Twenty-One Sermons on Amos 1

Its impossible, any sin should be without punishment. Impossibl. The reasons are two:

One is taken from the justice of God. It is a part of God's justice to punish sin, and therefore he cannot but punish it.

The other is taken from the truth of God. God who is ever true, hath threatened to punish sin, and therefore he will not leave any sin unpunished.

The consideration of this point, Beloved, should be unto us a bar to keep us in, that we be not too secure, too presumptuous of our own estate. We cannot be ignorant, for we have learned it out of God's Word, that we have whole armies of enemies to encounter withal, not only out of us, in the world abroad, but also within us lurking within our own flesh, even our sins. These sins of ours are our cruelest enemies. They are ever hurring us on to punishment. Wherefore let us be at utter defiance with them; and use we all holy means to get the victory over them, by the daily exercises of prayer and repentance, and by a continual practice of new obedience to God's most holy Will, according to that measure of grace which we have received. So shall our sins, all our sins, lie drowned in the most precious blood of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, as in a bottomless Sea, from which they shall never be able to rise up against us for our hurt.

THE Third Lecture.

OF the three parts, which heretofore I have observed in this third Chapter and second Sermon of Amos concerning the kingdom of the ten Tribes, this is the third, and is continued from this third verse to the end of this Chapter. I termed it an Enarration, a Declaration, an Exposition, an Expolition. Call you it as you will. Here shall you find the Proposition, whereof you heard in my last Lecture, powerfully and elegantly made good. The substance of the Proposition was; God having been good and gracious to a people, if he be repaid with unthankfulness, will assuredly visit that people, and punish them for all their iniquities.

For the polishing and adorning hereof we have here diverse similitudes, by diverse Interpreters, diversely expounded. I find among them five different expositions.

Some will have all these similitudes, all six, to be brought to prove one and the same thing; namely: That no evil can befall any city, except the Lord command it. Of this exposition Saint Jerome makes mention. It is the exposition of Theodoret, and Remigius: and may run thus. As it cannot be, that two should walk together, except they be agreed; or that a Lion should roar in the forest, when he hath no prey; or, that a Lions whelp should cry out of his den, if he have gotten nothing; or, that a bird should fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him; or, that a Fowler should take up his snare from the ground, before he have taken somewhat; or, that the Trumpet should sound an Alarum in the City, and the people not fear: so it cannot be, that there should be any evil, any evil of punishment, any plague in a City, except the Lord command it so to be.

Some there are that expound these similitudes, of God's agreement with his Prophets for the denouncing of some evil that is eminent and near at hand. Lyra, Hugo, and Dionysius, do so expound them. Their exposition runs thus: As it cannot be, that two should walk together for the dispatch of a business, except they be first agreed; or, that a Lion should roar in the forest when he hath no prey, and so forth of the rest; So it cannot be, that God's Prophets should forewarn us of any judgment that shall befall us, except they be first agreed with God, and God speak in them. This exposition Christophorus à Castro takes for good, because it is said verse. 7. of this Chapter, Surely, the Lord God will do nothing, but he revealeth his secret unto his servants the Prophets. By his servants, the Prophets, the Lord roareth as a Lion, he layeth his snares as a Fowler, he soundeth an alarm as with a trumpet, and proclaimeth evil to a City.

Others there are, that refer these similitudes to the disagreement that is between God and Israel. Albertus, Rupertus, and Isidore, do so refer them. Their exposition may run thus: as it cannot be, that two should walk together, except they be agreed; so it cannot be, that God should walk with Israel. The time indeed was, when God walked with his people Israel, and Israel with God. It was then, when they of Israel were desirous to please God, to do his holy will, and to depend upon him. But afterward, when they forsook God, and betook themselves to the service of strange gods, Idol-gods, Devils, it could not be, that God should walk any longer with them, or they with God. No marvel then, if upon this disagreement, the Lord by his Prophets do roar at Israel, as a Lion roareth at his prey: nor marvel, if he lay a snare for them, as a Fowler doth for birds: no marvel, if he sound an alarm as with a Trumpet, and proclaim against them.

There is yet a fourth exposition; the exposition of Arias Montanus. He understands these similitudes of the disagreement, that was between the two people's, of Israel and Judah. Notorious was the revolt of Israel from Judah: notorious the rent of the ten Tribes from the other two. By this revolt, or rent, of one kingdom were made two: the kingdom of Israel, and the kingdom of Judah. Here was much a do, much contention, which kingdom should be the chief, which should have the preeminence. Notwithstanding this their variance, yet was there a concord between them: a concord, to forsake the Law of the Lord and his holy worship: a concord to tread the paths of superstition, and to embrace the service of Idols. Herein they were agreed. Agreed among themselves, but not with God. The more they were agreed among themselves, the further off they were from any agreement with God. Now this exposition is: As it cannot be, that two should walk together, except they be agreed: so it cannot be that God should walk either with Israel or Judah: As well Judah, as Israel, being at odds with God, as having left his holy Law, and polluted themselves with superstition, must taste of the severity of God's displeasure. God will be unto them as a Lion that roareth at his prey; and as a snare that is spread by the Fowler; he will cause an alarm to be heard among them, and will summon them to battle, whereby their ruin shall be wrought: ruin upon Israel through Shalmaneser, and ruin upon Judah through Nebuchadnezzar.

I cannot pass by a fifth exposition. I have it from Saint Jerome's relation; from his reading Legi in cuiusdam commentario, rem difficilem persuadere cupientis, I have read, saith he, in a Commentary of one, that is willing to persuade a hard matter; that here are eight comminations, answering to eight precedent impieties. Those eight impieties are these: the first of Damascus; the second of Gaza, and other Cities of Palaestina; the third of Tyre; the fourth of Idumaea or Edom; the fifth of the children of Ammon; the sixth of Moab; the seventh of Judah, or of the two Tribes; the eight of Israel, or, of the ten Tribes. Five of them are discovered in the first Chapter, the other three in the second. To these eight impieties, eight comminations are here rendered; to the first, the first; to the second, the second; to the rest, the rest in their order. Quod vtrum rerum sit, nouerit ipse, qui scripsit: But whether this be so, or not, let him that wrote it, look to it. So doth Saint Jerome put by this fifth exposition: neither do I see any reason to admit it.

The four former are more pertinent to this place, and of them the two first are most of all, as Castrus supposeth. But which is indeed the most pertinent, it will appear by the particular consideration of each similitude in its order. I begin with the first. The first similitude is taken from way-faring men, from travelers: verse. 3.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . So Saint Cyril begins his exposition of this verse. We have here a profound riddle, and an obscure saying; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , yet will we speak of it, we will expound it, as we may.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?] The translation of the Septuagint is, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , Will two walk wholly to the same purpose, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , unless they know one the other? The Vulgar Latin hath Nunquid ambulabunt duo pariter, Will two walk together, nisi conuenerit eis, unless they be agreed? Tremellius and Junius, and Piscator; their translation is; An ambulaturi essent duo vnà. Would two walk together, nisi conuenirent, unless they could agree? Drusius he reads: An ibunt duo simul, Will two go together, nisi conuenerint, unless they meet in some certain place? Tauerner, an ancient English Translator, he hath, May twain walk together, except they be agreed among themselves. Will two, Would two, May twain, Can two walk or go together, unless they know one the other, unless they be agreed, unless they could agree, unless they meet together, except they be agreed among themselves? Some difference you see there is in the translations, but the understanding of the place is not thereby much varied. I follow our newest and best approved English.

Can two walk together, except they be agreed?] Can they? The answer must be negative; No. They cannot. Can they not? How so? Carthusian says they may. For a man may be compelled to walk with another. And its plain by that, which our Savior in his Sermon, in the Mount, says to his Auditors, Mat. 5.41. Whosoever shall compel thee to go a mile, go with him twain. Now where compulsion is, there is no agreement: and therefore may two walk together, though they be not agreed. May they so? To what end then serves this Interrogation; Can two walk together, except they be agreed?

I answer with Carthusian, that our Prophet here speaketh, secundum communem cursum, according to the common course: and communiter verum esse, that it is commonly true, that two cannot walk together, except they be agreed. Commonly it is true, yet not ever so. Drusius hath a Solent, to express the meaning with: Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Minime solent, they use not so to do. Mercerus hath likewise his Solet, Can two walk together, except they be agreed? Fere fieri non solet: it is not usual they should do so: For the most part they do it not. This is it, that Paulus de Palatio hath: Solent, qui volunt iter simul facere, priùs secum de eo itinere conuenire; they who undertake any journey together, do use first to agree upon it. Should they not first agree, how could they come together, how walk together? Commonly and for the most part they could not.

You see now what answer is to be made to the interrogation here; Can two walk together, except they be agreed? The answer is, They cannot, Commonly they cannot, for the most part they cannot; usually they cannot. They cannot walk t • gether, except they be agreed.

It is a known rule: Interrogatio quando{que} vim habet negandi: An Interrogation hath sometimes the force of a Negation. So hath it, Gen. 18.14. Is anything too hard for the Lord? The answer must be, No; there is nothing too hard for him. The Angel Gabriel well renders it, Luke 1.37. With God nothing shall be impossible.

In the seventh Chapter of Saint Matthew, verse. 9, 10. you have a twofold Interrogation: What man is there of you, whom if his son ask bread, will he give him a stone? or if he ask a fish, will he give him a serpent? The answer must be, No. You will not give any son of yours, a stone instead of bread, or a serpent instead of fish. You will not. You know how to give good gifts unto your children.

In the same Chapter, verse. 16. the Interrogation is, Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles? The answer must be, No. They do not. It is against the course of nature, that either thorns should bring forth grapes, or thistles figs.

Such is the Interrogation here. It hath the force of a Negation. Can two walk together, except they be agreed? The answer must be, No. They cannot. Two cannot walk together, except they be agreed.

Hitherto you have had the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the proposition of this first similitude; now followeth the 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the reddition of it. Hitherto hath been rei extrariae consideratio, now followeth rei praesentis accommodatio: hitherto the explication of the former part; now, the application of the latter. Thus:

As it cannot be, that two should walk together, except they be agreed: so it cannot be, that the Prophets of the Lord should forewarn us of any judgment, that shall befall us, except they be first agreed with God, and God speak in them. This is the second of those five expositions, whereof you heard in the beginning of this exercise. It was the exposition of Lyra, Hugo, and Dionysius: and is embraced by later Expositors; by Paulus de Palatio, Marthurinus Quadratus, and Christophorus à Castro, by Brenz, and Winckleman, by Calvin and Mercer. The observation is:

This truth Saint Peter expressly delivereth, Ep. 2. Chap. 1. verse. 20, 21. No prophecy of the Scripture is of any private interpretation: for the prophecy came not in old time by the will of man; but holy men of God spake, as they were moved by the holy Ghost. The Prophets of the Lord spake not of their own heads; God spake in them.

Prophets! They are criers: and criers speak nothing, but what is put into their mouths. Isaiah is a crier. He makes a noise after the manner of a crier, Isaiah 55.1. Hoe, everyone that thirsteth, come ye to the waters. The Lord bids him cry, Isaiah 40.6. and he saith, What shall I cry? Then are the words put into his mouth: All flesh is grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower of the field. John the Baptist is a crier. So he stiles himself, John. 1.23. I am the voice of a crier in the wilderness. And how crieth he? Even as the words are put into his mouth: Prepare ye the way of the Lord, make his paths strait.

Prophets! They are Trumpetors. Their voice is like a Trumpet. Isaiah 58.1. Crie aloud, spare not, Lift up thy voice like a trumpet, show my people their transgression, and the house of Jacob their sins. They must set the trumpet to their mouths, Hos. 8.1. They must blow the trumpet, Joel 2.1. But they must blow it with the breath of the Lord: Otherwise it giveth but an uncertain sound, and a false alarm.

Prophets! They are Watch-men. Their office is, to hear the Word at the Lord's mouth, and then to warn the people. The charge is given them, Ezech. 3.17. Son of man, I have made thee a watch-man unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the Word at my mouth, and give them warning from me. This their charge is reiterated, Ezech. 33.7. O son of man, I have set thee a watch-man unto the house of Israel: therefore thou shalt hear the Word at my mouth, and warn them from me. You see; they are not to speak a word, but they have it from the Lord, and accordingly must they warn the people.

Jeremiah, a Prophet. He eats the words of the Lord, Chap. 15.16. and is thereby fitted to his function.

Ezekiel, a Prophet. A hand is sent unto him, and loe, a roll of a book therein. The roll is spread before him, and is written within and without. Within is written, Lamentations, and mournings, and woe. This roll he is commanded to eat. He eats it. So he goes and speaks unto the house of Israel, Ezech. 3.3.

Saint John the Divine a Prophet too. He sees an Angel with a little book in his hand, and begs the book. The Angel gives it him, and bids him eat it. He takes it and eats it. Then is he fit to prophesy before many people's, and nations, and Kings, and tongues, Revel. 10 11.

