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
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
best counsel which he could give them to leave their unjust and unlawfull exactions because this was the vice which was most ordinary among them in regard whereof the Publicans were alwayes had among the Jews in the greatest disgrace of all others And therefore the Pharisees Mat. 9. accused our Saviour unto his Disciples for eating with Publicans Mat. 9.11 Why eates say they your Master with Publicans and sinners as thinking the Publicans to be so vile persons that it was a disgrace for any honest man to be in company with them And our Saviour himselfe Mat. 18. speaking of such a man as having trespassed against his brother and done him wrong and yet will not be wonne by fair means or foule neither by private or publick admonition Let such a man saith he be unto thee as a Publican or Heathen Mat. 18.17 Noting thereby that such a man is incorrigible and his case desperate and therefore that there is no more hope to be conceived of him then there is of a Publican And Matth. 21. reproving the chief Priests and the Elders for their great unbelief and disobedience he tels them That even the Publicans and the harlots should go before them into the Kingdom of God Mat. 21.31 shewing them thereby that there was small hope for them to be admitted into Heaven when the most notorious sinners even Publicans and harlots should take place before them Thus the name of a Publican is a name of disgrace for they seldome ye see appear in the Book of God but they come shackled together with desperate persons somtime with sinners somtime with harlots and somtime again with heathen or infidels But Zacheus here was not onely a Publican but the chiefe among them so that if the Publicans were such notorious sinners then what was he that was the chiefe of the Publicans And therefore the people had so bad an opinion of him that though they saw how earnestly he desired to see Christ for which they might have thought the better of him yet they murmured when our Saviour went into his house because he would lodge with so sinfull a man And yet Zacheus though he be the chiefe of the Publicans and a man reputed to be so wicked yet it is he that is here converted by Christ and brings forth such fruit of his conversion And from hence we may learn two speciall Lessons First To admire Gods infinite power who is able to make us new creatures though we be never so wicked and to restore us again to his own Image It is said of Apelles an excellent painter that having made an exquisite picture it was afterwards by chance so strangely defaced that no man was able to repair the same but only Apelles himselfe that made it And thus man having lost the Image of God wherein God created him God only is able to renue the same and by casting us again as it were into a new mould to make us the Sons of the living God If a man should make any curious work though the matter whereof he made it were either gold or silver yet we would like his workmanship and commend him for it but if he should take the drosse thereof and to shew his cunning should make as exquisite a piece of work as the former then we would have him in admiration But God even of the scum as it were of the people even of those that of all other are the vilest of sinners he makes singular instruments of his own glory and inables them to bring forth excellent fruits by converting them to grace as he did here Zacheus which may teach us to admire his infinite power Secondly Seeing Zacheus is here converted it may teach us neither to judge rashly of others nor to despaire of our selves though we have been never so hainous sinners For who can despair of Gods mercy which extends it self even to those that are Publicans The whole Scripture is written for our instruction and there is not so much as one example in the whole Book of God but a man may make excellent use of it if he will apply it unto himselfe For to what end are there set down in the Scripture so many examples of Gods wonderfull mercies to grievous sinners but that we might learn not to despair of mercy by applying these examples unto our selves When we read of Zacheus here that though he were a Publican and a grievous sinner yet as soon as he had a desire to see Christ and sought for grace Christ called him unto him and offered him grace are we not to make this use hereof that how lewdly soever we have lived herecofore yet if we have a desire to entertain Christ in our hearts he will offer himselfe unto us as he did to Zacheus When we read of the Publican in the former Chapter who being truely humbled with the sight of his sins went into the Temple and prayed unto God O God be mercifull to me a sinner and that he went away justified are we not to make this use thereof that if we will humble our selves and acknowledge our sin God will likewise forgive us as he forgave that Publican In a word vvhen vve read of the young unthrift in the Gospell who though he had left his Father and his Countrey though he had spent his patrimony and that very lewdly yet after that he repented and returned to his Father his Father went out to meet him and when he saw him he was so joyfull for his Sons return that he never expostulated vvhy he had left him he never demanded hovv he had spent his portion but forgetting all his former levvd behaviour he entertained him as gladly as if he had never offended him are vve not to make this use thereof that though we have run riot with the Prodigal and lived never so levvdly yet if vve repent and return unto God he vvill receive us into favour as he did this Prodigall For these things are written for our instruction that we might apply the same to our selves and finde comfort in them It vvas a custome among some of the Heathen that vvhen any man vvas cured of any dangerous disease he vvent into the Temple of Aesculapius and there he registred his name and disease and the means whereby he was restored to his health and the reason of this custome among them was this that if any man fell afterwards into the like disease he might there finde the means which he was to use for his recovery And thus have Gods Secretaries the pen-men of the Scriptures set down in the Book of God many severall examples of such as have been hainous and notorious sinners to the intent that we observing both how they fell and were aftervvards restored finding mercy through their unfeigned repentance might learn by their examples not to despair of mercy And therefore to conclude the first point when soever thou art ready to despair of Gods mercy through the
that it vvas not for him to relieve them all the Evangelist ansvvers that there vvas but one If he reply again that though there vvas but one yet he vvas such a one as needed not to have begged but vvas able enough to have laboured for his living the Evangelist answers That he could not labour for he was full of sores If he reply again that though he were full of sores yet he was not in any great want and necessity the Evangelist answers that he was so hungry that he would have been glad of the very crums which fell from his Table In a word if he reply again that though he was hungry yet he would not stay till he might be served and that he might have been served if he would have stayed the Evangelist answers that he stayed long enough for he lay at his Gates And as he is left without all excuse so are all they that turn avvay their ears from the cries of the poor For first lest any man should imagine That giving to the poor is no matter of necessity but left to every mans ovvn discretion God hath given strick charge and command for the performance of this duty Deut 15.11 Because there shall ever be some poor in the Land therefore I command thee saying thou shalt open thy hand unto thy brother to the poor and needy in the Land Charge them saith Saint Paul 1 Tim. 6.18 that are rich in this world that they do good and be rich in good works and that they be ready to distribute and willing to communicate Least any man should