justly, might He have taken thee away in the midst of thy sins? Why is not the Adulterer with his Harlot, like Zimri in the arms of Cozbi smitten in the act of their Lust? Why are not their souls sent coupled to the fire of torment, as their bodies were undivided in the flame of uncleanness? While the mouth is opened to swear and blaspheme, Why is it not instantly filled with Fire and Brimstone? While the Homicide is killing another, Why is not Satan permitted to kill him? When the Drunkard falls into his dead sleep, Why is he suffered to wake again alive? Why doth not the extorted Bread of the poor, choke the Oppressor? And the House fall upon the head of the Traitor? Why is not he carried quick into Hell, that is the Plague of all Christendom? There is no answer to be given but this; The Patience of God is greater than the Wickedness of man. Yet let not sinners presume: Sera venit, sed certa venit vindicta: the silent Judge will at last speak home: Tuli, nunquid semper feram? The higher the Axe is lifted up, the deeper it cuts: a water-course stopped and repelled, breaks forth at the opening with greater violence. The Elephant suffers many injuries of the inferior beasts; but ware patientia laesa; being too far provoked, his revenge is more extreme, than his Patience was remiss. God is not easily provoked by our sins, He is easily pacified by our repentance. Christ suffered infinite much, yet He was not long in suffering: but for that short suffering of his Son, God is longsuffering towards us, all that be in the smae Jesus.

How well may this unmatchable Precedent teach us all the Doctrine of Patience! It is the peculiar of Christians: in others Miranda, potiùs quàm laudanda: as Saint Augustine speaks of Rasis killing himself: it was Magne, potius quàm been factum: It was bravely done, it was not well done. There be some that suffer against their wills; which we call Patience perforce: they would revenge, if they could. Saint John calls it, The Patience of the Saints: they are sure to suffer: the richest Vessel is in most danger of the Pirate, the full Barn of the Thief: Of all men, Christians have most need of Patience: and they bear injuries, not robore Socratico, sed Christiano. There be three Exercisers of our Patience; God, Man, Satan: A proximo damna, ab adversario tentamenta, a Deo flagella sustinemus. Patience for these returns, to Satan hate and resistance, to Man love and blessings, to God humility and thanks. In respect of God; it kisseth the striking Hand: there can be no more forcible motive to Patience, than the acknowledgment of a divine Hand in our sufferings. It is fearful to be in the hand of an Adversary, but Who would not be confident of a Father? Yet in our frail Humanity, Choler may transport us from the remembrance of Nature: but when we feel ourselves under the Discipline of a wise God, that can temper our afflictions to our strength, to our benefit, who would not rather murmur at himself for swerving toward Impatience? Israel cries out for water; Moses seeks to quench their thirst with this contentment; God hath led us hither. If the ignorance of their guide had misled them, or they had fallen by chance upon those dry Desarts; though this were no remedy of their grief, yet it might have been some ground of their complaint. But now they see, that the Providence of God hath brought them into this want; and shall not he as easily find the way out? Yet those sturdy Israelites murmur, and will not have their thirst quenched with faith, but with water. But Non merebitur miseridiam, qui irascitur ad poenam: Be patient, this is the way ad pristiuum statum revocari: In respect of man, Patience concludes; that Bonus non fuit, qui malos tolerare recusavit. If thou wouldst have all nocent creatures destroyed, Quid fiet de te, What would become of thyself? Bear with them, their Maker bears with thee? For the Devil, Carnem macerarepotest, non patientiam: he may hurt the Saints, but not the Patience of the Saints. Saint Gregory says of Job; Quot patientiae voces in divinam Laudem percussus reddidit, tot in Diabolum jacula intersit; & multo graviora, quàm sustinuit, inflixit. Satan cannot so much vex us with sufferings, as we vex him by our Patience.

Let Patience have her perfect work] She must have opus, some work to do: this must be Opus suum, her own work, proper to her nature and office: and it must be opus perfectum, without imperfection. First, Patience is not idle, but ever working: operatur patiendo, and patitur operando: an active passion, or a passive action; whereby she worketh, not so much her own extrication out of troubles, as equanimity of soul to their easier portage. Secondly, she hath opus suum; for she lives as an Hebrew with Canaanites in her company, that will be pricks in her sides, and thorns in her eyes. No neighbourhood is able to make the Serpent and the Woman, the cursed seed of the one, and the blessed Seed of the other, ever to agree. One blood, one belly, one house, one education, could never make Cain and Abel accord, Jacob and Esau, Isaac and Ishmael at one. Here is then work for Patience, Let us see the work of Patience. Temperance hath her work; that the indulgence of the throat may not bring mischief upon the soul. Prudence hath her work; that perils may be prevented by foresight. Fortitude hath her work; that a good cause be not lost by a base fear. Justice hath her work; that neither injuries done by ourselves, nor the want of relieving the poor from injuries done by others, stand up against us at the last Audit. Chastity hath her work, that the bodily uncleanness may not defile the conscience. Charity hath her work, to feed the hungry, and comfort the miserable. Repentance hath her work, to wash the soul from sins in a bath of tears. Innocence hath her work, that no wrong be offered: And Patience hath her work: that much wrong be quietly s • ff red. This is her work, to turn necessity into a virtue; for she only can put evil to good use. She will not dance attendance to the humors of sinful greatness: b • t waits at the gate of Heaven without weariness; and is still knocking at that door, which she never saw opened. Tanto omnibus faelicior, quanto se ferre potest patientibus miseriorem. Thirdly, this work of Patience must be perfect, and that. First, Respectu conditionis; hearty and sound. Integrity is the perfection of all graces, so of patience. I dare not commend the soundness of that which invites sorrow, and prostitutes it self to unnecessary troubles. It is not patience, to off • r thyself into bondage when thou mayest be free. That is right Patience, Pate contra quod libeat, non praeter quod liceat. Secondly, Respectu durationis; to quit the field, before we have got the victory, is to lose all the former benefit of Patie • ce. He that endureth patiently to the end, shall be saved. Thirdly, R spectu extentionis; it must be of a great latitude, for many are the troubles of the righteous. It is bootless to vanquish one cross, and sink under another. Patience must be universal, enduring all things, and going with the same mind to the shambles as to the fold. Our approbation is in much Patience. Those are counterfeit graces, that higgle with their duties; that stint themselves, and make their own matches with God. It is not Faith which says, Thus much I will believe, and no more: Sound Faith believes the whole Word of God. It is not Charity which says, I will love one man, and not another: True Charity loves all in Jesus Christ. It is not Repentance that says, I will be sorry for this sin, and not for that: Hearty Repentance doth mourn for all sins. It is not Obedience that says, I will keep this Commandment, and not that: Right Obedience hath respect to all the Commandments. It is not Patience that says, I will bear this sorrow, and not that: I will endure so much and nor more. Perfect Patience resolves to suffer anything for Jesus Christ.