The Prophets profess of themselves, that they speak nothing besides the pure word of God. Joshua, he saith to the children of Israel: Come hither and hear the Word of the Lord your God. Chap. 3.9. The words which I shall deliver unto you concerning what shall come to pass hereafter, they are not my words; they are the words of the Lord your God. Isaiah calls upon Heaven and Earth to hear, Chap. 1.2. Hear O Heavens, and give ear, O Earth, for the Lord hath spoken. The words, which I now speak unto you, they are not my words, they are the words of the Lord. Amos our Prophet: he likewise calleth upon the children of Israel in the beginning of this Chapter. Hear this word that the Lord hath spoken against you, O children of Israel. Hear it. It is not my word, it is the word of the Lord; the Lord hath spoken it.

What more familiar in the writings of the Prophets, than these forms of speech, Thus saith the Lord, Saith the Lord, the burden of the Word of the Lord; the Word of the Lord came unto me? They all make for the authority of the Prophets of old, and their prophesies.

From hence, as also from that they are Eaters of the Word of God, and are Watchmen, and are Trumpeters, and are Criers, its evident, their prophesies were not of their own wills: they spake not of their own heads; God spake in them.

Thus the truth of my Doctrine stands inviolable:

Here first is a lesson for us, who succeed the Prophets in the Ministry of the Church. We may not deliver anything unto you, but what we have gathered out of the Word of God. Every Minister of the New Testament, should be as Moses was of the Old. Moses his charge was not to conceal anything, but to speak all, Exod. 7.2. Thou shalt speak all that I command thee. It is our part to do the like. It is our part to speak in the Name of God, and in his Name alone, to feed the flock of Christ with his pure word, and with his word alone: and to do it as learnedly, as faithfully, as sincerely, as constantly as we may; leaving the success of all to him that hath sent us, and disposeth of all men's hearts at his pleasure. So running our race, we shall one day be at rest in eternal comfort, fully delivered from this vile world, from wicked men, from evil natures: from such, who are ever ready to take our best endeavours in the worst sense, and to require our honest affections with their foul disgraces.

Here secondly is a lesson for you. For you, Beloved: for all such as are the Auditors and hearers of the Word of God. This duty of hearing is to be put in practice; not dully, but with diligence; not heavily, but with cheerfulness, as to the Lord. There is a generation of hearers, that would seem desirous to hear the Word preached, but they would have it of free cost: they like not the charges it bringeth with it. O let not any such repiner, any such grudger be found in the assembly of the Saints. Such, if they confer anything to the maintenance of the Ministry, they do it not for conscience sake, but of necessity; not for any love they bear unto the Word preached, but by compulsion of Law: not as a free will offering to God for the recompense of his Kingdom among them, but as a taxation, which they cannot resist. To such the preaching of the Word is not a benefit, but a burden. So far are they from taking any delight therein, as that by their good wills they would wholly shake and shift it off. Carnally minded men, careless and prodigal of the salvation of their own souls. The horse-keeper that dresseth their horses, the shepherd that watcheth their sheep, the heardman that looketh to their swine, the Cobbler that clouteth their shoes, shall willingly be considered for their pains: but the Minister or Pastor that breaketh unto them the bread of life, shall have no supply from them to the relief of his necessities. No supply! Nay, well were he if he could hold his own, even that portion of maintenance, which is allotted to him by the Word of God.

But I hope there cannot be found in this assembly, any one so sacrilegiously affected. I have good reason to be persuaded much better of you all. Yet you, as well affected as you are in this behalf, are to be admonished, that to these exercises of our religion ye come willingly and joyfully. Willingly for your own duties sake, and joyfully, because from hence you may carry home with you a Jewel of an invaluable price, even the precious Word of God: wherein quicquid docetur, veritas; quicquid praecipitur, bonitas; quicquid promittitur, felicitas est, as Hugo lib. 3. de Anima speaketh: Whatsoever is taught, its truth; whatsoever is commanded, its goodness; whatsoever is promised, its happiness. Nam Deus veritas est, sine fallaciâ; bonitas, sine malitiâ; felicitas, sine miseriâ: for God is truth, without falsehood; goodness, without malice; happiness, without misery.

O come ye then hither, as willingly for your duties sake, so also joyfully for your profits sake. Willingly, and joyfully. It is somewhat, I grant, to come hither, to this house of God to divine service; but to come willingly and joyfully, it is a double virtue, and that which giveth life unto your coming. If you come unwillingly or grudgingly, if you be drawn hither, either for shame of the world, or through fear of Law, you come as men more than half dead, without either operation of the spirit, or desire of profit, or feeling of comfort, or increase of faith, or bettering of obedience.

Wherefore, dearly Beloved, let your care be, ever willingly and joyfully to present yourselves in these Courts of the Lord, in his holy Temple. Be ye well assured, that as he is accursed that doth the work of the Lord negligently; so is he also accursed that cometh into the house of the Lord either unwillingly or grudgingly, as if he were discouraged with the tediousness either of the way, or of the word.

It is recorded of the people of God, Psal. 84. that they traveling towards the place of God's worship, passed through many dangers, endured much heat, suffered wants in the wilderness, and all for the delight they took in his service. The delight that they took in the service of God, did swallow up all their wants, their travel, their labor, and their pains. It made them say; A day in thy courts is better than a thousand. And, I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God, than to dwell in the tents of wickedness. A day in thy courts is better than a thousand.] A day] one day only, and no more, in thy courts] in the courts of God, in his Temple, and the public meetings and assemblies there, is better] is more sweet, more comfortable, more profitable, than a thousand] elsewhere, yea, though the place be never so full of pleasure. And, I had rather be a door-keeper in the house of my God] I had rather be of the meanest account in the Church, the place where my God, the only true and everliving God is served; than to dwell in the tents of wickedness] than to make my abode in most stately and gorgeous Palaces, wherein wickedness is practiced and professed. O! how amiable are thy tabernacles, O Lord of hosts!

How excellent was this zeal of God's people? how great their forwardness to do him service? We would be accounted God's people, as well as they. But where is our zeal? Were ours as theirs was, certainly neither blasts of wind, nor fear of rain, nor heat of Summer, nor cold of Winter, nor a Lion in the way, nor any like trifle should stop us from coming to the house of God, his Temple, the place where by his Ministers he speaketh to his people.

Thus far by the occasion of my first observation, which was grounded upon the second of those five expositions, whereof you heard in the beginning of this exercise. My observation was:

A second application of this first similitude to the matter here intended by the Holy Ghost, may be thus: As it cannot be, that two should walk together, except they be agreed; So it cannot be that God should walk with Israel, for as much as there is a disagreement between them. The time indeed was, when God walked with Israel, and Israel with God. Then it was, when the people of Israel were desirous to please God, to do his holy will, and to depend upon him. But afterward, when rebelliously they forsook God, and applied themselves to the service of false gods, it could not be, that God should any longer walk with them, or they with God. This is the third of those five expositions, whereof even now you heard. It was the exposition of Albertus, Rupertus, and Isidore; and is embraced by later Expositors, by Franciscus Ribera, by Petrus Lusitanus, by Oecolampadius, Danaus, Gwalther, Tremellius, and Junius, and Piscator. The observation is:

To walk with God is lovingly to adhere unto him, and to please him. So is the phrase used in the Prophesy of Micah, Chap. 6.8. What doth the Lord require of thee, O man, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to humble thyself to walk with thy God. To walk with thy God, that is, Jonathan translates it, to walk in the worship and fear of God. Petrus Lusitanus saith, it is to live according to the Law and will of God. And this doubtless is to please God.

It is said of Enoch, Gen. 5.22, 24. that he walked with God. He walked with God, that is, he pleased God. So doth the Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews expound the place, chap. 11.5. Enoch before his translation, had this testimony, that he pleased God. The testimony which he had was, that he walked with God; and therefore to walk with God, is to please God. Syracides in the 44. of his Ecclesiasticus, verse. 16. saith to the same effect. Enoch pleased the Lord, and was translated, being an example of repentance to all generations. Enoch pleased the Lord, saith Ecclesiasticus; in Genesis it is, Enoch walked with God: and therefore to walk with God is to please God. Onkelos saith it is, to live in the fear of God; surely he that so liveth pleaseth God.

It is said of Noah, Gen. 6.9. that he walked with God: Noah was a just man, perfect in his generations, and walked with God. He walked with God, Whats that? He lived a solitary life, and professed Monkery? No: He left the concourse of the world, and got him aside into some wilderness? Nor so. He lead a single life, and therefore no marvel if he pleased God? Nor this. What is it then, he walked with God? It is this: He served God, as was fit he should, in his vocation; he lived piously, and without blame: he composed himself, not to man's beck, to man's example, to man's applause, but wholly to the holy Will of God: in a word, he led a life acceptable and pleasing unto God; and so he walked with God.

That which God saith to Abram, Gen. 17.1. Walk before me, and be thou perfect, is all one, as if he had said, Walk with me, and be thou perfect. To walk with God, or to walk before God, is all one. It is not Foris simulare pietatem, hypocritarum more; it is not to make outwardly a show of piety, as Hypocrites use to do; but it is Syncere Deo fidere; it is to trust in God sincerely, to depend upon him wholly, to serve him alone, and to obey him according to his will. Such are those servants of the Lord, of whom Solomon speaketh, 2 Chron. 6.14. that walk before the Lord with all their hearts. Such are they that walk in the Law of God, Exod. 16.4. Such they, that walk after the Lord their God, Deut. 13.4. where they are further described to fear the Lord, to keep his Commandments, to obey his voice, to serve him, and to cleave unto him. In the language of Canaan you see it is all one, to walk in the Law of God, to walk before God, to walk after God, and to walk with God. The Metaphor is very elegant: and may serve thus far to instruct us; that, as when we walk, we stand not still, but are ever in motion, and do go forward: so in the way of piety, in the course of godliness, when we walk either in the Law of God, or after God, or before God, or with God, we are not to stand still, but are ever to be in motion, in a spiritual motion, and to go forward: to go forward, as Origen speaketh in his twelfth Homily upon Genesis, De vita ad vitam, de actu ad actum, de bonis ad meliora, de vtilibus ad vtiliora, de sanctis ad sanctiora. Our going forward must be from life to life, from action to action, from good to better, from profitable to more profitable, from sanctified actions to more sanctified: and all this must be, Non passibus pedum, sed mentis profectibus, not with the steps of our feet, but with the profit of our understanding. Our motion in this our walk must be perpetual. Hominis, quâ Christianus est, proprium est, non quiescere: it is the propriety of a man, as he is a Christian, not to be at quiet, not to rest, not to stand still, not to be at a stay. For in Schola Christi non progredi est regredi: in the School of Christ, not to go forward, is indeed to go backward. Saint Bernard in his 341. Epistle thus expresseth it; In the School of Christ, Non proficere, sine dubio deficere est: not to proceed and profit, without doubt it is to retire and to faint. And therefore let no man say, Satis est, sic volo manere, sufficit mihi esse, sicut heri & nudius tertius: It is enough for me; thus will I abide; its sufficient for me that I am as I was yesterday and the day before. Let no man say thus with himself. In viâ residet, qui huiusmodi est; he that is such a one sits him down in the way. He goes not forward: he walks not, as he should, either in the Law of God, or before God, or after God, or with God. Thus far hath this Metaphor of walking led me. Yet may I not leave it without giving some rule of it. The rule is: Solet Scriptura verbo Ambulandi consensionem animorum explicare: it is the custom of the Scripture, by this word of walking to express the agreement and consent of minds.

It is the voice of wisdom to her son, Prouerb. 1.15. My son, if sinners shall say unto thee, Come with us, cast in thy lot among us, let us all have one purse, Walk not thou in the way with them; refrain thy foot from their path. Walk thou not in the way with them, that is, ne acquiescas eis, ne illis assentiaris, yield not to them, agree not with them. This exposition is good by that, verse. 10. My son, if sinners entice thee, consent thou not.

Syracides in his Ecclesiasticus, Chap. 7.38. according to the vulgar saith, Non de sit plorantibus in consolatione, & cum lugentibus ambula. Faile not to be a comfort to them that weep, and walk with them that mourn. Walk with them that mourn, that is, Idem sentito, quod illi, think as they think; Eo animo esto, ac si tua essent illa mala: be thou affected, as if their losses were thine.

The Psalmist, Psal. 1.1. pronounceth the man blessed, that walketh not in the counsel of the wicked. There is therefore a walking in the counsel of the wicked. But what is it so to walk? To walk in the counsel of the wicked, is to yield thine assent, to agree unto, to join thyself in naughty practices with the wicked. Blessed is the man that so walketh not.

Enough for the rule. The rule was: It is the custom of the Scripture by this word of Walking to express the agreement and consent of minds. Its justified by my Text: Can two walk together except they be agreed? and may conclude the truth of my observation:

Then, and not before. The ancient Fathers are frequent in auowing this truth. Saint Augustine in his book, De bono Perseuerantiae, cap. 6. gives it for granted; Voluntate suà quemque deserere Deum, vt merito deseratur à Deo; that a man of his own will first forsakes God, that God may well forsake him. The same Father in his 88. Sermon De Tempore, exhorts his then Auditors, faithfully and firmly to believe, that God never forsakes man, nisi prius deseratur ab homine, unless he be first forsaken of man. In his Soliloquies, cap. 14. he brings in the soul in her private talk with God acknowledging as much: Quocunque iero, tu me Domine non deseris, nisi prior ego te deseram: O my Lord, go I whither I will, thou wilt never forsake me, unless I forsake thee first.

