Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times some shall depart from the faith, giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils; Speaking lies in hypocrisy; having their conscience seared with a hot iron;
— 1 Timothy 4:1-2
How long, ye simple ones, will ye love simplicity? and the scorners delight in their scorning, and fools hate knowledge?
— Proverbs 1:22
Surely he scorneth the scorners: but he giveth grace unto the lowly.
— Proverbs 3:34
But chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government. Presumptuous are they, selfwilled, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignities.
— 2 Peter 2:10
An Exposition Upon the Second Epistle General of St. Peter, Chapter Three, Verse Three, by Thomas Adams. The following contains an excerpt from his work. 1633.
2nd Peter Chapter Three, Verse 3.
Knowing this first, that there shall come in the last days scoffers, walking after their own lusts.
The main scope of the apostle, both in the latter part of the former chapter, the beginning of this, and the connexion of both, is to caution his converts of deemed by the knowledge of Jesus Christ. This strong bulwark he hath fortified against all the battery of the world, and assaults of Satan, by many arguments. First, by discovering the policies and villanies of seducers, those fatal engines of hell, set to bring back escaped souls to the kingdom of darkness, chap. ii. 18. Secondly, by the miserable deceit of those that are perverted by them; who leaving the true liberty, which they counted a bondage, ver. 19, fall into the true bondage, which they vainly count liberty: so, of God’s servants, they become Satan’s slaves and sin’s drudges. Thirdly, by the execrable event of this apostacy; whereby they become besotted men, entangled birds, polluted beasts, incarnate devils, ver. 20, &c. Fourthly, by redoubling his epistles, to inculcate and drive this holy nail of admonition into their minds, chap. iii. 1; that they may never forget the wretched estate from which they are delivered. Fifthly, by way of encouragement, comforting them in the benefit of their happy progress; wherein if they persevere with steady faithfulness, their end shall be everlasting life, ver. 2. Sixthly, and lastly, by preventing a scandal, and removing a block, which the malicious spirit might lay in their ways; the atheistical impiety of many in the latter times; who both by their mouths and manners, persuasions and examples, call Christianity into question, and move a doubt, whether there be a God or no, ver. 3. Nor do they only dispute this by way of problem; but are impudent and audacious in the negative, and labour to destroy all opinion of that Deity in the world, which made both the world and them. This then being the main centre, the pole, and cardinal axletree, whereon this place moves, I will in general say a little of it.
1. What man hath so steadily trod on God’s earth, that he hath not stumbled; or stumbled, and not fallen; yea, fallen, and hath not lain some space on the ground? With what a trembling heart may we look upon the miscarriages of some of God’s dearest servants! Noah and Lot by wine, David and Samson by women, and Solomon worst of all. Who can do other than yearn and fear, to see the woeful wreck of so rich and goodly a vessel! Was not Solomon he, whose younger years God honoured with a message of love? to whom God twice appeared in a gracious vision, renewing the covenant of his favour? whom he singled out from all the generations of men, to be the founder of that glorious temple; which was as clearly the type of heaven, as himself was of Christ? Was not he that deep sea of wisdom, which God had ordained to send forth rivers and fountains of all divine and human knowledge, to all nations, to all ages? Was not he one of those select secretaries, whose hand it pleased the Almighty to employ in three pieces of the divine monuments of sacred Scriptures? Yet even this Solomon fell into a foul defection. Which of us can hope to aspire unto his graces? Which of us can promise to secure ourselves from his ruin? We fall, even to the lowest hell, if God do not prevent us, if he do not sustain us. “Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live,” Psal. cxix. 116: all our weakness is in ourselves, all our strength in God. Let the Lord be strong in our weakness, that our weak knees may be ever steady in his strength. If we fall from our God, as Mephibosheth from his nurse, we presently grow lame. If these holy ones fell, we have cause to look to our standing. thousand tongues s to to plead for it, God hath lent me a weak one to plead against it. Let us think thus, when we are tempted to sin; that we are now about to lose our God, to cast away all the hopes and comforts of another world, to rob ourselves of all those sweet mercies we enjoyed; to…
2. Sin hath thrust the Spirit out of doors, which cannot abide to dwell within the noisome stench of our sins; to lock ourselves out of the gates of heaven; to open the gates of hell, and cast ourselves down headlong into that dungeon. Thus let fear teach us to repel temptations, but love more prevailingly. Have we found our God so gracious to us, that he hath denied us nothing, either in earth or heaven; and shall we not deny our own lusts for his sake? Hath our dear Saviour bought our souls at such a price, and shall he not have them? Was he crucified for our sins, and shall we by our sins crucify him again? Do we take his wages, and do his enemy service? Was his blood so little worth, that we should tread is under our feet? Hath he honoured us, that we should dishonour him? Is this the fruit of his beneficence. our thankfulness? Doth he mean us blessedness, and is this the way we take to come unto it? Hath he prepared heaven for us, and do we thus prepare ourselves for heaven? Is this the recompence of his love, to do that which he hates? If we would make surer this remedy, let us look upwards, backwards inwards, forwards. First, upwards, at the omnipotent greatness and infinite goodness of that God, in whose face we sin. If we could truly discern the holiness of his nature, the nature of his mercy, though there were no hell, no punishment, we would not transgress. Secondly, backwards, to the innumerable favours wherewith he hath blessed, graced, honoured us; all which are so many bonds, that oblige us to obedience. Thirdly, inwards, to that noble calling wherewith he hath dignified us; the holy profession we have made of that calling; the eye of the world fixed upon that profession; ession: the vow and covenan whereby we have confirmed it; the gracious beginnings of God’s Spirit in us, which by this present sit we are about to extinguish. Fourthly, forwards, to the joy which will follow upon our forbearance: com pare but the momentary and unpleasing delight of a sin in doing, with that sweet peace of conscience and blessed expectation of glory, which we preserve by avoiding it. If we could think of all this in a temptation, we would fling defiance in the face of Satan: and refuse for the short pleasure of a filthy sin, to lose all these happy and lasting comforts.
3. But alas, there be many that sin and live not. but there are none that live and sin not. Our com fort is, we have a constant God; who, whom he loves, to the end he loves, John xiii. 1. “I am the Lord, I change not; therefore ye sons of Jacob are not consumed,” Mal. iii. 6. “My loving-kindness will I not utterly take from him, nor suffer my faith fulness to fail,” Psal. lxxxix. 33. The fall of Solomon was a spectacle able to affright all the sons d men; yet not without some glimpse of comfort. Sersible grace might seem to leave him, not final merer. In the desperate winter, the sap was gone down k the root, though it showed not in the branches Solomon removed; the word of God removed not “My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips,” ver. 34. The Lord’s favour doth not depend upon man’s obedience.!! Solomon shall suffer his faithfulness to fail toward his God, God will not requite him with the failingd his faithfulness to Solomon. If Solomon break his covenant with God, God will not break his covenan with the father of Solomon, with the son of Davic His correction is limited, he shall smart, he shall not perish. This is our only tenure, The mercy of God endures for ever: his promise is yea and amen in Christ; and while we change, his word shall stand This is that which gives strength to the languishing, comfort to the despairing, to the dying life. Whatsoever we are, God will be still himself; true to his covenant, constant to his decree. The sins of his chosen can neither frustrate his counsel, nor outstrip his mercy. Their offence hath gone before, their repentance shall follow after; not more slow than sure…
Some deny neither the prophets nor apostles in word, but both in effect; while they prefer to them both their own traditions and constitutions, as do the papists. There be other that deny all, reject Almost ten months doth David run on impetu-all; which are the atheists: upon whose discovery ously in a way of his own, rough and dangerous; at last the conscience of his sin, and fear of f judgment, judg shall bring him on his knees; ” I have sinned greatly in that I have done,” 2 Sam. xxiv. 10. It is possible for a sin not to bait only, but to sojourn in the holiest soul; but though it sojourn there as a stranger, it shall not dwell there as an owner. The heart that shall be saved, after some rovings of error, will not be long ere it return home to itself; and fall out with that ill guide wherewith it was misled, and with itself for being misled. Now it is resolved into tears, and breathes forth nothing but sighs, and confessions, and deprecations. Solomon, of a wanton lover, shall become a grave preacher of mortification, and quench those inordinate flames with the tears of his repentance. You might hear him sighing deeply betwixt every word of that his solemn penance, which he would needs enjoin himself before all the world: I have sinned, and am weary of my vanities. Hear now the end of all, Fear God, and keep his commandments, Eccl. xii. 13.
4. But as they that fear the Lord, will not from this mercy fetch matter of presumption; so if any do presume, let them hear their correction. The justice of God is inseparable from his love; there be rods for the backs of sinners, though they be the children of his own fatherhood. All their devout penance cannot avoid temporal punishments: no child would be whipped, if he might escape for crying. Nothing but love and peace sounded in the name of Solomon; nothing else was found in his reign, while he held in good terms with God. But – when once he fell foul with his Maker, all things began to be troubled; and he found many enemies. God that did put away David’s sin, even his adultery clothed with murder, upon his penitence, did not yet forbear to strike him; not only in the death of a misbegotten infant, but in the ruin of his children that nearer concerned him. When with great humiliation he sought for pardon of that needless muster, yet he hath but the choice of three terrible scourges, with which of them he had rather to bleed. He shall have the favour of an election, not of a remission. God would have us make account that our peace ends with our innocence; the same sin that sets debate between God and us, arms all creatures against us. It is pity we should be at any quiet, while we are fallen out with the God of peace. Sleep pays no debts, but debt breaks many a sleep. When the household-stuff of a merchant that died far in debt was set forth to sale, there was one that bought only a pillow; because he thought it had some rare virtue in it to get one asleep, seeing he could sleep on it that owed so many debts. But if men be deep in arrears with God, far in his debt, and yet can sleep and be secure, God bless me from their bed or pillow. Surely I will not go up into my bed, nor give sleep to mine eyes, until I find out a place for the Lord, Psal. cxxxii. 3-5: yea, till the Lord find a place in me. If the father be angry with the son, no joy will down with him; he refuseth not only his sport and pleasure, but even meat and sleep, till he be reconciled. Only then we can be merry, when God hath spoken peace to us in Jesus Christ.
“Knowing this first,” &c. There be some that allow of the prophets, not of the apostles; as the blinded Jews. Some stick to the apostles, and mind not the prophets; as profane libertines, that would have the benefit of the gospel…
“Knowing this first;” be not ignorant of so infallible a truth. “That there shall come;” if none such yet appear, they will be manifest too soon. “In the last days:” all times have been evil, the last are the worst: some perhaps may antedate this term, for the apostles’ time was not free from infidels. “Scoffers;” such as make a mock of all religion and godliness, and labour to disgrace the worship of God with foul aspersions. “Walking after their own lusts :” this is the end and scope of all their forced and forged imputations: they would put out the candle, that they might walk the more securely in the dark. The word of truth controls their vicious affections; therefore they, to maintain those affections, control the word of truth: but the truth shall confound them all.
In the former verse St. Peter charged us with the mindfulness of the prophets; now he is become a prophet himself, foretelling future things that shall happen in the latter times. The parts of the text are,
A preparation, Knowing this first.
A prediction, There shall come in the last days.
A description, Scoffers, walking after their own lusts.
In the preparation we have to observe three things. 1. The carefulness of the apostle to remove a scandal, that might trouble them in their way of integrity. If this be the way of truth, why is it not generally embraced? Why do the great politicians of the world, which have so deep an insight into the nature of things, despise it? Why do they expose it to contempt, if it were the infallible rule of verity? To clear this dilemma, to resolve this doubt, know this first, that such men shall come in the last times; it stands with God’s ordinance: not a scoff shall fall upon his gospel, nor any misusage be done to his servants, without a providence. It is his just will to befool all those that will be wise without him. Yea, therefore is it the more likely ikely to be the truth, because the wits of the world dispute against it. Where shall you find Tertullus, but feed and retained against Paul? If a stranger come, all the dogs of the town will be barking at him. There is nothing causeth so much noise and wrangling, as the opposition of goodness.
