Commentary on 2 Peter

Like a thief in the night. To proceed in order.

[unspec 1] The day of the Lord.] Every day is the Lord's; all times are his: and he hath so Put them in his own Power, that he hath not communicated that Power, not imparted the knowledge of that disposition, to any Creature. The day is thine, O Lord, and the night is thine. But some days are the Lord's, by a more special right, and peculiar interest: such as he hath culled out of the common heap of days, and set his own royal stamp upon them. So the Sabbath is called The Lord's day; sanctified, and set apart by his own Ordinance, for his extraordinary worship. In no day must we forget him, on this day we must forget all things besides him. The same Sun enlightens other days, equally with this: but it hath a better light, by the rising of a nobler Sun; Jesus Christ doth enlighten it: this is the honor of it: For this cause, besides the moral Precept, it is called The Lord's day. Shall we think that this Day of the Lord shall fall upon The Lord's day? It was Christ's Caution to the Jews; Pray that your flight be not in the Winter, nor on the Sabbath day. We may not pray so, concerning this day of the Lord. But this we know, that as when God had made six day, and all the world in them, he deposited them in the hands of a Sabbath: so in this Day of the Lord, we that are in Christ, shall enter into that everlasting Sabbath, the glorious rest in Heaven. There be other days which God hath consecrated to himself, and commanded a solemn celebration of them to us, ennobled with the memory of some famous works of his Mercy: Concerning everyone of these we may say, This is the day that the Lord hath made: He made it, he made us happy by it, and he would have us remember him in it: This is also The day of the Lord. Potentates, and great Persons have their solemn days: Herod had his Birthday: and Kings do ceremoniously keep their Coronation-days. The Lord will also have His day: once the people would have crowned him, but he refused it: that was not his day. Now he will receive that glorious Crown at the hands of his Father; to the Comfort of his loyal Subjects, and the everlasting confusion of those rebels, That would not have him reign over them: this is The Lord's day. The Saints have their days of Commemoration; and so we call them; Saint John's day, Saint Peters day: Not that we dedicate these days to the worship of the Saints, like our superstitious adversaries: We honor the Saints more than they; Charitate, non servitute: with approbation, not adoration; with imitation of their lives, not invocation of their loves. On those days we remember their Graces, and the Benefits God hath done to his Church by their service: so that they are more properly The Lord's days, than theirs. But the Lord hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world with righteousness: This is emphatically, The Lord's day.

[unspec 2] First, we have our day, and then the Lord hath His. O Jerusalem, that thou hadst known these things, in this thy day. The ungodly have their day, wherein they may do their own pleasures, as it were without the controlment of the supreme Judge: The Adversaries of Christ had their day: when the State was incensed against Him, the Herodians came to tempt Him in the dangerous question of Tribute: that was their day. The Sadducees oppose Him about the Resurrection: that was their day. The Scribe, expert in the Law, that thought himself learneder than Herodian, Sadducee, or Pharisee; tempts Him about the Great Commandment, that was his day. Judas betrayed Him for money; that was his day: the Jews accuse Him for envy; that was their day: Pilate condemns Him for policy, that was his day: Herod dismisseth Him in mockery: the Soldiers put Him to death with cruelty: this was their day. But shall not Christ have also his Day, to be avenged for all these injuries? Must He suffer unjustly, and not be openly justified? Had Pilate a day for his Tribunal, and shall not the Maker and Judge of Pilate and all the world, have a Day to sit on his Throne? The Kings of the earth have their yearly Audits, and shall not the King of Heaven and Earth have one Day for his? Shall luxurious men riot, the covetous oppress the unclean wallow in their turpitudes, swearers rend that dreadful Name of God, and persecutors triumph in the sufferings of the innocent; and never be called to a Reckoning? Christ did put off divers Sutors; his kindred, his Mother, with this; My time is not yet come. He did put off his Opposers, his malicious Adversaries, with this; Mine hour is not yet come. But certainly, his time, his hour, his day will come. Those souls under the Altar cry with a loud voice. How long, O Lord, holy, and true? And are answered in effect, My day is not yet come.

There is to every man a day of Salvation: we have not only the first days, wherein God sp • ke by his Prophets; but the last days, Wherein he hath spoken to us by his Son. There be some that are of the night; a night which they have sup •• duced upon themselves: but we are The Children of the day; and the Lord hath shined upon us in a full Noone. The Gospel is the day of G • ace, whereof the Word and Sacraments are the bright B • ames; In this day there any be some dark passages, to them that will entangle themselves in unnecessary disputations: But to our modest and humble Faith, the hours • re light enough, and we may easily go our whole journey. That Faith and Repentance shall bring us to Salvation by Jesus Christ: this is a clear light. That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament, is not more assimilated to our body and blood, than the Body and Blood of Christ is communicated to us in that action: this is a clear light. There may be darkness in us, there is nothing but light in the Gospel. This is our day; let us walk in it? He that is he ancient of days, will call us to an account for our days: Why do we stand here idle all the day, that are n • t sure of more days to make up our Harvest? There are evil d • yes, and still the latter the worse: Temporum posteriora, deteriora: therefore let us put on th • Armor of God, That we may be able to stand in the evil day. But there is a m • r • fatal day than all the rest; The great day of his wrath, in which no man shall be able to stand. This is our day, the next is the Lord's: If we do not in this day provide for that: that day shall condemn us for the loss of this. When the Sun shines upon the Dial, it reflects a shadow, whereby we observe how the d • y passeth: for although the Sun, not the shadow, makes the day; yet we know not how the day goes, by the Sun, but by the shadow. The Son of Mercy shining upon our prepared hearts, refl cts a shadow, which is our pious conversation. The light of Grace makes the day: but the shadow, or answerable reflection of our holy Life, shows us how the day goes with ourselves; and in what forwardness we are toward the end of our journey, the consummation of our hopes, even the Salvation of our Souls.

This is The Lord's day, because he will then show himself in a more glorious [unspec 3] form, than ever the world before saw, or apprehended him. The day of • his birth was a day of humility Suscepta à majestate humilitas, à virtute infirmitas, ab aeternitate mortalitas. The day of his death was a day of sorrow; we cannot think of it without remorse: the whole frame of nature did put on mourning garments, to write upon the Funeral of their Maker: His resurrection was a day of triumph indeed; but because not visible, therefore not credible to the sinful and obstinate world. To us, it is a day of joy; and that traditional report of the Suns dancing, upon every Easter day morning, had more than a literal sense in the Authors meaning. But the Jews pretended the every; His Disciples stole him away. Him, what him alone. They were very favorable thieves, that would steal the body, and leave the clothes. I have heard of sacrilegious robbers, that have violated the monuments of the dead; stealing the clothes when they have left the body behind: But to filch the body, and refuse the booty, was a senseless kind of robbery. No, the Disciples did not steal his Body out of the Sepulcher; but the Devil hath stolen the belief of his resurrection out of those Jewish hearts. The day of his Ascension was a glorious day, but seen only by some few of his friends: His glory shall be the same at his coming down, that it was at his going up: but the manifestation of his glory at his going up, was far less than it shall be at his coming down. But in this day of the Lord, Every eye shall see him, even they that have pierced him through. In the plague of Egyptian darkness, there was light enough in Goshen: so in this terrible day of the Lord, when darkness shall overwhelm the reprobates, the faithful shall be in a shining light; they shall shine as the light. To these, The light of the Moon shall be as the light of the Sun, and the light of the Sun shall be sevenfold. To the other, The Sun shall be darkened, and the Moon shall not give her light: Woe unto such that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for them? The day of the Lord is darkness and not light. How then shall they discern one another? Saint Chrysostom examines the reason, how the rich man could see Lazarus in Abraham's bosom; whereas it is not said, that Lazarus saw the rich man in hell-torments: and he answers it thus: A man that is in darkness, can easily see him that is in the light; but he that is in light, cannot so easily discern him that is in darkness: The light of Lazarus helped Dives to the sight of him; but the darkness of Dives hindered Lazarus from the sight of him. But this day shall make all manifest: the damnable darkness of the wicked shall be visible to the righteous: and the blessed glory of the righteous shall be apparent to the wicked. Everyone shall see another, and all shall behold the Lord: they that have rejected him, to their horror: they that have embraced him, to their everlasting comfort.

The Scripture abounds with expressions of the desperate fatality of this day. It is terrible, who can abide it? Happy is he that is bid in the day of the Lord's anger. Innumerable are the places, wherein it is called The day of the Lord Jesus. He was put to public disgrace before, and insulted upon by Men and Devils: Now his goodness shall be justified, and his glory published before Men and Angels. Then his attendants were poor fishers; now his Throne shall be waited upon by celestial spirits. Then he sprang from the low estate of his Mother; now he shall come in the glory of his Father. Then Herod had a fling at his Infancy, now he shall tremble to behold his Majesty. Then they cried, Crucify him, crucify him: Now they shall say, Glorify him, glorify him. Then they laughed at his sorrows, now they shall mourn at his sentence. Then they fastened him to the Cross, now they shall do homage to his Crown. Then he was a Lamb, bearing the sins of the world: now he shall be a Judge, condemning the world for sin. Then he was made a sacrifice for all men; now all men shall be made a sacrifice to him; either to his mercy in their salvation, or to his justice in their perdition. Then he rode to Jerusalem upon a beast; his cloth of state being the people's garments: now he shall come riding on the wings of the wind, and the Clouds shall be the dust of his feet. Then a little Star waited on his Nativity: now the Sun and Moon shall be drowned in his clarity. All honor shall be swallowed up in the honor of Christ: As Philosophers say of heat; that it does not only expel cold, but also avocate and call out a lesser heat: And light does not only expel darkness, but also extinguish a lesser light: Or as John the Baptist said of Christ; He must increase, and I must decrease: So that Matth. 3. almost in every verse, there is a mention, there is a repetition of John: John baptized, John preached, John was thus clothed; until Christ's Baptism is finished, and then there is no more mention of John. all is now referred to Jesus, and Jesus hath extinguished John. So now strong men have their powers, great men have their honors, Lord's have their Commands, and Kings have their Crowns: But in this day they shall all resign to this Almighty King: all honors shall be swallowed up in the honor of Christ: all dignities, all titles shall be concentred in him; as at the Creation, all that dispersed light was reduced to the one great luminary, and treasured up in the S • nne: all Crowns shall be cast at his feet: and all Glory and Praise shall be given to his blessed Name forever.

The Day of the Lord will come] For Iugdement, that is the intent of his Comming: [unspec 4] yet it is his especial Mercy, to give us warning. He might come, and never tell us so: yet He doth tell us of it, before He will come. The End of all things is at hand. What then? Therefore be sober, and watch unto Prayer. The Son of man comes in a Cloud, with Power and Glory: What of that? Therefore take heed to yourselves, that that Day may not come upon you unawares. Why doth He tell us that He will come, but that we might be in readiness to entertain Him? In all God's proceedings to Judgment, whither particular, or this universal; He ever leaves a latitude between his sentence and execution: and that Interim is Sphaera activitatis, the Sphere in which our Repentance and his Mercy move, and direct themselves in a benign aspect towards one another. God seldom comes to that dispatch; a word and a blow: but to a blow without a word, to an execution without a warning, never. Cain embrewes his hands in the blood of his own brother: God takes upon Him the quarrel; (and indeed it was for his sake that Abel suffered) He could have surprised and killed Cain: He does not, but only gives him warning: Why is thy Countenance cast down? If thou doest not well, sin lies at the Door: you may proceed, but if you will needs, you will lose by it at last. Saul persecutes Christians; Christ meets upon the way, speaks to him, strikes him to the ground tells him vocally, and tells him actually; that he had undertaken an ill business in opposing Him. This which God did to Saul, converts him: That which He did to Cain, wrought not upon him: but still God went his own way in both; to speak before He strikes, to lighten before He thunders, to warn before He wounds. Antequam vulneremur, monemur. In the case of Corah, God may seem to proceed apace towards execution, yet not without divers Reprieves. First, when Moses heard of their rebellious challenge, he falls not upon them, but falls upon his face before God for them; he laments and deprecates in their behalf. Secondly, He calls them to a fair Trial, the next day: To morrow the Lord will show who are his, and who are holy: Take your Censors, and come, that it may be examined: and they said, We will not come. Thirdly, it is likely that Moses cited them again, because again they peremptorily replied; We will not come. Fourthly, upon this contumacy, God resolves to consume them in a moment: but Moses and Aaron redouble their petitions; O God, shall one man sin, and wilt thou be wrath with the whole Congregation? Fifthly, Moses went up to them again, and the Elders of Israel followed; and yet all prevailed not. Sixthly, He makes a separation of the people from them, Depart from the Tents of these wicked men: hoping that the sight of the rest running from them, as from monsters, would have made their hearts mis-give them. Seventhly, when they still impudently persisted to out-face God's vengeance, Moses comes to pronounce the Sentence; These men shall not die a common death. Eighthly, then after, and yet not instantly after this Judgment, Execution followeth; The earth opened and swallowed them. But God begun not there: God opened his mouth, and Moses his, and Aaron his, and the Elders theirs, before the Earth opened hers. All concludes in this; God's Judgments and Executions are not sudden, there is always room for Repentance and Mercy: but his Judgments and Executions are certain, there is no room for Presumption or Security. The day of the Lord will come; it is certain: and like a Thief in the night; it is sudden: yet He that gives us this premonition, intends our holy preparation, that we may find Mercy in that great Day of Retribution.

[unspec 5] Will come.] As no importunity can delay it, no secrecy avoid it, no policy corrupt it, so nothing but sanctification can give us comfort in it. The sudden beating up of a drumme may make a very valiant Soldier startle; and the sounding of the last Trump may strike a fear into the holiest body, that wakens out of his grave. It is some terror for a man to be awakened, when the whole world is on fire about his ears: though himself be Titio ereptus, a brand snatched out of the fire. It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God: Which words a Christian considering, wished that he might fall into the hands of a dead God. He meant into the hands of that Person, who is both God and Man: who even whilst he was a dead man, was still a living God. In death, his hands were nailed to the Cross: then he could not strike us for our sins, because then he was stricken for our sins. As that prisoner appealed from Philip, to Philip: so let us appeal from Christ as he is a living Judge, to Christ as he was our dying Savior: that for his sake who once died for us, this living God may forever acquit us. But it is a sweet thing, when a man hath slept quietly all night, to be waked in the morning with music. The body that hath slept in Christ, shall be called up with Heavenly music at the resurrection: The testimony of our own conscience, the Hallelujahs of Saints, the Choir of Angels, yea the very sound of that Trumpet shall consent in this Anthem: And that which makes up the perfect harmony, as the voice of Christ himself; Come ye blessed.