To this purpose writeth Saint Prosper in his answer to the objections of the French, his sentence upon the seventh objection: Although the omnipotency of God could have given to them that would fall, strength to stand, Gratia tamen eius non prius eos deseruit, quàm ab eis desereretur; Yet did not God forsake them, before he was forsaken of them.

Saint Bernard in his deuoutest Meditations, cap. 7. speaks home to this point. God! fidelis socius est, he is a faithful companion; nec deserit sperantes in se, nisi ipse prior deseratur, and forsakes not them that trust in him, unless he be first forsaken of them.

Neither the time, nor your patience will suffer me to allege, what Chrysostom, what Macarius, what others of the ancient have in their books delivered concerning the point in hand. Sufficient hath been said already, not only for the confirmation, but also for the illustration of my second observation; which was,

But why is it thus? Why is it, that man first leaves off to walk with God, ere God leaves off to walk with man? Why is it, that man first forsakes God, ere God forsake him?

The reason hereof may be taken from the promise of God. His promise is to Joshua, chap. 1.5. I will not leave thee nor forsake thee. Not to Joshua alone is this promise made, but to all; to all the godly. The Author of the Epistle to the Hebrews so applies it, chap. 13.5. I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. He brings it for a motive against Covetousness; against the insatiable greediness after the Mammon of this world, which is to many their delight, their love, their solace, and to some their God. Let your conversation be without Covetousness, and be content with such things as you have. For he hath said, God hath said it, I will never leave it, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. God is ever as good as his word. He hath said it, I will never leave thee nor forsake thee. Nor will he. Look what care he had of Joshua, the like he hath of all that trust in him. He will never leave them, he will not forsake them. If they leave God, if they leave off to walk with him, if they forsake him, so it is: the fault is their own, God is no way to be blamed.

Now lets make some use of my second observation: I can but point at it.

If it be thus, Beloved. If God leaves not off to walk with us, till we leave off to walk with him; if he forsake not us, till we forsake him: O then let it be our care, never to leave off to walk with him, never to forsake him. Our sins they are, that break off our walk with God, and cause us to forsake him. To what purpose make we a show of walking with him, of delighting in him, if in the mean time we hold fast by those funes peccatorum of Solomon, the cords of sin, those vincula plaustri of Isaiah, the Cartropes of sin, and so drive God from us? If by our sins, our drunkenness, our luxury, our uncleanness, our covetousness, our oppression, our uncharitableness, and other our sins no less odious, which indeed are the very diet and dainties of the Devil, we feast the foul fiends of Hell, we drive God from us. He can no longer walk with us, he cannot but forsake us.

What shall we then do, Beloved? What? Certainly, Ne Deum moueamus, vt nos deserat, opus est vt inter nos & ipsum conueniat: that we cause not God to forsake us, there must be between him and us an agreement. Agreement there can be none, if we go on still to provoke him with our impieties. Wherefore that there may be between us an agreement, tread we the way scored out unto us by Saint Paul, Titus the second Chapter and the twelfth Verse, which is, that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we live for the time to come soberly, righteously, and godlily in this present world, looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God, and our Savior Jesus Christ. So doing, we shall be at agreement with God and walk with him.

But here, Beloved, Magna custodia tibi necessaria est, as Bernard speaketh in the sixth Chapter of his Meditations: Its necessary that thou keep a diligent watch and ward over thyself, that thou neither do, nor say, nor think anything that is unlawful, and may offend. For thou livest before the eyes of the Judge that seeth all things. Cum illo tamen semper et securus, yet with him, with so all-seeing a Judge, thou art secure and safe, if thou so behave thyself, that he may vouchsafe to be with thee. What said I? So behave thyself that he may vouchsafe to be with thee? Nay however thou behave thyself, he will not fail to be with thee. Si tecum non est per gratiam, ad-est per vindictam; if he be not with thee by his gracious favor, he will assuredly be with thee in vengeance, to pay thee home for thy mis-doings. Sed vae tibi, si ita tecum est: but woe is thee, if he be so with thee.

What then remaineth for thee, for me, for everyone of us, but that we all endeavor so to spend the residue of the days of our pilgrimage here in this life, in all righteousness and true holiness, that God, our good God, be not at any time provoked to be with us, per vindictam, by his vengeance, who is ever most willing to be with us per gratiam, by his gracious favor. So having finished our course here, in this mortality, we shall be advanced to a state immortal in the Paradise of Heaven, where we shall with all Saints sing perpetually Hallelujah, Salvation, and Honor, and Glory, and Power, unto the Lord our God. To this state immortal, the immortal, invisible, and only wise God vouchsafe to bring us all, for Jesus Christ his sake. Amen.

THE Fourth Lecture.

THat a people, chosen by God himself to be his peculiar, above all the Nations upon the earth, honored with many singular and super-eminent privileges, advanced to the custody of God's holiest Oracles, should be so stif-necked, so uncircumcised of hearts and ears, so disobedient, so rebellious, as to set at naught the threatenings of the Lord, to account them vain, to esteem of them as of sports, could it ever be imagined? Yet thus stood the case with the people of the ten Tribes, the children of Israel, with whom this our Prophet Amos was to deal.

Amos, to meet with such their gross stupidity, and to reform their erroneous conceits of those fearful threatenings, which the Almighty by the mouth of his holy Prophets useth to give forth against sinners and wicked men, instructeth them by similitudes. The similitudes which here he bringeth, are in number six. They are all taken from vulgar experience, and such as is incident to a Shepherds walk. Of the first, taken from way-faring men, from two travelers upon the way, I spake in my last exercise, occasioned thereunto by the third verse of this Chapter.

This fourth verse, now read unto you, will yield us two other, taken from the custom of Lions, old and young. From the custom of the old Lion in these words; Will a Lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? From the custom of the young Lion, in these; Will a young Lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing at all? Of both in their order: and first of the old Lion.

Will a Lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?] The answer should be negative; No; he will not. Will he not? It seems he will. Else how may that be understood which is spoken of our adversary, the Devil, 1 Pet. 5.8. that he, as a roaring Lion walketh about, seeking whom he may devour? There it seems the Lion roareth before he have his prey. That he doth so, many of the Ancient have affirmed it. Its affirmed by R. David, he saith; When the beasts of the forest hear the Lions voice, they by and by through fear stand still, and the Lion taketh for his prey, which of them he will. So saith Lyra; Ad rugitum Leonis praeda sequitur; the Lion roareth, and then he takes his prey. So Dionysius the Carthusian; Leo cum famem patitur, mox vt bestiam viderit, rugitum dat, quo audito territa bestia gradum figit, & capitur. The Lion, saith he, when he is hungry, if he see a beast, roareth: the beast, terrified with the Lions voice, stands still and is taken. Saint Basil says as much for substance. His words are in his ninth Homily upon the Hexaemeron: Nature hath bestowed upon the Lion, such organs or instruments for his voice, that oftentimes beasts far swifter than the Lion are taken, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , only by the roaring of the Lion. The Lion roars; the beast stoops, and is taken.

Saint Cyril likewise, he that was Archbishop of Alexandria, he hath the like observation, and he takes it from those, who with much curiosity and diligence have sought into the nature of wild beasts. The observation is, that the hungry Lion, espying some beast fit for his food, through his hideous and uncouth roaring seizeth upon it for his prey. Now if a Lion will roar before he have taken his prey, as by the now produced authorities it seems he will, to what end serves this interrogation, Will a Lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey?

I must answer as I did out of Carthusian to the former similitude, that Amos here speaketh, secundum communem cursum, according to the common course, and communiter verum esse, that its commonly true that a Lion will not roar in the forest, when he hath no prey. Commonly it is true, yet not ever so. Mercerus hath a Solet to express the meaning with: Will a Lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? Non solet haud dubie; Without doubt he useth not so to do. Drusius hath likewise a Solent for the saluing of this question; Leones non solent rugire, nisi praedam ceperint, capturine sint; Lions, they use not to roar, unless they have taken some prey, or are ready to take it. They use it not, though it may be sometime they do it.

But why will a Lion roar when he hath gotten his prey? Should he not then rather be quiet, and fall to the devouring of his prey? Plutarch in a treatise of his, concerning this question, Which creatures have more reason, they that live on the earth, or they that in the water? thus speaketh of the Lion: The Lion, when he hath gotten a prey useth to roar, thereby to call his fellow-lions to be his partakers in the prey. But I will not now dive into the secrets of nature. Why the Lion roareth when he hath his prey, it much skilleth not: it is plain, he roareth.

It is plain by the 22. Psalm, where David complaining of the cruelty of his enemies under the name of the Bulls of Bashan, saith of them, verse. 13. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring Lion. It is likewise plain by the 31. of Isaiah. At the fourth verse of that Chapter, you may see the Lion roaring on his prey. In the 22. of Ezekiel, verse 25. you may behold in Jerusalem a conspiracy of Prophets like a roaring Lion, ravening the prey. Well then is it demanded by Amos in my Text, Will a Lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey? Thus far of the old Lion. It followeth of the young.

Will a young Lion cry out of his den, if he have taken nothing?

This young Lion in the original is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Chephir, Leo-iuuenis, • unculus; in the Septuagint, he is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : in the Vulgar, Catulus Leonis, the Lions whelp. The property of this young Lion or Lions whelp is, to lie close in his den without making any noise at all, till such time as the old Lion brings him a booty for his food; then doth this whelp rouse up himself, gives forth his voice, crieth and roareth. It is Saint Cyrils observation. Petrus Lusitanus likes it well. He thus delivers it: Leunculus in latibulo suo jaceus, tacet; The Lions whelp couching in his den makes no noise: at vbi praedam à Leone adductam ceperit, tunc vocem dat, & exultat; but when he hath taken his prey, brought unto him by the old Lion, then for joy he leapeth, then he gives forth his voice, crieth and roareth.

Now to the question, as it is made by Tauerner, Cryeth a Lions whelp out of his den, except he have gotten something? or as it is in our newest English, Will a young Lion cry, or give forth his voice out of his den, if he have taken nothing? My answer must be, as it was to that of the old Lion, and out of Mercer too, Non solet haud dubie, Out of doubt, the young Lion, or Lions whelp useth not, as he lieth in his den, to give forth his voice, to cry or roar except he have gotten somewhat. He useth not so to do.

Some Expositors there are, that will have these two branches of the Lion, and the Lions whelp to be all one; and the latter to be but a repetition of the former, mutatis verbis, in other words. So R. David, and Lyranus. But Saint Cyril is of opinion, they are not all one, but are different; So is Saint Jerome. So R. Abraham. So Albertus, Rupertus, Carthusian, and others: and with these accordeth our present exposition.

The exposition thus given, descend we to the application, that we may understand what this Lion is, and what the Lions whelp.

The Lion is God, the forest the world, the prey of the Lion the people of the world, the roaring of the Lion God's threatenings by his Prophets. You may thus apply it: As a Lion will not roar in the forest, unless he have a prey; So neither will God by his Prophets threaten any evil, unless he be thereunto urged by the sins of the people. Such commonly is the application of this second similitude.

With Rupertus likewise this Lion is God; but the Lions prey is omnis electus, everyone of the Elect: who, wheresoever he be, because he is predestinate unto life, ab ipso Deo requiritur, is sought for of God himself, that at his voice, whether it be uttered by an Angel, or by a Prophet, or by the Scriptures, he may tremble, may be humbled, may repent him of his sins, and be saved. The application which he maketh is after this manner: Nunquid rugiet Leo in saltu, nisi habuerit praedam? Will a Lion roar in the forest, unless he hath a prey? Idem est, ac si dicet, It is as if he said, Is it worthy of God, there to speak, or thither to send a Prophet, where he knoweth there is none worthy of eternal life? Is it seemly, is it any way fit, that God should there utter his voice, or send his Messengers thither, where he knoweth, there is not any one ordained unto salvation? By all congruity of reason the answer must be negative; No, its altogether unseemly; its not any way fit. The Lion in the forest roars not, unless he have his prey. This exposition of Rupertus is by Ribera mentioned with some approbation: but Petrus à Figueiro saith, it is nimis violenta, too violent, too far fetched. And well may it be so.

Arias Montanus by this Lion, and Lions whelp, understandeth Sennacherib and Nabuchodonozor, two Assyrian Kings, two mighty enemies to the state of the Kingdom of Judah. According to him thus must the application be: As a prey, that is between the Lions teeth, or within his paws, cannot escape away; so shall not the people of Judah escape from out the hands of Sennacherib, or Nabuchodonozor. But this application of his is not so fit for this place, because whatsoever is here spoken, it is spoken not to the people of Judah, but to the people of the ten Tribes.

If great Albert must be followed, this Lion must be vel Deus comminans, vel meliùs inimi us inuadens, vel homo, vel Diabolus. This Lion must be either God threatening, or rather some enemy invading, be he man or Devil.

