that it is so the Diuines collect it thus for whereas the true worship and seruice of God doth consist in these three in diligendo honorando Bonauen Centiloq part 1. sect 22. in ipso confidendo In louing God in honoring God in putting our whole confidence and trust in God The Mammonists of this world do take all these from God and giue them to their riches For first though the precept runne thus Deut. 6.5 Thou shalt loue the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soule and with al thy might yet do these men take this loue from God and bestow it on their wealth and therefore Saint Iohn that he might meet with this 1. Epi Ioh. 2.15 Psal 62.2 he giueth this caueat Loue not the world and the Prophet Dauid If riches increase yet saith he do not set your hearts vpon them And for the second which is honor wheras it is the Angels speech vnto vs that dwell vpon the face of the earth Reuel 14.7 Honor and worship him that hath made the heauen the earth the sea and the fountaines of waters these men as it is in the eight of Hosea and fourth verse Of their siluer and their gold do they make them Idols their siluer and gold is the god they worship And lastly for confidence and trust Prou. 16.20 whereas the wise man saith Blessed is the man that trusteth in the Lord these are like vnto the man of whom the Prophet Dauid speaketh Psal 52.1 Behold the man that tooke not God for his strength but trusted in the multitude of his riches So that the riches of the world as wel as the honors of the world are occasions you see vnto men of many sinnes by which they are drawne from the wayes of life If therefore we are desirous to preuent these and the like inticements of the world least by them we be deceiued and so caused to erre from the paths of life our best course is euermore to consider of this world as it is and not as it seemeth Caligula the Emperour set golden loaues and other seruices of whole gold before his guests and bad them eate Indeed they had a glorious shew to looke vpon but there was nothing in them to eate and to drinke for the contentation of nature And such no other are the dainties which the world proposeth vnto vs both in wealth and honour they haue I confesse a glorious shew to the eye but the substance of them being well considered is but vanitie First for honor let Haman speake who was next vnto the King Ester 2.1 and with him was alone inuited to the banquet of Queen Hester Ester 5.4 and when he hath said all that he can for his honor yet the conclusiō of all must be this that it was but vanitie for in that day in which he was entertained with such royaltie at the banquet of Queene Hester Ester 7.1.10 in that same day was he hung vpon the gallowes which he made for Mordecay at the commandement of the King who before had highly honoured him at the request of the Queene who before had inuited him How highly was our Sauiour graced and dignified by the people of the Iewes In the 6. Iohn 6.15 of Iohn they would haue made him King in the 12. Iohn 12.13 of Iohn they cut downe branches of palme trees and meete him singing sweetly Hosanna Blessed art thou that comest in the name of the Lord but see the inconstancy of this people and the mutabilitie of this worldly honour they who before had cried Hosanna Blessed art thou that comest in the name of the Lord not many daies after euen the fift day In cap. 2. Mat. as Saint Hierome hath obserued they crie as earnestly against him Crucifige let him be crucified So true is that which Saint Bernard hath concerning worldly honour Vanitas est huius seculi dignitas cum magna expectatione speratur vt veniat sed non potest teneri cum venerit The honours and preferments of the world are but meere vanities they are long looked for of men to come with great expectation but when once they haue them they are so short and fleeting that they cannot keepe them And for the wealth and riches of the world if you will not beleeue Salomon vpon his word when he calleth them vanity Eccles 1.2 yet beleeue them to be vanitie euen for this because they will haue either thy end or their end Iob 1. their end as they had in Iob who from great wealth came vnto a low ebbe of pouerty or thy end as they had in the rich man who when he sung a long lasting requiem to his soule in the multitude of his riches Luk. 12.19.20 had his soule the same night taken away frō him And is there then beloued such vanity in this world in the best things which this world proposeth both in wealth and honor and shall we for the gaining of this leaue the gaining of such a world as is not