Like a thief in the night.] Similitudes may illustrate the things which are to be proved; but they do not justify the things from which they are borrowed. Christ's coming like a thief, is no warrant for thieves; no more than his comparison taken from piping and dancing, is a license for fidlers and dancers. That God, who would be understood literally, according to the direct and plain sense of all that he saith; doth not refuse also to speak by figures and metaphores. The institution of his whole worship in the old law, was a continual allegory: types and figures overspread all, and figures flowed into figures, and poured themselves out into farther figures. Circumcision carried a figure of Baptism, and Baptism carries a figure of that purity, which we shall have in the perfection of glory. Nor did he only speak in this language by his Prophets, but even by his Son too. He calls himself a Way, and a Light, and a Gate, and a Vine, and Bread, oftener than the Son of God, or the Son of Man. But that he should liken himself to a Thief, is the wonder. He is the judge of thieves, and will that Judge assume any likeness unto thieves? Thieves will break into houses, violently take away other men's goods, and bloodily cut their throats: and will the righteous Judge of all do so? It was he that cut out men's several proprieties; for there can be no Theft, where is no distinction of ownages. And the state which had once allowed a community, found by experience quickly, that the common Ass was never well saddled; and therefore were driven to make laws for the designation of every ones proper portion: — Meus est his ager, ill tuus. Yea, the chief Lord of all, hath been no less careful of fencing in his Tenants possessions, than in the maintenance of his own homage and service: For he wrote with the self same hand: Thou shalt not steal, with which he wrote, Thou shalt have none other God's but me. He well knew the corrupt inclinations of men, and their itching desires to finger the peculiars of others: In whose judgment, Stollen waters are sweet: Aliena nobis, nostra plus alijs placent: And therefore made a law against it: and will he now so seem to favor it, as to admit a likeness to it? I might answer, that Nullum simile est idem. No like is the same: Similitude, and Identitie are different things: He that is like me, is not myself. When Christ resembles himself by some good thing, that good thing he calls himself. Bread is good; therefore he does not say, I am like to Bread, but I am Bread. The light is good, therefore he does not say, I am like unto light, but I am the Light. But when he fetcheth a comparison from some questionable or unwarrantable things, he sets it down with a Sicut: which imports a Similitude, not a Truth. A snare is hurtful; therefore his coming is not called a snare, but Tanquam laqueus, As a snare. A thief is mischievous; therefore it is not called a thief, but Sicut fur, like a thief. Christ cannot be a thief, for what is there for him to steal? The principal right of all things he hath reserved to himself: therefore the Israelites did not properly rob the Egyptians? Deo ministerium praebuerunt. God himself by a special commission, intitled them thereunto. Our goods are his, our bodies are his, our souls are his, the world is his; what then can he steal? yet I will tell you what he hath stolen, and wherein he hath played the thief: (let no profane misinterpreter abuse it to his diminution or dishonor, which I intend to the glory of his goodness.) He entered into the house of mortality, and stole from us our sins: He entered into the house of the grave, and stole from us the sting of death: He broke open the gates of Hell, and stole from us damnation: Of these sorrows He hath robbed us, and with these robberies He was clothed, even when he hung naked upon the Cross: If this be theft, it is so gracious a one, as merits praise to his holy Name for evermore.

Like a thief.] The master begun this comparison of himself, and the servants made bold to follow it; Paul, John and Peter, all concur in the same similitude. But why like a thief? that is now our Quaere. First, for the uncertainty of his coming. Secondly, for the suddenness of that uncertainty. Thirdly, for the peril of that suddenness. Fourthly, for the Fatality of that peril. Fifthly, For the Irremediablenesse of that Fatality.

1 For the uncertain time of his coming, he is Tanquam fur insidians. The thief doth not tell the master of the house what time he will come, for then he would prevent him, and fortify himself against his most subtle violence. Nor does the Lord impart to his Creatures, upon what day his Day shall fall. He hath not said when he will come, though he hath given us some precedent signs before the accomplishment whereof he will not come. Things quaerible, are in the number of things cognoscible. Why do we study that, which is impossible to learn? what kind of fruit soever that was, for which our first Parents sold their Birth-right in Paradise, I am sure there was not juice enough in it to quench that hot thirst of forbidden knowledge, which they derived to their posterity. But that which like a corn of Salt, only distempered Adams taste, is now become a salt hydopricall phlegm in mankind: that the more they do know, the more they desire; and the admitting them to one secret, doth but hearten them on to seek for another. We all take after our Grandmother, and setting our shoulders to the very Portall of GOD'S privy Chamber, inn we must, and be made acquainted with the Divine Counsel. The eye so itcheth after variety of sights, and the ear of sounds, that neither the one Is satisfied with seeing, nor the other with hearing.

There be two questions that much trouble such scrupulous brains: where and when, this judgment shall be. For the former; Christ speaks of a separation that should be made, between two in one bed, and two in one field, and two at one Mill; whereof the one shall be received, the other refused: unto this the Disciples presently reply, Where Lord? Some conceive two demands in that one word, because 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 is taken in a twofold sense; which they gather from a verse of Sophocles, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , &c. Importing both a place, where, and the motion to a place, whither. Where shall this place of separation be, and whither shall the separated pass? To what Barre shall they repair for their doom, and whither shall that doom send them? Christ accordingly answers them with a wheresoever, and a thither; including both locum and terminum. Duo quarentibus unum respondet: He gives them but one answer to their two questions; but such a one, as the Perspectives speak of a Sun-beam, which is made of two beams gathered into one: or as we say of two friends, which are one in heart, but two in strength. This answer may resolve them so far as their salvation needed, though not so fully as their humors desired. There can be no question moved by a creature, to which God is not able to make a sufficient answer. The Epitomizer of ten into two, the Digester of so large a volume, as the whole Law, into so brief a sum as Love; will be as plentiful in his satisfaction, as flesh and blood can be in a question. Do they ask, where they shall appear? He answers, wheresoever he shall keep his Court. Do they demand whither they shall be translated? He answers, whither he hath gone before to prepare the place. For the other, Christ spake of Jerusalem's downfall, and the Disciples came unto him privately: It was their boldness to press upon him; but that it was done privately, argued some modesty: Tell us, when shall these things be? What shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world? Our Savior, to leave a testimony, how ill he liked of this curiosity; gives them no directer than an indefinite answer: And as before he would not vouchsafe their where, so much as a Here, or There; but did put it by as a demand not pleasing to him, with an unresolving wheresoever: So here he doth not satisfy their when, with a Now, or Then: but clean discourageth such an inquiry; telling them, that though they were Apostles, and had the privilege to be made acquainted with the heavenly mysteries; yet they must not look to know that which is concealed from the very Angels. The Divine nature, as it is mercy it self, so it is wisdom it self. It is his mercy to impart unto us, that one day we shall be brought to judgment: but when this Day shall be, and where this judgment, his wisdom thought good to conceal. To be sure he will come, may well deter us from offending: but to be sure when he will come, would breed a security of sin upon the vain hope of timely repenting.

In other things, knowledge is better than ignorance: but in this, ignorance is better than knowledge. Scholers that know their master will not return before such a day, are apt to play the truants: but when they are not sure where he is, nor how soon he will come, fear will make them ply their books. Give over thy proud inquiry, that may do thee hurt: fall to penitent humility, this will do thee good. Expect him every day, that may come any day. Let God's secret alone, it is too high for thee: but be wise, and look unto the secret withwithin thee. Thou hast a secret pride, root up that: thou hast a secret infidelity, cast out that. Let it not be our business, to know where or when we shall be judged: but how we may answer for ourselves when the judgment comes. Did we know the place and time, we could not hide ourselves; appear we must. But knowing what will be said against us, and what may be pleaded for us, and how well the cause shall go with us, we rest in peace. If were bound over to answer for some pretended crime, at a human bar, would we spend the time in hearkening after the day of Session, or place of execution? Were it not more wisdom, to furnish ourselves with friends and answers for that trial? There be three questions, Vbi, Quando, Quomodo? Where, when and how? The two former, in this argument, be idle: the last is necessary. When shall this Audit come, and where shall it be kept? be quaeres of foolish presumption. But how, how shall we provide for our account at that Audit? this is the quare of wise devotion. Martha thought, when she had set herself on work, that Christ would pay her her wages, or at least con her thanks: she puts herself to many troubles, and looks for many commendations. But expecting the reward of her cookery, all the fat was in the fire: Mary's break-fast was better than Martha's dinner. Let us mind that one thing which is necessary; and then one of the Three which bear Witness in Heaven, shall give us the testimony of so much discretion, as to choose that good part, which shall never be taken from us. Thy impertinent questions like thy Savior as ill, as that of Peters did, What should become of John? Propose it when thou list, thou shalt hear the same Reply: Busi-body, What is that to thee? Follow thou me. This is the uncertainty.

2. As it is uncertain for the time, so it is sudden for the event. The Thief does not give a signal to the house, before his irruption: he is entered as soon as he is heard: his violence and his noise come both in an instant. The Trumpet shall sound, the Judge shall appear, the Graves shall open, the Dead shall rise, the Sentence shall be given, the World shall burn; all in an instant. The Summons, and the Sentence, though they differ in Order and Number, shall seem in regard of Time but one Act. Saint Augustine spends two Chapters in the Manifestation of this sudden Proceeding. The great Buildings of Nature, like the walls of Jericho, shall fall together. If only one breach had been made in that City, as it uses in other sieges, for the entrance of the enemy: perhaps new supplies might have made it up by their forces; or for want of materials, they might have stop'd it with slaughtered carcases: But now, that at once Jericho is turned into a plain field, every Israelite without resistance might run to the next booty: and the throats of their enemies seemed to invite their swords, to a dispatch. Such a destitution of succor, and denudation of all refuge, shall, in this Day, befall the Reprobates, that they shall have neither means nor will to resist. Some men are sick of a preposterous desire of the last Day: and would have the Lord come presently. Others are lethargiz'd with a drowsy dullness: and they care not how long it be ere He comes. As the Apostle hath (in the former Verse) corrected the fervor of the one, by commending the divine Patience: so here He rouseth the torpour of the other, by threatening the last Daies Suddennesse. These require the spurr, as the former need a bridle: both are instructed, directed, here.

When Christ compared his second Comming in Fire, to that former Judgment of Water: Did He mean there should be the same pauses and degrees in burning this World, that there were in drowning that? Shall this hot element be as long a dispatching the one, as that cold element was a destroying the other? No, the similitude intends not the same speed of execution, but the same dullness of expectation: the World shall be as secure now, as it was then. When the Apostle says, It shall come upon them, as travel upon a woman with child: Does He mean, with the same proportion of haste? A woman reckons out her nine months, and can guess near to the day of her coming; and says, that at such a time she looks her: but can we by any probable conjecture, aim at the Day of the Lord? Saint Paul • purpose there, is not so much to express the Suddennesse, as the inevitable •• sse: Sinful men can no more escape their trial, than pregnant women can avoid their travel. The Day of doom shall come as unavoidably, but more unexpectedly. When they least look for it, then they shall find it; or rather; it shall find them. When they say, Peace, Peace and safety; Then shall they be overtaken with this extremity. As the Thief watcheth his advantages, and when he finds the weakest prevention, gives the fiercest invasion. If the Master be a-sleep, the Servants abroad, the doors unbarred, or the house unguarded; there is the opportunity he looks for. When the Servants of man, his Affections be wandering abroad: when his Senses, his Sentinels, be stupefied: when the Mistress, Conscience, is commanded silence: when the Master, Reason, is rock'd into a slumber: and especially above all the rest, when Religion is put out of her lodging: then is the season of this woeful surprisal. Christ hath not promised sinners, to come at their fittest times: this Day of the Lord commonly takes them at the worst. Cain was not in so bad a case when he was borne of his mother, as after he had murdered his brother. Saul was pious, and begun his reign with God: but his proceeding was bloody; and the farther he went, the worse he was; till even the night before he died, he consulted with a Witch, and ended his reign with the Devil. Absalom begun with Pride, but shut up his life with Treason. Pharaoh was never good: but never so bad as at his drowning. Judas had been long a secret Robber; then he became a prodigious Traitor, and yet his Catastrophe must be in a desperate self murder. Such is the fatal suddenness of this day, to come upon men at their worst. The greatest sinner hath some remission, some intermission of his wickedness: Oftentimes Satan caught the Demoniacke: Oft-times He caught him; therefore sometimes, in that violence, he caught him not. He had his lightsome respites; not ever tortured, not ever furious: betwixt whiles he might look soberly, talk sensibly, move regularly. It is a woeful comfort, that we are not always sinning. If God were bound to accommodate his respect of times to those Lucida intervalla, those distances and short vacations of sin, there were hope; but who can look that the Divine Justice should wait upon the pleasure of man? I am going to sin, Lord spare me now: there is mickle pleasure or benefit in it, call me not away at this time: Whose voice is this? A mortal man's? Presumptuous Fool, in vain dost thou appoint God, for God can disappoint thee. At all times fear to sin, if ever thou fearest to die to die thy sin. Thou canst not be so quick to dispatch thy sin, as God can be to dispatch thy soul. The Thief watches all night to break in: if at any hour thou take liberty to sleep, he will hardly be kept out. Give no place to the Devil. What, not in Youth? Not in the heat of blood? Not in the height of pleasure? No. Give no place, at no time. There is a time for all things: A time to be burn, and a time to die: a time to kill, and a time to heal: a time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to get, and a time to lose: a time to rent, and a time to sow: a time to love, and a time to hate: a time of war, and a time of peace: a time to sigh, and a time to sing: a time to marry, and a time to bury: But of all these times, and many moe, There is no time to sin. Of all the exhibitions and allowances of God to man, He hath allowed no time for sin. We commonly kill our beasts, when they are at the fattest: but Judgment surpriseth sinners, when they are at the leanest; in that point of their life, which is of the remotest distance from goodness.

