2 Peter 2:3 (part 2 of 2)

Thinke ye secure wretches, that have promised your owne soules to repent when you are sicke: alas, the least of a thousand things can kill you, and give you no leasure to be sicke. Loe now if there be any hope, it is the extraordinary mercie of God in Iesus Christ. For us, vita est in indicium, mors est in judicium. We have charitie, God hath mercie.

To conclude, Deprecamur talem mortem, non damnamus taliter mortuum: we condemne not him that so dies, yet we pray against such a death. We say of death, as David of Absalom; 2 Sam. 15.14. make speed to depart, lest he overtake us suddenly. Lord, never let the sin of our soules, and the end of our lives, come so neere together. Give us grace to breake off our sins by repentance, before thou breake off our lives by death let us have time to repent, grace to our time, thy mercie to both, and the merits of our Saviour CHRIST to all: and then come Lord IESUS, come quickly. Oh it is swift when the prayers of our hearts shall usher the journey of our soules: when our faith hath unlocked the gates of heaven, ready for our spirits to enter: when by our comfortable declarements, we have testified our assurance of blessednesse; left the perfume of a good conscience to sweeten our death-beds; and our vertues and graces, like fragrant flowers to sticke round about our hearse. When after a consolating valediction to our mourning friends, we have commended our spirits into the hands of IESUS CHRIST. Let the confidence of others be as bold as it pleaseth; let my soule pray, and let them that love their soules joyne with me, and the God of mercie heare us all; From suddaine death good Lord deliver us, Amen.

6 Their judgement, and their damnation.] Observe, the proportion and aptation of their punishment to their sin. It holds in diverse analogies. 1. They denyed the Lord that bought them, therefore the same Lord shall judge them. It is fit, ut quem fecerunt suum carnificem, inveniant suum judicem. They made the profession of Christ colour for their bloudinesse, and under the counterfeit seale of his name committed = now therefore the same injured King shall sit upon them and condemne them. 2. They acted all their villanie in secret, therefore now it shall be laid open. 3. The way of truth hath beene blasphemed by them; therefore now it is fit that it be glorified on them. 4. Before they sold men in covetousnesse: therefore now they shall bee sold themselves in justice. GODS debts must bee payed: and they that made merchandise of others are fit to bee made merchandises themselves. 5. Before they brought in the Heresie of damnation: therefore now they shall sustaine the penaltie of damnation. 6. Before they did pull on themselves destruction [voluntarily]: therefore now must father the child of their owne begetting, and suffer destruction necessarily. 7. Their sinne did hasten punishment, and make it swift: therefore fit it should no longer tarry; it lingers not. You see with what a proper analogie, their sinning meetes with their suffering: and makes way for this note.

God alwayes punisheth De condigno, sometimes De congruo. For the former, as the Schoole truely saies, that God rewardeth his elect Supra meritum, above their deserts: so it teacheth, that he punisheth the reprobate citra condignum, short of their de-merits. But as he will requite any thing in mercie, that will Matth. 10.42. recompence a cup of cold water: so he will deny any thing in justice, that will Luk. 16.24. deny a cup of cold water. CHRISTS tribunall is said to be a Rev. 20.11. white throne; milke white, without any drop of injustice to alter the colour, or staine the seate. Morall men have commended Iustice: the Grecians placed her betweene Leo and Libra; courage and indifferencie. The Egyptians in their hieroglyphickes had the figure of a man without hands, winking with his eyes. And our embleme is as good as the rest; as •e best: the picture of a man holding a balance in one hand, and a sword in the other. By the balance intending judgement, and by the sword due execution. The balance puts no difference betweene gold and lead, but gives them equall or unequall poise: not attributing more to the gold for the excellencie of the metall; nor lesse to the lead for the drossy basenesse: but with an even hand waighes the poore mans case with the rich. It is said of the throne of Davids house, that it was placed in the gate of the Citie towards the Sunne rising. In the gate, that all might have accesse = it, poore and rich: for all sorts had egresse and regresse through the gate. Towards the sun rising; to signifie that their judgements should be as cleare from corruptions, and errors, as the Sun in his glorious brightnesse. Now hee that calls upon magistrates to doe iustice, shall he not do it himselfe? Gen. 18.25. Shall not the Iudge of all the world doe right? yes certainly; as he will crowne the faithfull with eternall glory above their deserts, so he will lode the wicked with eternall torments according to their deserts Psal. 58.11. So that a man shall say, verily there is a reward for the righteous, verily he is a God that iudgeth in the earth.

For the other, as he will punish all sinne in some kind, so he will punish some sinne in the owne kind. For it is just with him to recompence tribulation to them the trouble you, 2. Thes. 1.6. With the froward he will shew himselfe froward. Psal. 18.26. Gen. 9.6. Who so sheddeth mans blood, by man shall his blood be shed. But somtimes it is not so, but alwayes it should be so, and certainly the magistrate that omits it, shall find his case like Ahabs; 1 King. 20.32. Thy life shall goe for his life. Mat. 26.52. They that take the sword, shall perish with the sword: they that Take it, before it be given them by lawfull authority. His punishment is qualified to his sin, that is made Gladio [perire], who did Gladio perimere. Prov. 21.13. He that stoppeth his eares at the crie of the poore, shall crie himselfe and not be heard. Qui non tribuit petenti, petet a non tribuente. Iam. 2.23. Iudgment without mercie shall be to him that shewes no mercie. Frustra quaerit [extra] se, quod noluit habere intrase. In vaine he seekes mercie out of himselfe, that had nowe within himselfe, Esa. 33.1. Woe to thee that spoilest, for thou shalt bee spoiled. It is just that they who ruine others, should bee ruined themselves, Gal. 5.15. If yee but and devoure one another, take heed yee be not consumed one of another. If the greater serpent devoures the lesse, there is a dragon to devoure him. The fire of the Sodomites lusts flamed up to heaven, therefore heavens fire of wrath flamed downe upon them, Levit. 10.2. Nadab and Abihu offered strange fire, and therefore they suffered strange fire. Hos. 4.12. They have gone a whoring from their God, therefore their Daughters shall commit whoredome, and their spouses adulterie. Spirituall fornication shall be punished with corporall pollution. If we consider that shop of pride, Esa. 3. we shall find every ornament made an abhorment, ver. 24. In [stead] of sweet smell, there shall be a stinke: for the girdle, a rent: for well set haire, baldnesse. Observe how the particular plagues are proportioned to the nature of the particular sins, Prov. 23.29. They loved the rednes of wine, they shall feele the rednesse of eyes. Gen. 20.18. Doe they detaine Abrahams Wife? none of their wives shall be pregnant. This Iob acknowledged to be just: If mine heart have beene deceived by a woman, then let my Wife grind unto another, Wis. 11.15. Beasts they worshiped, and by beasts they shall be devoured. That they might know wherewithall a man sinneth, by the same he shall also be punished, Exod. 19.24. Let not the people breake thorow unto the Lord, lest the Lord breake forth upon them. Ionas crost to the sea, therefore he was lost in the sea. He would needs to the water, he shall have water enough, Iudg. 8.16. Their flesh was torne with briers and thornes, that were bryers and thornes to teare others. Rev. 16.6. They have shed the blood of thy Saints, and thou hast given them bloud to drinke. as Tomyris gave Cyrus: to give one blood, is to put him to death, Ezek. 1•. I will cause thee to be slaine, as men are slaine in the burning rage of wrath and jelousie, ver. 39. Thou didst lay open thy nakednesse in sin, I will therefore lay open thy nakednesse in shame. To allow the sins of others, is to bee come guilty of [the] same sins: as CHRIST condemned the living Iewes for killing of Zachary, whom their ancestors slew many ages before: because they approved their courses, and therefore justly inherited their fathers sins and judgements, Mat. 23.

I might be endlesse in the prosecution of this doctrine. Ier. 7.32. They shall bury [in To-] till there be no more place. In Tophet they had committed that monstrous th• nation, burning their children in the fire to Moloch: in Tophet they shall find destruction. The Iewes report that in Tophet there was a deepe pit or ditch, called Os Inferni, never filled: in the pit that Caldeans threw their slaine bodies, Mat. [18.25]. The Lord commanded him to be sold, wife and children and all that he had. Perhaps he sinned in his wife and children, therefore was punished in his wife and children. He might turne his wife into an Idol, and set her in the place of God: hee might be indulgent to the vices of his children: therfore, Psal. 109.9 Let his children be fatherlesse, and his wife a widdow. How usuall is it for men to obey the will of their wives before the will of God! How just is it with the Lord to suffer the wife so luxuriously allowed, to dote on adulterous mixtures: and for anothers sak to break her faith with her husband who for her sake had broke his faith with God! Why doth such a man find fault? he doth by his servile affordments what he can to make his wife a harlot, and then complaines that she is so. Immoderate dyet, inordinate will, immodest apparell, himselfe proudly vouchsafes her: what are these but mid-wives to bring forth that shame, he is loth to heare of? what more usuall than to buy places in reversions, expectant on the lives of three, foure, sixe, to be served and expired, before theirs beare date? Therefore what more just, than to cut them short, and extend the decaying termes of the other? Psal. 109. Let his dayes be few, and another take his office. They have admitted invasions upon their owne honestie, secretly to wish that the dayes of others might be few, that they might take their office. Therefore shall their owne dayes be few, and another take their office. The Proverbe fits them; hee that waites for dead mens shooes, shall goe bare-foote. The Rivers that Pharaoh bloudied with the slaine infants, are turned into blood: that hee might read the colour of his sinne in the sanguine waters. Thus murderous men, so prodigall in slucing out bloud, have beene affronted and affrighted with bloudy visions. They thinke their eyes see nothing but bloud, their eares heare nothing but the sound of bloud, all their meate tasts of bloud, their drinke hath a bloudy colour: the very wayes they travell are sanguine, they dreame of nothing but bloud, till their heads, like Nero’s, be soaked in bloud: Thou hast thirsted for bloud, of bloud take thy fill. This sufferance could not even David scape: his house was haunted with the sword. Hee sinned in a proud numbring of his people, therefore was punished in shortning the number of his people.

