Thomas Adams
In Conclusion, Theft can finde no shelter under the shadow of this Comparison: The day of the Lord will come like a theefe, and where it findes a theefe, will sentence him to condemnation. Theeves? there are few or none amongst us: we will be all bound for one anothers truth and honestie: But may I not say in the Prophets sense, All men are lyers, so All men are theeves? The receiver, we say, is worse than the theefe: therefore said one, Shew mee a Sinner, and I will shew thee a Theefe. The Oppressor hath a theevish hand, the covetous hath a theevish eye, the slanderer hath a theevish tongue, the drunkard hath a theevish throat, the Harlot hath a theevish lip, the Idolater hath a theevish knee, the Flatterer hath a theevish gesture; every Sinner hath a theevish heart. Doe not hold it impossible for you, to discover and attach a Theefe in your owne bosomes. Our naturall corrupt Lust is a Theefe within us: if wee examine him strictly, wee may finde out his haunts, and fetches, his shifts, and devices. Beleeve him not, for he will lie: spare him not, for he will steale: shrieve him to the proofe, for he will hardly confesse: arraigne him at the barre of the conscience, condemne him with a penitent sentence, punish him with an impartiall execution: punish him in the body, by fasting and mortification: punish him in the soule, by repentance and contrition: punish him in the purse, by the workes of charity and restitution. If wee can get quit of this Theefe, that sinne be mortified in us; the comming of the Lords Day (though it be like a Theefe) shall not hurt us.
Lastly, there is an holy Theft, which I would commend to your practise. There be five waies to get the Kingdome of Heaven: Some innocently finde it, some violently snatch it, some are compulsorily driven to it, some expensively purchase it, and others politickely steale it. First, they that light upon it unlooked for, are Infants dying soone after their Baptisme. They are Candidati fidei, of the Livery of Faith: and as they live in the Wombe by the life of their naturall mother: so they live in the Covenant by the Faith of their spirituall Mother, the Church. These finde salvation without trouble: they labour not in the vineyard, they grone not in prayer, they are not exercised with trials, they weepe not remorsefull teares, they are not charged with many duties; yet the Blood of Christ clenseth them from all their sinnes. Matth. 19.14. Suffer little children to come unto me, for of such is the kingdome of Hevven: it belongs to them, and they belong to it; and there they are, before they know where they were: these finde it. Secondly, they Matth. 11.12. take it by violence, are such as by an utter abdication of the world, doe wholly dedicate themselves to God: that, by their continuall praiers and pious actions, lay siege to that glorious Kingdome; and in the fervent desire of Gods service, offer up themselves a living sacrifice. Such are those Martyrs, that swimme thither in the streame of their owne bloods, whose soules mount up to Heaven in acceptable flames. There bee three sorts of Martyrs; Re & intentione, Intentione non re, re non intentione: in both deed and intention, as was Saint Stephen: in intention not deed, as was Saint Iohn: in deed not in intention, as were those Innocents: And three annuall holy-daies are dedicated by the Church, to the memory of these three kindes of Martyrs: all which together, in their order, immediately follow the great Feast of our Saviours Nativity. But the Pontificians have found out a fourth kinde of Martyrdome: which is nec re, nec voluntate, vel intentione; neither in deed nor intention: Of which supernumerary number was their Saint, Thomas Becket; whose day they celebrate next after the three former. It is strange, they take him for a Matyr, whom those daies never found but for a Traitor. But the Martyrs of Christ are led by another Spirit, who puts such courage into their hearts, that like noble Champions, they breake through all difficulties to the Kingdome of Heaven. Thirdly, they that are driven to it, are beholding to compulsory meanes: they have shipp’d themselves in a Man of warre, and would prosecute their licentious mischiefes, but are beaten into the Harbour with stormes. The Lord often clips our wings, least we should straggle abroad after our boundlesse and transportive fancies: Hee strippes the body of pleasures, to clothe the soule with righteousnesse: and by impoverishing our temporall estate, Hee strengthens our state of grace. Not that wee are therefore saved, because we are afflicted: but wee are afflicted, as proper to them that shall bee saved. Act. 14.2•. Through much Tribulation wee must enter into the Kingdome of God: It is not Propter, but per tribulationes. Affliction cannot worke grace of it selfe; for sorrow can no more bring comfort, than Thornes can beare Grapes: but it is the needle that drawes in the threed. There is no fault to bee found with that necessity, which constraines us to bee good. Luk. 14.21. Bring hither the poore, the maimed, halt, and blinde: yea, their owne poverty shall bring them; their owne blindenesse shall make them see the way, and their owne lamenesse shall enable them to goe. If they yet linger, there is a Mandamus of farther constraint; Compell them to come in, that my house may bee filled. Affliction is to us, as the Whale was to the Prophet: wee goe in Fugitives, we come forth Converts: we goe in Rebels, we come out Penitents: wee goe in Sinners, and come out Saints. Fourthly, they that purchase it, lay out all they have upon Earth, for an habitation in Heaven. Let this ground bee laid firme; that onely the blood of Christ is the price of salvation: and hee that confides in the merit of his owne workes, shall sit howling without doores. Yet, though Faith alone doth save us, it must not destroy Charity: and to our good deeds, there is a reward of Mercy. There is a way, by Matth. 13.44, 46. selling all we have, to buy that incomparable Pearle, that inestimable Treasure. There is a policy, to make such Luk. 16.9. Friends of our riches, as may let us into those everlasting Mansions. After, Matth. 25.21. Well done good Servant, there followes, Enter thou into the joy of thy Master. How deare doe men buy a small turfe of earth, and yet how cheape doe they value Heaven? They will venture their soules to get a little money, they will not venture a little money to save their soules. They can oppresse the poore, to make their children rich: they will not releeve the poore, to make their children blessed. But as when a miserly Dung-worme excused his oppressions, because hee had eighteene children; another replied, but eighteene? Beleeve me, if you had eight and forty, the Countrey hath curses enough for them all: So let mee assure the charitable Benefactor, how many children soever he hath, Heaven hath blessings enough for them all. Fifthly, and lastly, there be some that steale this glorious Kingdome: under the vaile of humility, an holy dejection, and under-valuing of themselves, they lay hold on eternall life. Though the wals of that celestiall City bee too high to climbe over, too strong for any Matth. 6.20. Theefe to breake through, and steale: yet there is a way for this pious Theefe to get in: this is neither over, nor through the wals, but Rev. 22.14. through the Gates. He is fitted for entrance; the Gate is low, and hee is humble: the Gate is narrow, and he is little: so little in his owne eyes, that he can easily creepe in, and being once in, he shall never be turned out. Such a Theefe was that modest woman, wasted with an issue of blood, resolving within her selfe; Matth. 9.21. If I may but touch his garment, I shall be whole: Shee stole vertue from him by a touch. Such a Theefe was that penitent Sinner upon the Crosse; Luk. 23.42. Athanas. who both lived and dyed a Theefe: He stole their temporall goods from men, for which hee dyed: and hee stole Paradise from Christ, when Hee dyed. Paul saies, Give your bodies a living sacrifice to God: but there God accepted of a dying sacrifice. Iudas had served Christ three yeares, and played the Theefe with his purse: he could steale his Lords coine: but this man had scarce served Him three houres, yet had learned a better way of theft, and stole from Him Salvation. Iacob wrastled with God, and by an holy kinde of force, robbed Him of a Blessing. And the God of comfort thus encouraged that shamefast and trembling Patient, that touched the border of his garment; Luk. 8.48. Daughter, bee of good cheere, thy faith hath made thee whole: since thou hast stollen vertue from me, take it, and much good do’t thee with it. Other theft shall be condignely punished; but such a penitent, humble, and pious Theefe (whom the world condemnes for a sinner, but inward sorrow and compunction presents to God for a Saint) shall not onely be mercifully pardoned, but even gloriously crowned in the Day of Iesus Christ.