God is slow to wrath until the last Day, and then He is quickest. Before, if we pray, He hears us: if we repent, He pardons us: when we amend our life, He saves us. But in this Day of the Lord, there is no time for petition, no place for conversion, no means of pacification. If we have done these things before, well and good; our salvation is sure: but if they be then to do, they are debarred forever. As the lightning flasheth from one part of Heaven to the other, So shall the Son of man be in his Day. He compares his Comming to the Lightening. First, for Manifestation; His first Comming was privately; some few acknowledged Him: this last shall be public and apparent; Every eye shall see Him. Secondly, for terror, the Sun gives a greater light than the Lightning; but He is welcome to all eyes, as the Messenger of joy, health, and comfort: He does not affright us with his Beams, but cherish us with his Influence. But the Lightening is terrible, and makes the stoutest heart to shudder, especially when it is accompanied with Thunder. Christ's first Comming was in soft silence, like the gentle Dew upon the tender Grass: but his second Comming will be with a dreadful noise; the Trumpet sounding, the Earth trembling, the Seas roaring, the Angels showting, the Wicked shrieking, and the Judge thundering out his final Sentence. For that extraordinary terror at the Law-giving, was a little image of this which shall be at the Law-requiring. Thirdly, especially for the Suddennesse: the Sun compasseth the world by degrees; He keeps a certain course, his wonted motion: But the Lightening, though it move through the Air, does not appear successively, or by gradual approaches: but suddenly, instantly, it flies from East to West, and darts through the Hemisphere, wherein it is begotten. So sudden will the Lord be in his Day: Time was when He stayed for the first World an hundred and twenty years; He stayed for a rebellious nation forty years; He stayed for a dissolute City forty days: now He will not tarry a Yeare, a Weeke, a Day, an Houre, a Minute for any man. He was not wont to come in Whirlewindes, or Earthquakes; or violent fires, but in a still Voice, in a soft and gentle Air. Now, no imagination of man can conceive the Terror, the suddenesse of his Appearance. He will make his Processe and his Decree; his Citation and his Judgment, but one Act: His Summons, his Battle, his Victory, and his Triumph, shall seem all but one thing. He will lead sinners captive, and deliver them captive to Hell, as soon as He hath decla- them to be Enemies; and cut them off, as it were, without drawing his Sword out of the scabbard. A Disease may make haste, and Death be quick of dispatch, in dissolving the body: But much more haste, and quicker dispatch, will God use, in recollecting and reuniting the dust of that body at the Resurrection? Then shall we all hear his Angels proclaim the Surgite mortui, Rise ye dead: Though we be dead, we shall hear the Voice: the sound of the Voice, and the working of the Voice shall be all one; and all shall rise in a less minute there, than any one dies here.

They vainly flatter themselves, that think it is enough to do good sometimes: if they serve God on the Sabbath, it is no matter for all the Weeke. As if they might not die upon a worky-day; as if God were bound to wait their times; till the good mood came on them. Those Levites, which once drew their swords, for God and Moses, against the Idolaters; and for that deed, won both praise and blessing; become afterward the forwardest in a rebellion against them. There is no assurance of a man for one act: whom one sin cannot fasten upon, another may. Yea, the same sin may find a repulse one while, from the same hand, which another time gives it entertainment: and that yielding loseth all the thanks of the former resistance. It is no praise to have done once well, unless we continue. If a man turn from his righteousness, all that righteousness shall be forgotten: and in the sin that he hath sinned, he shall die. If we knew what hour the Lord would come, How easy were it, think we, to repent the hour before? If we were sure what day, what month, what year; we would not grudge that days, that months, that years preparation. Yet, now we wantonize, as if the Judge were an hundred leagues off; Who, it may be, stands at the very door. Suppose a man hath seven breaches or holes in his house, and knows the Thief will enter at one of them: Will he guard this, and not that? Will he watch at six of them, and neglect the seventh? Thou hast seven days in the week, like so may in-lets for this Judgment: Wilt thou watch only on the Sabbath, the seventh day, and leave the other six unregarded? Or be sober one day, and drunk another? Then, at the breach which thou mindest not, on the day thou least suspectest, this great Judge will come upon thee, and then, What shall become of thee? Thy particular Judgment follows immediately upon thy death: Is there no Impostume, no Apoplexy within thee? No Sword, no Instrument within thee? No Thunder, no Judgment above thee? No Element, no Fiend under thee, that may in a moment dispatch thee? God's Door is ever open to let in our Repentance, and our Door is ever open to let in his Vengeance: The only way to escape future malediction, is by present humiliation: now let us be converted, and we are sure to be saved.

3. The peril by this Suddennesse is very dreadful, for our everlasting state lies upon it. Thou hast a trial at the Law, and knowest a famous and gracious Advocate, who if he undertake thy cause, will carry it for thee: but flattering thyself that the day of hearing is far off, thou forbearest to acquaint him with it, or solicit his council and assistance: In the mean time, the king prefers this Advocate to the place of a Judge. The Session is come, and then thou humbly prostratest thyself before him, beseeching him to favor thy cause. But he answereth, That request comes too late, I am not now an Advocate to plead for my Clients, but a Judge to give righteous Sentence. If we sin, we may Now have an Advocate, to propitiate for us: But in this last Assizes, at the trial of all the world, that Advocate is turned into a Judge: and then they that have not formerly ••• ne him to be their Mediator, can have small hope to find him their Savior. The thief does not break into the house, and so come his way, forbearing to touch the goods: no, but all that is precious and portable becomes his bootie, and he looks for thanks if he spare the blood of the family. If this impartial day did only ransack our Wardrobes, empty our Chests and Cabinets, fire our cottages, strip our bodies of their garments, or our souls of our bodies, and do us no more harm; it were very favorable: Death it self, which is but God's Under-sheriffe, can do all this, by virtue of his Office and Commission: Let but the Soul escape, suffer not that to bleed or perish, and sacilis Iactura, all were but an easy loss. But this thief (like the Robbers in some Countries, who break both the Commandments together) never steals without killing. When a Passenger complained to a Captain, that some of his soldiers had robbed him of all that he had: the Captain asked him, Whether he had those clothes on when they robbed him: He answered, Yes: Then says the Captain, I am sure they are none of my Soldiers that did it: for had they been mine, they would not have left you a rag to your back. This day shall rob the wicked of all that ever they had, and leave them not so much as a rag to cover their shameful nakedness. They shall speed worse, than he did among those high-way cutters: for they shall be left robbed, and naked, and wounded, and more than half dead: without hope of any charitable Samaritan, to cure or comfort them. The Danite -thieves stole away Micah's idols: the goods of a worldling are his gods: Ye have taken away my gods, and what have I more to lose? What more? Yes, thou mistaken Idolater, This Thief shall steal away thyself: as Micah was there threatened; Let not thy voice be heard, lest they take away thy Life with thy gods. I might parallel the the every of those Danites, with the avarice of many Christians: As those Images appeared to those Israelites, so do riches to these worldlings; in their Imagination no less than gods: and they will have them, though they steal them. A superstitious Levite was the Priest to those, a covetous heart is the Priest to these. There, because the gods without the Priest could do them less service, than the Priest without the gods, therefore they steal the Priest with the gods. Here, the Priest steals the gods, and the gods steal the Priest: the heart purloineth riches, and those riches filch the heart; and both are contented with this mutual the every. O miserable Danites, that could esteem that a God, which might be stolen: that could look for protection from that, which could not keep it self from stealing: which was won by their theft, not by their devotion! Could they worship those idols more devoutely, than Micah that made them? If they could not protect their Maker from robbery, how shall they protect their thieves? yet their superstition hath made them mad upon a god, and have him they must, by what means they care not; though they offend the true God, by stealing a false. Riches are the gods of the world, men's hearts are the thieves; they make no Conscience from whom they steal them, so they have them. Still one thief robs another, till this last Thief comes, and he robs all of all. The oppressor robs the innocent, the Lawyer robs the oppressor, the Tyrant robs the Lawyer, death robs the tyrant, and the Day of Judgment robs death: But if a traveler, having store of money about him, and one Jewel more worth than all the rest, suspect to be set upon and rifled by thieves; he will so surely and secretly convey his Jewel, that they shall never find it: Our Soul is our Jewel, and this subtle Thief will narrowly examine us: Let him take all, so we may save our Jewel; and there is but one way to save it, that is, by hiding it in the wounded side of Jesus Christ.

4. The Fatalitie of this peril may yet be further amplified, by the insulting tyranny of this implacable Thief. It does not only rob sinners of all, and that suddenly; but domineeres over them with painful derision. It mocks their fear, and laughs at their destruction. Bloody thieves, when they are once Masters of the house, first bind the family, then put them to racks and tortures, to force out a Confession of their concealed treasure: to all this agony, they aide scorn and contempt, which is a rack upon the rack, a mercielesse aggravation of their torments. The Day of the Lord doth not only bind reprobates with the everlasting chains of darkness, that they cannot move hand not foot: but delivers them over to those tormentors, who will never cease torturing of them, till they have both confessed and paid the uttermost penny. Their temporal goods they call their moveables; their bodies are also their moveables; and both these may be removed without prejudice to their souls. When thieves in the night had robbed a Merchants house of some bedding and such household-stuff; he hearing the noise, rose and went down, and finding them but new gone, followed to see what would become of his goods: the thieves espying him, threatened him for dogging them: But the Merchant answered, I only come to see whither you remove me. If the soul could be safe, as that Merchant was, whilst it saw miss-fortune remove her goods to the stranger, or death remove her body to the grave; there were but a slight ground of complaint. But as nothing but the dishonor and rape of Tamar, could please Am ••• , and nothing but the blood of Amnon could satisfy Absalom, and nothing but the heart of Absalom could content Joab, and nothing but the death of Joab could pacify Solomon: So nothing but the Soul of an impenitent sinner can appease the just wrath of this Day. Desperate thieves break three of the Divine Precepts at once: they do not only steal and kill, but they bind three transgressions together, committing adulteries, deflowering Virgins, and ravishing Marrons. The carnal Souls Pleasure is his wife, to which he is so uxorious, that he neglects Christ; I have married a wife, and I cannot come: His daughters be the fruit and issue of both; such vanities and sins as he hath begotten upon this concubine. This mistress of his affections shall be ravished from his side, and these Children shall be dashed against the stones before his eyes: Not unlike that fearful doom of Zedekiah: first his sons are slain before his eyes, and then those eyes of his (as if they had seen enough, when they had seen himself childless) are put out.

The Reprobates shall cry at the last day, Hide us from the Face of him that sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. Can the Lamb be angry? or is there such Lion-like terror in that mild face, so full of beauty and sweetness, when it looks upon wickedness? Why would they be hidden? and hidden from the Lamb? O, guiltiness would fain keep out of sight: the Limbes of that infernal head, shall not esteem it the least part of their torment at that day, to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford. He, from whom they fled in his offers of Grace, shall be so much more terrible, as he was and is more gracious. When Christ was in his humbled estate, that Prince of darkness was so humble as to kneel to him: and though he had so much boldness as to expostulate, Art thou come to torment us before our time? yet withal he had so much fear as to deprecate, I beseech thee torment me not. For the former; whether it were music to Satan to hear the shriekes and roarings of sinners, because he useth to enjoy their torments: and therefore held it a piece of his own torture, to be restrained in the exercise of his tyranny. Or whether, as himself professeth, he were now in a fearful expectation of being commanded down into the deep, for a further degree of actual execution. Or whether the very Presence of Christ was his rack; for the guilty spirit cannot behold the Judge, or the Executioner, without a renovation of horror: Howsoever, he deprecates a greater infelicity. Yet what a thing is this, to hear the devil at his Prayers? I beseech thee torment me not. Nature teaches every Creature to wish a freedom from pain: the soulest spirits cannot but love themselves, and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evil. Devotion is not guilty of this prayer, but fear. There is no Grace in the suit of Devils, but nature: no respect of God's Glory, but of their own ease: They cannot pray against sin, but against torment for sin. It can be no news to hear the profanest mouth, in extremity, imploring that sacred Name, when even the Devils do so. The worst of all Creatures hates punishment, and can say, Lead me not into pain: only the good heart can say, Lead me not into temptation. If we can as heartily pray against sin, for the avoiding of displeasure, as against punishment, when we have displeased; there is true Grace in the Soul.

The Conclusion is; If those wicked spirits trembled to come before Christ in his Humiliation, when he was to Suffer: how shall sinful dust appear before him in his glory, when he comes to Judge? As one and the same thing works diversely upon divers constitutions, and the nourishment of one, is the offense of another: So this Day brings contrary Effects to contrary dispositions; and that which is the greatest joy to some, is most terrible to the rest. The Goats on the left hand never apprehended so dreadful a sound, as that of the last Trump: The Sheep on the right hand never heard such music. For the dissolution of temporal things, Communis terminus, there is the same end to all. Men dealing in the world for riches, are but like scolars playing at dice for counters; which come and go; now the heap is on this side, by and by on that: on a sudden comes in the Master, and he swoopes all, both dice and counters; not without some just correction of the gamesters. So men tug, and scramble, and wrangle for these paltry vanities, wealth and honors: This Fountain dries, that Cistern fills: one noble house withers, whiles another of low degree swells up to a Lord: today this Merchant hath the cash, tomorrow that: But the Lord's Day confiscates all; and then who is the richer man? This world is like a broad Table with a scant or narrow Table-cloth; which every man is still drawing to his own side, though he pluck his neighbors part from him: this Day comes with a fatal voider, and takes away all, cloth, meat, table, and guests too. Thus far together, all are served alike: but then comes the difference. All men hope well, and think themselves good: but let me tell them of this Day, as Moses did those rebellious Levites; To morrow the Lord will show, who are his, and who are holy. A common Hen, together with her own Egges, may hatch the eggs of Eagles that are laid under her: but when they are grown up, while her own brood keep the base earth, those of a higher kind fly upwards. This world breeds us all, and is both to good and bad a common mother: but when that great day of separation comes, all they that are begotten of immortal seed shall leave their mother, and take after their Father; and while their kindred in the flesh sink down under their natural corruptions, these Eagles that are sprung from above, shall mount up to the Eternal nest of Glory.