The Devil must be this Lion in the construction of diverse, as Carthusian hath observed, for as much as the Devil like a roaring Lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour, Semperque sitit animarum damnationem, & rugit vt ease deglutiat, and ever thirsteth of the damnation of the souls of men, and roareth that he may swallow them up. I may not deny, but that the Devil for his extreme fierceness and cruelty joined with force and hurt to annoy mankind, is by Saint Peter likened to a Lion, to a roaring Lion; yet I cannot think that he is the Lion in my Text; no, though this in my Text be a roaring Lion.

But may not some man, an enemy, a tyrant, an oppressor, one or more, be meant by this Lion, this roaring Lion in my Text? Its not to be doubted, but that such are diverse times in the holy Scriptures compared to Lions. The wicked man, who is evermore an enemy to the godly, is likened to a Lion, Psal. 10.9. He lieth in wait secretly as a Lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch the poor. David's enemies are as Lions; He so speaks of them, Psal. 22.13. They gaped upon me with their mouths, as a ravening and a roaring Lion. Tyrants and oppressors of the Church are as Lions. Such a one was Nero, Saint Paul calls him a Lion, 2 Tim. 4.17. I was, saith he, delivered out of the mouth of the Lion. The Lion, not the Devil, as Ambrose saith; nor Festus the President of Judea, as Primasius affirmeth: but Nero, proud and cruel Nero, persecuting Nero, as its expounded by Chrysostom, Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius, Aquinas, and Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. 2. cap. 22. Be it then granted, that Men, enemies to the godly, Tyrants and oppressors are in holy Scripture sometimes compared to Lions; yet can it not thence be inferred, that therefore by this roaring Lion in my Text, Men are to be understood.

It remaineth then, that God either solely or principally be here intended. Sic communiter omnes intelligent, saith Christophorus à Castre. So do all Expositors commonly understand this Text: that God should be this Lion. And not only the old Lion, but the young one too. God is compared to both, as well to the young Lion as to the old. To both he is compared, Hos. 5.14. There thus saith the Lord: I will be unto Ephraim as a Lion, and as a young Lion to the house of Judah. I, even I will tear and go away: I will take away, and none shall rescue him. So likewise, Isaiah 31.4. Thus hath the Lord spoken: Like as the Lion and the young Lion roaring on his prey, when a multitude of Shepherds is called forth against him, he will not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion and for the hill thereof. In both places you see, God is compared not only to the old Lion, but to the young one too, to the Lions whelp. So is he here in this Text of mine. Now the meaning is; As a Lion will not roar in the forest, except he hath a prey, nor the young Lion cry out of his den, except he hath gotten somewhat: No more will Almighty God roar from Zion, or utter his voice from Jerusalem, except there be a prey ready for him: He will not by his Prophets and Ministers give forth his threatenings, except there be just cause for him, to be avenged upon a people for their sins. My observation is:

The threatenings of God, they are not vana dunt axat puerorum simplicisque rusticitatis terricula, as Quadratus hath well noted, they are not only as scar-crows or bugs for the terrifying of little children and the ruder sort of people; but are certain evidences of God's resolution for the punishment of sin. Never are they in vain.

Of two sorts they are: for either they concern a spiritual and eternal punishment; or a punishment, that is temporary and corporal.

Of the first sort is that commination, Deut. 27.26. Cursed be he that confirmeth not all the words of this Law to do them. The punishment there threatened is spiritual, it is eternal. Saint Paul so expounds it, Gal. 3.10. where he saith: As many as are of the works of the Law, are under the curse: for it is written, Cursed is everyone that continueth not in all things which are written in the Book of the Law to do them. The curse there spoken of is no temporal, no corporal matter, it is spiritual, it is eternal. The reason is, because the curse is opposed to the blessing. Now to be blessed with faithful Abraham, is to be justified, to be absolved from sin and death, to be in favor with God, to obtain eternal salvation, and therefore to be accursed, is to be condemned for sin, to be cast out from God, to be adjudged to everlasting death and Hell. The blessing is spiritual and eternal, and therefore must the curse also be spiritual and eternal.

Comminations of the second sort are in holy Writ more frequent and obvious. If you will not hearken to the Lord your God to do his Commandments, but will despite his statutes and abhor his judgments, then will the Lord do thus and thus unto you. In the 26. of Levite. verse. 16. he will visit you with vexations, consumptions, and burning agues, that shall consume your eyes, and cause you sorrow of heart. Verse. 17. he will set his face against you, and ye shall be slain before your enemies: they that hate you shall reign over you, and ye shall flee when none pursueth you. Vers. 19. He will break the pride of your power, and will make your Heaven as iron, and your Earth as brass: and your strength shall be spent in vain; for, neither shall your land yield her increase, nor your trees their fruits. Vers. 22. He will send wild beasts among you which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number. These and other like threatenings against the willful contemners of God's holy Will you may better read of in the now alleged 26. Chapter of Leviticus, and 28. Chapter of Deuteronomy, and other places of holy Scripture, than I can at this time stand upon to relate them. They are many: they are fearful. Many and fearful are the punishments, though but temporary and corporal, which the Lord threateneth to the willful contemners of his holy Will.

Thus you see, God's threatenings are of two sorts; either of spiritual and eternal punishments, or punishments that are temporary and corporal. These threatenings of punishments, corporal or spiritual, temporary or eternal, are by the Lord himself accomplished at times certain and unchangeable.

When the old world in the days of Noah had grown to much impiety and wickedness, the Lord appointed a certain space, the space of 120. years for their repentance and conversion, Gen. 6.3. My spirit shall not always strive with man, for that he also is flesh: yet his days shall be an hundred and twenty years. Though he saw, that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was evil, was only evil, was evil continually, so that with great justice he might forthwith have swallowed them up with a flood, yet would he not, but would yet forbear longer, and look for their amendment. A hundred and twenty years yet would he give them, to see if they would return and avoid his wrath. But they would not return, and therefore at the very end and term of those hundred and twenty years he brought the flood upon them. Then, then, and not before, he brought the flood upon them. For compare we the particular circumstances of time noted, Gen. 7.3, 6, 11. with that which Saint Peter writeth in his first Epistle, chap. 3.20. we shall find, that the inundation of waters came upon the earth at the very point of time before determined.

Memorable is that commination of the Lord against the Jews, Ierem. 25.11. Because you have not heard my voice, behold I will take from you the voice of mirth, and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom, and the voice of the bride, the sound of the Milstones, and the light of the candle: you shall be a desolation, and an astonishment, & shall serve the King of Babylon seventy years. The sum of the Commination is, that the Jews for their sins should be led captive, & serve the King of Babylon seventy years. Now if we take the just computation of time, it will appear that so soon as those years, those seventy years were expired, the foresaid threat was accomplished. And therefore Daniel alluding to this prophesy of Jeremiah, exactly setteth it down, Chap. 5.30. saying, The same night was Belshazzar King of the Chaldeans slain, the same night, the very night wherein those seventy years came to their full period, was Belshazzar King of the Chaldeans slain.

To these fearful examples of Noah's flood, and the carrying away of the Jews into Babylon, may be added the burning of Sodom by fire and brimstone, the destruction of the ten Tribes, the ruin of Jerusalem, and the Kingdom of Judah, the desolation of the seven Churches of Asia; all which, besides many other calamities upon many other places, and persons, accomplished and come to pass according to the threatenings of the Lord, may well assure us, that whatsoever he hath threatened, will certainly take effect. And certainly, if we by serious and true repentance do not prevent the execution of his threats, he will not fail to prevent us, and take us away suddenly. Thus is my observation made good;

No, it will not. If God threaten, and no repentance followeth, then certainly the threatenings pronounced will come to pass. He threatens not in vain; he terrifies not without cause; no more than the Lion roareth when he hath no prey, or the Lions whelp crieth out of his den if he have gotten nothing.

Is it thus, Beloved? Shall we find that God's threatenings will be effectual and powerful against us, if we by our sins go on still to provoke him to displeasure? It seems then, that if we repent us of our sins, and cease any further to grieve God's holy Spirit, his threatenings will be vain and without effect. Understand we therefore, that the threatenings and denuntiations of God's judgments are either absolute or conditional. If absolute, then are they irrevocable, and must take effect: but if conditional, then upon humiliation and repentance they will be changed, they will be altered.

Absolute was the denunciation that concerned the eating of the forbidden fruit, Gen. 2.17. In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. This threatening was absolute and peremptory, not to be revoked. If Adam had prayed all his life long that he might not die, but return to his former condition, yet the sentence of God had not been reversed.

Peremptory and absolute was that threatening of the Lord against Moses and Aaron, Numb. 20.12. Because ye believe me not to sanctify me in the eyes of the children of Israel, therefore ye shall not bring this congregation into the land which I have given them. Moses and Aaron, both are threatened that they shall never enter into the land of Canaan. Moses understanding the threat conditionally, besought the Lord that he might go over Jordan into that good land. But the Lord was wroth with him, and would not hear him; but said unto him, Deut. 3.26. Let it suffice thee, speak no more unto me of this matter. Speak no more: the sentence was peremptory and might not be reversed.

As absolute and peremptory was that threatening by Nathan from the Lord unto David, 2. Sam. 12.14. Because by thine adultery thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is borne unto thee shall surely die. The child shall surely die. David's hope was, that this threat was but conditional, and therefore with fasting, weeping, and prayer he besought God for the child, and said; Who can tell whether God will be gracious unto me, that the child may live? Yet, as the Prophet had denounced, the child died. So peremptory was the sentence, and not to be reversed. So then its evident, that some of God's judgments denounced against the sons of men are absolute and peremptory, not to be reversed.

O • hers are conditional, to be understood with this exception, except they repent and amend. The condition is sometimes expressed; sometimes it is not. The condition is expressed, Ierem. 18.7, 8. At what instant I shall speak concerning a nation, and concerning a Kingdom, to pluck up and to pull down, and to destroy it: If that Nation against whom I have pronounced, turn from their evil, I will repent of the evil that I thought to do unto them. It is likewise expressed, Ezech. 33.14, 15. When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die; if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right, he shall surely live, he shall not die. Each of these Comminations is with an express condition. The first was: Such a Nation, such a Kingdom, I will pluck up, I will pull down, I will destroy. The Nation, the Kingdom performs the condition; repenteth and turns from evil, and God reuerseth his sentence; I will not pluck up, I will not pull down, I will not destroy it. The second was; The wicked man shall surely die. The wicked man performs the condition, repenteth, and turns from evil, and God reuerseth his sentence; He shall surely live, he shall not di • .

Sometimes the condition is not expressed, but only to be understood. So is it, Ierem. 26.18. There we read of Micah the Morushite, that he in the days of Hezekiah King of Judah, prophesied and spake to all the people of Judah saying, Thus saith the Lord of hosts; Zion shall be plowed like a field, and Jerusalem shall become heaps, and the mountain of the house, the high places of a forest. Fearefull is the Commination; it threatens ruin to their Temple, desolation to their City, the utter overthrow of their whole Kingdom. How did the King and his people hereupon behave themselves? Did they fall into desperation? No, they did not. Did they conclude an impossibility of obtaining pardon? Nor did they so. How then? They conceiving aright of the commination, as fearful as it was, that it was unto them a Sermon of repentance, they feared the Lord, they besought the Lord: and the Lord repented him of the evil which he had pronounced against them. So was the Commination conditional, though the condition was not expressed.

The like we meet with, Isaiah 38.1. There is a comminatory message from the Lord unto the but-now-named Hezekiah; Set thine house in order, for thou shalt die and not live. The good King conceives aright of the message, that it was no otherwise unto him, than as a Sermon of repentance; and therefore he turns his face unto the wall, prays, and weeps sorely: and the Lord repented him of the message he had sent; and sends him a new message, verse. 5. Go and say to Hezekiah: Thus saith the Lord, the God of David thy father; I have heard thy prayer, I have seen thy tears: behold, I will add unto thy days fifteen years. And so was the commination conditional, though the condition was not expressed.

And such is that in the Prophesy of Jonah, Chap. 3.4. Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown. The King of Nineveh, though an heathen and an idolatrous King, yet conceives aright of this threat, that it was to him and his people, no otherwise than a Sermon of repentance. The King therefore touched with repentance, vnseateth himself, vnthroneth himself, cometh as low as the meanest, strips himself of his kingly robes, puts on sack-cloth, sits in ashes; causeth it to be proclaimed and published through Nineveh, that there be a general fast kept by man and beast, that man and beast be covered with sack-cloth, and cry mightily unto God, and turn everyone from his evil way, and from the violence that is in their hands: for, saith the King, Who can tell, if God will turn and repent, and turn away from his fierce anger, that we perish not? Who can tell? And God saw their works, that they turned from their evil way, and God repented of the evil that he had said that he would do unto them, and he did it not. So also was this commination conditional, though the condition was not expressed.

But why are these and many other threatenings of the Lord against sinners conditional? Why are they with condition of amendment? Why is the condition either expressed, or suppressed and only inclusively understood?

Its thus, First, because Repentance, if it follow after God's comminatory sentence pronounced against sinners, it procureth forgiveness of sin, and taketh away the cause of punishment. The cause of punishment is sin; remove the cause, and the effect must cease. Let sin be washed away with the tears of unfeigned repentance, and punishment shall never hurt us. This is it, which but even now you heard out of Ezech. chap. 33.14.15. They were the words of the Lord; When I say unto the wicked, Thou shalt surely die, if he turn from his sin, and do that which is lawful and right; if he restore the pledge, and give again that he hath robbed, and walk in the statutes of life without committing iniquity, he shall surely live, he shall not die.