Example is a cruel tyrant, and commands imitation. There is one artless persuasion, that prevails more with the world than all the places of reason: Thus did my forefathers: Thus do the most: I am neither the first nor the last. How many millions miscarry upon this ground! Men commonly think that either safe or pardonable, for which they can plead a precedent. But they sail in a weak vessel, that have no more warrant for their resolution, than the practice of others. The mind can never be steady, while it stands upon others’ feet; nor until it be settled upon such grounds of assurance, that it will rather lead than follow: till it can say with Joshua, Whatsoever becomes of the world, I and my house will serve the Lord, Josh. xxiv. 15. Woe be to him, whom the scoffs of the world can deprive of his faith! Say, the stream of the time doth run against godliness, shall we not swim against the stream? You will reply, What can one man do against a whole throng of wickedness? Yet this good comes of an unprevailing resistance, that God forbears to plague where he finds but a sprinkling of faith. As the celestial bodies, which being carried about with the sway of the highest sphere, yet creep on their own ways; so let us continue the course of our own holiness, against the swing of common corruptions. Thus shall we both deliver our own souls, and help to withhold judgment from others. The hooting of the owl stops not the singing of the nightingale; nor doth the eagle forbear her flight, because there is a raven in her way: the barking of the dog stays not the shining of the moon. Never let the taunts of Ishmael make Isaac out of love with his inheritance.
2. Knowledge is needful, not only of the main substance, but even of circumstances: there is no instructive matter whereof God would have us ignorant. The way of salvation, that is the best knowledge; that one thing needful, without which we cannot be happy. Seek for it as for hid treasures, Prov. ii. 4. The mine of gold lies not within the reach of the first spade; we must dig deep to find it. First seek the kingdom of heaven, Matt. vi. 33; then refuse not temporal things. There be some things we would know for avoidance: “Mark them which cause divisions, and avoid them,” Rom. xvi. 17. It is a true saying, Knowledge is no burden; the more a man hath, the less he feels the weight. That he wants, you may hear him confess; you never hear him complain of too much. He that sits down with an imagined sufficiency of knowledge, is not at all delivered from the mist of ignorance. Their people, as those confederates of Korah did Israel, The congregation is holy enough; The people are wise enough. But what, do we look to be made wise by miracle? to have all knowledge inspired into us at once? Must not Moses be trained up in the wisdom of Egypt, and Paul in the school of Gamaliel? It may be, we are but newly dedicated to the Lord, and God hath but begun with us, because we have yet but begun with him: we may not look for sudden motions, and strange inspirations, without time, growth, and degrees. Scholars do not shoot up in a night, like mushrooms; nor is their coming to knowledge like Cæsar’s expedition to conquest; Veni, vidi, vici, I came, I saw, I conquered. Some early wits have presumed to wrest knowledge from their mother in a short space; as the prodigal son did wring his portion out of the hands of his father: and I would to God, that what they got by sudden and uncouth achieving, they would not, as he did, waste it again by riotous living. Shall they that never fag at their desks, so quickly know enough to serve their turns, that they should sit down, and sing Plaudite, to their own brains?
A little knowledge puffs up, much humbles. The famous wits of the time, that are the gardens and ornaments of secular learning, scorn to hang on the lips of a priest for knowledge. Who can teach them? Preachers are but bunglers: they will scarce consult the book of God, except it be for niceties and criticisms. Daniel humbly went to the Lord for his revelations: are they wiser than Daniel? Proficiendo lego, legendo proficio, In improving I read, by reading I improve; (August.) and yet he was no small clerk that said so. Other men are fain to search the bowels of the earth for gold: they are strangely happy that find it in the superficial skin. What, are they the heirs of Solomon, and so have wisdom by entailment? Alas, he could not give this to his own son for a legacy. He bequeathed all his labour to him; yet he saith, “Who knoweth whether he shall be a wise man or a fool?” Eccl. ii. 19. As the greatest persons cannot give themselves children, so the wisest cannot give their children wisdom. He that reads the story of Rehoboam shall find that Solomon’s wit was not propagated. Many a fool hath had a wiser son than that wisest father.
There is store of wit in the world; I dare not so much commend the plenty of wisdom. This is pure, peaceable, gentle, &c. Jam. iii. 17. But the cavils of the age bewray, that men contend rather for eredit than for instruction: as wrangling gamesters show they play for money, not for recreation. Pride is the fruit that too commonly grows on this tree of knowledge. Thou thinkest thyself a knowing man. quick in apprehension, present of invention, sound in judgment: praise God for this; thou wast not born so. Another is neither witty, nor intelligent, nor judicious: despise him not for this; God knows whether thou thyself mayst not die so. Presumptu ous knowledge may be overcome with distraction, and subtlety end in an apoplexy; yea, and beat or her own brains. Common experience maketh i more than probable, that unless wit be seasoned with grace, and understanding with sobriety, a man mar most miserably survive his own wit, and outlive his own understanding. Knowledge, only for private satisfaction, is but a courtesan, more for pleasure than for propagation. Yet God would have us know, and that both good and evil, not only his friends, but even his very enemies; as here the scoffing athe ists. As himself hath scientiam apprehensionis, Le. the knowledge of apprehension, whereby he knows all; and scientiam approbationis, i. e. the knowledge of approbation, whereby he only knows his elect. 2 Tim. ii. 19: so we are to know both good and evil; both by the knowledge of distinction, good only by the knowledge of approbation.
But many refuse to know, because they would not be bound to do; they are mere sceptics, because they would not be practicks. They care not to examine which is the true religion, that of Rome, or this of England, because they desire to be of neither the one nor the other. So the slothful unthrift hears how one neighbour is troubled with preserving his young lambs. another with ploughing his grounds, weeding grain, inning his harvest; how unseasonable showers cross their hopes; therefore he applauds himself in his stupid sluggishness, and cries, Well fare nothing once by the year. The indifferent worldling sees this man vexed for his zeal, that other hated for his knowledge; a third persecuted, martyred for the profession of his faith; and he says within himself, Well fare a quiet ignorance. So his body is but like a lump of scarce-moving earth, and his soul a standing puddle in the midst of it. He cares not to put any difference between the right and the wrong, be tween the scoffers and the contemned; the holy and unholy are all one to him. But, as one saith, because they will not know what it is to distinguish, they shall be forced to feel what it is to be distinguished ; when Christ shall put them on the left hand, among the goats, with a Go, ye cursed. “Then shall ye discern between the righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth him not,” Mal. iii. 18. Alas, for the common religion of our times, which is scarce better than Socrates’ uncer tainty: the people perish for want of knowledge; not that there is any lack of manna, but they will not gather it. They are ignorant, because they desire to be so. I know there be some, that of evident truths make disputable problems; as, Whether Rome be the true church, Whether God may be worshipped before images, Whether the sabbath be not a fit day to play and revel on, Whether the elect can finally fall from grace: shortly it will come to this, Whether the Scripture be Scripture; and, Whether there be a God, and Christ, or no. But woe to them that doubt, where God is plain! The Lord shall come “in flaming fire, taking vengeance on them that know not God, and obey not the gospel of Jesus Christ,” 2 Thess. i. 8. If flaming fire be their por- | not been so illustrated; her opposite makes it more…that knew not God, and could not; how terrible hall be their vengeance, that might know him, and would not!
3. We must know this; that is granted: and then he place is assigned; we must know it first. The postle doth not mean a priority of excellency, but of conveniency. There be far greater and more noble bjects of our knowledge, which he had formerly probounded, and presumes they had happily digested. But now he comes to discover certain spirits of conradiction, and chargeth them to take notice of this irst, that such men shall be in the last days; whom hey may know when they meet them, by these qualities, as a thief is descried by his marks; as a raveller is premonished, there will robbers lie in the way: lest they close in with you unsuspected, by hese tokens you shall discern them, and avoid them. If you meet with profane beasts in the shapes of men, scoffing at all religion, and giving themselves over to sensuality, you see nothing but what you did foresee. You knew first there would be such, and you see now there are such; it falls but out according to my prediction. Behold, I have told you before, John xvi. 4. This then is the sum of it: Know this first, learn this lesson before you take out a new; when you have rehearsed this well, I will read you another. There be some that care not to know, and there be some that care for nothing else but to know. “Ever learning, and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth,” 2 Tim. iii. 7: yea, ever knowing, but never coming to the practice of the truth. Like some sick men that lie bed-rid, having their senses, memory, and speech; but no faculty locomotive, no power to stir hand or foot. Or like tedious musicians, ever tuning, never playing. They would devour ten sermons a week, but digest not one rule or doctrine. Still they are calling for more lessons, not minding to learn this first. He was no common fool, that being somewhat fearful of the water, when the king bade him ride in further and deeper, for fear of foundering his horse; answered him, Soft and fair, let him drink up this first. Let those unnatural appetites be so served, that are calling for their afternoon-bevers, before they have concocted their dinners; Soft and fair, digest this first. Know this first, saith our apostle; let us see some good proof of that you have already heard, in your new lives, and then we shall cheerfully come to you with new lessons. Be content to know first one thing, and then another; that by degrees you may come to the fulness of knowledge, and grow up to the measure of the stature of Jesus Christ.
Thus for the preparation: the prediction follows; wherein are two points. First, They shall come. Secondly, when they shall come, In the last days.
1. They “shall come.” Far be it from us here, to touch God with the least aspersion of sin. Shall any man inquire, how there can be such stirs, tumults, and garboils in the world, whenas God sits at the helm? The question is hard, and being pressed too far may prove dangerous. St. Augustine himself confesseth, that after it had racked and tortured him, to find out the cause of evil, it turned him into a Manichean heretic. A modest and short answer is that of the school. In particular administrations, a provident ruler preventeth, what in him lies, all inconveniences. But in the universal government, it seemed best to the Divine wisdom to suffer some evil; not for want of power to hinder it, but out of his abundant goodness. If God did not permit some evil, we should want much good; the good of his justice and mercy, which shine forth both in his severe judgments and gracious indulgence. Goodness (without this) had amiable. As out of the salt, brackish sea sweet showers are exhaled, so from man’s evil the Almighty power hath drawn the comfortable dews of grace in our Lord Jesus Christ. These deriders of religion cannot fetch in God as a patron of their impiety; God shall fetch in them as unwilling instruments of his glory. They are not thus wicked because God foretold it; but therefore God foretold it, because they will be thus wicked, that their wickedness might not hurt his chosen.
As sin is a punishment of sin, it is a part of justice: the Holy One of Israel doth not abhor to use even the grossest sins to his own just purposes. While our wills are free to our own choice, his decrees are as necessary as just. The house of Judah would have fought against Israel for Rehoboam, but God forbade them: “For this thing is from me,” saith the Lord, 1 Kings xii. 24. We may observe, Jeroboam’s plot, the people’s insolence, the young men’s misadvice, the prince’s unseasonable austerity; all disposed by the omnipotent Providence to accomplish his just decree: he had purposed it, what shall hinder it? All these might have done otherwise, for any force that was offered to their wills; all would do no otherwise, than if there had been no preordination in heaven. Israel had forsaken the Lord, and worshipped Ashtaroth, and Chemosh, and Milchom: God owes them a whipping; the frowardness of Rehoboam shall pay it them. Who would not have looked any whither for the cause of this evil, rather than to Heaven? yet the holy God challengeth it to himself, “This thing is from me;” but so, as neither their sins shall taint him, nor his decree justify them. He will be magnified in his wisdom and justice, while sinners wittingly perish in their follies. It shall double our guiltiness, if we place the necessity of our sinning in God’s decree. The philosopher’s servant being reproved for filching, excused himself, that it was his destiny to steal; but his master answered, so it was also his destiny to be hanged. Desperate wretches may talk thus now; it will be no plea at the last audit, against a Go, ye cursed, into hell-fire.
