2 Peter 3:10 (part 1 of 2)

WHen God made this lower World, hee did not intend it for perpetuitie; but subjected it to mutations, to alterations, to successions: albeit these changes may challenge sinne for the cause, which God did foresee but not predetermine: yet after his fore-sight of sinne, he did fore-appoint this mortalitie for punishment. One thing thrusts out another, this age hath dispossessed the former, and shall bee dispossessed by the future. Adam resignes to Noah, Abraham to David, the Iewes to the Babylonians, they to the Persians, the Persians to the Grecians, the Grecians to the Romanes. As it is in the generall, so in all particulars: How hath this little Iland beene usurped, mixed, metamorphosed, even to the utter extinction of her first natives? Kingdomes have their periods: yea, the earth it selfe, though it continually lie still, is not constant, because it continually changes, and melts in all parts thereof. Man is the noblest part of the earth, and hee so melts and moulders away, as if hee were a statue, not of earth, but of Snow. His owne envie melts him, and he growes leane with that: anothers beautie melts him, and he languisheth away in the fruitlesse contemplation of that. But a sicknesse so melts him, as if lead were molten in a fornace: and death so melts him, that it calcines him, and reduceth him to Atomes and ashes. In the Nature of sensitive things, Children out live their Parents; and so there is a successive propagation, one begets another. But in some things, the Mother outlives the Children: the fruites of the Earth die yeerely, the mother remaines. Wee are also her Children, and dayly doth she receive us backe into her wombe: One generation passeth, and another commeth; but the Earth abideth for ever. Eccl. 1.4. Yet this old gran-dame must have her day: there is a funerall fire ordained for her aged bones. In the World one thing devoures another; Fishes devoure Fishes, and Beasts devoure Beasts, yea and Men also devoure Men, till they even become Monsters. Wee feede upon the Creatures, the Wormes shall feede upon us, the Earth shall consume those Wormes, time shall waste the Earth: but the day of the Lord shall consume even time; this shall put an end to all. This Mountaine is bigger than that; this Cedar taller than that, this River longer than that; this Man nobler than that: yet all have one Earth for their foundation, and the same orbicular Heavens for their roofe: But the day of the Lord, shall make all even; in the which, the Heavens shall passe away roaring, the Elements vanish melting, the Earth with her works stand burning; Hell shall open shrieking, and all mankinde appeare trembling, at the Archangels Trumpet summoning, no lesse than all the World to this last universall audite.

But the day of the Lord shall come, &c.] You may easily apprehend the parts; they are generally but two; An Advent, and an Event: a comming, and what shall happen in that comming. First, The day of the Lord shall come as a theefe in the night: there is the Advent. Secondly, In which the heavens shall passe away, &c. there is the Event. The fruit of the particular branches will be gathered in their due places. In the Advent, we have two considerations; The matter; and the manner: What shall come, and How. First, the matter is, The day of the Lord shall come. Secondly, the manner is, Like a theefe in the night. To proceede in order.

The day of the Lord.] Every day is the Lords; all times are his: and hee hath so Act. 1.7. Put them in his owne Power, that hee hath not communicated that Power, not imparted the knowledge of that disposition, to any Creature. Psal. 74.16. The day is thine, O Lord, and the night is thine. But some dayes are the Lords, by a more speciall right, and peculiar interest: such as he hath culled out of the common heape of dayes, and set his owne royall stampe upon them. So the Sabbath is called The Lords day; sanctified, and set apart by his owne Ordinance, for his extraordinary worship. In no day must we forget him, on this day we must forget all things besides him. The same Sunne enlightens other dayes, equally with this: but it hath a better light, by the rising of a nobler Sunne; Iesus Christ doth enlighten it: this is the honour of it: For this cause, besides the morall Precept, it is called The Lords day. Shall we thinke that this Day of the Lord shall fall upon The Lords day? It was Christs Caution to the Iewes; Pray that your flight be not in the Winter, nor on the Sabbath day. We may not pray so, concerning this day of the Lord. But this we know, that as when God had made sixe day, and all the world in them, he deposited them in the hands of a Sabbath: so in this Day of the Lord, we that are in Christ, shall enter into that everlasting Sabbath, the glorious rest in Heaven. There be other dayes which God hath consecrated to himselfe, and commanded a solemne celebration of them to us, ennobled with the memory of some famous workes of his Mercie: Concerning every one of these we may say, Psal. 118. This is the day that the Lord hath made: He made it, he made us happy by it, and hee would have us remember him in it: This is also The day of the Lord. Potentates, and great Persons have their solemne dayes: Mat. 14.6. Herod had his Birthday: and Kings doe ceremoniously keepe their Coronation-dayes. The Lord will also have His day: once the people would have crowned him, but hee refused it: that was not his day. Now hee will receive that glorious Crowne at the hands of his Father; to the Comfort of his loyall Subjects, and the everlasting confusion of those rebels, Luk. 19.27. That would not have him raigne over them: this is The Lords day. The Saints have their dayes of Commemoration; and so wee call them; Saint Iohns day, Saint Peters day: Not that we dedicate these dayes to the worship of the Saints, like our superstitious adversaries: Wee honour the Saints more than they; Aug. Charitate, non servitute: with approbation, not adoration; with imitation of their lives, not invocation of their loves. On those dayes wee remember their Graces, and the Benefits God hath done to his Church by their service: so that they are more properly The Lords dayes, than theirs. But the Act. 17.31. Lord hath appointed a day, in the which hee will judge the world with righteousnesse: This is emphatically, The Lords day.

First, wee have our day, and then the Lord hath His. O Ierusalem, Luk. 19 42. that thou hadst knowne these things, in this thy day. The ungodly have their day, wherein they may doe their owne pleasures, as it were without the controlment of the supreme Iudge: The Adversaries of Christ had their day: when the State was incensed against Him, the Herodians came to tempt Him in the dangerous question of Tribute: that was their day. Mat. 22.15.23.34. The Sadduces oppose Him about the Resurrection: that was their day. The Scribe, expert in the Law, that thought himselfe learneder than Herodian, Sadducee, or Pharisee; tempts Him about the Great Commandement, that was his day. Iudas betrayed Him for mony; that was his day: the Iewes accuse Him for envy; that was their day: Pilate condemnes Him for policy, that was his day: Herode dismisseth Him in mockery: the Souldiers put Him to death with cruelty: this was their day. But shall not Christ have also his Day, to bee avenged for all these injuries? Must Hee suffer unjustly, and not be openly justified? Had Pilate a day for his Tribunall, and shall not the Maker and Iudge of Pilate and all the world, have a Day to sit on his Throne? The Kings of the earth have their yearely Audites, and shall not the King of Heaven and Earth have one Day for his? Shall luxurious men riot, the covetous oppresse the uncleane wallow in their turpitudes, swearers rend that dreadfull Name of God, and persecutors triumph in the sufferings of the innocent; and never be called to a Reckoning? Christ did put off divers Sutors; his kindred, his Mother, with this; Ioh. 7.6. & 2.4 My time is not yet come. Hee did put off his Opposers, his malicious Adversaries, with this; Ioh. 7.30. and 8.20. Mine houre is not yet come. But certainely, his time, his houre, his day will come. Those soules under the Altar cry with a loud voice. Rev. 6.11. How long, O Lord, holy, and true? And are answered in effect, My day is not yet come.