Secondly, the threatenings of God against sinners are for the most part conditional, because he is a God of mercies, a gracious God, a God of long suffering, and much patience, a God of unspeakable kindness, ever ready to receive us to mercy, as soon as we return unto him. This is it that the Lord commandeth to be proclaimed by Jeremiah, chap. 3.12. Return thou backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and I will not cause mine anger to fall upon you, for I am merciful, saith the Lord, and I will not keep mine anger forever.

Thirdly, the threatenings of God against sinners are evermore conditional, because in his threatenings God aimeth not at the destruction of them that are threatened, but at their amendment. Their amendment is the thing he aimeth at. Its plain by that, Ezech. 18.23. Have I any pleasure at all, that the wicked should die, saith the Lord God? and not, that he should return from his ways and live? This by way of question. But its out of question and confirmed by oath, Ezech. 23.11. As I live, saith the Lord God, I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live: turn ye, turn ye from your evil ways, for why will ye die, O house of Israel? Why will ye die? Return and live, I take no pleasure in your death.

Hitherto you have heard of God's threatenings, that they are of punishments either corporal or spiritual; either temporal or eternal: and that they are either absolute or conditional; and if conditional, that then the condition is either expressed or only understood; Expressed or understood, and that for three reasons: first, because repentance washes away sin, the cause of punishment: secondly, because God is merciful, and will not keep his wrath forever: thirdly, because he aimeth especially at the amendment of the wicked. It is now time that we make some profitable use hereof.

Our first use may be, to consider that in the greatest and most fearful threatenings of God's heavy judgments there is comfort remaining, hope of grace and mercy to be found, life in death, and health in sickness, if we repent and amend. Thus did the Princes of Judah profit by the threatenings of Jeremiah. Jeremiah, chap. 26.6. comes unto them with a threatening from the Lord's own mouth: I will make this house like Shiloh, and will make this city a curse to all the nations of the earth. He threatened desolation to the Lord's house, and destruction to their city: and therefore the Priests and the people would have put him to death. But the Princes of Judah were better advised: they pleaded the practice and example of King Hezekiah for the comfort of himself and the people of his time; and thereby stirred up themselves to fear the Lord, and to turn from their evil ways. And thus did the same King Hezekiah profit at the threatening of Isaiah, and the King of Nineveh at the threatening of Jonah, as you have already heard. They repented of their evil ways, and God repented of the evils which he threatened to bring upon them; and he brought them not upon them.

Here we are to meet with an objection. The objection is: If God threaten one thing, and doth another, if he threaten to bring evil upon any one, and repents him of the evil, it may seem his will is changeable, or he hath two wills.

For answer I say, The will of God is ever one and the same, as God is one: but for our capacities and for the weakness of our understandings, who cannot conceive how God doth after a diverse manner will and not will the same thing; the will of God is called sometimes secret or hidden, and sometimes revealed, as the Church is called sometimes visible, and sometimes invisible, yet is but one Church. The secret will of God is of things hidden in himself, and not manifested in his word: the revealed is of things made known in the Scriptures, or by daily experience. The secret will is without condition; its absolute, its peremptory, its always fulfilled; no man hindereth it, no man stoppeth it: the very reprobate, yea the Devils themselves are subject unto it. His revealed will is with condition; and therefore for the most part is joined with exhortation, admonition, instruction, and reprehension. Now to the objection, my answer is: Though God threaten one thing and doth another, though he threaten to bring evil upon any one, and repents him of the evil, yet is not his will therefore changeable, nor hath he two wills: but his will is ever one and the same. The same will is in diverse respects hidden and revealed: Its secret at first before it be revealed: but as it is made known to us either by the written Word of God, or by the continual success of things, so it is called the revealed will of God. Our duty in regard of the will of God, as it is secret or hidden, is not curiously to pry into it, but reverently to adore it. Whatsoever this secret, this hidden will of God is concerning us, whether to live or die, to be rich or poor, to be of high estimation or of mean account in this world, it is our part to rest in the same, and to be contented, and give leave to him that made us to do with us and dispose of us at his pleasure; and then afterwards, when by the continual success of things it shall be revealed unto us, what our lot, our portion, our expectation here must be; much more are we to be therewith contented, and to give thanks to God, howsoever it fareth with us.

The objection thus answered, our recourse should be to the profit, that is yet further to be made by the threatenings of God's judgments. You have heard that in the greatest and most fearful, there is comfort remaining, hope of grace and mercy to be found; health in sickness, and life in death, if we repent and amend. I proceed to a second use.

It concerns the duty of the Minister. Its our duty to propound unto you the threatenings of the Lord with condition. Should we propound them without condition, we should be, as if we went about to bring you to despair, and to take from you all hope of mercy and forgiveness. We therefore propound them with condition, with condition of repentance and amendment of life: and do offer unto you grace and mercy, to as many of you as be humble and broken-hearted. Thus we preach not only the Law, but also with the Law the Gospel: thus we bind and loose, thus we retain and forgive sins. We preach, and by our preaching we shut up the Kingdom of Heaven against the obstinate sinner, but do open the same to everyone that is truly penitent. The third followeth.

It concerneth you, You Beloved, you and everyone that hath this grace and favor with God, to be a hearer of his holy Word. Its your duty whensoever you hear the threatenings of God's judgments against sinners, to stir up yourselves to repentance and to the amendment of your lives. So shall you prevent his wrath and stay his judgments. O! take heed beloved, that you rush not on, as the horse in the day of battle, to your own destruction. If the Lord God from out of Zion shall roar, as a Lion roareth in the forest when he hath taken a prey; if he shall utter his voice from Jerusalem, as a young Lion couching in his den, crieth out when he hath gotten somewhat; will it not then be too late for us to return unto him? Never is it too late to return to God, so it be done truly, seriously, and from the ground of the heart. But this be we well assured of, that if there be no change in us, it will be in vain for us to look for a change from God. Its certain, God will never change his threatenings, except we change our lives and conversations.

Wherefore (dearly beloved) suffer we a word of exhortation for conclusion of all. I will deliver it in the Lord's own words, his words to Israel in Jeremiah chap. 4.1, 4. If thou wilt return, saith the Lord, return unto me: and if thou wilt put away thine abominations out of my sight, then shalt thou not remove. Circumcise yourselves to the Lord, and take away the fore-skins of your hearts, lest my fury come forth like fire, and burn that none can quench it, because of the evil of your doings. Wash thine heart from wickedness, that thou mayest be saved; how long shall thy vain thought lodge within thee?

O come, see and taste, how good and gracious the Lord is unto us, how seriously he exhorteth us, how sweetly he inviteth us to turn unto him, how lovingly he calls us to repent, and amend our lives that we may be saved. Beloved, nothing is wanting, but what is wanting on our parts: and that is the real performance of true and unfeigned repentance through a lively faith in Christ Jesus: Concerning which let me give you a rule, a rule that is grounded and infallible; Without repentance there is no salvation, without sorrow for sin there is no repentance; without earnest prayer there is no sorrow, no godly sorrow, and without a due feeling of the Lord's wrath, there is no prayer that can pierce the sky or move the Lord. O therefore let us pray for repentance, let us sue for repentance, let us work for repentance, let us bestow all we have upon repentance. All we have! Its nothing to thee, O Lord. We feel, O Lord, such a benumbedness in our hearts, such a dullness in our souls, that albeit we see our sins, and know them to be exceeding great, yet cannot we so bemoan them, so lament them, so grieve at them, so detest them as we should. Smite, O gracious God, smite we beseech thee, our flinty hearts, make them even to melt within us at the sight of our own transgressions, that so being cleansed from the filthiness of sin, we may grow up unto full holiness in thy fear through Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior.

THE Fifth Lecture.

THat the comminations, the menacies, and threats, which the Almighty by the ministry of his holy Word giveth forth against the sons of men for their impious and evil courses in their peregrination here upon the earth, are not in vain, like scar-crows and bugs, for the terrifying of little children, and the ruder sort of people, but are certain evidences of God's resolution for the punishment of sin, I have heretofore out of the former verse made plain unto you by a twofold similitude taken from the custom of Lions; the old Lion and the young. This fifth verse yieldeth us two other to the like effect: and these are taken from the manner of fowlers or birders, whose practice is to lay snares, and set ginnes, and spread nets to catch birds with. The first is in the first branch, the second in the second. In the first there is an adumbration of the providence of God, by which he ruleth all things: In the second there is an illustration of the certainty, the stability, the efficacy of his judgments, which he fore-showeth and fore-telleth by his Prophets. Of both in their order.

The first is: Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him? Can he fall? The Vulgar Latin is, Nurquid cadet, shall he fall? So read the Septuagint, so the Chaldee Paraphrast. Nunquid cadit, doth he fall? So Winckleman, and so our Country-man Tauerner in his English translation, Au casura esset, could she fall? So Junius.

Can a bird, could a bird, shall a bird, doth a bird fall 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 hal pach haaretz, in laqueum terrae, word for word, into a snare of the earth: so is it in the old Latin. This laqueus terrae, is with Junius laqueus humilis, a snare lying low by the ground; with Mercer and Vatablus it is laqueus in terrâ dispositus, a snare placed on the ground. Albertus Magnus expounds it to be laqueus in terrâ absconditus, a snare hidden on the ground.

Into such a snare can a bird fall, where no gin is for him? 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 Vmokesch ein lah. This same mokesch is by some taken for a gin. With Junius and Drusius it is tendicula; with Mercer it is offendiculum; with Vatablus it is laqueus. These, as our late Translators, take mokesch for a gin. Others take it for him that layeth the gin, for the fowler. So do the Septuagint; so doth the Author of the Vulgar Latin, so doth Saint Jerome take it. With the Septuagint this mokesch is 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , a birder, one that catcheth birds with birdlime; with the author of the Vulgar Latin and Saint Jerome it is Auceps, a Fowler. So is it with Tauerner in his translation; Doth a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no fowler is? Be it a gin, or he that layeth the gin, the birder, the fowler, it much skilleth not: for both readings have their warrant: as well this, where no gin is for him, as that, where no fowler is.

Now to the interrogation, Can a bird fall in a snare upon the earth, where no gin is for him, or where no fowler is? The answer must be negative; No, he cannot. And so is the answer made by Nicolaus de Lyra, and the Author of the Interlineary Gloss. So is it by Petrus Lusitanus; so by Mercerus, so by others. Can a bird fall! No; it cannot be that a bird should fall in a snare upon the earth, where by the fowlers art no gin is set for him.

O quàm vilium similitudines rerum, quam pretiosum praedicant sacramentum! O, saith Rupertus, how vile are the things from which similitudes may be taken, and how precious the mysteries, that may thereby be published! This our Prophet de pastoralibus assumptus, once a shepherd, now called to be a dispenser of the secrets of God, is content to dispense them, by drawing similitudes from such things, as he was wont to observe in his shepherds walk. Such is that in the first Chapter, verse. 2. The Lord will roar from Zion: and that in the same verse, the habitations of the shepherds shall mourn; and that in the verse before my text, will a Lion roar in the forest, when he hath no prey; and this in my text, Can a bird fall in a snare upon the ground, where no gin is for him? All you see are pastoral. Sufficiunt coelesti magisterio res non solùm piscatorum, verùm etiam pastorum, vt per eorum similitudines docti sint & doceant conuenienter gloriam rerum caelestium. Things that fall within the knowledge not only of fishers, but also of shepherds, are available to divine instruction, that by the similitudes of both, fishers, and shepherds, the glory of things celestial may be manifested.

Such is this pastoral similitude: this similitude of birds not falling into a snare upon the earth, unless by the fowlers art some gin be set for him. It serveth for the adumbration of God's wonderful providence: thus. As snares, wherewith birds are catched, fall not on the ground at all adventures and by chance; but are laid by the skill, industry and fore-sight of the fowler: so the calamities and miseries of this life, wherewith men are usually taken and snared, come not by chance, but are sent among us by the certain counsel of God, by his just judgment, by his divine providence.

I know that this similitude is by others otherwise applied. Saint Jerome will have it to belong to the punishment of such as liu • in discord and variance; to this sense: They who through charity are as birds, and do fly aloft in the liberty of the holy Spirit, through discord do lose their wings, fall down upon him earth and are a prey unto the fowler. Did they still soar aloft with the wings of love; they should not need to fear the fowlers snares. For as Sal • mon saith, Prov. 1.17. Surely in vain the net is spread in the eyes of everything that hath a wing. Keep then thyself above in the air, as if thou haddest the wings of a dove, and thou art from danger: but if through variance, through strife, through hatred, and other like impieties thou be over-burdened and pressed down, down thou fallest to the ground, and art by thine own default ensnared. Iusta enim est ruina peccatorum: for just is the fall of sinners.