think again that this is a duty which is imposed only upon those that are of ability and that it concerns not those that have but sufficient to maintain themselves Ephes 4.28 the same Apostle tels us That though we have not of our own to give yet we must labour and work with our hands that we may have to give unto him that needs Least any man should think again that so he himself may come into want by giving to others God hath given us his promise that while we supply the wants of others he will give us this blessing Prov. 28.27 that we shall not want our selves He that gives unto the poor he shall not want he shall be like unto a garden that is watered Esay 58.11 or like unto a spring of waters whose waters faile not Thus the widow of Sareptha 1 King 17. while she imparted her meale and her orle to the Prophet God gave such a blessing to that little which she had that whatsoever she spent yet it decreased not and thus while we supply the wants of others we shall have this blessing that we shall not want our selves Prov. 19.17 He that gives unto the poore he lends unto the Lord and the Lord will recompence him that which he hath given Is not the poor then worthy that we should give him almes yet God is worthy that requires it at our hands Hath not the poor deserved that we should give him any thing yet God hath deserved whatsoever we can give him Is not the poor of ability to pay us again yet God is able and he hath promised to pay us for him O saith Saint Basil upon the 14th Psalm Wouldst thou not have the Lord of heaven and earth be indebted unto thee If any wealthy man saith he in the City should promise to pay thee for an other thou wouldst take his word and art thou afraid to take Gods word when he hath bound himself by promise to pay thee for the poor Indeed Evaegrius the Philosopher as we read of him being exhorted by Synesius the Bishop of Alexandria to give some part of his goods to the poor and that God would repay him an hundreed sold for it he could hardly be brought to believe this doctrine and therefore before he would give any thing to the poore he took a Bond of the Bishop for Gods payment of it But is not God to be credited without a pawne and shall we doubt of Gods payment for that which we lend him Deus in paupere absconditur saith Chrysostom panper quidem porrigit manum sed Deus Juscipit donum God lyeth hidden in the poore man It is the poor man indeed that stretcheth sorth his hand to take thy almes but it is God that takes them And therefore we may well be assured that what we give to the poore God will ' pay it us againe One writes of St. Thomas the Apostle that he being commended to Gnodophrus the King of India Rom. 15.20 Gal. 2.18 for a skilfull builder as the Apostles are compared in the Scripture to builders he was appointed by the King to build him a sumptuous and stately pallace St. Thomas having received a great summe of mony of the King for the same purpose distributed the mony among the poor The King being therefore incensed against him caused him presently to be apprehended and clapt him in prison It happened in the meane time that the Kings brother fell sick and died and afterwards being carried forth to be buried he revived upon the suddain and was brought back againe And coming to the King he told him what he had seen and heard in Heaven that he had seen a very goodly Pallace which was newly erected and that he had heard it was built by St. Thomas for the King of India but that the King had made himself unworthy of it whereupon St. Thomas was set at liberty and the King by hearing the Apostles doctrine was soone after converted to Christianity The History it self may well be but a siction but this is most certaine that whatsoever we give to the poore upon earth is rewarded in Heaven Come ye blessed of my Father will Christ say at the day of Judgement Math. 25â— inherite the Kingdom prepared for you For when I Was hungry ye gave me to eate when I was thirsty ye gave me to drink c And when the godly who are unwilling to justifie themselves shal say unto him Lord when saw we thee hungry and gave thee meate When saw we thee a stranger and provided thee harbour c. Verily will Christ say in as much as ye have done it to one of the least of these my Brethren ye have done it to me Thus he counts that what we give to the poor we give it to him and he wil reward us as if he himself had received it But it may be demanded what kind of poor are to be relieved For answer whereof we must distinguish of such as are poor For some become poor and fall into want through their own fault and that especially two wayes First by unthriftiness as by gaming drinking keeping ill Company and unnecessary mispending that portion of goods which God hath given them These howsoever the World accounts them good-fellowes yet God reputes them no better then the theeves and no doubt without their repentance and
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
yet he might well be content to indure them all for the joyes of Heaven St. Augustine saith more That if a man were to injoy all the pleasures of this life August lib. de morib and that for innumerable years together yet he might well be content to contemn them all for the joyes of Heaven though he were to enjoy them but for one day and no longer For one day in thy Courts saith the Prophet David Psal 84.10 is better then a thousand If one day there be better then a thousand here how happy are they that shall injoy this happiness even for ever and ever For there God will as it were share himself and all that he hath among his Saints there he will make them all Kings and Princes and will give them saith St. Peter 1 Pet. 5.4 a Crown of glory which shall never decay There the Lord of Hosts saith Esay will make them a Feast Esay 25.6 Convivium pinguium et vini defoecati a feast of fat things and the purest wines there they shall be filled saith David with the fatness of thy House and thou shalt give them to drink out of the Rivers of thy pleasures Thus God to set as it were our teeth an edge with the joyes of heaven hath given us in his word a taste thereof beforehand but with this reservation that the eye hath not seen the care hath not heard 1 Cor. 2.9 neither hath it entred into the heart of man what God hath prepared for them that love him Therefore David cries out with admiration Psal 31.19 ó quà m magna est bonitas c. O how great is thy goodnesse which thou hast laid up for them that feare thee how great saith he is thy goodness he knew it was great but how great he knew not And therefore St. Paul calls it the glory that shall be revealed it shal be revealed Rom. 8.18 but as yet it is not For we shal not know it until we injoy it when we enjoy it we shal find it far greater then ever we expected That as the Queen of Sheba when she had seen the wisdom and glory of Solomon she confest that she believed not the report thereof untill she had seen it and when she had seen it 1 Kings 10.7 that she found that the half had not been reported So then we shall say many excellent things have been spoken of thee thou City of God which at first when we heard the report was so great that we could hardly believe it but now we see that we heard not then of the half of thy glory and though the happiness which we expected was very great yet we find it far greater then ever we expected Now the more unspeakable this happiness is and the greater these joyes the more miserable is the soule that may not injoy them and the more intolerably is the losse of the soule that is banisht from them When Absolon was banished from the Kings Court and might not be admitted into the presence of David it was such a vexation and torment unto him that he wished rather to die if he had deserved it then to live as he did for a time in banishment 2 Sam. 14.32 Then how wretched and miserable is their condition that shall for ever be banished from the presence of God and the joyes of Heaven And yet this is not all for though the losse of their joyes were misery enough though there were no more yet that which remaines is