subiect vnto vanitie Shal we leaue gold for drosse pearle for glasse heauen for earth the permanent euerlasting ioyes of the one for the momentary and transitory delights of the other The eyes of the brute beasts are turned downward to the earth to seeke for nothing but meate for their bellies At os homini sublime dedit But the face and countenance of man is lifted vpward vnto heauen to behold God who hath made all for man and man for himselfe let vs then leaue the world and the things of the world vnto the beasts to whom properly it belongeth and let vs send vp the affections of our hearts vnto heauen where our inheritance is reserued Gen. 28.11 And as Iacob in that his iourny vnto Padan-Aram is said to sleepe in the way so while we liue here in this world which is nothing else but a passage to a better life or if you will so call it our way and iourney to the heauenly Canaan let vs sleepe and be at rest from the desire of temporall things whatsoeuer let heauen become our obiect and earth become our abiect The desires of our hearts let them be placed vpon things aboue as for things beneath let them be vnto vs as vnto Saint Paul Philip. 3.8 euen losse and dung in regard of the excellent knowledge of Iesus Christ as vnto Chrysostome 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a shadow and a dreame and lighter then these as vnto Plato 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nothing and worth nothing Let vs say with Peter and with Peters affection Behold master Math. 19.27 we forsake all and follow thee let vs say with Saint Paule I am non ego sed viuit in me Christus Now it is not I Galat. 2.20 but Christ which liueth in me that is as Saint Bernard expounds those words very fitly to this purpose Ad alia quidem omnia
him you are not reuiued hath not God called early and late vnto you as vnto his people the Iewes for an absolute relinquishment of sinne hath he not cryed euen out of this place by the shrillest trumpets that our land had to magistrates do iustly to officers liue not by bribes to citizens gaine not by vsury to country gentlemen grow not great by your poore neighbours oppression to all do vnto others as you would be done vnto Verily all this hath God done to bring vs to the wayes of life but with very bad successe for so voluntary an opposition there is betweene mans peruerse will and this holy wil of God that iniquity hath the chaire still triuing writs are in most offices Mammon is the cityzens God and the morter I may not say of al but of many of your goodly buildings abroad are tempered with the teares of Orphanes In this man reignes pride in that man dissention in a third enuy in a fourth dissimulation in some bribery in some periury and in most hypocrisie yea the whole land is couered with a flud of sinne as the old world with a flud of waters and men swim vp and downe in it like fishes in the sea by the motion of their owne passions so that that speech which God taketh vp against the Iews he may fitly take vp against vs and say I haue laboured to purge thy filthinesse but thou art not purged God hath called to the carnal man to forsake his beastly pleasures to the couetous man to relinquish his insatiable desires to the drunken man to forbeare barrelling vp Gods creatures in his belly to the blasphemers to leaue their swearing to the hypocrites to leaue dissembling to all of vs to leaue sinning and to runne the way of his commandements here in earth that hereafter we might receiue a crowne of glorie in heauen but what hath bin our answer surely from the frowardnesse of our hearts and from the obstinate rebellion of our peruerse wils we haue cried with Pharaoh Quis est Dominus Who is the Lord that we should serue him or the God of Iacob that we should regard him If therefore we are desirous to haue this peruersnesse of our wil remoued from vs which we know in most of vs to be a great meanes to keepe vs from the wayes of life then our best course is euermore to subiect our wils vnto the will of God Now the subiecting of our will vnto Gods will consisteth in these three Bernard serm contra pessimū vitium ingratitudinis first that we absolutely will those things which we certainly know God willeth then that we absolutely nil those things which we certainly know God nilleth and lastly that in those things whereof we are vncertaine whether God doth will or nill them neither must we altogether will them neither must we altogether refuse them so subiecting euery way our will vnto the will of God this peruersnesse of will which in most of vs is a second