Gellius l. 1. cap. 18. Hor. lib. 1. Ep. 2. In the night] Fur à furvo, say some; because that art requires the secrecy of darkenesse. Vt jugulent homines, surgunt de nocte Latrones. Night is the season for Theeves and Harlots: The Adulterer waits for the twy-light, saying, no eye shall see me. If the night should speake all it knowes, it would put millions to the blush, in the day. Iob 24.16. Theeves in the darke digge through houses, which they had marked for themselves in the day. The night payes the Devill no lesse custome than the day. Why else are sinnes called Opera tenebrarum, The workes of darkenesse? Castè, Hor. lib. 1. Epist. 16. si non caute, was a Rule to save their Credites, though not their Conscience. Noctem peccatis, & fraudibus obijce nubem. There bee indeed some sinnes peculiar to the day, because they are done onely to bee seene, and if they might not bee seene, would not be done. But commonly Ioh. 3.19. Ovid. Evill doers love the darkenesse, and desire to sinne out of sight. The whore loves the blacke and darke night: Nox, & amor, vinumque nihil moderabile suadent: Illa pudore vacat, liber amorque metu. Eph. 5.12. It is a shame even to speake of those things which are done of them in secret. Darkenesse causeth boldnesse, and Secrecie is the mother of Securitie: They thinke Impunè fit, quod fit in abdito. Therefore it is proverbially spoken, Nox commoda sceleribus: iniquitie is beholding to the night, and the Devill is a great noctivagant. The foulest fact of the world, Iudas his treason, was a night-peece.
Of all, the Theefe longs for the night: then he hopes that sleepe hath shut the eyes, and locked up the senses of the whole familie. So the last judgement shall breake in upon men, when they are possessed with a Lethargie, and drowzie negligence; not minding, not dreaming of this sudden Audite. But why doth this sentence begin with, The day of the Lord; and subjoyne, Like a Theefe in the night: Day, and Night are opposites: if it bee the Lord’s Day, how should it come in the night? If it come in the Night, why is it called the Day? Or shall we say, it is Quiddam tertium; a thing mixt, betweene both, partaking of both, or compounded of both? As in Diluculis & Crepusculis, there is a Twy-light: The dawning of the Day in the Morning, and the shutting in of the Day in the Evening make day and night so much one, as sometimes you cannot tell which to call them. It is so much Day, that we cannot call it night; and so much night, that we cannot call it day. It is true, that 2 Cor. 6.14. Light hath no communion with darknesse: Lux & tenebrae, midnight and noone never met, never joyned. In the regenerate man there is both Gal. 5.17. flesh and Spirit: the spirit is not the flesh, the flesh is not the spirit: and yet both are in the same man. There is darkenesse in his understanding, and in his understanding there is light also: There is corruption in his affections, and yet in his affections there is holinesse too. As in a vessell of lukewarme water, there is both heat and cold together: Wee cannot say, This part of the liquour is hot, and that other cold: but cold and heat is confused throughout the whole vessell. In the twy-light, wee cannot say, This part of the aire is light, and that other darke: but darknesse and light is shed, spred, and mingled throughout the whole aire. Shall we conjecture by such a similitude, that this Iudgement shall be in the Twy-light; when the season may be called either, or neither Day or Night? Certainely, these fancies of men have so much darknesse in them, as to be called Night: but no raye or streake of light, to give them a name of Day.
Some very venturously gather from hence; that Christ will come to Iudgement in the Night: and they offer to prove it by many arguments: First, because the first borne in Egypt were smitten in the night. Wis. 18.14. While all things were in quiet silence, and that night in the midst of her course; God’s Almighty Word leap’d downe from Heaven, out of his royall Throne, as a fierce man of warre. This was indeed most fearefull and astonishing; when God called for the bloud they owed him, at so uncomfortable a season. In one night, every house hath a carcase in it; and (which was more grievous) of their first borne; and (which was yet more dolefull) in an instant. No man could comfort another; every one was too full of his owne sorrow; helping rather to make the noise more lamentable. But all this is no more than the cry of an Infant, to the dismall shrieking at Christs appearance, when all the kindreds of the earth shall mourne before him. And why doth this Plague of Egypt prove that he will come in the Night, more than the burning of Sodome makes it probable that he will come in the Day? Secondly, the opinions of the Fathers are alledged for it: Chrys. in Mat. 15. Saint Chrysostome thinkes it shall be in the night: Euthymius consents with him: Hieron. in Mat. 25. Hierome cals it an Apostolicall Tradition: and Lactan. lib. 7. c. 19. Lactantius confirmes it by the Testimonie of a Sibyll: Cùm venerit ille, Ignis erit, mediaque horrenda in nocte tenebrae. In the darkest night, saith he, the heavens shall be opened, and the Lord shall descend like Lightning. Pruden. ad laudes Feriae tertiae. To say nothing of those Ecclesiasticall hymnes, taken out of Prudentius and Ambros. ad laudes Sabb. Ambrose, that seeme to favour it. Nor to examine the reasons of Tho. Tert. part. in Addit. qu. 77. ar. 3. Aquinas, why he stateth this great Audite, in the twylight, betwixt day of night: they bee all but dreames of a night. Thirdly, they argue, that the Passeover was to be eaten at night, because the comming of the Lord was expected in the night: Exod. 12.42. It is a night to be much observed unto the Lord: and This is the night of the Lord to be observed: The Iewes are said to looke for the Comming of their Messias, in the middest of the night: and about that time of the night, it is very probable that our blessed Saviour was borne. The Angels came to the Shepheards Luk. 2.8. in the night, with this joyfull tydings. But what is all this to prove, that his second comming shall be in the night too? That Paschall-night, whose observation was so strictly commanded, is also called a day? Ex. 12.14, 17. This day shall be unto you for a memoriall: and You shall observe this day in your generations, by an Ordinance for ever. And the night of our Lord’s Comming in the flesh, is not called a night by the Angels, but a day: Luk. 2.11. Vnto you is borne, This Day, a Saviour. The acceptation of Dayes for times is a figure frequently used. Eph. 5.16. The dayes are evill; what? the dayes only? Are not the nights evill too? Yes, but by dayes are meant the Times. Whether Christ will come in the day or night, we cannot tell; but we are sure, there is a time determined when he will come. Fourthly, they sticke hard upon that speech, Mat. 25.6. At midnight there was a cry made: concluding out of it, that at midnight the Lord shall come. But why may we not as well inferre that it shall be in the day; because the Lord Act. 17.31. hath appointed a day in which he will judge the world? Nocte latent mendae; say some, How should all things bee revealed in the night? But they may be answered accordingly; That night cannot want light, when heaven and earth shall make one universall bonfire. Knowledge should keepe her allowed bounds: August. Satius est dubitare de occultis, quàm litigare de incertis. When the poore Debter was advised by his friends to watch for his Creditors comming to towne, and to intreat their favour about a composition, he answered; I will not trouble my selfe to seeke out them, for I am sure they will finde out me. But let it be our speedy diligence, to implore the Mercy of our great Creditor, not for any composition that can bee made by our selves, but to accept the satisfaction made by our Surety, his Sonne Christ upon the Crosse: Otherwise, though we seeke not after him, he will be sure to finde out us; when wee are neither able to put in baile, nor have one penny toward the payment. Night and day let us be prepared; and then whether thou commest day or night, welcome our deare Lord Iesus.