2. “In the last days.” There is much questioning when these last days be. St. Paul says it was not at hand, 2 Thess. ii. 2; St. Peter says it is at hand, I Pet. iv. 7. They are thus reconciled. Peter seems to speak of ultimum tempus, the last time, and that is at hand; Paul of ultimum temporis, the last point of time, and that was not at hand. The end is at hand; but the last period and line of the end might not be at hand. But how then is it called by St. John the last hour? Because there is no alteration to succeed it. In the former ages God still altered the condition of the church: after the covenant made with Adam, it stood in the same state till Noah; then was the world drowned. After the reparation of it, so it continued to Abraham; then was there a renovation of this covenant. From Abraham to Moses, it remained a stranger in the world; then God settled it in the promised land. From Moses to David, it was governed by captains and judges; then God stated it in a monarchy. Thus it abode until the captivity; and again (after that time of bondage expired) was restored to some glory. In the fulness of time God sent his own Son: before it went through many changes and sundry conditions; one while it had only the light of nature, then was it informed by the law written, now it is blessed and established with grace. And this is the last state, because it shall not be followed with any renovations or alterations; the condition of it by the grace of Christ shall endure to the end of the world; nor can we look for any change but one, which shall be at the universal dissolution of all things. “There remaineth no more sacrifice for sins,” Heb. x. 26; lose this, and lose all; for he shall come no more to die, but at once to judge quick and dead. Thus the time from Christ’s ascension to the world’s end, is called the last day, because it immediately (without any general alteration) goes before it. The end in the apostles’ time was not far off, now it must be very near; if that were the last day, this is the last hour; or if that were the last hour, this is the last minute.
These being the last days, the last day of them must be at hand. Concerning that day, there are two errors in the world. First, curiosity of critics; and they ask, When shall it be? Secondly, security of sluggards; and they never ruminate whether it shall be at all. That is the excess, and possesseth the wit; this is the defect, and disables the will. The former is of men over-wise, and they hasten the judgment; the other, of men too supine and careless, and they would slacken the judgment.
First, for the busy inquirers; they are such as refuse the plain ground, to walk upon pinnacles. Like the Bethshemites, that were not content with seeing the ark, but they must see into the ark, and so perish. Hierome saith, Things past before the world, and things future after the world, we cannot know; the things that are between we can only contemplate. There are some things which the wisdom of God desires to conceal; wherein irreverence is not more faulty than curiosity. Secret things to God, revealed things to us and our children. Why dost thou inquire my name, which is secret? says the angel, Judg. xiii. 18. In that vision of theirs, the moral whereof was good, inquiry was made what became of Samson’s soul. The answer was, It is a secret; that none might dare to destroy himself after his example; whose act was rather for wonder than for imitation. What became of Solomon’s soul? It is a secret; that none might dare to fall from the light of knowledge into the works of darkness. What became of Origen’s soul? It is a secret; that none might presume to dally with the Scriptures, and make a shadow of plain history. What became of Trajan’s soul? It is a secret; that none might venture to do all that Trajan did. Men may soon be too bold with hidden mysteries: he that modestly looks upon the sun, sees a glorious torch, and receives a comfortable light; but he that fixeth his eyes too earnestly upon it, is struck blind; and because he will see more than he should, comes in the end to see nothing at all.
If we stand a moderate distance from the fire, it warms and comforts us; if too near, it will scorch and burn us. “Our God is a consuming fire,” Heb. xii. 29. Every seraphim had six wings; with two he covered his face, with two his feet, and with two he did fly, Isa. vi. 2. He covered his face, keeping us from the secrets of God’s eternal predestination, in the beginning: he covered his feet, not disclosing when he will come to judge the world, in the end. Therefore saith Austin, Let us not go on to inquire, what God has not gone on to say. Solomon tells us, that the locks of the spouse are curled, and his hairs black as a raven, Cant. v. 11. The secrets of God’s providence are curled and intorted, we cannot unfold them; his hair black, his ways past finding out. “O the depth of the riches of his wisdom; how unsearchable are his judgments!” Rom. xi. 33. As a man wading into the sea, when he comes up to the neck, and feels the water begin to heave him up, and that his feet fail him; he cries, O the depth, and goes back again. Paul’s last doctrine (“God hath concluded them all in unbelief,” &c. ver. 32) was a secret enough to swallow up any created understanding: therefore he sets a bar against all further search; O the depth, not to be fathomed by any reach of man: we may sooner fetch mould from the centre of the earth, or dig through it to the antipodes. “His ways are past past finding out;” a metaphor taken from quick-scented hounds; who will be at a loss, when there is left neither track, nor print, nor scent of the pursued game. We may as well line out the way of a ship on the waves, or the walk of an arrow through the air, as find out the reserved ways of God. Such is man’s pravity and nothingness in comparison of his Maker.
Let us not dote about questions that are too high for us: we may think it a wisdom, St. Paul calls it dotage, 1 Tim. vi. 4. Though the Lord dwells in a light, yet is it such a light as no man can attain unto, ver. 16. Some are more busy to learn what and where hell is, than the means how to escape it. Or, what God did before the world began, than what he will do with them when the world is done. Or, whether we shall know one another in heaven, than to know that themselves have an inheritance there. Or, whether Christ did locally descend into hell, in soul, or in power; not suspecting their own ways of sin which lead them thither. It is good to leave off learning, where God hath forborne teaching. It is safe to be ignorant of that which is hidden: we shall never be condemned for being ignorant of that. which we are not bound to know. Let us neither have tongue to ask, nor ear to listen, nor brain to examine, where God hath no will to speak. This well is deep, John iv. 11, and the Spirit hath not given us a bucket. Do not pry into what is forbidden, lest you lose what is permitted. “It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power,” Acts i. 7. Content we ourselves with Paul’s knowledge, only “Jesus Christ, and him crucified,” 1 Cor. ii. 2.
Yet it is a wonder to see, how many desperate wits have adventured on the discovery of that, which God hath secreted; and how many insensate hearts have given credit to such Merlin’s oracles, and prophecies out of hollow vaults. There is a judgment belonging to them, whereat they have just cause to tremble. “God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie: that they all might be damned who believed not the truth,” 2 Thess. ii. 11, 12. If they will seek to know more than they should, they shall know more than they would; even the heat of that unquenchable fire, whereof wise men never desire to know more than by speculative meditation. In all ages there have been such drunken prophets. In the apos tles’ time there were such as would have fastened their dreams upon Paul, 2 Thess. ii. 2. In St. Augustine’s time there were some that determined the end of the world four hundred years after Christ’s ascension: so that the latter days have mocked their former dotage. Such have been their strange collections from divers mystical numbers, in Daniel, and the Revelation; and from the observation of sevens. From Adam to Enoch, in the succession of persons, and then Enoch was translated; from Enoch to Elias, in the succession of ages, and then was Elias taken up; therefore in the seventh thousand years (they infer) all bodies shall rise. Others gather no less from the proportion of the three states of the church: two thousand years nature; two thousand years the law; and two thousand years Christ. But they were deceived in their just computation; and he that could not keep number for the time past, we will never take his reckoning for the time to come. Again, there be some that acknowledge, that neither the day nor the hour can be known, because Christ expressly saith so; therefore (for evasion) they attempt only to find | ticular day; but the most are so impudent as to out the year. But most absurdly; for if the last day be unknown, then the day before the last, and the ▸ week before that day, and the year which contains that week, and the age which contains that year. But, as St. Augustine saith, (Civit. Dei, lib. 18. cap. 53.) that one text in the first of the Acts, (Acts i. 7,) hath bred the gout in the fingers of all our Pythagorean count-casters. St. Bernard better approves a humble ignorance, that confesseth, but presumes not; than a brawling knowledge, that presumeth, but understands not. And Lactantius saith, that the vulgar are not seldom the wiser, because they are no wiser than they should be: light footing makes the better speed in so deep a sand.
Paul was rapt up to the third heaven, and heard unspeakable words: not a word of the last day. : The angels know much, by the excellency of their nature, and nearness to the Deity: they know not that. John was the beloved disciple, he leaned on Christ’s bosom, wrote a whole book of revelations: he revealed not that day to us, nor was it revealed to him. Solomon, by his miraculous wisdom, spake three thousand proverbs; not one that told us this: a thousand and five songs, yet he never sang of this, otherwise than in this harmony; There is an appointed time for all things, Eccl. iii. 1: or thus, “God shall bring every work into judgment,” Eccl. xii. 14. Yea, for ever to frustrate and prevent all hope of man’s attaining to this secret, neither man nor angels know that day, nor the Son himself, but the Father, Mark xiii. 32. Not because he could not, but because he would not know it. Let us not, saith Bernard, be impatient under that ignorance, which we share in common with the angels and with Christ himself. The coming of our Christ, is the kingdom of our Christ; and this “cometh not with – observation,” Luke xvii. 20. He was the expectation of nations; his first coming was long looked for, yet the day not precisely known. He promised to send the Holy Ghost; yet his apostles knew not the day when, but were commanded to abide at Jerusalem, till they were “endued with power from on high,” Luke xxiv. 49: they must tarry the good hour. Much less is the term of his last coming notified to any son of man. Let all our care be to find Christ in our hearts, before we see him in the clouds. It was wittily said of Thales, who gazing on the stars fell into the water, That if he had looked into the water he might have seen the stars, but looking up to the stars he could not see the water. While we elevate our curious minds to find out that abstruse mystery, whereof there is no record but in God’s own bosom, and thus have our eyes busied above, we cannot see the state of our conscience here below: let us look down to the book of our conscience, and there we shall read the necessity of Christ’s coming to judgment. “For if our heart condemn us, God is greater,” 1 John iii. 20. He was a famous warrior, that if his own son asked him when he would remove his camp, would only answer, that he should have notice by the sound of the trumpet. God hath given us all a sufficient testimony of his future coming; “Because he hath appointed a day, in the which he will judge the world in righteousness by that man whom he hath ordained,” Acts xvii. 31. If his own dear children shall ask him further, he refers them to the sound of the last trumpet: They must wait till those days be fulfilled, Rev. vi. 11; this is all their answer.
Next, for the secure neglecters of this day. This is the main sin of the times. In the last days we live, and yet on the last day we do not meditate. The former are so impudent as to point out the point out no day at all: so the last day falls on them, while their first and last and all their sins are found in them. We have such scoffers as say, there is not an end; the pens of the scribes are false: that all God’s threatenings are but the frightening tales of nurses, the last fire but an ignis-fatuus. Thus the Lord’s forbearance hath been made but the fuel of their presumption. The former were too curious, these are too careless. First, to convince those, God hath hid the day of Jesus, as he did the body of Moses; that they may fight among themselves with their own distractions. So that the poles are not farther asunder, than the opinions of these calculators. Other times have been expressed; as four hundred years, seventy-two weeks: but the determinations of this time are dull incantations to flesh and blood. The eye of neither eagle nor kite, man nor angel, can look into it: how can the narrow recesses of man’s heart contain the ways of the Lord? Secondly, these other would have no end at all; or such a one as is far enough off. These we tell, It comes, and that as the Scripture ever speaks of it, with celerity. Yet a little while, and he that cometh will not tarry, Heb. x. 7. “Behold, I come quickly,” Rev. xxii. 12. They that put far away the evil day, shall find it nearer than they were aware of. Let them fear, that lie folded in the bands of a long night, lest they never see day but the last day, and that be the beginning of their eternal night. “Every man hath his sword upon his thigh, because of fear in the night,” Cant. iii. 8. Let our armour and spiritual furniture be ever ready, for fear in the night. Doubtless it is near, we even see it, hear it, handle it: behold, with clouds he cometh; his chariot is made ready.