let to keep vs from finding the way of life will be remoued 3. Want of perseuerance Many there be which are willing and desirous to attain eternal life but yet they wil take no pains in the performance of Gods commandements not vnlike vnto Naaman the Syrian who comming to the Prophet to be cured of his leaprosie and the Prophet willing him onely to wash in Iordan seuen times and he should be cleane he stomaketh the matter and breaketh out into these words 2 King 5. I thought saith he that he wold haue come out vnto me and haue called on the name of his God and haue layed his hands vpon me and so I should be healed Here are three things which Naaman would haue done for him first he will haue the Prophet to come forth secondly to call vpon his God thirdly to lay his hands vpon him but in the meane time there is not the least paines mentioned to be vndertaken by himselfe And surely looke how it was with Naaman in the curing of his leaprous body so it is with most of vs in the curing of our leaprous soules we will haue God to do all for vs but we will do nothing for our selues our desire shall be as great for the cleansing of our leaprous soules as Naamans was for the cleansing of his leaprous bodie but if it once come vnto this thou must wash thy selfe in Iordan seuen times that is thou must bathe thy sinfull soule in the poole of repentance and enter in at the straight gate of a holy and religious life then with Naaman we fall to murmuring and we sticke not to say in effect as he said that we looke for a more easie kind of cure in our conuersion But let vs grant that we are willing to performe whatsoeuer is prescribed vnto vs for the finding of this way of life yet vnlesse we do perseuere and continue euen vnto the end in that course it is to smal purpose To haue the Arke of God for a while 1. Sam. 5. did more endanger the Philistines then benefite them and so for men to serue God for a while in a vertuous and religious course of life will more hurt then helpe them 2. Pet. 2.21 for better it is not to haue knowne the way of truth then not to persist in it and farre more happie are those men who haue not entred at all into the wayes of life then Iudas and such wicked ones as he whose ends are worse then their beginnings We do reade in the Gospell Math. 20.8 that some men came into the vineyard in the morning and that some came in at noone but none of these did receiue the reward but such as stayed vntill night to giue vs to vnderstand that they are not initia Christianorum sed fines not the good beginnings but the good endings of Christians which the Lord crowneth The Church of Thyatira in the Reuelation is much commended for this vertue Reuel 2.19 I know thy faith and thy workes and thy loue and that thy last workes are more then thy first and the conclusion of the Epistle vnto that Church and of all the other Epistles is this not he that drawes his sword not he that fighteth the battels of the Lord not he that spends his bloud and after fainteth but he that perseuereth and continueth to the end shall eate of the tree of life Bern. Epist 129 For without perseuerance nec qui pugnat victoriam nec palmam victor consequitur neither he which fighteth the Lords battels against sinne and Sathan can haue the victory nor he which ouercometh can haue the crowne of glorie It is a notable remembrance which our Sauiour Christ giueth vs in the Gospell from the example of Lots wife Luke 17.31 and which Saint Bernard amplifieth very fitly to this purpose Memento vxoris Loth Epist 2. de Sodoma quidem eiectae quia Deo credidit sed in via mutatae quia retro
the preseruation of our soules which we do for the preseruation of our bodily health It is a rule in Phisick Pars maxima sanitatis est notitia morbi the best meanes for a sicke man to recouer his health is to acknowledge his sicknesse For if a man which hath the gout in his toe will not take notice of it but say it is nothing but a tingling in his toe and if a man hath got the cough of the lungs and wil not acknowledge it but say it is nothing but a great cold which he hath takē these diseases wil grow so hard vpon them that at length it will be hard or rather impossible to cure them wheras notice being taken of them in time the danger is the lesse the cure more easie And so the Diuines haue the like rule Pars maxima salutis est notitia peccati The best meanes for a sicke man in soule to be recouered is to acknowledge and take notice of sinne which is the sicknesse of the soule For the man that is ouergrowne with couetousnesse and saith it is but