Two Hebrew Rabbins, Abraham and David, apply this similitude to the execution of the decree of God and his sentence: thus: If men whose dwellings are upon the earth, can by their cunning and industry cause the birds of the air to descend upon the earth, and so fall into their snares, from whence there is no evasion for them: how much more shall I, I the Lord, who have my habitation in the Heaven of Heavens, bring men themselves within the snare of my decree and sentence, that there shall be no escaping for them?

Some so apply this similitude, that by this bird they understand a sinner, and by the snare his sin. Their explication is: As a bird shall not fall into a snare upon the earth, unless some gin be laid for him; so shall not sinners fall into punishment, unless they themselves make snares of their own sins to catch themselves withal. So may they quickly do; and so saith Solomon, Pro. 5.22. The wickedness of the ungodly shall catch himself, and with the snares of his own sins, shall he be trapped. What then? Vis non capi laqueo? wouldest thou not be taken with the snare? rump ac frange laqueum: the advice is good; tear and break the snare. But how? Tolle peccatum, & fregisti laqueum; take away the sin, and thou hast broken the snare.

Rupertus so understands this similitude, that he will have the grace of God herein to be commended. With him this fowler shall be God; his snare the word of God, the bird to be catched, the soul of man. His conceit runs thus: As that a bird falls into a snare upon the earth, it is to be attributed to the care and diligence of the fowler, that laid the snare; so, that the soul of man cometh to be ensnared in the word of salvation, which it neither can resist, nor is willing so to do, it is wholly to be attributed to the grace of God. For God alone so spreadeth the snare of his good word, that this little bird, this wandering and restless bird, the soul of man, is caught and brought into the hands of the Lord her God, and so escapeth the jaws of the Devil.

This his exposition well meeteth with the Arminians, with those new Prophets, who at this day pretending a more moderate divinity, then ours is, as if they came out of Coelestius his School, have with their sophisms and subtleties much disquieted the State of the Belgic Churches, chiefly for the point of divine Predestination and the appendices thereof.

Their fourth Thesis is, touching the operation of the grace of of God in Christ, whether it be resistible or not. The grace of God, say they, is resistible. Rupertus here saith, it cannot be resisted. He is in the right, and with him we join; and thus we explain our meaning: Man is to be considered in a twofold respect; in respect of himself, and in respect of God. If he be considered in respect of himself, as he is unregenerate, and according to his inbred pravity, so is grace by him too too resistible: for as much as man of himself, in his pure naturals, governed only by nature, reason and sense, without grace, without the Spirit of God, cannot only resist, but also cannot but resist the grace of God. So saith Saint Paul, 1 Cor. 2.14. 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , the natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, for they are spiritually discerned. To the like purpose the same Apostle, Rom. 8.7 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 : the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the Law of God, neither indeed can be. It is true: the Grace of God is resistible; it is too easily resisted, ex parte hominis, by man in respect of himself.

But ex parte Dei it is otherwise. In respect of God, and his good pleasure, it may well be said to be irresistible. I speak of that grace of God, which is his moving and effectual grace, against which there is no resistance. For to say, that the effectual grace of God can be resisted, is to deny it to be effectual. It implieth a contradiction, and it is blasphemy to affirm, that God with his effectual grace is subject to man's resistance.

That of Saint Paul, Rom. 9.19. Who hath resisted the will of God? being an Interrogation of a denier, implying that no man hath or can resist it, is in very reason it self most certain. For the superior cause can never suffer of the inferior: therefore if man's will should go about to resist or frustrate the will of God, it were even against reason it self: for then should God's will suffer of man's will; which is an impossibility.

Saint Augustine hath a fit saying for the establishing of this truth: It is in his book De corrept. & grat. cap. 14. Deo volenti saluum facere, nullum hominum resistit arbitrium; If God be willing to save a man, no will of man can resist him. Sic enim velle & nolle in volentis aut nolentis est potestate, vt diuinam voluntatem non impediat, nec superet potestatem; for to will, or not to will, is so in the power of him that willeth or willeth not, that it neither hindereth the will of God, nor over-cometh his power.

Thus much by occasion of Rupertus his exposition. Let us go on, Can a bird] Dionysius the Carthusian will tell you, that this fowler, according to the Expositors, is either the Devil, or man, or God: and that their snares are either Laquaei culpae, or Laquaei poena; either snares of sin, or snares of punishment.

That the Devil is in holy Scripture compared unto a fowler, I deny not: for I read of his wiles, Ephes. 6.11. where we are advised to put on the whole armor of God, that we may be able to stand against the wiles of the Devil. I read likewise of the snares, 1 Tim. 3.7. & 2 Tim. 2.26. His snares are the snares of sin, by which he entrappeth men, and leads them captive. But that the Devil is the fowler in my text, I affirm not.

Nor may it be denied, but that man also is in holy Scripture compared to a fowler. To a fowler he is compared in a twofold respect, in respect of others, and in respect of himself.

Man is a fowler in respect of others. He hath snares, and cords, and nets, and grinnes to catch others with. Such fowlers were King David's enemies, his proud enemies, Saul and Doeg, of whom, Psal. 140 5. he thus complaineth: They have hid a snare for me, and cords, they have spread a net by the ways side, they have set ginnes for me. And such are they, those wicked men, Ierem. 5.26. They lay wait, as he that setteth snares, they set a trap, they catch men. And such are they, of whom the complaint of the faithful is, Lament. 3.52. Mine enemies chased me sore like a bird, without cause. They chased me like a bird. It is true then, Men are fowlers in respect of others; fowlers they are to catch others.

Yea: and fowlers they are in respect of themselves, even to catch themselves. Such a one is he, Psal. 7.15. He made a pit, and digged it, and is fallen into the ditch which he made. And he, Psal. 9.15, 16. In the net which he hid, is his own foot taken: he is snared in the work of his own hands. And he, Prov. 5.22. His own iniquities shall take himself, and he shall be holden with the cords of his sins. Not amiss then hath Carthusian affirmed, that men sometimes do fall, in laqueum culpae, into the snare of sin, by their own inclination, or naughtiness. For as Origen witnesseth; Quamuis non essent Diaboli, adhuc homines concupiscentijs pulsarentur: though there were no Devils at all, yet should men be ensnared with their own lusts.

Thus we see, Man is a fowler; a fowler to catch others, and a fowler to catch himself: and his snares are laquei culpae, the snares of sin. Yet, that man is the fowler in my text, I affirm not.

It remaineth then that by this fowler God must be intended. For God is a fowler too; and he hath snares too: but his snares are laquei poenae, they are snares of punishment. Of snares of this kind he hath no want. He pours them forth like rain. This is that we read, Psal. 11.6. Upon the wicked shall the Lord rain snares, fire and brimstone, and a burning tempest: this shall be the portion of their cup. Behold a rain of snares upon the wicked. King David deuoting his enemies to destruction, Psal. 69.22. Wisheth their table to become a snare unto them, and that which should be for their welfare to become a trap unto them. The place Saint Paul allegeth with some little difference, Rom. 11.9. Let their table be made a snare, and a trap, and a stumbling block, and a recompense unto them. And here behold, a man's own table, and that which should yield him much comfort, becomes a snare and a trap for God to entangle, and catch the wicked with.

Remarkable is that of the Prophet Isaiah chap. 8.14. where it is said of the Lord of Hosts himself, that to both the houses of Israel he shall be for a stone of stumbling, and for a rock of offenses; and to the inhabitants of Jerusalem for a gin and for a snare: and that many of them shall stumble, and fall, and be broken, and be snared, and be taken. And here again behold: The Lord of Hosts, he that is ever to the faithful a rock of refuge and salvation, he is to the wicked and the unbelieving a gin and snare to ensnare and take them with. It is not to be denied, but that God may very well be resembled to a fowler. And him I take to be the fowler in my text. Now the resemblance between God and a fowler stands thus: As snares wherewith birds are catched, fall not on the ground at all adventures, and by chance, but are laid of purpose by the skill, industry, and fore-sight of the fowler: so the calamities and miseries of this life, wherewith men are usually taken and snared, come not by chance, but are sent among us by the providence of God. So this text is, as before I intimated, an adumbration of the providence of God, by which he ruleth all things.

The point of doctrine which from hence I would commend unto you, is this, Nihil accidere, nisi à Deo prouisum, that nothing falleth out in this life, no calamity, no misery, nothing, good or evil, but by God's providence.

Aquinas 1. quaest. 22. art. 2. makes this demand; Utrum omnia sint subiecta diuinae prouidentiae? whether all things are subject to the providence of God? For the resolution whereof his conclusion is: Since God is of all things the prime cause, and knoweth all things in particular, it is of necessity that all things are subject to his providence, not tantùm in vniuersali, sed etiam in singulari; not only in gen • rall, but also in particular. I speak not now of the providence of God, as it is potentialis, & immanens; but as it is actualis, & transiens; not as it is the internal action of God, but as it is external; not as it is his decree of governing the world, but as it is the execution of that decree.

This providence of God, this his actual and transient providence, this his external action, and the execution of his inward and eternal decree, is nothing else than a perpetual and unchangeable disposition and administration of all things: or to speak with Aquinas, it is nothing else, than ratio ordinis rerum ad finem; it is nothing else, than the course which God perpetually holdeth for the ordering of the things of the world to some certain end.

Such is the providence of God, whereof I am now to speak: w ^ch is by some divided into a general, and a special providence: by others into an universal, a special, & a particular providence.

God's universal or general providence, I call that, by which he doth not only direct all creatures according to that secret instinct, or inward virtue, which he hath given to everyone of them, at the time of their creation, but doth also preserve them in their ordinary course of nature.

Of this universal or general providence of God, Theodoret Bishop of Cyrus, in his first Sermon concerning this argument, discourseth copiously and elegantly: You that say in your hearts there is no providence of God, consider the things that are visible, and are obvious to your eyes, consider their nature, their site, their order, their state, their motion, their agreement, their harmony, their comliness, their beauty, their magnitude, their use, their delight, their variety, their alteration, their continuance; and then, if you can, deny God's providence. God's providence is manifest in every work of creation: you may behold it in the Heaven, and in the lights thereof, the Sun, the Moon, and the Stars. You may behold it in the air, in the clouds, in the earth, in the sea, in plants, in herbs, in seeds. You may behold it in every other creature, every living creature, reasonable, or unreasonable, man or beast: and in every beast, whether it goeth, or flieth, or swimmeth, or creepeth. There is not anything, but it may serve to magnify the providence of God.

But why run I to the Fathers for the illustration of a point, wherein the holy Scriptures are so plentiful, so eloquent? The 104. Psalm containeth an egregious description hereof, a fair and goodly picture, and a lively portraiture of this providence of God, drawn with the pencil of the holy Ghost. I see therein the air, and clouds, and winds, and water, and the earth, and the like, so ruled and ordered by the immediate hand of God, that, should he remove his hand but for a moment, this whole universe would totter, and fall, and come to nothing.

I go on to the 147. Psalm; There I see God numbering the stars, and calling them by name: I see him covering the Heavens with clouds preparing rain for the earth, giving snow like wool, scattering the hoary frost like ashes, casting forth his ice like morsels, making grass to grow upon the mountains, giving food to beasts, to Ravens: all this I see, and cannot but acknowledge his universal providence.

I look back to the book of Job, and Chap. 9. I find God removing mountains, and over-turning them; I find him shaking the earth out of her place, and commanding the Sun to stand still: I find him alone spreading out the heavens, and treading upon the waves of the sea: I find him making Arcturus, O • ion, Pleiades, and the chambers of the South: I find him doing great things past finding out, yea, and wonders without number. All this I find, and cannot but admire his universal providence.

Infinite are the testimonies which I might produce out of the Old Testament for this point: but I pass them over, contenting myself with only two out of the new.

That of our Savior Christ, John 5.17. My Father worketh hitherto, and I work, is fit to my purpose. The words are an answer to the Jews, who persecuted our Savior and sought to slay him, for doing a cure on the Sabbath day, upon one that had been diseased 38. years. They held it to be unlawful to do any work upon the Sabbath day: Christ affirms it to be lawful. The ground of their opinion was; God the Father rested the seventh day from all his works. This Christ denieth not, but explicates the meaning of it. Its true; My Father rested the seventh day from all his works: yet true also it is, Pater meus us{que} modo operatur; My Father worketh hitherto.

He rested the seventh day from all his works, and yet he worketh; how can this be so? It is thus according to Aquinas: He rested the seventh day à nouis creaturis condendis, from making any new creatures; yet notwithstanding he ever worketh, creaturas in esse conseruando, preserving his creatures in their being. It may be thus enlarged: Requieuit die septimo, God rested the seventh day from creating any new world, or from making any new kinds of creatures, but nor then rested he, nor at any time since hath he rested from providing for, and caring for, and ruling, and governing, and sustaining the world. Never resteth he, but causeth his creatures to breed and bring forth after their kinds, and restoreth things decaying, and preserveth things subsisting to his good pleasure. This is that saying of our Saviors, Pater meus us{que} modo operatur, my Father worketh hitherto.

My Father worketh hitherto! Saint Chrysostom well discourseth thereupon. If, saith he, thou shouldest ask; How is it, that the Father yet worketh, since he rested the seventh day from all his works? I tell thee, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 . He provideth for, and upholdeth all things, that he hath made. Behold the Sun rising, and the Moon running, and pools of water, and springs, and rivers, and rain, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and the course of nature in seeds, and in the bodies of man and beast; behold, and consider these, and all other things, whereof 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , this universe consisteth, and thou wilt not deny the perpetual operation of the Father, but wilt break forth into the praises of his universal providence.