Herodias daughter, that like a dancing whirlegig footed away the head of Iohn Baptist, was her selfe cut shorter by the head with yee. Cesar had undone three and twenty countreyes, he dyed of three and twenty wounds. Cresus that loved gold insatiately, had of gold his throate full. Aurum sitisti, aurum bibe. Many penurious fathers are so scraping for their children, that they ravish the poore children of God: N•h. 2 13. but the hand of the LORD shall be against their young Lions. They joyn house to house, and field to field: Psal. 109.10. but their children shall be vagabonds, and beg; seeking their bread out of their desolate places. How many a covetous moale is now digging a house in the earth for his posterity, and never dreames of this sequele? That God should make those children beggars, for whose sake the fathers have made so many beggars! This is a quittance which the Sire will not beleev, but as sure as God is just the son shall feele. Now if he had but leave to come out of hell for an houre, and see this, how should he curse his follie? sure if possible, it would double the paine of his infernall torture. Bee moderate then ye that so insatiately devoure, as if you had an infinite capacitie: you overlode your stomachs, it is fit they should be disburdened in shamefull spewing. How quickly doth a worldly minded man grow a defrauder, from a defrauder to an Vsurer, from an Vsurer to an oppressor, from an oppressor to an extortioner: if his eyes doe but tell his heart of a bootie, his heart will charge his hand, and he must have it, Mic. 2.2. They doe but aspicere, concupiscere, and arripere: see it, like it, and take it. Observe their due payment. Psal. 109.11. Let the extortioner take all he hath: they got all by extortion, they shall lose all by extortion. They spoiled their neighbours, strangers shall spoile them. How often hath the poore widdow and orphan cryed, wept, groned to them for mercie, and found none! They have taught God how to deale with themselves: Let there be none to extend mercie to them. Psal. 109.12. They have advanced houses for a memoriall, and dedicated lands to their owne names: Psal. 49.11. All to get them a name, and even in this they shall be crossed. Psal. 109.13. In the next generation their name shall bee quite put out.

Our neighbours of Rome presume that they have the keys of heaven and hell some they bring downe from heaven to hell, as they did that blessed Queene, Elizabeth: others they lift up from hell to heaven, canonizing bloudy Traitours: they censure as they will, not as God will. But their punishment is fitted by CHRIST, Mat. 7.2. With what judgement ye judge, yee shall be judged. When they shall find that they have mistaken the keyes, and learne what it is to condemne, by being condemned. Because they have put away sacred marriage, therefore they are given upon uncleane cloistures, stinking brothels, and preternaturall stewes.

Not to be favourable to our selves at home; what is the reason that this land is so defiled with bloud; and that (not feeling the sword of an enemie) a man complaines Z•ch. 13.6. I am wounded in the house of my friends? Nor is this alone in those unmanly trialls of man-hood in the fields; but even in the streetes, in the houses: no place is safe, but a mistaken word is requited with a stabbe or some mortall blow. And when this comes to be censured, it is found chance-medley, at worst man-slaughter and that perhaps Se defendendo. Whereupon these homicides are so fleshed with bloud, that they make no more to kill a man, than a flie. Oh they may mend, and become good Christians, good subjects: but that sin is rarely repented off. If he had beene cut off for the first murder, the second man had beene alive. Why doe we presume to coozen God by the warrant of Law, to purloine the maintenance of the Minister, and to put our selves in Gods place! What is this, but to point God the way to plague us, and to send upon us a famine of preaching, who have brought a famine upon the preachers? Is it not just with God to take away the Lampe from that nation, which hath taken away the holy oile that should maintaine it? And Lord, that I might herein be a false Prophet! I feare that England shall want the Gospell, when the Barbarians receive it: because England had the Gospell, and would not give a penny to keepe it. We hope this nation shall live to see the fall of Rome and Antichrist, so we may, if our sins, and among the rest unthankfull sacriledge, doe not first give Rome a triumph over us. Consider how immediately upon this charge of rendring the Teacher his portion, the Holy Ghost inferres; Gal 6.7. Be not deceived, God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man sowes, the same shall he also reape. You may deceive your selves, you shall neuer mocke God: you shall drinke as you have brewed. Thus when we see surfets doe we not point at gluttonie precedent? when a body is drowned with a dropsy, doe we not say, there hath gone an in inundation of drinke before? When that Neapolitane evill hath wasted the marrow, and rotted the flesh; we know this fire was fetched from the hearth of whoredome. The matter of sinne is written with capitall letters in the punishment. God is just, he hath wayes enough to punish us, we have no way to escape him. If he doth not punish the adulterer with rottennesse in his bones, yet he can adde fire to fire; to the flame of lust, the flame of hell. If the Vsurer escape bonds here: yet he that bound others above, may be bound himselfe below. The litigious may get the better, untill God comes to enter his action against him. There is no evasion but seasonable repentance: let us punish our selves, that God be not put to doe it. Let us correct drunkennesse by abstinence, pride by humility, covetousnesse by charity, crueltie by mercie, uncleannesse by chastitie, anger by patience, usury by restitution. This is to take a congraous and proportionate vengeance on our selves, that God may spare us in the day of reckoning.

7 Damnation is principally taken for the censure or sentence condemning: as the sentence followes the triall, and the execution the sentence: here it intends the extration of the Iudgement. But if damnation be meant for the execution, how doth it preceede the sentence? Seeing it seemes very unjust to execute a man before his judgement; after that old scandall of the Stanneries Law; that hanged a man in the forenoone, and sate in judgement on him in the afternoone. The day of judgement is the second appearing of Christ: now for evill men to receive their damnation before hand, were to antedate the sentence, and to execute persons unjudged. It is easily answered; Every unbeleever must passe through two Iudgement dayes: a particular, when his guilty soule leaves his unfortunate body: a generall, when both body and soule having beene co-instruments of sinne, shall be made copartners in punishment. Hence the soule, as it hath beene the principall in offending, being that part of man wherein God hath placed naturall reason and knowledge of his will, shall be the first in suffering. Leaving the body a dead and insensible piece of earth, while her selfe growes under the burden of unsupportable torments alone, till the body comes to suffer with it.

If it bee objected; what need any second Iudgement, seeing the world stands wholly either of beleevers or unbeleevers? And the beleever. Ioh. 5.24. Shall not come into condemnation, but is already passed from death unto life. And the unbeleever is already condemned, Why then any further Iudgement? Yes, for though the beleever shall not come into the judgement of condemnation, yet he must also passe the judgement of absolution: and as he is made just by Christ, so must he before all the world be pronounced. Vt justitia, qua justificatur coram Deo, ipsa justificetur coram mundo. The first justifies the person, the second justifies Gods righteousnesse. So the unbeleever is condemned already in effect three wayes. 2. Propositor Dei; God did foresee and fore- appoint his damnation, as it is the punishment of sin, and execution of his Iustice. 2. Verbo Dei, by the word of God, which sets downe his damnation, finding him in the number of those to whom it is due, and out of Christ by whom alone he might escape it. 3. Testimonio conscientiae, by the verdict of his owne conscience; which doth so judge him here, as God will judge him heareafter: therefore it is called [Vicedeus], a deputie God. But if their bee a precedent damnation upon the reprobates, why is it here said, Their damnation hastens? That cannot be called closely propinquant, nearely future, which is actually present, yea which hath beene before. If they were damned in the purpose of God for their sinne, and are damned in the word of God judging sinne, how are they said to be hereafter damned, or, Their damnation lingers not? I answer; for their former damnation in the decree of God, they know it not: for their present damnation in the word of God, they mind it not: and for the damnation of their owne conscience, they feele it not. Therefore the execution of this shall fall upon them, and then they shall know it, mind it, feele it.

Thus death shall execute his office to kill their bodies, and hell his office to receive their soules, and the Devill his office to infflict torments; when God hath pronounced on them the particular sentence of his Iustice. This damnation then is that fearfull punishment of sin imposed on reprobates: made up of an extremity, universality, and eternity of torments. So extreme that they refuse addition, so universall that no part hath exemption, so everlasting that they never admit conclusion. Their extremitiy is undefin’d, their universality unconfined, their eternity without hope of end.

But how doth this stand with the Iustice of God, for finite transgression to give infinite destruction? Sins are the actions of time, done in a temporalitie, limited in a certaine space. Now if the punishment be proportionate to the sin, how can the one bee temporall, the other eternall: sin transient, plague permament? I answer, this equitie and equality is observable in our civill punitions: the theefe dispatcheth a robberie in halfe an houre; hee lyes many dayes in irons for this, and at last answeres it with his necke. Adulterie is soone perpetrated, a long and infamous shame depends upon it. Treason may be a villanie of no length; yet the delinquent finds mercie if he but lie in prison for it all his life, and lose his possessions for ever. Hic non quaer••da temporis aequalitas, sed expendenda sceleris gravitas. A man quickly gives himselfe a wound, but the Surgion cannot so quickly heale him. David was not long in killing Vriah with the sword, yet did the sword never depart from his house. A man commits murder but once, and it was soone done; yet hee is condemned to the perpetuall galleys. There was one sicke 38 yeares, Ioh. 5.14. and Christ sayes, this was because of his sin. Consider some reasons why their punishment is not lesse than damnation eternall.

Reasons why the punishments of reprobates are infinite. 1 Because their sinnes are infinite in number. David propounds a Quoties, who can find a Toties for it? Psal. 19.12. Who can tell how oft he offendeth? No man, The haires of a mans head may bee told: the starres appeare in multitudes, yet some have undertaken to reckon them: but no Arithemticke can number our sinne. Before we can recount a thousand, we shall commit ten thousand more; and so rather multiplie by Addition, than divide by Subtraction: there is no possibilitie of moderation. Like Hydra’s head, while we are cutting off twentie by repentance, we find a hundred more growne up. It is just then that infinite sorrowes should follow infinite sins.