frugalitie which is infected with the sinne of vncleannesse and maintaineth it to be but loue the man who like a swashbuckler is alwayes drawing his sword cutting and hacking the harmelesse and will haue this to haue no worse name then manhood and fortitude these and the like diseases wil grow so hard vpon the soule that it will be a plaine miracle to remoue them whereas they being knowne and acknowledged for sinnes as they are indeed the cure of them is easie and the danger of being drawne out of the waies of life by them is quickly auoided But if the Diuell be thus preuented in this second policie then like a sedulous and industrious enemie he setteth vpon vs with a third for if he perceiue that thou conceiuest aright of thy sinnes as that they are indeed sinnes then he laboureth to deceiue thee with this that Dominus non videt though thou takest them to be sinnes yet saith the diuell the Lord doth not see them and with this haue many bene deceiued In the eighth of Ezechiel and twelfth verse it is Gods speech vnto the Prophet Son of man hast thou seene what the Ancients of Israel do in the darke euery one in the chamber of his imagery for they say the Lord sees vs not the Lord hath forsakē the earth Almighty God shews the Prophet that the ancients of Israel had painted round about their walls euery similitude of creeping things and abhominable beasts and he makes this to be the cause a grosse perswasion that the Lord did not see them But art thou desirous to preuent the diuell in this fallacian also then for thy better instruction let me reason with thee thus He that could espie our first parents hiding themselues among the thicke trees of the garden Gen. 3.9 cannot his eyes find out thy sinne though it be committed in a secret place Psal 94.9 He that planted the eare shall not he heare saith Dauid or he that formed the eye shall not he see As if he had said Make no question but whatsoeuer you speake or do God doth heare it God doth see it It is not with the sight of God as it is with the sight of man if there be not a due and a proportionate distance betweene the sight of man and the obiect the eye of man cannot possibly see it but say God were circumscribed in some one place and grant it were in heauen yet that great distance which is betweene heauen and earth euen seuen score and eighteene thousand foure hundred and sixtie three miles as the Astronomers haue coniectured yet doth not this great distance hinder God from seeing our sinnes Psal 14.2 For the Lord looked downe from heauen vpon the children of men what to do to see if any would vnderstand and seeeke after God but looking downe he saw that all were gone out of the way that there was none that did good no not one But if the Diuell preuaile not with this third fallacian then behold a fourth for doth God see thy sin saith Sathan yet be bold to sinne still for God is so mercifull August in Psa 144. that he will not punish sinne It is Saint Augustines complaint that there be two sorts of men which do snatch occasions of sinning to themselues the one from the mercie the other from the iustice of God One saith God will take so strict and seuere an account of our doings that we shall not be able to answer one for a thousand and therefore saith he being sure to be damned cur non facio quiquid volo why do I not whatsoeuer I wil The other he saith Gods mercie is aboue his workes and at what time soeuer I repent though it be at the last gaspe he wil receiue me with the armes of his mercy as he did the theefe vpon the crosse and therefore why do not I go on still in my wickednesse Desperat ille vt peccet sperat iste vt peccet vtrumque metuendum the one despaireth that he may sinne still the other hopeth that he may sinne still and both are to be feared But for those which dreame altogether of Gods mercie that this fallacian of the diuels by which many thousands are drawne from the wayes of life may be preuented let them remember that God as he is mercifull so he is iust In the 116. Psalme and fifth verse The Lord is mercifull and iust saith Dauid not mercifull alone but iust also And as we cannot bide our sinnes from the all-seeing eye of God so we cannot be defended frō the strong arme of his iustice In the 6. of Genesis and 12. verse it is said that God looked downe vpon the earth and seeing that all flesh had corrupted his wayes he saith to Noah An end of al flesh is come before me for the earth is filled with crueltie through them and behold I will destroy them from the earth In which words we may obserue first that God sees our