5. The irremediablenesse of that fatality shuts up the terror of this point. Thieves may have some mercy, in the prostration of their bootie. First, either they will not take all the goods of the house. If Grape-gatherers come unto thee, will they not leave some gleaning Grapes? If Thieves come by night, they will but destroy till they have enough. They will not, or, if they would, they cannot carry away all. Secondly, or they may be overcome with persuasions, and melted with the pitiful complaint of their undone Clients: It was the little Children's cries and tears that made Theodosius weep too, and reverse the sentence. Thirdly, or if they seize on the goods, they may spare the life: It is a rare cruelty, in this land, to cut the throats of the yielding; to second, and secure theft with blood. Fourthly, or if they spill some blood in the conflict, they will not take the rest after the conquest: Those thieves had so much pity, as though they proceeded to wound the traveler, yet they Left him but half dead. Fifthly, or if nothing but both estate and life can satisfy them, yet their rage can extend no further: all the malice of man is there determined: Death is the end of all the sufferers misery, and murderers cruelty. But the Judgment of this day is not confined to these weak limits: It will not take away some of their riches, but all; not riches only, but their lives; not lives only, but their souls: nor their souls for a time only, but forever: nor to repose them in tranquility and ease, but in the extremity of torments. Poverty, or casualty of losses is a thief; but it can only steal away thy riches temporal: and that is often no more than depriving a Girle of Chalke or Oatmeale, that is troubled with the green sickness, or disarming a mad man of the weapon, wherewith he would wound both himself and others. Infamie or disgrace is a thief; but it can only steal away an aiery title, an imaginary Crown: which makes men prouder than they should be, because they think themselves better than they are. Humility hath made many good, Promotion can only make them great. Advancement may thank God for the beginning; but if it swell into pride, the Devil is at the ending. There is no sin doth more assimilate men to that cursed nature: for all other sins the Devil made, only Pride made the Devil. Sickness is a thief; but it can only steal away health: and how many a man speeds like that Soldier with the inveterate ulcer; who receiving a hurt in the place so desperately affected, was made whole of the grief, which before could not be cured. The soul hath grown healthful by the bodies sickness, and one disease hath done more good upon them, than many Sermons. Death is a thief too, yet what can it rob a man of, but a long, tedious, and troublesome way? Thieves take away from the traveler some of his money; this thief doth but rob him of some of his journey. When a young man is bereaved of life, he is but deprived of a Die, wherewith he might either win or lose. Our life is not more uncertain, whether it will be long or short, than the use of it is, whether we will spend it well or ill. When one wished the son to prove like the father, Cato replied, is this a blessing, or a curse? When long life is apprecated to a child, it may be demanded, Whether is this a blessing or a curse? When it is said, Every man shall be rewarded according to his works, it may be doubted, whether this is a blessing, or a curse. If death takes a man from his Lands, Houses, Coyne, and helps him to a starry Throne, a robe of immortality, a glorious kingdom; he rather rights him like a friend, than robs him like a thief. All the good that may be found in death (as the cessation of trouble, the extinction of sin, the deliverance from Satan, the quiet rest of the body, and infranchisement of the soul) the good man steals from death; and so in effect, doth but rob the thief: That which is not worth his respect or keeping; as his molestations, sicknesses, sorrows; of these death robs him, and much good doit him with them.

But this day of the Lord is like a severer thief: not only robbing the wicked of all their delightful good, bvt lodging them with all sorrowful evil. Other thieves may be brought to a restitution: this only yields to a permutation; exchanging pains for pleasures, torment for sin; If a man take away thy russet, and give the velvet; we use to say, that change is no robbery: But if thou lose thy cordials for corrosives, thy peace and comfort for despair and punishment; surely this change is a robbery. A passenger stripped of his whole estate by thieves, may yet recover a greater fortune by the divine blessing upon his industry. But alas, the happiness which this thief steals, is irrecoverable: millions of years cannot wear it out, nor myriads of tears buy off, that everlasting loss. Consider the vastness of the Ocean, and conceive that a Sparrow were allowed, every hundred thousandth year to drink a draught of it, together with a promise to the damned, that when that little Bird had thus drunk up this great Sea, they should be released; here were some hope of an end, and some comfort from that hope, and some ease from the expectation of that comfort: But eternity cancells all, and puts out their light forever. Their worm dieth not, and the fire never goes out. It was a fearful fire that destroyed Sodom, yet it ceased with that destruction: but the fire of Tophet can never be quenched. Our bodies dy, and when the worms have devoured them, even those worms shall die too: but the worm bred in our souls is not capable of death. We are God's creatures, yet we are mortal: but there is a creature of our own which shall be immortal. We must die, but the Worm of our own conscience must never die. In our mortal life, this is but a mortal worm: the blood of Christ hath virtue enough to kill it: If now we mortify it, we shall feel it never: if it out-live us here, it will live with us forever. Let our faithful repentance, without pity, put it to death: and our blessed Redeemer will in mercy give us life.

To make some useful application of all this; If we would escape the danger of this great Thief, let us take heed of a little thief, Sin: this is the thief that does all the mischief. Could we fervently pray against sin, we need not pray against punishment; which is no other than the inseparable shadow of that body: But if we have not watched against this privy thief, Sin; in vain do we pray against the public thief, judgment: God must be just, and the wages of sin is death. This is a sly cunning thief, insinuating it self into all places, into all actions. It robbed man, in Paradise, of Paradise, of Innocence, of Peace, of Earth, of Heaven, It stole into that Garden like a thief, in the body of a Serpent: it stole into the eye of Eve, like a theeefe in the shape of an apple: it stole into her mind, in the form of an ambitious advancement: it stole into the heart of Adam like a thief, involved in an uxorious indulgence: from their transgression, it stole like a thief into the loins of all their posterity, by a secret, but certain way: we have it, and can scarce tell how we got it. It is a vain quaere, How came this thief in? Let it be our study to cast him out. No bars nor barricado's can preclude his entrance: the Monk in his Cell, the Hermit in his solitude, the Anachorete mued up in a wall, cannot forbid access to this thief. The very Temple is not free from him: there he robs men of their attention, of their devotion, and transports their minds into a wilderness of vain thoughts. It steals into our best works, and robs them of their perfection and integrity; I dare not say, the action is sin, I dare say there is sin in the action. It lays snares in every material; Laqueos in cibo, in potu, in vultu, in vest. It takes all forms, that it may be filching at all times: Fit fera, fit volucris, fit toto corpore serpens. Like a Cameleon, it can turn to all colors, but white the symbol of purity: it can be anything but innocent. Like a Thief, it creeps into the ears of the wavering, and robs them of their religion: it creeps into the eyes of the wanton, and robs them of their chastity: it creeps into the mouth of the drunkard, and robs him of his wit: It creeps into the breast of the malicious, and robs him of his charity. it sits in the brain of the ignorant, puts out the light of understanding, and rifles the house at pleasure. It sits at the door of the swearer, and flies fiercely at the majesty of our Maker: This thief hath broken into the heart of the proud, of the covetous, of the profane, of the hypocrite, and there keeps possession, yea, pleads prescription: challenging the house, not as a strong usurper, but as the right owner. It cannot rob God of us, it may rob us of God.

The day of the Lord is but like a thief;] but this is a thief indeed. No wise man, at least no honest man will entertain a known thief: shall we bid him welcome, make him good cheare, lodge him in our best chamber, and think nothing too costly for him, that we know comes on purpose to rob us? Yet such is our madness, to give sin not only admission, but indulgence; to invite it home to our houses, to honor it with banquets, to allow it the command of our servants, and to let it sleep in the soft bed of our hearts: our senses receive it, our affections wait upon it, our souls make much of it, as if it were a dear friend, and no dangerous thief. This is that little thief within, that opens the door to the great thief without: this is the Devils intelligencer, his agent, his pick lock, his engine, his trusty vassal, that betrays the whole world to his invasion. The thief robs the passenger, and if he scape apprehension, he applauds himself: but the sin of that act hath been a worse thief to him, and robbed him of the peace of conscience. Sacrilege presumes to rob the Church, and therein the Lord himself; yet is so impudent as to expostulate Wherein have we robbed thee? Alas poor thieves! they do but rob us of our temporary provision: but in the mean time, sacrilege is a thief that • ob • es them of their eternal salvation. It is just, that theft should be punish ••• • ith theft, that one thief should rob another. Oppressors rob us, sin robs them, death robs sin, and the Devil robs them all.

Our blessed Savior once challenged the people, that they came out against him, as against a thief, with swords and staves. He charged his Disciples, to be so unfurnished of weapons, whereby they might do violence, as not to take with them so much as staves: And yet in another place, he allows them nothing toward their journey, but staves: As a staff is a weapon, it was forbidden, not as it is for supportation. The master was taken as a thief; the servants may not be suspected. When they crucified him, it was between two thieves; one on his right hand, and the other on his left. Still he is crucified between thieves, in his afflicted members: The Client, between the corrupt Judge and the Lawyer: the Patient, between the ignorant Physician and Apothecary; the landed debtor, between the Usurer and Scrivener: the poor Minister, between the Simoniacal Patron and sacrilegious parishioner: in all these he is crucified between two thieves. All this while they have been thieves to him: but in the last day he shall come like a thief against them; and his just fury cannot be avoided. It is a happiness, when we shall meet with this great Thief, to have our goods safe in another place. He that shall say in this sense, Omnia mea mecum port • , I have all my wealth about me, shall be stripped of all by this impartial Robber. But if Our Treasure be laid up in Heaven, if our Riches be the merits of Jesus Christ, No thief can break through, and steal it. Then Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator, the empty traveler sings before the thief. Our wealth is at home, in the hands of Him that will never suffer it to miscarry.

Like a thief.] That natural dependence, which the most wise Creator of all things, hath made between all things: may, by way of Paradox, be called a kind of theft. The sea doth rob the land of some territories, and the land robs the sea of her waters. The Earth steals from the Heavens their influence, and Plants steal from the Earth her moisture: Among trees, one robs another; and the great Oke pines the Underwood. Flowers steal from the ground her fatness, Bees steal from the flowers their sweetness, Men steal from the Bees their honey. We are the universal thieves in this sense; for we steal from all: Our light from the Sun, our breath from the Air, our Physic from Plants and Mineralls, our food from Beasts, Fowls and Fishes: we rob the Sheep of their wool, and the Wormes of their silks, to cloth us: we steal warmth from the Fire, and coolenesse from the Air or water: we rob the Vine of her vital juice, and the Olive of her iunctuous fruit. We are the thieves in all this, and yet in all this we are no thieves; because the great owner of all things hath ordained all these benefits for us. Only then we are thieves, when we rob ourselves of their comfortable use, or of our thankful obedience by their abuse. Quod Deo donante fit nostrum, hoc nobis abutentibus fit alienum. In all this our taking away from the Creatures, we are rather borrowers than thieves; yea rather owners than borrowers. By that Patent sealed by the Father, first; then renewed by the Son, and now confirmed by the Holy Ghost; we are Lord's of these things, not usurpers; not thieves, but proprietaries.

Here is then no warrant for that Theft, which is the unlawful usurpation of another man's goods: therefore unlawful, because the owner was unwilling: whether deprived of his substance without his knowledge, by fraud and close carriage: or with his privity, but against his consent: and that either his full consent, as by violence and oppression; or his consent in part, as in the exaction of covenanted interest from distressed debtors. For howsoever they be driven by necessity, into that dangerous gulf of Usury, they wish with all their hearts, that creditors would lend according to the Nature of Loane, which is a contract of mere gratuity, their money according to the nature of money, which is ordained for an instrument of exchange, uncapable of such monstrous improvement. Certainly, Me nemo Magistro Fur erit — I will teach no man to be a thief; nor give the least countenance to that legal robber, the soul-robbed Usurer. My tongue shall be as far from recanting that speech of Leo; Foenus pecuniae, funus animae; as my heart is from disliking that fire, than which Agesilaus never saw clearer, when bon-fires were made of Obligations. God hath committed to the sons of men a right of use and dispensation; whereunto, for the avoiding of disorder, a general distinction of owneages, was added by the Law of Nations. Whatsoever the Lacedemonians did think of Theft; that it was an allowable exercise of martial Discipline: or others have said even of Kingdoms themselves, that they are but Magna latrocinia: whereas indeed, they are Magna Patrocinia; not Theeveries, but protections against Theeveries: Or Alciatus dreamed, that Theft was not a reproach in Nature, because it was forbidden by the Law; as if the Law, and Nature had not both one Author: Or other querulous dispositions have objected, that the Laws of men are written in blood; because in the censure of this unjust and uncharitable sin, they have exceeded the punishment of Moses Judicials: forgetting the Multitude of offenders, which is caused not only by the fierceness of a wild Nation, but even by the wantonness of a peaceable Nation: for the latter is no less powerful than the former, to quicken our original corruptions. This we must conclude; besides our Makers express prohibition of Theft, and the severe vengeance he hath threatened against it: it is against Nature, to rejoice in the spoils one of another: And the very Law of Charity being trodden underfoot, seems in a grieving accent to demand; Si sterilitas in ignem mittitur, rapacitas quid meretur? And whether men steal in their own persons, or teach others so to do, as Anabaptists, and those elder Heretics called Apostolici: the bounds of propriety are ancient bounds, and the killing curse of that Flying book shall destroy their houses, that dare remove them. A thief at the gallows is none of the worst sights in a country.