Virtus sine patientia vidua est; All virtue is a widow without Patience. The Apostle in the behalf of God, promiseth eternal life, to them that by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory: As if we could not come to Heaven by well doing, without Patience in well doing. Faith without Patience is but precipitancie: Zeal without Patience is but fury: Hope without Patience is presumption: Humility without Patience is dejection: Charity without Patience, fills the vessel with Milk from her breasts, and then kicks it down with her heels. Patience to the Soul is as Bread to the body, the staff of either the natural or spiritual life: we eat bread with all our meats, both for health and relish; bread with flesh, bread with fish, bread with brothes and fruits: Such is Patience to every Virtue, we must hope with Patience, and pray in Patience, and love with Patience, and whatsoever good thing we do, let it be done in Patience. When our eyes be wearied with any other colors, we seek to refresh them with green: in all our troubles we refresh our souls with Patience. Virtue is fair, rich, and lovely; but beset with many difficulties; we can n ••• er get nor keep her without much Patience. Saint Paul would never have gloried in his tribulations, but for his Patience. The devil implied so much in his challenge to Job: God commends him for a perfect and upright man, fearing the Lord, and eschewing evil: Satan grants all this, but questions his Patience: therefore he doth good, because nothing but good is done to him: but do thou cross him a little, and he will curse thee to thy face. Strip him of his Robes, and clothe him with ulcers; and see what he will do then. This was the forest trial: had Job kept his Righteousness, his Innocence, his Integrity, his Fidelitie, and fear to sin, and lost his Patience, he had lost the day: but keeping that sound, the old Serpent stinks away with shame, confessing a feeble man too hard for him. It was not so much what Christ suffered, as with what Patience he suffered, that did nobilitate the merit of his sufferings. Admit an Apologue: Four Graces were walking together, Zeal, Justice, Temperance, and Patience: three other Virtues meet with them, Innocence, Hospitalitie, and Meekness: while Patience went aside some little way, the other six conferred about the super-eminence of their own worth. The argument grew so hot, that words were ready to beget blows: Zeal out-faceth Innocence, Justice trampls upon Meekness, and Temperance threatens to turn Hospitalitie out of doors. But on the sudden steps in Patience, and there ends the quarrel. If the virtuous may fall out, much more sinners: but the matter will soon be compounded, if both sides admit of Patience. This is one of those Graces, that is never seen but in distress: Valour and Fortitude is not known, while there is no enemy: Repentance appears not, till we have sinned: nor is Patience visible to others, or sensible to ourselves, till we are exercised with sufferings. These virtues in the time of miseries and exigence shine brightest, as the stars do in a dark night. But it is time to shut up this point: My argument is Patience; make me the first Object of it: if I have been tedious, digest it with your Patience.

Not willing that any should perish.] There is no man that hates the Effect of his own worth: If the Painter have drawn a counterfeit, or limmed the resemblance of a Creature, he regards it as the Effect of his own curious art. If a man begets a Son, he is tied in Affection to him by the bond of Nature. If a Preacher convert a profligate, and beget a Soul unto Christ; he loves him in a higher degree of Relation, than those of Art or Nature; even of Grace. And will the most wise and good Creator of all things, hate the workmanship of his own hands? No, The Lord hateth nothing that he hath made. There is something in the Creatures he hath made, which he hateth: but the Creature it self, as it is a Creature, he loveth. Our weakness doth often fail to distinguish Inter virum & vitium; so we hate the man together with his vice, whereas we should hate the vice, and love the man. But God can distinguish betwixt the metal which is his, and the dross of the metal which is not his: he rejecteth the dross, but he wisheth well to the metal. If a man's wife be an adulteress, he puts her away, because she then ceaseth to be a wife: but if she repent, God doth not put her away, because she does not cease to be a woman. Adultery may make her no wife, Death it self cannot make her no Creature. Both God and her husband detest her sin; yet God doth, and her husband should love her Soul.

But if God be not willing that any should perish, how then do any come to perish? Can they perish against his will? Shall any be lost, whom he will save? I might answer this Objection, that the question here is not concerning God's secret will; but so much of it as is revealed to us in his holy Word, whereby he affords means of Salvation to all, declaring himself not willing that any should perish. But let us soberly examine this point: for Scripture seems to contradict Scripture. God will have all men saved, and come to the knowledge of the Truth: And here, he is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to Repentance. On the contrary, Whom he will, he hardeneth: and, I will harden the heart of Pharaoh. Is the Spirit divided? If Truth be against Truth, how can it stand? Who will harden? That God which is rich in goodness, whose Mercy is above all his works, will he? He which is grieved for our offenses, and willeth not the death of a sinner, will he harden? And of all places, the Temple for his holy Spirit to repose in, the Exchequer and Store-house for all his Graces; will he harden the heart? He says, he will: yet dares the blasphemous sinner rub his filthiness on that immaculate purity of his Maker? Does he live by his Mercy, and yet charge him of injustice, making it the midwife of so foul a progeny? Evil could never be the child of goodness, nor can sin (so basely descended) lay claim to omnipotency. Doth pure water, and puddle, flow immediately from the self-same spring? or light and darkness from the same Sun? How then comes it to pass? Consider with me these Positions.

1. The Devil was Primitivus peccator, and sinned from the beginning. From him, sin first boiled up, as out of the main sea: being thence derived to Adam, it ariseth as out of a spring: from the spring, it is reserved in Nature, as in a Conduit: from Nature, it is conveyed to concupiscence, as by a Pipe: and from thence doth flow all the mischief and wickedness, that is in the life of man. Thy destruction is of thyself.

2. The Eternal Decree of God is unsearchable: To love his Children, and neglect his enemies, can neither impair his Mercy, nor impeach his Justice. But why he should love this as his Child, and neglect that as his enemy; Nec possibile est comprehendere, nec licitum investigare; is beyond the lawfulness of inquiry, and possibility of apprehension. That is a saucy and curious eye, which will be too nicely prying into the Closet of God's secrets. These should rather bring us on our knees, in the humble acknowledgement of his infinite wisdom and power, than prompt us to ransack his bosom, for the revealing of his intents. It is blessedness enough to be made God's Stewards, though we be none of his Secretaries. Will no Mansion in Heaven content us, but that which is the Throne and Chair for Omnipotencie to sit in? No Cabinet, but that which is the Treasury and Store-house of his own Counsels? If Angels fell for pride and emulation, what place can be low enough for such busy inquisitors? Though God from all Eternity, knew how to reward every man, either with bliss or pain; yet he never imposed upon any man either a necessity, or a will to sin. Far be it from us, to lay the buden of our sins on the shoulder of Predestinaion, and to make that the womb of our foul enormities.