There is to every man a 2 Cor. 6.2. day of Salvation: we have not onely the first dayes, wherein God spake by his Prophets; but the last dayes, Heb. 1.2. Wherein he hath spoken to us by his Sonne. There be some that are of the night; a night which they have sup superinduced upon themselves: but wee are 1 Thes. 5.8. The Children of the day; and the Lord hath shined upon us in a full Noone. The Gospell is the day of Grace, whereof the Word and Sacraments are the bright Beames; In this day there any be some darke passages, to them that will entangle themselves in unnecessary disputations: But to our modest and humble Faith, the houres are light enough, and wee may easily goe our whole journey. That Faith and Repentance shall bring us to Salvation by Iesus Christ: this is a cleare light. That the Bread and Wine in the Sacrament, is not more assimulated to our body and bloud, than the Body and Bloud of Christ is communicated to us in that action: this is a cleare light. There may be darknesse in us, there is nothing but light in the Gospell. This is our day; let us walke in it? Hee that is Dan. 7.9. he ancient of dayes, will call us to an account for our dayes: Mat. 20.6. Why doe wee stand here idle all the day, that are not sure of more dayes to make up our Harvest? There are evill dayes, and still the latter the worse: Temporum posteriora, deteriora: therefore let us put on the Armour of God, Eph. 6.13. That we may be able to stand in the evill day. But there is a more fatall day than all the rest; Rev. 6.17. The great day of his wrath, in which no man shal be able to stand. This is our day, the next is the Lords: If we doe not in this day provide for that: that day shall condemne us for the losse of this. When the Sunne shines upon the Dyall, it reflects a shadow, whereby we observe how the day passeth: for although the Sunne, not the shaddow, makes the day; yet we know not how the day goes, by the Sunne, but by the shaddow. The Sonne of Mercie shining upon our prepared hearts, refl cts a shaddow, which is our pious conversation. The light of Grace makes the day: but the shadow, or answerable reflection of our holy Life, shewes us how the day goes with our selves; and in what forwardnesse we are toward the end of our journey, the consummation of our hopes, even the Salvation of our Soules.

This is The Lords day, because hee will then shew himselfe in a more glorious forme, than ever the world before saw, or apprehended him. The day of his birth was a day of humility Suscepta à majestate humilitas, à virtute infirmitas, ab aeternitate mortalitas. The day of his death was a day of sorrow; wee cannot thinke of it without remorse: the whole frame of nature did put on mourning garments, to write upon the Funerall of their Maker: His resurrection was a day of triumph indeed; but because not visible, therefore not credible to the sinfull and obstinate world. To us, it is a day of joy; and that traditionall report of the Sunnes dancing, upon every Easter day morning, had more than a literall sense in the Authors meaning. But the Iewes pretended the every; His Disciples stole him away. Him, what him alone. They were very favourable theeves, that would steale the body, and leave the clothes. I have heard of sacrilegious robbers, that haue violated the monuments of the dead; stealing the clothes when they have left the body behinde: But to filch the bodie, and refuse the booty, was a sencelesse kinde of robbery. No, the Disciples did not steale his Body out of the Sepulcher; but the Divell hath stollen the beleefe of his resurrection out of those Iewish hearts. The day of his Ascension was a glorious day, but seen onely by some few of his friends: His glory shall be the same at his Act. 1.11: comming downe, that it was at his going up: but the manifestation of his glory at his going up, was farre lesse than it shall be at his comming downe. But in this day of the Lord, Rev. 1.7. Every eye shall see him, even they that have pierced him through. In the plague of Egyptian darkenesse, there was light enough in Goshen: so in this terrible day of the Lord, when darkenesse shall overwhelme the reprobates, the faithfull shall be in a shining light; they shall shine as the light. To these, Esa. 30.26. The light of the Moone shall be as the light of the Sunne, and the light of the Sunne shall be sevenfold. To the other, Mat. 24.29. The Sunne shall bee darkened, and the Moone shall not give her light: Woe unto such that desire the day of the Lord: to what end is it for them? Amos 5.18. The day of the Lord is darkenesse and not light. How then shall they discerne one another? Saint Chrysostome examines the reason, how the rich man could see Lazarus in Abrahams bosome; whereas it is not said, that Lazarus saw the rich man in hell-torments: and he answeres it thus: A man that is in darkenesse, can easily see him that is in the light; but he that is in light, cannot so easily discerne him that is in darknesse: The light of Lazarus help’d Dives to the sight of him; but the darknes of Dives hindred Lazarus from the sight of him. But this day shall make all manifest: the damnable darkenes of the wicked shall be visible to the righteous: and the blessed glory of the righteous shal be apparant to the wicked. Every one shall see another, and all shall behold the Lord: they that have rejected him, to their horrour: they that have embraced him, to their everlasting comfort.

The Scripture abounds with expressions of the desperate fatality of this day. It is terrible, Ioel. 2.11. Zeph 2.3. 1 Cor. 5 5. 2 Cor. 1.14. Ph. 1.6. 2 Thess. 5.2. who can abide it? Happy is hee that is bid in the day of the Lords anger. Innumerable are the places, wherein it is called The day of the Lord Iesus. He was put to publike disgrace before, and insulted upon by Men and Divels: Now his goodnesse shall bee justified, and his glory published before Men and Angels. Then his attendants were poore fishers; now his Throne shall bee waited upon by celestiall spirits. Then he sprang from the low estate of his Mother; now he shall come in the glory of his Father. Then Herod had a fling at his Infancy, now hee shall tremble to behold his Majesty. Then they cried, Crucifie him, crucifie him: Now they shall say, Glorifie him, glorifie him. Then they laughed at his sorrowes, now they shall mourne at his sentence. Then they fastned him to the Crosse, now they shall doe homage to his Crowne. Then hee was a Lambe, bearing the sinnes of the world: now hee shall be a Iudge, condemning the world for sinne. Then he was made a sacrifice for all men; now all men shall be made a sacrifice to him; either to his mercy in their salvation, or to his justice in their perdition. Then he rode to Ierusalem upon a beast; his cloth of state being the peoples garments: now hee shall come riding on the wings of the winde, and the Cloudes shall bee the dust of his feete. Then a little Starre waited on his Nativity: now the Sunne and Moone shall bee drowned in his clarity. All honour shall bee swallowed up in the honour of Christ: As Philosophers say of heat; that it does not onely expell cold, but also avocate and call out a lesser heat: And light does not onely expell darkenesse, but also extinguish a lesser light: Or as Iohn the Baptist said of Christ; Iohn 3.30. He must increase, and I must decrease: So that Matth. 3. almost in every verse, there is a mention, there is a repetition of Iohn: Iohn baptized, Iohn preached, Iohn was thus clothed; untill Christs Baptisme is finished, and then there is no more mention of Iohn. all is now referred to Iesus, and Iesus hath extinguished Iohn. So now strong men have their powers, great men have their honours, Lords have their Commands, and Kings have their Crownes: But in this day they shall all resigne to this Almighty King: all honours shall bee swallowed up in the honour of Christ: all dignities, all titles shall bee concentred in him; as at the Creation, all that dispersed light was reduced to the one great luminary, and treasured up in the Sunne: all Crownes shall bee cast at his feete: and all Glory and Praise shall be given to his blessed Name for ever.