In Conclusion, Theft can find no shelter under the shadow of this Comparison: The day of the Lord will come like a thief, and where it finds a thief, will sentence him to condemnation. Thieves? there are few or none amongst us: we will be all bound for one another's truth and honesty: But may I not say in the Prophets sense, All men are liars, so All men are thieves? The receiver, we say, is worse than the thief: therefore said one, Shew me a Sinner, and I will show thee a Thief. The Oppressor hath a thievish hand, the covetous hath a thievish eye, the slanderer hath a thievish tongue, the drunkard hath a thievish throat, the Harlot hath a thievish lip, the Idolater hath a thievish knee, the Flatterer hath a thievish gesture; every Sinner hath a thievish heart. Do not hold it impossible for you, to discover and attach a Thief in your own bosoms. Our natural corrupt Lust is a Thief within us: if we examine him strictly, we may find out his haunts, and fetches, his shifts, and devices. Believe him not, for he will lie: spare him not, for he will steal: shrieve him to the proof, for he will hardly confess: arraign him at the bar of the conscience, condemn him with a penitent sentence, punish him with an impartial execution: punish him in the body, by fasting and mortification: punish him in the soul, by repentance and contrition: punish him in the purse, by the works of charity and restitution. If we can get quit of this Thief, that sin be mortified in us; the coming of the Lord's Day (though it be like a Thief ) shall not hurt us.

Lastly, there is an holy Theft, which I would commend to your practice. There be five ways to get the Kingdom of Heaven: Some innocently find it, some violently snatch it, some are compulsorily driven to it, some expensively purchase it, and others politickely steal it. First, they that light upon it unlooked for, are Infants dying soon after their Baptism. They are Candidati fidei, of the Livery of Faith: and as they live in the Wombe by the life of their natural mother: so they live in the Covenant by the Faith of their spiritual Mother, the Church. These find salvation without trouble: they labor not in the vineyard, they groan not in prayer, they are not exercised with trials, they weep not remorsefull tears, they are not charged with many duties; yet the Blood of Christ cleanseth them from all their sins. Suffer little children to come • nto me, for of such is the kingdom of He • ven: it belongs to them, and they belong to it; and there they are, before they know where they were: these find it. Secondly, they take it by violence, are such as by an utter abdication of the world, do wholly dedicate themselves to God: that, by their continual prayers and pious actions, lay siege to that glorious Kingdom; and in the fervent desire of God's service, offer up themselves a living sacrifice. Such are those Martyrs, that swim thither in the stream of their own bloods, whose souls mount up to Heaven in acceptable flames. There be three sorts of Martyrs; Re & intention, Intentione non re, re non intention: in both deed and intention, as was Saint Stephen: in intention not deed, as was Saint John: in deed not in intention, as were those Innocents: And three annual holy-days are dedicated by the Church, to the memory of these three kinds of Martyrs: all which together, in their order, immediately follow the great Feast of our Savior's Nativity. But the Pontificians have found out a fourth kind of Martyrdom: which is nec re, nec voluntate, vel intention; neither in deed nor intention: Of which supernumerary number was their Saint, Thomas Becket; whose day they celebrate next after the three former. It is strange, they take him for a Matyr, whom those days never found but for a Traitor. But the Martyrs of Christ are led by another Spirit, who puts such courage into their hearts, that like noble Champions, they break through all difficulties to the Kingdom of Heaven. Thirdly, they that are driven to it, are beholding to compulsory means: they have shipp'd themselves in a Man of war, and would prosecute their licentious mischiefs, but are beaten into the Harbor with storms. The Lord often clips our wings, least we should straggle abroad after our boundless and transportive fancies: He strippes the body of pleasures, to clothe the soul with righteousness: and by impoverishing our temporal estate, He strengthens our state of grace. Not that we are therefore saved, because we are afflicted: but we are afflicted, as proper to them that shall be saved. Through much Tribulation we must enter into the Kingdom of God: It is not Propter, but per tribulationes. Affliction cannot work grace of it self; for sorrow can no more bring comfort, than Thorns can bear Grapes: but it is the needle that draws in the thread. There is no fault to be found with that necessity, which constrains us to be good. Bring hither the poor, the maimed, halt, and blind: yea, their own poverty shall bring them; their own blindness shall make them see the way, and their own lameness shall enable them to go. If they yet linger, there is a Mandamus of farther constraint; Compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. Affliction is to us, as the Whale was to the Prophet: we go in Fugitives, we come forth Converts: we go in Rebels, we come out Penitents: we go in Sinners, and come out Saints. Fourthly, they that purchase it, lay out all they have upon Earth, for an habitation in Heaven. Let this ground be laid firm; that only the blood of Christ is the price of salvation: and he that confides in the merit of his own works, shall sit howling without doors. Yet, though Faith alone doth save us, it must not destroy Charity: and to our good deeds, there is a reward of Mercy. There is a way, by selling all we have, to buy that incomparable Pearl, that inestimable Treasure. There is a policy, to make such Friends of our riches, as may let us into those everlasting Mansions. After, Well done good Servant, there follows, Enter thou into the joy of thy Master. How dear do men buy a small turfe of earth, and yet how cheap do they value Heaven? They will venture their souls to get a little money, they will not venture a little money to save their souls. They can oppress the poor, to make their children rich: they will not relieve the poor, to make their children blessed. But as when a miserly Dung-worm excused his oppressions, because he had eighteen children; another replied, but eighteen? Believe me, if you had eight and forty, the Country hath curses enough for them all: So let me assure the charitable Benefactor, how many children soever he hath, Heaven hath blessings enough for them all. Fifthly, and lastly, there be some that steal this glorious Kingdom: under the veil of humility, an holy dejection, and under-valuing of themselves, they lay hold on eternal life. Though the walls of that celestial City be too high to climb over, too strong for any Thief to break through, and steal: yet there is a way for this pious Thief to get in: this is neither over, nor through the walls, but through the Gates. He is fitted for entrance; the Gate is low, and he is humble: the Gate is narrow, and he is little: so little in his own eyes, that he can easily creep in, and being once in, he shall never be turned out. Such a Thief was that modest woman, wasted with an issue of blood, resolving within her self; If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole: She stole virtue from him by a touch. Such a Thief was that penitent Sinner upon the Cross; who both lived and died a Thief: He stole their temporal goods from men, for which he died: and he stole Paradise from Christ, when He died. Paul says, Give your bodies a living sacrifice to God: but there God accepted of a dying sacrifice. Judas had served Christ three years, and played the Thief with his purse: he could steal his Lord's coin: but this man had scarce served Him three hours, yet had learned a better way of theft, and stole from Him Salvation. Jacob wrestled with God, and by an holy kind of force, robbed Him of a Blessing. And the God of comfort thus encouraged that shamefast and trembling Patient, that touched the border of his garment; Daughter, be of good cheer, thy faith hath made thee whole: since thou hast stolen virtue from me, take it, and much good doit thee with it. Other theft shall be condignly punished; but such a penitent, humble, and pious Thief (whom the world condemns for a sinner, but inward sorrow and compunction presents to God for a Saint) shall not only be mercifully pardoned, but even gloriously crowned in the Day of Jesus Christ.

In the night] Fur à furvo, say some; because that art requires the secrecy of darkness. Vt jugulent homines, surgunt de nocte Latrones. Night is the season for Thieves and Harlots: The Adulterer waits for the twy-light, saying, no eye shall see me. If the night should speak all it knows, it would put millions to the blush, in the day. Thieves in the dark dignity through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day. The night pays the Devil no less custom than the day. Why else are sins called Opera tenebrarum, The works of darkness? Caste, si non caute, was a Rule to save their Credites, though not their Conscience. Noctem peccatis, & fraudibus obijce nubem. There be indeed some sins peculiar to the day, because they are done only to be seen, and if they might not be seen, would not be done. But commonly Evil doers love the darkness, and desire to sin out of sight. The whore loves the black and dark night: Nox, & amor, vinumque nihil moderabile suadent: Illa pudore vacat, liber amorque metu. It is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. Darkness causeth boldness, and Secrecie is the mother of Security: They think Impune fit, quod fit in abdito. Therefore it is proverbially spoken, Nox commoda sceleribus: iniquity is beholding to the night, and the Devil is a great noctivagant. The foulest fact of the world, Judas his treason, was a night-piece.

Of all, the Thief longs for the night: then he hopes that sleep hath shut the eyes, and locked up the senses of the whole family. So the last judgment shall break in upon men, when they are possessed with a Lethargy, and drowsy negligence; not minding, not dreaming of this sudden Audit. But why doth this sentence begin with, The day of the Lord; and subjoin, Like a Thief in the night: Day, and Night are opposites: if it be the Lord's Day, how should it come in the night? If it come in the Night, why is it called the Day? Or shall we say, it is Quiddam tertium; a thing mixed, between both, partaking of both, or compounded of both? As in Diluculis & Crepusculis, there is a Twy-light: The dawning of the Day in the Morning, and the shutting in of the Day in the Evening make day and night so much one, as sometimes you cannot tell which to call them. It is so much Day, that we cannot call it night; and so much night, that we cannot call it day. It is true, that Light hath no communion with darkness: Lux & tenebrae, midnight and noon never met, never joined. In the regenerate man there is both flesh and Spirit: the spirit is not the flesh, the flesh is not the spirit: and yet both are in the same man. There is darkness in his understanding, and in his understanding there is light also: There is corruption in his affections, and yet in his affections there is holiness too. As in a vessel of lukewarm water, there is both heat and cold together: We cannot say, This part of the liquor is hot, and that other cold: but cold and heat is confused throughout the whole vessel. In the twy-light, we cannot say, This part of the air is light, and that other dark: but darkness and light is shed, spread, and mingled throughout the whole air. Shall we conjecture by such a similitude, that this Judgment shall be in the Twy-light; when the season may be called either, or neither Day or Night? Certainly, these fancies of men have so much darkness in them, as to be called Night: but no raye or streake of light, to give them a name of Day.

Some very venturously gather from hence; that Christ will come to Judgment in the Night: and they offer to prove it by many arguments: First, because the first borne in Egypt were smitten in the night. While all things were in quiet silence, and that night in the midst of her course; God's Almighty Word leap'd down from Heaven, out of his royal Throne, as a fierce man of war. This was indeed most fearful and astonishing; when God called for the blood they owed him, at so uncomfortable a season. In one night, every house hath a carcase in it; and (which was more grievous) of their first borne; and (which was yet more doleful) in an instant. No man could comfort another; everyone was too full of his own sorrow; helping rather to make the noise more lamentable. But all this is no more than the cry of an Infant, to the dismal shrieking at Christ's appearance, when all the kindreds of the earth shall mourn before him. And why doth this Plague of Egypt prove that he will come in the Night, more than the burning of Sodom makes it probable that he will come in the Day? Secondly, the opinions of the Fathers are alleged for it: Saint Chrysostom thinks it shall be in the night: Euthymius consents with him: Jerome calls it an Apostolical Tradition: and Lactantius confirms it by the Testimony of a Sibyll: Cùm venerit ill, Ignis erit, mediaque horrenda in nocte tenebrae. In the darkest night, saith he, the heavens shall be opened, and the Lord shall descend like Lightning. To say nothing of those Ecclesiastical hymns, taken out of Prudentius and Ambrose, that seem to favor it. Nor to examine the reasons of Aquinas, why he stateth this great Audit, in the twilight, betwixt day of night: they be all but dreams of a night. Thirdly, they argue, that the Passover was to be eaten at night, because the coming of the Lord was expected in the night: It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord: and This is the night of the Lord to be observed: The Jews are said to look for the Comming of their Messias, in the midst of the night: and about that time of the night, it is very probable that our blessed Savior was borne. The Angels came to the Shepherds in the night, with this joyful tidings. But what is all this to prove, that his second coming shall be in the night too? That Paschal-night, whose observation was so strictly commanded, is also called a day? This day shall be unto you for a memorial: and You shall observe this day in your generations, by an Ordinance forever. And the night of our Lord's Comming in the flesh, is not called a night by the Angels, but a day: Unto you is borne, This Day, a Savior. The acceptation of Days for times is a figure frequently used. The days are evil; what? the days only? Are not the nights evil too? Yes, but by days are meant the Times. Whether Christ will come in the day or night, we cannot tell; but we are sure, there is a time determined when he will come. Fourthly, they stick hard upon that speech, At midnight there was a cry made: concluding out of it, that at midnight the Lord shall come. But why may we not as well infer that it shall be in the day; because the Lord hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world? Nocte latent mendae; say some, How should all things be revealed in the night? But they may be answered accordingly; That night cannot want light, when heaven and earth shall make one universal bonfire. Knowledge should keep her allowed bounds: Satius est dubitare de occultis, quàm litigare de incertis. When the poor Debtor was advised by his friends to watch for his Creditors coming to town, and to entreat their favor about a composition, he answered; I will not trouble myself to seek out them, for I am sure they will find out me. But let it be our speedy diligence, to implore the Mercy of our great Creditor, not for any composition that can be made by ourselves, but to accept the satisfaction made by our Surety, his Son Christ upon the Cross: Otherwise, though we seek not after him, he will be sure to find out us; when we are neither able to put in baile, nor have one penny toward the payment. Night and day let us be prepared; and then whether thou comest day or night, welcome our dear Lord Jesus.

The Sum is this; The day of the Lord is not only uncertain for the time, [unspec 4] but then most likely to be, when it is least expected. And to this center, the Fathers, and all fair expositors reduce their Meditations: So Theophylact, Hilary, Jerome, Bede, and Gregory expound the Metaphor. S. Augustine most plainly: He shall come in the night, Cùm valde obscurum & occultum erit, & quando non speratur. Men sleep in the night, and look neither for guests nor thieves. His appearing shall be in the night of men's ignorance, when their intellectual eyes are sealed up with the Spirit of Slumber; no more expecting his descent from Heaven, than He looks to find Faith on the earth. But let us pray that he do not find us out in such a night; when we are fallen into spiritual darkness, the Ignorance of Him, and inconsideration of ourselves. Though he permitted Darkness to be before Light in the Creation; yet in the making of Light he did so multiply that Light, as that it enlightened not the day only, but the night too. So albeit some shadows of dimness, and clouds of disconsolateness have shed themselves upon our souls; let us beseech him to afford us the Light of his holy Spirit, against which the Prince of darkness can never prevail, nor hinder his Illumination of our darkest nights, our saddest thoughts. The Visitation of the holy Ghost upon the blessed Virgin, is called an over-shadowing: There was the Presence of God, the Fountain of all Light, and yet an overshadowing: Nay, except there were some Light, there could be no shadow. It is happy for us, when those shadows within us shall be overcome by God's irresistible Light: That when those shadows have done their office upon us, to let us see that of ourselves we should fall into irrecoverable darkness; the Spirit of Grace may do his Office upon those shadows, dispersing them, and establishing us in the assurance of comfort.