farre more intolerable For they shall not onely lose all these joyes but withall they shall suffer extream torments The torments they shall suffer is Hell-fire the manner in every part and Member and the time or continuance even for ever and ever The fire which we have ye know is so terrible that a man would not for any thing hold his arme therein but for the space of an houre If therefore the fire which we have here be so terrible which God hath ordained for mans use and comfort how terrible is that fire which God hath onely prepared for a torment Here whatsoever a man suffers yet he is not tormented in every Member but some suffer in one part and some in another but there every part shall be tormented and all together Here whatsoever a man suffers yet it continues not long and the paine the more violent it is the lesse it continues but there though the paines be never so intolerable yet they must suffer them for ever If it were but for so many thousands of years as there were severall houres from the Creation of the world to the day of judgement yet they might comfort themselves in this that there would come a time when their torments should cease but what comfort can they have when they consider with themselves that when they have continued never so long therein yet still they are as farre from the end thereof as they were at the beginning But here by the way two questions may be propounded First How it is possible that the bodies of the wicked should continue for ever in Hell-fire and not be consumed And Secondly how it can stand with the justice of God to punish the temporall sinnes of men with eternall punishment For the first we see that the fire which we have will consume and burn to nothing in a very short time even those things which are more durable then our bodies are and therefore how should the bodies of the wicked lie burning for ever in Hell-fire and not be consumed But if we consider Gods infinit power we need not to make any doubt hereof because he that hath said it is able to perform it For God that was able to bring this to passe for the Children of Israel that their Cloathes waxt not old Deut. 20.5 nor their shoes wore out while they lived in the desert forty years together God that was able to preserve the three Children in the fiery Furnace Dan. 3.27 so that the fire had no power to hurt their bodies and God that was able to preserve the Bush in the third of Exodus that though the fire did burn it yet it did not consume it he is able like wise to bring this to passe that the bodies of the wicked though they lie burning for ever in Hell-fire yet they shall never be consumed But the second question is somewhat more difficult how it can stand with the justice of God to punish the temporall sinnes of men with eternall punishment For the punishment must not exceed the fault it being against the rule of justice to inflict any punishment that is greater then the offence And therefore we see Revel 18. Revel 18.7 That God did proportion the punishment of Babylon to the measure of her sinne how much she hath exalted her self and lived deliciously give her saith God so much torment and sorrow But the pleasure of sinne Heb. 11.25 as the
that is into heaven keep the Commandements And heaven is called Psal 25. the land of the living I should saith David have utterly fainted but that I believe verily to see the goodnesse of the Lord in the land of the living that is in heaven for there they live eternally and never die In hell there is a quite contrary law that they die eternally Therefore it is said of the wicked Psal 49. They lie in hell like sheep and death gnawes upon them because there they suffer the second death which is everlasting And here upon earth there is a third law between them both Heb. 9.27 That every one living shall once suffer death Therefore saith the Apostle Heb. 9. It is appointed unto all men that they shall once dye not live here for ever as they do in heaven nor die for ever as they do in hell but once they must die and this is a law which all that live on the face of the earth are subject unto God hath given great priviledges to many of his servants and hath miraculously preserved them from many dangers Exed 34.28 1 King 19.8 Dan. 3.25 Mat. 14.29 Josh 10.12.13 some he hath preserved without any nourishment for many weeks together as Moses and Elius some he hath preserved in the midst of fire as the three children in the furnace some he hath inabled to walk upon the waters as Peter did some he hath inabled to stay the course of the Sun as Joshuah did but to stay and hinder the course of death and to free men from the same this is a priviledge which God never gave to any of his servants Therefore even they that lived before the deluge though some of them lived seven hundred years some eight hundred some nine hundred years and upwards yet they died in the end nature delaying more and more in them till it were quite spent as a candle being lighted wastes by little and little till it quite goes out Seeing then it is certain that we shall die this may therefore teach us to fit and prepare our selves against the coming of death by frequent meditation and remembrance thereof The oftner a man bethinks him of death the better he will be prepared for it as a man that foresees and expects a storm he will provide himself the better against it come And herein the Heathen themselves may be patterns unto us who though they knew not God nor the punishment of sin in the world to come yet knowing they should die they used many strange and memorable devises to put them in mind of their mortality Ortelius writes of a Countrey in the World where the people do use the bones of dead men in stead of their coin which being continually before their eyes they cannot but continually remember their ends Plutarch writes of Ptolomie the King of Egypt That alwayes when he made any sumptuous feast among the rest of his dishes the skull and bones of a dead man were brought in a platter and set before him and one was appointed to say thus unto him Plutarch in Conviv Sept. Sapientum Behold O King and consider with thy selfe this president of death that he whose skull and bones thou now seest was once like thy selfe and the time will come when thou shalt be like unto him and thy skull and bones shall be brought hereafter to the Kings table as now his are to thint Isodore writes That it was a custome in Constantinople that alwayes at the time of the Emperours Coronation among other Solemnities this was one A free Mason presented the Emperour with divers sorts of marble and asked him of which of them he should make his Tomb that so he might remember even then when he was in the height of his glory that he was but mortall Dion writes of Severus a Roman Emperour That while he lived he caused his Hearse to be made and was often wont to go in into it adding these words Thou O Herse as small as thou art must contain him whom now the whole world is searce able to contain If these who were Heathen were so mindfull of their ends what should we that are Christians We know that God hath made the end of our life the manner of our death and the place thereof to be unknown and uncertain that we might alwayes have it in expectation So saith Saint Augustine Latet ultimus dies ut observentur omnes dies Augustine Hom. 13. The last day of our lives is hidden from us that that day might be expected all the dayes of our lives And indeed the reason why we are not prepared for the comming of death is because we seldom or never think of dying for who of us almost have any thought thereof till either sicknesse or age the two Serjeants of death do come to arrest us or if at any other time we bethink us thereof it is only then when we hear the Bell to ring out for any or when we see some of our neighbours to lie upon their death-bed and past recovery Then it may be we think of our ends and that it is high time for us to prepare our selves for death that we may be in a readinesse against God shall call us But these meditations are but for a fit and they presently