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approbation of the good men of your own times, for that shall deliver you over fairly to posterity. But then, cavete, take heed what you hear, that you suffer not these approbations to swerve, or swell into flattery: for, It is better to hear the rebuke of the wise, than to hear the songs of fools, says the wise king: and, when the flatterer speaks thee fair, says he, believe him not, for there are seren abominations in his heart; and, (by the way) the Holy Ghost at any time, had as leave say seventy millions, as seven; for seven is the Holy Ghost's cipher of infinite: there are infinite abominations in the flatterer's heart. And of these flatterers, these wasps, that swarm in all sweet, and warm places, and have a better outside than the bee, (the wasp hath a better shape, and a better appearance than the bee, but a sharper and a stronger sting, and, at last, no honey) of these, no authors of any books of the Bible, have warned us so much, and armed us so well, as those two royal authors, those two great kings, David, and Solomon; in likelihood because they, as such, had been most offered at by them, and could best give a true character of them, as David does, Their words are smoother than butter, but war is in their hearts, and softer than oil, and yet they are naked swords". Videte, cavete, see that you do hear, that you give good men occasion to speak well of you; but take heed what you hear, that you encourage not a flatterer, by your over easy acceptation of his praises.

Man speaks; and God speaks too; and first videte, see that you do hear him; for, as he that fears God, fears nothing else, so he that hears God, hears nothing else, that can terrify him. Ab auditione mala non timebit, says David, A good man shall not be afraid of evil tidings, for his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. A rumour shall come one year, says Jeremy, and next year another rumour37; new inventions from Satan, for new intimidations; Videte, see that you you hear, even from

but still he is at home, for he dwells in God. hear him; but then cavete, take heed what God himself, that you mistake not what God says, for as all God's pardons have an ita quod se bene gerat; he whom God pardons, for that that is past, is bound to good behaviour for the future,

33 Eccles. vii. 5.
34 Prov. xxvi. 25.
36 Psalm cxii. 7.

35 Psalm LV.

37 Jer. Li. 46.

21.

so all God's promises have a si audieritis, si volueritis, if I hearken, if I obey, I shall eat the good things of the land; otherwise I shall starve, body, and soul. There is a vives proposed to me, I may conceive justly an infallibility of eternal life, but still it is; fac hoc et vives, this I must do, and then I shall live; otherwise, moriar, and morte moriar, I shall die both ways, body and soul. There is not much asked of Joshua, but something there is; it is but a tantummodo hoc, only this; but a tantummodo hoc, an only this there is, only be thou valiant, and of a good courage; forsake not the cause of God, and God will never forsake thee. There is not much asked of Jairus, for the resuscitation of his dead daughter, but something there is, it is tantummodo hoc, but only this; but an only this there is, tantummodo crede, et non metuas; do not mistrust Christ, do not disable Christ, from doing a miracle, in thy behalf, by not believing; as, in one place, where he came, it is said that Christ could not do much, by reason of their unbelief. Hear God there, where God speaks to thee, and then thou shalt hear, that, that he speaks to thee. Above, in heaven, in his decrees, he speaks to himself, to the Trinity in the church, and in the execution of those decrees, he speaks to thee. Climb not up, to the search of unsearchable things, to the finding out of investigable things, as Tertullian speaks; but look to that which is near thee; not so much to those decrees which have no conditions, as to be able to plead conditions performed, or, at least, a holy sorrow, that thou hast not performed them. Videte, carete; see that you do hear God, else every rumour will scatter you; but take heed what you hear, else you may come to call conditional things absolute.

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And lastly, since Satan will be speaking too, videte, be sure you do hear him, be sure you discern it to be his voice, and know what leads you into temptation. For you may hear a voice that shall say, Youth must have pleasures, and greatness must have state, and charge must have support. And this voice may bring a young man to transfer all his wantonness upon his years, when it is the effect of high diet, or licentious discourse, or wanton images admitted, and cherished in his fancy; and this voice may bring great officers, to transfer their inaccessibleness, upon neces

