The Happiness of the Church, Biblical commentary 12
PRESVMPTION running into DESPAIRE.
Reuel. 6. 16.
They sayd to the mountaines and rockes, Fall on vsus, and hide vsus from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne, and from the wrath of the Lambe.
THis verse may be distinguished into
Errour.
Terrour.
The errour of the reprobate, the terrour of the Iudge.
Their errour is manifested in their Inuocation: in which wee may obserue
To what; Mountaines & rocks.
For what
To fall on them.
To hide them.
Thus their amazed errour and ignorance is expressed in their Prayer. For the terrour, the Iudge is described by
his
Omniscience; from the face of him that sitteth on the Throne.
Omnipotence; from the wrath of the Lambe.
EueryEvery circumstance serues to aggrauate their follie, and desperate feare. 1. They feare God, but too late. 2. They open their lippes to confesse the inuincible power of Christ: before they were either dumbe in silence, or blasphemous in contumelies. 3. They pray to the Mountaines and rockes, which heare not. 4. To fall on them, which they dare not. 5. To hide them, which they cannot. 6. They begge to bee concealed from him that is all eye; from the face of him that sittes in the Throne. 7. To bee protected from him that is all power; from the wrath of the Lambe.
Before we come to their Errour, and matter of their inuocation, let vsus examine two things.
What they
were.
did.
The Persons.
Thus amated with errour, and amazed with terrour, are described in the precedent verse. The Kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chiefe captaines, and the mightie men, the bond, and the free, hidde themselues in the dennes and rockes of the mountaines. The greatnesse of man, when it comes to encounter with Obser.God, is weakenes and vanitie. Is the reprobate a king? the crowne on his head is not thunder-proofe: lift he his scepter neuer so high, there is a scepter of iustice shall smite it downe.
Is he Great in his countrey, that (as they write of the Sea about the castle of Mina) the currant goes euer with the wind of his will: be he neuer so high, there is one higher then he, and the highest of all regardeth it: and Eccle. 8. 5.will subiect it.
Is he Rich? were he the eldest sonne of Mammon, and sole heire to all the vsurers in the world, can his gold saue him? Is vengeance afraid to strike his vessell, because his sailes be of silke, and it is ballaced with refined aure? Shall he buy out his damnation with coine? No; the Samuell of heauen will neuer take bribes.
Is he a Chiefe Captaine? Be his lookes neuer so sterne, his speech neuer so imperious, impetuous; he may command here, and goe without. Were he Generall of Xerxes armie, yet he shall find the words of the Psalme truth: Man is not saued by the multitude of an Heast.
Is hee mightie? were hee as Alexander thought himselfe, till he saw his owne bloud, the Sonne of Iupiter Hammon; yet woe to man when he shall wrastle with his maker. Proud worme, hee may dare to lift vp his head, but shall quickly be troden into slime. When the Lord of hoastes is angry, whose wrath shakes the earth, and burnes to the bottome of hell; who shall proudly without confusion looke him in the face? Silly Giant of men, that thou shouldst dare to grapple, to parle, yea so much as to looke at God! Loe greatnes!
Time was, when if a friend in the Court shall say to thee, as Elisha to the Shunamite. What is to be done for 2. King. 4. 13.thee? Wouldst thou be spoken for to the King, or to the Captaine of the hoast; It would hauehave seemed as high a gratifying, and ratifying of his louelove to thee; as thou couldst hauehave desired, or he expressed. What fauour will it be at this day, to be spoken for to all the Kinges of the earth, great men, rich men, mighty Captains? Alas they hauehave need to be spoken for themselues. The greatest Potentate, if reprobate, hath now his honour laid in the dust; & from a publicke Throne, he creepes into a hole. As ambitious Herod receiued his pride and glory (with derogation to God; Vox Dei.) in a Theater: so now his shame & confusion is in the sight of the whole world; of good and bad Angels, of good and bad men. Zenacherib in his ruffe could once say; aEsa. 37. 13.Where is the King of Hamath, and the King of Arphad; the King of the Citie of Sepharvaim, Zena, and Iuah? But now where is the King of Ash…r? Thus bIob. 12. 19. 21.Godleadeth Princes away spoiled, and ouerthroweth the mighty. For their wickednes hee powreth contempt vponupon Princes. Then shall be manifest the vnresistable power, and vnblameable iustice of God: cEsa. 40. 22. 23.Who sitteth vponupon the circle of the earth, and the inhabitants thereof are as grashoppers: stretching out the heauens as a curtaine, & spreading them as a tent to dwell in. He bringeth the Princes to nothing, and maketh the Iudges of the earth as vanitie.