3. God is the cause of Good, but in no respect of evil. By his Grace, Multi, ut laber ••• tur, Retenti; nulli, ut laberentur impulsi: He upholds many, he pusheth none down. He is said indeed to harden, but it is, because he does not soften. Impios cum non retrabit à malo culpae; dicitur dimittere. As the conferring of Grace is the effect of his Election, so the withholding of his Grace is the effect of reprobation. Fieri non potest, ut per quem à peccatis surgitur, per eum ad peccata decidatur. For one and the same goodness to be the rise and fall of the same sins, is impossible. Dei claudere, est clausis non aperire: God is then said to shut, when he does not open. Ab illo est quod statur, non ab illo quod ruitur. Our pravitie is the Reed that deceives us; God's Providence is the staff that supports us. If he hardens any, it is not Malum obijciendo, sed gratiam non concedendo; not by causing us to commit sin, but by not granting us the Grace to overcome sin. In a word, God never hateth, but where he is first hated. Nemo potest Christum tibi auferre, nisi te illi auferas: no man can take Christ from thee, unless thou first take thyself from Christ. Nemo eum amittit, nisi qui dimittit: we cannot lose him, but by putting him away.

4. GOD affords the means of Salvation to All, therefore He would have None to perish. He offers his Gospel, his Gospel offers CHRIST. CHRIST offers his Merits, his Merits offer Justification. If we bring Willingnesse, his Gospel is ours: if we bring Faith, CHRIST is ours: if we join with it Repentance, his Mercy and Merits are ours: if we add to all new obedience, salvation is ours. Why else are those affections attributed to God, which are properly and formally found in us, not in him? Sometime he will not be hindered from punishing: Let me alone, that I may destroy them: Why, what can hinder him? At another time, he desires to be hindered, and would have some stand in the gap, to save his people from his wrath: as a kind father being ready to correct his child, beckons to some neighbor to take him off. Othertimes he complains of his lost endeavors to bring them to repentance: I have labored in vain. What do all these signify, but his unwillingness to have any perish? Why then does he punish with perdition? No otherwise than as some just Judge, that would have all men live regularly, and free from disorders: but having transgressed the laws, Justice compels him, and that by a good and rectified will to punish them. Some would have this Will of God to be velleitatem rather than voluntatem; not so much an absolute will and resolution, as a willingness and desire: Not unlike a Merchants casting his Fraight overboord in a dangerous tempest: Vult efficaciter ease jactare, sed vellet efficaciter ease retinere: He would willingly save them, and yet he is willingly content to lose them.

But if God be willing that none should perish, why then are not some made partakers of his grace, as well as others? Saint Augustine answers, some men therefore want grace, Non quia Deus non dat, sed quia homo non accipit; not because God does not proffer it, but because they will not receive it. Peter walking on the Sea, and beginning to sink, cries out to his Master; and he took him by the hand, and saved him. This world wherein we walk, is a Sea, storms arise, and we are ready to perish: while we do not cry unto Christ for help, is it his fault if we be drowned? Thou liest sick, an excellent Physician comes to thy door with sovereign remedy, and knocks for admission: if neither thy will nor ability can let him in, blame thyself, not him for thy perishing. We are all mortally sick of sin; Christ our saving Physician proffers his help; but if either we want will to admit his presence, or power to take his medicines, or skill to follow his direction; we may die with the means of our salvation by us. Merito perit aegrotus qui medicum non vocat, sed ultro qui venientem respuit. The Patient is worthy to die, that will not invite the Physician to come; but more worthy he, that will not accept of his help when he is come.

5 The willingness of God that none should perish, is proved by innumerable evidences. He made us once; certainly he did not make us, because he would damn us. Yea, he hath often made us; when he redeemed us, that was a second making; when he renews us by his grace, that is, another making: everyone of his deliverances is a kind of faciamus hominem. If our sins have made us our Makers offenders, have they also made us that we are not his creatures? If the Devil hath bereaved us of our purity, hath he also bereaved God of his pity? Though justice might rightly damn us, cannot mercy possibly save us? If the Lord reject a sinner that cries to him for mercy; where is his willingness to have none perish? His Word is a Will, and his Will is a Power: He does promise nothing but what he does purpose, and he does purpose nothing but what he does perform. If he would have none perish, what necessity is there of our being damned? If he desire that a sinner should live, what difficulty is there of our being saved? What power of enemies, or number of sins, can either hinder what he would, or contstrain what he would not? He will not so look upon us sinful wretches, as not to see himself: nor so regard our wickedness, as not to behold his own goodness: nor so remember the sins that we have done, as to forget the creatures that he hath made.

He that lends the Sun of Light to all, would have none perish in darkness: and he that sends the Son of his Love unto all, intends the redemption of a many as will receive him. Why doth he not deny the knowledge of Christ? Why did he not hedge up that flower in some private Garden? Why not lock up that Jewel in one principal treasury? Certainly he would never have communicated it, if he did not purpose an universal benefit by it. Why is the Gospel forbidden to none, if any be debarred from the comforts of it? To whom doth not the bosom of the Church lie open? To what convert is the Baptismal water denied? To what confirmed Christian is the Sacramental communication of the body and blood of Christ not offered? We are not only admitted, but even invited to that blessed Table. To what end are those gracious invitations, Come ye that thirst, and drink Come ye that are heavy laden, and have ease: If any guest were excepted? He that bids all, forbids none. When a Prince proclaims free audience to all sorts of Clients, who can complain that his cause may not be heard? Those that seem such terrifying speeches, as The gate is narrow, Few are saved: be rather meant for spurs to our devotion, than bars to God's compassion: They do not contract his mercy which is so infinite, but they would enlarge our hearts which are so contracted. His nature is now as apt to forgive, as his Power will be seen hereafter able to punish. When did the distribution of his Treasure cease? When was the door shut to his faithful Clients? when we did sin, he did spare; when we did defer, he did expect; when we shall return, he will meet and embrace. He that doth all this, is not willing that any should perish.