Of these latter days one must be the last of all. That epistle which St. Paul so earnestly charged to be read unto all, 1 Thess. v. 27, contained especial exhortation to provide ourselves against the last day. “The end of all things is at hand,” 1 Pet. iv. 7: in which words we see, first, an end; secondly, an end of all things; thirdly, an end of all things at hand: an extremity, a universality, and a vicinity. An end; this implies a beginning, proceeding, and declination. The world’s eternity was a brainless dotage of some philosophy. An end there shall be, but what sort of an end? There is a consuming end; so the earth with her works shall be burnt up: and a consummating end; so the creatures shall be restored to their original beauty and integrity. A deficient end; “The end of all flesh is come,” Gen. vi. 13: and a perfecting end; there shall be “new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness,” 2 Pet. iii. 13. A finishing end, that shall destroy all the vain works of men, and crown all righteous deeds. The ungodly shall find it a destructive end; spoiling their labours, ceasing their pleasures, but beginning their endless torments: they shall die and not die; as Moses’ bush burned and wasted not. Death shall feed on them, as a vulture on carrion, and not be satisfied. How miserable is it to desire death, and not be able to die! This is a fearful end; the miserable beginning of that which shall never end. Their end is damnation, Phil. iii. 19, and that damnation is without end. The righteous have a perfective end; Behold the just, the end of that man is peace, Psal. xxxvii. 37.
There is one universal end, and last day to all; and this cannot be far off. If you ask for the precedent signs, they may be reduced to six, and called thus; a drum, a trumpet, a famine, a flood, a comet, and a new troop.
1. The drum beats up wars and massacres, plagues and pestilences: and how do the prints of all these stick upon the breast of the world! This drum hath beaten too loud; abroad in war, at home in pestilence: the God of peace and mercy unbrace it, and make it quiet, to our comfort.
2. The trumpet is the preaching of the gospel. This hath not only been heard in Zion, long blown in the church of God; nor only set to the walls of Jericho and Babylon, Rome hath not been free from the sound of it; but it even hath reached the ears of paganism, and with the shrill noise proclaimed to them either peace or war, from Jesus Christ.
3. The famine is the general decay of all the fruits of goodness: the vine casts her grapes, the earth starves her trees, the corn is blasted, the olives are rotten: I mean all this in a spiritual sense. Religion loseth her honour, for want of good works; ks; the children of piety are become abortive; there is much faith, and little faithfulness; abundance of love, and not a spark of charity. When we look for those holy fruits of the Spirit, love, faith, meekness, temperance, &c. Gal. v. 22, 23, alas, we must cry out, Famine, famine!
4. The flood is the mighty torrent and inundation of iniquity; which hath so overrun the face of the earth, that the Holy Ghost, that most sacred Dove, finds not a place where to set his foot, Gen. viii. 9. “In the last days perilous times shall come: for men shall be lovers of themselves, covetous, boasters, proud, blasphemers, truce-breakers, false accusers, incontinent, fierce, traitors,” &c. 2 Tim. iii. 1-4. Oh what a deluge is here! Good men are like the gleanings of the vintage, here and there a grape; far more precious than gold.
5. The comet is that prodigy of the Christian world, antichrist in the seat of Christ; whom the Jesuits direct us to seek in the tribe of Dan. And herein they are like those birds, that commonly draw us away from their nests, by their fluttering and noise, for the safety of their young. When they point us to Dan, they cry as the lapwings, Here ’tis, here’tis; that we might not seek it where indeed it is, even at Rome. That antichrist is come, the horrid treasons, murders, massacres, that rage under his warrant, are too loud and demonstrative arguments.
6. The new troop, or band, that shall come into the church militant, are the elected Jews; whom God, after so long obduracy, shall call home to Jesus Christ. Some think, that their reparation shall begin with our ruin, as with their ruin began our conversion; that as few of the Jews believed when the Gentiles came in, so few of the Gentiles shall believe when the Jews return. Indeed the goodness of the Gentiles much faileth, and their state is like a vessel running at the tilt, at a low ebb. But why should we so understand that of Paul, “Blindness in part is happened to Israel, until the fulness of the Gentiles be come in?” Rom. xi. 25. Why should not rather the conversion of the Jews add riches to the fulness of the Gentiles?
days in this decrepit proximity of death and expiration.
1. An old man decays in his senses: so the eyes of the world wax dim, like Isaac’s, and cannot dis tinguish betwixt Jacob and Esau, between the righteous and unrighteous: hereby it acquitteth the guilty, and condemneth the innocent; both equal abominations to the Lord. His ears are thick of hearing, deaf to all holy counsels; the word of the gospel knocks at those doors, and finds none or very cold entertainment.
2. An old man decays in his members: so the world hath palsied hands, “the keepers of the house tremble,” Eccl. xii.; fingers so gouty, that he cannot distribute the alms of charity. He hath weak and feeble knees, not able to stand under the weight of God’s precepts: the very grasshopper is a burden; the lightest commandment held insupportable. His grinders fail, and cannot chew that heavenly food: his feet double under him, when he should walk in the way of godliness. His almond-tree flourisheth, a snow is upon his head: as our Saviour said of the fields, white to the harvest; yea, even dry for the fire. The pitcher is broken at the fountain, and the wheel at the cistern; he cannot draw the water of life, whether from the deeps or shallows. Only his tongue is live and nimble; you may hear him tumble out oaths as fast as words, though he be dumb in the praises of thankfulness. Now if we see a man, whose lights grow dim, his face furrowed with wrinkles; either white hairs, or instead of them baldness; inactive and bedrid limbs; we say, his living date is done. No less be these the last days of the superannuated world.
3. An old man is full of coughs and catarrhs, sensible of and subject to the least colds. What find we in the world, but salt rheums and malignant humours of hatred and envy; the choler of unbridled rage, the melancholy of self-love; symptoms of an unhappy dotage?
4. An old man is wayward and pettish, nothing can please him: the world is so full of moros morosity and frowardness, that it is neither well full nor fasting. Prosperity makes it dissolute; crosses, desperate; it is ever querulous, contented never.
5. Old age is crooked: so the world is grovelling; and hath changed natural erection to an unnatural minding of earthly things. Still the older the more covetous; the fewer days it hath to live, the more it provides for. “Their inward thought is, that their houses shall continue for ever; but they abide not, yea, even perish as the beasts, Psal. xlix. 11, 12. They victual themselves for a year, and their journey is done in an hour.
6. Old age is talkative and lying; two birds that commonly fly out of one nest: much speaking, vain speaking. The world promiseth wonders, content. and riches; but it performs vanities, discontent, and wretchedness; yet looks to be believed.
7. Old age is weary and lazy; like a traveller, that longs to be at his journey’s end. The material things of the world hasten to their centre and last period; the whole creature groans to be at rest.
8. Old age is worn out, exhausted; the spirits are spent. The world is ready to say as Sarah, Shall I bear a child now I am old? It bears few of those lively fruits of piety, and charity, and fidelity, that it did in former times.
From all this we may gather, that so deep are we fallen into the latter end of these last days, that, for aught we know, before we depart from this place we may look for the last fire to flash in our faces. We are they, “upon whom the ends of the world are come,” 1 Cor. x. 11. Oh that as they are the end of ages, so they were also the end of iniquities; that we might see an end of these things, before we see an end of all things! The heavens wax old as a garment, Psal. cii. 26; it is even time for them to have a new suit. As this little world, man, so that great man, the world, hath his childhood in Adam, his youth in Abraham, his middle age in Solomon, his declining in the time of Christ; and now his old age and last | almost out. Much adventitious warmth must be put
9. Old age is cold, because bloodless: an old man through the wasting of his blood grows cold; that nature requires helping by an accidental heat. The zeal of the world is so cold, the fire of the temple so spent to a spark, that for want of fuel and blowing, it is to it, to keep life in it; as a young virgin was laid | these last are the feet of clay, the basest and most by the side of blood-spent David.
10. Old age is drowsy and prone unto sleep. The world hath laid itself down in the cradle of security, the devil sets his spirits to rock it asleep, and thus it is possessed with a quiet slumber.
Thus are we fallen into the depth of winter: the spring is past, the summer hath had her season, autumn hath spent her fruits, and now winter hath shaken down the very leaves, and left us nothing but naked, bare, and barren trees. The last month of the great year of the world is come upon us; we are deep in December: these last days be all St. Lucie’s days, short, foul, and dirty. Cramps and convulsions stupify the nerves of the world, pale coldness sits on our faces, the pangs of death gnaw our heart-strings; the good angels that visit us, see nothing but signs of departure in all our carriages. Oh that, as dying men have commonly a little reviving before their ends, (as the wasted candle gives a bright glare at the going out,) which they call a lightening against death; so we could a little recover ourselves, and give forth some comfortable beam, some clear testimony of grace, before we go hence! So shall our last day be our best day; and as it puts an end to all the days and nights of measurable, miserable time, so it shall begin that day which neither admits of night nor time; even the eternal day, enlightened with the Sun of righteousness, and glorious presence of our blessed God.
It can be no great wonder, that such profane sinners should be found in the fag end of the world; which is like a false bottom when it comes to be unwound, worst at last. As Bellarmine called that age wherein ecclesiastical writers were so scant, infelix seculum, i. e. the unhappy age: much more unblest are these last days, where blessed deeds are so scarce; where the enemies of Christ dare show their heads, and fight against him. Therefore let me a little further parallel these last days of the world with the last days of a man.
11. An old man fetcheth his breath thick and short, especially when sickness adds to the decay of nature; so that death sits often like a churl at the door of his lips, and keeps in his words: or like a covetous executor, that grudgeth a man the disposing of his own goods. Oh how short be the fits of goodness! How small a space do good motions, the breathing of God’s holy Spirit in us, tarry with us! They may bait at our doors, they keep no residence in our hearts. We have some transient ejaculations, which with a short-winded devotion we utter (or rather mutter) to God; but our lusts do so haunt us, and call us off from these holy thoughts, that we may complain with Job, they will not give us leave to swallow down our spittle, Job vii. 19.
12. In old age, especially when it surpriseth a foul and surfeited body, all the corrupt humours gather down to the feet: the heart, and those more noble parts, drive them back to the extremes; and because the feet are lowest, nature repels corruption thither; and not seldom it issueth there; or if not, it racks them with gout, dropsy, and such torments. These last days be the feet of the world, whereunto all the vicious customs of former ages are gathered; as the kennels of a city run to the common sewer. Ignorance was predominant in one age, idolatry in another, hypocrisy in a third, sacrilege, oppression, fraud in another; these mischiefs then had their times to reign single. Now, like so many land-floods from the mountains, they meet in one channel, and make a torrent of united wickedness, in these lower and latter days. Thus after the golden head, the shoulders of silver, the brasen ribs, and iron legs,
rude material of all. Thus are we the grounds, the dregs, and lees of the vessel; the dust in the bottom of the mow; the dross and refuse of former ages, that lick up their vomit: decking ourselves with those iniquities as the ornaments of our pride, whereof our forefathers made a sick acknowledgment with remorse and shame.