What priuiledge then doth these inferior authorities bring with them? That the bondman should thus striue to be free: the freeman to be mightie: the mightie to be a chiefe Captaine: the chiefe Captaine to be rich: the rich to be great: the great to be Kings: till in their opinion nil restat quod praestat, nothing remaines to be aspired to. Whereas to these men, Omnia in praesenti parua, in fine nulla, post finem mala: all is for the present little: for Vt Luna, sic sublunaria: as the moone it felfe, so all things vnderunder it are subiect to ecclipses and changes. In the end they are nothing; death when the game is done, shuffling King and Pawne into one bagge. After the end found euill things; for & perduntur & perdunt: they are both lost themselues, and make lost their owners.
These so popular wonders, the terror of slaues, and mirror of fooles, on whom the eye of the world was fixed with admiration; are glad to hide themselues in holes. where are you, ye great men; that were so ambitions of fame, and made humane praise stand in competition with conscience; as if it were the better mistres and worthy of more seruants? alas, glad to be shrowded in holes. your Greatnes now wisheth it selfe so litle, that it might not be seene. You insatiate couetous, that neuer ceased ioyning house to house, land to land; and possessing whole countryes, yet whined for lacke of elbow-roome: loe, you shall at this day be glad of a hole; a darke hollow caue in a rocke for your parlour: or more glad if you might be dissolued into nothing.
They said.
We hauehave described the Persons, What they were: let vsus see what they did. They said: They open their lips to confesse the invincible and inevitable power of Christ. whence derive we two obseruations.
1. The sense of present miserie takes away Atheisme. Before their mouthes were either shut by silence, or opened by blasphemies; possessed either with a dumbe or a roring deuill. God was not in all their thoughtes: or Psal. 10. 4.if in their thoughts, not in their lips: or if in their lips, but to his dishonour; not named but in their oathes. Now loe, they speake, and make a desperate acknowledgment of that power, they erst derided. The day of iudgment, when it comes, shall find no Atheist. What those degenerate creatures would not beleeue, they shall see: they would not acknowledge their maker, they shall find their Iudge: and cry to the mountaines, Fall one vsus, &c.
Consider this, dPsal. 50. 22.ye that forget God, lest you be torne in pieces when there is none to deliuer you. You may forget him during your short pleasure, you shall remember him for euer in torture. Proceed to ePsal. 139. 20speake of him wickedly, and like enemies to take his Name in vaine; you shall one day fall low before his footestoole, not with a voluntary but enforced reuerence. You that hauehave denied God on earth, the first voice that shall come from your lips, shall be a hopelesse acknowledgment of his maiestie.
2. The saying that comes from them is desperate: whence note, that in Gods iust punishment Desperation is the reward of Presumption. They that erst feared two Presumption running into Despaire.little shall now feare too much. Before they thought not of Gods Iustice, now they shall not conceiue his MercieMercy. Consciences, that are without remorse, are not without horror. It is the kindnes which presumptuous sinne doth the heart to make it at last despaire of forgiuenes. They say.
Behold, God accuseth not, they accuse themselues. God loues to hauehave a sinner accuse himselfe: and therefore sets his deputie in the brest of man: which though it be a neuter when the act is doing, is an aduersary afterwards. The conscience is like the poise of a clocke: the poise being downe, all motion ceaseth, the wheeles stirre not: wound vp, all is set on going. Whiles conscience is downe, there is no noise or moouing in the heart; all is quiet: but when it is wound vp by the iustice of God, it sets all the wheeles on working: tongue to confesse, eyes to weepe, hands to wring, brest to be beaten, heart to ake, voice to cry; and that, where merciemercy steps not in, a fatall cry; to the hils, Fall on vsus, and hide vsus.