6 There is no necessity that any man, any this or that man should perish. Some think they have gone far enough in the clearing of this point, to say, that God is no cause of our perishing, though we must perish: they determine it in this: It is true, your damnation is unavoidable, but you must blame yourselves. Others more fairly and comfortably carry it thus much farther, and conclude out of this Text, that there is no such unavoydablenesse, no such necessity of your damnation at all. The former only teach, that how desperate soever our case be, how irremediable soever our state, we ourselves, and not God, are the cause of this desperate irremediablenesse. The other say better; There is no such peremptory sentence, there is no such desperate irremediablenesse declared to any particular conscience; but whensoever we repent, the Lord will receive us. Once hath the Lord spoken, and twice do we hear him: we hear him once speaking for his own Honor. He does not damn us, if we be damned. And we hear him speaking a second time for our comfort, we need not be damned at all. Thy way and thy doings have procured these things unto thee; and destruction is of thyself: this fully dischargeth God from being the Author of our ruin. But howsoever God be thus discharged, He does not kill me if I die; yet it is but poor comfort to me, if I must die, to be told that I have killed myself: therefore he gives us here a stronger consolation, by telling us, there is no such necessity, we need not die at all. What can make our case so desperate, that he hath not left us ways of returning to him? What can make our state so irrecoverable, that he hath not left himself ways of redeeming us?

It is not for us to dispute, what God of his absolute power may do, nor what by his unrevealed decree he hath done: but this we gather here, that he hath not allowed me, nor thee, nor any to conclude against ourselves, a necessity of perishing. Zion said, The Lord hath forsaken me, and my Lord hath forgotten me: But why will Zion say so? My Lord, and hath forgotten me? Can she remember that God is hers, and not think that she is his? Can she remember him, and think that he hath forgotten her? What contradictions are these? If he have forgotten her, how is he then her Lord? If he be her Lord, how hath he then forgotten her? Can Zion retain her bowels of Piety, and think that God is disembowelled of his? Every where in the Scriptures we meet with God's Venites; both the Testaments are full of invitations to come unto God. There is a venite non habentes, Come and buy, though you have no money, no merits of your own: yet come, and dilate your measures, and according to that dilatation, fill them with the Merits of Christ. There is a Venite & revertimini; Come, though your coming be but a returning: be not ashamed of your returning, though it be a Confession of your former running away: Come in a Repentance, though you cannot come in an innocence. There is a venite & consulite; if you find it hard to come, or though you know not the way to come, yet come, that you may know the way: Consult with God how you may come, and how you may stay when you are come. There is a venite & arguite, argue, plead, dispute, expostulate. Come, though you come to reason with God: come upon any conditions. There is a venite laborantes, how heavy soever the burden of your sins, or the pressure of God's Judgments lie upon you, yet come for your own ease; Come ye that labor, and I will give you rest. There is a venite sitientes, Come you that thirst for my Righteousness, and be satisfied with it, be justified by it. There is a Venite paupers; let the lame and the blind come, that my House may be filled: I have room enough for them all; Compel them to come. The Spirit and the Bride say, Come: And let him that heareth, say, Come: And let him that is athirst, Come: There is a world of venites, and the Gospel abounds with infinite invitations to come. And there is a Venite that closeth up all the rest; Come, ye blessed of my Father: you have obeyed my first venite, in coming to my Kingdom of Grace; you are now blessed with my last venite, Come into my Kingdom of Glory. But there is but one Discedite; that same Ite maledicti, Go, ye cursed, is but once heard from the mouth of God, and that not in this World neither; as long as we are in this world, we are safe from rejection; God doth not cast us off, for he is not willing that any should perish. But if thy tender Conscience, and thy startling soul, should mis-imagine the hearing of such a voice, or in thy melancholy distemper, dream of such a sound from God's lips, as Depart thou sinner; a voice of separation, a voice that bids thee go: Say thou with Peter, to his and thy Savior, Domine, quo ibimus? Lord, whither shall I go? Thou hast the Word of Eternal Life. And I believe and am sure, that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. And that Christ, the Son of the living God will call thee back, and call back his own word, and entertain thee with Mercy and Peace.

For use and application of all this; here is matter of reprehension, of Instruction, of Consolation.

1. It reprehends those rigid and stoically-disposed Christians, that would contract the Mercy of God within their own limits, and make the gate of Heaven straighter than it is. Malicious fool, is thine eye evil, because God is good? Wilt thou confine the goodness of thy Maker, and set down what he shall do for his Creature? thus much, and no more? These Heirs of the old Caetharoi see men sin foully and fearfully, they do not see them repent visibly; therefore they infer upon them damnation. O uncharitable censure! I would not pronounce it of the greatest sinner that I should see die; though I perceived his sins to cover him like a cloud, as if they would keep him from looking up to God, and God from looking down upon him; the devil waiting for him, as for a certain prey; yet I would not pronounce it. The ways of thy Mercies, O God, are past finding out; more unknown than the way of a Ship in the sea, or of an Eagle in the Air. Let them show me how a flash of lightning melts the Sword, without making any impression in the scabbard: And I will show them as well, how at the instant of our death Mercy more sudden and more penetrating than the lightening, may melt our hearts into Repentance, though this be not visible to mortal eyes. Of the two, the Pope seems to me to off nd the less, because more charitably, in canonizing them for Saints, who for ought he knows are damned: than these men do in damning them, who for ought they know are Saints. But if I might advise them, they should bestow more time in saving of their own souls: less, in damning of the souls of others. I know how frivolous a tale it is, that S. Gregory drew Trajans soul out of hell: and how groundless an opinion is fathered upon Origen, that at last, the Devil shall be saved: But if they could persuade me the one half, that Trajan or the devil came to repentance in hell; I might be induced to believe the other half, that they might be delivered out of hell. Far be it from us to cut short the Mercy of God, or to weaken the credit of the merits of Christ, which so manifest his unwillingness that any should perish.

2. This teacheth us to understand the Scriptures aright. There be too many that press heavily to their own d • mnation, every sentence of Menace or terror: as, The wages of sin is death: The wrath of God comes upon the children of disobedience: It is impossible for him that falls after Grace, to be renewed: with these, and the like, they affright their own Souls. On the other side, a great number flatter themselves with the Promises of Mercy; as Christ suffered for all: God would have all men saved: At what time soever a sinner repents, he shall be forgiven: and with these they batten their own wantonness. But let us know, that it is not a few mis-understood sentences out of God's Book that must try us, but the whole Book it self: the tenor and purpose, the scope and intention of God in his Scriptures. His Book is a Testament, and in the Testament the Testator is dead, and dead for us: and will he that died for us, suffer us to perish? His Book is Gospel, and Gospel is good Tydings, a gracious Message: and will God under the color of a Message of Grace and Life, send us the fatal Errand of death? The Scriptures may seem to jar in the weak apprehension of our brains: our best way is to reconcile them in our hearts. except ye repent, ye shall all perish; there is terror: God would have none at all perish▪ here is comfort: that threatening, and this Promise, are both reconciled in our Repentance. The soul that sinneth shall die; saith God by his Prophet: The soul that believeth shall live; saith the same God by his Apostle. He that hath sinned, may believe; therefore he should live: He that believeth, hath sinned; therefore he should die. How shall we atone those? how reconcile death and life? Yes, though we have sinned, and therefore deserve to die; yet if we believe in Christ, that died for our sins, and now forsake them, we shall live. Thus both the sentences of God shall stand, and we shall not fall. When thou art tempted to transgress, consider that part of God's Word which threateneth vengeance to sin: when thou art broken with remorse of sin, remember that part of his Word which promiseth Mercy to Repentance. Thus let us do our best to save ourselves, for God would not have us to perish. Why will you die, O ye house of Israel?

