and that he will make the earth that it shall not be barren but bring forth fruit in due season Now these things are not in the power of man to performe And such an oath is that which the Papists take when they vow virginity and a single life as if the gift of continency were in their own power and ability These are rash and unadvised oaths The Romans had a custome that he that should swear by Hercules should first go out of doores that he might think of the oath which he was to take and deliberate upon the matter which he was to swear If they were so carefull that they swore not unadvisedly by the name of Hercules how carefull should we be that we use not Gods Name but with great advise And therefore before that we take an oath we must pause upon it and consider what it is that we are to swear Secondly contrary to swearing in judgement is idle frivolous and unnecessary swearing when we swear without cause or upon any light occasion Thus some though it be but a trifle whereof they are speaking yet if they be not believed in every word which they speak they will presently rap out an oath to confirme it and so God must be dishonoured that they may be believed yet their swearing is so far from saving their credit and making them be believed that it gives men occasion the more to suspect them For who will believe that he makes conscience of swearing truely that makes no conscience of swearing unnecessarily or that he will be carefull that he deceives not his neighbour that makes no reckoning of displeasing his Maker For he that will not stick to dishonour God upon no occasion it may not be suspected that he will for-swear himselfe when by his oath he may gain any thing But if the matter be not weighty and of some importance such swearing is the prophaning of Gods Name for thus the Name of God is brought into contempt while it is used in matters of no weight and moment Exod. 18.26 Moses as we see in the 18th of Exodus being Judge over Isracl he substituted inferiour officers under him and appointed the Weightier matters to be brought to himselfe and referred all petty controversies to be decided by them If it were not sit for Moses to be called to the determining of inferiour causes is it fit for us to call God as a witnesse to trisling matters If a man have a jewell he will not lay it to pawn for every trifle and if he do it is an argument that he makes little reckoning of it And surely he makes but small account of Gods sacred Name that is ready to pawn it upon every light occasion yet this is a sinne then the which there is nothing more ordinary and common Some there are that take a pride in swearing and will scarce speak a word but an oath must second it as if swearing were not so much a sinne as a grace to their speech and a matter of complement And these are counted the great Gallants of the World Others that are given to unnecessary swearing if a man chance to reprove them for it they will say for themselves that they do not swear of any ill intent for they swear many times when they do not mind it and therefore they hope that it is no sinne because they mean no harme But if that their tongues should speak treason would it help them to say that they did not minde it would not their hearts be thought to conspire with their tongues and should not their heads think ye pay for it Can they bridle their tongues and minde what they say for fear of speaking treason against an earthly King and can they not beware that they do not blaspheme the King of Heaven but the truth is that they see in the one a present danger and not in the other For should they speak treason they know that every man would be ready to accuse them and that they should presently suffer for it but as for the dishonouring of Gods Name because it is not censured among men they do not regard it others that are given to unnecessary swearing will say they have got such a custome of swearing that they cannot leave it as if their custome of swearing did rather lessen then increase their sinne Plato reprehending one for playing at dice and he replying do you reprehend me Sir for so small a matter The matter indeed quoth Plato is small but the custome of it is no small matter And surely if swearing of it selfe were but an ordinary sinne yet it is made far the greater by ordinary swearing If a thiese being brought before a Judge for some robbery he had committed should acknowledge the fact and yet desire to be excused because all his life-time he had been so accustomed to robbing that he could not well leave it would this excuse think ye serve his turne And when he that hath daily robbed God of his glory by prophaning his Nune upon every light occasion shall be called to an account at the day of judgement and shall plead for himselfe that he had so inured his tongue to swearing ever since he was a childe that he could never afterwards leave it will God take this for a sufficient excuse Surely if a man shall answer for every idle word that he speaks much more shall he answer for idle oaths And indeed there is great reason that God should be a severe judge against those that swear unnecessarily and upon no occasion For first Though this be reputed in the world but a small sinne yet there is not almost any sinne which a man commits wherein he shewes so insolent contempt of Gods sacred Name as he shews in this For other sinnes which a man commits yet he may pretend some shew of excuse He that doth not sanctifie the Sabbath day will pretend it may be some extraordinary businesse he that steals from his neighbour will pretend that he did it for necessity and want he that kills a man will pretend that he did it for the wrong which he offered him and to save his credit reputation he that makes a lye that he did it for fear and so for any sin a man may pretend something but for ordinary swearing no excuse can be given a man cannot pretend that he doth it for fear or for his gaine and profit or for any thing whatsoever And therefore there is great reason as I said before that God should severely punish them that swear idly and vainly and upon no occasion Secondly Because there is not any one sinne that so ordinarily goes scot-free among men as this ordinary swearing and profaning of Gods Name If a man do but slander and defame his neighbour the Law takes hold of him and he shall under go the penalty but for the ordinary dishonouring of Gods Name it is not censured among men We have Bedlams provided for frantick persons
that which is poured out of it comes but guttatim drop by drop and is long coming out So it is when god punishes his punishments come slowly that even while he is punishing men might be drawn to repentance And if they repent how many soever their sinnes have been hovv hainous soever and hovv long soever they have continued therein he is ready to forgive them You will say indeed if I could repent of my sins I doubt not but God who is so infinitely mercifull would receive me into favour and be reconciled unto me in Christ Iesus but I have so hard a heart that still I go on and continue in sinne and cannot repent I would therefore aske thee But art thou not displeased with the hardnesse of thy heart and doest thou not desire to forsake thy sins and to be reconciled unto God Oh this you vvill say is that which I desire above all things in the World Then knovv for thy comfort that thy state is better then thou supposest and I may say unto thee from Christ as Christ said to the Scribe Mark iâ— 34. Marke 12. Thou art not far from the Kingdom of God For could'st thou be displeased vvith the hardnesse of thy heart if thy heart vvere hardned could'st thou be desirous to forsake thy sinnes if thou vvert not weary of them and could'st thou desire to be reconciled unto God If thou didst not love him for these though thou thinkest thou canst not repent are signes of thy repentance vvhich though it be weake yet he who hath promised that he will not break the bruised reed nor quench the smeaking flax will accept of it and notwithstanding thy sinnes will he gracious unto thee as he was here unto Jonas And so from Gods gracious renewing of Jonas his Commission I proceed to the Charge which God gave Jonas which containes two things First The place which God sends him unto Arise and go to Nineveh that great City Secondly The work which God appoints him to do Preach unto it the preaching that I bid thee The place which God sends him unto is Nineveh The Ninevites were so hainous sinners that their wickednesse as we heard before was come up before God and cried up to Heaven unto God for vengeance yet God would not destroy them before he had sent unto them that before their destruction they might have warning Doct. Here then observe Gods dealing with sinners He commonly first sends to admonish them of their sinnes before he inflicts his judgements upon them God might if he pleased and that without any breach of justice be revenged on the sudden upon the wicked without sending unto them and giving them warning but first he threatens before he punishes to teach them thereby to avoid his judgements Deut. 20.10 God made this Law Dent. 20. That no City should be destroyed before that peace had been offered unto it that before their destruction they might have warning and might imbrace if they would the conditions of peace to prevent their ruine As God will have us to deale in mercy with our enemies so he himselfe likewise deales with sinners First Giving them warning and threatning his judgements before be inflicts them Though God was highly offended with Pharaoh for dealing so cruelly with the Children of Israel yet God would