sinnes secondly that though he seeth sinne yet he is mercifull and thirdly that as he is mercifull so he is iust God looked downe vpon the earth and saw that all flesh had corrupted his way there is the first Gods sight of sinne the earth is filled with crueltie there is the second the mercie of God and long suffering for he doth not presently execute iudgement vpon them but stayed so long till the earth was full of crueltie And behold I will destroy them from the earth there is Gods iustice But if the diuell by none of these be able to deceiue vs and to draw vs from the wayes of life then he hath a fift which shall be my last at this time He setteth before our eyes the good and pleasure that doth accompany our sinne and indeede these are shrewd temptations vnto flesh and blood Psal 133.1 The Prophet Dauid maketh choise of these two
be brought before a Iudge and the iudge shall deliuer thee to a iaylour and the iaylour shall cast thee into prison from whence thou shalt neuer be released And therefore howsoeuer there hath heretofore bene no impression in our hearts of this iudgement to come yet hereafter as Saint Hierom confesseth of himselfe siue comedas siue bibas whether thou eatest or drinkest whether thou wakest or sleepest whether thou walkest abroad or stayest at home let that be euer sounding in thy eares which was euer sounding in his eares Surgite mortui venite ad iudicium Arise ô you dead and come to iudgement Thus much for the first consideration That there will be a comming of the Sonne of man to iudgement I come to the second 2. That this his comming vnto Iudgement will be terrible In the ninth of Esay and sixt verse the Prophet speaking of the coming of our Sauior Christ he saith thus Paruulus natus est nobis A child is borne vnto vs and his name shall be called Wonderful Counseller the euerlasting Father the Prince of peace and in the 21. of Matthew and fift verse there is the prophesie fulfilled Ecce Rex tuus venit tibi mansuetus Tel ye the daughter of Sion Behold thy King commeth vnto thee meek But that setteth out his first coming but now we are to lay opeÌ„ his second comming Then he came in humilitie but now we are to speake of his comming in glorie Then he came like milde and little Dauid 1. Sam. 17. to free vs from the Diuel that great Goliah but hereafter he wil come like angry and armed Dauid 2. Sam. 25. against ingratefull Nabals Then he came with comforts in his right hand for he came not to call the righteous Math. 9.13 Iohn 5.29 but sinners to repentance but hereafter he shall come with terrour in his left hand for he shall call the vnrepentant sinners vnto iudgement Then that the world might be crucified vnto vs and we vnto the world Christ Iesus vouchsafed to be crucified in the world but hereafter because the preaching of Christ his crosse is accounted foolishnesse by the wicked world therefore Iesus Christ wil come to crucifie the world Then the people shouted Mat. 21.9 Mat. 24.30 and distinctly cried Hosanna for ioy but hereafter the wicked shall yell make a confused noise for feare yea so fearfull wil this his second comming vnto iudgement be that Saint Paul disputing of it before Felix as I now before you it made the very heart of Felix to tremble Act. 24.26 And no maruell for if that first apparition of God was so fearfull and terrible to the people of the Iewes Exodus 20.18 that Moses himselfe said I feare and tremble and the people fled and stood a farre off and sayd to Moses Talke thou with vs and we will heare but let not God talke with vs least we die how fearfull then and terrible will his second comming be For at that first appearing he came onely to giue them lawes but at this second he will come to punish the transgressors of his lawes Hest 15.10 Surely if Hester fell vpon the ground and life for a time went out at the gates of her body when she beheld the maiestie of Assuerus the King Dan. 8.17 if Daniel in the eight chapter of his prophesie at the sight of an Angell trembled and was sore afraid Mat. 28.4 if the keepers of the sepulcher in the day of our Sauiour his resurrection were terrified and became as dead men if the Iewes comming armed into the garden to apprehend Iesus Iohn 18.6 when they heard him but say Ego sum I am the man if they fell backward vpon the ground and became as dead men O then what shall miserable men and women do when they shall see Iesus Christ not yeelding vp his body to be punished by sinners as then but comming in the clouds with power and great glorie to punish sinners Luke 21. â—9 Indeede if there were the same meanes and such hopes of preseruing men froÌ„ the iudgement to come as there are of preuenting iudgement and iustice here vpon the earth then the feare thereof were altogether needlesse but you shall see the case is farre different For first here vpon earth when men stand vpon life and death intercession is made by others for the procurement of their deliuery yea oftentimes speeches in commendation of the prisoner are admitted by the bench Plutarch for so was the custome among the Romanes till the law of Pompey tooke it away But in the day of the last iudgement there will be no place for intercession 2. Sam. 14. 