The Summe is this; The day of the Lord is not only uncertaine for the time, but then most likely to be, when it is least expected. And to this center, the Fathers, and all faire expositors reduce their Meditations: So Theophylact, Hilarie, Hierome, Bede, and Greg. Hom. 12. in Evang. Gregory expound the Metaphor. Aug. Ser. 22. De verbis Dom. S. Augustine most plainly: He shall come in the night, Cùm valdè obscurum & occultum erit, & quando non speratur. Men sleepe in the night, and looke neither for guests nor theeves. His appearing shall be in the night of mens ignorance, when their intellectuall eyes are sealed up with the Spirit of Slumber; no more expecting his descent from Heaven, than He lookes to finde Faith on the earth. But let us pray that he doe not finde us out in such a night; when wee are fallen into spirituall darkenesse, the Ignorance of Him, and inconsideration of our selves. Though he permitted Darknesse to be before Light in the Creation; yet in the making of Light he did so multiply that Light, as that it enlightned not the day onely, but the night too. So albeit some shadowes of dimnesse, and clouds of disconsolatenesse have shed themselves upon our soules; let us beseech him to afford us the Light of his holy Spirit, against which the Prince of darknesse can never prevaile, nor hinder his Illumination of our darkest nights, our saddest thoughts. The Visitation of the holy Ghost upon the blessed Virgin, is called an over-shadowing: There was the Presence of God, the Fountaine of all Light, and yet an overshadowing: Nay, except there were some Light, there could bee no shadow. It is happy for us, when those shadowes within us shall bee overcome by Gods irresistible Light: That when those shadowes have done their office upon us, to let us see that of our selves we should fall into irrecoverable darknesse; the Spirit of Grace may doe his Office upon those shadowes, dispersing them, and establishing us in the assurance of comfort.
The lascivious wife is glad of her husbands absence, August. and abuseth the time in unchaste embraces, till his unexpected returne surprizeth her in the bed of adulterie, and turnes her over to just penaltie. But the constant Spouse, that hates the least violation of her Faith, (even so much as in a wish or thought) with earnest longing lookes for her husbands comming, and knowes no solace like to his Presence. The holy Soule, that hath kept her faith with Christ, desires this Day, waites for it, and at last entertaines it, and is entertained with it, in a sweet and blessed Peace. But the straggling adulteresse, that hath preferred her pleasure before her Pietie, and flatters her selfe with the remotenesse of her Lords Comming, shall bee taken in the Night of her carelesenesse, in the Act of her wantonnesse, and perish without hope of Reeonciliation. This day, Luk. 12.39. like a Theefe in the Night, shall breake through into her house: She hath barred the doores, and fortified her house against his entrance, out of a conscious feare, and unwillingnesse to see him: therefore there is no remedie, her house must bee broken through, and that unfaithfull soule be pluck’d out by force. But the other lookes for the messenger, listens to the first knocke: there is no neede to breake open her house, for shee readily opens the doore, and yeelds up her selfe in joyfull peace to the armes of her lord and husband Phil. 1.23. Yea, shee longs for a dissolution, Rev. 22.20. prayes for the Consummation, and cryes for the hastening of his Kingdome. Behold, I come quickly. Amen. Even so, Come Lord Iesus.
In the which the Heavens shall passe away with a great noise.] Concerning the manner and extent of the worlds dissolution, there is a world of question: the Schoole is full of perplexities, that tend more to the distraction, than satisfaction of their Readers. They doe indeed but throw a stone into the Well, and leave us to take it out. They lay such toiles and nettes for him, that hunts after the Truth in their Forrest, that soone hee is entangled; and being once in, let him get out as well as he can. Three circumstances are considerable in this first passage. First, the matter alterable; The Heavens. Secondly, the measure of their alteration; Shall passe away. Thirdly, the manner of this transition; with a great noise.
1 The Heavens.] Some extend it to all the Heavens, even to that highest, which is the glorious Court of God himselfe: but Saint Paul saith, we have an house not made with hands, 2 Cor. 5.1. Eternall in the Heavens: that which is Eternall, cannot bee destructible. Hieron. Magius de exust. mundi. cap. 6.7. Others abridge the latitude of this combustion, and understand by the Heavens the lower part of the Aire; confining this fiery deluge to the same limits with the former watry: But if the inferiour Aire were the boundaries of it, why are the Elements afterwards, Namely, expressed? The Aire is an element. Others affirme, that they shall perish according to their very substance; as if there should be no more Heavens: but this crosseth the Scriptures, which speake of a new Heaven and Earth; and of them, not as Noua, but Novata: not newly created, but purgingly renewed. This then is our safest conclusion; that this purgation by fire, shall reach as farre, as did the corruption of sinne, and no further. The corruption of the Heavens shall vanish, the matter of the Heavens shall not perish. To inquire further, may bee dangerous, it cannot be profitable. Gods Power appeared in the creation of the World, his Wisedome in the governement and disposition of it, his indignation in the Flood that drowned it, his Mercy in saving those eight that replenished it, his Grace in the mission of his Sonne that redeemed it, and his Iustice will appeare in the re-sending of that Sonne to judge it. Psal. 19.1. The Heavens declare the Glory of God: things or persons may teach two wayes: either materially or occasionally; so the insensible creatures teach man: or morally and vocally, by doctrine and example; as we ought to teach one another. The Heavens can teach us to looke unto our owne preparation; they cannot teach us the time or manner of their owne dissolution.
2 Shall passe away.] There be two errors about this transition of the Heavens. First, of some Theologicall Philosophers, who attribute to the Heavens an incorruptible nature: From which figment being beaten by the Truth, they labor to evade by distinction; Lucan. lib. 9. Phars. Plin. lib. 2. cap. 9. that though the Heavens are in their owne nature capable of corruption, yet they may bee Intrinsecè incorruptibiles, because they can never bee corrupted. Secondly, the other sort hold them so corruptible, that they shall bee utterly abolished. That the Heavenly bodies are maintained by vapours, was but the dreame of some Poets and Philosophers: for certainely, if the Sunne, Moone and Starres were onely nourished by waters and vapours, they would long ere this, have bidden the world good night. Mat. 24.29. Our Saviour foretold us, that the Powers of Heaven shall bee shaken: Lib. 7. cap. 16. Basil. Hom. in Hyperi. Greg. Nyssen. lib. de creat. Hom. cap. 4. Lactantius thinkes these powers of Heaven to bee the Angells, who shall then change the order of their motions: They are indeed spirituall and separated substances, quae non habent molem, sed virtutem; not united to any matter, as the soules of men to their bodies; and so are Powers or Vertues: but how those Powers shall then bee shaken, seemes a forced collection. Chrysostome speakes peremptorily of such a shaking, as shall be an utter abolition; which he calls omnimodam perditionem. Of the same opinion were diverse of the Greeke fathers; Theodoret, Theophylact, Oecumenius; grounding it upon the mis-interpretation of this and the like places. Psal. 102.27. They shall perish, but Thou shalt endure: whereas the Prophet there expounds his meaning of a permutation, not annihilation of the Heavens: As a vesture shalt thou change them, and they shall be changed. So saint Paul, 1 Cor. 7.31. the fashion of this world passeth away: Figura non Natura. Greg. mor. lib. 17. c. 5. Wee conclude therefore with saint Gregory, that the Heavens shall passe away, and they shall not passe away: Ea quam habent imago, tergetur: Ea quam habent natura, servabitur: The substance shall not bee destroyed, onely the quality shall be changed. As wee weed our Gardens, to succour the Plants, and doe not roote up the Plants, because of the weeds. Or as we sweepe our houses from the dust and rubbish, and doe not for the rubbish sake pull downe the house: Or as the Lapidary cuts a Pretious stone, or polisheth a Iewell, and does not for the roughnesse or fowlenesse cast them away. So the Lord will purge this great Fabricke of nature, and not for a little corruption destroy so goodly a Creature.