38 Isaiah i. 19.

sary state, when it is an effect of their own laziness, or indulgence to their pleasures; and this voice may bring rich landlords to transfer all their oppression of tenants, to the necessity of supporting the charge of wives and children, when it is an effect of their profuseness and prodigality. Nay, you may hear a voice, that may call you to this place, and yet be his voice; which is that, which St. Augustine confesses and laments, that even to these places persons come to look upon one another, that can meet nowhere else. Videte; see you do hear, that you do discern the voice; for, that is never God's voice that puts upon any man, a necessity of sinning, out of his years and constitution, out of his calling and profession, out of his place, and station, out of the age, and times that he lives in, out of the pleasure of them, that he lives upon, or out of the charge of them, that live upon him. But then, cavete, take heed what you hear from him too, especially then, when he speaks to thee upon thy death-bed, at thy last transmigration; then when thine ears shall be deaf, with the cries of a distressed, and a distracted family, and with the sound, and the change of the sound of thy last bell; then when thou shalt hear a hollow voice in thyself, upbraiding thee, that thou hast violated all thy Maker's laws, worn out all thy Saviour's merits, frustrated all the endeavours of his blessed spirit upon thee, evacuated all thine own repentances, with relapses; then when thou shalt see, or seem to see his hand turning the stream of thy Saviour's blood into another channel, and telling thec, here is enough for Jew and Turk, but not a drop for thee; then when in that multiplying-glass of despair, which he shall present, every sinful thought shall have the proportion of an act, and every act, of a habit, when every circumstance of every sin, shall enter into the nature of the sin itself, and vary the sin, and constitute a particular sin; and every particular sin, shall be a sin against the Holy Ghost; take heed what you hear; and be but able to say to Satan then, as Christ said to Peter, in his name, Vade retro Satan, Come after me Satan, come after me to-morrow; come a minute after my soul is departed from this body, come to me, where I shall be then, and when thou seest me washed in the blood of my Saviour, cloathed in the righteousness of my Saviour, lodged in the bosom of my Saviour, crowned with the merits of

my Saviour, confess, that upon my death-bed, thou wast a liar, and wouldest have been a murderer, and the Lord shall, and I, in him, shall rebuke thee. See that ye refuse not him, that speaketh, says the apostle"; not any that speaks in his name; but especially not him, whom he names there, that speaks better things, than the blood of Abel; for, the blood of Abel speaks but by way of example, and imitation; the blood of Christ Jesus, by way of ransom, and satisfaction. Hear what that blood says for you, in the ears of the Father, and then no singing of the flatterer, no lisping of the tempter, no roaring of the accuser, no thunder of the destroyer shall shake thy holy constancy. Take heed what you hear, remember what you have heard; and the God of heaven, for his Son Christ Jesus' sake, by the working, of his blessed Spirit, prosper and improve both endeavours in you. Amen.

SERMON CIX.

PREACHED TO THE KING, AT THE COURT, IN APRIL, 1629.

GENESIS i. 26.

And God said, Let us make man, in our image, after our likeness.

NEVER such a frame, so soon set up, as this, in this chapter. For, for the thing itself, there is no other thing to compare it with. For it is all, it is the whole world. And for the time, there was no other time to compare it with, for this was the beginning of time, In the beginning God created heaven and earth. That earth, which in some thousands of years, men could not look over, nor discern what form it had: (for neither Lactantius, almost three hundred years after Christ, nor St. Augustine, more than one hundred years after him, would believe the earth to be round) that earth, which no man, in his person, is ever said to have compassed, till our age; that earth which is too much for man yet, (for, as yet, a very great part of the earth is unpeopled) that earth, which, if we will cast it all but into a map, costs

39 Heb. xii. 25.

many months' labour to grave it, nay, if we will cast but a piece of an acre of it, into a garden, costs many years' labour to fashion, and furnish it: all that earth, and then, that heaven which spreads so far, as that subtle men have, with some appearance of probability, imagined, that in that heaven, in those manifold spheres of the planets, and the stars, there are many earths, many worlds, as big as this, which we inhabit; that earth and that heaven, which spent God himself, Almighty God, six days in furnishing; Moses sets up in a few syllables, in one line, in principio, in the beginning God created heaven and earth. If a Livy or a Guicciardine, or such extensive and voluminous authors, had had this story in hand; God must have made another world, to have made them a library to hold their books, of the making of this world. Into what wire would they have drawn out this earth? Into what leaf-gold would they have beat out these heavens? It may assist our conjecture herein to consider, that amongst those men, who proceed with a sober modesty, and limitation in their writing, and make a conscience not to clog the world with unnecessary books; yet the volumes which are written by them, upon this beginning of Genesis, are scarce less than infinite. God did no more but say, Let this and this be done; and Moses does no more but say, that upon God's saying it was done. God required not nature to help him to do it: Moses required not reason to help him to be believed. The Holy Ghost hovered upon the waters, and so God wrought: the Holy Ghost hovered upon Moses too, and so he wrote. And we believe these things to be so, by the same Spirit in Moses' mouth, by which they were made so, in God's hand. Only, beloved, remember, that a frame may be thrown down in a much less time, than it was set up. A child, an ape can give fire to a cannon and a vapour can shake the earth: and these fires, and these vapours can throw down cities in minutes. When Christ said, Throw down this temple, and in three days I will raise it; they never stopped upon the consideration of throwing it down; they knew, that might be soon done; but they wondered at the speedy raising of it. Now, if all this earth were made in that minute, may not all come to a general dissolution in this minute? Or may not thy acres, thy miles, thy shires shrink into feet, and

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