2. Because they are committed against an infinite Majestie. He that clippeth the Kings coine, or, defaceth the Kings armes; or, counterfeits the broad. Seale of England, or the privy. Seale, is adjudged to die as a Traitor: because this fact offences disgrace against the person of the King: much more doth he deserve the second death, that violates the Law of the King of Kings: seeing that breach doth not only tend to the defacing of his owne Image in us; but reflects upon the person of God himselfe, who in every sinne is contemned and dishonoured. 1 Sam. 2.25. If one man sin against another, the Iudge shall judge him: but if a man sinne against the Lord, who shall entreat for him? compare Protafis with Apodosis, sequel with sequele, the former with the latter, by the rules of opposition. What doth the former affirme? no more but a civill meditation for a temporall satisfaction. What doth the latter deny? a religious or divine intercession for eternall satisfaction. Sins receive their nature from their objects in a formall consideration: to be plaine with all capacities, sinnes take their nature from their aime. When the will from within shall give the King of Arams charge; 1 King. 22. Fight neither against small nor great, saving onely against the King of Israel: this must needs be immediate treason. According to worth, [Injuria] patientis auget culpam facientis, Salvian. That sinne is fowlest, that strikes at the fairest. Therefore the sin directed against an infinite Majestie, deserves infinite penaltie. Aske a Recusant what that servant merits, which like an Onesimus, is a fugitive from his master. What will he say, but the whipping post, or, house of correction? But what deserves he that changeth his God, his religion? yet there and be no whipping post for such a renegade, no correction-house for him; whatsoever he condignely suffers, is held persecution. Aske the sacrilegious what shall be done, to him that steales; hang him, he cries. But what shall be done to him that robbes his God? here he can see no felonie: he shall feele it. Aske a man abused in his name whether he will send his reviler: he presently curseth him, as if he meant him to hell, but howsoever he will send him to the consistorie. But whether shall he goe, that dishonours the name of God? Doth that beare no action? no, cursing and swearing inferrs no defamation. Yes, hee is αὐτοκατάκριτος, Tit. 3.11. damned of his owne selfe. If they could satisfie an infinite Iustice simul & semel, at once together; their plague, though it admits of no latitude or waight, being in universall extremitie; yet if should have an end. But what to the uncapable subject is defective in place, must be made up in durance. He shall not come forth, Matth. 5.26. till he hath paid the uttermost for thing. He might pay this at once if he had it: but because non habet unde, he hath = not; he must be paying it successivè sine fine, and answer it with his owne imprisonment for ever.

3 Because they frustrate a price of redemption that is infinite. Did the Sonne of God accept their nature, shed his precious blood, and pay that infinite debt to Gods Iustice for all beleevers; and will they make voide to themselves that would of unspeakeable goodnesse? He is worthy of eternall damnation, that despiseth the redemption of him that is eternall. It is just with Christ to forsake them for ever that forsake him for ever. Hebr. 10.26. There remaines no more sacrifice for them: therefore till Christ die againe, they must lie in hell, that is for ever. They that fall from everlasting grace, justly meete with everlasting wrath: from salvation eternall, to destruction eternall. Every drop of Christs blood doth save the beleeving soule for ever: if that inestimable treasure be trode under foot, the soule is justly lost for ever. Who pitties that mans death; who having the medicine by him which can helpe him, dies and will not take it? Serjeants are out to arrest thee, the Law hath condemned thee; we may say of thee as of a sentenced malefactor, mortuus in lege; thou art dead in Law: speed then to Christ, if thou be taken before thou get to thy Suretie, thou wilt be laid up for ever.

4 Because they are unthankfull for blessings and graces infinite. God give them life while they can live: if they be ingrate, he will give them death while they can die. His mercie strove the utmost to make them blessed, his Iustice shall strive the utmost to make them cursed. If any deliverance, preferment, or content come to an unthankfull person; let him know that it is but his impropriation; God will make him pay for it. Contribution of blessings requires retribution of thankes, or will bring distribution of plagues. We have many Adeodates, but returne few Deodates. God gives freely and continually, so let us praise him: voce & corde, with the voice and the heart: not the voice alone, for then the heart is tied; not the heart alone, for then weare tongue-tied. Continually; for if thou canst find one houre wherein he doth not give thee something; take that houre to returne him nothing. Yet is there thankes enough owing for the former: but there is no new houre which is not witnesse of new benefites. Lam. 3.23. Thy mercies are new every morning. CHRIST hath bought us both in body and soule; we must glorifie him in both, or he will destroy us in both. He will be glorified either in our voluntary obedience, or necessary vengeance. Thus how easy is it for a reprobate to bring upon himselfe damnation. The more God lodes him with benefites, the more he lodes himselfe with accounts. Bee thankfull, this is the way to ease thy reckoning: flie to CHRIST, this is the way to get it quite taken off. As Alcibiades told the steward, when he complained of his trouble about making his accounts; that his care were better bestowed, Quòd non reddat, quàm quod reddat, how to make no account at all, than how to make his accounts even. If our faith have gotten CHRIST to account for us, wee shall make no reckoning at all. Every benefite forgotten in present gratitude, must be remembred in future servitude. Thus he that receives infinite favours, and remaines unthankfull, deserves infinite paines.

5 Because they have omitted infinite duties: the houres that are not spent in obedience against sin, are spent in sin against obedience. Wicked men thinke they commit but a single sin, when indeed they alwayes double it. For in faciendo quod non debent, non faciunt quod debent: While they doe what they should not, they leave undone what they should, and so bind two sins together. The Sabbath-ranger that is gone about the businesse of the pot, thinkes he only offends in his excesse, forgets his not serving God at the Church. It is one sin to be absent from the house of God, though, he did not admit the other, to be present in the house of sin. Doth the oppressor barely transgresse in wringing the poore? yea, at that very time he should have relieved the poore. Thinke not thy houres wast papers, to fill them up with nothing but blankes: as if God would take this for a good reckoning, When the booke of thy conscience comes to be opened, all those blankes are filled up with Indictments: and thou shalt find it a nequam, which thou thoughtst a nequicquam. No greatnesse of bloud can priviledge idlenesse, no more than much money can justifie Vsurie. When God calls thee to account, Quare te non praebuisti solertem? Why wast thou not industrious? It will be no good answer; Quia tu me fecisti divitem; because thou hast made me rich. Now that these omissions deserve eternall destruction, it is manifest, because we are bound to the duties. Therefore in the forme of CHRISTS judiciall proceeding, the wicked are condemned for sins of omission, perpretrations not being spoken of, as if there were no question of their guiltinesse: to shew that their is damnation enough wrapped up in those very omissions. Neither shall they be only punished with the privation of all joyes and peace, and no further for then they were meere indifferences. But with the position of torments, to declare that good workes were imposed; not voluntary, but necessary. Now if these be as innumerable as our waking minutes; how infinite must be the unrepentants destruction for them!

6 Because sin is infinite in their desires, and the desire of sinning God judgeth sin it selfe. As the desire of grace is grace, and the desire of repentance is one degree of repentance: so the concupiscence of iniquity is the iniquitie. Matth. 5.24. He that lusts after a woman, hath already committed adulterie with her in his heart. Optans, [operans]: desiderator, scortator. Now what is more insatiate than the desires of the wicked? They inlarge themselves beyond all bounds, and are scarce limited with the world. How unsatisfied is the adulterers desire! he goes from woman to woman, as the sicke man from fountaine to fountaine, and none can quench his thirst. For woman is not the bounds of lust, but womankind. Loves number is no number, but one: he that erres from that, is incessant in concupiscence; and if it were possible, would embrace all the beauties he sees, in his luxuriant armes. Vice hath no meane, measure nor cessation; till it hath no being. One wife is the desire of love, but lust would have infinite. And though it be straitned to enjoy but one at once: yet it hath an infinite desire to many; neither doth all the varietie of the earth change it: whensoever his pleasure is served, hee is the same man he was before, and begins againe to desire a fresh. For lust is still a beginning, and would more common be than any one, could it, as other sins, be done alone. But age ceaseth it, therefore not infinite: then Eccl. 22.7. Desire faileth? yet many in age though they cannot desire, yet desire to desire. Now an infinite fire of lust, must have an infinite fire of hell. What limits hath the ambitious desire? what degrees of honour, though Phaeton like to for in the chariot of the Sun, would content him? Let him reduce all the kingdomes of the world to one monarchie, and possesse as much as ever the divell promised Christ: yet Aestuat infaelix angusto limite mundi, he wants elbow-roome. He calls for more worlds, or, is angry that God made this no bigger: yea erects his statute, and would be worshipped as the Lord himselfe. He thought the whole earth too little for him, and why should God thinke the whole hell too much for him? The Angell that would have all the glory in heaven, is justly damned to all the paines in hell. If thou be infinite in thy sinning, why may not God be infinite in thy punishing.

What confines have ever hedged in covetousnesse; who ever heard it say. [Satis] Domine, O Lord I have enough; A handfull of corne cast into the bushell makes it the fuller: put water into the sea, it hath by so much the more. Eccl. 5.10. But hee that loveth silver, shall not be satisfied with silver. One desire may be satisfied, but another comes. Crescit amor nummi quantum ipsa pecunia crescit. Naturall desires are finite: as the thirst is satisfied with drinke, the hungry appetite with meate. But unnaturall desires are infinite: as it is with the body in burning feavers; Quò plus sint pota, [Plus] sitiuntur aquae: the more they drinke, the more they thirst. Now as these proceed not from naturall causes, but from diseases: so exorbitant affections arise not De sana mente, sed de morbo animae: not from the temper but from the distemper of the soule. Grace can never fill the purse, nor wealth fill the heart. Here is an infinite sin, why should it not have an infinite punishment? Hence covetousnesse is compared to hell it selfe, for the neere affinitie betweene them: both alike promise at once to be satisfied. Prov. 27.20. Hell and destruction are never full, so the eyes of man are never satisfied. As the covetous enlarge their mouthes to swallow the earth, so Hell hath enlarged her selfe, and opened her mouth to swallow them, Esa. 5.14. Let not our oppressors now flatter themselves, that hell is full, and there is no roome for them: for the Lord hath made it Esa. 30.33. Large, of immense capacitie. It is Lacus magnus, Revel. 19. a great lake able to receive all that are cast into it. If it were not so spacious, and there seemed to want roome for oppressors: yet God would take out theeves and harlots, and drunkards, I had almost said lyars, and swearers, to put in oppressors; they must have roome. Esa. 14.9. Hell from beneath is moved for them to meete them at their comming. Hell it selfe will come to meete them in state, as glad to give them entertainement. Now if the usurer can keepe himselfe out of the number of oppressors, he may hap to scape. But are not their desires unlimited; that Esa. 5.8. joyne field to field, till there be no place; They would leave no roome for others, but engrosse al the earth to themselves: therfore though there should want roome for others, they shall have all hell to themselves If sin have an infinite desire to offend God, God will have an infinite hand to punish it.