The Day of the Lord will come] For Iugdement, that is the intent of his Comming: yet it is his especiall Mercy, to give us warning. Hee might come, and never tell us so: yet He doth tell us of it, before He will come. 1 Pet. 4.7. The End of all things is at hand. What then? Therefore bee sober, and watch unto Praier. The Son of man comes in a Cloud, with Power and Glory: What of that? Luk. 21.34. Therefore take heed to your selves, that that Day may not come upon you unawares. Why doth Hee tell us that He will come, but that wee might be in readinesse to entertaine Him? In all Gods proceedings to Iudgement, whither particular, or this universall; Hee ever leaves a latitude betweene his sentence and execution: and that Interim is Sphaera activitatis, the Sphere in which our Repentance and his Mercy move, and direct themselves in a benigne aspect towards one another. God seldome comes to that dispatch; a word and a blow: but to a blow without a word, to an execution without a warning, never. Cain embrewes his hands in the bloud of his owne brother: God takes upon Him the quarrell; (and indeed it was for his sake that Abel suffred) Hee could have surprised and killed Cain: He does not, but onely gives him warning: Gen. 4.10. Why is thy Countenance cast downe? If thou doest not well, sinne lies at the Doore: you may proceed, but if you will needs, you will lose by it at last. Saul persecutes Christians; Christ meets upon the way, speakes to him, strikes him to the ground tels him vocally, and tels him actually; that he had undertaken an ill businesse in opposing Him. This which God did to Saul, converts him: That which He did to Cain, wrought not upon him: but still God went his owne way in both; to speake before He strikes, to lighten before Hee thunders, to warne before Hee wounds. Antequam vulneremur, Origen monemur. In the case of Corah, God may seeme to proceed apace towards execution, yet not without divers Reprieves. First, when Moses heard of their rebellious chalenge, hee fals not upon them, but Numb. 16.4. fals upon his face before God for them; hee laments and deprecates in their behalfe. Secondly, Hee cals them to a faire Triall, the next day: To morrow the Lord will shew who are his, vers. 5. and who are holy: Take your Censors, and come, that it may bee examined: and they said, We will not come. Thirdly, it is likely that Moses cited them againe, vers. 14. because againe they peremptorily replied; Wee will not come. Fourthly, upon this contumacy, vers. 21. God resolves to consume them in a moment: but Moses and Aaron redouble their petitions; O God, shall one man sinne, vers. 25. and wilt thou be wrath with the whole Congregation? Fifthly, Moses went up to them againe, and the Elders of Israel followed; vers. 25. and yet all prevailed not. Sixthly, Hee makes a separation of the people from them, Depart from the Tents of these wicked men: hoping that the sight of the rest running from them, as from monsters, would have made their hearts mis-give them. Seventhly, when they still impudently persisted to out-face Gods vengeance, Moses comes to pronounce the Sentence; vers. 20. These men shall not die a common death. Eighthly, then after, and yet not instantly after this Iudgement, Execution followeth; The earth opened and swallowed them. But God begun not there: God opened his mouth, and Moses his, and Aaron his, and the Elders theirs, before the Earth opened hers. All concludes in this; Gods Iudgements and Executions are not suddaine, there is alwaies roome for Repentance and Mercy: but his Iudgements and Executions are certaine, there is no roome for Presumption or Security. The day of the Lord will come; it is certaine: and like a Theefe in the night; it is suddaine: yet Hee that gives us this premonition, intends our holy preparation, that wee may finde Mercy in that great Day of Retribution.

Will come.] As no importunity can delay it, no secrecy avoid it, no policy corrupt it, so nothing but sanctification can give us comfort in it. The suddaine beating up of a drumme may make a very valiant Souldier startle; August. and the sounding of the last Trumpe may strike a feare into the holiest body, that wakens out of his grave. It is some terrour for a man to be awakened, when the whole world is on fire about his eares: though himselfe bee Titio ereptus, a brand snatched out of the fire. Heb. 10.31. It is a fearefull thing to fall into the hands of the living God: Which words a Christian considering, wished that he might fall into the hands of a dead God. He meant into the hands of that Person, who is both God and Man: who even whilst he was a dead man, was still a living God. In death, his hands were nailed to the Crosse: then he could not strike us for our sinnes, because then he was stricken for our sinnes. As that prisoner appealed from Philip, to Philip: so let us appeale from Christ as he is a living Iudge, to Christ as he was our dying Saviour: that for his sake who once died for us, this living God may for ever acquite us. But it is a sweet thing, when a man hath slept quietly all night, to be waked in the morning with musicke. The body that hath slept in Christ, shall be called up with Heavenly musicke at the resurrection: The testimony of our owne conscience, the Halleluiahs of Saints, the Quire of Angells, yea the very sound of that Trumpet shall consent in this Antheme: And that which makes up the perfect harmonie, as the voice of Christ himselfe; Come ye blessed.

Like a theefe in the night.] Similitudes may illustrate the things which are to be proved; but they do not justifie the things from which they are borrowd. Christs comming like a theefe, is no warrant for theeves; no more than his cōparison taken from piping and dauncing, is a licence for fidlers and dauncers. That God, who would be understood literally, according to the direct and plaine sense of all that he saith; doth not refuse also to speake by figures and metaphores. The institution of his whole worship in the old law, was a continuall allegory: types and figures overspread all, and figures flowed into figures, and powred themselves out into farther figures. Circumcision carried a figure of Baptisme, and Baptisme carries a figure of that purity, which wee shall have in the perfection of glory. Nor did he onely speake in this language by his Prophets, but even by his Sonne too. He calls himselfe a Way, and a Light, and a Gate, and a Vine, and Bread, oftner than the Sonne of God, or the Sonne of Man. But that hee should liken himselfe to a Theefe, is the wonder. Hee is the judge of theeves, and will that Iudge assume any likenesse unto theeves? Theeves will breake into houses, violently take away other mens goods, and bloodily cut their throates: and will the righteous Iudge of all doe so? It was he that cut out mens severall proprieties; for there can bee no Theft, where is no distinction of ownages. And the state which had once allowed a community, found by experience quickly, that the common Asse was never well sadled; and therefore were driven to make lawes for the designation of every ones proper portion: — Meus est his ager, ille tuus. Yea, the chiefe Lord of all, hath beene no lesse carefull of fencing in his Tenants possessions, than in the maintenance of his owne homage and service: For he wrote with the selfe same hand: Thou shalt not steale, with which he wrote, Thou shalt have none other Gods but me. He well knew the corrupt inclinations of men, and their itching desires to finger the peculiars of others: In whose judgement, Stollen waters are sweet: Aliena nobis, nostra plus alijs placent: And therefore made a law against it: and will hee now so seeme to favour it, as to admit a likenesse to it? I might answere, that Nullum simile est idem. No like is the same: Similitude, and Identitie are different things: He that is like me, is not my selfe. When Christ resembles himselfe by some good thing, that good thing he calls himselfe. Bread is good; therefore hee does not say, I am like to Bread, but I am Bread. The light is good, therefore he does not say, I am like unto light, but I am the Light. But when hee fetcheth a comparison from some questionable or unwarrantable things, he sets it downe with a Sicut: which imports a Similitude, not a Truth. A snare is hurtfull; therefore his comming is not called a snare, but Tanquam laqueus, Luk 21.35. As a snare. A theefe is mischievous; therefore it is not called a theefe, but Sicut fur, like a theefe. Christ cannot bee a theefe, for what is there for him to steale? The principall right of all things he hath reserved to himselfe: therefore the Israelites did not properly robbe the Egyptians? Deo ministerium praebuerunt. God himselfe by a speciall commission, intitled them thereunto. Our goods are his, our bodies are his, our soules are his, the world is his; what then can he steale? yet I will tell you what he hath stollen, and wherein he hath played the theefe: (let no profane misinterpreter abuse it to his diminution or dishonour, which I intend to the glory of his goodnesse.) Hee entred into the house of mortality, and stole from us our sinnes: He entred into the house of the grave, and stole from us the sting of death: He broke open the gates of Hell, and stole from us damnation: Of these sorrowes Hee hath robbed us, and with these robberies Hee was clothed, even when hee hung naked upon the Crosse: If this bee theft, it is so gratious a one, as merits praise to his holy Name for evermore.

Like a theefe.] The master begunne this comparison of himselfe, Mat. 24.43. 1 Thess. 5.2. Rev. 3.3. and the servants made bold to follow it; Paul, Iohn and Peter, all concurre in the same similitude. But why like a theefe? that is now our Quaere. First, for the uncertainty of his comming. Secondly, for the suddennesse of that uncertainty. Thirdly, for the perill of that suddennesse. Fourthly, for the Fatality of that perill. Fifthly, For the Irremediablenesse of that Fatality.

1 For the uncertaine time of his comming, he is Tanquam fur insidians. Luk. 12.39. The theefe doth not tell the master of the house what time he will come, for then he would prevent him, and fortifie himselfe against his most subtile violence. Nor does the Lord impart to his Creatures, upon what day his Day shall fall. He hath not said when he will come, though hee hath given us some precedent signes before the accomplishment whereof hee will not come. Things quaerible, are in the number of things cognoscible. Why doe we study that, which is impossible to learne? what kinde of fruite soever that was, for which our first Parents sold their Birth-right in Paradise, I am sure there was not juyce enough in it to quench that hote thirst of forbidden knowledge, which they derived to their posterity. But that which like a corne of Salt, onely distempered Adams taste, is now become a salt hydopricall phlegme in mankinde: that the more they doe know, the more they desire; and the admitting them to one secret, doth but hearten them on to seeke for another. Wee all take after our Grandmother, and setting our shoulders to the very Portall of GODS privie Chamber, inn we must, and be made acquainted with the Divine Counsell. The eye so itcheth after variety of sights, and the eare of sounds, that neither the one Eccl. 1.8. Is satisfied with seeing, nor the other with hearing.