vanish I have seen somtimes when a Fowler coming to a Tree where there were store of birds and hath killed any one of them all the rest have immediately flown away but presently after forgetting the danger wherein they were before they have all of them returned to the same Tree And do not we resemble these silly birds when death comes to our houses and takes away any one of us we are all amazed and we presently think that the next course may be ours and therefore that it behooves us to reform our lives but presently after when the remembrance of death is out of our minds we return again to our former courses But he that will be provided against the coming of death must alwayes have death in his remembrance Tota vita sapientis debet esse meditatio mortis The whole life saith Gregory of a wise man ought to be a meditation of death That as the birth of sin was the death of man so the meditation of death may be the death of sin And as David here by comparing us to grasse and the flowers of the field implyeth thereby the certainty of our death that we shall as certainly die as we are sure that these shall fade and wither So he implyeth hereby the shortnesse of our life that we shall not live long but shall die soon as the grasse and flowers do fade and decay in a short time Theodorus Gaza tels us of a father that had twelve sons and each of those brethren had thirty children yet every one of them expired soon The father expired within the compasse of a year never a one of his sons but expired in a moneth and
the Lord Deut. 32. kill and make alive I wound I heal Therefore he wils us to call upon him in the time of trouble and he will deliver us Deut. 32.32 For howsoever by our sins we provoke him to afflict us yet if we call upon him for mercy and grace he hath an ear to hear us an eye to behold us a heart to pity us and an hand to help us And thus much concerning the first point the Agēt or party afflicting That it is God that chastens I come now to the second namely The Patient or party afflicted the beloved of God he chastens whom he loves Doct. God though he love whatsoever he hath made yet among all his creatures he loves man best and among men especially those who are of the houshold of faith which is his Church These he loves with an everlasting love he hath given his only Son for their redemption and hath adopted them in Christ Jesus to be his children And yet howsoever he loves them so dearly yet many times he doth afflict and chasten them for so we see here whom he loves he chastens The Doctrine that we may gather from hence is this That they who are in the love and favour of God are neverthelesse afflicted In the 11th of Saint John Behold Lord John 11.3 he whom thou lovest is sick Christ loved Lazarus and yet did not free and exempt him from sicknesse Dan. 9.23 Daniel was greatly beloved of God as the Angell Gabriel told him yet Daniel was cast into the Lions den The Virgine Mary was freely beloved of God as the same Gabriel told her Luke 1. yet a sword was to pierce through her heart Luke 1.28 Luke 2.35 1 Sam. 13.14 Job 1.1 as old Simeon prophesied David was a man according to Gods own heart yet David was often and many wayes afflicted Job was a just and an upright man yet Job was extraordinarily afflicted Saint Paul was a chosen vessel of God yet after he was converted his whole life was nothing but a continued affliction In a word Acts 9.15 all the Patriarchs Prophets and Apostles and all the beloved children of God even from the beginning of the world to this present time have suffered affliction Therefore Christ saith Revel 3. As many as I love Revel 3.19 I rebuke and chasten Read over the Scriptures and ye see examples hereof almost in every leafe Gen. 39.20 In one place ye shall see Joseph cast into the dungeon Dan. 3.20 in another the three children into a fiery furnace 1 King 22.27 here ye shall see Michea fed with the bread of affliction there David washing his couch with tears in one place ye shall see Steven stoned to death Psal 6.6 in another ye shall finde John the Baptist beheaded Acts 7.59 To be short as it was said of Rome heretofore Mark 6.27 that a man could not step into any part thereof but he should tread upon a Martyre so a man can hardly read any part of the Scripture but he shall light upon the affliction of the children of God either one or other affliction being common to every one of them and more common then any thing The floud that overspred the whole face of the earth in the days of Noah was common generall yet eight persons ye know were freed frō the flood Gen. 6.18 preserved in the Ark Death is more cómon general then the flood Gen. 5.24 seizing upon the whole of-spring of Adam and yet two persons Enoch and Elias have been freed from death a King 2.,11 and were taken up into heaven while they were living upon the earth Sin is more common and generall then death and yet one person even Christ and he alone was free from sin but affliction is more generall then any of them all which hath lighted upon all men without any exception for even Christ himself though he were free from sin Esay 53.3 yet he was vir dolorum as the Prophet Esay calls him a man of sorrows as being subject through the whole course of his life to much sorrow affliction For this is the condition of all Gods children that first they must wear a crown of thorns before they receive a crown of glory first they must suffer with Christ in this life before they reign with him in the life to come Therefore Christ wills us if we will be his disciples to take up his crosse every day Acts 14. and follow him And the Apostle tels us That through many afflictions we must enter into the Kingdom of heaven Vse 1 The use to be made hereof is two-fold First Seeing Goddeth visit his own children with the rod of affliction then much lesse shall the wicked escape Gods judgements if God chasten the godly whom he loves and is loved of them much lesse will he spare his enemies those that hate him Prov. 11.31 Therefore Solomon Proverbs 1◠Behold the righteous shall be recompensed in the earth much more the wicked and the sinner And therefore Peter 1 Epist 4. Chapter If judgement saith he 1 Peter 4.17.18 first begin at us what shall the end of them be that obey not the Gospel and if the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear For if God chasten the one much lesse out of doubt will he spare the other You will say but it is ordinarily seen in the World that the wicked are not subject to the like afflictions that the godly are Their houses as Job in his 21. Chapt. Job 21.9 saith of the wicked are peaceable without fear and the rod of God is not upon them and as the Prophet David saith of the ungodly they prosper in all their wayes and flourish like a green bay-tree It is true indeed and cannot be denied that the godly many times do suffer in this World more crosses and afflictions then the wicked but therefore we must remember that the punishment of the wicked is kept and reserved till the World to come Lazarus was farre more afflicted in this life that lay full of sores at the rich mans gates and would have been glad of a morsell of bread then the rich man was that fared so sumptuously and lived in pleasure but therefore what saith Abraham to the rich man Sonne saith he Luke 15.25 remember that then in thy life-time receivedst thy good things and Lazarus evill but now is he comforted and thou art tormented Whensoever therefore we see the godly to live in affliction and misery and the wicked in prosperity and hearts-ease yet it need not trouble us because there will come a time when the wicked shall be punisht and the godly comforted When the godly shall have all their teares wiped from their eyes Revel 7.17 and the wicked shall suffer Gods wrath and vengeance for if God afflict and chasten such as he loves much lesse