3. This pours Oile into the wounds of a contrite heart. Were our souls in such a straight, as Israel between the red sea and the Egyptians; the spirits of vengeance, like those enemies pursuing us behind; hell and death, like that red sea, ready to engulf us before: yet would I speak to you in the confidence of Moses, Stand still, and see the Salvation of the Lord. Thou that art oppressed with the violence and clamour of thy sins, and wantest an Advocate either to intercede or pity, hear the voice of the Lamb; Cry unto me, I will hear thee out of mine holy hill. Doth any Soul hunger after Righteousness? Behold, I am the bread of life: Take, eat, here is my body. Doth any thirst after the waters of Grace? Lo, I am a living Fountain; come, and drink; here is my blood. Art thou not yet quite dead in trespasses? are not thy ulcers past cure? are there any seeds of life remaining? Is there any motion of Repentance in thy Soul? Will thy pulse of remorse beat a little? Hast thou but a touch of sorrow? a spark of Hope? a grain of Faith? Be comforted; the God of Mercy will not have thee perish. Not a tear of Repentance drops from thee, either unpitied, or unpreserved: God puts it into his bottle. Qui seipsum excipit, seipsum decipit. Doth the Lord say, I would have none perish? And dost thou say, Nay, but he will have me to perish? Thee? why thee? He says, None: and dost thou except one? and that one, Thy self? What is this but to cross the Cross of Christ? He would have All men saved: and thou comest in with thy exceptive; All but me. What is this, but in Effect, and at a distance, to give the lie to Truth it self? There be many that flatter away their souls in sport: but that a man should cast away his soul in willful earnest, is a prodigious desperateness. Not so; but God would have none to perish, therefore not me: this is a safe and comfortable inference. We are all naturally given to favor ourselves where we should not: why then do we not favor ourselves where we should? Justice thinks on us in the heat of our rebellions, but then we think not on Justice: and in our sad remorse, when Mercy thinks on us, cannot we think on Mercy? If the greatness of thy sins, which is commonly heightened by thine own dejections, and exalted by thine own sinking, grow so strong against thee, that thou canst not quench the Jealousy, nor devest the scruple of God's desertion; do but consider who should occasion it; It must be God, or thyself. God it cannot be, for he is not willing that any should perish. It is then thyself, it is thy fault, if it be done: and if thou humbly acknowledge that fault, it is not done: For God doth never so irrevocably threaten Judgment for sin, but the penitent Confession of that sin cancels and avoids the sentence. If our clamorous Conscience, like some sharp-fang'd officer, arrest us at God's suite; Let us put in baile; two subsidy-virtues, Faith and Repentance, and so stand the trial. The Law is on our side, the Law of Grace is with us: and this Law is his that is our Advocate, and he is our Advocate that is our Judge, and he is our Judge that is our Savior, even the Head of ourselves, Jesus Christ.

But that all should come to Repentance.] The end of a thing is first in Intention, though it be last in execution. The Salvation of mankind was God's first end, next to his Glory, why he made man: and the accomplishment of that Salvation is that other end, whereunto in time he brings him. There is Finis propositus, the end propounded; as we build a house to dwell in: and Finis absolutus, the end accomplished, when that house is made fit for our dwelling. There is Finis terminans, the end of a man's life; when he dies: and Finis pradeterminans, the end fore-appointing his death, why he shall die then. There is Finis Cujus, and Finis Cui: the end of which, and the end for which? Finis Cujus, as we call that the end of a Dinner, when we have done eating. Finis Cui, as the end of eating our Dinner is for strength and health. There is Finis medius, and Finis supremus: The Physician persuades his Patient to walk: the end is to get him an appetite to his meat, that is Finis medius: But why does he seek to procure this appetite? that this appetite may procure health: Health then is Finis supremus. God calls all men to Repentance; the end is that they might amend their lives; that is Finis medius: But why would he have them amend their lives? that they might not perish, but have everlasting life: their Salvation then is Finis supremus. He is not willing that any should perish: How should they scape it? By coming to Repentance. The end of his Gospel is, that men might repent: the end of their Repentance is, that they might be converted: the end of their conversion is, that they might be saved.

This then is the point, the force of the argument, the sum and scope of the place: The intent of God's longsuffering towards us, is to bring us to Repentance. The principal End is, that we might be saved: the subordinate End is, that we might come to Repentance, the only Way to be saved. Thus we have all the passages of the Text: The Lord is not slack to help us; there we set out: much less is He slack to perform his Promise; that way we went: But He is longsuffering toward us; thither we came: and the purpose of this longsuffering is, that none should perish; so far we are gone: but that all should come to Repentance, and with this we conclude. For Method in our proceeding, these five conclusions will naturally arise from the words. First, that Repentance is the necessary Way to Salvation. Secondly, that it is the Will of God, we should repent. Thirdly, that this Will extends not to some, but to all. Fourthly, that we must come to Repentance, and npt expect that Repentance should come unto us. Fifthly, that the intent of God's longsuffering and forbearance, is our conversion and Repentance. Of these briefly in their Order.