The lascivious wife is glad of her husbands absence, and abuseth the time in unchaste embraces, till his unexpected return surpriseth her in the bed of adultery, and turns her over to just penalty. But the constant Spouse, that hates the least violation of her Faith, (even so much as in a wish or thought) with earnest longing looks for her husbands coming, and knows no solace like to his Presence. The holy Soul, that hath kept her faith with Christ, desires this Day, waits for it, and at last entertains it, and is entertained with it, in a sweet and blessed Peace. But the straggling adulteress, that hath preferred her pleasure before her Piety, and flatters her self with the remoteness of her Lord's Comming, shall be taken in the Night of her carelesenesse, in the Act of her wantonness, and perish without hope of Reeonciliation. This day, like a Thief in the Night, shall break through into her house: She hath barred the doors, and fortified her house against his entrance, out of a conscious fear, and unwillingness to see him: therefore there is no remedy, her house must be broken through, and that unfaithful soul be plucked out by force. But the other looks for the messenger, listens to the first knock: there is no need to break open her house, for she readily opens the door, and yields up her self in joyful peace to the arms of her lord and husband Yea, she longs for a dissolution, prays for the Consummation, and cries for the hastening of his Kingdom. Behold, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, Come Lord Jesus.

In the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise.] Concerning the manner and extent of the worlds dissolution, there is a world of question: the School is full of perplexities, that tend more to the distraction, than satisfaction of their Readers. They do indeed but throw a stone into the Well, and leave us to take it out. They lay such toiles and nets for him, that hunts after the Truth in their Forest, that soon he is entangled; and being once in, let him get out as well as he can. Three circumstances are considerable in this first passage. First, the matter alterable; The Heavens. Secondly, the measure of their alteration; Shall pass away. Thirdly, the manner of this transition; with a great noise.

1 The Heavens.] Some extend it to all the Heavens, even to that highest, which is the glorious Court of God himself: but Saint Paul saith, we have an house not made with hands, Eternal in the Heavens: that which is Eternal, cannot be destructible. Others abridge the latitude of this combustion, and understand by the Heavens the lower part of the Air; confining this fiery deluge to the same limits with the former watery: But if the inferior Air were t • e boundaries of it, why are the Elements afterwards, Namely, expressed? The Air is an element. Others affirm, that they shall perish according to their very substance; as if there should be no more Heavens: but this crosseth the Scriptures, which speak of a new Heaven and Earth; and of them, not as Noua, but Novata: not newly created, but purgingly renewed. This then is our safest conclusion; that this purgation by fire, shall reach as far, as did the corruption of sin, and no further. The corruption of the Heavens shall vanish, the matter of the Heavens shall not perish. To inquire further, may be dangerous, it cannot be profitable. God's Power appeared in the creation of the World, his Wisdom in the government and disposition of it, his indignation in the Flood that drowned it, his Mercy in saving those eight that replenished it, his Grace in the mission of his Son that redeemed it, and his Justice will appear in the re-sending of that Son to judge it. The Heavens declare the Glory of God: things or persons may teach two ways: either materially or occasionally; so the insensible creatures teach man: or morally and vocally, by doctrine and example; as we ought to teach one another. The Heavens can teach us to look unto our own preparation; they cannot teach us the time or manner of their own dissolution.

2 Shall pass away.] There be two errors about this transition of the Heavens. First, of some Theological Philosophers, who attribute to the Heavens an incorruptible nature: From which figment being beaten by the Truth, they labor to evade by distinction; that though the Heavens are in their own nature capable of corruption, yet they may be Intrinsece incorruptibiles, because they can never be corrupted. Secondly, the other sort hold them so corruptible, that they shall be utterly abolished. That the Heavenly bodies are maintained by vapors, was but the dream of some Poets and Philosophers: for certainly, if the Sun, Moon and Stars were only nourished by waters and vapors, they would long ere this, have bidden the world good night. Our Savior foretold us, that the Powers of Heaven shall be shaken: Lactantius thinks these powers of Heaven to be the Angels, who shall then change the order of their motions: They are indeed spiritual and separated substances, quae non habent molem, sed virtutem; not united to any matter, as the souls of men to their bodies; and so are Powers or Virtues: but how those Powers shall then be shaken, seems a forced collection. Chrysostom speaks peremptorily of such a shaking, as shall be an utter abolition; which he calls omnimodam perditionem. Of the same opinion were diverse of the Greek fathers; Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius; grounding it upon the mis-interpretation of this and the like places. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: whereas the Prophet there expounds his meaning of a permutation, not annihilation of the Heavens: As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. So saint Paul, the fashion of this world passeth away: Figura non Natura. We conclude therefore with saint Gregory, that the Heavens shall pass away, and they shall not pass away: Ea quam habent imago, tergetur: Ea quam habent natura, servabitur: The substance shall not be destroyed, only the quality shall be changed. As we weed our Gardens, to succor the Plants, and do not root up the Plants, because of the weeds. Or as we sweep our houses from the dust and rubbish, and do not for the rubbish sake pull down the house: Or as the Lapidary cuts a Pretious stone, or polisheth a Jewel, and does not for the roughness or foulness cast them away. So the Lord will purge this great Fabric of nature, and not for a little corruption destroy so goodly a Creature.

3 With a great noise.] After the manner of a Storm or Tempest, cum stridore & sibilo, with a whistling or crashing sound, such as a flight of Fowls make through the wind with their rustling feathers. Some think that the celestial Orbes shall be put to a swifter and more violent motion; whereby the world shall be set on fire: and out of that concussion, this terrible noise shall arise. Fire and Water cannot meet without a hissing contestation: the Air repelled, breaks not forth in silence; especially restrained fire hath a dreadful eruption; as the report of Ordnance, or Thunder from the Clouds. What with the rapture of the superior bodies, and the confused combat of the Elements, who can conceive the fearfulness of this noise? The Law was given with a great noise, Thunders, Trumpets and Voices: the Thunder was very loud, the Trumpet far louder, but the Voice of God drowned all. If such were the noise at the Law-giving, what shall there be at the Law-requiring? All things will appear strange at that day: Such a Judge, such a Session was never seen: such a noise, such a Sentence was never heard: such an evidence, such a horror was never conceived. The sound of the Archangels Trump is a noise, that shall waken all the World: The crackling of this great frame in the fire is a noise that shall astonish all the World: the voice of the Judge is a noise that shall confound part of the World: and the shrickes of the condemned is a noise that shall continue with them in the World to come. The first noise sounds out a Surgite, Rise from your Graves: The second sounds a Sistite, Stand to your trial: The next sounds a Discedite, Depart ye cursed: and the last sounds forth an Vlulate, Howle forever in the state of the damned. The rising of a Tempest makes the Passengers afraid: It more amazeth them when the waves beat into the Vessel: but when they begin to sink, what a dismal cry is heard among them? Insequitur clamorque virum, stridorque rudentum. The Summons will be a fearful noise, the Sentence more fearful, but most lamentable will be the shriekes of reprobates in their endless sufferings. If we hear but the cries of a City upon the sudden invasion of an unlook'd for enemy; or but the clamour of a Family that cannot get out, when the house is burning about their ears: or had we heard the cry of the Infants in Hinnom, which they contended to drown with their loudest instruments: there had been some shadow of that prodigious noise, which shall be produced by this universal conflagration. It hath been said, that Deafnesse is a blessing, when a man can hear no noise but cursing: but they are happy, that can hear this noise without terror, and escape from it without danger: and such happiness belongs to all that are in Christ.

1 To make some use of this point: Seeing the Heavens shall not lose their being, but only suffer a purgation, and must be changed in figure, without perdition of their nature: and in like manner, man hath an everlasting perpetuity assigned unto him, after his temporary transmigration: he cannot cease to be, he may cease to be happy: Let us all labor to be cleansed in time, lest we remain uncleansed, when time shall be no more. The Heavens must undergo a purging for the sin of man, and shall not man endeavor his own purging for the happiness of Heaven? The way to escape the horror of that purging fire, is for the present to purge ourselves in water. There be two Fountaines, wherein we may wash and be clean. The former is a living Spring, and in many respects, a strange kind of Fountain. It issues indeed from the side of a Rock, but that Rock is immaculate flesh. What is more hard and dry than a Rock? what more moist and supple than water? yet he that once did fetch water out of a stone, to convince and shame the infidelity of the Jews: doth still bring it forth of a Rock, to refresh our believing Souls. The Clouds and Springs are wont to afford water, but it comes not usually from the Rocks. Other Fountaines may cool and cleanse the body, but they cannot make it immortal: this Spiritual drink comes out of the Well of Life, and causeth the receiver to live forever. The Leprosy is not got off with other waters, this Cleanseth us from all sin. That which proceeds from other Fountaines, is white: this is red as blood; even blood it self, and the purest blood that ever ran from veins: that sanguine Laver, wherein if Faith can get us a larder, we are cleansed forever. This is the only Purgatory of our Souls, and without this there is no possibility of being clean. The blood of a man runs in his veins; in the blood of those veins are the spirits, and in those spirits a kindly and active fire, which by consuming the redundant and superfluous humors of the body, purgeth it from contracted annoyances. Christ is the Man of men, the God of men; and the blood that ran from his sacred veins upon the Cross, was full of so infinite a Spirit, that it concocts and overcomes all the diseases of his body, the Church; and cures the infirmities of all our Souls. Lower Fountaines may be locked up, or dried up: but this Spring runs freely, fully, continually, to the end of the world. No man's coming is debarred, no man that comes, departs uncleansed. They that are purged in this Bath of acceptable satisfaction, shall neither fear the Judicial fire of the last Audit, nor the penal fire of everlasting torment. But every day we gather new stains; for the mundation whereof, there is another Fountain provided, within us, as the other was without us; Repentance. This pumpes tears out of our eyes, derived from the Well of contrition in our hearts. Not that this water can cleanse us by its own virtue; for the Spring it self must be fed and sanctified by the former; and is indeed rather a Cistern, than a Fountain. But it is a secondary and instrumental means of our cleansing, a consequent and inseparable sign of our being cleansed by the blood of Jesus. And without this; the burning of the Heavens shall but tend to their restitution; but the same fire to impenitent sinners, shall begin their everlasting torments. This great world was first purged with water, and is again to be purged with fire: so the little world, Man, is first washed in the Laver of regeneration, the Sacramental water: and after this Baptismum aquae, there is Baptismus ignis, a fiery trial: and many are saved, but as it were through the fire: as by fire the Heavens shall be renewed. The best gold may gather some rust, and the purest garment catch a spot: and the holiest Soul on Earth, needs cleansing. We are a candle set in the wind; blown out with every temptation: a curious instrument, that will out of tune with the very change of the weather: a fine glass, that is not only broken with a knock, but stained with a breath. If we be not always supplying our Lamp with the oil of meditation, and setting our instrument in tune by prayer, and scouring off our blemishes by repentance; decay and ruin will encroach upon us. There was a delicate person, self-enamored, and too indulgent to his body, especially in the frequency of bathing: A true friend reproving him for many things, urged that in particular; Why do you bathe twice a day? whereto he deridingly answered, Because I cannot conveniently bathe thrice? Seriously we may invert the question: Why do we not bathe oftener? Why do we not wash our consciences twice, thrice, many times, every day in our penitent tears? Seneca tells us of a Roman, that kept his soul as clean, as the best Huswise keeps her house; every night sweeping out the dust, and washing all the vessels: Examining his own soul, Quod malum body sanasti? qua parte meliores? What infirmity hast thou healed? What fault hast thou done, and not repented. In what degree art thou bettered? Then would he lie down with O quàm gratus somnus, quàm tranquillus! With how welcome sleep and quiet rest, may we entertain the night! The burning of the Heavens shall not affright us, because he that sets them on fire, hath promised to save us.

2. This makes against all ambition of worldly dignities: the Heavens are the purest and most glorious pieces of nature; if they must be dissolved, What shall become of temporal honors? The stateliest Pyramid that ever was like. to the memory of a man, reached not up so high as the Heavens; yea, it is likely that the Tower of Babel transcended them all: yet Babel is fallen, and the Heavens themselves shall not stand. Of good Honor the Pyramid may be a fit emblem: for it is broad and large in the foundation, upon earth: but still as it riseth up toward Heaven, it lessens, and shows it self the narrower: desiring in all the greatness of man, to seem little in the eyes of God: as Moses was a great Prince, yet there was not a meeker man. Paul's honor was great to be wrapped up into the third Heaven; yet but Novi hominem: John was the beloved Disciple; yet but Qûem dilexit: God gave them noble privileges, and yet they in modesty conceal their own names. Dignity comes two ways; either by Desert, or by Descent; by good worth, or great blood. But when it is stated upon the the unworthy, it is a Noli me tangere? Friend sit up higher: but when he is advanced like a friend, if he be found none, he shall soon be pulled down again. God gives honor In utilitatem, and In humilitatem: first, for the public good, and then for our private; that it may make others better, but not ourselves worse. But Ambition is the worm of greatness: the Bramble desires to be King; the Thistle to match with the Cedar: the Eagle to set her nest among the stars: the Spider to build in kings palaces. Haman will never leave lifting up his head, till it be lifted a story higher than he would have had it. Ambition, the eldest son of Pride, mounts up with his gaudy wings, as if he would bandy colors with the Sun. The ground he thinks beholding to him, for vouchsafing to bless it with one touch of his foot; and extremely honored, if he grace it with one humble look. Fame is his Goddess, and all her servants are his Trumpeters. He that crosseth him in his rising, and prevails not; shall be crushed by him, when he is risen. He hath so many corrosives, as he hath superiors: and cares not how much he gives the Devil, to rid him but of one rivall. He could wish his frowns were lightning, and his words thunder. Poor, men he, looks should part with all their goods, to have him but take knowledge of them. Vain man, Whither wouldst thou raise thyself? Could thy blown up honor reach the clouds; this last Fire shall consume both it and them. How careful are men for the prolongation of their memories? What stately monuments are erected by their posterities? Marble pillars, and brazen sculptures, report to succeeding ages, their names and acts. And above all, the Poet undertakes to give life to their virtues, in never dying Verses: with Non norûnt haec monumenta mori: And Nec Iovis ira, nec ignis, Non ferrum poterit, nec edax abolere vetustas: neither time nor fire shall consume them. Yet in this fire they cannot escape: the Brasse will melt, the stones consume, pillars, pyramides, monuments, all shall flame; poems, orations, books shall perish: and of all secular glory there is an utter annihilation. Then, which is the Signior, and which the Servitor? Where is the difference between the Potentate, and the Pesant? What Coat, What Crest can discern the Gentleman from the Mechanicke? Or the Prince from his Page? Or the Lord from the Lacquay? What privilege shall the flourishing proud house of Austria have over the now deposed kings of India? Who can distinguish the slave that labored in the Minerall, from that worse slave which adored the metal? Why may not the Tenant prove as rich a man, as his domineering Landlord? There is only one Heraldry, that makes the difference of men, and that is the Grace of God. This makes us of the Blood royal, Partakers of the divine Nature, Heirs of the Kingdom, bearing the Arms of Jesus Christ.