That branch of Saint Paul's Sermon to the Athenians, Act. 17.28. In him we live, and move, and have our being, is also fit to the point we have in hand. In him, that was to the Athenians the unknown God, but is indeed the only true and ever-living God, we live, we move, we have our being. Saint Ambrose in his book De bono moutis cap. 12. thus descants upon the words, In Deo mouemur, quasi in vià, sumus quasi in veritate, vinimus quasi in vitâ aeternâ: In him we move as in the way, we have our being as in the truth, we live as in the life eternal. S. Cyprian, or whosoever was the Author of that Treatise de Baptism • Christi, thus: In Patre sumus, in Filio vinimus, in Spiritu Sancto mouemur & proficimus: We have our being in the Father, we live in the Son, we move in the Holy Ghost. S. Hilary in his E • arrat, upon Psal. 13. seemeth to assign all these to the holy Ghost: S. Cyril. lib. 2. in Johan. cap. 74. ascribes them all to the Son. S. Augustine lib. 14. de Trinit. cap. 12. refers them to the whole Trinity. Of the whole Trinity, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost, he will have it to be true, that in him we live, and move, and have our being: and he gives for a reason hereof, that, Rom. 11.36. because of him, and through him, and in him are all things. All things are of him, and through him, and in him, and therefore in him we live, and move, and have our being.

See, saith S. Chrysostom, how all things are his; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , providence is his, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and preservation is his; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , our being is from him, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , our activity is from him; 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and from him it is that we perish not. In him we have whatsoever we have, in him we live, in him we move, in him we have our being. Who hears this, and stands not in admiration of the universal providence of God?

From this universal or general providence of God, I descend to his special providence. The special providence of God, is that, by which he ruleth every part of the world, and all things in every part, even the things that seem most vile and abject; all their actions, all their events. Every part of Heaven he ruleth: Not so much as a little cloud ariseth, or moveth, or changeth, or vanisheth, but nutu Dei, by the pleasure and appointment of God.

Eu ry part of the earth he ruleth. There is not the man, that either is conceived, or is borne, or liveth, or is preserved, or moveth, or doth anything, or dieth, nisi ex nutu & voluntate Dei, but by the will, pleasure, and appointment of God. There is not so much as animalculum, not any the least living creature, nor beast, nor fly, nor worm, that is engendered, or fed, or sustained, nisi à Deo, but by God. There is not so much as herbula, not any the least flower or grass, that either springeth, or blossometh, or withereth, sine manu Dei, but by the hand of God. God's special providence is over all his works; but more peculiarly is it over his Church.

His peculiar providence over his Church appeareth in the wonderful preservation thereof from its first beginning, but more evidently from the time that Noah's Ark floated upon the waters until these our days. But of all most famous, and to be admired, was that his preservation, his protection of the Church among the people of Israel; when they, sciourning in a strange land, in the Land of Egypt, were for four hundred and thirty years held in slavery and bondage, and were very ill entreated. Then, then at the time appointed God sent Moses to be their ruler and deliverer, who led them from out of Egypt into the wilderness. In the wilderness, a place of desolation, could their necessities be supplied? They could be, and were supplied. When they needed guide, God went before them; He went before them in a pillar of a cloud by day, and in a pillar of fire by night. So day and night was God their guide. When they wanted bread, flesh, or drink, mercy and miracle did concur for their supply. Heaven gave them bread, the wind quail, the rock waters. Of apparel they felt no want: for forty years together neither the clothes upon their backs, nor the shoes on their feet, were waxen old. For the direction of their consciences a Law was given them from mount Sinai; and for the resolution of their doubts, they had the oracles of God, from between the Cherubims. They needed not to fear the force and fury of their enemies: for they found by experience that the Sun and Moon, and fire from Heaven, and vapors from the clouds, and water, and frogs, and lice, and flies, and locusts, and caterpillars took their parts. Yea, the Lord himself fought for them. Very special was the providence of God, for his Church in Israel.

As special is his providence for his Church among us. Here should I set the mercies of our Land to run along with Israel's; we should win ground of them, we should out-run them. Be i • that in God's actual and outward mercies they might outstrip v •• yet in his spiritual and saving health, they come short of us. For, as one well saith, they had the shadow, we the substa • ce; they the candle-light, we the noon-day; they the breakfast of the Law, fit for the morning of the world, we the dinner of the Gospel, fit for the high-noon thereof. They had a glimpse of the Sun, we have him in the full strength: they saw per fenestram, we sine medio. They had the Paschal lamb, to expiate sins ceremonially; we have the Lamb of God to satisfy for us really. Vnthankfull we, thrice unthankful are we, if we acknowledge not the providence of God over his Church among us to be very special.

Now followeth the particular or singular providence of God. It is that by which he provideth for every particular creature. That there was sent out a great wind into the sea to raise a tempest against a ship that was going to Tarshish; that there was a preparation of a great fish to swallow up Jonah, and of a Gourd to be a shadow over his head against the Sun-beams, and of a worm to smite that Gourd, it was wholly from the particular providence of God. From the same providence it is, that the Sun riseth on the evil and the good, and that the rain falleth on the just and on the unjust, Mat. 5.45. From the same it is, that the Lilies of the field are so arrayed, as Solomon in all his glory was not so, Mat. 6.28. From the same it is, that the hairs of our head are all numbered, Mat. 10.30. What? Are the hairs of our head numbered? Are they all numbered? Quid timebo, saith Saint Augustine, quid timebo damna membrorum, quando securitatem accipio capillorum? Surely I that have security for the hairs of my head, will not fear the loss of any member I have. Yet if it shall please God to smite me in any member I have, in arm, or in leg, or in all, so that I be, as if all my bones were out of joint; I shall ever acknowledge the hand of God, and his particular providence, without w ^ch not so much as a little sparrow falleth on the ground, as it is testified by our Savior Christ, Mat. 10.30. So true is my propounded doctrine,

The objections, that are by the ignorant cast out against this holy and comfortable doctrine, I cannot now stand to refute: they may, if God will, be the ground-work of some other meditation. For the present, that I be not over-troublesome unto you, I will add but a word of use, and application.

The first use may be, to stir us up to glorify God for all his mercies. For since we know, that whatsoever befalleth us in this life, it is by the providence of God, what should come out of our mouths, and hearts, but that of holy Job, Blessed, Blessed be the name of the Lord for it? In the time of our prosperity, when the face of the Lord shineth most cheerfully upon us, what should pierce the inward parts of a child of God, but these or the like motions? O Lord! Lord! that the hearts of these men my righteous friends or others, are turned unto me, it is of thee alone. Of thee alone it is, that I have their love, their favor, their benefits: thou alone art the fountain, they are but the instruments. Thy instruments they are, such as next after thee I will thankfully regard, but never before thee, nor without thee. Also what any other creature yieldeth me of comfort, profit, or good any way, the power, the strength, and the means thereof is from thee alone, from thee my God, my strength, my hope, and my stay forever.

A second use may be to work patience in us, even through our whole life, and in our greatest afflictions. For since we know, that whatsoever befalleth us in this life, be it to the flesh never so sour, it cometh to pass by the providence of God; why should any one that is the child of God murmur or repine, when he is fed with the bread of tears? O then! when we are pinched with adversity, let us not imagine, that God is our enemy; believe we rather, that, of his good and fatherly purpose, he chasteneth us for the remnant of sin, abiding in this corrupted nature of ours, thereby to stir us up to the exercise of true Christian patience. Upon this belief I am resolved never to look so much at any ill, that shall betide me, as at the blessed hand, that shall be the guide thereof.

A third use, which for this time shall be my last use of the doctrine now delivered, is to drive us to our knees early and late, to beg and desire at this our good God's hand, the continuance of his ever sweet providence over us, and for us, that by his good guidance we may quietly sails over the sea of this wicked world; and when his blessed will shall be, we may arrive in the haven of eternal comfort, even his blessed, and glorious, and everlasting Kingdom; to which the Lord grant us a happy coming, for his dearly beloved Son Jesus Christ his sake, to whom with the Father in the unity of the holy Spirit be all praise and power. Amen.

THE Sixth Lecture.

YOu may at the first blush think it a needless labor for me to stand upon the exposition of this second branch of this fifth verse, because it seemeth to be coincident with the former. It is true, that as well in this branch as in that, the similitude is taken from the manner of a fowler; yet I doubt not even from hence to gather some good and profitable fruit for our instruction in the way of piety and godly living.

My custom hitherto requireth that first I clear the reading; and then proceed to some wholesome observation.

If the Hebrew be rendered word for word, it will sound thus: Nunquid aescendet laqueus e terrâ, & capiendo non capiet? Shall a snare ascend from the earth, and in taking shall it not take? So are the words translated by Mercerus, and by Vatablus, and by Drusius. Shall a snare ascend from the earth] To ascend in the Hebrew tongue, signifieth to be taken away, to be removed. 〈1 page duplicate〉 〈1 page duplicate〉 Laqueus ascendit, quum tollitur: a snare ascendeth from the earth, when it is taken thence. For this same ascendet, the Septuagint have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 ; Shall a snare be loosed from the earth, shall it be broken upon the earth? Herewith agreeth the Chaldee Paraphrast. The Vulgar Latin hath Auferetur, Shall a snare be taken from the earth? Shall it be taken? By whom? By whom, but by a fowler? The fowler is expressed by Tremellius and Junius, and by Calvin; the rest that express him not, must of necessity understand him.

Shall a fowler remove his snare from the earth, Et capiendo non c • piet? and in taking shall he not take? It is an Hebraism: for which the Greeks have 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , without taking somewhat; the old Latin hath antequam quid ceperit, before he have taken somewhat; Calvin and Brenz, priusquam capturam ceperit, before he hath taken a prey: Gwalther, si omnino nihil ce • e it. It he hath taken nothing at all. Those hit the sense of our Prophet, though they leave his Hebraism: and herein I reprehend them not. For I dissent not from S. Jerome, Comment, in c. 1. ad Gal. who there saith, Non in verbis Scripturarum esse Euangelium, sed in sensu; non in superficie, sed in m • dulla, non in sermonum folijs, sed in radice rationis. His saying is, that the Gospel is not in the words of the Scriptures, but in the sense; not in the outside, but in the mar w; not • n the leaves of the book, but in the root of reason. Well then have the Greeks, and the Vulgar Latin, and Calvin, and Brenz, and Gwalther, left the word, to give the sense. So hath our countrym • n Tauerner, whose reading is, Tak • th a man his snare up from the ground, afore he catch somewhat? The meaning he well expresseth. So do our newest Translators; but the better, by how much the nearer they cleave unto the words: Shall one take up a snare from the earth, and have take • n nothing at all?

Shall be? To this interrogation, as to the former, the answer should be negative; No, he shall not. Shall he not? How so? A fowler may be deceived; he may miss of his prey, and so may be driven to take up his snares, his ginnes, his nets, though he have taken nothing.

Luther for the removing of this scruple here respecteth the intention of the fowler, not his labor, nor the event thereof. The fowler lays his snares, sets his ginnes, spreads his nets with an intent, with a mind to catch somewhat, though sometime it may fall out he catcheth nothing.

Petrus Lusitanus here observeth it to be the custom of fowlers, non facile laqueos amouere, not willing to remove their snares, till they catch somewhat. The like doth Mercerus, Haud save id moris est, surely its not the custom, that a fowler should take up his snares, if he have taken nothing. So doth Drusius: Non tollitur, A snare is not taken up, before somewhat be catched. Non tollitur, that is, non tolls solet communiter, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , commonly and for the most part a snare useth nor to be taken up, till somewhat be catched. And so saith Carthusian: A net spread to catch birds, is not taken up till some be catched; Hoc communiter ita est, so commonly it falls out.

It is now easy to give answer to the interrogation. The interrogation is, Shall one, a man, a fowler, take up his snare from the ground, and have taken nothing at all? The answer is, Surely no. Commonly, and for the most part he doth it not: he useth not, its not his custom to take up his snare from the ground, if he have taken nothing at all.

The reading is cleared, the interrogation is answered; and now let us see whereto this similitude taken from this custom of the fowler is appliable. It may serve, as in my former Lecture I signified, for the illustration of the certainty, the stability and the efficacy of the judgments of God, which he threateneth to bring upon the wicked for their sins; thus. A fowler useth not to take up his snares, till he hath catched somewhat: no more is it God's use, when he maketh show of his judgments, to withdraw his hand, till he hath put them in execution. God gives not forth his threats in vain, nor gathers he up his nets, nor takes he up his snares, till he hath taken what he would; till he hath effected what he threatened by his Prophets. The sum of all is; Verbum Dei non cadere fine efficacia. The word of God falleth not without its efficacy; what he speaketh, that he doth. Such is the application of this present similitude.