There bee two questions that much trouble such scrupulous braines: where and when, this judgement shall be. For the former; Christ speakes of a separation that should bee made, betweene two in one bed, and two in one field, and two at one Mill; whereof the one shall be received, the other refused: unto this the Disciples presently reply, Luk. 17.37. Where Lord? Some conceive two demands in that one word, because ποῦ is taken in a twofold sense; which they gather from a verse of Sophocles, [ποῦ βαῖνε, καὶ ποῦ στάθι], &c. Importing both a place, where, and the motion to a place, whither. Where shall this place of separation bee, and whither shall the separated passe? To what Barre shall they repaire for their doome, and whither shall that doome send them? Christ accordingly answeres them with a wheresoever, and a thither; including both locum and terminum. Duo quarentibus unum respondet: He gives them but one answere to their two questions; but such a one, as the Perspectives speake of a Sun-beame, which is made of two beames gathered into one: or as we say of two friends, which are one in heart, but two in strength. This answere may resolve them so farre as their salvation needed, though not so fully as their humours desired. There can be no question moved by a creature, to which God is not able to make a sufficient answere. The Epitomizer of tenne into two, the Digester of so large a volume, as the whole Law, into so briefe a summe as Love; will bee as plentifull in his satisfaction, as flesh and blood can be in a question. Doe they aske, where they shall appeare? Hee answeres, wheresoever he shall keepe his Court. Doe they demand whither they shall be translated? Hee answeres, whither hee hath gone before to prepare the place. For the other, Christ spake of Ierusalems downefall, and the Disciples came unto him privately: It was their boldnesse to presse upon him; but that it was done privately, argued some modesty: Mat. 24.3. Tell us, when shall these things bee? What shall be the signe of thy comming, and of the end of the world? Our Saviour, to leave a testimony, how ill he liked of this curiosity; gives them no directer than an indefinite answere: And as before hee would not vouchsafe their where, so much as a Here, or There; but did put it by as a demand not pleasing to him, with an unresolving wheresoever: So here he doth not satisfie their when, with a Now, or Then: but cleane discourageth such an inquiry; telling them, that though they were Apostles, and had the priviledge to bee made acquainted with the heavenly mysteries; yet they must not looke to know that which is concealed from the very Mark. 13.32. Angels. The Divine nature, as it is mercy it selfe, so it is wisedome it selfe. It is his mercy to impart unto us, that one day we shall be brought to judgement: but when this Day shall bee, and where this judgement, his wisedome thought good to conceale. To be sure he will come, may well deterre us from offending: but to be sure when hee will come, would breed a security of sinne upon the vaine hope of timely repenting.

In other things, knowledge is better than ignorance: but in this, ignorance is better than knowledge. Scholers that know their master will not returne before such a day, are apt to play the truants: but when they are not sure where he is, nor how soone he will come, feare will make them ply their bookes. Give over thy proud inquiry, that may doe thee hurt: fall to penitent humility, this will doe thee good. Expect him every day, that may come any day. Let Gods secret alone, it is too high for thee: but be wise, and looke unto the secret withwithin thee. Thou hast a secret pride, roote up that: thou hast a secret infidelity, cast out that. Let it not be our businesse, to know where or when we shall be judged: but how we may answer for our selves when the judgement comes. Did wee know the place and time, wee could not hide our selves; appeare we must. But knowing what will bee said against us, and what may bee pleaded for us, and how well the cause shall goe with us, we rest in peace. If were bound over to answere for some pretended crime, at a humane barre, would wee spend the time in hearkening after the day of Session, or place of execution? Were it not more wisedome, to furnish our selves with friends and answeres for that triall? There be three questions, Vbi, Quando, Quomodo? Where, when and how? The two former, in this argument, be idle: the last is necessary. When shall this Audite come, and where shall it bee kept? be quaeres of foolish presumption. But how, how shall we provide for our account at that Audite? this is the quare of wise devotion. Luk. 10.42. Martha thought, when she had set herselfe on worke, that Christ would pay her her wages, or at least con her thankes: she puts herselfe to many troubles, and lookes for many commendations. But expecting the reward of her cookery, all the fat was in the fire: Maries breake-fast was better than Martha’s dinner. Let us minde that one thing which is necessary; and then one of the Three which beare Witnesse in Heaven, shall give us the testimony of so much discretion, as to chuse that good part, which shall never be taken from us. Thy impertinent questions like thy Saviour as ill, as that of Peters did, What should become of Iohn? Propose it when thou list, thou shalt heare the same Reply: Busi-body, Ioh. 21.22. What is that to thee? Follow thou me. This is the uncertainty.

2. As it is uncertaine for the time, so it is suddaine for the event. The Theefe does not give a signall to the house, before his irruption: he is entred as soone as he is heard: his violence and his noise come both in an instant. The Trumpet shall sound, the Iudge shall appeare, the Graves shall open, the Dead shall rise, the Sentence shall be given, the World shall burne; all in an instant. The Summons, and the Sentence, though they differ in Order and Number, shall seeme in regard of Time but one Act. Saint Augustine spends two Chapters in the Manifestation of this suddaine Proceeding. The great Buildings of Nature, Civit. Dei. Lib. 20. cap. 14. & 16. Iosh. 6.10. like the wals of Iericho, shall fall together. If onely one breach had been made in that Citie, as it uses in other sieges, for the entrance of the enemy: perhaps new supplies might have made it up by their forces; or for want of materials, they might have stopp’d it with slaughtered carcases: But now, that at once Iericho is turned into a plaine field, every Israelite without resistance might run to the next booty: and the throtes of their enemies seemed to invite their swords, to a dispatch. Such a destitution of succour, and denudation of all refuge, shall, in this Day, befall the Reprobates, that they shall have neither meanes nor will to resist. Some men are sicke of a preposterous desire of the last Day: and would have the Lord come presently. Others are lethargiz’d with a drousie dulnesse: and they care not how long it be ere He comes. As the Apostle hath (in the former Verse) corrected the fervour of the one, by commending the divine Patience: so here He rowseth the torpour of the other, by threatning the last Daies Suddennesse. These require the spurre, as the former need a bridle: both are instructed, directed, here.