Then, farewell all honor, but what comes by adoption: but who can allow the glory of this world so long a continuance? As the names of good men outlive their bodies, so too often great men out-live their good names. A good name lives after death; Defunctus volito viva per or a virum: but the name of the wicked is rotten, before his carcase is cold. Ye shall die like men, and fall like one of the Princes. Not only like Men, mortal: but like Princes, remarkable. The fall of a Prince fills the world with present horror, and leaves it full of ominous discourse for the future. Herod • glory lasted not long; it sat as proudly on his soul, as his royal clothes did on his back: but he that would be numbered among the gods, is suddenly devoured of worms. Those worms were both Lictores, and Lectores; Executioners to punish Herod, and instructors to teach us the damnable danger of vain glory. The Heavens are high and glorious, yet they are not proud; but rather full of humble benevolence, blessing the Earth with their light, beat, moisture, influence: Man is a piece of creeping Earth, and yet he hath lofty and aspiring thoughts. O that humility should descend to the earth, while pride exalts it self up to Heaven, and that the voice of a creature should dare say, I will lift up my throne, above the stars of God: but the Lord hath vowed to give Pride a fall.

3 Seeing the Heavens are doomed to a Transition, let us lay up our treasure in a place that can never pass away. But first let us be sure, that we have a treasure worth laying up. No man esteems his Brasse and Pewter for a treasure; base and abject metals are no treasure: we may buy Raddish or Lettuce with a farthing token: a Horse, or a House, or a scarlet Cloke cannot be so purchased. If we have a treasure that is not good, we had as good have no treasure. The Dog would not change his bone for all the wealth of a kingdom; and the worldling will not part with his wealth, for the Kingdom of Heaven. When a child comes into his fathers study, he will rather choose a painted paper, than the best book of his Library. Among all the riches of God, none pleaseth the covetous so well as a little of the better-color'd earth. If this could be a Treasure, yet it is laid up in the earth, and shall perish with the earth. There be some that lay up a worse treasure; even a multiplied hoard of sins: which is, as if a man should take his dung out of his stable, and curiously store it up in his Parlor. They treasure up unto themselves wrath, against the day of wrath: as if they did pile up plagues, and curses, and torments, to be spent upon themselves. The former do but treasure up Snow, which will melt, and flow away. But these treasure up fire, that will never be quenched. God layeth up the deep as in a treasury: but these lay up treasure in the deep. The former is a vain treasure, and laid up in earth: the other is a cursed treasure, and laid up in hell: but that is a blessed treasure, which is laid up in Heaven. Life is brittle, wealth is fickle, honor a bubble, favor a riddle, and the smiles of fortune like the kisses of a whore, which flatter a man to his destruction. The Pontificians promise to enrich their Clients out of the Churches Treasury; the superfluous merits of the Saints; whereof the Pope is the great Lord-Treasurer: but this treasure lies in some enchanted Castle, in the Faery land; no man could ever find it. In the mean time, they picked the people's purses of their material treasure, for the hope of this imaginary supererogatory exchange. Christ doth not forbid all treasuring up in the earth; for Parents may lay up for their children: For your children; that is an allowed providence: but not for yourselves; that were a gross mis-confidence. The Divine Precepts are full of sweetness, and do not take away our affections, but rectify them. When the Disciples rejoiced, that in Christ's Name they had cast out devils, he does not forbid them utterly to rejoice: for it were uncomfortable to leave the soul without some liberty of rejoicing: but he directs their joy: Rather rejoice, that your Names are written in Heaven. To have power over devils, is not so much as to be adopted Saints. It is happy for subjects, when they can subdue their kings enemies: but it is happier to be made his heirs. So in that other passion of fear: when he says, Fear not them which can kill the body, he does not preclude all access of natural fear: but disposeth that fear towards another object, and teacheth an awful dread of him, that can destroy both body and soul in hell. S. Paul does not take from the mind of men all desire of Glory, but instructs them to do it without sin; Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Christ, knowing our covetous dispositions, that we will needs be hoarding, doth not forbid us all manner of laying up, but gives us counsel, both for the choice of our treasure, and for the place where we shall lay it up.

Our Treasure must be good and precious. Good works are such a Treasure, fit for the reconditory of Heaven. Ostentation and hypocrisy are base money: If you give to my poor members, faith our glorious Head, and not Nomine meo, you shall miss of your reward. No wise man exposeth his Treasure to public view, but lays it up in secret. Depraedari desiderat, qui thesaurum publice portat. Hezekiah ran into an offensive weakness, when he shown his munition and treasure to the men of Babylon: for the men of Babylon did carry away both his treasure and munition. Why should we tempt an enemy with a glorious bootie? He is a foolish traveler, that will show his gold to a thief. The affectation of the praises of men, is a thief that will steal away the credit of our good works with God. Give thine Alms in secret, if thou desirest an open reward. Vnusquisque apudse reponat; Let everyone lay in store by himself: The left hand must not be made acquainted with the good deeds of the right. Two things belong to a good work; Reward and Glory: the Reward God gives to men: the Glory he keeps to himself. If we rob him of the Glory, he will rob • us of the Reward. The Grace of God is the Fountain from whence they must all be derived, and the Glory of God is the end to which they must all be directed. To all thy gifts add this, that thou give the Glory to God. The praise of men will follow, but let it not be followed: lest to gain the shadow, we lose the substance. The hands of Christ are like gold rings; whatsoever we deposit in them, is safe forever. Many men have impoverished themselves of wealth and wit, to find out the Philosophers stone; in a vain hope to turn their base metals into gold. Only the hand of Christ hath this virtue, to turn all our dross into gold; our charitable contribution of things contemptible, into the precious Pearls and Jewels of Eternal Glory. Charity gives a cup of water, and receives a vessel of wine. Every penny that it leaves in the hand of Christ, it finds multiplied to a thousand pound. Hypocriticall alms is but guilded brass, mere slip-coin; which will be nailed to the post of derision, and pronounced base in the day of examination. In vain shall he give his goods to men, that hath not first given himself to God. This was the Apostles commendation of his Macedonians, that First they did give their own selves to the Lord, and then did Minister to the Saints. Charity begins at home; be sure to do thyself good: but it ends not at home; Do good to all men. S. Paul doth often call Beneficence by the name of Grace; because it is then acceptable to God, when it is done by gracious men. Of all our works let our estimation be after the shekel of the Sanctuary. The treasure and the treasury should be fitted together: we do not cast our Jewels into the dust-basket, nor put rubbish into our Cabinet. Heaven is a holy place, and will not admit of a counterfeit treasure. Faith is a Jewel on earth, and will prove the beatifical vision in Heaven. Patience is a Jewel below, and will prove a Crown above. Charity is a Jewel here, and will become a Kingdom hereafter. If a man had a Jewel that would buy a Kingdom, how precious would he esteem it? This treasure is laid up in those Heavens that shall never perish: and they shall never perish that have it.

The Elements shall melt with fervent heat.] It is a received Principle, that there be four Elements; Fire, Air, Water, and Earth. The Earth hath the lowest place in Nature, Water next, the Air above the Water, and the Fire above the Air. These be the four Principles, whereof bodies are composed. If by the heavens we understand the air, before; and the earth is expressly specified after; both which are Elements: why doth he mention the Elements, between them both? Is not this a superfluous circumstance? No, for neither were the Fire, or Water spoken of: which being left out, some would suppose them exempted from this universal dissolution. Besides; this showeth the subtle and supernatural force of this last fire, which shall melt the very Elements themselves; and work upon that which in it own Nature is not exustible. Not that these things shall be abolished, but purged. For seeing that heaven and earth shall remain, it is not convenient that the air should be consumed, which fills up the void space between them. The mutable state of the world admitted no vacuity, much less the state of perfection. And for the Element of fire; it is of the same nature with that Instrument, whereby God will purge all things. The Water is doubted of by some; because the Vision of S. John says, There was no more sea. But he speaks there by way of figure, concerning a metaphorical sea: or if you take it literally, yet a total destruction of the sea cannot be gathered from the sense of the words. The first heaven, and the first earth were passed away; not but that there remained still a heaven and earth, but quite changed from their first figure: so there is still a sea, but altered from what it was: no more shall it be troubled with storms and tempests; no more shall it swell and rage with foaming surges: no more shall the furious winds cause an agitation of her angry billows. A Saint hath the same affections that he had while he was a sinner; but renewed, and otherwise disposed: provocations cannot stir up his choler; nor troubles work him to impatience. The Sum is this; These Elements shall suffer an accidental mutation, not a final annihilation: they shall remain Quae erant, not Qualia erant.

[unspec 2] The Lord himself tells us, that his Comming shall be in the Clouds: and his holy Servant hath assured us, That we shall be caught up in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the air. Howsoever some think, that afterward there shall be no more Clouds; because they serve but to water the earth, and there is then no further use of their ministry: yet it is plain, that we could not meet the Lord in the air, if the air were vanished. Most Interpreters think, and not improbably, that this great Assizes shall be kept in the air: but in what part of the air is an unsearchable secret. When the Disciples inquired of the place, Where, Lord? he did not shake them off as utterly unresolved; for he gave them to understand, that in the Clouds he would come. But the Mystery which he refuseth to break unto them, is that particular part of the Air, wherein he will make his Appearance. Yet there be some presumptuous Wizards, who (as if they had crept into the Counsel-Chamber of God, and over-heard his secrets) bear the world in hand, that they distinctly know the place: and can appoint the settling of his Throne over the Valley of Jehoshaphat, near Jerusalem, at the foot of the hill: from thence he was taken up into heaven, and thither he shall come down from heaven to judge the earth. This Counselor is silent, and yet dust and ashes dares speak. Indeed the Lord hath threatened to summon all Nations into The Valley of Jehoshaphat, and to plead with them there. But why should this be understood of a material valley, and not mystically, or metaphorically by way of allusion: because the Judgment at last to be pronounced, shall resemble the Judgment that was there executed, to the ruin of those reprobates, the incestuous generation of Lot, the Moabites and Ammonites? What is Jehoshaphat, if you interpret it, but the Judgment of the Lord? And what is the valley, but the depth of that Judgment? Into the which every heart of man shall be brought, but the manner of it cannot be brought into the heart of man. Two ways is this last judgment alluded to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. One was the fresh memory of that famous deliverance, which the Lord had there wrought for his people. Another, the near resemblance between that particular, and this general Judgment. Three great armies confederate against Jehoshaphat, and his Judah: The Moabites, Ammonites, and Inhabitants of Mount Seir: God sets them together by the ears; Moab and Ammon kill up the men of Seir, and then fall upon one another, and cut their own throats. The Lord was not long about it, then: and such a quick dispatch of his enemies will he make now. All those potent adversaries came against Judah, but they could not prevail: So though the Moabitish Flesh, and the Ammonitish world, and the savage fiend of Seir, the devil, conspire against God's Elect: yet all the shame and ruin shall return upon their own heads: and they shall be tormented with their own Consciences, as those complices fell by their own swords. And as the same place was a Valley of Judgment to them, which to the Jews was a Valley of Blessing: so this last Day is a Day of sorrow to sinners, when they shall be sent away with a Go ye cursed: but a Day of joy to the righteous, whose sweet invitation begins with a Come ye blessed.

The Elements may consenescere, but they shall not evanescere: they shall be melted, not destroyed. When we melt Silver or Gold, we intend not the rejecting, but the refining of it: we make it purer and better, we do not make it nothing. Man consists of the four Elements: his Breath is Air, his Blood and spirits Fire, his radical Moisture Water, his Body Earth. Our blessed Savior, by divers acts, did sanctify them all. By his Breathing, He perfumed the Air: by his mission of the holy Ghost in fiery Tongues, He hallowed the Fire: by undergoing his own institution of Baptism, He purified the Water: and lastly, by shedding his precious Blood upon the ground, and reposing his blessed Body in the ground, He sanctified the Earth. All these were cursed by our sins, and are restored by his Grace and Merits. Let us not think, that those Elements, upon which He bestowed so much honor, shall perish forever. Some have curiously observed, that as the times of many passages of Christ, were much about the Sixes: He came in the Sixt Age of the world, He was conceived in the Sixt Moneth, He was transfigured the Sixt day, He was crucified the Sixt Houre: and ascended the Sixt Weeke after his Resurrection. So his Place and Position was usually in the midst, between others. By his eternal place in holy Trinity, He is the second Person, in the midst between the Father and the holy Ghost: He took flesh in Judea, which is the midst of the earth: He wrought salvation in medio terrae, in the midst of the earth: At his birth He was placed in the Stable, as it is delivered to us, in the midst between the Ox and the Ass: In the Temple they found Him sitting in medio Doctorum, in the midst of the Doctors. At his Crucifying, his place was in the midst, between two Male-actors: After his Resurrection, He stood in medio Discipulorum, in the midst of his Disciples: After his Ascension, He appeared to John, in the midst of the golden Candlesticks: And wheresoever we are gathered together in his Name, He will be in the midst of us. His next Comming as a Bridegroom, will be medi â noctê, in the midst of the night: And his Appearing is likely to be in medio coeli, in the midst of Heaven, for we shall meet Him in the Air. Still Christus reperitur in medio: the Philosopher would have a Fountain in the midst of a City; as the heart is in the midst of the body; and Christ should be in the midst of the heart: virtue keeps in the midst; and the safest way is in the midst, between both extremes: So Christ is in deed a Mediator, in the midst, between God and man. This is the virtue to which we adhere, and this is the way by which we must go: Let compounded bodies be reduced to their first Elements, and let the Elements themselves be molten; if Christ erect his Throne of Grace in the midst of our hearts, we shall stand with comfort before his Throne of glory in the midst of the Heavens.