1. Repentance is the necessary way to Salvation: It is the Will of God that none should perish: yet withal, it is his Will, that all, except we repent, shall perish. There was, in the Law, an Altar for Propitiation, and a Laver for Purgation: he that partooke of the Altar, must first wash in the Laver. So in the Gospel, John began to preach the Baptism of Repentance, for the Remission of sins: Before we can have Remission of our sins, we must wash our souls in the Fountain of Repentance. Tears must not only wash out our sins, but stand in the place of our sins. My tears are in thy Book: our sins were in God's Book before: but our tears coming, do both blot them out, and fill their place. If there were any other way to Heaven than sorrow, Vel faelix mundus, vel fallens Christus; the world happy, and Christ had mis-taught us: For He saith, Ye shall weep, but the World shall rejoice: but your sorrow shall be turned into joy, and their joy into sorrow. Ye shall mourn in this world; This is a perpetual Prognostication: the Wisdom of Heaven teacheth us what Weather we must look for; Wet and Rainie, to the End of our Journey. Saint Augustine asks the price of the Kingdom of Heaven: and answers himself, that it is Dignum aeterno labor, worthy of long labor: yet it is gotten Brevi dolore, with a short sorrow. God shall wipe away all tears from our eyes: but dry cheeks have no need of wiping. The Papists speak wonders of their holy Water: but the right holy Water is the tears of a sanctified heart: A repentant eye is the true Cistern of holy Water. Pro brevibus lachrymis, gaudia longa metent. The sights of our sorrowful spirits on Earth, makes the spirits joyful in Heaven. God that is grieved at our sinful joys, will rejoice to behold our penitent griefs. This is the happy Harvest that grows out of the holy seed of our tears: we plough groaning, but we shall reap our Croppe singing. The Ancients in their sorrows were used to rend their garments: the Prophet diverts us from that Custom, to the renting of our hearts. The Priests of Baal did lance their flesh, as their heirs, the Romists do now macerate their bodies: But there may be a broken heart under a whole skin, under a whole garment: as under torn clothes and hides, there may be untouched hearts. A whole garment is more handsome to men, than a broken one: but a broken heart is more pleasing to God than a whole one. We are wont to cut and slash our apparel, in pride: O that we would deal so with our hearts, in humility, and repentance! A robe that is thus artificially mangled, if the scissures and breaches be reconciled with borders of Gold and studdes of Silver; or knit together with the ties of Silke and precious stones; appears more glorious, than the former continuity could have made it. The contrite heart, which the remorse of sin hath cut out into pieces, after it is redintegrated with the Spirit of consolation, and made up with Grace, Peace, and Remission; Jewels so precious, that the Pride of Nature and Art are baseness to them: it is most lovely in the Eyes of God, and reserved for the Wardrobe of Heaven. The Israelites must cross the River Jordan, before they enter into Canaan: and necessarily, Repentance is our way to that blessed Jerusalem.

2. It is the Will of God, that we should repent: His commanding Will, we speak not of his decreeing Will: That Will of his which He tells us; we may not m • ddle with that part of his Will which He keeps to Himself. All Righteousness, all Happiness, is the Will of God to his Creature. This is the Will of God, your Sanctification: Holiness is the Daughter of Repentance. This is the Will of God, your Salvation: That is the end, whereunto Repentance is the means: we must go by the means unto, the end. It is my Fathers Will, that none of these little ones should perish: we must all perish, little and great, if we repent not. It is your Fathers Will, to give you a Kingdom: that Kingdom hath been opened to deplored Impiety, it is always barred against Impenitency. This is not only a declaratory Will, to all: but an efficacious Will, to all that embrace it. God affords many proofs of his Willingnesse to bring us to Repentance. First, his Word preached: Why doth He call us, but that He would have us come? Why is the Voice of the Turtle heard in our Land? But that as one Turtle echoes to another, in their mourning accents, so our sorrowful consideration of your sins in our Sermons, should be answered with a reciprocal Repentance in your hearts. Vox Turturis non dulce sonat, sed dulce signat: our voice is not always pleasing to our ears, but it is always profitable to our souls. This is the scope of all our Preaching, to bring you to Repentance: not to win your ears but your tears: we would not have you commend us, we would have you amend yourselves. This is the honor of a Sermon, when the Hearer goes weeping home: and instead of He said well; cries out to God in secret, I have done ill. Therefore is the word called Fire; that it might melt your hearts: Therefore is Christ compared to the Sun, and the holy Ghost to the Wind; that they may both dissolve your Clouds into tears. Secondly, the Sacraments, both which are the real Oracles of Repentance. Baptism is a Sacrament of Faith, the Lord's Supper a Sacrament of Love; both are Sacraments of Repentance. Baptism is a Key to let us in, the Lord's Supper a Locke to keep and seal us up: both are in effectual without Repentance. The former is precisely called The Baptism of Repentance: Baptism is a Sacramental Repentance, and Repentance is an allegorical Baptism. In the former we are Patients, Agents in the latter: There, another baptizeth us, here, we baptize ourselves: In Baptism we promise Repentance, by Repentance we perform our Vow in Baptism: That was Semel factum, we were but once baptized at the Font: this is Sape iteratum, yea quotidianum, we must daily baptize our souls in the fountain of our tears. That was one shower of grace falling from Heaven above us: this is a continual running Spring of compunction within us. To the other Sacrament, Who dares approach without Repentance? The Bread of life will choke him: and that sacred Wine, the Symbole of Christ's Blood; which is so sovereign and cordial to all Believers, will run like poison through his veins, without Repentance. Yea therefore, therein, and thereby, doth the Lord seal unto us the Remission of our sins, upon the fore-granted condition of our Repentance.

I might add to these, many other demonstrations: but, Pondere, non numero argumentorum, I had rather press you with weight, than oppress you with number of arguments. Wherefore doth the Spirit of Grace knock at our doors, with such infinite holy motions, but that He would come in? He will not come in till Repentance hath swept the House; therefore his first knock is for Repentance. All God's Blessings are like so many Sutors, that woo us to Repentance: yea, they put on even the forms of Clients, and petition us for Repentance. All his judgments are so many claps of Thunder, to waken us to Repentance. His afflictions are Ambassadors, that treat with us about a League; which cannot be had without Repentance. All the Creatures of God, ordained for our use, are so many silent Sermons, so many Trumpets, that summon us to Repentance. Nothing can be plainer, than that the Lord would have us come to Repentance. Is He willing, and are we unwilling? Is it not for our good? Why then do we not consent? We should continually beg this favor on our knees, though it were hard to be granted; and do we despise it, being so graciously offered? No, let us present ourselves to him, whom we have provoked▪ if not in innocence, yet in humility: if not with a clean, yet at least, with a broken heart: and seeing we cannot by our righteousness, let us endeavor to be saved by our repentance.