Saint Jerome applies it, a • he doth the former. He applies it to such as live in discord and variance. Their punishment it is, vt capiantur laqueo, to be taken in a snare; in a snare, that is placed not in the air but on the ground; from which whosoever is delivered, good cause hath he to rejoice; and to say as it is, Psal. 124.7. Our soul is escaped, as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are delivered. This is contritus ill laqueus, that same broken snare, whereof the Apostle speaketh, Rom. 16.20. Deus conteret Satanam sub pedibus vestris velociter; God shall bruise, he shall break Satan under your feet shortly. And hitherto he bringeth that, Psa. 140.5. Iuxta simitam scandulum posuerunt mihi, they have spread a net for me, by the way-side. By the way side have they done it. For they are not able any other way to deceive the simple, then by propounding unto them the name of Christ, Vt dum putamus nos Christum inuenire, pergamus ad Antichristum: the while we think we are in the way to find out Christ, we go on the high way to Antichrist. Thus hath Saint Jerome applied this similitude: and he is followed by Strabus Fuldensis, the Author of the ordinary Gloss.

The doctrine which that good Father would from hence commend unto us is this; Discordiae poena, in laqueum incidere. It is the punishment of discord to fall into a snare. I thus explicate it. The man that lives in discord and variance shall fall into such calamities, out of which there is no escaping for him, as there is no escaping for a bird out of a snare.

Must calamity be the guerdon, the recompense of the man that liveth in discord and variance? It must needs be so. The foulness, the leprosy of this sin will nor suffer it to be otherwise. How foul and leprous this sin is, it may appear, first by the detestation wherein God holdeth it. Six things there are which the Lord hateth, yea the seventh his soul abhorreth. A proud look, a dissembling tongue, hands that shed innocent blood; an heart that deviseth wicked imaginations; feet that be swift in running to mischief; a false witness, that speaketh lies: These are the six which the Lord hateth: the seventh which his soul abhorreth is, He that soweth discord among brethren, Prov. 6.16. And no marvel is it, that he should with his soul abhor such a one. Non enim est dissentionis Deus, sed pacis, as the Apostle speaketh, 1 Cor. 14.33. For God, he is not a God of tumult, of unquietness, of conjusion, of dissention, of discord, but a God of peace.

Again, this sin appeareth to be very foul and leprous, in that it excludeth from the Kingdom of Heaven. That it doth so, Saint Paul proveth, Gal. 5.19. because it is a work of the flesh: among which he numbereth, hatred, variance, emulation, wrath, strife, and seditions: and concludeth, that they which do such things shall not inherit the Kingdom of God.

A third way to find out the foulness and leprosy of this sin, is, to take a view of the appellations, which in holy Scripture are given to this kind of sinner. He is carnal, he is froward, he is proud, he is foolish.

First, he is Carnal. Saint Paul avoucheth it, 1 Cor. 3.3. Ye are yet carnal. For whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal and walk as men? Are ye not carnal? Deny it not. For you are carnal, and ye walk as men. You are carnal, you follow the force and provocation of your flesh, your sensuality, your concupiscence, and ye walk as men: Ye walk not after God, not after the Spirit, not in the Spirit, not worthy of the Lord, not worthy of the Gospel; as long as there is among you e • uying, and strife, and divisions.

Secondly, the sinner in this kind is froward. So doth Solomon style him, P • ou. 16.28. A froward man soweth strife. This froward man, in the Hebrew, Vir peruersitatum, A man of frowardnesses; a man given altogether to frowardness, soweth strife between man and man, between neighbor and neighbor, and is a very batemaker. Will you a fuller description of him? you may have it, Prov. 6.12. There shall you find him to be a naughty person, a wicked man, one that waketh with a froward mouth, that winketh with his eyes, that speaketh with his feet, that teacheth with his fingers, that hath frowardness in his heart, that continually deviseth mischief, that soweth discord. Believe it: it is a sure mark of a naughty, a wicked, a froward man, to be the Author of contentions and strife.

Thirdly, this kind of sinner is a proud man. For, as it is, Prov. 13.10. Only by pride cometh contention. Only by pride? The meaning is not, that pride is the only cause of contention, but one of the chiefest. So is that place by some expounded. But well may it without gloss or exposition pass for a truth, that only by pride cometh contention, if Saint Augustine in his book de Nat. & Grat. against the Pelagians be not deceived. Out of the 26. Chapter of that book, I thus frame his argument. Every contempt of God is pride; but every sin is a contempt of God; Therefore every sin is pride; according to that of Ecclesiasticus, chap. 10.15. Initium omnis peccati est super •• a, The beginning of every sin is pride. Now if every sin, if the beginning of every sin be pride, then certain it is, that contention, variance, strife, debate, and the like, are all from pride.

Fourthly, the sinner in this kind is a fool. For a fool he is taken, Prov. 18.6. Where it is said; Labia stulti miscent se rixis, A fools lips are ever brawling. The words which a fool uttereth with his lips, have always strife annexed unto them, as an inseparable companion.

Thus you see the account wherein the Spirit of God holdeth brawlers, make-bates, and sowers of discord, in that it styleth them carnal, and froward, and proud, and foolish. It was the third way, I propounded, to find out the foulness and leprosy of this sin.

There is yet a fourth way: and that is by the effects thereof, as Busaeus the Jesuit in his Panary hath observed.

One effect thereof is to increase our sins. Well then doth Ecclesiasticus exhort us to abstain from strife. His exhortation is, Chap. 28.8. Abstain from strife, 〈 in non-Latin alphabet 〉 , and thou shalt diminish thy sins. If by abstaining from strife we diminish our sins, then surely by living in strife we increase our sins.

A second effect of strife he maketh to be the subversion of the hearers: according to that charge which Paul giveth to Timothy, 2 Epist. 2.14. Charge them before the Lord, that they strive not about words to no profit, but to the subuerting of the hearers.

A third effect is, that it disturbeth the quietness even of a wise man, saith Solomon, Prov. 29.9. A wise man, if he contend with a foolish man, there is no quietness for him.

A fourth effect is, that it bringeth ruin, destruction, and desolation, not only to houses or families, but to Cities also, yea to Countries, yea to Kingdoms. This our Savior Christ showeth by a proverbial saying, Mat. 12.25. The saying is, Every Kingdom divided against it self is brought to desolation: and every City, or house divided against it self, shall not stand.

Such, Beloved, are the effects of this sin of discord, and may well discover unto you the foulness and leprosy of it. For if it increase our sins, if it be the subversion of those that hear us, if it disturb our quietness, if it bring ruin, destruction, and desolation to all estates, then surely it is a soul and a leprous sin.

And thus have I led you in four several paths to find out the foulness, and leprosy of this sin. The first was by God's detestation of it. His soul abhorreth it. The second was by the gates of Heaven fast shut against it; They that sin this sin shall not inherit the Kingdom of God. The third was by the titles given to those sinners; they are carnal, and froward, and proud, and foolish. The fourth was by the effects which this sin produceth: it increaseth our faults, it subuerteth our hearers, it disturbeth our quietness; it brings desolation upon all, upon family, upon nation, upon Kingdom.

You now see the foulness; you see the leprosy of this sin; and will yield your assents to the truth of my propounded doctrine: which was,

Is it thus, Beloved? Must the man that lives in discord and variance fall into calamities, out of which there is no escaping for him? Must he? Our best way then will be, ever to bear about with us, that same Antidote or preservative which Saint Ambrose hath prescribed, Offic. lib. 1. cap. 21. Caueatur iracundia, aut si pracaueri non potest cohibeatur. Take heed of wrath, beware of discord, or if thou canst not before hand provide against it, keep it short, bridle it. But first, Caueatur, Beware, or take heed of it. This is the counsel which Paul giveth in his first book concerning the remedy of love;

Withstand beginnings; thy medicines may come too late, if thy disease be grown strong. And this is the third remedy prescribed by Busaeus against this malady: Resiste contentionum principijs, Resist the beginnings of discord. If thou be to talk with any man, keep under the first motions of thy mind, that they break not forth into indignation; and so thou give the occasion of discord.

Discord is a Serpent. This serpent, like Goliath, must be smote dead in the forehead, he must be crushed in the head, lest if he get in the head, as he did into Eve, he bring in the whole body, and when sin is finished, he leave from his tail, the sting of death in our souls.

Discord is a Cockatrice. This Cockatrice must be crushed in the Egg; If we suffer it to be hatched, and to grow a Basilisk, it will be our poison.

Discord is a Fox. We must take this Fox, this little Fox before he do any hurt. If we let him grow till he be great, then like Herod the Fox, he will become blood-thirsty and ravenous, or like Samsons Foxes, he will set all on fire.

Discord is as Leaven, whereof it is said, Paullulo fermenti tota massa fermentatur, If we purge not out this little leaven, it will sour the whole lump.

Discord is Aqua amaritudinis. We must give this water of bitterness no passage, no not a little, lest like that in Ezekiel, it grow from the anckles to the knees, and from the knees to the loins, and prove a river that cannot be passed over without drowning.

Discord is Paruulus Babylonis. We must betimes take this youngling of Babylon, and dash him against the stones, lest after growth he should cry against us, down with them, down with them even unto the ground.

Thus, and thus, are we to deal with this youngling of Babylon, with this water of bitterness, with this leaven, this little leaven, with this fox, this little fox, with this Cockatrice, with this serpent; we are to resist discord even in the beginning. And this was Saint Ambrose his Caueatur; Cau • atur iracundia, beware of discord, take heed of it. But if we cannot before hand provide against it, then follows his Cohibeatur, Keep it short, bridle it.

But how shall we keep it short? how shall we bridle it? The same good Father will for this point instruct us. Si prauenerit & praeocupauerit mentem tuam iracundia, non relinqua as locum tuum. If anger, if wrath shall prevent thee, and prepossesse thy mind, leave not thou thy place. Thy place! Whats that? Locus tuus patientia est, locus tuus sapientia est, locu • tuus ratio est, locus tuus sedatio indignationis est. Thy place is patience, thy place is wisdom, thy place is reason, thy place is the asswaging, the quieting of thine anger. By patience, by wisdom, by reason, thou mayest asswage and quiet anger.

But my neighbor is so sullen, so froward, so self-willed, that I cannot choose but be moved. In this case what shall I do? The Fathers reply unto thee is, Reprime linguam tuam, Restraine keep under, tame thy tongue. For so it is written, Psal. 34.13. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guilt.

Restraine, keep under, tame my tongue, keep my tongue from evil. The advice I confess to be very good. But how shall I be able to follow it? S. James seemeth to imply an impossibility in this performance, Chap. 3.8. where he saith, The tongue can no man tame: it is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison. No man can tame it: How then shall I? It is an unruly evil; how shall I rule it. It is full of deadly poison; how shall I cleanse it?

It were blasphemy to gain-say, what Saint James hath said. He hath said, the tongue is an unruly evil; and so it is. It is an evil, and an evil of a wild nature, it is an unruly evil. An unruly evil it is, Saint Bernard in his Treatise De triplici custodia, saith of it; facile volat, atque ideo facile violat; It flieth quickly, and therefore it woundeth quickly. Speedy is the pace it goeth, and therefore speedy is the mischief it doth. When all other members of the body are dull with age, this though it be but little, this tongue alone is quick and nimble. An unruly evil it is; an unruly evil to our selves, an unruly evil to our neighbors, an unruly evil to all the world.

And it is full of deadly poison. Poison! What? is there poison in the tongue? Poison, that is contrary to the nature of a man, is it in the tongue of a man? Yes. But it may be this poison is no mortal poison, but such a poison, whose venom may without much ado be expelled. Nay, saith Saint James, it is mortal, it is a deadly poison. Say it be a deadly poison; peradventure there is but little of it, and so the danger is the less. Nay, saith Saint James, it is full of it; it is full of deadly poison.

The tongue is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison; who can tame it? No man, saith the Apostle. No. Man hath no bridle, no cage of brass, no bars of iron to tame the tongu • withal. And yet you see, the Psalmographer calleth upon us to tame this tongue of ours, to keep it from evil. Keep thy tongue from evil, and thy lips that they speak no guile.

In this case what shall we do, Beloved? Whether shall we have recourse for help in this time of need? Whether but to the throne of grace, even to him that sitteth thereon? He made the tongue, and he alone can tame the tongue. He that gave man a tongue to speak, can give him a tongue to speak well. He that placed that unruly member in the mouth of man, can give man a mouth to rule it. He can give us songs of Zion for loves-sonnets, and heavenly Psalms for the Ballads of Hell. Wherefore let us move our tongues to entreat of him help for our tongues. David hath scored out this way for us, Psal. 141.3. Set a watch, O Lord, before my mouth, keep the door of my lips. Da Domine quod jubes, & jube quod vis, It was Saint Augustine's petition, and be it ours. Give Lord what thou commandest, and then command us what thou wilt. Thou commandest that I keep my tongue from evil, and my lips that they speak no guilt: Lord keep thou my tongue from evil, keep thou my lips, and my lips shall speak no guile.

Yet Beloved, we must not be idle our selves. The difficulty of keeping our tongues from evil, should spurr us on to a greater diligence. I know you would keep your house from thieves, your garments from moths, your treasure from rust: See that ye be as careful to keep your tongues from evil. Give not over your hearts unto security, and your tongues will be the better. As far as the