1 Sam. 25 there shall then be no Ioab to intreate for Absolom there shall then be no Abigail to speake for Nabal The truth of which doctrine is most euident in the Scriptures for looke into the 22. of Matthew and 13. verse and you shall there see that the partie that had not on a wedding garment was commaunded out of the bride-house and cast into vtter darknesse and no man did once intreate for him Looke into the 25. of Matthew and 28. verse and you shall there likewise see that the seruant which had receiued but one talent and without any employment to his masters aduantage had hid it in the earth had his talent taken from him and was cast into vtter darknesse and no man intreated for him Nay looke but into the verse going next before my text and you shall heare the fiue foolish virgins crying Lord Lord open vnto vs. And receiuing this vncomfortable answer from the mouth of comfort it selfe Ini â—â—um Deus scit in examine nescit in amore Greg. in Iob lib. 11 cap 7. Nescio vos I know you not that is I haue reiected you I haue reprobated you and none no not their late familiar friends and companions the other wise virgins requested fauour for them Againe here vpon earth though no man intreate for an offender yet oftentimes the fresh memory of his ancestors good deeds and the good demerits of his friends that be liuing may moue the Iudge to pity and compassion but for a man to trust to this fauour in the day of iudgement were to leane vpon a broken reed for the men that do best fulfill the commandements of God are tearmed in the 17. of Saint Luke and 10. verse Serui inutiles Vnprofitable seruants And then as the fiue wise virgins answered the fiue foolish Mat. 25.9 We cannot giue you of our oile least peraduenture there will not be enough for vs you so the best men that be cannot lend their friends any of their good workes for if they do without all peraduenture they will leaue too few for themselues And thirdly though neither of these two do come to passe yet many times the subtiltie of the offender and his cunning contriued speech do ouer-reach the wisedome of the Iudge but this hope shall faile
concealeth the time and expresseth onely the manner of his coming And therefore for any man to thinke himselfe sufficiently instructed of the time of Christ his coming by reason of those prognosticke signes which our Sauiour hath set downe it is a grosse and a foolish impiety Yea saith Saint Austin Epist 7 8. to take a computation of times that therby we may know when the end of the world and Christ his coming shall be Nihil videtur aliud quà m scire velle quod Christus ait scire neminem posse It is nothing else but to be desirous to know that which our Sauiour Christ hath said no man can know For of that day and houre knoweth no man saith Christ Mat. 24.36 no not the Angels of heauen but my Father onely Nay in the 13. of Saint Marke and 32. verse he excepteth against himself to leue the high knowledge therof to his Father Of that day and houre knoweth no man no not the Angels which are in heauen neither the Sonne himselfe as he is man only saue the Father And therfore that the world might be the better resolued in this point in the vncertainty of his coming vnto iudgment besides those many watchwords of his to the world It is not for you to know the times and seasons which the father hath put in his owne power Math. 24.42 Math. 25.13 Mark 13.33 You know not what houre your maister will come You know not the day nor the houre when the Sonne of man will come Yee know not when the time is and the like He hath in the Gospell compared his coming vnto three things which come most sodainly and before we are aware and these are a snare a thiefe and the floud of Noah In the 21. of Luke and 34. verse he resembleth the day of his coming vnto iudgement to a snare Take heed vnto your selues least at any time your hearts be ouercome with surfetting and drunkennesse and the cares of this life and