7 Gregory addes another reason of this infinite punishment. He that dies without repentance, is presupposed by Iustice, that if hee could have lived for ever, he would have sinned for ever. And it is just; if thou wilt rebelliously sin so long as thou livest; God should punish so long as he liveth. If thou wilt peccare in aeterno tuo, God will punire in aeterno suo. Nothing is more proportionable, than that those who will sin against God so long as they have a being, without repentance; should perish from God so long as he hath a being, without mercie. It is the Lords just Iudgment, ut nunquam mortuus careat supplicio, qui nunquam vivus carere voluit peccato; Gregor. ut nullus detur iniquo terminus ultionis, qui quamdiu valuit, habere noluit terminum criminis. They would have lived for ever, that they might have sinned for ever. Their injustice would put no date to their sins, Gods justice shall put no date to their sufferings. On earth he that will still run in debt while hee lives at libertie, shall at last bee cast into prison to lie while hee lives in miserie. Shall man have this law against his brother, and not God against his creature? yes, there will come a day when all reckonings shall be cast over, when justice must be satisfied to the full; atleast so full as the delinquent can satisfie it, not with ready money, the merits of Christ: then with eternall durance, he must lie by it for ever. Mat. 5.26. Till he hath paid the uttermost farthing; and which is lamentable, hee hath not one farthing towards it. The reprobate cannot do many things he would: the needy drunkard cannot bee an usurer: the base pilferer cannot be a rich commonwealths oppressor; no thankes, they would but they cannot. The power, not the will, is wanting in them to any wickednesse. Now it is just, velle malum et non posse, pati malum et non velle. Hee that doeth what hee will, must suffer what God will.

8 The sinner is often admonished, often threatned: dealt with all mildly, and taken up roundly: now tempted with a crowne, than terrified with a scourge: allured with the promises of heaven, affrighted with the menacres of hell: encouraged to Grace by the Gospell, thundred against for sin by the Law: offered either a cursed. Devill to torment him, or, a blessed Christ to save him. Neither is life and death set before him onely once, but all his dayes. Rom. 10.21. All day long hath God stretched forth his hands unto him. This choice is put to him so long as he lives on earth: therefore if he make election of sin, it must sticke by him so long as hee lives in hell. What could God doe more in mercie, what can he doe lesse in justice? The sinner is shewed an easie way to salvation; Beleeve in Christ the remission of sins, and endevour in thy selfe amendment of life, and thou shalt be saved. The Publican said but only. God be mercifull to me a sinner: Quid hic sudoris, quid laboris? what great labour or paines was this? Chrys. The malefactor on the Crosse declared three things; reprehension of his fellowes sins, confession of his own sins, supplication for mercie; and he was taken up into that glorious paradise. He that will not take so little paine to get so much ease, is worthy of little ease and much paine. If men make God lose all the labour of his mercie, to save them, hee will not lose all the labour of his Iustice to punish them.

9 Though it be true that every sin is finite as considered in respect of the act: as it is a transient action it is finite. But it is infinite in respect of the inherence in the subiect. For the foule of man is immortall, and so the sin which sticketh on it, is made immortall with it. For the guilt can no wayes be taken from it, but by imputing it to Christ. And besides the guilt contracted by the fact, there is a blot that doth staine the soule: as the skarlet or crimsin die doth the silke or wooll: which can no wayes be undyed or gotten out but by the blood of the Lambe. All the Saints had staines, blemishes, and polluted coulours; but Rev. 7.14. They washed their robes, and made them white in the blood of the Lambe. 1 Cor. 6.11. Such were ye, but you are washed, &c. Now those turpitudes and aspersions so died in graine by sin in the soule, if they bee not purged by him, remaine for ever inseparable: and can no more but taken from it, than the spots from the Leopard, or the skarlet can fade till the cloth bee worne out. So long therefore as this staine abides, the wrath of God abides: and as that tincture can never be gotten off, so the fire of hell can never bee burnt out. There is no more extinguishing the one, than relinquishing the other; both remaine for ever.

10 There is an habite of evill in the wicked. Some thinke that sin in it selfe is nothing, because it hath no formall being or subsistence: but punishment is a thing of being and position. Now shall that which is nothing bee punished with something; Shall a creature be punished for nothing; This were, as David complained of his persecutors, a course of injustice; They hated mee without a cause. But that which is held nothing in a positive existence, will be found something in a priuative sufferance. To cleare this point, we must examine what sin in it selfe is. In its owne proper nature it is, saith St Iohn an Anomie, or want of conformitie to the Law of God: or an Ataxie, and absence of goodnesse and integritie in the thing that subsisteth. In Adam before his fall were three, not indistinguishable, yet inseparable things. 1 His substance. 2 The faculties and powers of his bodie and soule. 3 And the Image of God consisting in straightnesse, conformitie, and rectitude of all these to his will. What then was his sin; not the want of the two former, he had his substance and faculties still: but of the latter, the conformitie of Gods will. In a musicall Instrument there is not onely the substance of it, and the sound, but also the harmonie in the sound. That which is contrary to harmonie, is none of the two former: but onely the last, that is the disorder or discord in musicke, which is the absence or want of harmonie, we may call it Disharmonie. Neither is this a meere absence of goodnesse, but also a presence or habite of evill. As it is received into mans nature, it is onely a privation of good: but as being received it continues, it is a habite of evill. But it may be said, that a meere and single privation can performe no act: as darknesse, which is the absence of light, can stirre nothing: silence cannot move or produce an effect. But concupiscence drawes away the heart from Gods service, and entiseth it to evill: now this is an action, and no action can proceed of a meere privation. To answer this wee must distinguish of originall sin: as it is of its owne nature, so it is no inclination or action, no moving power, but onely a want. But as it is mixed with the subject wherein it is, it enclines, moves, compells to evill.

The like reason holds in actualls. In murder are two things. 1 The moving of the body, and exercise of the weapons: this considered as an action is properly no sin: because every action comes from God, the first cause of all things and actions. 2 The killing of a man, defacing the Image of God: this is the misorder and aberration of the action, whereby it is disposed to a wrong use or end; and thus it is sinne .

For the summe then, the nature of sin lies not in the action, but in the manner of doing the action. So that it holds, sin is nothing formally subsisting, (for then God should be the author of it, as being creator and ordainer of every thing and action) but a want of that which ought to bee and subsist, partly in the nature of man, and partly in the actions of nature. In peccato nihil positivum; as the Schoole in this truly. But now to the question; If there bee no positive thing in sin, why should there bee a positive thing in punishment; If it bee onely the want of goodnesse; why is it not revenged onely with the want of blessednesse? So here should be no place for damnation or the torments of hell. Certainely if it were no more, this was punishment enough to bee deprived of the glory of God, Rom. 3.23. All have sinned, and come short of the glory of God. But there is more, for upon the absence of goodnesse there necessarily followes the presence of evill. And the sinner doth not only omit what he should doe, but also commit what he should not doe. And as there can be no difference inter non bonum & malum: so at the same instant when a man loseth his goodnesse, hee contracts badnesse. There is in sin foure things: the fault whereby God is offended: the guilt whereby the sinner is bound to punishment: the Punishment it selfe, which is damnation: and the Blot or staine which defiles the person. Culpa, reatus, pana, macula. Now it is not the second and third, but the first and last which make man a sinner. Hereupon it followes, that after a man hath committed a sinne, and the offence is done and gone Quoad actum twenty yeares; yet he does not therefore cease to be a sinner. Now why is he called a sinner in the time present, that did the sinne in a time so farre past? It is the Macula, or staine, as it were the fruite of the fault, that so denominates him. And this is an indisposition of the heart to all good, and an inclination to all evill. He that hath forefeited his goodnesse, is like the dropsy-patient; the more he sins, the more he is apt to sin, and the more desirous of sin. As he that turnes his face from the sun, remaines so till hee turne againe unto it. Once turning from GOD, wee continue naughtie, till we returne to him by repentance. David was not only a sinner in the very act of his adulterie: but when the act was done and past, he remained still an adulterer: because a pronenesse to sinne had got place and strength in his heart, till he rid himselfe of all by unfained repentance. There being therefore in the reprobate an inconformitie to goodnesse, an unchangeable disposition to evill, and an uncleansable pollution by evill; there must remaine an interminable damnation for evill.