13. Dying men are fumbling of the clothes, and plucking the coverings to them; as if they would prevent the hand of charity, and wind up their own almost breathless bodies. Men of the world, in these days so sick of avarice, scratch together all within the reach of their fingers. No fish must escape their draw-net, no water pass by their mill; as if, like Behemoth, they would drink up Jordan: and as the fleeing Jews swallowed their gold, for which they were ripped up by the Romans; so they seek to devour the world, as if their heirs should never find it but in their remains. We see men encroach upon liberties, hedge in monopolies, enclose commons, multiply barns and granaries, join houses, grow commodities; alas, they are dying souls, plucking up the blankets and coverlets about them; and giving up the ghost, as they had long before given up the Holy Ghost. “Thou fool,” saith God, Luke xii. 20: they lived wise in their own conceits, they shall die apparent fools.
14. Dying men are troubled with fantasies; full of melancholy dreams, and solicitous imaginations. So these last days of the world are fraught with errors; a thousand peevish opinions crawl out like vermin from putrified brains: strange worms are bred in old dunghills. These pester the world, disquiet the peace of the ecl church, and inveigle weak capacities. Do we wonder that these uncouth singularities transport multitudes? Alas, these are the last days, the brains of the world are cracked, it labours of extreme dotage; and among fools, the haberdasher’s shop of trifles hath the most customers. This is the cause of hatching so many new devices, strange tenets and paradoxes, raising mutinies in religion: the world is brain-sick, fantastical, fanatical; setting up factious opinions, as fast as Solomon’s wives did their groves; which I forbear the naming for fear of teaching. Men love any thing better than sobriety of judgment; which shows that the world hath but few minutes to live.
15. Lastly, an old man comes back again to a child: Once an old man, twice a child. The world. is so old, that it goes upon crutches; as a child cannot go but by the hand of a nurse. The understanding and memory of it is so decayed, that it even ceaseth to know what in its childhood it began to learn. Such is the old age’s infirmity, that it is come round to infancy. Not as it is with the material world, whose old age is blessed with an annual reparation; that when the winter hath deaded all, all are again restored by the cheerful spring. It is not so in the mystical world; but senescens mundus est evanescens mundus; i. e. the world growing old, is the world growing vapid and vanishing: a child indeed it is; as prattling as a child, as ignorant as a child, as feeble as a child, as wanton as a child; but far from being as innocent as a child. For levity and vanity, it is altogether childish. An infant is made to grow up to man; but for man to grow down again to infant, is unnaturally preposterous. The seminal principle is for the creature; the seed is made for the tree; the child, not to remain so, but to be a man. The oak doth not grow back to a young sprout, nor the ox to the calf: alas, that man should degenerate and ungraduate himself to a child! Seneca calls children’s works nuge, trifles, men’s negotia, businesses:
if we shall set our minds on puerile toys, what is this | hath undertaken to pay. Lord, here is our hope but to evirate ourselves? For magistrates not to hear, but whom they list, and when they list; this is to play boys’ tricks. When King Demetrius of Macedon answered a petitioner, a poor woman, that he had no leisure; she boldly replied, Why then give over to be king. We need not stick to tell an unhearing magistrate more; Give over to be a magistrate, yea, give over to be a man. If men long for toys, set their delights upon vanities, vex (as children cry) when they may not have their wills, spend their bodies before they get information to their souls, as children rub out their books before they have learned their lessons; worship puppets and painted images, as children play with dolls; what are all these, and the like, but playing of boys’ tricks? Thus, “old men and children,” Psal. cxlviii. 12; the psalmist puts them both on a form.
All these arguments prove the world to be exceeding old, and drawing on, even near the last gasp. “That which decayeth and waxeth old is ready to vanish away,” Heb. viii. 13. Let us fall from it, before it fall upon us; and be but so wise as spiders, to forsake a rotten house; not by going out of the world, but by driving the world out of us. I have been prolix in this point, yet desire not to part from it without some considerable and appliable uses.
1. Though this be not the last day, it may be thy last day. The world cannot last long, yet thou mayst prevent the world. Strong bodies hold out many fits, yet at last yield to the necessity of nature. Weak constitutions are dissolved with a little sickness, as a child’s paper-house is with a puff of wind. If our life be wrapped up with the world, it must neods be momentary. Heaven and earth are of a strenuous composition, compact together with more powerful sinews and ligaments; so that they have held up their heads through many passages and destructions of mortality; otherwise when the Son of God suffered it would have broke their hearts. Our bodies are made of elements, weak and fluid principles; and therefore sooner resolved to their first materials. Flowers have but their months, when oaks and cedars stand many years. Nothing but extreme and supernatural fire shall be the death of the world; water, air, earth, a thorn, a vapour, any thing is able to despatch us. If we be not bound up in the bundle of a better life, we are vain wretches…
…and confidence: thou wilt not find those guilty, for whom thine own person suffered the penalty; nor punish the sins thou hast remitted; nor cast away the souls thou hast redeemed.
3. To others it shall be a black day; alas, what shall they do in the day of visitation; to whom will they flee for help, and where will they leave their glory, Isa. x. 3; when they shall peep out of the grave, and see the world on fire, and have lost all interest in the Judge? Why do men neglect the means of reconciliation? “Agree with thine adversary quickly,” Matt. v. 25: if thy sin hath made God thine adversary, go quickly, delay no time to recover his friendship. Take thy incense quickly, saith Moses to Aaron, and make atonement for the people, Numb. xvi. 46. Quickly fall to thy prayers, put that incense in the censer of Jesus, entreat him to entreat God for thee, and to make a blessed atonement between you. As our own last day leaves us, the world’s last day shall find us; we are presented above, as we went forth below. Oh then judge we ourselves, that we be not judged. Our passing-bell, and the archangel’s trump, have both one voice; for God will reverse no particular judgment. If the former give a heavy and doleful knell for us here, that louder instrument shall keep the same note hereafter. But if the one sound comfort at our last hour in this world, the other shall sound joy at the last hour of the world.
4. If the world be ready to end, why do men covet, as if it were but now to begin? The world must perish, and dost thou seek the things of the world? Who would plant or build upon that ground, which is troubled with earthquakes, or sure suddenly to sink? God chargeth us first to seek the kingdom of heaven, and then earthly things shall find us, unsought, Matt. vi. 33. But foolish nature takes a false method: she first seeks the world; and if she light upon God by the way, it is more than she thought on, desired, cared for. How deservedly do they fail of both, that sought neither aright! Many had been great, if they had cared to be good; but because they willed not what they ought, they are crossed in what they would. If Solomon had made riches his first suit, he might have been poor and foolish; but asking wisdom as lom as the principal, wealth came in for inte rest: because he chose well, he received what he asked not. Such is the bounty and fidelity of God: to them that ask the best, he gives all. Earth shall wait upon them that attend upon Heaven. Happy is he that affords the best services of the world bu the less half of himself, while the greater and better part is better bestowed.
2. Remember therefore, the end is near, thy end is nearer. Whether the end of this day shall not be the end of all thy days, thou hast no assurance. Today hear his voice, Psal. xcv. 7: be sure to repent one day before thy last day; and hereof thou canst not be sure, unless thou repentest this day. Let us think, if the Judge were now coming in the clouds, in what case we were to meet him. Perhaps we are wrapped up in a cloud too, a cloud of dark ignorance and blind security: let us know that this cloud will dissolve ours, and lay us open with all our sins to the view of men and angels. It is time to repent, and make even our reckoning, which we can no ways do, but by transferring all our reckonings and debts to Christ. As Alcibiades told Pericles, when he was troubled with studying how to give his accounts, that if he would be ruled by him, he should rather study how to give no account at all. The Lord graciously calls us to cast our burden upon him: Christ adviseth us to lay all our reckonings and debts upon his score; promising to discharge them to a penny with his treasure of merits; the only coin that is current in the exchequer of God’s justice. If by faith we have borne them thither, and given up ourselves, body and soul, to him for security, we need not fear. The Judge will never condemn us for that debt, which himself | abundance of riches, and more grace…
5. I do not wish men to abandon themselves to wilful beggary, because of the last day’s proximity: or not to repair the house, because their time in i is so short. For worldly things, we may use them without loving them, and distinguish betwixt a Stoical dulness and a Christian contempt. There s difference between making the world a god and a slave. This latter is the respect it deserves, and they are fools that give it veneration. But rich men think, the only reason why preachers love not the world, 15 because the world loves not them: that she shows us only her heels, not her amiable face: that we have nothing but her refuse; her best jewels she keeps for her sweethearts. Yet a beggar may look upon a lordship; and we may see those heaps of gold, whereof never one piece shall be ours. know what others dote on, and wonder at their mad ness; that they should fix their hearts on that which is not fixed itself, and build their happiness upon a rolling stone. I deny not, but God hath given some to whom he hath been so liberal, he will be more munificent, for he will give them also glory. While they look up to their future hopes, they esteem but meanly of their present fortunes, and count them scarce a taste of that full cup. Militant saints are sometimes (besides their inheritance above) granted fair possessions below; yet they value not this with the other. Here they command a little pittance of mould, great to us, little to the whole; there the immense heaven shall be theirs. Here they command as subjects, there they shall reign as kings. Here they are gracious among men, there they shall be glorious among the angels. Here, together with their honour and affluence, they want not crosses and envy; above there is nothing but noble peace and pleasant eternity. Here they have some short joys, there they are both perfect and everlasting. Here they are strangers, there at home. Here Satan tempts them, and men vex them; there saints and angels shall sing with them, and the glory of God shall satisfy them. In a word, they are only blessed here, for that they shall be blessed hereafter.
6. Thus take the world at its best, yet good men despise it. But for fear lest we should be fond of it, God presents it generally to his children in another shape; a miserable, troublesome, inconstant world, whose joys are but the crackling of thorns. While Naomi’s husband and sons were alive, we find no motion of her retiring home to Judah; let her earthly stays be removed, she thinks presently of removing to her country, Ruth i. We cannot so heartily think of our home above, while we are furnished with these earthly contentments below. But when God strips us of them, straightway our mind is homewards. Besides, what assurance can there be of those things, whereof our going home may strip us? What man can say of the years to come, Thus will I be? Most justly do we contemn this uncertainty, and look up to those riches that cannot but endure, when heaven and earth are dissolved. Riches are a flood; ut fluunt, defluunt; i. e. as they flow, they flow away: this city cannot call the water of a flood, hers; nor those inhabitants, theirs: all may take enough to serve their own turns, the rest glide by, and wait upon nobody. When we are bidden to a great man’s table, where the meat is served up in silver dishes, and the wine in bowls of gold, we may eat the viands, and drink the precious liquors; but if through simplicity we should offer to carry away the vessels, the porter would stay us at the gate, and tell us plainly, they are none of ours. The Divine bounty affords the use of riches, for the comfort and sustentation of our podies; but when we rise up from his table, and hink to bear away the riches themselves, death is a evere porter at the gate of life; he will examine our going out; we shall carry none of them with us. St. Augustine seems to borrow it from Democrates; Quæst. Evang. 1. 2. c. 35.) He that loves his soul, loves imself: he that loves his body, loves not himself, ut something that is his own: he that loves his money, neither loves himself, nor that which is his, ut another’s: he that loves his pleasure, loves that hich is neither himself, nor his own, nor his friend’s, ut his enemy’s.