not send his judgements upon him till Moses was sent to fore-tell him of them Though God vvere so offended with the old World for their sins that he purposed to overwhelme it with water and by an universall deluge to destroy all flesh yet he vvould not do it till Noah had forvvarn'd and admonisht them of it And at the end of the World when the World shall be destroyed and consumed by fire Luke 21.25 yet there shall be vvarning of it for there shall be signes in the Sun the Moon and the Starres as our Saviour saith that the very Heavens may become Preachers as it vvere unto us to admonish us to repent by fore-warning us of the end of the World and the day of judgement And here though the Ninevetes vvere so hainous sinners yet he sends unto them that being fore-warned of the danger they were in they might repent and avoid the same Now Nineveh vvhereunto God sends Jonas is here said to be a great City And so it is else-vvhere called in the Scripture Thus Moses speaking of Nineveh Gen. 10. Gen. 10.12 The same saith he is a great City and here in the next verse it is called an exceeding great City of three dayes journey And by that which Histories report of it it seems to have been the greatest City in the World and fevv ever since for largenesse and beauty have been compared to it Indeed if it be true which some vvrite of the City Quinsai in the Kingdom of China it vvas a City far larger then Nineveh as being in compasse a hundred miles but aftervvards it vvas overthrown by an earthquake and another Quinsai built but far lesse being but thirty miles in compasse which is just halfe of that bignesse which Nineveh was For Nineveh was in compasse no lesse then four hundred and fourscore furlongs which make threescore miles The Walls of Nineveh were an hundred foot high and they were of that thicknesse that three Carts might go side-long together upon them and upon the Walls were fifteen hundred Turrets and each of them an hundred foot higher then the Walls The City of Babylon was so great that Aristotle in his Politicks calls it a Countrey rather then a City and vvrites that when it vvas besieged and the enemy had taken one part of it some part of the City did not heare thereof till three dayes after so large was Babylon from the one end to the other Yet Babylon was not so large as Nineveh but lesse in compasse by almost an hundred furlongs Nineveh was many years in building and by no fewer at once then ten thousand work-men and it was so populous that God tells Jonas in the next Chapter the last verse That there were six-score thousand in it that knew not their right hand from their left and therefore if there were so many infants what a multitude were there of all other ages no doubt but many more in that one City then there are now in some Kingdoms But now what must Jonas do vvhen has was come to Nineveh Preach saith God unto it the preaching that I bid thee What this was which he was to preach we see afterwards in the fourth verse namely That Nineveh should be overthrown after forty dayes This God commanded him to preach and gave him his message And from hence we may observe That the Prophets had their direction from God what they were to deliver God put into their mouths what they were to speak and they spake onely that which they were appointed by God 2 Pet. 1.21 So saith Saint Peter That Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but the
pardon and forgivenesse of them FINIS The Eighteenth SERMON 1 THES 5.2 For you your selves know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night THe first coming of Christ may well put us in mind of his second coming his coming as a Lambe of his coming as a Lion his coming in humility of his coming in glory The day of his first coming ye know is past and yet so past as that we are still to call it to mind and must never forget it the day of his second coming is yet to come yet so to come as that it will come we know not how soone and we must alwayes expect it And therefore as it hath been a Custome in some Countries that when they kept a feast after other dishes a deaths head was brought in and set upon the Table before the guests to teach them while they were feasting to remember their ends So I thought it not unfit at the time of this feast which we celebrate in remembrance of Christs first coming to bring in as it were a deaths head among you by choosing such a Text as may put you in mind of his second coming at the day of judgement because that is a day which is alwayes to be expected whereof the Apostle in the words which I have read gives a double Reason First because it is certain that this day is coming For you your selves saith he know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes Secondly because it is uncertain when it will come For it so saith he comes as a thief in the night whose coming is uncertain and upon the sudden So that the points to be handled in these words are these the day it self and the coming of it and in the coming of it that it is certain that this day will come though when it wil come it is uncertain And first concerning the day it self The day of judgement is here called the day of the Lord sometimes in the Scripture the great notable day of the Lord. It is called the day of the Lord to put a difference between that day and all the dayes while we live in the world While we live in the World the dayes in the Scripture are called ours For though all dayes indeed be the Lords because he made them as the Prophet David saith Psal 74.16 The day is thine and the night is thine thou hast prepared the light and the Sunne yet in the Scripture they are said to be ours because they were made for our use Therefore God speaking of the time of mans life Gen. 6. His dayes saith he Gen. 6.3 shall be an hundred and twenty years Thus Job speaking of the prosperity of the wicked They spend saith he their dayes in welthinesse Job 21.13 Psal 90.12 Thus David speaking of the uncertainty of this life Psal 90. Teach us saith he to number our dayes Thus the dayes while we live in this world are called ours But the day of judgement is alwayes called Esay 13.7 Joel 2.1 2 Pet. 3.10 the day of the Lord. So Esay 13. Behold the day of the Lord comes So Joel The day of the Lord comes and is nigh at hand So St. Peter 2 Pet. 3. The day of the Lord comes as a thief in the night Thus still it is called the day of the Lord because though all other dayes be ours yet this day he hath wholly reserved to himself to call us to an account of all our dayes To some of us he hath given ten thousand dayes to some twenty thousand to some thirty thousand and all the dayes from the beginning of the World to the end thereof he hath divided amongst us giving more unto some and sewer to others to himself he hath reserved but one day onely and the last of all yet such a day as wherein he will call us all to an account of all things that we have done in all our dayes At this day the Drunkard shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in drunkennesse At this day the idle person shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in idlenesse At this day the voluptuos liver shall be called to an account of all the dayes he hath spent in pleasure For this is the day which the Lord hath appointed for the examination of all our dayes The dayes which he hath given us are dayes of mercy wherein he offers grace unto all and invites them to repent this day is onely a day of judgement wherein he will execute his justice on those that are impenitent Therefore it is that the time of this life is called in the Scripture Esay 49.8 Dies salutis the day of salvation as Esay 49. I have heard thee saith God in the time accepted in the day of salvation have I succoured thee Which the Apostle expounds 2 Cor. 6. 2 Cor. 6.2 of the time of this life while grace is offered Behold saith he now is the accepted time now is the day of salvation But the day of judgement is called in the Scripture dies irae the day of wrath Zeph. 1.15 Zeph. 1.15 That day saith the Prophet is a day of wrath And Revel 6. The great day of the wrath of the Lord is come And therefore God who for the time of this lise is called by the Apostle the father of mercies yet after this life when he shall judge the World Psal 49.1.2 he is called by the Prophet David a God of revenge For be that is so mercifull to all in this life that he makes the Sun to shine and the rain to fall both on the good and the bad yet after this life at the day of judgement he will rain snares on the wicked fire and brimstone and an horrible tempest this shall be their portion for ever to drink Psal 11.6 We see then the reason why it is called the day of the Lord because in that day he will call us all to an account of all our dayes that such as in their days have done their own will might therefore in his day suffor his will because they would not imbrace his mercy while he offered them grace in stead of mercy they might feel his justice His power had a day when he created the World all things therein and by speaking the word made them all of nothing His mercy had a day when he redeemed the world by giving his only Son to suffer death for man that had so highly offended him And his justice shall likewise have a day when he shall judge the World at which day he will appear so terrible to the wicked Revel 6.16 that when they see him they shall cry to the mountains to fall upon them and to the rocks to hide them from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne from the wrath of the Lamb. But all in vaine because as they in