11 Gods temporall plagues are images of his eternall judgements: but the temporall often last all the dayes of their life on earth, why not the other all the dayes of their death in hell? There be some sins that may be called Peccata peccantia, sinning sins: for they leave a perpetuall venome and malignitie behind them: and continuate a pestilent act without any lesse termination than the world: as oppression, Sacriledge, &c. There be also publike sins, that leave a bad example behind them: and such men doe sin as long as they cause sin. Such was Ieroboams making Israel to sin: let himselfe be dead, yet so long as any worshipped his Calves, Ieroboam = This urged the Rich man to desire one from the dead, to warne his brethren: because he felt his owne torment encrease, so long as their sin encreased, which they had derived from his cursed precedent. There be sins not so manifest, and exposed to the common eyes or sense; not hurting others in their posteritie, nor corrupting them by lewd patterne: but doe Intra orbem suum furere; as private lusts: yet these turne the soule into a Blacke-moore: and for mortall endevours to wash them out, we may call it the labour in vaine. The sins that damnifie our brethren, without restitution, are perpetuall: and so is the wrath of God upon them. Zach. 5.4. It shall remaine in the midst of his house. This argues not only a dominering and raigning nature, which shrinkes not into corners, but takes possession in the middle and most honourable roome: mediâ dominatur in aulâ. Like Princes that have chosen the middle places of kingdomes for their seats. According to the old similitude: the way to keep a stiffened hide from rising at the sides round about, is to set your feete on the midst. He that stands in the center, may the readilier see the whole circumference that envirous him. But it further intimates the stubborne and indomitable qualitie of vengeance; it doth remaine; if once admitted, it will not suddainely remove; nor yet remaining will ever bee quiet. Athanasius pronounced of Iulians hot persecution; Nubecula [est] , & cito transibit: it is a cloud, and will soone be blowne over. The ground of that heroicall perswasion and confidence, was the knowledge of Gods temporary castigations and tryalls of his Church. But to the unbeleever, Ioh. 3.36. The wrath of God abideth on him. Which wordes like Ianus, have a double aspect. One backwards, as if it were a wrath of great antiquity: it comes not now, it was before upon him, Aug. Another aspect forwards, as some expound it; noting the countenance of wrath it shall not depart from him. Vpon him, as another noteth on the word upon; the intimation of advantage from an upper place: as though vengeance did stand continually preying upon him: as in the Poet, the ravenous bird upon Prometheus; or, that other upon Titius, in hell.

If any impenitent sinner complaine; Why is my heavinesse continuall, my plague desperate, and cannot be healed: There is matter within himselfe to make him answer. Lam. 3.39. Wherefore doth a living man complaine, a man for the punishment of his sinnes? There is the inquisition of the proper cause. Let us search and trie our selves, and turne againe to the Lord: there’s the application of the proper remedie. No wonder if the curse continue with them, that continue in obstinatenesse: impenitence can have no hope of mercie, Rev. 16.9.11. Though they suffer that extreme burning for sin, yet they repent of their sinne, They blaspheme God for their sores, yet repent not of their misdeeds. It is an argument of their vaine ignorance, to wonder that the terme of their heavy visitation is not yet expired: while their sins are unrepented, their lives unamended. Correct the passion of thy heart, and direct it to contrition for sin, or, expect no cessation of penaltie. As when the sinner is dead, all the while any moisture remaines, the wormes will not forsake his carcase. So while he lives in his sin, the curse will waite close upon the cause: still a sinner, and still a sufferer. Israel could not stand before their enemies, till they had put away the execrable thing. Nor will the plague forsake oppressors and sacrilegious usurpers, till their treasures of wickednesse be returned backe to the right owners. Let the example of little Zaccheus, the greatest example that ever was, for effectuall and substantiall restitution; teach them to breake off their injustice with righteousnesse, which giveth every man his owne: and their iniquitie, with mercie to the poore. Lest they find this sin heavyer than a milstone, when the shallow rivers of temporary punishments, shall run into the ocean sea of eternall torments. Where is no restitution, there is no remission: where is no remission of the guilt of sin, no decrease of the power of sin: and where the power of sin is not lessened, there the plague of sin will be augmented. Nec desinet illi paenae sensus, cui non desivit culpae assensus.

12 Lastly, this equity and equality of damnation to sin, is illustrated and proved by the contrary. As Mark. 10.30. every good deed shall have a hundred-fold of comforts: so every bad deed a hundred fold of torments. Gods mercie is for ever to them that please him: so his wrath is for ever upon them that offend him. The faithfull finde eternall mercie, therefore the unfaithfull shall finde eternall miserie. He that endureth to the end, shall be saved: By what rule or proportion? Because God in his goodnesse doth presuppose, if that man had continued for ever living, he would have continued for ever well doing. Iosiah feared God all the dayes of his life: therefore God hath Crowned his everlasting life in heavent. Rev. 2.10. Be thou faithfull unto 〈◊〉 death, and I will give thee the Crowne of life. Fidelitie for a short service, hath a = of never ending glory. Thus as God in his good mercie doth reward perseverance in good with immortall life: so in his just judgement he doth punish impenitence with eternall death. Thus is guilty man punished, and the just God cleared, in this damnation of the wicked: though it be a totall, finall, (call it what you will) an extreme, universall, eternall punishment. But to cease preaching of it, and fall to praying against it: Spare us good Lord, spare the people whom thou hast redeemed. For the death of thy eternall Sonne, let us not be the sons of eternall death. Be not angry with us; or, if we doe provoke thee, let not thy anger be for ever. Let not thy wrath burne like fire: but whensoever our sins have kindled it, LORD quench it in the bloud of CHRIST. Let us not undergoe the malignitie of one sin, even the least, the shortest: for it deserves great and eternall torment. Our greatest goodnesse merits not the least glory: but our least wickednesse deserves great pain. A small leake will sinke the vessell unstop’d, a great one will not doe it, if well called. The weakest instrument can pierce the flesh, and take away the life, unarm’d: 〈…〉 our of proofe will beate off strong assaults, There is no wickednesse so weake, but it can destroy us without Christ: none so strong as to destroy us with Christ. As Rachel cryed to Iacob, Gen. 30.1. Give me children or else I die: so give us our Father, or else we perish. Lord, behold us not out of Christ, though robbed with all our righteousnesse: but behold us in Christ, though with all our sinfulnesse. Preserve us in him, crowne us with him, that we may give all glory to him; together with thy selfe, ••d most holy Spirit.

8 Sleepeth not, lingereth not, slumbereth not.] Though it be not yet present, it is propinquant: if not extant, yet instant. If it be not visible, yet it doth not linger: if it linger, it doth not slumber: if it seeme to slumber, it doth not sleepe. To sleepe is more than to slumber, to slumber more than to winke, to winke more than to look upon a thing though with disregard, not minding it. Neither sleep, nor slumber, nor connivence nor neglect of any thing, can be incident to God. Because he doth not execute present judgement, and visible destruction upon sinners, therfore blasphemie [presumptuously] inferreth; Nunquid curat Dominus? Ea cura quietos sollicitat? Will God trouble himselfe about such petty matters? So they imagined of their imaginary Iupiter; Non vacat exiguis rebus adesse Iovem. What a narrow and finite apprehension this is of God! Hee that causeth and produceth every action, shall he not = present at every action? What can wee doe without him, that cannot move but in him? He that takes notice of sparrowes, and numbers the seeds which the very Plough-man thrusts in the ground: can any action of man escape his knowledge, or slip from his contemplation? He may seeme to winke at things, but never shuts his eyes. He doth not alwayes manifest Scientiam reprehensivam, a reprehensive knowledge: yet he alwayes retaines Scientiam apprehensivam, an apprehensive knowledge. Quia [non] arguit, ergo non novit? Though David smote not Shimei cursing, yet he heard Shimei cursing. As Iudges often determine to heare, but doe not heare to determine: so though God doe not see to like, yet he likes to see. It is only the forbearance of his correction, that makes sinners presume of his connivence. Psal. 50.21. These things thou hast done, and I held my peace; therefore thou thoughtest that I was altogether such a one as thy selfe. Impunè ferens peccatum, Deumcogitat pacatum. God holds his hands, and he holds his peace, but he does not hold his eyes: and he sees, whatsoever he saies. All things are naked and open to his eyes: not because he will observe them, but because he cannot look side them. But. The time of your ignorance God winked at? He is said to connive, because he doth not correct. It is the promise of his mercie to passe over the sins of converts, as a father winkes at the error of his little child. So we pray, Adverte [oculos], Turne away thine eyes from our sinnes, Psal. 51.9. Absconde faciem; Hide thy face from my sinnes, and blot out all mine iniquities. That is, Omitte, remitte, demitte indemnatum. Still the Lord sees; Psal. 51.3. I have done this evill in thy sight. He doth observe all sin in knowledge, he doth not reserve all to vengeance. He is said not to make it, because he doth not punish it. But if the Lord do wink at the aberrations of his servants, must he therefore slumber? Doth every one shuts his eyes, presently fall into a slumber? Or, if he seeme to slumber, can he sleepe? Sleepe is to refresh the weary, can rest it selfe be weary? Psal. 121.4. Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleepe. He is so farre from sleeping, that he doth not put his eyes together. This might be Iunos opinion of her Iupiter: whom Homer relates making an earnest sute to Somnus, Obsoporare oculos Iovis. This is for a Baal; 1 King. 18.27. Cry aloud, for peradventure he sleepeth. A necessary slumber for a temporary god.

Sleepe (such is the nature of it, that it) cannot occurre to the nature of God: who is an Eternitie of rest, without any vicissitude or change. There is no mutation in himselfe, nor mutuation or borowing from another. Phabus ab externo radios non mutuatur: much lesse God. Rom. 11.25. Who hath first given to him, and it shall be recompensed? Who hath laid out any thing for him, and it shall be paid him againe? In sleepe the exterior senses are bound up, and there followes a quiescence from motion. As of the contrary; Vigilia est solutio & remissio sensuum, ut liberè agant secundum suam naturam. Wakefulnesse is the remission and unbinding of the senses, that they may freely officiate the requirements of nature. But the Lord moves all; and created things derive their first motion from him. Aristotle saies, sleepe is a retirement of the heate to the inward parts: and a confluxe of that naturall exhalation which ariseth from out sustenance; Compresso primo sensitorio, that is 〈◊〉 but God lives not by nourishment, therefore hath no need of sleepe. Galen fines it to be a remission of the soule, according to nature, ab extremis ad principium binding up the mind, and discharging the sensitive instruments of their office the heate which is taken up in those organs, being recalled to the heart and lungs. Others thus summarily Sleepe is the rest of the animall vertues, together with the in- tention of the naturall faculties, stirred by a profitable humour in the braine: and in the soule suspends her functions in the outward parts, to relieve the inward and principall, for the health of the whole. But God is not capable of any weary 〈◊〉 therefore not liable to any sleepe. Nothing needs sleepe, but what is nourished or wearied? No spirit is subject to such a nutrition, therefore not desiderable of such a cessation. The sword of God may be said to sleepe in the scabberd, while he [for] beares to draw it, but he that weares it, sleepeth not.