3 Neither doth he will this good to some, but to All: he would have All come to repentance: this is the infinite latitude of his Mercy. God looketh down from Heaven upon the Children of men, and There is none that doth good, no not one: And yet is his goodness so immense, that he would have none perish, no not one? All men have sinned, and yet would he have all men saved? All have come short of the glory of God; and yet would he have all come home to the glory of God. What, All? There be some, Lord, that mis-believe thy Truth, some that abuse thy Word, some that despise thy Name, some that blaspheme thine Honor; and yet doest thou except none. Wouldst thou have All come to repentance? That extreme malice, Satan, would have All perish: The infinite goodness, GOD, would have All blessed. How well be their names fitted to their natures, in our language; Good, and God: Evil, and Devil? In the Creation, when God had made all things, he reviewed them, and saw that All was good: And such is the goodness of his Love, such his Love of goodness, that he would have All good again. I will not diminish the mercies of God, by admitting here of any of these distinctions; of Sufficiency and Efficacy, of the Generalls and Individualls, all of every kind, or every kind of all: Let no man straighten, what God hath enlarged. Oppresse not thyself, with what God can do by his absolute Power, nor with what he hath done by his inscrutable decree; but comfort thy soul with what he reveals of his incomparable mercy. He tells thee, that he would not have thee perish; that he would have thee repent; when if thou doest, in a thousand places he hath told thee that he will save thee: but nowhere, at no time, hath he peremptorily told thee, that he will damn thee. Where is the bill of your mothers divorcement, whom I have put away? or to which of my creditors have I sold you? Though I might have done both, and left you without just cause of complaint; yet I have not done it. Vbi libellus? If I have forsaken you, If I have sold you, show me your bill of Divorce, show me your bill of Sale. Do I wish well unto all, and dost thou exclude thyself, ô thou wrangling soul? Upon what canst thou ground this jealousy and suspicion in thy Maker? If I have rejected thee, ubi libellus? Where is the Bill? show me if anywhere under my hand In the 66. books of both my Testaments, what one Chapter canst thou pick out, what one verse, what one sentence, wherein I have peremptorily and definitively condemned thee? every leaf abounds with the proffers of God's mercy to All; without limitation, to All that embrace it, But that he hath rejected thee, or me, or any name amongst us; this I am sure we never found. No Lord, thou willest good unto All; O that All would will good to themselves, and give all glory to thee, for thy tender mercies in Jesus Christ.

4 We are directed to come to repentance, and not to look that repentance should come unto us. Seek for wisdom as for silver, and as thou diggest for gold: we expect not that gold and silver should seek us out: if we do, our purses will be light, and our hearts heavy: and we may take up Saint Peters ditty, Silver and gold have I none. It is true that without Christ we can do nothing: but having Christ, will we do nothing, neither? we may say of coming to Repentance, as to that great Supper: Neither all they that were bidden were willing to come: nor they that came, could have come without calling. They that came, cannot ascribe merit to themselves, because they were called: they that came not, may well attribute blame to themselves, because they were called. But how should we come to repentance? Our feet are our desires: we are what we desire to be, and where we desire to be: Maria non erat, vbi erat: Mary was not where she was, but where her desire was, and that was with Christ. When we earnestly desire repentance, we are at it: There may be a faint languid wish of repentance; O that I were another man! this is a foot, but a lame foot; the soul cannot walk upon it. There may be an unwilling willingness to repent, which is a preposterous foot turned backward; Faine I would repent, but I am loath to lose the sweetness of my sin: so watermen look one way, and row another: they give a look toward repentance, but their actions move toward wickedness: they would arrive in the East, but they steer their course westward. We cannot go upon such stilts and crutches to Heaven. Hearty prayer and diligent endeavor; these are the two sound legs, whereon we must come to repentance.

5 The intent of God's long suffering towards us, is that we might not perish: His patience invites our penitence. Knowest thou not that God's goodness and forbearance leadeth thee to repentance? Why doth he spare us so long, but that our amendment might procure him to spare us forever? Repentance, thither he leads us, and by his Patience, so he leads us. O let us have ductile spirits, willing to follow so sweet a manuduction! I gave her space to repent of her fornications, but she repented not. The Lord struck Ahab, her husband, with a violent death, her elder Son Ahaziah perished, her younger son Joram, had twelve years unfortunate reign: will Jezebel take no warning by all this? No, for still she rep • nted not. God is offended, it is he that suffers the injury and proffers the mercy: yet still she repented not. While he stands waiting, she is painting her cheeks threatening his Prophets, renting his holy Name with blasphemies; but still she repented not. He doubles her days of forbearance, that might hasten her day of vengeance: he lets her breath out reproaches against him, whiles he allows her breath to repent and cool her torment: and yet she repented not. The Devil gapes to devour her, and solicits God that she might be turned over to him for punishment; who would use her worse than the Lions did the enemies of Daniel, breaking her bones before she could fall to the bottom of the Den: still the Lord puts of Satan, and enlargeth her term; but yet she repented not. May we not parallel this city with that woman? Those two daughters of the great king, have come hand in hand to woo us: Mercy and Truth have met together, Righteousness and Peace, have kissed each other: Mercy going before with Peace to you, if you embrace it, Justice following after with woe to you, if you refuse it: The one with an open bosom, ready to receive the penitent; the other with a drawn sword to devour the obstinate; and yet we repented not. One while Peace hath planted Laurells and Palme trees round about our Coasts, and Plenteousnesse hath kept her court within our borders: Another while, fire hath demolished our buildings, Plagues have emptied our walls, losses by Sea hath diminished our Estates, strange proceedings hath distracted our minds: in the mean time, the Prophets of GOD have told us the causes and the remedies of all these sorrows: yet as if our hearts were Sermon proof, were Shot-proof, were thunder-proof too, truly is it said of us, That we repented not.

God is patient, that we might be penitent: All men continue, but with what heart? Behold the aged worldling, that hath overlived all the teeth of his gums, the hairs of his head, the sight of his eyes, the taste of his palate: yet he is loath to die. Why? Either he hath not yet enough, and would live to get it; or he hath too much, and would live to spend it. Most men would neither die, nor be old, nor are yet content in being young: To whom it may be said, as the Vision spake to the shrinking professors of the primitive times: you would neither live to be old, nor die while you are young; What shall do with you? We see old age, an emblem of misery; a burden uxori, natis{que} sibique: yet being asked what year we would die, we still shuffle it off to the next; and rather than want excuses, we would live to repent. This were well if it were true. But does not the greater number rather ad to the heap of their sins by continuance, than diminish it by repentance? As if they coveted time, to swell the cup of their torment to the brim: or that Hell-fire could not be hot enough for them, unless they had more space allowed them to blow it? The sin which our birth brought with it into the world, though we had never done actual trespass, is work enough for us to repent of. Besides we sin too much actually every day, for that days repentance. Sufficient to the day is the sinful evil thereof. O that sufficient to the day were the godly sorrow thereof. yea, the sin of one hour may well task the repentance of many days. Lay all these together, and see if thy time be not rather of the shortest, for this great work of repentance. He that commits one sin, hath hath broken Totam legem, though not Totum legis: but we have broken everyone of God's ten Laws ten thousand times, and ten thousand ways. We have sinned, what shall we do unto thee, O thou preserver of men? What should you do, replies our gracious God? Make use of my patience; I allow you time; do you lay hold of repentance. Have we so many sins, and so few days; and shall we not set apart one hour of a day, one day of a week, for this weighty business? We sin enough in one day, to repent all our lives: and do we think, that for the sins of all our lives, we can sufficiently repent in one day? If we have seen many rising and setting Suns, and beheld the wheeling Heavens turn over forty years; they say, we have had a fair time; yes if we have repented: otherwise it may prove a foul time to us. Pleasure we have little need of, repentance is necessary: our time is too short for both, one of them can only possess it: Detur digniori, give it to the worthier. Before we came into the World, we had sin: after we are gone out of the world, (except Christ by his satisfaction clear the score) our sin remains in God's debt-book: in neither of these states is there place for repentance: only Tempus vitae, tempus poenitentiae. Time was when God did gently admonish men, Quid statis? why stand you all the day idle? The day shall come, when he will terrify their souls with a Quid stetistis? Why have you stood all the day idle? O then, let us not add to our other sins, this sin also; that we have lost the time of repentance. Let us humbly prostrate ourselves before the Throne of grace; and beg not only space for repentance, but the grace of repentance; that after God's allowance of time to repent, we may never be driven to repent that we had such an allowance. O let it never be said of us, as it was of that cursed Jezebel, that we repented not.