their own dayes might have found life but would not seek it so then in his day they shall seek death but shall not find it And as here it is called the day of the Lord Acts 2.20 so elsewhere it is called the great notable day of the Lord Joel 2.11 and the the great terrible day of the Lord because on that day more great terrible things shall come to passe then ever came to passe in the World before The Prophet Esay was shewed a vision which did so greatly astouish him that he saith his heart panted and fear came upon him Esay 21.3 that it made him to stoop when he heard of it and dismayed him when he saw it What was that vision which was able to affright so great a Prophet He saw the fall of Babylen how that mighty City the glory of Kingdoms as the Scripture calls it should be overthrown and all the stately buildings thereof should be brought to ruine But on this day which is here meÌ„tioned there shal be a matter which is far more fearfull not the desolation of one City or Kingdom but the finall overthrow and utter ruine of all the Kingdoms and buildings in the World together For on that day the very foundation of the earth shall be shaken so that all the buildings thereof from the least to the greatest shall be shivered asunder and quite overthrown Though our walls were as strong as the walls of Nineveh which as Authors write of them were made of that thicknesse that three Carts might go side-long together upon them though our Turrets were as high as the Spires of Egypt or the Tower of Babell whose top they would have made to have reacht up unto heaven though our houses were as sumptuous as the Pallace of Alcinous where the walls were of brasse the entries of silver and the gates of gold yet on this great day if they continued so long they should all be overthrown For what shall be able to stand on that day when there shall be earthquakes on the one side and fire on the other which shall overthrow and consume whatsoever is before them On that day there shall be so great an earthquake as Saint John tells us Revel Rev. 6.12.14 6. That all mountains and istands shall be moved out of their places On that day there shall be so great a fire all overthe World that Saint Peter tells us 2 Pet. 3.10 The heavens being on sire shall be dissolved the elements shall melt with fervent heat and the earth and all the works therein shall be burut up On that day there shall be the greatest number assembled together that ever were For then heaven and earth as it were shall meet together on the one side Christ and his Angels shall come from heaven thousand thousands shall attend upon him and ten thousand thousands shall minister unto him on the other side shall be Adam and Eve with their whole of-spring even all that have lived from the first to the last in all ages from one end of the world to the other in all Countries they shall all appear on that together Gen. 13.16 God promised Abraham the father of the faithfull that his seed should be as the starres of heaven Gen. 15.5 in number like the sand on the sea-shore which ye know is innumerable yet all these in comparison of that infinite multitude which shall be assembled together at the day of judgement are no more then an handfull For then all without exception both Jewes and Gentiles beleevers and infidels even every one in his own person shall appear on that day and not one shall be wanting Therefore saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 2 Cor. 5.10 We must all appear before the judgement-seat of Christ that every one may receive the things done in his body according to that which he hath done whether it be good or evill All and every one to shew the generality that none are excepted and we must appear to shew the necessity that it cannot he avoided When the King in the Gospell invited many to the marriage of his Sonne Luke 14. they pretended excuses for their not coming one saying that he had bought a piece of ground another that he had bought five yoke of oxen another that he had married a wife and could not come so that of those which were invited there were many wanting But no excuse shall be taken at the day of judgement but as all shall be summoned to appear on that day so none shall be absent There shall not any be permitted to appear by his Atturney but all must come in their own persons and none be suffered to put in sureties We see many times that such as are to come before earthly Judges do break out of prison and escape the judgement that should passe upon them but there can be no hope for any to escape at the day of judgement for indeed the whole World is as it were Gods prison-house every part whereof on that day shall bring forth their prisoners Rev. 20.13 The Sea saith Saint Iohn Revel 20. did yield up her dead that were therein and death and hell delivered up the dead that were in them and they were judged every man according to his works Lastly On that day there shall a finall separation be made between the godly and the wicked While we live in this world the good and the bad the elect and the reprobate do live ye know promiscuously together And therefore the Church is compared in the Scripture sometime to a floor sometime to a field and sometime to a fold to a floore wherein is both come and chaffe to a field wherein is both wheat and cares and to a fold wherein are both sheep and goats Mat. 25.32 But on this great and notable day of the Lord they shall be distinguisht and an everlasting sepâ—ration shall be made between them For then Christ shall place the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his lest the wheat and the corn shall be carried into his barn the chaffe and the tares shall be cast into the fire the godly shall be taken up into heaven the wicked thrown into hell And in these respects it is called the great and notable day of the Lord because so great and notable things shall come to passe on that day And thus much concerning the day it selfe The second thing to be considered is the coming of this day and therein two things are set down that it is certain this day will come For you your selves saith he know perfectly that the day of the Lord comes And that it is untertain when it will come It comes saith he as a thiefe in the night Whose coming is uncertain and not known when he comes And first concerning the certainty of the coming of this day Saint Peter tells us of some that make but a mock of Christs coming or
So that this may teach us to extoll and magnifie Gods goodnesse towards us who layeth not so much upon us as he laid upon them but proportions his trials to our infirmity and weaknesse And thus much likewise for the second difficulty in this Commandement in regard of the party that must offer this sacrifice Abraham Isaac a father his sonne difficulty third The third difficulty is in regard of the manner how he must sacrifice his son he must offer him to God in holocanstum for a burnt-offring The manner how they were to offer their burnt-offrings in the old Law is prescribed by God unto Moses in the first of Leviticus where we finde that the burnt-offring that was to be offered was to be killed to be cut in pieces or quartered and every part to be laid upon the fire till it were wholly consumed Whether Abraham when he had killed his son was likewise to quarter him and to hew him in pieces I will not determine but yet it is probable For howsoever the manner of offering these offrings was specified long after this Commandement was given yet Abel and others had offered burnt offrings long before which no doubt they had done as God himselfe had taught them But this is certain that when Abraham had killed his son with his own hands he was likewise to lay him upon the fire till he were wholly consumed and burnt to ashes for so much the word holocaustum signifies And therefore Musculus saith upon this place Non simpliciter immolare filium jubetur Abraham sed offerre in holocaustum hoc est c. Abraham is not commanded simply to sacrifice his son but to offer him for a burnt-offring that is saith Musculus after that he hath imbrued his sword in his sons bloud with his own hands to lay his body in the fire and when one side is burnt to turn the other and so to let it burn till it be consumed to ashes which is all one as if his body were to be consumed to nothing So that this is more horrible then all the rest For how is it possible for a father to endure when he hath bathed his sword in his sons bloud to take him up in his armes and to lay him upon the Altar to see his bowels fry and crackle in the fire and to turn him upside down till every part be consumed and burnt to nothing What death can be imagined so horrible as this If God had commanded Abraham either to have strangled or smoothered his son yet his body ye know would have remained whole he might have entombed him if God had commanded him to cast him down headlong from the top of the mountain so that every member had been dashed asunder yet some part of his body would have been remaining Nay if God had commanded him to take his son and cast him to the wilde beasts that they might devoure him yet at least-wise ye know his bones would have been left and so Abraham might have had some relique of his son but this is such a death as doth utterly consume every part of the body and brings all to nothing But besides this Abraham knew very well that God could not away with humane sacrifices and therefore that Abel Noah and the rest had never offered the like in any of their offrings It is true indeed that many years after the Children of Israel had learn'd of the Gentiles as we see Psalm 106 to sacrifice their sons and their daughters to divels Psal 106.37 but therefore