Sinne, and iudgment for sinne, make the most cruell men cowardly. Tyrants whose frownes hauehave beene death; oppressors that hauehave made their poore Tenants quake at their lookes; now tremble themselues: & would change firmnes with an aspine leafe. They that care not for the act of sinne, shall care for the punishment. Tumidi faciendo, timidi patiendo. Nero that could not be tired in cutting throtes, is soone weary of his owne torment. They that hauehave made others weepe, shall desperately howle themselues. Cain, that durst kill the fourth part of the world at a blow, euen his owne brother; dares afterwards not looke a man in the face, lest he fGen. 4. 14.should be slayne. Who durst be more impudently bold with God then Iudas, when he betrayed his onelyonly Sonne to murderers? yet after the treason who more cowardly then Iudas? he becomes his owne hangman. The curse that followes sinne makes Presumption it selfe to shudder. But what madnes is it, not to complaine till too late. If our foresight were but halfe as sharpe as our sense, we should not dare to sinne. The issue of wickednes would appeare a thousand times more horrible, then the act is pleasant.
Let this teach vsus now to thinke of the Iustice of God as well as his merciemercy, that herafter we may thinke of his merciemercy as well as his Iustice. The merciemercy of God is abused to encourage lewdnes: and wretched men by Christs merits are emboldned to committe that, for which he dyed: but so men may runne with merciemercy in their mouthes to hell. They that in life will giuegive no obedience to the law, shall in death hauehave no benefite by by the Gospell. When they gaue themselues ouer to lying swaring, coueting &c. they were wont to cry, MercieMercy, merciemercy: now loe, they feele what those sinnes are, and cry nothing but Iustice, Iustice; they cannot thinke on merciemercy. They that hauehave abused merciemercy, must be quitted with vengance. The good now sing; With thee, O Lord, is merciemercy; therefore thou shalt be feared. The reprobates sing at last, with thee O Lord, is iudgment; with thee is storme and tempest, indignation & wrath, confusion and vengence, and therefore art thou feared.
These necessary occurrences, thus considered; let vsus passe to their Inuocation, wherein is exemplified their Error. Here we must obserue To what, For what, they call.
To what.
They are Mountaines and rockes; vnreasonable, yea insensible creatures: whence we may deduce two inferences; a negatiue, and an affirmatiue.
1. Negatiuely; it is cleare, that they hauehave no acquaintance with God, therefore know not how to direct their prayers vntounto him. If their trust had beene in God, they needed not to fly to the M…aines. So Dauid sweetly. Psal. 11. Ia the Lord put I my trust: how Pal. 11. 1.then say you to my soule, Flie as a bird to your mountaine? It is Gods charge. qPsal. 50. 15.Call vponupon me in the day of trouble: and I will deliuer thee, and thou shalt glorifie me. But, Rom. 10. How shall they call on him, in whom they hauehave not Rom. 10. 14.beleeued? Or beleeue in him they hauehave not knowne? and how should they know him but by his word? Alas those mutuall passages, and entercourse of meanes they hauehave euer barred themselues. They would neither suffer God to trouble them by his word, nor would they offer to trouble him by their prayers. hPsal. 14. 4.They will not call vponupon him, nor will they heare him calling vponupon them.
Therefore as those that neuer were in the companie of God, they know not how to addresse themselues to him; but rather to rockes and mountaines. As extremity discerneth friends; Verè amat, qui miserum amat: so it distinguisheth a man in himselfe. A suddaine disturbance giues a great try all of a Christians disposition. For as in a naturall man at such an affrightment, all the bloud runs to the heart, to guard the part that is principall: so in a good man at such an instance, all the powers and faculties run to the soule, to saue that which is principall. The bloud and spirits striue to saue the life of the bodie: faith & hope to saue the life of the soule. So that at the suddaine assault of some daunger, a man shall best iudge of his owne heart. It may bee at other times a dissembler; for mans heart is false, who can know it? yet at such time it will manifest it selfe, and cannot deceiue.