not to the wicked We have heard then the thing that is proclaimed that the wicked can have no peace no peace with God no peace with the creatures no peace with men no peace with themselves their vvant of the first their want of peace with God being the cause that they want the rest and have no peace with others Doct. And from hence we may observe That there can be no security to those who continue in their sinnes For how can they have any security who are not at peace with God but have him for their enemy God is never enemy to any but onely for sinne sin is that which incenses his wrath and provokes him to punish them Esay 63. therefore saith the Prophet Esay 63. They rebelled and vexed his holy spirit therefore he was turned to be their enemy and fought against them And the Apostle to the same purpose Rom. 1. The wrath of God saith he is revealed from Heaven against all unrighteousnes and ungodlinesse of men Rom. 1 13. When therefore we see Gods wrath break forth against any place as ye know he hath many wayes revealed of late against this Land by that heavy visitation of Plague and Pestilence whereby he swept away so many thousands by hot burning-Feaver and other grievous diseases in the most places by unseasonablenesse of weather and immoderate showers by suffering the enemy to give us the foile and to have the better of us and many other wayes we may well be assured that our sins have provoked him and if we repent not these are but the fore-runners of greater judgements God is not easily provoked to anger but many times beares a long time with sinners that by his forbearing them he might draw them to repentance but if they go on he will more and more manifest his wrath against them which as their sinnes increase growes further and further like fire which first takes hold of one house and then goes to another He powres not out his whole Viall of his wrath at once but by degrees the former judgements making way for the latter the lesse for the greater first making some smart that others may amend which if they do not his wrath will break forth upon them altogether So we see he dealt with Pharaoh God brought sundry plagues upon him and his people yet the latter were more fearfull and grievous then the former and when none of those judgements which he had powred upon them would make them take warning in the end he drowned them all in the Red-Sea together So when our Saviour Math. 24 had forthtold many judgements that should come upon Jerusalem for their contempt of the Gospel and for their refusing and rejecting of grace when it was offered unto them he adds this That the end is not yet and that all these are but the beginnings of sorrows as they found afterwards by wofull experience For in the end vvhen he had many wayes plagued them before and they were ne're the better he powr'd out his wrath in full measure upon them and brought utter desolation upon them all They might have understood by the former punishments which were the beginning of their sorrowes that there were greater coming except they prevented them as when a man sees the smoke breaking out of the house he may know there is sire which will break forth into a flame if it be not looked to in time And so may we we may understand by Gods former judgements that there are greater hanging over our heads except we prevent them by unfeigned repentance Let every one therefore in the feare of God turn unto him by true humiliation assuring our selves that as long as we continue impenitent in our sinnes we make God our enemy and so can have no peace And thus much for the thing that is here proclaimed That there is no peace to the wicked I come now briefly to the person that proclaims it the Prophet from the mouth of the Lord Thre is no peace to the Wicked saith my God Doct. The Prophet proclaiming this fearfull doome against the wicked he shewes that he is but Gods Herald that he doth not proclaime it in his own but the Lords name and that it was God that spake by him And from hence we may observe That it is God that speakes by the mouth of his Messengers and that the Message which they deliver is not theirs that bring it but Gods that sent it Which serves for the instruction both of Gods Ministers and of those that hear them That Ministers are to deliver nothing but the Word of God that they may be able to say as the Prophet here saith saith my God And as St Paul saith That which I delivered unto you I received from the Lord. Non valet haec ego dicâ— haec tu dicis sed haes dicit dominus It is not sufficient saith St Augustine to say I say thus or thus thou sayest unlesse we can say the Lord saith thus That while we deliver no more then that which is agreeable to the Scripture we may be sure we deliver Gods Message and that we speak that which God puts into our mouths Secondly This serves to instruct the hearers that they must make account that they hear the Lord while they hear his Messengers Therefore it is that the faithfull say Esay 2. Come let us go up to the Mountain of the Lord the house of the God of Jacob and he will teach us his ways as making account that they were taught by God while they were taught by his Ministers He saith our Saviour Luke 10.16 1 Thes 2.13 Luk. 10. that heareth you heareth me And therefore St. Paul commends the Thessalonians 1 Thes 2. that when he preacht among them they heard what he delivered not as the word of man but as the Word of God Ye know when a Cryer doth make Proclamation in the Princes name the Proclamation is to be heard not as his that utters it but as his that sent it Now Ministers are as it were Christs Heralds to proclaime and make known his will unto us which while they Proclaime we must make account that we hear him while we hear them And therefore as this serves to shew their folly who make the lesse account of hearing the Word because they are but men like themselves that deliver it so it likewise serves to reprove those who are offended with Ministers when they reprove their sinnes For what reason hath any man to be offended with the Messenger for the Message lie brings seeing he speaks not in his own name but in his that sent him and it is not his but his Lords Message FINIS The Ninth SERMON 2 PETER 1.21 For the Prophecy came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost THe scope of the Apostle in these words is this to shew us the infallible truth of the Scriptures And this
ignorant of Gods will his vvill is sufficiently revealed in his vvord but we cannot discerne it to be his word till God by his spirit do inlighten our understanding And therefore St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. vve have received the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.13 that we might know the things that are given us of God and presently after in the same Chapter but the natural man saith he perceives not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Now least we should imagine that because we are assured of the truth of Gods vvord onely by the testimony of Gods spirit that therefore till his spirit do work faith in our hearts the testimony of the Church and the hearing of the word is but vaâ—n and needless we are to understand that Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in the godly by these outward meanes For first the Testimony of the Church concerning the vvord invites us to come with the rest to hear it and while we are diligent and attentive in hearing it Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in our hearts whereby we believe it and when faith hath once taken root in our hearts then we are so fully resolved of the truth of the Scriptures that all those arguments whereof before we made but light account are now like infallible demonstrations unto us For then we see plainly how necessary it was that God should reveal his vvill unto us and that if he have not revealed it in the Scripture he hath revealed it no where But that it is his will which he hath revealed in his vvord these Reasons will confirm us First In that the majesty of Gods spirit doth appear in every part of the Scripture wherein there is nothing that savours of humane wisdom but every thing therein is heavenly and divine for if we consider the matter thereof it far exceeds all humane invention For who could tell us of the Creation of the