saith David The wrath of the Lord was kindled against them so that he abhorred even his own inheritance Psal 106.40 Nay this is so monstrous and abominable an act that many of the heathen did utterly condemne it We read of the Carthagincans that they were wont to sacrifice their children to Saturne Plutarch in Reg. Apophth as thinking that this would be acceptable to their God because they had heard the fable that Saturne was wont to devoure his children But therefore when Gelo the King of Sicilia had subdued Carthage he forbad this custome as thinking it monstrous that the gods should be worshipt with such cruell sacrifices And therefore when Agesilaus Plutarch in vita Agesilai as Plutarch records was admonished in a dream to sacrifice his daughter to Diana as Agamemnon had done he made this answer that he would not imitate Agamemnons folly but he would offer such a sacrifice as was fit for a goddesse How then could Abraham think that God would be pleased with such a sacrifice and that he who is the father of mercies and would not so much as the death of a sinner should delight in cruelty and in the slaughter of innocents so that when God commands Abraham to sacrifice his son here is a further temptation then all the former which seems not so much to impugne his affection as to confound his faith in that God here seems contrary unto himselfe And indeed beloved the conflict which Abraham sustained in his affection was nothing to that which his faith sustained For how should he believe the promises of God concerning his son being now commanded by God to kill him God had promised Abraham as we heard before that him seed should be called in Isaac that he would multiply his seed like the starres of Heaven Gen. 26.4 and that he would establish his Covenant with Isaac for an everlasting Covenant and with his feed after him Abraham believed according to Gods promise that the Saviour of the World should spring from his Sonne and that so all the Nations of the Earth should be blessed in him and yet now he commands him to sacrifice his Son and so to burn as it were the bond of his own salvation For if Isaac must die how can Abraham look for the Messias from him and if no Messias what remaines but Gods wrath and vengeance to be powred upon all men so that this Commandement seemes quite to overthrow Gods former promise and yet such was Abrahams faith and obedience that he both performed that which God had commanded and withall believed that which God had promised For howsoever it might seeme as impossible to flesh and blood that seed should be raised from Isaac being dead as that a Tree should budde forth when the root is withered yet he knew there was nothing impossible with God and therefore though Isaac were wholly consumed and burnt to nothing yet that God was able even out of his ashes to raise up seed unto him Doct. 3 Now whereas God commands Abraham here to offer his Sonne in holocaustum for a burnt-Offring so that no part of his body may be kept but that it must wholly be consumed and burnt to nothing The Doctrin that might be gathered from hence is this That as God makes tryall of our Obedience in that which of all other is deerest unto us so he requires that we keep nothing thereof unto our selves but
both to taxe those Ministers who in their preaching do affect obscurity and likewise the people who mislike their Ministers if they preach plainly Whereas indeed every Minister ought to preach as plainly as he can and to do his best indeavour to speak so perspicuously that the simplest in his auditorie may understand him God promiseth this as a blessing to his Church Jer. 3.15 that he will give them pastors according to his own heart which shal feede them with knowledge and understanding and therefore they are to speak to the capacity of their auditorie that they may the more readily conceive their Doctrine Ministers in the Scripture are called Interpreters Now it is the part of an Interpreter Job 33.23 to open and explain the sence and meaning to speak to the understanding of those that hear him that he may be understood whom he doth interpret And thus the Minister that is Gods interpreter is to reveale and explain his Wil to make known with St Paul the Mystery of the Gospel and with John the Baptist Ephes 6.19 Luke 1.77 Mat. 5.14 to give knowledge of Salvation unto his People Ministers are called The Light of the World now it is the property of light wheresoever it comes to expell darkness and to make things apparent and manifest to the light And thus the Minister that is the light of the People is to remove ignorance out of the mindes of his Auditors and so to explain Gods Word unto them that they may be filled as the Apostle speakes with the knowledge of his will Ephes 1.19 inall wisdom and spirituall understanding Vse 3 Lastly Seeing the Word must be understood this therefore shewes the great folly of many who regard not to have any knowledg in the Word You shall have some that have more knowledg and understanding in any thing then in matters of Religion Talk with them about any worldly Affaires you shall find them very cunning their tongue is like the penne of any ready Writer and they will discourse thereof at large if occasion be offered them but talk with them again about any point in the Scripture you shall have them as speechless as the guest in the Gospel Mat. 22. â— 1 Cor. 14.20 1 Pet. 3.15 you shall find them to be Children in understanding and not able to give a reason of the hope that is in them And what is the reason because they take no delight in the Word they regard not to have any knowledge in it But were they as carefull for the good of their soules as for their worldly affaires they would be more skilfull in the Word of God and not perish as they do for want of knowledge I have longed saith David for thy Salvation O Lord Psal 109.174 and thy Law is my delight He that doth long to be saved like David he will use the meanes to attain unto it he will take delight in the word of God he will meditate in it and rather then he will want it with the Merchant in the Gospel he will sell all that he hath for the purchase of it Mat. 13.46 For this is that one thing that is necessary as Christ told Martha and therefore it is compared to those things which are the most necessary of all other Luke 10.42 Thus it is somtime compared unto food what can there be named so necessary as food and what so intolerable as the want of it for a man wil suffer any thing rather then famine Ye know when there was a famine among the Egyptans how they parted with all that they had for food First with their money then with their attell in the end they sold their Lands and their bodies for bread Yet food is no more necessary for the preservation of the Body then the word of God for the preservation of the soule for as the body cannot live without the natural food no more can the soule without the spiritual food which is the word of God and therefore we ought to hunger and thirst after it and to desire it as earnestly as one that is hungry desires food â— Pet. 2.2 As new borne Babes saith the Apostle desire the sincere milk of the Word that ye may grow thereby Young Children of all other are the most impatient of hunger they must presently have the dugge or they will cry for it they cannot abide to be long without it but ever and anon they must be fed again And thus saith the Apostle should we be desirous of the milk of the Word like new borne Babes we should long after it and not indure to be long without it And therefore such are in a miserable case who by rejecting this spiritual food do starve and famish their own soules Physitians say that when a mans appetite refuseth meat and cannot away with it it is a signe of death and a manifest token that he cannot live long Psal 107.18 And therefore the Prophet David saith to this purpose Their soule abhorreth all manner of meat and they draw near unto the Gates of death And surely when a man is once come to this passe that he will not suffer wholsome Doctrine but that the word of God which is the food of the soule begins to be irksome and unsavory unto him then questionlesse his soule is in a desperate case it is even pining away as it were in a Consumption Sometime again the word is called the Sword of the spirit Ephes 6.17 Now what is more necessary for a Souldier in the field then the use of a Sword Our life is a Warfare upon the Earth as Job saith and we are all Souldiers having given up our names at the time of our Baptisme to Christ Jesus our Captain to fight the Lords Battells the enemy with whom we are to encounter is the Prince of darkness with all his forces and Gods word is the weapon which we are to use against them How then shall our hands be able to warre and our fingers to fight if we have no knowledge in the word of God and have no skill how to handle the sword of the spirit And thus to omit many other particulars the word as ye see here is resembled to seed what is so necessary to make the Earth fructifie as the receiving of seed The best soile that is though it be never so fertill in its own nature yet if it receive not the seed into it it must needes be unfruitfull And thus the best man that is though he be never so furnisht with all naturall parts yet till the seed of Gods word have been sowen in his heart he can never be fruitfull in the works of righteousness And therefore if we be Gods Husbandry as St. Paul calls us 1 Cor. 5.9 Colos 3.16 Let us receive this seed into the furrowes of our hearts and suffer Gods word to dwell plenteously in us And thus much for the meanes of a good ground the