When Christ compared his second Comming in Fire, to that former Iudgment Luk. 27.27. of Water: Did He meane there should be the same pauses and degrees in burning this World, that there were in drowning that? Shall this hot element be as long a dispatching the one, as that cold element was a destroying the other? No, the similitude intends not the same speed of execution, but the same dulnesse of expectation: the World shall bee as secure now, as it was then. When the Apostle saies, 1 Thes. 5.3. It shall come upon them, as travell upon a woman with childe: Does Hee meane, with the same proportion of haste? A woman reckons out her nine moneths, and can guesse neare to the day of her comming; and saies, that at such a time she lookes her: but can wee by any probable conjecture, aime at the Day of the Lord? Saint Pauls purpose there, is not so much to expresse the Suddennesse, as the inevitablenesse: Sinfull men can no more escape their triall, than pregnant women can avoid their travell. The Day of doome shall come as unavoidably, but more unexpectedly. When they least looke for it, then they shall finde it; or rather; it shall finde them. 1 Thes. 5.3. When they say, Peace, Peace and safety; Then shall they be overtaken with this extremity. As the Theefe watcheth his advantages, and when hee findes the weakest prevention, gives the fiercest invasion. If the Master be a-sleepe, the Servants abroad, the doores unbarred, or the house unguarded; there is the opportunity hee lookes for. When the Servants of man, his Affections bee wandring abroad: when his Senses, his Centinels, bee stupefied: when the Mistresse, Conscience, is commanded silence: when the Master, Reason, is rock’d into a slumber: and especially above all the rest, when Religion is put out of her lodging: then is the season of this wofull surprisall. Christ hath not promised sinners, to come at their fittest times: this Day of the Lord commonly takes them at the worst. Cain was not in so bad a case when he was borne of his mother, as after he had murdered his brother. Saul was pious, and begunne his raigne with God: but his proceeding was bloudy; and the farther hee went, the worse he was; till even the night before hee died, hee consulted with a Witch, and ended his raigne with the Divell. Absalom begun with Pride, but shut up his life with Treason. Pharaoh was never good: but never so bad as at his drowning. Iudas had been long a secret Robber; then he became a prodigious Traitor, and yet his Catastrophe must bee in a desperate selfe murder. Such is the fatall suddennesse of this day, to come upon men at their worst. The greatest sinner hath some remission, some intermission of his wickednesse: Luk. 8.29. Oftentimes Satan caught the Demoniacke: Oft-times Hee caught him; therefore sometimes, in that violence, he caught him not. He had his lightsome respites; not ever tortured, not ever furious: betwixt whiles hee might looke soberly, talke sensibly, move regularly. It is a wofull comfort, that wee are not alwaies sinning. If God were bound to accommodate his respect of times to those Lucida intervalla, those distances and short vacations of sinne, there were hope; but who can looke that the Divine Iustice should waite upon the pleasure of man? I am going to sinne, Lord spare me now: there is mickle pleasure or benefit in it, call me not away at this time: Whose voice is this? A mortall mans? Presumptuous Foole, in vaine dost thou appoint God, for God can disappoint thee. At all times feare to sinne, if ever thou fearest to die to die thy sinne. Thou canst not bee so quicke to dispatch thy sinne, as God can bee to dispatch thy soule. The Theefe watches all night to breake in: if at any houre thou take liberty to sleepe, hee will hardly be kept out. Ephes. 4.27. Give no place to the Devill. What, not in Youth? Not in the heat of bloud? Not in the height of pleasure? No. Give no place, at no time. Eccles. 3.3. There is a time for all things: A time to be burne, and a time to die: a time to kill, and a time to heale: a time to weepe, and a time to laugh: a time to get, and a time to lose: a time to rent, and a time to sowe: a time to love, and a time to hate: a time of warre, and a time of peace: a time to sigh, and a time to sing: a time to marry, and a time to bury: But of all these times, and many moe, There is no time to sinne. Of all the exhibitions and allowances of God to man, Hee hath allowed no time for sinne. Wee commonly kill our beasts, when they are at the fattest: but Iudgement surprizeth sinners, when they are at the leanest; in that point of their life, which is of the remotest distance from goodnesse.

Observ. God is slow to wrath untill the last Day, and then He is quickest. Before, if we pray, He heares us: if wee repent, He pardons us: when wee amend our life, He saves us. But in this Day of the Lord, there is no time for petition, no place for conversion, no meanes of pacification. If we have done these things before, well and good; our salvation is sure: but if they bee then to doe, they are debarred for ever. As the lightning flasheth from one part of Heaven to the other, Luk. 17.24. So shall the Sonne of man be in his Day. Hee compares his Comming to the Lightening. First, for Manifestation; His first Comming was privately; some few acknowledged Him: this last shall bee publike and apparent; Every eye shall see Him. Secondly, for terror, the Sunne gives a greater light than the Lightning; but Hee is welcome to all eyes, as the Messenger of joy, health, and comfort: He does not affright us with his Beames, but cherish us with his Influence. But the Lightening is terrible, and makes the stoutest heart to shudder, especially when it is accompanied with Thunder. Christs first Comming was in soft silence, like the Psalm. 72.6. gentle Deaw upon the tender Grasse: but his second Comming will be with a dreadfull noise; the Trumpet sounding, the Earth trembling, the Seas roaring, the Angels showting, the Wicked shrieking, and the Iudge thundring out his finall Sentence. Exod. 19. For that extraordinary terrour at the Law-giving, was a little image of this which shall bee at the Law-requiring. Thirdly, especially for the Suddennesse: the Sunne compasseth the world by degrees; He keepes a certaine course, his wonted motion: But the Lightening, though it move through the Aire, does not appeare successively, or by graduall approaches: but suddenly, instantly, it flies from East to West, and darts through the Hemisphere, wherein it is begotten. So sudden will the Lord be in his Day: Time was when Hee stayed for the first World an hundred and twenty yeares; He stayed for a rebellious nation forty yeares; He stayed for a dissolute City forty daies: now He will not tarry a Yeare, a Weeke, a Day, an Houre, a Minute for any man. He was not wont to come in Whirlewindes, or Earthquakes; or violent fires, but 1 King. 19.12. in a still Voice, in a soft and gentle Aire. Now, no imagination of man can conceive the Terrour, the suddenesse of his Appearance. He will make his Processe and his Decree; his Citation and his Iudgement, but one Act: His Summons, his Battell, his Victory, and his Triumph, shall seeme all but one thing. Hee will lead sinners captive, and deliver them captive to Hell, as soone as He hath decla- them to bee Enemies; and cut them off, as it were, without drawing his Sword out of the scabberd. A Disease may make haste, and Death bee quicke of dispatch, in dissolving the body: But much more haste, and quicker dispatch, will God use, in recollecting and reuniting the dust of that body at the Resurrection? Then shall wee all heare his Angels proclaime the Surgite mortui, Rise yee dead: Though we be dead, we shall heare the Voice: the sound of the Voice, and the working of the Voice shall be all one; and all shall rise in a lesse minute there, than any one dies here.

They vainely flatter themselves, Applicat. that thinke it is enough to doe good sometimes: if they serve God on the Sabbath, it is no matter for all the Weeke. As if they might not die upon a worky-day; as if God were bound to wait their times; till the good mood came on them. Those Levites, Numb. 16. which once drew their swords, for God and Moses, against the Idolaters; and for that deed, won both praise and blessing; become afterward the forwardest in a rebellion against them. There is no assurance of a man for one act: whom one sinne cannot fasten upon, another may. Yea, the same sinne may finde a repulse one while, from the same hand, which another time gives it entertainment: and that yeelding loseth all the thankes of the former resistance. It is no praise to have done once well, unlesse we continue. If a man turne from his righteousnesse, all that righteousnesse shall be forgotten: Ezek. 18.24. and in the sinne that he hath sinned, hee shall die. If we knew what houre the Lord would come, How easie were it, thinke we, to repent the houre before? If we were sure what day, what moneth, what yeare; wee would not grudge that daies, that moneths, that yeares preparation. Yet, now we wantonize, as if the Iudge were an hundred leagues off; Who, it may be, Iam. 5.9. stands at the very doore. Suppose a man hath seven breaches or holes in his house, and knowes the Theefe will enter at one of them: Will hee guard this, and not that? Will he watch at sixe of them, and neglect the seventh? Thou hast seven daies in the weeke, like so may in-lets for this Iudgement: Wilt thou watch onely on the Sabbath, the seventh day, and leave the other sixe unregarded? Or be sober one day, and drunke another? Then, at the breach which thou mindest not, on the day thou least suspectest, this great Iudge will come upon thee, and then, What shall become of thee? Thy particular Iudgement followes immediately upon thy death: Is there no Impostume, no Apoplexy within thee? No Sword, no Instrument within thee? No Thunder, no Iudgement above thee? No Element, no Fiend under thee, that may in a moment dispatch thee? Gods Doore is ever open to let in our Repentance, and our Doore is ever open to let in his Vengeance: The only way to escape future malediction, is by present humiliation: now let us be converted, and we are sure to be saved.