vvorld and the fall of Angels of the corruption of the whole nature of man through the transgression and disobedience of our first Parents of the redemption of the vvorld by the coming of the Messias of the rewards of the faithfull in the life to come and the punishment of sinners These things and many other which the Scripture reveals do so far go beyond the capacity of man that had not God revealed them in his word they could never have been known Secondly If we consider who penned the Scripture we shall find them for the most part to be simple men and therefore of themselves not capable of those heavenly mysteries which they have revealed in their vvritings Hos 11.1 Zach. 11.12.13 Psal 22.16.18 They were not learned and yet they foresaw things to come as if they were present and foretold many things which many hundred years after did come to passe They were not eloquent and yet more powerfull in moving the affections then Tullie Demosthenes and all the Rhetoricians in the vvorld besides They lived not together but in divers ages and several places and yet they agree so perfectly without the least contradiction as if they had had but one mind among them In a word Deut. 32.51 Jonah 1.3.6 Jonah 4.9 they were not as other men given over to sin but lived more uprightly then the most in their times and yet they have registred their own sins and infirmities to remain as it were upon the file unto all Posterities which had they been led by humane wisdom they would never have done All which shewes that howsoever the Scriptures were written here by men yet they were indicted by God in Heaven Thirdly If we consider the perfection of the Law which is called the Decalogue we shall see that none but God could be the Authour of it For there is not any good either outward or inward which we are bound to perform to God or man but it is there commanded nor any evil from which we are to abstain but it is there prohibited all which to be comprized in so few words farre exceeds the invention of men or Angels Mens Lawes howsoever they fill many large Volums yet they are still imperfect and daily want something to be added unto them which when they were made was not thought upon Sometimes again they must have something detracted that being thought convenient for the time when the Law was made which afterwards is found to be inconvenient in regard that mens conditions do so often change So that as it is in the fable when the Moon upon a time begged a new Coat of her mother her Mother replied that it was impossible to make her a Coat which would be fit for her by reason that her shape did so often alter as being now in the full now in the wane one while in one form and strait in another So it is impossible for men or Angels to make Lawes which without adding or detracting should serve for all persons and all ages because their manners and conditions do so often change But this Law which we find recorded in the Scripture is so absolute and perfect that it serves for all persons in all places and all ages and yet needes nothing to be added or detracted All other Lawes extend no further then to mens sayings or doings their words and their actions and take hold of them onely if they be not answerable to the Law but for the thoughts of mens hearts they do not inflict any penalty upon them but do leave them free The Civilians say Cogitationis paenam in foro nostro nemo luat let no man be punisht in our Court for a thought But this Law doth search into the secrets of the heart not only restraining our actual sins but our sinfull thoughts even our very first motions and inclinations to sin though we do not yield our consent thereunto to put the same in execution Rom. 7.7 St. Paul saith Rom. 7. that he had not known concupiscence to be a sinne if the Law had not said Thou shalt not covet For like as the Sunshine doth make us to see the least atomes or moaths which if it were not for the bright light of the Sunne we could not discerne So this bright light of the Law discovers the least and most secret sins which without this Law we could not have known All other Lawes because they cannot judge of the heart do require no more then outward obedience and judge well of him that lives according to the Law for his outward Carriage But this Law which as the Apostle saith Heb. 4. is a discerner of the thoughts and intents Heb. 4 1â— requires both outward and inward obedience and judgeth not him to be a good man who frames himself outwardly to the observing of the Law but not inwardly For as a man is not to be counted well and in good health though his hands and feete and
all the rest of his outward parts be sound and perfect if his lungs or any other of his inward parts be unsound and diseased So this Law doth not count him to be a good man though his outward actions seem never so good if his inward parts his thoughts and affections be ill and disordered In a word all other Lawes propound no other but temporall rewards to those that observe them and temporall punishments to such as trangress them but the rewards and punishments which this Law propounds are both corporall and spirituall temporal and eternall both in this World and the World to come By all which it is plain that this Law which we find recorded in the Scripture is in many respects more absolute and perfect then all the flowers which men have invented and therefore that God and no other could be the Authour of it Fourthly If we consider what effects the Scriptures work in the hearers and readers of them it will confirm our faith in this point that they must needes have God for their Authour and not man The Doctrine which is contained in the Scripture is quite opposite and contrary to flesh and bloud and crosses our nature We naturally desire to live in peace and prosperity we affect honour and advancement ease riches pleasures liberty and the like which if the Scripture had promised it would in all likelihood have been a motive to make men the more to affect and imbrace it But we see the Scripture promises the quite contrary to these crosses and troubles persecution and hatred for the Gospels sake and yet the sound thereof is gone through the World and thousands do daily more and more affect it When Cyrus would perswade the Lacedemonians to follow him in the Warres he made them this promise whosoever saith Cyrus will be my followers if they be foot-men I will give them Horses if they be Horse-men I will give them Chariots if they have Houses and Tenements of their own I wil give them Villages and if they have Villages I vvill make them Lords of Townes and Cities and for gold and silver I vvill heap it unto them by vveight and by measure Thus Cyrus allured them by his fair promises as the likeliest meanes to vvinne their affections Luke 9.23 But vvhat saith Christ in the Gospel to his followers If saith he ye will be my Disciples ye must daily take up my Crosse upon you you must leave your Parents Wives Children and Friends and all you have to follow me you must be reviled and persecuted Mat. 10.22 and hated of all men for my names sake Now this ye know should rather hinder men when they read the Scriptures from imbracing the Gospel and becoming Christians yet so effectual are the Scriptures through the operation of the spirit in those that read or hear them that nothing can hinder them from imbracing the same which is an evident proof that no other but God could be the Authour thereof Lastly if we consider the long continuance and antiquity of the Scripture how God in all ages hath miraculously preserved it notwithstanding the malice of Satan and all those Tyrants and Persecuters who have opposed themselves against it we may plainly see that it is the word of God When the Jewes would have hindred the Preaching of the Apostles Acts 5. Acts 5.38.39 it was Gamaliels Counsell to let them alone and he gave this reason for saith he if it be of men it will come to nought but if it be of God ye cannot destroy it All false Religions which have had their beginning and original from man have continued for a time and have