of my goods First then in that he calles them his goods it confutes the Anabaptists who hold that all things ought to be common and that no man hath a right and propriety in any thing but if this were true how could Zacheus here give of his own And the Scripture doth every where confute their opinion We are forbidden by Gods Law to steale but what needed a Commandement to inhibit stealing if all things were common for if nothing were more proper to one then another then no man could properly be said to steale Deut. 27.17 They are accursed by God that remove the ancient bounds and markes but if all things were common to what end should there be bounds in mens Lands and possessions The wise man saith withdraw thy foote from thy Neighbours House Prov. 15.17 least he be weary of thee and hate thee but how should any man have a house of his own which might more properly be called his house if all things were common The Apostle saith 1 Tim. 6. Charge them which are rich in this World that they be rich in good works ready to distribute and willing to communicate but how should one man be richer then another or why should we be commanded to give to the poor if no man had more right then another in any thing We see that the Scripture alloweth of Contracts and bargains in buying and selling as Abraham bought a field to bury his dead Gen. 23. And Lydia is recorded to have been a seller of purple Acts 16. But how should it be lawfull either to buy or to sell if all things were common and nothing proper to any man And we see that Zacheus here gives of his goods by all which it is plain that it must needes be an idle conceit of the Anabaptists in holding that no man hath a propriety in any thing Secondly from the example of Zacheus in that he gives away part of his goods we may learn this lesson that when God doth increase our wealth and riches we are not to keep them private to our selves but to make others partakers of them like a conduit which being fed from a Fountain with water retaines not the water within it felf but as freely bestowes it on those that want it Let every one saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 4. As he hath received a gift so let him minister the same one to another as good Stewards of the manifold graces of God So that we are but as Stewards to lay out Gods blessings and to dispose them among others For as God hath given light to the Sun not only that it should be lightsome in it self but that it should give light unto other Creatures as God causeth the rain to fall from Heaven to make the earth fruitful not that it should retain the fruit within it self but that it should bring forth herbes for the use of man So when God powres down his blessings upon us it is for the good and benefit of others We see in the body when the stomack receives any meat or nourishment it imparts the same to the rest of the Members and so must we because we are fellow-Members of the same body God gives severall gifts to severall Members as to the eye to see to the eare to heare to the hand to work to the feet to walk and to the tongue to speak yet they have not these gifts to themselves onely but the tongue speakes the eare heares the handworks and the rest do imploy their severall faculties for the good and benefit of the whole body So it must be with us for those gifts which God bestowes upon us we must not keep them private to our own use but make others also partakers of them as well as our selves And so doth Zacheus who imparts the goods which God hath given him to the benefit of others But let us see now to whom he imparts them I give saith he the half of my goods to the poor not to his kindred or friends that love him nor to the rich that are able to requite him but he gives his goods to the poor that want them Plutarch in Cato Majore Cato dividing the prey among his Souldiers which he had got in the Warres he gave saith Plutarch unto all alike as thinking it better that many should return from the Warres with silver then some few with gold and that all should have something rather then some few should have all and all the rest nothing But God deales otherwise in the distribution of his gifts though he gives something to every man yet he gives not alike unto all men but to some he gives more and to some lesse thereby to exercise them in severall virtues that the poor might be moved to pray unto God for the supply of their wants the rich to thankfulness to God for his blessings and that the poor might labour and take paines for their livings and that the rich might help to relieve them of their superfluity and abundance And therefore Zacheus knowing that God hath given him riches not so much for himself as the good of others he imparts them here to the poor that want them Our giving of Almes is compared by St. Paul 2 Cor. 9.6 To the sowing of seed Now ye know when the Husbandman sowes his seed he soweth it on the ground which lieth bare and naked and not not on the ground which hath already Fruit upon it and thus when we give we must not give unto them that have enough of their own but to those that have nothing Luke 3.11 He saith John the Baptist that hath two coats let him part with the one of them to him that hath none The Widow was counselled by the Prophet Eliseus 2 King 4. To poure her oyle into empty vessels 2 King 4.3 not into vessels that Were full and Would run over but into empty vessels that would hold the more And our Saviour wils us Luke 14. When we make a feast not to invite the rich thereunto Luke 14.12.13 but those that are poor It is said of the Eagle that when she seeks her prey she is commonly attended by the lesser foules upon whom when she hath filled and satisfied her self she bestowes the remainders And thus the poor are commonly waiting at rich mens doors that when the rich are satisfied the poor might be fed with their leavings It is worth the observing how the rich man Luke 16. is left by the Evangelist vvithout all excuse and hath nothing left to alledge for himself why he was so hard-hearted to poor Lazarus If he say that he was not of ability to relieve the poor and that he had but sufficient for himself and his family the Evangelist answers That he was a rich man that he was clothed in purple and fine linnen and that he fared sumptuously every day If he reply that though he were wealthy yet there were so many of the poor
make him secure that he shall enjoy them an hour and as he brought nothing with him when he came into the world so he must leave all behind him when he leaves the world Fulgos lib. 7. cap 2‑ And therefore Saladine a great and victorious Prince in his dayes he gave command when he lay upon his death-bed that at his Funerall his winding-sheet should be carried on a spear before him with this proclamation That of all the victories which Saladine had gotten this winding-sheet was even all that he carried him For when a man dies he must leave all and though he have never so much yet he may die before the day ends So that this is one great inconvenience of the world that whatsoever the world can afford us yet it is but momentary and of short continuance Secondly The pleasures profits and preferments of the world are not only short but even for the time that a man enjoyes them they can never afford him any true contentment Therefore we see that they who have much do still desire more and though they have never so much more then they need yet they are not satisfied with it Plutarch in vita Pyrrhi Plutarch writes of Pyrrhus the King of Epyrus that when he prepared to make warre upon the Romans Cyneas asked him this question what he meant to do if he overcame them The King made answer that then he would leavy a greater Army and subdue Sicily He asked him again what he would do if that he vanquisht them the King answered that then he would go into Africa and bring all Africa under his dominion But saith Cyneas if you subdue all Africa what then will you do why then saith the King we will live merrily together and spend the rest of our dayes in delight and pleasure Alas saith Cyneas if that be all what need all this labour you have a Kingdom already you may live as contentedly with that which you have as if you had more Cui quod satis est non sufficit nihil sufficit He that is not content with that which is sufficient will never be content though he have more then sufficient So that this is another inconvenience of the world that the pleasures profits and preferments thereof can never afford any true contentment A third and last inconvenience is this which indeed is the greatest of all the rest that the more a man loves and affects the world the lesse he is affected with the love of God Therefore our Saviour to shew that the love of God and the love of the world cannot stand together but that he that doth cleave to the one must of necessity leave the other he makes a flat opposition between them Ye cannot saith he serve both God and Mammon We read of Thomas Aquinas the School-man that when he came upon a time to Pope Innocentius the third of that name the Pope had then great store of silver and gold lying before him you see saith the Pope to Thomas Aquinas I cannot say as sometime my Predecessour Saint Peter said Argentum aurum non habeo Acts 3.6 Silver and gold have I none True holy Father answer'd Aquinas but therefore you cannot adde as he did Surge ambula Arise and walk To note unto him that the more he was carefull for the goods of the world the lesse able he was to perforn such good works as the Apostles did For the love of the world and the love of God as I said before cannot stand together We see then what it is