3. The perill by this Suddennesse is very dreadfull, for our everlasting state lies upon it. Thou hast a triall at the Law, and knowest a famous and gracious Advocate, who if hee undertake thy cause, will carry it for thee: but flattering thy selfe that the day of hearing is farre off, thou forbearest to acquaint him with it, or sollicite his councell and assistance: In the meane time, the king preferres this Advocate to the place of a Iudge. The Session is come, and then thou humbly prostratest thy selfe before him, beseeching him to favour thy cause. But he answereth, That request comes too late, I am not now an Advocate to plead for my Clients, but a Iudge to give righteous Sentence. If we sinne, we may Now have an Advocate, 1 Ioh. 2.1. to propitiate for vs: But in this last Assises, at the tryall of all the world, that Advocate is turned into a Iudge: and then they that have not formerly wonne him to be their Mediator, can have small hope to finde him their Saviour. The theefe does not breake into the house, and so come his way, forbearing to touch the goods: no, but all that is precious and portable becomes his bootie, and hee lookes for thankes if hee spare the blood of the familie. If this impartiall day did onely ransacke our Wardrobes, empty our Chests and Cabinets, fire our cottages, strip our bodies of their garments, or our soules of our bodies, and doe us no more harme; it were very favourable: Death it selfe, which is but Gods Vnder-sheriffe, can doe all this, by vertue of his Office and Commission: Let but the Soule escape, suffer not that to bleed or perish, and sacilis Iactura, all were but an easie losse. But this theefe (like the Robbers in some Countries, who breake both the Commandements together) never steales without killing. When a Passenger complained to a Captaine, that some of his souldiers had robbed him of all that he had: the Captaine asked him, Whether he had those clothes on when they robbed him: Hee answered, Yes: Then saies the Captaine, I am sure they are none of my Souldiers that did it: for had they beene mine, they would not have left you a ragge to your backe. This day shall robbe the wicked of all that ever they had, and leave them not so much as a rag to cover their shamefull nakednesse. They shall speed worse, than hee did among those high-way cutters: Luk. 10.30. for they shall be left robbed, and naked, and wounded, and more than halfe dead: without hope of any charitable Samaritane, to cure or comfort them. The Danite-theeves stole away Micha’s idols: the goods of a worldling are his gods: Ye have taken away my gods, and what have I more to lose? What more? Iudg. 18.24. Yes, thou mistaken Idolater, This Theefe shall steale away thy selfe: as Micha was there threatned; Let not thy voice be heard, lest they take away thy Life with thy gods. I might paralell the the every of those Danites, with the avarice of many Christians: As those Images appeared to those Israelites, so doe riches to these worldlings; in their Imagination no lesse than gods: and they will have them, though they steale them. A superstitious Levite was the Priest to those, a covetous heart is the Priest to these. There, because the gods without the Priest could doe them lesse service, than the Priest without the gods, therefore they steale the Priest with the gods. Here, the Priest steales the gods, and the gods steale the Priest: the heart purloineth riches, and those riches filch the heart; and both are contented with this mutuall the every. O miserable Danites, that could esteeme that a God, which might be stollen: that could looke for protection from that, which could not keepe it selfe from stealing: which was wonne by their theft, not by their devotion! Could they worship those idols more devoutely, than Micha that made them? If they could not protect their Maker from robberie, how shall they protect their theeves? yet their superstition hath made them mad upon a god, and have him they must, by what meanes they care not; though they offend the true God, by stealing a false. Riches are the gods of the world, mens hearts are the theeves; they make no Conscience from whom they steale them, so they have them. Still one theefe robbes another, till this last Theefe comes, and he robbes all of all. The oppressor robbes the innocent, the Lawyer robbes the oppressor, the Tyrant robbes the Lawyer, death robbes the tyrant, and the Day of Iudgement robs death: But if a traveller, having store of money about him, and one Iewell more worth than all the rest, suspect to be set upon and rifled by theeves; hee will so surely and secretly convey his Iewell, that they shall never finde it: Our Soule is our Iewell, and this subtle Theefe will narrowly examine us: Let him take all, so we may save our Iewell; and there is but one way to save it, that is, by hiding it in the wounded side of Iesus Christ.

4. The Fatalitie of this perill may yet be further amplified, by the insulting tyrannie of this implacable Theefe. It does not onely robbe sinners of all, and that suddenly; but domineeres over them with painefull derision. Prov. 1.26. It mockes their feare, and laughs at their destruction. Bloudy theeves, when they are once Masters of the house, first binde the familie, then put them to rackes and tortures, to force out a Confession of their concealed treasure: to all this agonie, they aide scorne and contempt, which is a racke upon the racke, a mercielesse aggravation of their torments. The Day of the Lord doth not onely binde reprobates with the everlasting chaines of darkenesse, that they cannot Mat. 22.13. move hand not foot: but delivers them over to those tormentors, who will never cease torturing of them, till they have both confessed and Mat. 18.34. payed the uttermost penny. Their temporall goods they call their moveables; their bodies are also their moveables; and both these may be removed without prejudice to their soules. When theeves in the night had robbed a Merchants house of some bedding and such houshold-stuffe; he hearing the noise, rose and went downe, and finding them but new gone, followed to see what would become of his goods: the theeves espying him, threatned him for dogging them: But the Merchant answered, I onely come to see whither you remove me. If the soule could be safe, as that Merchant was, whilest it saw misse-fortune remove her goods to the stranger, or death remove her body to the grave; there were but a slight ground of complaint. But as nothing but the dishonour and rape of Thamar, could please Amnon, and nothing but the bloud of Amnon could satisfie Absalom, and nothing but the heart of Absalom could content Ioab, and nothing but the death of Ioab could pacifie Salomon: So nothing but the Soule of an impenitent sinner can appease the just wrath of this Day. Desperate theeves breake three of the Divine Precepts at once: they doe not onely steale and kill, but they binde three transgressions together, committing adulteries, deflouring Virgins, and ravishing Marrons. The carnall Soules Pleasure is his wife, to which he is so uxorious, that he neglects Christ; Luk. 14.20. I have married a wife, and I cannot come: His daughters bee the fruit and issue of both; such vanities and sinnes as hee hath begotten upon this concubine. This mistresse of his affections shall be ravished from his side, and these Children shall be dashed against the stones before his eyes: Not unlike that fearefull doome of Zedekiah: first his sonnes are slaine before his eyes, and then those eyes of his (as if they had seene enough, when they had seene himselfe childlesse) are put out.

The Reprobates shall cry at the last day, Rev. 6.16. Hide us from the Face of him that sits on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lambe. Can the Lambe bee angry? or is there such Lion-like terrour in that milde face, so full of beautie and sweetnesse, when it lookes upon wickednesse? Why would they be hidden? and hidden from the Lambe? O, guiltinesse would faine keepe out of sight: the Limbes of that infernall head, shall not esteeme it the least part of their torment at that day, to see the most lovely spectacle that Heaven can afford. Hee, from whom they fled in his offers of Grace, shall be so much more terrible, as hee was and is more gracious. When Christ was in his humbled estate, that Prince of darkenesse was so humble as to kneele to him: and though he had so much boldnesse as to expostulate, Mat. 8.29. Art thou come to torment us before our time? yet withall hee had so much feare as to deprecate, Luk. 8.28. I beseech thee torment me not. For the former; whether it were musicke to Satan to heare the shriekes and roarings of sinners, because he useth to enjoy their torments: and therefore held it a peece of his owne torture, to bee restrained in the exercise of his tyrannie. Or whether, as himselfe professeth, he were now in a fearefull expectation of being commanded downe into the deepe, for a further degree of actuall execution. Or whether the very Presence of Christ was his racke; for the guilty spirit cannot behold the Iudge, or the Executioner, without a renovation of horrour: Howsoever, he deprecates a greater infelicitie. Yet what a thing is this, to heare the devill at his Prayers? I beseech thee torment me not. Nature teaches every Creature to wish a freedome from paine: the soulest spirits cannot but love themselves, and this love must needs produce a deprecation of evill. Devotion is not guilty of this prayer, but feare. There is no Grace in the suit of Devils, but nature: no respect of Gods Glory, but of their owne ease: They cannot pray against sinne, but against torment for sinne. It can be no newes to heare the profanest mouth, in extremitie, imploring that sacred Name, when even the Devils doe so. The worst of all Creatures hates punishment, and can say, Lead me not into paine: onely the good heart can say, Lead me not into temptation. If wee can as heartily pray against sinne, for the avoiding of displeasure, as against punishment, when wee have displeased; there is true Grace in the Soule.