3 With a great noise.] After the manner of a Storme or Tempest, cum stridore & sibilo, with a whistling or crashing sound, such as a flight of Fowls make through the winde with their rustling feathers. Suarez. Tert. par. Tom. 2. Disp. 58. Sest. 3. Some thinke that the celestiall Orbes shall be put to a swifter and more violent motion; whereby the world shall bee set on fire: and out of that concussion, this terrible noise shall arise. Fire and Water cannot meet without a hissing contestation: the Aire repelled, breakes not forth in silence; especially restrained fire hath a dreadfull eruption; as the report of Ordnance, or Thunder from the Cloudes. What with the rapture of the superior bodies, and the confused combate of the Elements, who can conceive the fearefulnesse of this noise? The Law was given with a great noise, Thunders, Trumpets and Voices: the Exod. 19.16. Thunder was very lowd, the Trumpet farre lowder, but the Voice of God drowned all. If such were the noise at the Law-giving, what shall there bee at the Law-requiring? All things will appeare strange at that day: Such a Iudge, such a Session was never seene: such a noise, such a Sentence was never heard: such an evidence, such a horrour was never conceived. The sound of the Archangels Trumpe is a noise, that shall waken all the World: The crackling of this great frame in the fire is a noise that shall astonish all the World: the voice of the Iudge is a noise that shall confound part of the World: and the shrickes of the condemned is a noise that shall continue with them in the World to come. The first noise sounds out a Surgite, Rise from your Graves: The second sounds a Sistite, Stand to your triall: The next sounds a Discedite, Depart yee cursed: and the last sounds forth an Vlulate, Howle for ever in the state of the damned. The rising of a Tempest makes the Passengers afraid: It more amazeth them when the waves beat into the Vessell: but when they beginne to sinke, what a dismall cry is heard among them? Virg. Aen. 1. Insequitur clamorque virum, stridorque rudentum. The Summons will be a fearefull noise, the Sentence more fearefull, but most lamentable will be the shriekes of reprobates in their endlesse sufferings. If we heare but the cries of a City upon the suddaine inuasion of an unlook’d for enemy; or but the clamour of a Family that cannot get out, when the house is burning about their eares: or had wee heard the cry of the Infants in Hinnom, which they contended to drowne with their lowdest instruments: there had beene some shadow of that prodigious noise, which shall be produced by this universall conflagration. It hath beene said, that Deafnesse is a blessing, when a man can heare no noise but cursing: but they are happy, that can heare this noise without terrour, and escape from it without danger: and such happinesse belongs to all that are in Christ.
1 To make some use of this point: Seeing the Heavens shall not lose their beeing, but onely suffer a purgation, and must bee changed in figure, without perdition of their nature: and in like manner, man hath an everlasting perpetuity assigned unto him, after his temporary transmigration: hee cannot cease to be, he may cease to be happy: Let us all labour to be cleansed in time, lest wee remaine uncleansed, when time shall be no more. The Heavens must undergoe a purging for the sinne of man, and shall not man endevour his owne purging for the happinesse of Heaven? The way to escape the horrour of that purging fire, is for the present to purge our selves in water. There be two Fountaines, wherein we may wash and be cleane. The former is a living Spring, and in many respects, a strange kinde of Fountaine. It issues indeed from the side of a 1 Cor. 10.4. Rocke, but that Rocke is immaculate flesh. What is more hard and dry than a Rocke? what more moist and supple than water? yet hee that once did fetch water out of a stone, to convince and shame the infidelity of the Iewes: doth still bring it forth of a Rocke, to refresh our beleeving Soules. The Clouds and Springs are wont to aford water, but it comes not usually from the Rockes. Other Fountaines may coole and cleanse the body, but they cannot make it immortall: this Spirituall drinke comes out of the Well of Life, and causeth the receiver to live for ever. The Leprosie is not got off with other waters, this 1 Ioh. 1.7. Cleanseth us from all sinne. That which proceeds from other Fountaines, is white: this is red as blood; even blood it selfe, and the purest blood that ever ranne from veines: that sanguine Laver, wherein if Faith can get us a larder, wee are cleansed for ever. This is the onely Purgatory of our Soules, and without this there is no possibility of being cleane. The blood of a man runs in his veines; in the blood of those veines are the spirits, and in those spirits a kindely and active fire, which by consuming the redundant and superfluous humours of the body, purgeth it from contracted annoyances. Christ is the Man of men, the God of men; and the blood that ranne from his sacred veines upon the Crosse, was full of so infinite a Spirit, that it concocts and overcomes all the diseases of his body, the Church; and cures the infirmities of all our Soules. Lower Fountaines may be locked up, or dried up: but this Spring runnes freely, fully, continually, to the end of the world. No mans comming is debarred, no man that comes, departs uncleansed. They that are purged in this Bath of acceptable satisfaction, shall neither feare the Iudiciall fire of the last Audite, nor the penall fire of everlasting torment. But every day wee gather new staines; for the mundation whereof, there is another Fountaine provided, within us, as the other was without us; Repentance. This pumpes teares out of our eyes, derived from the Well of contrition in our hearts. Not that this water can cleanse us by its owne vertue; for the Spring it selfe must be fed and sanctified by the former; and is indeed rather a Cisterne, than a Fountaine. But it is a secondary and instrumentall meanes of our cleansing, a consequent and inseparable signe of our being cleansed by the blood of Iesus. And without this; the burning of the Heavens shall but tend to their restitution; but the same fire to impenitent sinners, shall begin their everlasting torments. This great world was first purged with water, and is againe to be purged with fire: so the little world, Man, is first washed in the Laver of regeneration, the Sacramentall water: and after this Baptismum aquae, there is Baptismus ignis, a 1 Pet. 1.7. fiery triall: and many are saved, but as it were 1 Cor. 3.15. through the fire: as by fire the Heavens shall be renewed. The best gold may gather some rust, and the purest garment catch a spotte: and the holiest Soule on Earth, needs cleansing. We are a candle set in the winde; blowne out with every temptation: a curious instrument, that will out of tune with the very change of the weather: a fine glasse, that is not onely broken with a knocke, but stained with a breath. If we be not alwayes supplying our Lampe with the oile of meditation, and setting our instrument in tune by prayer, and scouring off our blemishes by repentance; decay and ruine will incroach upon us. There was a delicate person, selfe-enamour’d, and too indulgent to his body, especially in the frequency of bathing: A true friend reproouing him for many things, urged that in particular; Why doe you bathe twice a day? whereto hee deridingly answered, Because I cannot conveniently bathe thrice? Seriously we may invert the question: Why doe we not bathe oftner? Why doe wee not wash our consciences twice, thrice, many times, every day in our penitent teares? Seneca tells us of a Romane, that kept his soule as cleane, as the best Huswise keepes her house; every night sweeping out the dust, and washing all the vessels: Examining his owne soule, Quod malum bodie sanasti? qua parte meliores? What infirmity hast thou healed? What falt hast thou done, and not repented. In what degree art thou bettered? Then would hee lye downe with O quàm gratus somnus, quàm tranquillus! With how welcome sleepe and quiet rest, may wee entertaine the night! The burning of the Heavens shall not affright us, because hee that sets them on fire, hath promised to save us.