tions, ver. 9. When Christ forewarned the Jews of the destruction of their Jerusalem, did he not impliedly advise them to shift for themselves in another country? Merchants that would soon be rich, take the old course, to buy cheap and sell dear; therefore they buy their commodities in the country that affords good profits, and vent them in other countries, which must take them on any price. We do not buy wines in England, to sell them in France; nor buy spices in France, to carry them to the Indies. Thither we traffic a commodity, where it is precious in regard of scarcity. I presume, we would all go to heaven: we are foolish merchants, if of all lands we would not trade in the land of Canaan; if we had rather treat with savages for gold and jewels, than exchange with the saints for glory and graces. But now what freight shall we carry thither? What wares and merchandise will be vendible and welcome in that kingdom? Shall we carry honour and dignity thither? There is abundance of that already; we may more truly say of that city, than was of Tyre, All her merchants are princes: yea, all her inhabitants are no less than kings. To traffic worldly glory to heaven, is to hold a candle to light the sun; that greater light doth not so swallow up the less, as the glory of God doth all honour of the creatures. They can add no glory to him, that have all their glory from him. What then? shall we carry rest, quiet, and peace with us? will that have any better vent or acceptance? No; for there is all peace, all rest, and quiet. It is the kingdom of peace: here we may have in some measure the peace of the king, there in a full measure we shall enjoy the King of peace. It is called the Lord’s rest, Heb. iii. 11: we have no true rest but in him, no perfect rest till we come unto him. He hath made this earth wherein we live, militant, troublesome, barren of rest; it would be profitless for us to gather up the base dregs of a supine security, and offer to sell them in heaven. They have plenty of better peace, and we have none but from their store. They that arrive at that port with such a merchandise of carelessness, must back again; the citizens of heaven will not trade with them. What then say you to pleasures and joys? will not they pass current in that holy land? Not if they be brought from any foreign coast. Lord, “in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore,” Psal. xvi. 11. There is fulness, perfection, and everlastingness of joy; ours are feeble, fickle, empty pleasures. Why should we pour water into the sea? why proffer our addition to fulness, our vanity to perfection, our shortness to eternity? Such a commodity will not be tolerable in that mart. Woe to them that laugh! for they shall weep, Luke vi. 25: that ware is for the shop of hell; there it shall be exchanged for sorrow; and the clapping of hands in irrision, for wringing of hands in endless lamentation. “Rejoice, O young man,” Eccl. xi. 9: do; but thou shalt smart for it. The seed of carnal joy will not be good cheer in heaven: no fruit comes of it, but woe and torment. Well; yet I hope riches will pass for merchantable stuff; money is current all the world over: some things are not precious in some countries, nor other in other, but no country refuseth money. Yet this country will: alas, what should the beggarly dross of this perishing world do in that heavenly Havilah, where the gold is more precious than the gold of Ophir? Yea, what is the gold of gold of Ophir to that city which is itself pure gold? Rev. xxi. 18. It is said of Solomon, that silver was not accounted of in his days; he made it as common as stones, 1 Kings x. 21, 27: how more infinite be the riches of the heavenly Solomon! Where there a drop of water that the churl wished for in hell, not a bag of gold; not a lordship of many acres; he had too large an inheritance there before. Away with this trash; it hath no estimation in the Jerusalem above. There is an eternal Easter. What then shall we load ourselves withal, that may be acceptable? Yes, there be things whereof there is great scarcity in heaven; carentia, a wanting, I say; but there is no indigentia, indigence, there. We may see what they lack, by his description that discovered the land; There is no death, nor sorrow, nor crying, nor pain, Rev. xxi. 4; no tears, nor fears. Let us carry with us thither,
7. Lastly, seeing therefore that both these be the ast days in general, and our last day may antedate nem in particular; seeing either the house must be ulled down, or the tenant cast out; let us provide for urselves betimes, as the wise steward did, Luke xvi. some trusty friend. He was loth to be harbouress: though he had not justice enough to keep in at is master’s house, yet he had providence enough to et another house in store. Make your unrighteous ammon a means to procure you everlasting habita- | is no use of things, their valuation ceaseth. It was…
1. Humility, a lowly contempt of our own selves: there is none of that in heaven. There is abundance of honour, without pride; of glory, without envy or disestimation: for the saints love themselves, because God loves them. “God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble,” 1 Pet. v. 5. They that bring a lofty conceit of themselves to that coast, shall be repelled. Humility is a commodity, for which God will exchange the crown of glory. Moses, David, Paul went thither with this traffic, I am unworthy; and Christ gave them for it the kingdom of heaven.
2. Poorness in spirit: there is none of that in heaven, this merchandise will pass. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven,” Matt. v. 3. Not only shall be, but is already. This will pass, and we with it.
3. Hunger and thirst: there is none of that in heaven. “They are abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thine house,” Psal. xxxvi. 8. They that are satiated with more than they can desire, be far from want. We need not therefore carry provision with us, but an appetite; an earnest desire to feed on those unspeakable comforts. “We groan within ourselves, waiting for the redemption of our bodies,” Rom. viii. 23; mourning for our absence from Zion. This hunger will pass; and instead of it we shall have infinite satisfaction. We bring abstinence and devout fasting to heaven, we shall find affluence and royal feasting there.
4. Mourning, repentance, and tears: there is none of this in heaven. Never came sorrow over those joyful thresholds; never came godly sorrow to those thresholds, but it was entertained with joy. “They that sow in tears shall reap in joy,” Psal. cxxvi. 5. As the barbarous traffic with some remoter pagans; they lay down salt, and take up gold: so we set down the burdens of our sorrows and the vessels of our tears before the Lord; and he likes this merchandise so well, that he gives us for them everlasting joys. “Blessed are they that mourn, for they shall be comforted,” Matt. v. 4: there is a blessed exchange.
5. Labour and work: there is none of that in heaven. It is an everlasting holiday with them; they rest, rejoice, and sing; no travail, no pains there. Therefore good works and Christian labours are good traffic. “Blessed are they that die in the Lord; for they rest from their labours, and their works follow them,” Rev. xiv. 13. They dare not go without their freight: a merchant without his commodity hath but a sorry welcome. God will ask them that arrive there, Where are your works? His reward shall be according to our works, Rev. xxii. 12: if no good works on earth, look for no riches in heaven. Indeed that wealth is too precious to be bought with our works: nor doth God exchange it propter opera, for works, but dispose secundum opera, according to works. “Work out your salvation with fear and trembling,” Phil. ii. 12: there is neither fear, nor trembling, nor working in heaven; but after our working, trembling, and fear, God will give us salvation. Thou hast riches here, and here be objects that need thy riches, the poor; in heaven there is riches enough, but no poor. Therefore make over thy money to them in this world, that thou mayst receive it by bill of exchange in the world to come. 6. Patience in afflictions and troubles: there are none of these in heaven; neither trouble to try their patience, nor patience to overcome their trouble. The things to be bartered, are patience and conquest: patience is our commodity, conquest is Christ’s. If we bring him our virtue of patience, he will give us in exchange his honour of conquest. He speaks of patience as of a triumph; “Here is the patience of the saints,” Rev. xiv. 12. Through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of heaven, Acts xiv. 22. Our voyage is tribulation, our vessel is the church, pirates and tyrants are our enemies, rocks and sands our dangers; our tackling, sails, oars be patience, and glorious victory our reward.
7. Faith and hope: neither of them is in heaven; the beatifical vision and fruition hath quite annihilated them. This then is happy merchandise. Give me thy faith, saith God, and I will give thee my glory: let me not fail of thy hope, thou shalt be sure of my felicity. No traffic will pass without this. Divers say of moral men, If they go not to heaven, Lord, have mercy upon us: yet Christ saith, “Except your righteousness exceed the righteousness of the scribes and Pharisees,” you shall not come there, Matt. v. 20: yea, publicans and harlots shall get into heaven sooner, because the other believed not. Civil justice is not in itself evil, but good; but it is not good enough to save a man: it may be without faith, but faith cannot be without it. Goodly works, building alms-houses, enriching monasteries, feeding beggars, are the popish merchandise; this they carry to heaven in a presumptuous confidence, that God must needs requite them. So they come upon equal terms with him, ware for ware; if he give them heaven, they give him earth. But they shall find with the Pharisee, that for want of faith and humility, these wares will not pass with God; nor will he afford the kingdom of heaven upon such conditions. Moralities without true belief, are like the fair picture of a beautiful woman; pleasing to the eye, but there is no warmth in it; nor is it fit for society. But faith is the obedience of the soul, the soul of obedience. “He that believeth, shall be saved,” Mark xvi. 16: to believe, that is our part and commodity; to save us, that is God’s reward and mercy. Thus I have showed you a truly Royal Exchange, a blessed mart. If we be as good husbands for our souls as we are for our temporal estates, we have learned here how to make our markets. us never seek to load our vessels with honours, pleasures, or riches: there is no want of them in heaven; nor will God deal with them in a gracious commerce, that bring no better merchandise. But with humility, poverty, labour, hunger, repentance, patience, faith, and hope: these be the riches of grace, for which God will exchange his riches of glory. Such merchants make a blessed voyage; for they shall never depart from that joyful country, where they are so happily arrived and gloriously entertained.
“There shall come scoffers, walking after their own lusts.” Irridentes alios, arridentes sibi, Laughing at others, laughing to themselves. The devil knows that the world cannot last long, and therefore bestirs him. He hath “great wrath, because he knoweth that he hath but a short time,” Rev. xii. 12. Не is grown more wrathful, we should therefore be more watchful. He is a malicious tenant, that perceiving his term almost expired, does what he can to ruin the house; a cruel tyrant, that daily suspecting the loss of his usurped sovereignty makes havoc among | securely among so many Cains, when he sees one down fire upon the two captains and their fifties, curseth them in the name of the Lord. Two shebears are his executioners, two and forty of them are torn in pieces. O fearful example of the Divine justice! This was not the revenge of an angry proet: it was the punishment of a righteous Judge. The spite of their idolatrous parents was seen in this vile behaviour of the children; they do but accord his subjects, and like a worse Herod, falls apace to murder. Indeed his main spite is not at the body, but at the soul; for he knows if he can get the soul, the body must come after. To effect this, he deviseth all the ways he can, and puts in practice all that he deviseth. And to this purpose, sometimes he is a roaring devil, in lion-like tyrants; sometimes a flattering devil, in his spaniel-like parasites; sometimes a dissembling devil, in his fox-like hypocrites; and here a scorning devil, in his ape-like scoffers, that live as if they were neither beholden to God nor afraid of him, both out of his debt and danger. It is their least ill to do evil; they speak for it, joy in it, boast of it, enforce to it, mock them that dislike it: and so at once send a challenge to God, as if they meant to meet him in the plain field, and let him choose his weapon; they make love to destruction.
1. Here first we have to observe the contrariety of the dispositions of divers men. We heard of some in the first verse, that seek the Lord with a pure heart, and follow his word with their best endeavour of sincerity and sincerity of endeavour. Now we are fallen upon those, that with a foul and rancorous mind deride all goodness, and load religion with disgraces. Then we camped in Elim, a place of water and palm-trees; now we are come to a wilderness of briers and brambles. Then we lay in a sweet harbour of comfortable meditation; now we are put into the ocean of rocks, and pirates, and boisterous waves. There we found Zion, here we have Babylon; evena hell of malignant devils, for that communion of saints. Fire and water are not more contrary, than the just and unrighteous: they wonder, each at other; the graceless, that the just can be so strict; the just, that the graceless can be so dissolute: clay and iron will not weld together. Where is a good man laughed at, but where the profane finds indulgence? Why doth the world seek more to rich men than to wise men? The philosopher could answer, Because it is possible for them to be rich, never to be wise. Why are holy men depressed, and the irreligious honoured? Because men have a liking to be licentious; but to be holy, is none of their purpose. Nobody hates an Israelite, but an Egyptian or a Canaanite. Put fire to fire, or water to water, there is no commotion; but put water to fire, and then you have a thundering coil. When riotous men meet, there is shaking shaking of hands; but the temperate cannot pass by without a scorn.