to gain the world and withall the discommodities and inconveniences of it Now again though it be great yet it may too dearly be bought as when Gehazi gained two talents of silver but a leprosie withall 2 King 5. If a man should angle with a golden hook all the fish which he took would not make him amends for the losse of it and it is not wisdome to venture any thing where a man may lose more then he can gain by the bargain For gain is not so welcome and acceptable to any man as losse is grievous especially where the gain will not countervail the losse But here indeed is a very great gain the gaining of the world but withall a losse that is far greater the losse of all losses the losse of the soul Let us see therefore now what this losse is The soule as the more excellent part of man is put here by a figure for the whole man the soule for both body and soule together And therefore that which is here called by Saint Matthew the losing of the soul is called by Saint Luke in his 9th Chapter the losing of a mans selfe Luke 9.25 What saith he is a man advantaged if he gain the Whole world and lose himselfe So that the losing of the soul is the losing of a mans selfe both body and soule The greatnesse of which losse will the better appear if we take a view of a double misery which the soul which is lost is to undergo the one in regard of the felicity it loses the joyes of heaven the other in regard of the torments if susters the pains of hell both implied in those words of our Saviour Depart from me ye câ—rsed into everlasting sire For the first The soul which is lost is for ever banisht from the sight of God and therefore being banisht from his sight and presence is withall excluded from all joy and happinesse For the sight of God as the Scripture tels us is that which hereafter shall make us blessed Mat. 5.8 Blessed saith our Saviour Mat. 5. are the pure in heart and he gives this reason for they shall see God So that the sight of God shall make us blessed When Saint Peter saw our Saviour transfigured on the Mount with Moses and Elias he was so affected with the sight that he cried out to our Saviour Master it is good for us to be here if thou wilt saith he let us make three tabernacles one for thee and one for Moses and one for Elias If he were so affected with the glorious presence of Moses and Elias how shall they be affected that shall for ever enjoy the glorious company of all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles of all the blessed Saints and Angels nay of God himself where they shal see him even as he is and face to face as the Apostle speaks Psal 16.11 In thy presence saith David is fulnesse of joyes such fulnesse of joyes that if all the hearts in the world were one yet it could not contain them they cannot possibly enter into man but he that is to be made partaker thereof must enter into them Enter saith our Saviour into thy Masters joy Mat. 25.23 Chrysest de Repar 1 laps such fulnesse of joy that as Chrysostom saith If a man were to endure all the miseries of this life and to suffer the torments of hell for a time
to a little sinne that sinne will grow in the heart as the child growes in the wombe and that if he can bring us to give entertainment but to an angry thought though we count this but a small matter yet it will grow from the heart to the tongue and from the tongue to the hand so that many like Cain begin with anger and end with murder For he knows that little sinnes if we yield unto them will grow to be great ones and will procure our ruin The Swallow in the Fable when she saw the Husband-man begin to sow Hemp-seed in his field she counselled the Birds to peck it up because otherwise if it were let alone it would prove dangerous for them The Birds could not see how so small a seed should do them any harme but afterward vvhen it vvas grovvn ripe and vvas cut dovvn the Husband-man made snares and nets of the Hemp vvhereby the Birds vvere taken Those little sinnes vvhich vve thinke so small that they can do us no harme yet the Devill vvill use them as snares to intrap us and to vvork our destruction And therefore he vvill begin vvith small sinnes and dravv us on by degrees from the lesse to the greater as he drew on Peter from lying to perjury and David from adultery to commit murder And yet that he may the more easily deceive us what sin soever he tempts us unto he will commonly set such a Glosse upon it that it shall seem to be either no sinne at all or a very small matter till we have committed it Nay that which is strange many times when he tempts a man to never so hainous a sinne yet he will make him believe that it is a good vvork and that he shall deserve commendation and reward for the doing of it as when he tempted Paul to persecute the Church he made him believe that he did God good service and when he perswads the Jesuites to the murdering of Princes he make them believe that it is a meritorious worke and puts them in hope of being rewarded by God as the Amalekite was in hope of being rewarded by David 2 Sam. 1.14 15 16. for bringing him word that he had killed King Saul and instead of a reward he was executed for it And as his subtiltie appears in tempting us to evill under the colour of good so likewise in tempting us to do that vvhich is good but to an evill end As vvhen he tempts us vvith the Pharisees to give almes in publicke and openly in the sight and view of the world that vve may be seene of men and commended for it The giving of Almes is a good deed and to give them in publick is likewise lawfull that others may be moved to do the like by our example But the Devill knows that though it be a good deed yet if a man do it openly for vaine glory the good deed becomes evill in the doer of it and therefore he vvill tempt a man to do that vvhich is good where he sees it vvill be a sinne in him that doth it And indeed his craft and subtiltie is such he hath so many vvays to deceive and beguile us that vve have great cause to sear all our vvorks lest we be taken vvith his hook at unawars He will do the best he can to turn those good gifts vvhich God gives unto men to be occasions of sinne Thus many times vvhere God gives Knovvledge and Learning the Divill allures men thereby to pride vvhere God gives beauty the Devill allures men thereby to vvantonnesse vvhere God gives strength the Devill abuseth it to do wrong violence and vvhere God gives vvit the Devill turns it to gibing scoffing at others Yet still vvhen he tempts a man to sin he vvill extenuate the same make it seeme lesse and to make him to yield the more easily unto it he will perswade him that God is infinitely mercifull and that he daily pardons many sinnes of many that are far greater When he hath brought a man to yield to his temptation then he labours to make him continue in his sinne by putting him in hope that he hath a long time to live and that he may repent him when he comes to be old and all in good time And when he hath now brought him to this that he sees him continue secure in his sinnes then he will go a degree further he will labour to hinder him from hearing the word from praying unto God and from all other meanes that might bring him to repentance as the enemy when he hath besieged a City he will stop all the passages and will hinder any from coming to the City for their aide and assistance And these are indeed his most usuall vviles whereby he deceives us And as he is subtil so he is very malicious He would deale with us if God would suffer him as he dealt with Job he would take away from us all that ever we have and would leave us nothing unlesse it were that which might do us harme as when God gave him leave to afflict Job he took away his goods his Servants and his Children but left him his wife to be a crosse unto him Therefore it is that he is called our adversary your adversary saith the Apostle 1 Pet. 5. Like a roaring Lyon walkes about seeking whom he may devoure For such is his malice that he is never at rest but goes compassing the earth from one end to the other Job 1.7 seeking the destruction of the vvhole race of Adam both in body and soule Now if ye ask the reason why the Devill is so maliciously set against man the reason is plain because that man is the Image of God The Devil bears infinite hatred to God for casting him out of Heaven and because he cannot do God any harme yet he seekes maliciously to deface his Image and to be revenged upon man not unlike the Panther whose hatred towards man is so implacable as St. Basil saith that if he see but a mans Picture he will set furiously upon it and tear it in peeces Lastly As his subtilty and malice are great so likewise is his power Therefore Christ calles him the Prince of this World to shew that his power is very great And therefore St. Paul when he tells us that we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against Principalities and Powers he councells us twice in the same Chapter to take and put on the whole Armour of God that so we might be able to resist his temptations We see then what this enemy is whom we are exhorted to resist one that is both subtil and powerfull and malicious Though he were never so malicious against us yet if he were not powerfull withall like a curst Cow as the Proverb is that hath short hornes for want of power to effect his malice we might fear him the lesse Or though he were both malicious and powerfull yet if he were