2. This makes against all ambition of worldly dignities: the Heavens are the purest and most glorious peeces of nature; if they must bee dissolved, What shall become of temporall honours? The stateliest Pyramid that ever was like. to the memory of a man, reached not up so high as the Heavens; yea, it is likely that the Tower of Babel transcended them all: yet Babel is fallen, and the Heavens themselves shall not stand. Of good Honour the Pyramid may be a fit embleme: for it is broad and large in the foundation, upon earth: but still as it riseth up toward Heaven, it lessens, and shewes it selfe the narrower: desiring in all the greatnesse of man, to seeme little in the eyes of God: as Moses was a great Prince, yet there was not a meeker man. Pauls honour was great to bee rapt up into the third Heaven; yet but Novi hominem: Iohn was the beloved Disciple; yet but Qûem dilexit: God gave them noble priviledges, and yet they in modesty conceale their owne names. Dignity comes two waies; either by Desert, or by Descent; by good worth, or great bloud. But when it is stated upon the the unworthy, it is a Noli me tangere? Friend sit up higher: Luk. 14.10. but when he is advanced like a friend, if he bee found none, hee shall soone bee pulled downe againe. God gives honour In utilitatem, and In humilitatem: first, for the publike good, and then for our private; that it may make others better, but not our selves worse. But Ambition is the worme of greatnesse: the Bramble desires to be King; the Thistle to match with the Cedar: the Eagle to set her nest among the starres: the Spider to build in kings palaces. Haman will never leave lifting up his head, Obad vers. 4. till it be lifted a story higher than hee would have had it. Ambition, the eldest sonne of Pride, mounts up with his gawdy wings, as if he would bandy colours with the Sunne. The ground hee thinkes beholding to him, for vouchsafing to blesse it with one touch of his foot; and extremely honoured, if he grace it with one humble looke. Fame is his Goddesse, and all her servants are his Trumpeters. Hee that crosseth him in his rising, and prevailes not; shall bee crushed by him, when hee is risen. Hee hath so many corrosives, as he hath superiors: and cares not how much he gives the Divell, to rid him but of one rivall. Hee could wish his frownes were lightning, and his words thunder. Poore, men he, lookes should part with all their goods, to have him but take knowledge of them. Vaine man, Whither wouldst thou raise thy selfe? Could thy blowne up honour reach the cloudes; this last Fire shall consume both it and them. How carefull are men for the prolongation of their memories? What stately monuments are erected by their posterities? Marble pillars, and brassen sculptures, report to succeeding ages, their names and acts. And above all, the Poet undertakes to give life to their vertues, in never dying Verses: with Non norûnt haec monumenta mori: And Nec Iovis ira, nec ignis, Non ferrum poterit, nec edax abolere vetustas: neither time nor fire shall consume them. Yet in this fire they cannot escape: the Brasse will melt, the stones consume, pillars, pyramides, monuments, all shall flame; poems, orations, bookes shall perish: and of all secular glory there is an utter annihilation. Then, which is the Signior, and which the Servitor? Where is the difference betweene the Potentate, and the Pesant? What Coat, What Crest can discerne the Gentleman from the Mechanicke? Or the Prince from his Page? Or the Lord from the Lacquay? What priviledge shall the flourishing proud house of Austria have over the now deposed kings of India? Who can distinguish the slave that laboured in the Minerall, from that worse slave which adored the metall? Why may not the Tenant prove as rich a man, as his domineering Landlord? There is onely one Heraldry, that makes the difference of men, and that is the Grace of God. This makes us of the Blood royall, Partakers of the divine Nature, Heires of the Kingdome, bearing the Armes of Iesus Christ.
Then, farewell all honour, but what comes by adoption: but who can allow the glory of this world so long a continuance? As the names of good men outlive their bodies, so too often great men out-live their good names. A good name lives after death; Defunctus volito viva per or a virum: but the name of the wicked is rotten, before his carcase is cold. Psalm. 82.7. Yee shall die like men, and fall like one of the Princes. Not onely like Men, mortall: but like Princes, remarkable. The fall of a Prince fills the world with present horrour, and leaves it full of ominous discourse for the future. Herods glory lasted not long; it sate as proudly on his soule, as his royall clothes did on his backe: but he that would be numbred among the gods, is suddainly Act. 12.23. devoured of wormes. Those wormes were both Lictores, and Lectores; Executioners to punish Herod, and instructors to teach us the damnable danger of vaine glory. The Heavens are high and glorious, yet they are not proud; but rather full of humble benevolence, blessing the Earth with their light, beate, moisture, influence: Man is a peece of creeping Earth, and yet he hath lofty and aspiring thoughts. O that humility should descend to the earth, while pride exalts it selfe up to Heaven, and that the voice of a creature should dare say, Esa. 14.13. I will lift up my throne, above the starres of God: but the Lord hath vowed to give Pride a fall.
3 Seeing the Heavens are doomed to a Transition, let us lay up our treasure in a place that can never passe away. But first let us be sure, that we have a treasure worth laying up. No man esteemes his Brasse and Pewter for a treasure; base and abject metalls are no treasure: we may buy Raddish or Lettuce with a farthing token: a Horse, or a House, or a scarlet Cloke cannot be so purchased. If we have a treasure that is not good, wee had as good have no treasure. The Dogge would not change his bone for all the wealth of a kingdome; and the worldling will not part with his wealth, for the Kingdome of Heaven. When a childe comes into his fathers study, hee will rather chuse a painted paper, than the best booke of his Library. Among all the riches of God, none pleaseth the covetous so well as a little of the better-colour’d earth. If this could be a Treasure, yet it is laid up in the earth, and shall perish with the earth. There be some that lay up a worse treasure; even a multiplied hoord of sinnes: which is, as if a man should take his dung out of his stable, and curiously store it up in his Parlor. Rom. 2.5. They treasure up unto themselves wrath, against the day of wrath: as if they did pile up plagues, and curses, and torments, to be spent upon themselves. The former doe but Iob 38.22. treasure up Snow, which will melt, and flow away. But these treasure up fire, that will never be quenched. Psa. 33.7. God layeth up the deepe as in a treasurie: but these lay up treasure in the deepe. The former is a vaine treasure, and laid up in earth: the other is a cursed treasure, and laid up in hell: but that is a blessed treasure, which is laid up in Heaven. Life is brittle, wealth is fickle, honour a bubble, favour a riddle, and the smiles of fortune like the kisses of a whore, which flatter a man to his destruction. The Pontificians promise to enrich their Clients out of the Churches Treasurie; the superfluous merits of the Saints; wherof the Pope is the great Lord-Treasurer: but this treasure lies in some enchanted Castle, in the Faery land; no man could ever finde it. In the meane time, they picked the peoples purses of their materiall treasure, for the hope of this imaginary supererogatory exchange. Mat. 6.20. Christ doth not forbid all treasuring up in the earth; for 2 Cor. 12.14. Parents may lay up for their children: For your children; that is an allowed providence: but not for your selves; that were a grosse mis-confidence. The Divine Precepts are full of sweetnesse, and doe not take away our affections, but rectifie them. When the Disciples rejoyced, that in Christs Name they had cast out devils, he does not forbid them utterly to rejoyce: for it were uncomfortable to leave the soule without some libertie of rejoycing: but he directs their joy: Luk. 10.20. Rather rejoyce, that your Names are written in Heaven. To have power ouer devils, is not so much as to be adopted Saints. It is happy for subjects, when they can subdue their kings enemies: but it is happier to be made his heires. So in that other passion of feare: when he saies, Mat. 10.28. Feare not them which can kill the body, he does not preclude all accesse of naturall feare: but disposeth that feare towards another object, and teacheth an awefull dread of him, that can destroy both body and soule in hell. S. Paul does not take from the minde of men all desire of Glory, but instructs them to doe it without sinne; 2 Cor. 10.17. Let him that glorieth glory in the Lord. Christ, knowing our covetous dispositions, that wee will needs be hoording, doth not forbid us all manner of laying up, but gives us counsell, both for the choise of our treasure, and for the place where wee shall lay it up.