least that day come on you at vnawares for as a snare shall it come on all theÌ„ that dwell on the face of the whole earth A snare you know entaÌ„gleth on the sodaine and the birds and wilde beasts whilst fâ—arelesse of danger they are intentiue to their foode they sodainly fall into it And so it is with man saith Solomon he considereth not his end Eccles 9.12 But as the fishes which are taken in a net and as the birds which are caught in a snare so are the children of men snared in the euill when it falleth sodainly vpon them Men may feast it merrily with Iobs children Iob. 1.19 Dan. 5.3 and be frolick with their companions amidst their cups with Balthassar and as it is in the 21. of Iob they may call for the Tabret and the Harpe and reioyce in the sound of Organs but on the sodaine euen before they be aware August Epist 80. they go downe into the graue saith Iob that is they fal into the snare of death and so consequently into the snare of iudgement For Qualis in die isto quisque moritur talis in die illo iudicabitur as the day of mans death leaues him so the day of Gods last iudgement shall finde him And as Christ for the sodainesse vncertainty of his coming compareth it to a snare so he compareth it likewise to the coming of a theefe Math. 24.43 If the good man of the house did know at what houre the theefe would come he would surely watch and not suffer his house to be digged through And therefore be ye also ready for in the houre ye think not wil the son of man come The Apostle Peter in his second Epistle 3.10 makes the same resemblance The day of the Lord will come euen as a theefe in the night in the which the heauens shall passe away with a noyse and the elements shall melt with heat and the earth with the works that are therein shall be burnt vp And Saint Paule 1. Thess 5.2 handling the same argument hath the very same The day of the Lord shall come as a theefe in the night and when men shall say peace and safety then shall come vpon them sodaine destruction as the trauell vpon a woman with child and they shall not escape And as the day of Christ his comming is compared for the vncertaintie thereof vnto a snare and a theefe so for the same cause it is compared by him to the floud of Noah Math. 24.36 As the dayes of Noah were so likewise saith Christ shal the comming of the Sonne of man be For as in the dayes before the floud they did eate drink mary 〈◊〉 giue in mariage vnto the day that Noah entred into the Ark and knew nothing til the floud came and tooke them all away so shall also the comming of the sonne of man be And therefore â—hat answer which our Sauiour gaue to the Pharises question Luk. 17. and 20. vâ—â— may well be the conclusion of this point The kingdome of God cometh not with obseruation that is saith the Glosse it cometh not with the obseruation of the time as if he had said haply some Astronomer or other is so cunning as to tell you when the cloudes will drop but at what time the Sonne of man shall come to iudgement in the cloudes no Astronomer is so cunning as to tell you that for of that day houre knoweth no man no not the Angels in heauen nor the Sonne himselfe but the Father onely Well then beloued these three points being thus cleared First that their will be a comming of the Sonne of man to iudgement Secondly that this his comming vnto iudgement will be fearfull and terrible And thirdly that the time of this his comming is vncertaine we know not when what remaineth now but the vse which we are to make of all these and that is a vigilant and carefull preparation of our selues against his comming prescribed in the first words Vigilate igitur Watch therefore In the first of Ieremy the Prophet at the first saw nothing but a rod but after saith the text he beheld seething pot And so the wicked and vngodly people haply they may see and feele in this world nothing but rods light and slight punishments but the time will come when Salomons rods shall be turned into Rehoboams Scorpions and the Prophet Ieremies rod will proue a seething pot For as flesh is pâ—â— into a seething pot so the bodies and soules of men in regard of their sinnes committed in the flesh shall be cast into the seething and boyling lake of hell At which time they shall haue nothing to comfort them either aboue them or beneath them on the right hand or on the left within them or without them Aboue them shall be the angry Iudge for their wickednesse condemning them beneath them shal be hel open and the fornace boyling to receiue them on their right hand shal be their sinnes accusing them on