2. This is the reason why the good and virtuous be always opposed and exposed to the fury and malice of cruel men. It is indeed a wonderful thing, but not a new thing; it was so from the beginning. “As then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so is it now,” Gal. iv. 29. No sooner was God worshipped and served, but hatred and spite fell to the portion and lot of religion. The first man that offered the better sacrifice, was slain: the acceptable sacrifice was the seminary of death. Who would think that brethren, and but two brethren, should not love each other? Dispersed love grows weak, and paucity of objects useth to unite affections. If but two brothers be left alive of many, they think that the love of all the rest should survive in them; that the beams of their affection should be so much the hotter, because they reflect mutually in a right line each upon other. Yet behold, there were but two brothers in a world, and one is a butcher of the other. Who can wonder at dissension among thousands of brethren, that sees so deadly opposition betwixt two, the first roots of brotherhood? Who can hope to live peaceably and Cain the death of one Abel? It can be no otherwise; dissimilitude and distance of manners breeds alienation of affections. There is nothing doth so condemn the lives of the wicked, as the exemplary conversation of the godly; the fat kine make the lean seem more ill-favoured. A swarthy and hard-featured visage doth not love the company of clear beauties. Besides, it is the pleasure of God thus to try and honour his servants, and to produce their patience. What pictures could Apelles draw, if he wanted a table to work upon? What building could the architect rear, without timber, stones, and materials? Their scorn doth both prove and improve our patience. So that we have both a testimony of God’s favour; If the world hate you, it is because ye are mine, saith Christ, John xv. 18, 19; and of our own integrity, for that must needs be good which evil persecutes. Their lewdness calls for our sorrow and more zealous obedience; that our God may have as faithful servants as he hath unfaithful enemies. As we see natural qualities increased with the resistance of their contraries, so must our grace with others’ sins. We shall redeem something of God’s dishonour by sin, if we shall thence grow holy. It hath been an old and happy danger to be godly: indifferent actions must be careful to avoid offence; but let us not care what man or devil be angry that we do good, or receive good. It is contrariety that makes Babylon wonder at Jerusalem, and Jerusalem at Babylon. We refuse the fair proffers of the world, that come upon sinful conditions; they laugh at us for fools: it will not prove so in the end. “All these will I give thee, if thou wilt fall down and worship me,” Matt. iv. 9. Oh if a covetous worldling had been there, how ready had been his knees! How would he have caught the promise out of the devil’s mouth, for fear lest he should have gone back from his word! Alexander, after the battle of Granicus, had very great offers made him by Darius: consulting with his captains about them, Parmenio said, Sure I would accept of these offers were I as Alexander: Alexander answered, So would I were I as Parmenio. The Christian may grow rich (not seldom) by remitting the rigour of his conscience: the worldling saith, Sure I would take it upon these terms, were I as that Christian; and the Christian saith, So would I were I as that worldling. Such contrary natures are appointed to contrary places, that differ as far as heaven and hell.
“Scoffers.” The depth of sin is the chair of the scorners, Psal. i. 2; they are set down in the resolute contempt of all goodness. Of these there be two sorts and degrees; first, the despisers of them that be good, 2 Tim. iii. 3; then the despisers of goodness itself.
1. For the former; the saints of God have complained of them in all ages: David of his busy mockers; the abjects jeered him. Job was disdained of those children, whose fathers he would have scorned to set with the dogs of his flock, Job xxx. 1. Joseph was nick-named a dreamer, Paul a babbler, Christ himself a Samaritan; and with intent of disgrace, a carpenter. Libanius asked a Christian what his master the carpenter was a doing; whom he answered, He is making a coffin for thy master Julian. Lucian jested in contempt, that he had gotten nothing by his Christianity but a syllable to his name; of Lucius, Lucianus: but he was torn in pieces of dogs. Even the very boys of Bethel had learned to scoff at a prophet, 2 Kings ii. 23: who would have thought the rude terms of waggish children worthy of any thing but neglect? Elisha looks at them with severe brows, and, like the heir of him that called your fear cometh, Prov. i. 25, 26. Themistocles, in his lower fortune, much desired the love of a young gentleman; but he scorned him. Soon after, when he grew to his greatness, the gentleman sought to him, but Themistocles answered, We are both grown wise, but too late. Now Christ offers them his gospel, and they scoff at it; at the last day they will sue for the benefit of that gospel, but they must not have it.
Infancy is led altogether | If the prince grant a gracious pardon…by imitation; it hath neither words nor actions, but what are infused by others: the good or bad language it hath, is but borrowed; and the shame or thank of either, is due to them that lent it. God and his seer looked through these children at their parents; if they misnurture their children to the contemptuous usage of a prophet, they shall be punished with the death of those children whom they taught no better manners. If we love our children, let not our indulgence give way to their despising of goodness; for then, either destruction shall snatch them away young, or there is hell provided for them when they die old. And if God would not endure those contumelies unrevenged in the mouths of boys, what vengeance is due to aged persecutors! Ishmael did but mock Isaac; yet Paul saith, he persecuted him, Gal. iv. 29. God calls the scorn of his servants by no better name than persecution. David thought it no disgrace to dance in the ephod: Michal does; she looks through her window, and seeing the attire and gestures of her devout husband, despiseth him in her heart. Nor can she conceal her contempt, but, like Saul’s daughter, casts it proudly in his face; “How glorious was the king of Israel to-day; even like one of the vain fellows!” 2 Sam. vi. 20. David’s heart did never swell so much at any reproach, as this of his wife: his love was for the time lost in his anger; and as a man impatient of no affront so much as in the way of his devotion, he returns her a bitter check. “It was before the Lord, who chose me before thy father, and before all his house.” Had she not twitted her husband with the shame of his religious fervour, he had not upbraided her with the shameful rejection of her father. But seeing she will forget whose wife she was, she shall be put in mind whose daughter she was. Michal was barren, yet she hath too many children, that scorn the holy habit and exercises. There cannot be a greater argument of a foul soul, than the deriding of religious services. Worldly hearts can see nothing in those actions, but folly and madness; piety hath no relish, but distasteful, to their palates. But what was Michal’s reward? Her scorns shall make her childless to the day of her death, ver. 23. Barrenness was held in those days none of the least judgments: she thought to lay a sudden disgrace upon David, a perpetual disgrace shall be her recompence. So doth the Lord revenge David’s quarrel; that she shall not be held worthy to bear him a son, whom she unjustly contemned for showing himself a humble son of God. How just is God, to provide whips for the back of scorners! It is no marvel, if those that mock at goodness, be plagued with continual fruitlessness. 2. And this is that other and higher degree of wickedness, to scoff at religion itself. I have heard of some desperate patients, that have jeered at their physicians: but death is too mild a punishment for them, that scoff at all medicines. The wretched Gergesenes repelled Christ for fear; they are worse, that drive him away with scorn. If Christ will be ashamed of them when he comes to judge, that were ashamed of him when he came to suffer, how will he reject those with indignation, that rejected him with derision! You have set my counsel at nought; therefore I will laugh at your calamity, and mock when…despise it, it were pity they should have the benefit of it. Never shall that mouth kiss the hand that hath mocked the majesty of the King of heaven.
The children of God must be content to receive taunts from their Father’s enemies: we would hardly endure wounds, if we cannot brook words, for the cause of our Saviour. “When he was reviled, he reviled not again,” 1 Pet. ii. 23; this was his patience for us. Love your enemies, bless them that curse you,” &c. Matt. v. 44; this should be our patience for him. It is enough to quiet us, that all the disgraces done to us, redound to him: He that despiseth you despiseth me. Saul, thou persecutest me. He that takes the cause from us to himself, will not resign the revenge from himself to us. I deny not, bet there is sometimes a fair way of repairing unjust cou tumelies; and to be mealy-mouthed in the scorns of religion, is not so much the praise of patience, as the want of zeal. If all the aspersions of antichristian slanders could cheat us out of the integrity of our devotion, we were fearful cowards. Let them bellow with their mouths, and gore with their horns; yet neither the roaring of their bulls, nor the licking of their calves, must daunt or cool the fervour of our sincerity. The blind world in those former times, made it a capital crime, and loaded it with reproaches, for any man to call himself a Christian; yet the faithful did not give over the name. Tantum mali, quia Christiani; i. e. Evil, only because they were Christians: which Tertullian showed to be most unreasonable; for there is no crime in a mere name. This sect is every where spoken against, Acts xxvill 22; like marks in the butt, at which every fool shot his bolt. Yet, as David said, “I will be more vile than thus, and base in mine own sight,” this very abasemett is heroical; and the only way to true glory, is not to be ashamed of our lowest humiliation unto God. Yea, the honour of such shall break forth in the midst of their contempt; and find a secret reverence, even where they have outward indignities. The hearts of men are not their own; he that made ther, will overrule them, to honour those that honour their Maker; and if they do not, yet God will honour them, to their shame: as David’s lowliness blessed his house, while Michal’s scorn brought a curse upon herself. “When they arise, let them be ashamed: but let thy servant rejoice,” Psal. cix. 28. God crowned that head with honour, which the boys of Bethel would needs cover with shame, and supply the want of hairs with reproaches.
Of the two, the derided ever speeds the better; for derision dasheth in a puddle, and the dirt flies about his own ears, while it lights short of innocence. The mocker would cast aspersions on his brother; but when he goes to bed, he finds them all on his own clothes. Every slander makes a deeper wound in the scandalizer’s conscience, than on the other’s credit; it is like a bullet riding on a string, wherewith while he seeks to strike another, it recoils and winds about his own loins. It is fit that the lavish tongue should always come by the worse; as the arrant scold is overcome by silence. “It may be that the Lord will look upon mine affliction, and requite me good for his cursing this day,” 2 Sam. xvi. 12. Innocency needs not stand upon her own justifying, for God hath undertaken to vindicate it. Ill tongues will be walking; neither need we repine at their insolence: we may well suffer their words, while God doth deliver us out of their hands. Livia wrote to Augustus Cæsar, concerning some ill words that had passed of them both; whereof she was over-sensible: but Cæsar comforted her; Let it never trouble you, that men speak evil of us; for we have enough, that they cannot do evil to us. Indeed, above hell there is not a greater punishment, than to become a subject of scorn. Samson bare with more patience the boring out of his eyes, than the ludibrious scoffs of the Philistines. They made a feast to their gods; no musician would serve but Samson: he must now be their sport, that was once their terror. That he might want no sorrow, scorn is added to his misery. Every wit, every hand plays upon him: who is not ready to cast his bone and his jest at such a captive? So as doubtless he wished himself no less deaf than blind; and that his soul might have gone out with his eyes. Oppression is able to make a wise man mad; and the greater the courage is, the more painful the insult. Alcibiades professed, that neither the proscription of his goods, nor his banishment, nor the wounds received in his body, were so grievous to him, as one scornful word of his enemy Ctesiphon. Good Queen Esther, in her prayers to God for her people, doth humbly deprecate this height of infelicity; O let them not laugh at our ruins. And David held it for a singular token of God’s favour, that his enemy did not triumph over him, Psal. xli. 11. Yet what if they do traduce, is there none to justify? Philip of Macedon was wished to banish one that spake ill of him; but he answered, It is better that he speak where we are both known, than where we are both unknown. Lewd men may believe their misreports, the wise know their tongues to be no slanders.
They scoff at us, God laughs at them: “He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in derision,” Psal. ii. 4. Laugh? this seems a hard word at the first view: are the injuries of his saints, the cruelties of their enemies, the derision, the persecution of all that are round about us, no more but matter of laughter? Severe Cato thought, that laughter did not become the gravity of Roman consuls; that it is a diminution of states, as another told princes: and is it attributed to the Majesty of heaven? According to our capacities, the prophet describes God, as ourselves would be in a merry disposition, deriding vain attempts. He laughs, but it is in scorn; he scorns, but it is with vengeance. Pharaoh imagined, that by drowning the Israelite males, he had found a way to root their name from the earth; but when at the same time his own daugher, in his own court, gave princely education to Moses, their deliverer, did not God laugh? Julian rearng up the Jewish ceremonies, projected to supplant he new religion by the old; and therefore would be at the cost to build up the temple again: but when rom under the foundation, as from the hill Vesuvius, Haming fire brake forth, and dissolved all his works, Hid not the Lord smile? The Philistines surprise he ark of God, and carry it away; thus far they are uffered to laugh and triumph. But when their idol Dagon fell down, to do it reverence; when themselves vere so tormented with sickness, that they were fain restore their pilfer with shame; did not God mile? When superstition and idolatry were read anced in England by Queen Mary, how did the paists mock and scoff at true believers! yea, would hey had only mocked us out of our credits, and not nt of our lives. But when five years shall determine 1l that bloody persecution, did not God laugh at all heir Bonners and butchers?