yet because they are such as hate to be reformed and will not leave their sins God abhors all their service and will rather plague them for praying unto him then accept their prayers For so long as they refuse to obey his lawes he holds them for rebels and professeth himself an enemy to them as they are unto him So that the wicked can have no peace with God because they are his enemies and he theirs only the godly have this peace as being assured by faith that they are reconciled unto God in Christ Jesus as the Apostle saith Rom. 5.1 Being justified by faith we have peace with God through Christ our Lord. They therefore that would be at peace with God they must have faith for like as our faith is so is our peace a true saith a true peace an hypocriticall faith an hypocriticall peace a temporary faith a temporary peace and look where there is a weak or no faith there is likewise a weak or no peace And so the wicked having no faith to believe that God is reconciled unto them they cannot have any peace with God but still look upon him as upon an angry Judge and expect nothing from him but wrath and vengeance for their sin and wickednesse Secondly As the wicked have no peace with God so likewise they have no peace with the creatures which are at enmity with them that are Gods enemies Therefore we see how all the creatures from the greatest to the least have opposed themselves against the wicked and have armed themselves against those that have disobeyed God Therefore God is called the Lord of Hosts as having all creatures as souldiers under him and ready as it were in battail-aray to fight against them that do not serve him If God be offended with the old World for their sins he need not march against them in his own person but the Windows of heaven the Springs of the earth will conspire together to send forth their water to overwhelm them For all the creatures both in heaven and earth do take Gods part to execute vengeance upon his adversaries The Angels destroyed the Army of blasphemous Zenacherib slew the first-born of Egypt and smote Herod 2. King 19.25 The fire from Heaven consumed the Sodomites the two hundred and fifty that offeredincense and Ahaziahs two Captains with their fifties Acts 12.23 Gen. 19. 24. Num. 16.35.2 King 1.10.11 Judges 5.20 Josh 10.11 Exod. 14.28 Num. 16.32 Num. 21.6.2 King 2.24.1 King 13.24.2 King 9.35 Acts 12.23 The Stars in their courses fought against Sicera hailstones from heaven destroyed the Amorites the Waters covered Pharaoh With his whole Army the earth opened and swallowed Corah and his complices Fievy Serpents stung the Israelites that murmured Beares slew the children that derided the Prophet a Lyon the Prophet that disobeyed the Lord the dogges did eat Jezabell and the wormes Herod Humane Authours are full of the like examples how the creatures have been enemies unto the wicked It is very memorable which they report of Ibicus the Poet That being robbed by some ruffians and haled through a field and murdered by them he seeing none by while they were thus haling him but a company of Cranes flying over the field he cried to the Cranes you Cranes shall bear witnesse what they do unto me The murderers were not known for a long time but at last there being a great Solemnity kept in the same field whereat two of the murderers of Ibicus were present suddenly a great noise of Cranes was heard over the field Heark saith one of the murderers to his fellow these are the witnesses which Ibicus said should disclose his death which one over-hearing and knowing that Ibicus had been murdered began to suspect them and telling the Magistrate what he had heard they were sent for and examined and confessed the fact and were condemned and executed It were endlesse to instance in all the particulars how the creatures have set themselves against the wicked to revenge the Lords quarrels and to bring them to confusion that have refused to serve him So we read of Ha to Bonosus the Archbishop of Mentz who was a great enemy to the poor and was wont to call them mise and vermine that when any poor came to him for relief in a dear year he appointed them to go into a barn pretending that he would send them relief thither but when they were there he shut up the doors and set the barn on fire and so burnt them all to death together but afterwards by the just judgement of God he was haunted and assaulted and pursued by mise which could not by any means be kept from him but swam after him through the River Rhene and there devoured him So we read of Hadrian that proud insolent Pope who made the Emperour stoop and hold his stirrop how he was afterwards stifled and choaked by a gnat God shewing by these and the like examples that he hath all creatures at his beck and command to do him service and that he can pull down the pride of the greatest even by the basest creatures The creatures were made for the service of man as man was made for the service of God God giving man soveraignty over the creatures and restoring to himself the Soveraignty over man but because that man rebelled against God the creatures began to rebell against man God making the creatures to become our enemies that were our servants because we that were made to be his servants were become his enemies Therefore though the creatures be at enmity with the wicked yet they are at peace with the godly Psal 34.7 Gen. 19.15 Acts 12.11 Acts 27.23 24. Johsh 10.13 1 King 17.6 Exod. 14.22 Dan. 3.17 Dan. 6.22 Acts 28.5 even from the highest to the lowest The Angels do pitch their tents about them to preserve them from danger freeing Lot out of Sodom Peter out of prison comforting Paul in his dangerous voyage The Sun the Moon will stay their course till Joshuah be fully avenged of his enemies the ravens will minister food to Elias the waters will give way to the children of Israel when they are pursued by the Egyptians the fire will not burn the three children that are cast into the furnace the Lions will not do any hurt to Daniel nor the viper to Paul For the creatures are in league and at peace with them that are at peace with God they do service to them that are Gods servants which because the wicked are not they therefore can neither have peace with God nor yet with the creatures Thirdly the wicked have no peace with men Therefore it is said here in the former verse The wicked are like the troubled sea when it cannot rest whose waters do cast up mire and dirt For the wicked are turbulent of their own nature but if they be stirred or moved never so little they begin like the sea when it is moved with winds to swell and
foam and disgorge their malice against them that offend them Therefore it is said of the wicked Rom. 3. Destruction and misery are in their wayes Ro. 3.16.17 and the way of peace they have not known not known the way of peace either actively or passively either to make peace among those that are at variance or to imbrace and entertain peace when it is offered them by others Gal. 5.22 Gal. 5.20 And therefore the Apostle Gal. 5. names love and peace and long-suffering among the fruits of the spirit and hatred variance and emulation among the Works of the flesh to shew that as the godly who are renewed by the spirit live in unity and peace so the wicked on the contrary are prone by nature to dissention and variance They are easily drawn upon any light occasion to fall out with their neighbours and not easily pacified but hard to be reconciled where they have taken offence Nay they are so far from either making or taking peace that they delight to sow discord and dissention among others like the Scribes and the Pharisees who to make variance between Christ and his Disciples sometimes accused the disciples to Christ Marke 7.5 Mark 2.6 why eat thy disciples with unwashen hands sometimes Christ to his disciples why eats your Master with Publicans anà sinners and all to breed dissention and variance between them But the godly on the contrary who are called by our Saviour The Sons of peace they are peace-makers Luke 10.16 labouring to unite and reconcile those whom they see at variance So we read of Monistia Saint Austins Mother that when she heard there was variance between any of her neighbours she would first go to one of them and relate unto her some good of the other and having brought her to acknowledge it to be true and wonne her to a better liking of her then she would go to the other and tell her that she had heard there was some discontent between her and such a neighbour but hoped it was not true because she had lately been in her company and heard her speak very well of her and so by relating some good between them she would breed a better liking of one to the other Thus the godly seek to reconcile those whom they see at odds Nay if there happens any breach between themselves and others they will seek to be reconciled though it be to their own disadvantage So did Abraham Gen. 13.8.9 Gen. 13. who when there fell a strife between his servants Lots he came unto Lot Let saith he there be no strife I pray thee between thee and me neither between my heard-men and thine for we are brethren Is not the whole land before thee if thou wilt take the left hand I will go to the right or if thou wilt go to the right hand I will take the left Where you see how desirous he was of peace Though Abraham were a better man then Lot yet he stood not upon that he stayed not till Lot would come unto him but he went unto Lot and was the first that sought reconcilement and rather then he would not have reconcilement between them he offers him his choise of the whole land and so was content to purchase peace though it were to his own losse and hinderance For the godly who are the children of God do imitate God Heb. 13.6 who is called in the Scripture the God of peace and therefore they are peace-makers both seeking to unite