Our Treasure must be good and precious. Good workes are such a Treasure, fit for the reconditory of Heaven. Ostentation and hypocrisie are base money: If you give to my poore members, faith our glorious Head, and not Nomine meo, you shall misse of your reward. No wise man exposeth his Treasure to publike view, but laies it up in secret. Greg. Hom. 11. Evang. Depraedari desiderat, qui thesaurum publicè portat. Hezekiah ranne into an offensive weaknesse, when hee shewed his munition and treasure to the men of Babylon: 2 King. 20.17. for the men of Babylon did carry away both his treasure and munition. Why should wee tempt an enemie with a glorious bootie? He is a foolish traveller, that will shew his gold to a theefe. The affectation of the praises of men, is a theefe that will steale away the credite of our good workes with God. Mat. 6.4. Give thine Almes in secret, if thou desirest an open reward. Vnusquisque apudse reponat; 1 Cor. 16.2. Let every one lay in store by himselfe: The left hand must not bee made acquainted with the good deeds of the right. Two things belong to a good worke; Reward and Glory: the Reward God gives to men: the Glory he keepes to himselfe. If we rob him of the Glory, hee will rob us of the Reward. The Grace of God is the Fountaine from whence they must all be derived, and the Glory of God is the end to which they must all bee directed. To all thy gifts adde this, that thou give the Glory to God. The praise of men will follow, but let it not be followed: lest to gaine the shadow, we lose the substance. The hands of Christ are like Cant. 5.14. gold rings; whatsoever we deposite in them, is safe for ever. Many men have impoverished themselves of wealth and wit, to finde out the Philosophers stone; in a vaine hope to turne their base metals into gold. Onely the hand of Christ hath this vertue, to turne all our drosse into gold; our charitable contribution of things contemptible, into the precious Pearles and Iewels of Eternall Glory. Charitie gives a cup of water, and receives a vessell of wine. Every penny that it leaves in the hand of Christ, it findes multiplied to a thousand pound. Hypocriticall almes is but guilded brasse, meere slippe-coine; which will be nailed to the post of derision, and pronounced base in the day of examination. In vaine shall hee give his goods to men, that hath not first given himselfe to God. This was the Apostles commendation of his 2 Cor. 8.5. Macedonians, that First they did give their owne selves to the Lord, and then did Minister to the Saints. Charitie begins at home; be sure to doe thy selfe good: but it ends not at home; Gal. 6.•0. 2 Cor. 8. Doe good to all men. S. Paul doth often call Beneficence by the name of Grace; because it is then acceptable to God, when it is done by gracious men. Of all our workes let our aestimation Lev. 27.3. bee after the shekel of the Sanctuary. The treasure and the treasurie should be fitted together: we doe not cast our Iewels into the dust-basket, nor put rubbish into our Cabinet. Heaven is a holy place, and will not admit of a counterfeit treasure. Faith is a Iewell on earth, and will prove the beatificall vision in Heaven. Patience is a Iewell below, and will prove a Crowne above. Charitie is a Iewell here, and will become a Kingdome hereafter. If a man had a Iewell that would buy a Kingdome, how precious would he esteeme it? This treasure is laid up in those Heavens that shall never perish: and they shall never perish that have it.
The Elements shall melt with fervent heat.] It is a received Principle, that there be foure Elements; Fire, Aire, Water, and Earth. The Earth hath the lowest place in Nature, Water next, the Aire above the Water, and the Fire above the Aire. These be the foure Principles, whereof bodies are composed. If by the heavens we understand the aire, before; and the earth is expressely specified after; both which are Elements: why doth he mention the Elements, betweene them both? Is not this a superfluous circumstance? No, for neither were the Fire, or Water spoken of: which being left out, some would suppose them exempted from this universall dissolution. Besides; this sheweth the subtile and supernaturall force of this last fire, which shall melt the very Elements themselves; and worke upon that which in it owne Nature is not exustible. Not that these things shall be abolished, but purged. For seeing that heaven and earth shall remaine, it is not convenient that the aire should be consumed, which fils up the voide space betweene them. The mutable state of the world admitted no vacuitie, much lesse the state of perfection. And for the Element of fire; it is of the same nature with that Instrument, whereby God will purge all things. The Water is doubted of by some; because the Vision of S. Iohn sayes, Rev. 21.1. There was no more sea. But he speakes there by way of figure, concerning a metaphoricall sea: or if you take it literally, yet a totall destruction of the sea cannot be gathered from the sense of the words. Aug. Civit. Dei. lib. 20. cap. 16. The first heaven, and the first earth were passed away; not but that there remained still a heaven and earth, but quite changed from their first figure: so there is still a sea, but altered from what it was: no more shall it be troubled with stormes and tempests; no more shall it swell and rage with foaming surges: no more shall the furious windes cause an agitation of her angry billowes. A Saint hath the same affections that he had while hee was a sinner; but renewed, and otherwise disposed: provocations cannot stirre up his choler; nor troubles worke him to impatience. The Summe is this; These Elements shall suffer an accidentall mutation, not a finall annihilation: they shall remaine Quae erant, not Qualia erant.
The Lord himselfe tels us, that his Comming shall bee in the Clouds: and his holy Servant hath assured us, 1 Thes. 4.17. That we shall bee caught up in the Clouds, to meet the Lord in the aire. Howsoever some thinke, that afterward there shall bee no more Clouds; because they serve but to water the earth, and there is then no further use of their ministery: yet it is plaine, that we could not meet the Lord in the aire, if the aire were vanished. Most Interpreters thinke, and not improbably, that this great Assises shall be kept in the aire: but in what part of the aire is an unsearchable secret. When the Disciples inquired of the place, Luk. 17.37. Where, Lord? he did not shake them off as utterly unresolved; for hee gave them to understand, that in the Clouds he would come. But the Mystery which hee refuseth to breake unto them, is that particular part of the Aire, wherein hee will make his Appearance. Yet there bee some presumptuous Wizards, who (as if they had crept into the Counsell-Chamber of God, and over-heard his secrets) beare the world in hand, that they distinctly know the place: and can appoint the settling of his Throne over the Valley of Iehosaphat, neere Ierusalem, at the foot of the hill: from thence he was taken up into heaven, and thither he shall come downe from heaven to judge the earth. This Counseller is silent, and yet dust and ashes dares speake. Indeed the Lord hath threatned to summon all Nations into Ioel 3.2. The Valley of Iehoshaphat, and to plead with them there. But why should this be understood of a materiall valley, and not mystically, or metaphorically by way of allusion: because the Iudgement at last to be pronounced, shall resemble the Iudgement that was there executed, to the ruine of those reprobates, the incestuous generation of Lot, the Moabites and Ammonites? What is Iehoshaphat, if you interpret it, but the Iudgement of the Lord? And what is the valley, but the depth of that Iudgement? Into the which every heart of man shall bee brought, but the manner of it cannot bee brought into the heart of man. Two wayes is this last judgement alluded to the Valley of Iehoshaphat. One was the fresh memory of that famous deliverance, which the Lord had there wrought for his people. Another, the neere resemblance betweene that particular, and this generall Iudgement. Three great armies confederate against Iehoshaphat, and his Iudah: 2 Chro. 20.23. The Moabites, Ammonites, and Inhabitants of Mount Seir: God sets them together by the eares; Moab and Ammon kill up the men of Seir, and then fall upon one another, and cut their owne throats. The Lord was not long about it, then: and such a quicke dispatch of his enemies will he make now. All those potent adversaries came against Iudah, but they could not prevaile: So though the Moabitish Flesh, and the Ammonitish world, and the savage fiend of Seir, the devill, conspire against Gods Elect: yet all the shame and ruine shall returne upon their owne heads: and they shall bee tormented with their owne Consciences, as those complices fell by their owne swords. And as the same place was a Valley of Iudgement to them, ver. 26. which to the Iewes was a Valley of Blessing: so this last Day is a Day of sorrow to sinners, when they shall be sent away with a Goe ye cursed: but a Day of joy to the righteous, whose sweet invitation begins with a Come ye blessed.