afterwards vanish't but the true Religion which the Scripture containes hath continued without change in all ages nay the more it hath been opposed the more it hath flourish't God having ordain'd that the Persecution of those that professe the Gosple vvhich in all likelihood vvould have been a meanes to have rooted it out should make men the more to affect and imbrace it Histories are full of examples to this purpose I will onely name one and that out of Sozomen when Christianity began to increase in Persia the King being an enemie to the true Religion sought by all meanes to root it out of his Kingdome And first he imposed so grievous taxes upon the Christians that many thereby were brought into Poverty And seing that the number still increased more and that they would not leave their Religion for the losse of their goods he threatned them in the end with the loss of their lives Some few revolted for feare of Torment but the number of professers did daily increase though they daily were Martyr'd Amongst the rest Simeon the Arch-Bishop of Seleucia vvas apprehended and because he persisted in the profession of the Gospel the King sent him to Prison And as he was going Vstazares one of the Kings chiefe Officers about his house vvho had been a Christian but for feare of torment had renounced his Religion met the Bishop in the way and offered to salute him but the Bishop turned away from him as from an Apostata and would not vouchsafe to look at him Oh wo is me saith Vstazares what favour can I look for at Gods hands whom I have denied when in regard of my apostacy my familiar friend will not vouchsafe me a word And thus mourning and lamenting he ran to the King and openly professed himself a Christian and added further that he would never recant the second time whatsoever became of him The King commanded that he should be beheaded at such a time and when the time came Vstazares sent this message to the King to desire him that for all the faithfull service which he had ever done him he would grant him this favour that while he was led to the place where he should be beheaded a Herald or Crier might go before him and make proclamation that Vstazares was to suffer not for any treason or evill that he had committed but only because that he was a Christian The King granted his suit as thinking that this would be a means to terrifie others when they should hear that the King would not spare no not those who were his chief Officers if they professed themselves Christians This in all likelihood should have been a means to make others revolt but this made them to be far more couragious and resolute Some imbracing the block where they were to be beheaded as if their beheading had been their coronation others running with such alacrity to the stake where they were to be burnt as if the very flames which they were to enter into had been the Gates of Heaven The persecution of the faithfull in all ages being the whetstone of faith as Saint Jerome calls it which makes the godly that are persecuted the more willing to suffer and the persecutours when they see they cannot prevail the more willing to give over In so much that
many times are occasions of evill To begin with the former Poverty may be an occasion of evill two wayes first of evill to him that is poor and secondly of evill to others through his being poor First Of evill to him that is poor because poverty doth commonly make a man discontented and envious discontented with his present estate because he hath so little and envious towards those whom he sees to have more and these two Discontent and Envy do commonly make those that live in want to live in misery Though a man have but little though he have no more then will suffice nature though he have but food and rayment yet if he have the virtue of contentation if he have learn'd with Jacob to desire no more but bread to eat and clothes to put on Gen. 28.20 Job 1.21 if he have learn'd with Job to blesse God as well when all his goods are taken away as when he had them if he have learn'd with Paul in what estate soever he is therewith to be content Philip. 4.11.12 and be instructed both how to abound and to suffer need then any estate will be pleasing unto him because he lives contented but where this contentation is wanting as it is for the most part in those that live in want there the life is unpleasant as we see by the Israelites Exod. 16.3 who presently cried out when they were in want Would to God we had died in the Land of Egypt And as Poverty doth make a man discontented because he hath so little so it makes him envious towards those that have more as Rachell envied her Sister Lea Gen. 30. Gen. 30.1 because her sister had children and she had none For envy is a repining at anothers vvelfare and therefore whosoever he be that is envious must needs be miserable wheresoever he is and if it were possible for an envious person to be in heaven where there is nothing but felicity yet because there are degrees of glory there and he should see others in higher glory then himself he vvould be miserable and could not be vvell while he savv another better Therefore Sololomon calls envy Prov. 14. the rottennesse of the bones Prov. 14.30 because envy is as hurtfull to the mind and body as rottennesse is that lies in the bones which eates up the marrovv consumes the flesh and makes the body to pine and languish And this is another evill which is occasioned by want that for the most part it makes those that have but little to be envious towards those that have more then themselves Secondly as poverty is an occasion of evill to him that is poor so of evill to others through his being poor because want commonly dravvs a man to use unlavvfull means for the bettering of his estate and supplying of his vvants even to the damage and hurt of others As sometimes by borrovving and not repaying For he that is in want is commonly more ready to borrovv vvhat he needs then to pay what he borrows he is forvvard in borrowing but backward in paying vvhich David notes to be the property of a bad man Psal 37.21 The wicked saith he borroweth and payeth not again For a man to be in want so he be not in vvant through his ovvn fault is no sin and to borrovv vvhat he vvants so he repay vvhat he borrovvs is no sin but to fall into vvant through his ovvn fault through idlenesse drinking unthriftinesse and the like and so to be driven to borrovv to supply his vvants and aftervvards to be carelesse to pay vvhat he borrovvs this is a sin and this commonly is the sin of such as are in vvant Yet he that is in vvant though he pay not vvhat he borrovvs he thinks it no fault because he of vvhom he borrovvs is better able to bear it then he is to pay it But vvhat though he be Would'st thou be content if another vvho is not so strong as thou art having an heavy burden lying upon him should remove it from his ovvn and lay it on thy back because thou art stronger and better able to bear it Thy vvant is thy burden which God hath appointed thee to bear and shouldest thou disburden thy self thereof and lay it upon another because he is better able to bear the same mightest thou not as well by the same reason deny to pay thy Land-lord the rent of thy house because he is better able to bear the losse of the rent then thou to pay it therefore thy poverty will not excuse thee for doing wrong as thou doest when thou borrovvest and payest not again Yet poverty sometimes doth draw men to a greater evill then this even to steal from others to supply their own vvants For want is often an occasion of theft This Agur implies in the next verse where he gives this reason why he desired a competent estate and that he might not live in want Lest saith he I be poor and steal Luke 16. Thus the unjust Steward Luke 16. fell from want to theft For when he saw that his Lord had given him warning to give over his stewardship he bethought himselfe what course of life he should take to supply his wants when he was turned out of service and being unwilling to labour and ashamed to begge he resolved to steal and in his