9 This wakefull and prepared vengeance is threatned against the ungodly = fitly. For nothing is more proper to the nature of sin, than to sleepe in security. [Ephes]. 5.14. Awake thou that sleepest; that is, Repent thou that sinnest. The godly have their nappes, the wicked their sound sleepes. Continuance in sin may be compared to Sleepe in many resemblances.

1 For the cause of sleepe: the naturall heate drawing in his vertue, stirres up a vapour or exhalation, which ariseth from the meate, or from labour, sorrow, wearinesse: this ascending, the coldnesse of the braine beates backe againe, and so comes sleepe. Thus the heate of concupiscence in the sinner first raignes within, and strives to fortifie it selfe in a complacencie of evill: and when the conscience sends any motions or considerations to the intellect, like vapours to the braine, they are reverberated back againe by the extreme cold and grossenesse, which possesseth the rationall part; and thus followes the sleepe of sin. When the conscience cannot prevaile with the concupiscence, it is rocked asleepe in sin, and all the organicall forces are called in to waite upon lust.

2 As Aristotle delivers the formall cause of sleepe, to be an Antiperistasis, it being made by a reciprocall motion: the stomach sending up fumes to the head and the head sending them backe to the heart: so by reason of this conflict they obstruct all the organs of sense, locking up the exterior parts as they passe in their journey. As a river that ebbes and flowes, is driven by her owne floods. The heate drives these vapours from the heart, the coldnesse from the braine, and they must needes rest some where: hinc faciunt gravedinem oppilando, & inde Somnus In spirituall sleep, the coldnesse of the brain is ignorance, the heate of the heart is 〈◊〉 cupiscence, the exhalations are lusts. while these with a sensitive pleasure are bandied up and downe, the whole man becomes fast a sleepe: and sin raignes like an [undistur-] bed Lord in al faculties of body and mind, neither feeling nor suspecting the danger

3 As there is a difference in corporall sleepe, so in the spirituall slumber, ὕπνος dicitur ἀπὸ τὸ ὑποπνεῖν, Suspirare: for the lungs doe not faile their office in sleepe. Now some bodies are so well composed, that they send forth a soft and gentle aire and respire an easy spirit. Others that labour of some error in the Arteriatrach•, 〈◊〉 lung-pipe, Strumosi, draw their breath with such difficultie and distance, as if they were in danger of suffocation. That the winde being held in, breakes forth with a troublous noise: per multos anfractus ducitur: it comes out by many circuits and windings, involued in the muscles: and the breath being gathered into those straites with a forcible eluctation opens the arterie, breaking out with an allision and [mur-] mure, as the pent aire at an evaporation. Thus spiritually: some take a quiet sleepe an unmolested securitie in wickednesse, without the least starting or jogging of their conscience. Esa. 29.10. The Lord hath poured out upon them the spirit of deepe sleepe. The breath they draw is Tenuis aura, such as sometimes in summer riseth from the earth with an insensible effumigation. Ducunt mollem anhelitum, they sin without trouble about it as a great part of England now sleepes in Sacliledge, and their hearts are never disturbed for it. Other men sleepe indeed, but unquietly; full of startings, = and reluctations: as if they were affrighted with some suddaine noise, and their owne conscious thoughts did like Faeries, nippe and pinch them, interrupting their desired repose. There is more hope of these than the former: for they that are often disquieted, will at last be wakened. When a man begins to stirre in his bed, we conceive some likelyhood that he will before long arise.

But they that can sleepe when it thunders; like the Catadupans, inhabitants of the cataracts, who heare not the roarings of Nilus, ingenti cum sonitu se praecipitantis: drummes and trumpets, and that loud rupture of the aire with Ordinance, being like soft musicke to their eares to play them asleepe: what hope of their waking? Declaration of sins, denuntiation of judgements, description of torments, no more stirre them, than a tale moves a man in a dreame. Here is a supine stupiditie, as capable of excitation, as the sea-rockes are of motion, or the sea-billowes of compassion. As Mori mortem is to die an everlasting death, so this Dormire somnum (as the Psalmist speakes) is to sleepe an everlasting sleepe. The Hebrewes call sleepe by three distinct and graduall termes. Therumah, which signifies a light sleepe, Capitis mutatio, quasi prima rudimenta somni. Schemah is a more profound sleepe. Thardemah exceeds all, as it were a dead sleepe. Gen. 2.21. The Lord caused a deepe sleepe to fall upon Adam: that he neither had his sight offended, nor his sense oppressed, when his side was opened, Gen. 15.12. Thardemah irruit: a deepe sleepe fell upon Abraham. So the Greekes distinguish them; κάρος, which is a certaine necessitie of sleepe: καταφορὰ, is Torpor, a heavinesse of sleepe: and ληθάργος, an inexpugnable appetite of sleeping. The Latines, if we consult Physitians, distinguish them into Somnum, soporem, & veternum: a naturall sleepe, a preternaturall sleepe, and a continuall slumber. The faithfull cannot avoid some nappes their nature is so weake; some sinnes they admit: vulgar sinners have long and drousy slumbers: only the desperately wicked are cast into a dead sleepe; an exstaticall stupifying lethargie of sinfulnesse, hard even to be a little roused. The first is a naturall, the second a preternaturall, the last a contranaturall sleepe. A naturall sleepe is short, for sixe or eight houres, owed by Physitians, to the body; but allowed not by Divines, to the soule. The preter naturall is a drousie slothfulnesse, an inordinate desire of sinning. Prov. 24.33. Yet a litle slumber, a little folding of the hands to sleepe. The last contranaturall, is omnem [modum] exundans, beyond all measure, a lethargicall kind of death, which will never wake untill it hath no more power to sleepe. The naturall sleepe of the body is for = reparation of natures forces, so much as may only be sufficient to absolve concoction: but the last, as in sweating sicknesse, sleepes to death.

4 As by sleepe Cerebrum fumis obnubilatur, nervi hebetantur, venae obstruuntur, Arist. The braine is clouded, the nerves dulled, the veines obstructed. So by customary sinning, the Eph. 4.18. understanding is darkened, the spirits blunted, the affections stupified, the receptacles of grace filled with the obstructions of lust. And there is not only an Indisposition to goodnesse, but a mad and unrestrained precipice to all manner of mischiefe.

5 As nothing is more pleasing to mans nature than sleepe; Quia perpetuus motus naturae inferiori regugnat. It is most acceptable, illabens animantibus amicâ dulcedine. Somne quies rerum, placidissime Somne deorum, Ovid. Sleepe is fained to love Pasithea, because it is a common benefite to all living creatures. Quae a rerum veritate ad fabulas, Graeca levitas & Poetica vanitas transtulit, Aret. So there is nothing more pleasing to corrupt nature than pravitie: it is a delight to the wicked to doe evill: and sleepe is not more welcome to the body, than that is to the lust of the soule.

6 As sleepe is justly called Frater mortis, the brother of death: so is sin Soror paenae, the sister of paine. There is little difference betweene him that sleepes and the dead, save onely in time: both are void of sense, both like trunkes Vterque caecus, surdus, elinguis: both blind, deafe, dumbe. Vterque sedat curas, finit labores; either of them appeaseth our cares, finisheth our labours: only death is the longer and more perfect privation. Stulte, quid est somnus gelide nisi mortis imago? Ovid. Consanguincus lethi sopor. Medium inter vivere & mori, Arist. A certaine middle thing betwixt life and death. Dulcis & alma quies, placidaeque simillima morti, Aeneid. Death is a long sleepe, sleepe a short death. So fin is the elder brother of death: if man had not sinned, he should not have died. Sin was beene first, but The elder shall serve the younger: for death shall swallow the whole inheritance. Here, the sleepe of rebellion precedes the sleepe of damnation. They sleepe but their destruction sleepeth not. The Apostle said of Lazarus; Ioh. 11.12. LORD, if he sleepeth hee shall doe well: but if you sleepe, you shall doe ill. As it is with the improvident heire involved in Vsurers bonds; while he sleepeth, his interest runs on. Destruction takes the wicked napping, as 2 Sam. 4.7. Banah and Rechab slew Ishbosheth: or, as Somnus is said to slay Palinurus; soporatum in mare praecipitavit, Aeneid. 5. He is easily subdued, whom his owne slothfulnesse hath left unarmed. As death corporall proceeds of a cold vapor possessing the braine, and oppressing the animall senses and spirits. So from the cold dregs of sin, freesing up the heart in wickednesse, comes the sleep of destruction: as Gideon slew the secure and careles hoste. When Diogenes Synopensiis slept much in his sicknesse, and was disswaded by his Physitian, he was answered, Ne mireris, frater fratrem antevertit: one brother doth but prevent another. Sampson could not be bound, till he was first got a sleep. Temporall death is not the only punishment of his sinful securitie: but while the wormes are sporting among the reprobates bones, the divells will make themselves merry with his torments.