The use of all this teacheth us, not to abuse the Divine patience, but to take the first opportunity of repentance. If sin be fostered in youth, it will hardly be dispossessed in age. Quem juvenis admisisti socium, Senex habebis dominum. That which the young man took in for his play fellow, when he is aged he shall find his Master. Suppose that sickness surpriseth a man in the heat of his blood, and height of his jovialty; though he had rather live to enjoy his pleasant sins, yet he would repent if he must die: Poenitentiam dare possumus, non securitatem: we neither deny him mercy, nor afford him security. Vis ergo à dubio liberari? Tene certum, dimitte incertum. Wouldest thou be put out of doubt? lay hold on that which is certain, let go that which is uncertain. Repent presently, now in thy health; this is good: Quia eo tempore poenituisti, quo potuisti peccare: because in the time when thou mightest have sinned, thou hast repented. But then only to begin to be sorry, when thou hast no further stomach to sin; Peccata te dimiserunt, non tu illa: thy sins have cashered thee, not thou them. If we see no flowers in the Spring, we look for no fruits in Autumn. The Philosopher being asked near his end, why he had not married in all his life, answered thus: In youth I was too young, now I am too old, betwixt both these times I had other business. In like manner do we shuffle off repentance, as he did marriage. In youth we think ourselves too young, and ne • d not: in age too old, and cannot: in middle age we have other business and will not. But as the bloody Tyrants in the days of Queen Mary, gave our forefathers a round and peremptory choice; Either turn or burn: So we tremble to speak it, but we must: Let dissolute sinners either hasten their turning to repentance, or expect their burning in the fiery lake of vengeance.

Thus we have all the parts of this verse in every passage whereof we meet with Mercy: that as at the repairing of the Temple, the people shouted to Zerubbabel; Grace, Grace unto it; so let our thankful hearts acknowledge in every piece of this Holy building; Mercy, Mercy, there is nothing but Mercy in it. We may breath upon ev • ry word, as that Psalm closeth up every verse, with this bearing, For his mercy endureth forever. First, The Lord is not slack to save and deliver us, for his mercy endureth forever. Secondly, much less is he slack concerning his promise to do us good; for his mercy endureth forever. Thirdly, But he is long suffering toward us, full sweet is his patience, for his mercy endureth forever. Fourthly, He is not willing that any should perish, he desires not the death of a sinner, for his mercy endureth forever. Fifthly, But he would have all men come to repentance, and by repentance to forgiveness, and by forgiveness to salvation, for his mercy endureth forever, Amen.

WHen God made this lower World, he did not intend it for perpe • uitie; but subjected it to mutations, to alterations, to successions: albeit these changes may challenge sin for the cause, which G • d did foresee but not predetermine: yet after his fore-sight of sin, he did fore-appoint this mortality for punishment. One thing thrusts out another, this age hath dispossessed the former, and shall be dispossessed by the future. Adam resigns to Noah, Abraham to David, the Jews to the Babylonians, they to the Persians, the Persians to the Grecians, the Grecians to the Romans. As it is in the general, so in all particulars: How hath this little Island been usurped, mixed, metamorphosed, even to the utter extinction of her first natives? Kingdoms have their periods: yea, the earth it self, though it continually lie still, is not constant, because it continually changes, and melts in all parts thereof. Man is the noblest part of the earth, and he so melts and moulders away, as if he were a statue, not of earth, but of Snow. His own envy m • kes h •• , and he grows lean with that: another's beauty melts him, and h • languisheth away in the fruitless contemplation of that. But a sickness so melts him, as if lead were molten in a furnace: and death so melts him, that it c • lcin • s him, and reduceth him to Atoms and ashes. In the Nature of sensitive • ungs, Children out live their Parents; and so there is a su • cessive propag • tion, one begets another. But in some things, the Mother outlives the Children: the fruits of the Earth die yearly, the mother remains. We are also her Children, and daily doth she receive us back into her womb: One generation passeth, and another cometh; but the Earth abideth forever. Yet this old gran-dame must have her day: there is a funeral fire ordained for her aged bones. In the World one thing devours another; Fishes devour Fishes, and Beasts devour Beasts, yea and Men also devour Men, till they even become Monsters. We feed upon the Creatures, the Wormes shall feed upon us, the Earth shall consume those Wormes, time shall waste the Earth: but the day of the Lord shall consume even time; this shall put an end to all. This Mountain is bigger than that; this Cedar taller than that, this River longer than that; this Man nobler than that: yet all have one Earth for their foundation, and the same orbicular Heavens for their roof: But the day of the Lord, shall make all even; in the which, the Heavens shall pass away roaring, the Elements vanish melting, the Earth with her works stand burning; Hell shall open shrieking, and all mankind appear trembling, at the Archangels Trumpet summoning, no less than all the World to this last universal audit.

But the day of the Lord shall come, &c.] You may easily apprehend the parts; they are generally but two; An Advent, and an Event: a coming, and what shall happen in that coming. First, The day of the Lord shall come as a thief in the night: there is the Advent. Secondly, In which the heavens shall pass away, &c. there is the Event. The fruit of the particular branches will be gathered in their due places. In the Advent, we have two considerations; The matter; and the manner: What shall come, and How. First, the matter is, The day of the Lord shall come. Secondly, the manner is, Like a thief in the night.