The Conclusion is; If those wicked spirits trembled to come before Christ in his Humiliation, when he was to Suffer: how shall sinfull dust appeare before him in his glory, when he comes to Iudge? As one and the same thing workes diversly upon divers constitutions, and the nourishment of one, is the offense of another: 2 Thes. 1.6, 7. So this Day brings contrary Effects to contrary dispositions; and that which is the greatest joy to some, is most terrible to the rest. The Goates on the left hand never apprehended so dreadfull a sound, as that of the last Trumpe: The Sheepe on the right hand never heard such musicke. For the dissolution of temporall things, Communis terminus, there is the same end to all. Men dealing in the world for riches, are but like scolars playing at dice for counters; which come and goe; now the heape is on this side, by and by on that: on a suddaine comes in the Master, and he swoopes all, both dice and counters; not without some just correction of the gamesters. So men tug, and scramble, and wrangle for these paltry vanities, wealth and honours: This Fountaine dryes, that Cisterne fils: one noble house withers, whiles another of low degree swels up to a Lord: to day this Merchant hath the cash, to morrow that: But the Lords Day confiscates all; and then who is the richer man? This world is like a broad Table with a scant or narrow Table-cloth; which every man is still drawing to his owne side, though he plucke his neighbours part from him: this Day comes with a fatall voider, and takes away all, cloth, meat, table, and guests too. Thus farre together, all are served alike: but then comes the difference. All men hope well, and thinke themselves good: but let mee tell them of this Day, as Moses did those rebellious Levites; Numb. 16.5. To morrow the Lord will shew, who are his, and who are holy. A common Hen, together with her owne Egges, may hatch the egges of Eagles that are layed under her: but when they are growne up, while her owne brood keepe the base earth, those of a higher kind flie upwards. This world breeds us all, and is both to good and bad a common mother: but when that great day of separation comes, all they that are begotten of immortall seed shall leave their mother, and take after their Father; and while their kindred in the flesh sinke downe under their naturall corruptions, these Eagles that are sprung from above, shall mount up to the Eternall nest of Glory.

5. The irremediablenesse of that fatality shuts up the terrour of this point. Theeves may have some mercie, in the prostration of their bootie. First, either they will not take all the goods of the house. If Grape-gatherers come unto thee, will they not leave some gleaning Grapes? Ier. 49.9. Ob. ver. 5. If Theeves come by night, they will but destroy till they have enough. They will not, or, if they would, they cannot carry away all. Secondly, or they may bee overcome with perswasions, and melted with the pitifull complaint of their undone Clients: It was the little Childrens cries and teares that made Theodosius weepe too, and reverse the sentence. Thirdly, or if they seaze on the goods, they may spare the life: It is a rare cruelty, in this land, to cut the throats of the yeelding; to second, and secure theft with blood. Fourthly, or if they spill some blood in the conflict, they will not take the rest after the conquest: Those theeves had so much pitie, as though they proceeded to wound the traveller, yet they Luk. 10.30. Left him but halfe dead. Fifthly, or if nothing but both estate and life can satisfie them, yet their rage can extend no further: all the malice of man is there determined: Death is the end of all the sufferers miserie, and murderers crueltie. But the Iudgement of this day is not confined to these weake limits: It will not take away some of their riches, but all; not riches onely, but their lives; not lives onely, but their soules: nor their soules for a time only, but for ever: nor to repose them in tranquillitie and ease, but in the extremitie of torments. Povertie, or casualtie of losses is a theefe; but it can onely steale away thy riches temporall: and that is often no more than depriving a Girle of Chalke or Oatmeale, that is troubled with the greene sicknesse, or disarming a mad man of the weapon, wherewith hee would wound both himselfe and others. Infamie or disgrace is a theefe; but it can only steale away an aiery title, an imaginary Crowne: which makes men prouder than they should be, because they thinke themselves better than they are. Humility hath made many good, Promotion can only make them great. Advancement may thanke God for the beginning; but if it swell into pride, the Divell is at the ending. There is no sinne doth more assimilate men to that cursed nature: for all other sinnes the Divell made, onely Pride made the Divell. Sickenesse is a theefe; but it can onely steale away health: and how many a man speeds like that Souldier with the inveterate ulcer; who receiving a hurt in the place so desperately affected, was made whole of the griefe, which before could not bee cured. The soule hath growne healthfull by the bodies sicknesse, and one disease hath done more good upon them, than many Sermons. Death is a theefe too, yet what can it robbe a man of, but a long, tedious, and troublesome way? Theeves take away from the traveller some of his money; this theefe doth but robbe him of some of his journey. When a yong man is bereaved of life, hee is but deprived of a Die, wherewith hee might either winne or lose. Our life is not more uncertaine, whether it will be long or short, than the use of it is, whether we will spend it well or ill. When one wished the sonne to proove like the father, Cato replied, is this a blessing, or a curse? When long life is apprecated to a childe, it may be demanded, Whether is this a blessing or a curse? When it is said, Every man shall bee rewarded according to his workes, it may bee doubted, whether this is a blessing, or a curse. If death takes a man from his Lands, Houses, Coyne, and helps him to a starry Throne, a robe of immortality, a glorious kingdome; he rather rights him like a friend, than robs him like a theefe. All the good that may be found in death (as the cessation of trouble, the extinction of sinne, the deliverance from Satan, the quiet rest of the body, and infranchisement of the soule) the good man steales from death; and so in effect, doth but robbe the theefe: That which is not worth his respect or keeping; as his molestations, sickenesses, sorrowes; of these death robbes him, and much good do’t him with them.

But this day of the Lord is like a severer theefe: not onely robbing the wicked of all their delightfull good, bvt lodging them with all sorrowfull evill. Other theeves may be brought to a restitution: this onely yeelds to a permutation; exchanging paines for pleasures, torment for sinne; If a man take away thy russet, and give the velvet; we use to say, that change is no robbery: But if thou lose thy cordials for corrosives, thy peace and comfort for despaire and punishment; surely this change is a robbery. A passenger stripped of his whole estate by theeves, may yet recover a greater fortune by the divine blessing upon his industry. But alas, the happinesse which this theefe steales, is irrecoverable: millions of yeers cannot weare it out, nor myriads of teares buy off, that everlasting losse. Consider the vastnesse of the Ocean, and conceive that a Sparrow were allowed, every hundred thousandth yeere to drinke a draught of it, together with a promise to the damned, that when that little Bird had thus drunke up this great Sea, they should be released; here were some hope of an end, and some comfort from that hope, and some ease from the expectation of that comfort: But eternity cancells all, and puts out their light for ever. Mark. 9.44. Their worme dieth not, and the fire never goes out. It was a fearefull fire that destroyed Sodome, yet it ceased with that destruction: but the fire of Tophet can never be quenched. Our bodies dy, and when the wormes have devoured them, even those wormes shall die too: but the worme bred in our soules is not capable of death. Wee are Gods creatures, yet we are mortall: but there is a creature of our owne which shall be immortall. We must die, but the Esa 66.24. Worme of our owne conscience must never die. In our mortall life, this is but a mortall worme: the blood of Christ hath vertue enough to kill it: If now we mortifie it, we shall feele it never: if it out-live us here, it will live with us for ever. Let our faithfull repentance, without pity, put it to death: and our blessed Redeemer will in mercy give us life.

To make some usefull application of all this; If we would escape the danger of this great Theefe, let us take heed of a little theefe, Sinne: this is the theefe that does all the mischiefe. Could wee fervently pray against sinne, wee neede not pray against punishment; which is no other than the inseparable shadow of that body: But if wee have not watched against this privie theefe, Sinne; in vaine doe wee pray against the publike theefe, judgement: God must be just, and the wages of sinne is death. This is a slie cunning theefe, insinuating it selfe into all places, into all actions. It robbed man, in Paradise, of Paradise, of Innocencie, of Peace, of Earth, of Heaven, It stole into that Garden like a theefe, in the body of a Serpent: it stole into the eye of Eve, like a theeefe in the shape of an apple: it stole into her minde, in the forme of an ambitious advancement: it stole into the heart of Adam like a theefe, involved in an uxorious indulgence: from their transgression, it stole like a theefe into the loynes of all their posterity, by a secret, but certaine way: wee have it, and can scarce tell how we got it. It is a vaine quaere, How came this theefe in? Let it bee our study to cast him out. No barres nor barricado’s can preclude his entrance: the Monke in his Cell, the Hermite in his solitude, the Anachorete mued up in a wall, cannot forbid accesse to this theefe. The very Temple is not free from him: there he robbes men of their attention, of their deuotion, and transports their mindes into a wildernesse of vaine thoughts. It steales into our best works, and robbes them of their perfection and integrity; I dare not say, the action is sinne, I dare say there is sinne in the action. It laies snares in every materiall; Laqueos in cibo, August. in potu, in vultu, in veste. It takes all formes, that it may be filching at all times: Fit fera, fit volucris, fit toto corpore serpens. Like a Cameleon, it can turne to all colours, but white the symbole of purity: it can be any thing but innocent. Like a Theefe, it creepes into the eares of the wavering, and robbes them of their religion: it creepes into the eyes of the wanton, and robs them of their chastity: it creepes into the mouth of the drunkard, and robbes him of his witte: It creepes into the brest of the malicious, and robbes him of his charity. it sits in the braine of the ignorant, puts out the light of understanding, and rifles the house at pleasure. It sits at the doore of the swearer, and flies fiercely at the majesty of our Maker: This theefe hath broken into the heart of the proud, of the covetous, of the prophane, of the hypocrite, and there keepes possession, yea, pleads prescription: challenging the house, not as a strong usurper, but as the right owner. It cannot rob God of us, it may robbe us of God.