7 Lastly, as sleepe turnes a man in non hominem, so doth sin in non bonum hominem. In sleepe he neither heares like a man, nor speakes like a man, nor walkes like a man. So in this spirituall lethargie, he neither thinkes like a Christian, nor understands like a Christian, nor effects like a Christian; nor acts like a Christian, nor appeares like a Christian. There be three seasons, wherin a wise man differs not from a foole: in his infancie, in sleepe, and in silence. For in the two former all are fooles; and in the latter we are all wise. In sleep the wisedome of the wise is not exercised, and the follie of the foole is not discovered. In the 115. Psalm. ver. 5. There are sixe impediments orderly specified, wherein the sinner differs not from the sleeper. The sinner hath. 1. Impeditum os ab actu confitendi; They have mouthes, but they speake not. He cannot confesse his sins, nor professe his faith, nor powre out his prayers. In sin, as in sleepe he hath a mouth, but not to speake. 2. Oculos impeditos ab actu [videndi]: They have eyes, but they see not. Mat. 13.15. They have closed their eyes, lest they should see. They differ something in this from an Idol: the Idol hath Oculum fictum, a counterfeit eye: these Oculum clausum, a shut eye. See, that cannot; these can and will not. Who is so blind as he that will not see? The object is exhibited, their sight is selfe-darkened. They have eyes, but not to see. 3. Aures impeditas ab [officio audiendi]. They have eares, but they heare not. The blind hath eyes, but not to see: the creeple feete, but not to goe: the spirituall sleeper hath eares, but not to heare. The eare is a benefite of nature, but an eare to heare is the benefite of grace. 4. [Nares] impeditos ab of ficio odorandi. They have noses, but they smell not. Futura non praesentiunt. They give themselves to sleepe, and never suspect the danger that may prevent their waking. Let them come into that blessed Garden of God, where innumerable flowers give delectable sents; they neither smell the odours, nor rellish the fruites. They receive not the things of the spirit. 1 Cor. 2.14. the Naturian is not capable. They have noses, but not to smell. 5. Manus impeditas ab actu [beneficiendi]. They have hands, but they handle not. As that organum organorum, the instrument of instruments, the busie and active hand, is bound in sleepe. So sinne hath enervated the practise of goodnesse; and obsessed the sinner, not onely with a dedignation of good workes, but also with an indignation against good workers, and an unsatisfied delight in misdeeds. God reacheth out mercie to him, as the charitable doth an almes to the maimed; alas, he is fast asleepe, and puts not forth a hand to receive it. They have hands, but not to worke. 6. Pedes impeditos ab actu ambulandi. They have feete, and walke not. Worse than that creeple, Act. 3. he thought he could not goe, would bee carried to the Temple: but these have feete and will = goe to the Temple; they have no desire to bee brought into that vigilant and waking place. There the Preachers voice would be like a Trumpet, and they cannot endure noise. They have feete, but not to walke.

Nothing is more dangerous than this drousinesse and securitie in sinne: when men thinke they can passe as they please; thorow the wombe to grace, thorow grace to wantonnesse, thorow wantonnesse to glory. With Act. 18.15. Gallio, they thinke Religion onely a question of names and words, and therefore will not meddle with it Or, if they resolve to heare it, with Felix they can neither get a convenient time, nor a convenient heart for it. They are not like the Bee that filleth her belly and thighes with honey from the flowers: but like the butter flie, which onely dies and paints her wings in their colours, and so leaves them. They swimme like Dolphins, playing upon the waves of carnall delights; and are alwaies merriest, when destruction is nearest. Wake therefore, and learne to die before thou die; that when thou must die, thou mayest have no more to do but to die. While the foolish virgins slept, they lost their enterance into that joyfull bride-chamber for ever. Watch and pray: they that would keepe themselves waking, doe it best by talking. Hold thy selfe in a continuall conference and discourse with God, so shalt thou not fall asleepe in sin. If thou dost fall into aslumber, yet let Cant. 5.2. thy heart wake. But the reprobate doth sleepe soundly, Somno sepultus. Therefore let us not sleepe as others doe, but let us watch and be sober, 1 Thes. 5.6. As Christ couples watching and prayer: so the Apostle couples watching and sobrietie. Sobrietie is either corporall, the moderation of appetites: or mentall, the moderation of affections. Now as drunkennesse enforceth sleepe, so sobrietie keepeth awake. But as Physitians rid their hands of incurable patients, and send them to the minerall or metalline bathes, or leave them Deo & naturae, to God and nature. So I remit these to their maker to be wakened; either by the Evangelicall trumpet here, or by the archangelicall trumpet hereafter.

10 Observe that sin will not let Iustice sleepe, but sends it up continuall challenges and defiances: provoking him to draw that sword, which hee had rather should rest and rust in the scabberd, than be sheathed in the bowels, or shine with the galls of his owne creatures. But in piety will not let him alone, nor give him over, till is righteousnesse breakes forth into vengeance. As the prayers of the Saints with kinde of prevailing importunacie, offer holy and humble violence to his mercie: = he descends with the flag of truce, in the milk white ornaments of peace; pardoning sins, and healing sorrowes. If importunate sollicitations could move an unjust iudge to equitie, Luk. 18.7. will they not much more move a merciful God to pitie? Give him no rest till he establish Ierusalem, Esa. 62.7. As the kingdome of heaven requires and requites this holy Mat. 11.12. violence: so the king of heaven is content to have his hands as manicled from executing wrath, and his sword locked up by the prayers and teares of penitents. Let me alone, saith the Lord to Moses, that I may smite them: as if the groanes of his heart did hold Gods hand. So doe the sins of the wicked hasten judgement, and cry to vengeance, Come away, why tarriest thou so long? Thus the blood of Abel murdered, Gen. 4.10. cryed for the blood of the murderer. Wickednesse is not groveling, but aspiring: not base, shame-fac’d and fearefull to advance it selfe; but swelling like Iordan above the bankes. Ion. 1.2. Their wickednesse is come up before me. It was not hid in the secrecie of private chambers, not kept close in the closet of their owne brests; but an ascending, aspiring, climbing wickednesse; so impudent that it durst presse into Gods presence. Before me: it wakens makes my justice, and will let me sleepe no longer. Gen. 18.20. Because the cry of Sodome and Gommorrah is great, and because their sinne is very grievous.

Peccatum cum voce, sin with a voice is sinne in action: Peccatum cum clamore, sin with a cry is sinne in presumption, Greg. Their wickednesse passed the bounds of all moderation: the fame of it was not only spred upon earth, and blowen into the eares of men: but it pierceth the aire, passeth the starres, climbes like the Sun in the morning, comes up amongst the Angels of God, and exposeth her filthinesse to the throne of his Majestie. This iniquity here is not lesse than a theomachie, a desperate warre against heaven, a tower of sinne like Babel, reaching to the clouds. A sin which the Scripture calls lifting up the hand, and lifting up the heele, against the Lord. Manum in contendendo, calcem in contemnendo: lifting up the hand in opposition, the heele in contempt.

There are two Ladders wherby men climbe up into heaven, and become acquainted with God. The Ladder of Petition, and the Ladder of presumption. The Saints ascend by the one to their consolation, the wicked by the other to their confusion. Both presse into the Presence-chamber, both have the like accesse, both have not the like successe. The one thrusts in lik a conspirator to practise treacherie: the other like a petitioner to implore mercie. Wickednesse is sawcy and peremptorie, and will be notable thoug hit be notorious. It scornes to keepe low water, or live in an ebb: but like pride, is only to that end proud, that some notice may be taken of it. Commonly it is gone from the memorie of the offender, ere it come with so fierce an inundation before the punisher. And that wind of rebellion which causeth justice to wake, rockes unrighteousnesse a sleepe. But shall our sins come up before God, and = first come before our selves; who dwell in the region where they were borne, and were present when they were done? This is the greatest fault of our ignorance, to be ignorant of our faults. Must heaven know what is done on earth, before earth it selfe be acquained with it? As Tully said, he could heare at Antium what newes was at Rome, better than at Rome it selfe. Shall we turne our wickednesse so farre out of our owne remembrance, that we never thinke of it till we feele it in vengeance. These be wilfull mistakings, trickes to make our selves blind. Alceus tooke a mole upon ones face for a grace, it was none by his leave. The more quietly and securely sinners sleepe in the good opinion of themselves, the more certainely their damnation sleepeth not.

I know that some sins are not so sollicitous and urging upon the Iustice of God as being the infirmities of his children, which he passeth by with connivence. Yea he doth not strike at every provocation of the wicked. There is a time when God is said to take especiall notice of sin. 2 King. •9.2•. Because thy rage against me, and thy [tumult is] come up into mine eares, &c. But is there any sin when the eye of his knowledge is blinded? No, but this devotes to us the order of the actions of his knowledge. He sees sin in the Booke of eternitie, before sinners hearts doe conceive it: he sees it in their brests, before their hands do commit it. He sees the conception, birth, and commencement of it: but then he sees it to purpose, when being in the mature ripenes be lanceth it. Ier. 2.24. They that seeke her will not weary themselves; in her moneth thy shall find her. When the measure is full, God will find them out; as the wild as in her moneth, great with foale. Thus he sees it with fiery eyes, bent to vengeance. There are some aspiring sins, pressing unto Gods throne, like presumptuous mountaines darted at his owne Majestie. They arise with a vocall ascension; the wings that mount them up so high, being the cry of their malignitie in the eares of God As oppression, Iam. 5.4. From this Iob in his appologie presented to his Iudge, excused himselfe. Iob 31.38. If my land cry against me, Hab. 2.11. The stone shall cry out of the wall and the beame out of the timber shall answere it, Ier. 6.7. Violence and spoile is heard in her, before me continually is griefe and wounds. So the Prophet tells Israel, that God being displeased with Iudah, and delivering them into their hands; they had slaine them in a rage that reacheth up even to heaven. This is an outragious impudence, that is ambitious of enhauncing sin, despising the censures of men, and judgements of God. Though they have beene plagued, they change not the colour of one haire of their heads, one worke of their lives: nor adde a cubite to their statures, one inch to their Christian growths. This, this is the way to fall upon that irrevocable sentence, which God hath purposed, and he will not repent, nor turne backe from it. As the wicked cannot sleep till they have offended: so they will not let God sleep till he be avenged.