and reconcile others that are at dissention and desiring if it were possible and as much as lieth in them to have peace with all men whereas for the wicked because they do not delight in peace it is far from them and have not either any peace with God nor peace with the creatures nor peace with men Lastly As they have no peace abroad so none at home as they have no peace with others so none with themselves They carry within them a guilty conscience which doth accuse and condemn them and will not suffer them to be at peace Their conscience indeed doth not always trouble them but then when it doth not their case is more desperate For like as it is in the sicknesse of the body vvhen the pulse doth not beat the body is in a more dangerous estate so it is likevvise in the sicknesse of the soul When the conscience doth not beat and check them for sin their case is more dangerous because it is a signe that their conscience is seared as Saint Paul speaketh with a hot-iron 1 Tim. 4.2 and that their custom of sinning doth take avvay from them the sense of sin and makes them past feeling But when sicknesse or any other crosse or affliction is laid upon them whereby the conscience is wakened again then it begins to torment them afresh and will so terrifie and affright them with the sight of their sins that they shall finde no rest Though the wicked had all the wealth in the world and wanted nothing that their hearts could desire for their outward estate yet as long as their sins are a wound to their souls and a torment to their conscience they can never have any peace in themselves For this peace is only wrought by faith in Christ whereby a man believes that Christ hath made a full satisfaction to God for all his sins and therefore that they shall not be laid to his charge which faith because the wicked have not nor ever can have while they continue in their sins they cannot have this peace and wanting this peace they want the greatest blessing that is For he that hath this peace though he have nothing besides yet he wants not any thing and he that wants this peace though he have every thing else yet indeed he hath nothing This peace is a continuall feast to the godly it makes them to fare as it is said of the rich man in the Gospel every day deliciously And this peace is the fruit of our peace with God which Christ the Prince of peace bath purchased for us and bequeathed unto us and therefore calls it his peace John 15. Peace leave I with you John 14. ◠my Peace give I unto you not as the World gives give I unto you For all the principalities and powers in the World are not able to give us one jot of this Peace The peace which the World gives is false and uncertaine and doth oftten deceive us but this is a true and certaine peace which never fails us the peace which the world gives is onely outward and onely affords us externall content but this peace extends to the quieting of the conscience the peace which the world gives is only transitory as the world is but this is as permanent as the giver of it for this is one of the chief of his gifts whose gifts you know are without repentance And therefore he gives it onely to the godly and
the day of judgement 2 Pet. 3.3 Know this saith Saint Peter that there shall be scoffers in the last dayes Walking after their own lusts saying where is the promise of his coming for since the Fathers fell asleep all things continue say they as they were from the beginning of the creation And thus many because the World hath continued so long a time in the same state do perswade themselves that it shall continue so for ever and that there shall be no end of the World nor day of judgement These Saint Peter in the same place confutes by this reason That though the World have continued in the same state for a long time yet it followes not from thence that therefore the World should continue so for ever for it wa a long time from the Creation of the world till the coming of the floud yet the world was then destroyed by one of the elemente whereof it was made namely by water and so though it seems a long time till the end of the world yet in the end it shall be destroyed by another element namely by Fire And as they who lived in the time of Noah would not be perswaded that the world should be drowned till the floud came suddenly and swept them away so the end of the world and Christs coming to judgement shall as suddenly come upon unbelievers while they think not of it Christ indeed doth deferre his coming in divers respects As that the number of the elect may be fulfill'd whom God hath decreed from all etermity to call in all ages by the preaching of the Gospel till the end of the world that the patience of the faithfull who waite and long for the coming of Christ may be tried and exercised and that the wicked may be left without excuse being forborne so long and having had so large a time of repentance In these respects Christ defers his coming but though his coming be deferr'd for a time yet in the end he will not faile to come as the Scripture assures us by evident testimonies by visible signes and by invisible reasons The testimonies are divers The Prophesie of Enoch which is alleadged by Saint Jude is plaine and evident Jude 14.15 Enoch saith he the seventh from Adam prophesied saying Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute judgement upon all and to convince all the ungodly among them of all their wicked deads Where ye see the world was no sooner made but that the end thereof was presently fore-told for Enoch was but the seventh from Adam and yet he prophesied of Christs coming to judgement and that so plainly as if he had seen him coming Ecce venit Behold saith he he comes Dan. 7.9.10 So Daniel prophesied of the day of judgement I beheld saith he till the thrones were prepared and the auncient of dayes did sit there issued forth a fiery stream and came forth from before him thousand thousands ministred unto him and ten thousand times ten thousand stood before him the judgement was set and the books were opened I saw saith Saint John the dead both small and great stand before the Lord Revel 20.12 and the books were opened and another book was opened which was the book of life and the dead were judged c. Where to shew the certainty of Christs coming to judgement he speaks ye see thereof as if it were past because he shall come at the time appointed as certainly as if he were come already I might alleadge many other places wherein the coming of Christ to judgement is plainly fore-told And as the Scriptures have fore-told Christs coming to judgement so to assure us the better thereof it hath likewise given us many signes which go before it whereby we may know that it will not be long before he come When the King ye know is come to a Town he commonly sends his harbingers before him and when they see his harbingers they say the King is coming because they know by the coming of his harbingers that it will not be long before the King himselfe comes Christ hath given us many signes of the end of the world and his coming to judgement which are as his harbingers sent before his coming and these signes which go before his coming are of two sorts either such as go longer before his coming and are further from it or such as go but hard before and shall be nigh unto it Of the former sort are divers signes as the preaching of the Gospell all over the world foretold by our Saviour Mat. Mat. 24.2 Thes 2. Rom. 11. Luke 17. 24. The revealing of Antichrist that man of sinne and sonne of perdition fore-told by the Apostle 2 Thes 2. The calling of the Jews fore-told by St. Paul Rom. 11. The great security want of faith which shal be found in many foretold by Christ Luke 17. And many other signes which the Scripture mentions many whereof are already past and are fore-runners of the end of the world and shall continue and prolong their course till the very day of Christs coming to judgement Of the second sort are those fearfull signes which the Scripture mentions in divers places as that the earth shall tremble and move out of her place Mat. 24.29 Acts 2.20 that the seas shall roare and make an hidcous noise that the powers of heaven shall be shaken that the starres shall fall from heaven that the Sunne shall be turned into darknesse and the Moon into bloud before that great and notable day of the Lord come These things shall come to passe at the end of the world and when these things come to passe they are evident signs that the end of the world is then hard at hand For like as it is in the body of man when the eyes waxe dimme and the sight failes when all the joynts waxe weake and the whole body trembles it is a signe of old age and a manifest token that he in whom these signes are to be seen is very near his end and cannot hold out long So it is likewise in the great Body of the world when the eyes of the world the Sunne and the Moon begin to wax dim and their light failes when the heavens shall be shaken as it were with a palsie and the earth shall tremble and move out of her place as the Scripture speaks it is a manifest signe that the world is ending Lastly As the Scripture hath foretold the end of the world Christs coming to judgment both by evident testimonies and visible signs so likewise by divers invincible reasons For first all other things which the Scriptures have fore-told are come to passe as namely of Christs first coming in the flesh of the destruction of Jerusalem of the dispersion of the Iows of the coming of Antichrist all which and many other as they have been fore told so they have been likewise accomplisht and therefore the