accounts to defraud his Lord for his own advantage And thus many will do if they be in want and think that their want will excuse them for it But will thy want excuse thee for doing that which God hath forbidden thee must God be dishonoured because thou art in want were it not better for thee to suffer want for a time then that God should justly condemne thee for ever for thy disobeying him God never suffers any so to be in want that their want will excuse them for sinning against him but though he give them not all that they want yet all that they want is not so much as that which he gives them and they may finde more comfort in that which they have then their wants can discomfort them Though the poor have mean houses and hard lodging yet this may be their comfort which is a great blessing of God that they can sleep in their houses and take their rest in the night time and commonly more soundly then rich men do Qui vigilant in-pluma as Cyprian speaks who lie awake and cannot sleep in their beds of down Therefore saith Solomon Eccles 5.12 The abundance of the rich will not suffer him to sleep Though the poor have many a hard meale and very slender faâ—e and though they want many necessaries for their bodies yet they may comfort themselves in this that God hath provided them a liberall diet his Word and Sacraments for the food of their soules and hereunto they have a right and interest as well as any others Though the poor may not come into great mens houses but
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
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
men are living there is great difference among thent some are of high place some of mean condition some wise some simple some rich some poore some of one complextion some of another but being laid in their graves and consumed to ashes Agamemnon cannot be known from Thersites the rich glutton in the Gospel cannot be known from Lazarus but all are so like that we can see no difference Respice sepulchra saith St. Augustine et discerne si potes Jrum a Rege fortem a debili pulorum a deformi Look into mens Sepulchers and distinguish if thou canst between the King and the beggar the strong and the weak the faire and the deformed Therefore we read of Diogenes the Philosopher that when Alexander the Great as he was passing by saw him looking very wisly into Tombs and Sepulchres and demanded of him what he was looking for Diogenes answered That he was looking for the bones of King Philip Alexanders Father who had been the terrour of all Greece and that he could not distinguish them from other mens bones nor finde any difference To note unto Alexander that even he notwithstanding all his pomp and bravery after all his conquests must in the end be laid in the dust and then there would be no difference between him and others We see then briefly how man is like the grasse and the flowers of the field and wherein this resemblance between them consists That they are like for their beginning like for their continuance and like for their end But that which the Prophet David here specially intends is the second of these that they are like for their short continuance For he saith That the dayes of man are as grasse not reckoning our life-time by years or by moneths but only by dayes to signifie how soon our life passes even as the grasse and the flower which doth not continue from one year to another but as it comes up soon so it soon withers And he saith That man slourisheth as the flower of the field Sient slos agri non horti As the flower of the field not as the flower of the garden for garden-flowers ye know are more carefully lookt to the Gardiner keeps them standing as long as he can because they make a faire shew and are a grace to the gardens but for field-flowers they are subject ye know to many more dangers they lie open to passengers that pull them up and to the beasts that either crop them or tread them under foot and if they escape all dangers yet the time they flourish is very short they come up later then the grasse and yet stand no longer for when the grasse is cut down they are cut down together Here then in that we are resembled to grasse and the flowers of the field we may observe from hence two things The certainty of our death and the shortnesse of our life First The certainty of our death That we shall as certainly die as we are sure that the grasse and flowers of the field shall fade and wither Death indeed is uncertain in some respects as in respect of the time in respect of the place and in respect of the mâ—â—â—ner thereof because we do not know either when or where or how we shall die Death is uncertain in regard of the time for we do not know when death will arrest us whether by day or by night whether in the morning at noon or in the evering whether at the cock-crowing or in the dawning For when we lie down we do not know whether we shall rise again and when we are risen we do not know whether we shall lie down again Death is uncertain in regard of the place because we do not know where death will arrest us whether when we are in company or when we are alone whether in the Field or in the Town whether abroad or at home for when we go forth we do not know whether we shall return again and when we are returned we do not know whether we shall go forth again And death is uncertain in regard of the manner because we do not know how death will arrest us whether we shall die a naturall or a violent death whether a painfull or an easie death whether a lingring or a sudden death In these respects death is uncertain yet nothing again more certain then death For though we know not as I said either where or when or how we shall die yet we know for certain that either here or else-where either sooner or later either by one means or other we are sure to die Therefore David propounds this question What man is he that lives and shall not see death Psal 89.48 because death is common to all men and no man by his greatnesse strength or wisdome or any other means can avoid the same And this the Heathen knew very well and therefore though they worshipt the Sunne the Moon and all the Host of heaven though they offered sacrifice to stocks to stones to men to divels and to all manner of creatures whom they worshipt as Gods yet among all their sacrifices there was never any that offeted sacrifice to death as knowing that death will never be appeased and therefore that their sacrifices should have been to no purpose Contra omnia aliquid inveniri potest contra mortem nihil One remedy or other may be found against every thing but no remedy can possibly be found against death Galen Hipocrates and other skilfull Physicians have found out many remedies against the most diseases and have prescribed many rules how to preserve our health and to keep us from sicknesse but how to preserve and keep us from death there was never any that could invent any remedy And though Paracelsus had such considence in his knowledge that he professed himselfe able to keep a man by physick in so perfect a temperature that he should never die of any disease whatfoever yet he could not prescribe any physick against death For though we diet our bodies and use all preservatives to keep us from sioknesse and though we live all our life time without any disease yet either casnality or age will bring us to our graves Therefore the grave is called by Job Job 30.23 the house appointed for all the living I know saith Job that thou Wilt bring me to death and to the house appointed for all the living it is appointed and therefore cannot be avoided it is appointed for all the living and therefore none are exempted but all that live upon the face of the earth are subject unto it In severall Kingdoms there are severall Lawes whereunto they are not bound in other Kingdoms Now in the whole world there are three Kingdoms where the Laws concerning death are divers In heaven they have a Law that they shall live for ever and never die Mat. 19.17 Therefore heaven is called by the name of life If saith our Saviour thou wilt enter into life