11. Long agoe. There is a preordination of plagues for reprobates, and the very moment of the execution appointed, Iude ver. 4. They were of old ordained to this condemnation. As if they were booked, enrolled, and billed to this confusion, and their particular names set downe in a booke. God keepeth a booke of Registry and Records, in which he engrosseth the persons behauiours, and eternall state of all men. Besides the booke of providence, Psal. 139.16 wherein are all our members written: and the Booke of Life, which containes the Psal. 4.3. names of the faithfull: there is also the booke of Iudgement, • Rev. 20.12. out of which the wicked shall be judged. To thinke these materiall bookes, were a grosse conception: they are the counsell, providence, pleasure, knowledge and justice of God; which comprehend all things as if they were written in a booke. Therefore, howsoever, in respect of men things be contingent and casuall: yet in regard of God there is no chance, nor event by it; for hee hath all things written before him with their causes. Gods providence, and fortune, are direct contraries. Hereupon, the very actions of wicked men come not to passe without Gods purpose. He not only foreseeth, but wisely ordereth them, and even that which is done against the will of God, is not done without the will of God. He doth not command it, he doth suffer it. Albeit he esteeme not evill to be good, yet he accounteth it good that evill should be.

This serves to qualifie our impatientce, when we see some reject the meanes of salvation, despise the word, vilipend the Ministers of it, rob God of his Churches patrimonie, maligne the professors of the truth, and give over themselves to a resolute contradiction of godlinesse: knowing that some are of old and long agoe ordained to this condemnation; and that Their judgement, (a dest ruction which is properly their owne) is long agee prepared. And for our selves, though we be confident in IESUS CHRIST, through the testimonie of the HOLY GHOST; Rom. 11.20. d Yet be not high minded, but feare. Our fidelitie must take heed of securitie.

This point is not barren, but usefull to us in a double application; the one of caution, the other of consolation:

1 Seeing God doth not sleepe in his Iustice, let not us sleepe in our unjustice. When Alexander had a great battell to fight, he was found fast a sleepe in his Tent. We have listes to enter with the Iustice of God, ô let not the slumber of our soules, = the Iudgement of our sins, come so neere together. Ionah was gone downe into the sides of the ship, and he lay fast a sleepe. The aire is troubled, and sends out a tempest, the waves roare, the winds blow, the sea is disturbed, the ship almost broken, the Mariners afraid, happy man that can pray fastest, the burden of the vessell unloden: and all this for the Prophets cause, yet the Prophet alone is ignorant of the matter, he is fast a sleepe. It could not be but he much forgate himselfe: though he had refused to preach at Niniveh, yet here was an auditory and an occasion that required Sermon: and the conversion of one sinner is a blessed worke: because Iam. 5.20. he covers multitude of sins, which either the converter, or the converted hath committed. The very uncircumcised Master wakens him; What meanest thou O sleeper? call upon thy God. An infidel leads him that knew God, to his prayers. The Prophet is become an auditor, and the auditor a Prophet: the sheepe leads the Shepheard, the patient heales the Physitian, the Gentiles are devout in their superstition, the Israelite cold in his religion. Truth is truth wheresoever we find it; Call upon thy God, was good counsell from a heathen.

It is desperate for men over shooes, to runne over shoulders; and having transgressed the bounds of obedience, to neglect any desire of revocation. Cyprian, who was at last a Martyr, wrote of himselfe, that being a persecutor, he was so farre in that he had no hope of getting out: therefore freely welcomed all vice, as resolving upon the worst that could befall him. Sleepe departeth from the eyes of distressed and anguished spirits, Iob 7.4. I am full of tossings too and froo, unto the dawning of the day. Psal. 13.2. He that is troubled in his conscience for his iniquities, will resolve with David not to suffer his eyes to sleepe, nor his eye-lids to be closed doune with slumber: as he, till he found a resting place for God: so this, till he find rest for his owne soule.

Yet how hath this sleepe possessed even Gods children! David being full slips into idlenesse; from idlenesse hee passeth to concupiscence, concupiscence begets adulterie, adultery hatcheth murder. And when all these ingredients put together, would have troubled the strongest and most retentive stomake; he takes a sleepe with them of almost a yeere long. Thus are sinners like a man surcharged [with a] gluttonous meale, who is apt, his belly being full, to lay his bones at rest. Christ came to his Disciples and found them asleepe, Mat. 26.40. Hee had often inculcated this admonition to them; Watch: yet now in the greatest extremitie they are fast asleepe. I know that sleepe is necessary to humane nature; all living creatures on earth have their sleepes. Though the Poet Salsé sed falsé of the nightingale; [Tu cantare] simul nocte dréque potes; that she sings night and day; if at least he meane, without intermission: as Pliny also too confidently averres, Lib. 10. cap. 75. The credit of Aelian is engaged for as much, that she is expers somni, without all sleepe: but by his leave, it was an error. Sleepe is that naturall helpe, Quod corpora duris fessa ministerijs mulcet, reparatque labori. Therefore the Pythagoreans used to play a lesson on the harpe and sing to it, Quintil. lib. 9. cap. 4. when they were going to bed: Quò citius & blandius obdormirent. The Apostles therefore having supped late, dranke wine, wearied, with travell, now being midnight sleepes principall season, not walking but sitting still: all which were valde ὑπνωτικὰ, suadentia somnum, as virgil speakes: provoking and attractive of sleepe. Why then doth CHRIST reprove them, for not watching with him one houre? But Eccl. 3.2. is there not a time to wake, and a time to sleepe? What? in that very houre when the Lord of life was betrayed into the hands of death; = King ready to die for his people, the creator as it were unmade to new male is creatures, the innocent suffering for the nocent, could they not even then forbeare sleeping? Not one houre, ecce brevitatem, it was short: watch, ecce facilitatem, it was easy; not be exposed to scorne, not cast into prison, not beaten with scourges; but dura verba, nec duriora verbera perpeti: but onely spectare & expectare, to looke and waite, while their Master was finishing that great worke of their owne redemption. Not watch with me, Mee your Saviour; one houre, I say not a whole night. [Mark] 14.37. He found them all sleeping, but directs his reprehension to Saint Peter: because he before fluctuans aestu had confidently promised this, yea farre more than this, to lay downe his life for Christ; Simon sleepest thou? There is a time to sleepe without reproofe: Samuel slept, David slept, Psal. 4.

Christ himselfe slept, Mat. 8. Peter had often slept before without reprehension yea, and afterwards too with consolation; Angels guarding and delivering him Acts 12.7. But now to sleepe; Couldest thou not watch with me one houre? I say not a thousand, nor a hundred, nor a score, but one: not moneth or weeke, or day or whole night, but Houre: and this not to fight for me, but to watch with me: Simon mon dormis? Simon, signifies obedience; Christ calls him not Peter, nor Cephas but Simon: arguing his forgetfulnesse, not onely of his Masters love, but of his owne name. But if it be such a sinne to sleepe, What is it to betray? Iudas tradis? was worse than, Mic. 2.1. Simon dormis? It is better to sleepe with Peter, than to betray with Iudas. Tolerabilior est somnolentus Simon, quàm turbulentus Sinon. He that sleepes well thinkes no harme; but there be some that Studie mischiefe in their beds. [Vt jugulent] homines surgunt de nocte Latrones. We may better suffer Desidiosum Monachum, quàm insidiosum Iesuitam; than the Popes wakefull Iudas, Discipulum decipulum, his snare and gin to entrap poore soules, and send them to Rome, like Virgins taken up for the Turke, to suffer his Antichristian ravishments.

To conclude, seeing that sleepe comes from cold and moist humours dominant in the braine: and wakefulnesse from hot and dry raigning in the head: let us cast away the cold and crude humours of sin, and stirre up the holy and almost extinguished fire of zeale. That as CHRIST at his first comming found the [shepheards] by night watching over their flockes: so at his second comming whether by day or night, he may find us all watching over our soules.

2 As this is terror to the ungodly, so comfort to the righteous. As Iustice is ever waking, so mercie is never a sleepe. He that keepes Israel, never lets his providence fall into a slumber. Yea, even in the lethargie of our disobedience, when we remit of our uprightnesse, the hand of this ever watching God preserves us. David was a sleepe a long while together, but the Lord that chose David slept not for = good. Vpon this confidence he betaketh himselfe to rest. I laid me downe and slept, for the Lord sustained me. I will lay me downe in peace, and sleepe, for thou Lord only makest me dwell in safetie. As he sets his Angels to guard us in the naturall sleepe of our bodies: so his preventing grace doth keepe us in the spirituall slumber of our consciences. But let not this make us presume upon his mercie too much: nor so trespasse upon Gods unsleeping protection, as to take our ease in our corruption. Thou sayest, others have long slumbered, and yet beene graciously awakened; as David, Paul, Zacheus; Why not I? I dispute not: God will measure out his graces at his owne pleasure: and though they run over to some, they are plentifull enough to all. Rom. 10.12. The same Lord is rich unto all that call upon him. My grace is sufficient for thee, was Pauls answere: and it may suffice all sutors.

God hath given us no small space, not a few mercies: if we will sleepe with Peter, we put it to the hazard whether we shall ever rise with Peter. We cannot expect miraculous revocations; a Whale to reduce us as Ionah, or, the Sun to stand still for us as to Iosuah, or, the sea to divide it selfe as to Israel, or, a voice heard from heaven as to Paul. Shall we say, The armie of God is shortned, because we see not these wonders? Will we not be wakened without miracles? Must the course of nature be altered, the pillars of earth moved, the chanels of the sea discovered; must we see signes in the Sun and Moone, and have some rise from the dead to warne us, or we will not be wakened. 1 Cor. 1.22. The Iewes require a signe, and the Greekes seeke after wisedome: but wee preach CHRIST crucified. Woe unto us if the open face of the Gospell cannot rouse us without a signe; and the simplicitie of CHRIST perswade us without further wisedome. 1 Thes. 5.7. They that sleep, sleep in the night. But the night is past, let us therefore give over slumbring. The lesse sleepe we give sin in our soules, the sweeter sleepe we shall find to our bodies. Thus shall we be sure, that while the wicked are overtaken with this unsleeping damnation, wee shall bee guarded and guided with a vigilant preservation. For CHRIST dyed for us, that whether we wake or sleepe, we should live together with him, 1 Thes. 5.10. To whom be praise for ever.