The Elements may consenescere, but they shall not evanescere: they shall be melted, not destroyed. When we melt Silver or Gold, we intend not the rejecting, but the refining of it: we make it purer and better, we doe not make it nothing. Man consists of the foure Elements: his Breath is Aire, his Bloud and spirits Fire, his radicall Moisture Water, his Body Earth. Our blessed Saviour, by divers acts, did sanctifie them all. By his Breathing, Hee perfumed the Aire: by his mission of the holy Ghost in fiery Tongues, Hee hallowed the Fire: by undergoing his owne institution of Baptisme, He purified the Water: and lastly, by shedding his precious Bloud upon the ground, and reposing his blessed Body in the ground, He sanctified the Earth. All these were cursed by our sinnes, and are restored by his Grace and Merits. Let us not thinke, that those Elements, upon which He bestowed so much honour, shall perish for ever. Some have curiously observed, that as the times of many passages of Christ, were much about the Sixes: Hee came in the Sixt Age of the world, Hee was conceived in the Luk. 1.26. Sixt Moneth, He was transfigured the Matth. 17.1. Sixt day, He was crucified the Luk. 23.44. Sixt Houre: and ascended the Sixt Weeke after his Resurrection. So his Place and Position was usually in the middest, betweene others. By his eternall place in holy Trinity, Hee is the second Person, in the middest betweene the Father and the holy Ghost: He tooke flesh in Iudea, which is the middest of the earth: Hee wrought salvation in medio terrae, in the middest of the earth: At his birth Hee was placed in the Stable, as it is delivered to us, in the middest betweene the Oxe and the Asse: In the Temple they found Him sitting in medio Doctorum, Luk. 2.46. in the middest of the Doctors. Luk. 23.33. At his Crucifying, his place was in the middest, betweene two Male-actors: After his Resurrection, Hee stood in medio Discipulorum, Ioh. 20.19. in the middest of his Disciples: After his Ascension, He appeared to Iohn, in the Rev. 1.13. middest of the golden Candlestickes: And wheresoever we are gathered together in his Name, 1 Thes. 4.17. Hee will be in the middest of us. His next Comming as a Bridegroome, will be medi â noctê, Matth. 25.6. in the middest of the night: And his Appearing is likely to be in medio coeli, in the middest of Heaven, for we shall meet Him in the Aire. Still Christus reperitur in medio: the Philosopher would have a Fountaine in the middest of a Citie; as the heart is in the middest of the body; and Christ should be in the middest of the heart: vertue keepes in the middest; and the safest way is in the middest, betweene both extremes: So Christ is in deed a Mediator, in the middest, 1 Tim. 2.5. betweene God and man. This is the vertue to which we adhere, and this is the way by which wee must goe: Let compounded bodies bee reduced to their first Elements, and let the Elements themselves be molten; if Christ erect his Throne of Grace in the middest of our hearts, wee shall stand with comfort before his Throne of glory in the middest of the Heavens.
We have here offered unto us, a figure of our owne mortalitie: we are composed of the Elements: and if the Elements themselves shall melt with fervent heat, which are of so strong and valid a constitution; what shall become of our fraile and infirme bodies, weakned with so much corruption? As this aestuant heate is to the world; so is a fever to man: it does not onely melt him like snow, but even consume us to ashes. We study the art of health, and deliberate upon the choise of our diet, aire, exercise: yet all our diligence, all our curiositie cannot prevent a sicknesse: it summons us, seizes us, possesses us, and destroies us in an instant. Our care to preserve health, is a tedious and regular worke: but a disease keepes no method: when we have been long in hewing and polishing every stone, that goes to this building; a Cannon batters all in a minute; and levels it with the ground. Man is a little world, an abridgement of the great: and they correspond not onely in their parts, but in their productions and alterations. The world brings forth monsters, compiled and complicated of divers parents: and do not our bodies bring forth strange diseases, of divers causes, and divers kinds: for which we are so far from being provided of remedies, that we are scarce able to give them names? The world hath not so many noxious creatures, as we have venemous and infectious diseases, feeding and consuming diseases, intricate and intangled diseases, made up of severall ones. Such is our miserable abundance, such our beggarly riches. For the worlds earth-quakes, man hath his sudden shakings; for those lightnings, sudden flashes; for those thunders, sudden noises; for those eclypses, sudden obfuscations and darkning of his senses; for those blazing starres, sudden firy exhalations; for those rivers of bloud, sudden red waters. Is this the honor which man hath by being a litle world; that he hath enough in himselfe, to destroy and execute himselfe? To breed a sicknes, to assist the sicknesse, yea, even to antidate the sicknesse, and to make it more irremediable by sad apprehensions? As fire is made more vehement by sprinkling water upon the coales: so wee wrap up a hot Fever in cold melancholy: and, lest the Fever should not destroy fast enough without this contribution, we help to perfect the worke of our destruction, by joyning the artificiall sicknesse of our owne melancholy, to our naturall, our unnaturall Fever. We are not only incident to sicknes, but to the worst of sicknesses, continuall feare of it. And when this Fever comes, it melts us, it scatters us, it powres us out like water; so instantly, that it scarce leaves an answer for that question; How long were they sicke? yet our comfort is, that as the elements, though they be molten, are not taken from their being, but rather purged and restored to a better being: So our bodies made up of those elements, though death take them in peeces, breake them to clods, searce them to ashes, and examine every dust; doe but suffer a clensing; and there is such a quickning vertue in the divine Head of those scattered members, that it shall recollect those ashes, give life to that dust, redintegrate those bodies, and make them shine brighter than the Sunne and Starres in their clearest glory. When a rich garment, that is capable of washing, growes foule, we are content to rip it in peeces, to cut every stitch; and having thus sundred it, wee scowre it in some convenient lardars: and having so done, wee make it up againe, and thinke not scorne to weare it on high daies: Mans body is like a watch, consisting of many wheeles: his Heart is the principall wheele, his Braine another, his Liver a third: while these move rightly, that is, worke kindly, all the inferiour wheeles keepe their due courses: the eyes rowle, the hands operate, the feet walke, the joynts stirre, all execute their severall functions. Every day this watch is wound up, and kept in reparation, by meat, drinke, sleepe, and exercise. Often it gathers dust, and growes foule, and the hand of Physicke is employed to clense it. The string that unites these motions, and holds them in dependance, is the spirits. At last the string waxeth old, and breakes; and then all falls to peeces: this Body drops asunder, and here lies a pin, there a wheele; here one bone, there another. Yet after all this wofull dissolution, that exquisite workman which at first made it, will re-unite it, repolish it, put a new immortall Spring into it, and lay it up as a choise Organ of his Praise, in his owne glorious Kingdome.
And the earth, with the workes that are therein, shall be burnt up.] The Earth is the worlds Center; and so extremely violent shal the last fire be, as to reach from the roofe to the very Center. When a house is burnt downe, yet the floore remaines: in the destruction of Sodome, though the ground was cursed with a future barrennes, yet it was not reduced to nothing. This fire shall extend to the floore and pavement of that mighty Fabricke; to the permutation, not to the anihilation of it. The superficies of it shall be purged; and so deep as the corruption of sin entred, shall this flame reach. Indeed the workes that are on the Earth shall suffer more, even to a corruption, to a correption of them. The Earth shall be burnt; not as wee burne brickes, by exsiccation, condensing, and hardening of the Clay: nor as we burne Wood or Coales, by consuming them to Cinders and Ashes: but like metall in a Fornace, or gold in the crucible, which by separation of the drosse, is brought to perfect purenesse. Eccl. 1.4. The Earth abideth for ever, what it was, and where it was, but not such as it was: an Element, but not a sordid, and sinne-corrupted Element.
Two things the Romists have reserved from this universall conflagration: one part of the Earth, and one worke in the Earth. First, some of them, with Lib. de Pa•ad. cap. 18. Moses Barcepha; contend for the reparation and remansion of the terrestriall Paradise: whereof although they can shew no necessary use, but admit a vacuity into it: yet they thinke it no more absurd, than that the places of the lost Angels are not yet supplied in Heaven; or that diverse parts of the Earth are now without inhabitants. But Perer. li. 5. in Gen. qu. 5. Pererius and Abulens. in Gen. q. 120. Abulensis are against this opinion, and affirme that it shall perish in the last, if it did not in the former Inundation. Some have imagined a Paradise about the Moone, to deliver it from the water: others would have it still upon the Earth, and yet scape the fire. But as while the Philosophers disputed about the Summum Bonum; some stating it in this thing, and others in that; one seeking it here, and another there, and all looking for it where it was not: onely beleevers, by the Light of Grace, found it where it was; even in Iesus Christ. So what Paradise soever they strive for, or wheresoever they conceit it to be; let us seeke it where it is; even in the Kingdome of Heaven. Secondly, some exempt the materiall Crosse of Christ from the power of this Exustion. This priviledge, Ephrem, li. De vera poenit. ca. 4. Cyril. Cate. 13. Chrys. Hom. De Cru. & latro. li. 6. Carmin. Sibyllinor. (howsoever they would father it upon the Fathers, misunderstood; as Ephrem, Cyril, Chrysostome) is grounded upon a testimonie of one of the Sibylls: O lignum felix, in quo Deus ipse pependit: O happy wood, which shalt not perish, but rather be made glorious, in that day of retribution; Cùm renovata Dei facies ignita micabit. What is become of that Crosse? Is it not cut in many pieces? Would not those fragments, which they pretend to be peeces of the Crosse, make up many waine-loads. Must they all be recollected to the redintegration of the Crosse? First, they have multiplied it on earth, and now they would advance it into heaven. Doe they not honour it with this imaginary exaltation, onely to colour their abuse of it unto superstition? This they understand to be that Matth. 24.30. Signe of the Sonne of man: which hee shall advance in the heavens, when hee triumpheth over his enemies; as Conquerours use to erect Trophees and Monuments of their victories. What did Christ leave behinde him at his going away, with which the Papists cannot furnish him at his Comming againe? They have all his reliques; some in one Citie, and some in another: this covent growes rich with one relique, that Church or Monastery is proud of another: Amongst them they can appoint him where he shall have all his old furniture: in one place he shall finde his coat, in another his sandals: These they have in abundance, but they have lost Himselfe. We have not, ô most blessed Saviour, these thy reliques in our hands: but we desire to shew Thee Thy selfe in our hearts, and to find our names in thy Booke of Life.