Short is the joy of the wicked. Is Dagon put up to his place again? God’s smile shall take off his head and his hands, and leave him neither wit to guide nor power to subsist. How did our enemies swallow an invincible hope, to swallow us up with their invincible navy! But when the winds and seas, fire and water, fought against them, did not the Lord laugh them to scorn? Videt et ridet, i. e. He sees and laughs. How did the engineers of antichrist applaud themselves in their sure design, and laugh in their hellish vault at our prepared ruin! But God did also laugh; and blessed be God, we may laugh too. As Cæsar said of Phraartes; he was prius victus, quam visus, conquered before he was seen; so that treason was knetched before it was fully hatched; undertaken, but overtaken: He that dwells in heaven, laughed it to scorn. We may not judge of God’s works until the fifth act: the case deplorable and desperate in outward appearance, may with one smile from Heaven find a blessed issue. He permitted his temple to be sacked and rifled, the holy vessels to be profaned and caroused in; but did not God’s smile make Belshazzar to tremble at the hand-writing on the wall? Oh, what are his frowns, if his smiles be so terrible! Let us never be too busy in washing off false aspersions: too earnest diligence puts a suspicion of guiltiness into the cause: it is enough to say with David, Lord, thou knowest mine innocency. When the boy, in the fable, got up into a dung-cart, to throw dirt at the moon; another (more charitable than wise) boy came running with a bason of water to wash the moon. It is more than needs: religion will look like herself, fair and beautiful, maugre all her imputations; and the righteousness of the saints shall break forth as the light at noon-day.
Here is the character of profane persons; profane, because they are as it were at a distance from the fane or temple, which is derived from the word for, faris, fandi, &c. to speak; it was the speaking-place; where God spake to man, by his precepts; and man spake to God, by his petitions. They are called profane, first, that are not entered into the church; whose unhappiness is to be without. Secondly, that are entered, but conform not themselves to the doctrine of godliness. It is good indeed to be within; for in our Father’s house is bread enough. Out of the circle of the church, rains nothing but fire and brimstone. But here we must examine the manner of being within. Men may be within, as Ham was in the ark, as Judas in the college, or as chaff in the floor; in respect of their abode and residence, many are within, that in respect of their faith and obedience are without. It is all one to be without, and not to be holy within. Thirdly, that destroy holy things, spoil the church, and rob their own mother: as Pope Leo said, He could have no place in heaven, because he had sold it. We have too many of these sacrilegious scoffers, that either detain part, as Ananias; or take away all, as Belshazzar. Observe the offence and success of that wretched pair, Acts v. First, they did not take away, but keep back. Secondly, not that which was the church’s before, but their own; to be disposed at their pleasure. Thirdly, this was not all, but a part of the price. Fourthly, yet the Scripture speaks of them, as it doth of Judas; Satan had filled their heart. Fifthly, and they are smitten with sudden death. How many smile in their hearts at the close conveyances of their sacrilegious frauds! God laughs at them as fast, for he sees that their day is coming.
Again, fourthly, they are profane, that disgrace holy things, by giving great places in the church to loose persons. This was Jeroboam’s sin. God’s clergy was select and honourable, branches of the holy stem of Aaron; but Jeroboam rakes priests out | worst is, she hath no anchor; so when the storms of the kennel, 1 Kings xii. 31. Religion cannot want her sacred masters of divine ceremonies; and so must needs receive either much honour or blemish, by the quality of those that serve at her altars. They do but mock God, that thrust the blind and lame into his service. Men that have deformed bodies, are accounted fitter for hospitals than great employments, It is but a scoff, to fill Christ’s grammar with such heteroclites. No man is too good for the priesthood; the priesthood is too good for many men. Fifthly, they are profane, that contemn God’s ministers, for they put a scoff upon God himself; as David could not but feel himself dishonoured in the abuse of his ambassadors. Woe be to those Ammonites! God hath messengers of wrath for them that despise the messengers of his love. The scorn and insolency done to us, is not buried with us; God will remember it in the day of vengeance. There be saws, and axes, and harrows of iron, yea, a brick-kiln of fire, for such scoffers, 2 Sam. xii. 31. God hath ranked priests next unto kings; he “hath made us kings and priests,” Rev. i. 6. The king must have a priest to direct him, and the priest must have a king to protect him. Christ was both King and Priest: nor was this a political union, of both persons in one state; but a hypostatical union, of both offices in one person. So the priesthood hath ever been held a flower of the crown. What shall become of them, that can find no more pleasing subjects for all their scorn, than priests? Woe, woe to England for this sin, which hath so universally conspired in the contempt of the ministers of the gospel! Lastly, they are profane scoffers, that scandalize holy things; reproaching virtues, while they blanch vices; that call evil good, and put light for darkness, Isa. v. 20. Thus they call the humble man a hypocrite; the proud, a man of a brave spirit; the drunkard is a good fellow, while the sober man is no fellow of theirs at all. What is this, but to stamp God’s image on the devil’s dross, and to stamp the devil’s image on God’s silver? These be the scoffers, the profane sensualists of our times.
God’s wrath arise, down she sinks to desperatior. and perisheth.
The other vessel is that wherein we sail; the name of it is the Church: in which Christ is the Master, and he hath no mate; his cross is the mast, his sacraments the sails, the tackle patience, divine wisdom the card, God’s word the compass: the soldiers are prophets, apostles, preachers; the mariners, angels; the freight, the souls of men, women, children; the foredeck, humility; the armour, innocency; the stern, charity; the anchor, hope; the flag in the top of her, faith, with this word written, Premimur, non opprimimur, i. e. Being cast down, we perish not. These two meet and fight; the one invading, the other defending; the one striking, the other warding the blows; the one proudly insulting, the other patiently suffering. One would think that the patient ship should have the worst of it; and that after so many assaults, it must needs be at last sunk and overwhelmed. But Christ is in it; he hath the charge of it, and that charge he will make good. Though the elements were all on fire, the earth a dissolving, and heaven a falling, this vessel should not miscarry. It is a body, whereof he is the Head; a building, whereof he is the Foundation; the spouse of his love, the purchase of his blood. When the piracy of hell shall sink to hell, and all the workers of wickedness shall perish, he will bring this ark to the mountains of Armenia, the harbour of peace, the kingdom of glory, through the greatness of his merits and the goodness of his mercies, which shall never fail us.
“Walking after their own lusts.” All this their scorn of religion is but to maintain their lusts: did not the gospel cross their sins, they would not cross the gospel. “To be carnally minded is death,” Rom. viii. 6: this troubles them. Death is the end of sin, though not the end of a sinner. A wicked man sins not purposely that he might be damned, but damnation follows his wickedness. Not seldom do we seek for one thing, and find another; as Saul sought asses, and found a kingdom; as Absalom sought a kingdom, and found a gallows. The adulterer in his sin, seeks pleasure; the covetous, riches; but they find another thing, that is, death. The word of God sets down the wages of sin, and ties punishment to it as an inseparable effect to the cause. Because they cannot dissolve this knot, they fly upon the word itself; and through the sides of the law, wound the name of the Law-maker with reproach. As thieves, that would put out all the light, that in the dark they might more securely ransack the house. The conscience that is guilty of flagitious crimes, could wish the heavens blind; as knowing that they look upon unlawful things with sore eyes. Why have the pontificians, instead of clasps, hung padlocks upon the Bible, but that they might uncensured walk after their own lusts? why, but that their lusts might be laws, and those laws guide the lusts of the people? So the very sins of teachers become rules to their scholars. If Paul preacheth, Demetrius roars. Of all professions, the ministry is in this the unhappiest; because we fight against those sins, which men love better than their own souls. The covetous Pharisees derided Christ’s sermon against covetousness, Luke xvi. 14. As a tyrant demolisheth all the forts in his dominions, that the right heir of the crown may find no refuge of defence, so his own will may have the full swing without means of resistance; profane libertines could wish that all preachers had caught an everlasting cold, that they might carry away those sins without reproof, which they have perpetrated…
I conclude. We see the state of the world, in these contrary conditions of mankind: some seek the Lord, others mock them for their labour; some are fearful to sin, others scoff at all goodness; some are the friends of Christ, and they must look for all the rest to be their enemies. This world is a sea, and they that serve the Lord are in a ship of peace: but if we look up, we shall presently ken a man of war, and then we must be for war too. There be two ships under sail, a pirate and a merchant; we must prepare for a skirmish. The galley that hath our pinnace in chase, is the piracy of hell, the synagogue of Satan; her name is Persecution; a hot ship, and full of wildfire. In which, the devil is master, malice the master’s mate, hypocrisy the boatswain, covetousness the purser, lust the swabber, fury the gunner, and sedition the trumpeter. Vices are the sails, the wisdom of the flesh the card, the mystery of iniquity the compass; atheists, scoffers, profane, all the rabble of hell, the mariners. She hath two tire of ordnance planted in her, heresy and irreligion; (she is either for a false god, or none, and these spit fire, smoke, shot, and sulphur, against all that worship the Lamb, or fight under the ensign of faith. The flag in her top, is infidelity; the motto, Lucrum est pietas; i. e. There is no God but gain. We may see her parallel in the prophet, Ezek. xxvii. 5, &c.: she hath her choice materials out of all kingdoms; especially, her ballast from Turkey, and her tackling from Rome. Antichrist is her steersman or pilot, and steers her course. Thus she goes swiftly, proudly, securely, scorning and scoffing at all oppositions. But her | without shame.
Every evil man hath lusts of his own; which he is as resolute to maintain, as a father to keep his own children. It is easy for men to dislike lusts not their – own, to condemn another man’s sins; but our own lusts be dear unto us. What wonder is it, if a dumb man be no swearer, a eunuch no adulterer, a beggar no broker? Where is no assault, there can be no victory. “I am not as other men are,” saith the Pharisee, “extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican,” Luke xviii. 11. No extortioner; it may be so: what if he were so rich, that he need not, or so poor, that he could not, oppress; or so base, that no man would trust him? What needs a rich man be a thief? Not unjust; it may be so too: his privateness might exempt him. How should he fail in doing justice, that never had an act of justice to do? No adulterer; it may be so: either his unchaste offers have been repelled, or his concupiscence hath wrought out itself another way. Not a publican; very true: for worse, he was a Pharisee. He durst not say, his conscience would not let him, that he – was no sinner. There is variety of lusts; and that old experienced fisher of souls hath more baits than one. For a hypocrite to decline open randing, rambling, noctivagating, swaggering garments, and revels, it is no wonder; he hath another kind of lust. To make the end of all his religion the advancement of his own ends, and to cheat them as a saint that would defy him as a devil; this is the desire of his lust. He deals with his conscience as the untoward husband did with his wife; he speaks her fair and makes much of her abroad, but he cudgels her in private at home. The dissolute person thinks to justify himself: I am none of those that rail at church government; that will not suffer a spoonful of aqua-vitæ to be sold on the sabbath, though it – should save a sick man’s life; that will run two miles to a sermon: as if there was no other way to – hell, but hypocrisy. He that never kept the sabbath himself, what cares he to keep others from breaking it? or, to go two miles to a sermon, that had rather go twenty another way?
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