The day of the Lord is but like a theefe;] but this is a theefe indeed. No wise man, at least no honest man will entertaine a knowne theefe: shall wee bid him welcome, make him good cheare, lodge him in our best chamber, and thinke nothing too costly for him, that wee know comes on purpose to robbe us? Yet such is our madnesse, to give sinne not onely admission, but indulgence; to invite it home to our houses, to honour it with bankets, to allow it the command of our servants, and to let it sleepe in the soft bed of our hearts: our senses receive it, our affections waite upon it, our soules make much of it, as if it were a deare friend, and no dangerous theefe. This is that little theefe within, that opens the doore to the great theefe without: this is the Divels intelligencer, his agent, his picke locke, his engine, his trusty vassall, that betrayes the whole world to his invasion. The theefe robs the passenger, and if hee scape apprehension, hee applauds himselfe: but the sinne of that act hath beene a worse theefe to him, and robbed him of the peace of conscience. Sacriledge presumes to robbe the Church, and therein the Lord himselfe; yet is so impudent as to expostulate Mal. 3.8. Wherein have we robbed thee? Alas poore theeves! they do but robbe us of our temporary provision: but in the meane time, sacriledge is a theefe that robbes them of their eternall salvation. It is just, that theft should bee punished with theft, that one theefe should robbe another. Oppressors rob us, sin robbes them, death robbes sinne, and the Divell robbes them all.

Our blessed Saviour once challenged the people, that they Mat. 26.55. came out against him, as against a theefe, with swords and staves. Hee charged his Disciples, to be so unfurnished of weapons, whereby they might doe violence, as not to take with them so much Mat. 10.10. as staves: And yet in another place, hee allowes them nothing toward their journey, Mark. 6.8. but staves: As a staffe is a weapon, it was forbidden, not as it is for supportation. The master was taken as a theefe; the servants may not be suspected. When they crucified him, it was Mat. 27.38. betweene two theeves; one on his right hand, and the other on his left. Still he is crucified betweene theeves, in his afflicted members: The Client, betweene the corrupt Iudge and the Lawyer: the Patient, betweene the ignorant Physician and Apothecary; the landed debtor, betweene the Usurer and Scrivener: the poore Minister, betweene the Simoniacall Patrone and sacrilegious parishioner: in all these hee is crucified betweene two theeves. All this while they have beene theeves to him: but in the last day he shall come like a theefe against them; and his just fury cannot be avoided. It is a happinesse, when we shall meete with this great Theefe, to have our goods safe in another place. Hee that shall say in this sense, Omnia mea mecum porto, I have all my wealth about me, shall bee stripped of all by this impartiall Robber. But if Mat. 6.20. Our Treasure be laid up in Heaven, if our Riches bee the merits of Iesus Christ, No theefe can breake through, and steale it. Then Cantabit vacuus coram latrone viator, the empty traveller sings before the theefe. Our wealth is at home, in the hands of Him that will never suffer it to miscarry.

Like a theefe.] That naturall dependance, which the most wise Creator of all things, hath made betweene all things: may, by way of Paradoxe, bee called a kinde of theft. The sea doth robbe the land of some territories, and the land robbes the sea of her waters. The Earth steales from the Heavens their influence, and Plants steale from the Earth her moisture: Among trees, one robbes another; and the great Oke pines the Underwood. Flowers steale from the ground her fatnesse, Bees steale from the flowers their sweetnesse, Men steale from the Bees their honey. Wee are the universall theeves in this sense; for wee steale from all: Our light from the Sunne, our breath from the Aire, our Phisicke from Plants and Mineralls, our food from Beasts, Fowles and Fishes: we robbe the Sheep of their wooll, and the Wormes of their silkes, to cloth us: we steale warmth from the Fire, and coolenesse from the Aire or water: wee robbe the Vine of her vitall juyce, and the Olive of her iunctuous fruite. Wee are the theeves in all this, and yet in all this we are no theeves; because the great owner of all things hath ordained all these benefits for us. Onely then we are theeves, when we robbe our selves of their comfortable use, or of our thankefull obedience by their abuse. August. Quod Deo donante fit nostrum, hoc nobis abutentibus fit alienum. In all this our taking away from the Creatures, wee are rather borrowers than theeves; yea rather owners than borrowers. By that Patent sealed by the Father, first; then renewed by the Sonne, and now confirmed by the Holy Ghost; we are Lords of these things, not usurpers; not theeves, but proprietaries.

Here is then no warrant for that Theft, which is the unlawfull usurpation of another mans goods: therefore unlawfull, because the owner was unwilling: whether deprived of his substance without his knowledge, by fraud and close carriage: or with his privitie, but against his consent: and that either his full consent, as by violence and oppression; or his consent in part, as in the exaction of covenanted interest from distressed debters. For howsoever they be driven by necessitie, into that dangerous gulfe of Usurie, they wish with all their hearts, that creditors would lend according to the Nature of Loane, which is a contract of meere gratuitie, their money according to the nature of money, which is ordained for an instrument of exchange, uncapable of such monstrous improvement. Certainely, Me nemo Magistro Fur erit — I will teach no man to be a theefe; nor give the least countenance to that legall robber, the soule-robbed Usurer. My tongue shall be as farre from recanting that speech of Leo; Foenus pecuniae, funus animae; as my heart is from disliking that fire, than which Agesilaus never saw clearer, when bon-fires were made of Obligations. God hath committed to the sonnes of men a right of use and dispensation; whereunto, for the avoiding of disorder, a generall distinction of owneages, was added by the Law of Nations. Whatsoever the Lacedemonians did thinke of Theft; that it was an allowable exercise of martiall Discipline: or others have said even of Kingdomes themselves, that they are but Magna latrocinia: whereas indeed, they are Magna Patrocinia; not Theeveries, but protections against Theeveries: Or Alciatus dreamed, that Theft was not a reproach in Nature, because it was forbidden by the Law; as if the Law, and Nature had not both one Author: Or other querulous dispositions have objected, that the Lawes of men are written in bloud; because in the censure of this unjust and uncharitable sinne, they have exceeded the punishment of Moses Iudicials: forgetting the Multitude of offenders, which is caused not onely by the fiercenesse of a wilde Nation, but even by the wantonnesse of a peaceable Nation: for the latter is no lesse powerfull than the former, to quicken our originall corruptions. This wee must conclude; Zach. 5.4. besides our Makers expresse prohibition of Theft, and the severe vengeance he hath threatned against it: it is against Nature, to rejoyce in the spoiles one of another: And the very Law of Charitie being troden under foot, seemes in a grieving accent to demand; Si sterilitas in ignem mittitur, rapacitas quid meretur? And whether men steale in their owne persons, or teach others so to doe, as Anabaptists, and those elder Heretickes called Apostolici: the bounds of proprietie are ancient bounds, and the killing curse of that Flying booke shall destroy their houses, that dare remove them. A theefe at the gallowes is none of the worst sights in a countrey.