If the earth with her workes shall be burnt, why doth S. Paul mention Rom. 8.19. the earnest Expectation of the Creature for this day? Doth any thing naturally hope for an evill to it selfe, or desire it owne destruction? Answ. 1. Wee must know, that the Apostle speakes there figuratively, by a Prosopopoeia; personating the Creatures and giving them affections, a kinde of sense and feeling of their miserie, and a longing desire to be delivered from it. Hee speakes of them groning, and grieving, as the Prophets did sometime bring in Vineam lamentantem, the Vineyard wailing, and the Mountaines lamenting. So that this is a patheticall and emphaticall description of the hope and desire of the Creatures. 2. They are Subject to vanitie, whereof they would faine bee rid: Not subject willingly, for this their vanitie is contra naturalem propensionem, against their naturall inclination: every thing by nature would decline corruption. Erasmus his conceit is too curious, who interpreteth this vanitie, Frustrationem, the disappointing of the hope of the Creature; whereby it faileth of that end at which it aimeth: As if it sought an Immortalitie, in multiplying one individuum, or one particular by another: but that end it misseth. Nor is this vanitie altogether corruption: for neither are the heavens of a corruptible nature; nor yet should the elements have beene incorruptible, though man had never sinned: seeing they were ordained to serve for the generation and procreation of things, Tolet. Annot. 15. which cannot be done without corruption. But by this vanitie we understand the fraile condition of the Creatures, much degenerated since the Creation, both in earth, the elements, and heaven. There is a Perfection, to which they long to be restored. The desire or expectation of the Creature is twofold: One naturall, as for the earth and trees to bring forth fruits: Another supernaturall; when a thing aspireth to an end above the naturall constitution: as our corruptible bodies, to the state of incorruption, at the Resurrection. So the Creatures expect when the Sonnes of God shall be revealed: not that they know who are the Sonnes of God, but they looke for their owne Restitution with the Sons of God. As for mans cause they were enthralled, so with mans happinesse they shall bee enlarged. The bodies of the Saints are made of the earth, and yet those bodies shall bee glorified in heaven: Corruptibles shall put on incorruption. Heaven is the highest part of the world, and earth the lowest: yet hee that dwelt in the highest heavens, came downe to the lowest earth; and carried up his Body which was framed of earth, even to the highest heavens. It is the honour of the earth, that part of her is glorified above; and a kinde of assurance that the rest shall be but purified below.
If the earth shall perish, why are we so taken with it? what folly can be greater than to adhere unto that which is destined to the fire? Thy habitation so pleaseth thee, that thou art loth to remove: it is but earth. Thy gold bewitcheth thee, and thou lovest the enchantment: it is but earth. A womans beautie tempteth thee, and with the wracke of Vertue thou steerest a course to that unhappy port: it is but earth; some clearer-coloured earth. If the foundation bee overturned, how should the roofe stand? The earth is doomed to burning, and can the superedification escape? The earth is but a turfe for man to trample on, Heaven is our home: Here wee have but Tents, there are the Mansions. No mortall Vitruvius can make an immortall habitation. Why doe wee build so gloriously, upon so inglorious and miserable a foundation? Pride begins such a palace, craft undertakes it, oppression raiseth it, prodigality finishes it, emptinesse inhabites it, vanitie derides it, and fire shall consume it. The superfluous builder is a theefe, if not to others, yet to himselfe: Aedificatio te capiat, was a Lacedemonian curse. Time hath demolished those great Pyramides, the wonders of the world: but the remainders of time shall not escape the fire. The filly Spider may teach us, who upon the least touch of her web flittes and removes. The world is a cobweb-world, to be swept downe with the broome of fire. If Codrus his house burne, hee even warmes his hands at the flame: the losse never troubles him, because in two dayes he can make himselfe another as good. But when the rich mans house is on fire, he cryes out on this Chest, on that Cabinet; and is distracted with impatience. Those Pilgrims to the heavenly Canaan, which esteeme the world but their Inne, care not to see it on fire, because it is none of their owne: but to those that have made it their habitation, such a fight will goe to their hearts. Let no home content us, but that which is out of the reach of the fire, even the Ioh. 14.2. Mansions prepared for us by Iesus Christ.
Though the house be on fire, be sure to save the Iewell; provide before hand that thy Soule may escape in this universall conflagration. When a mans house is burning, he would save many things; but he is content to lose them all, rather than lose himselfe. This was Saint Pauls motive, to keepe f A good Conscience at all times, and in all things; because he knew there should be a day of account. Indeed, if there were a Purgatory for future clensing, after this life, there might bee some hope: but hee that dares sinne upon the trust of a Purgatory shall finde the event of his hopes in Hell. Consider thy life, it is Peccandi tempus, the time of sinning; so thou makest it: Consider thy death; it is Poenitendi terminus, the date of repenting; so God makes it. Saint Augustine calls death Tempus deponendi, a time of deposing or putting off: We then put off our clothes, we put off our diseases, we put off our cares, we put off our bodies; but yet wee may faile of putting off our sinnes. They often goe with the Soule, when that parts from the body: but they shall meet with the body, when that meets with the Soule. Be sure to put off thy clothes ere thou goe to bed, to put off thy sins ere thou diest; or they will finde thee in the morning when thou risest. Thou that darest sell Gods holy Rites, without trouble to thee, wouldst thou be found in this day of flames with such a Conscience? Thou that settlest thy estate upon usurie, thy heart upon thy estate; wouldest thou be found at this day with such a Conscience? Thou that swearest away thy Grace, that lyest away thy Truth, that dissemblest away thy Faith, that drinkest away thy Estate, that whorest away thy Body, that playest away thy Soule; wouldest thou be presented before the Iudge with such a Conscience? 2 Tim. 2.18. Hymeneus and Philetus taught that The Resurrection was past already: and the conversations of too many are answerable to Their Doctrine; they so live, as if the day of account were over. Hee hath said, he will come: he is not yet come: O let us be so kinde to our selves, as to remember that Doomes-day is not past. There is a Day, an Evening, and a Morning: we shall finde no peace in the Evening of our death, nor in the Morning of our Resurrection, except wee provide for it in the Day of our life. O consider, with what a dismall cry, and ghastly looke, the evill Conscience shall behold the Iudge. Matth. 24.29. The Sunne shall be darkned: with what light shall the unrighteous shine? The Moone shall be turned into blood; it will bee too late then to turne good. The Starres shall fall from heaven; alas what hope then can Meteors have of rising up to heaven? The Powers of heaven shall be shaken; how shall the infirmities of the earth be able to stand? O then make safe the Iewell, lay up thy Soule in the bosome of Iesus Christ.