We have here offered unto us, a figure of our own mortality: we are composed [unspec 1] of the Elements: and if the Elements themselves shall melt with fervent heat, which are of so strong and valid a constitution; what shall become of our frail and infirm bodies, weakened with so much corruption? As this aestuant heat is to the world; so is a fever to man: it does not only melt him like snow, but even consume us to ashes. We study the art of health, and deliberate upon the choice of our diet, air, exercise: yet all our diligence, all our curiosity cannot prevent a sickness: it summons us, seizes us, possesses us, and destroys us in an instant. Our care to preserve health, is a tedious and regular work: but a disease keeps no method: when we have been long in hewing and polishing every stone, that goes to this building; a Cannon batters all in a minute; and levels it with the ground. Man is a little world, an abridgement of the great: and they correspond not only in their parts, but in their productions and alterations. The world brings forth monsters, compiled and complicated of divers parents: and do not our bodies bring forth strange diseases, of divers causes, and divers kinds: for which we are so far from being provided of remedies, that we are scarce able to give them names? The world hath not so many noxious creatures, as we have venomous and infectious diseases, feeding and consuming diseases, intricate and entangled diseases, made up of several ones. Such is our miserable abundance, such our beggarly riches. For the worlds earth-quakes, man hath his sudden shakings; for those lightnings, sudden flashes; for those thunders, sudden noises; for those eclypses, sudden obfuscations and darkening of his senses; for those blazing stars, sudden firy exhalations; for those rivers of blood, sudden red waters. Is this the honor which man hath by being a little world; that he hath enough in himself, to destroy and execute himself? To breed a sickness, to assist the sickness, yea, even to antidate the sickness, and to make it more irremediable by sad apprehensions? As fire is made more vehement by sprinkling water upon the coals: so we wrap up a hot Fever in cold melancholy: and, lest the Fever should not destroy fast enough without this contribution, we help to perfect the work of our destruction, by joining the artificial sickness of our own melancholy, to our natural, our unnatural Fever. We are not only incident to sickness, but to the worst of sicknesses, continual fear of it. And when this Fever comes, it melts us, it scatters us, it pours us out like water; so instantly, that it scarce leaves an answer for that question; How long were they sick? yet our comfort is, that as the elements, though they be molten, are not taken from their being, but rather purged and restored to a better being: So our bodies made up of those elements, though death take them in pieces, break them to clods, searce them to ashes, and examine every dust; do but suffer a cleansing; and there is such a quickening virtue in the divine Head of those scattered members, that it shall recollect those ashes, give life to that dust, redintegrate those bodies, and make them shine brighter than the Sun and Stars in their clearest glory. When a rich garment, that is capable of washing, grows foul, we are content to rip it in pieces, to cut every stitch; and having thus sundered it, we scour it in some convenient lardars: and having so done, we make it up again, and think not scorn to wear it on high days: Mans body is like a watch, consisting of many wheels: his Heart is the principal wheel, his Brain another, his Liver a third: while these move rightly, that is, work kindly, all the inferior wheels keep their due courses: the eyes roll, the hands operate, the feet walk, the joints stir, all execute their several functions. Every day this watch is wound up, and kept in reparation, by meat, drink, sleep, and exercise. Often it gathers dust, and grows foul, and the hand of Physic is employed to cleanse it. The string that unites these motions, and holds them in dependence, is the spirits. At last the string waxeth old, and breaks; and then all falls to pieces: this Body drops asunder, and here lies a pin, there a wheel; here one bone, there another. Yet after all this woeful dissolution, that exquisite workman which at first made it, will re-unite it, repolish it, put a new immortal Spring into it, and lay it up as a choice Organ of his Praise, in his own glorious Kingdom.

And the earth, with the works that are therein, shall be burnt up.] The Earth is the worlds Center; and so extremely violent shall the last fire be, as to reach from the roof to the very Center. When a house is burnt down, yet the floor remains: in the destruction of Sodom, though the ground was cursed with a future barrenness, yet it was not reduced to nothing. This fire shall extend to the floor and pavement of that mighty Fabric; to the permutation, not to the annihilation of it. The superficies of it shall be purged; and so deep as the corruption of sin entered, shall this flame reach. Indeed the works that are on the Earth shall suffer more, even to a corruption, to a correption of them. The Earth shall be burnt; not as we burn bricks, by exsiccation, condensing, and hardening of the Clay: nor as we burn Wood or Coals, by consuming them to Cinders and Ashes: but like metal in a Fornace, or gold in the crucible, which by separation of the dross, is brought to perfect pureness. The Earth abideth forever, what it was, and where it was, but not such as it was: an Element, but not a sordid, and sin-corrupted Element.

Two things the Romists have reserved from this universal conflagration: [unspec 2] one part of the Earth, and one work in the Earth. First, some of them, with Moses Barcepha; contend for the reparation and remansion of the terrestrial Paradise: whereof although they can show no necessary use, but admit a vacuity into it: yet they think it no more absurd, than that the places of the lost Angels are not yet supplied in Heaven; or that diverse parts of the Earth are now without inhabitants. But Pererius and Abulensis are against this opinion, and affirm that it shall perish in the last, if it did not in the former Inundation. Some have imagined a Paradise about the Moon, to deliver it from the water: others would have it still upon the Earth, and yet scape the fire. But as while the Philosophers disputed about the Summum Bonum; some stating it in this thing, and others in that; one seeking it here, and another there, and all looking for it where it was not: only believers, by the Light of Grace, found it where it was; even in Jesus Christ. So what Paradise soever they strive for, or wheresoever they conceit it to be; let us seek it where it is; even in the Kingdom of Heaven. Secondly, some exempt the material Cross of Christ from the power of this Exustion. This privilege, (howsoever they would father it upon the Fathers, misunderstood; as Ephrem, Cyril, Chrysostom ) is grounded upon a testimony of one of the Sibylls: O lignum felix, in quo Deus ipse pependit: O happy wood, which shalt not perish, but rather be made glorious, in that day of retribution; Cùm renovata Dei facies ignita micabit. What is become of that Cross? Is it not cut in many pieces? Would not those fragments, which they pretend to be pieces of the Cross, make up many wane-loads. Must they all be recollected to the redintegration of the Cross? First, they have multiplied it on earth, and now they would advance it into heaven. Do they not honor it with this imaginary exaltation, only to color their abuse of it unto superstition? This they understand to be that Sign of the Son of man: which he shall advance in the heavens, when he triumpheth over his enemies; as Conquerors use to erect Trophies and Monuments of their victories. What did Christ leave behind him at his going away, with which the Papists cannot furnish him at his Comming again? They have all his relics; some in one City, and some in another: this covent grows rich with one relique, that Church or Monastery is proud of another: Amongst them they can appoint him where he shall have all his old furniture: in one place he shall find his coat, in another his sandals: These they have in abundance, but they have lost Himself. We have not, ô most blessed Savior, these thy relics in our hands: but we desire to show Thee Thy self in our hearts, and to find our names in thy Book of Life.

If the earth with her works shall be burnt, why doth S. Paul mention the earnest [unspec 3] Expectation of the Creature for this day? Doth anything naturally hope for an evil to it self, or desire it own destruction? Answ. 1. We must know, that the Apostle speaks there figuratively, by a Prosop • poeia; personating the Creatures and giving them affections, a kind of sense and feeling of their misery, and a longing desire to be delivered from it. He speaks of them groaning, and grieving, as the Prophets did sometime bring in Vineam lamentantem, the Vineyard wailing, and the Mountains lamenting. So that this is a pathetical and emphatical description of the hope and desire of the Creatures. 2. They are Subject to vanity, whereof they would fain be rid: Not subject willingly, for this their vanity is contra naturalem propensionem, against their natural inclination: everything by nature would decline corruption. Erasmus his conceit is too curious, who interpreteth this vanity, Frustrationem, the disappointing of the hope of the Creature; whereby it faileth of that end at which it aimeth: As if it sought an Immortality, in multiplying one individuum, or one particular by another: but that end it misseth. Nor is this vanity altogether corruption: for neither are the heavens of a corruptible nature; nor yet should the elements have been incorruptible, though man had never sinned: seeing they were ordained to serve for the generation and procreation of things, which cannot be done without corruption. But by this vanity we understand the frail condition of the Creatures, much degenerated since the Creation, both in earth, the elements, and heaven. There is a Perfection, to which they long to be restored. The desire or expectation of the Creature is twofold: One natural, as for the earth and trees to bring forth fruits: Another supernatural; when a thing aspireth to an end above the natural constitution: as our corruptible bodies, to the state of incorruption, at the Resurrection. So the Creatures expect when the Sons of God shall be revealed: not that they know who are the Sons of God, but they look for their own Restitution with the Sons of God. As for man's cause they were enthralled, so with man's happiness they shall be enlarged. The bodies of the Saints are made of the earth, and yet those bodies shall be glorified in heaven: Corruptibles shall put on incorruption. Heaven is the highest part of the world, and earth the lowest: yet he that dwelt in the highest heavens, came down to the lowest earth; and carried up his Body which was framed of earth, even to the highest heavens. It is the honor of the earth, that part of her is glorified above; and a kind of assurance that the rest shall be but purified below.

[unspec 4] If the earth shall perish, why are we so taken with it? what folly can be greater than to adhere unto that which is destined to the fire? Thy habitation so pleaseth thee, that thou art loath to remove: it is but earth. Thy gold bewitcheth thee, and thou lovest the enchantment: it is but earth. A woman's beauty tempteth thee, and with the wrack of Virtue thou steerest a course to that unhappy port: it is but earth; some clearer-coloured earth. If the foundation be overturned, how should the roof stand? The earth is doomed to burning, and can the superedification escape? The earth is but a turfe for man to trample on, Heaven is our home: Here we have but Tents, there are the Mansions. No mortal Vitruvius can make an immortal habitation. Why do we build so gloriously, upon so inglorious and miserable a foundation? Pride begins such a palace, craft undertakes it, oppression raiseth it, prodigality finishes it, emptiness inhabites it, vanity derides it, and fire shall consume it. The superfluous builder is a thief, if not to others, yet to himself: Aedificatio te capiat, was a Lacedaemonian curse. Time hath demolished those great Pyramids, the wonders of the world: but the remainders of time shall not escape the fire. The filly Spider may teach us, who upon the least touch of her web flittes and removes. The world is a cobweb-world, to be swept down with the broom of fire. If Codrus his house burn, he even warms his hands at the flame: the loss never troubles him, because in two days he can make himself another as good. But when the rich man's house is on fire, he cries out on this Chest, on that Cabinet; and is distracted with impatience. Those Pilgrims to the heavenly Canaan, which esteem the world but their Inn, care not to see it on fire, because it is none of their own: but to those that have made it their habitation, such a fight will go to their hearts. Let no home content us, but that which is out of the reach of the fire, even the Mansions prepared for us by Jesus Christ.

Though the house be on fire, be sure to save the Jewel; provide before hand that thy Soul may escape in this universal conflagration. When a man's house is burning, he would save many things; but he is content to lose them all, rather than lose himself. This was Saint Paul's motive, to keep ^f A good Conscience at all times, and in all things; because he knew there should be a day of account. Indeed, if there were a Purgatory for future cleansing, after this life, there might be some hope: but he that dares sin upon the trust of a Purgatory shall find the event of his hopes in Hell. Consider thy life, it is Peccandi tempus, the time of sinning; so thou makest it: Consider thy death; it is Poenitendi terminus, the date of repenting; so God makes it. Saint Augustine calls death Tempus deponendi, a time of deposing or putting off: We then put off our clothes, we put off our diseases, we put off our cares, we put off our bodies; but yet we may fail of putting off our sins. They often go with the Soul, when that parts from the body: but they shall meet with the body, when that meets with the Soul. Be sure to put off thy clothes ere thou go to bed, to put off thy sins ere thou diest; or they will find thee in the morning when thou risest. Thou that darest sell God's holy Rites, without trouble to thee, wouldst thou be found in this day of flames with such a Conscience? Thou that settlest thy estate upon usury, thy heart upon thy estate; wouldest thou be found at this day with such a Conscience? Thou that swearest away thy Grace, that liest away thy Truth, that dissemblest away thy Faith, that drinkest away thy Estate, that whorest away thy Body, that playest away thy Soul; wouldest thou be presented before the Judge with such a Conscience? Hymenaeus and Philetus taught that The Resurrection was past already: and the conversations of too many are answerable to Their Doctrine; they so live, as if the day of account were over. He hath said, he will come: he is not yet come: O let us be so kind to ourselves, as to remember that Doomes-day is not past. There is a Day, an Evening, and a Morning: we shall find no peace in the Evening of our death, nor in the Morning of our Resurrection, except we provide for it in the Day of our life. O consider, with what a dismal cry, and ghastly look, the evil Conscience shall behold the Judge. The Sun shall be darkened: with what light shall the unrighteous shine? The Moon shall be turned into blood; it will be too late then to turn good. The Stars shall fall from heaven; alas what hope then can Meteors have of rising up to heaven? The Powers of heaven shall be shaken; how shall the infirmities of the earth be able to stand? O then make safe the Jewel, lay up thy Soul in the bosom of Jesus Christ.