If God hath beene our familiar friend, and accustomed helper; danger doth not sooner salute vsus, then we salute him by our prayers. The first thought of our hearts is Iesus Christ: the first voyce of our lips is Peters on the sea in such an extremitie; iMath. 14. 30.Lord saue mee: our faith is reposed on his wonted mercy and protection; Wee know whom we hauehave beleeued. Daniell cals on GOD, ere hee fals to the Lions; this stoppes their mouthes.
The wicked in such miserie, are either heauie and heartlesse, as Nabal; whose k1. Sa. 25. 37.heart dyed within him, and he became as a stone. Or desperate as Iulian, throwing his bloud vp into the ayre, with a blasphemous confession. Or sottish, as these here; running to the mountaines, vnprofitable, vnpossible helpes. When the blow of vengeance strikes the couetous, he runs to his counting house; if his bagges can giuegive him no succour, he is distracted. If any broken reed bee their confidence, in these ouerwhelming woes, they catch drowning hold of that; so they and their hopes perish together. There are some whose tongues are so poysoned with blasphemie, that in an vnexpected accident, the very first breath of their lips is a curse, or an oath. As if they would sweare away destruction, which eueryevery vngodly speech drawes on neerer. If these men hadde beene acquainted with God in faire weather, they would not forget him in a storme. But they that will hauehave no familiaritie with God in peace, shall hauehave him to seeke in extremitie.
When therefore some sudden perill hath threatned thee with terrour, note seriously how thou art affected. Though the danger came vnlook'd for, let it not passe vnthought of: but as thou blessest God for deliuery, so examine the good or ill disposednesse of thine owne heart. If thou find thy selfe couragious and heauenly minded, on thy confidence in God; take at once assurance of thy faith and Gods merciemercy. Hee that nowe stood by thee, will neuer leaue thee. If otherwise, lament thy sinnes which darken thy soules way to the merciemercy-seate; and beseech Iesus Christ to store thy heart with better comforts. If thy treasure be in heauen, and thy soule hath beene vsed to trauell often thither; when danger comes, it knowes the way so well, that it cannot misse it.
2. Affirmatiuely this presents a soule amazed with feare and follie. They call to the Mountaines, that can neither heare nor answere. When the world was destroyed with water, men climbed vp to the tops of the Mountaines: when it shall be dissolued with fire, they will desire the holes of the rockes, and to lie vnderunder the hils. The mountaines are but swellings of the earth, and the rockes are surd things; that hauehave no eares: can they heare? or if they heare, can they answere? or if they answere, can they saue? when the graues must vomite vp their dead, shall the rockes conceale the liuing? Those fiue Kings could not be hid in the caue of lIosh. 10. 17.Makkedah from Ioshua; and shall any caue hide from Iesus?
Whiles guilt and feare consult of refuge, how vaine shifts they imagine! Adam would hide his disobedience in the bushes: Saul his rebellion in the crowd of the people. So the hood-wink'd foole seeing no body, thinkes no body sees him. Helplesse euasions! when m1. Kin. 1. 50.Adoniah heard the trumpets sounding at Salomons coronation, he quaked and fled to the hornes of the Altar. When the vngodly shall heare the Archangels Trumpe proclaiming the coronation of Christ, they hauehave no Sanctuarie, (they neuer loued it in all their liues) but flie to the rockes and mountaines.
The graue is a darke and priuatiue place: yet as a prisoner that comes out of a sordid and stinking dungeon, into the open ayre for his triall in a desperate cause, had rather keepe the prison still. So these reprobates newly raysed from the earth, cry to it to receiue them againe; glad to remaine (though not on the face of it with pleasure) in the bowels of it with rottenesse and solitude; rather then in the open light to come before the iudgement seat of Christ. The graue is a drowne-bed to hell. They suddainly start out of their sleepe, and meet with gastly amasednesse at the mouth of their sepulchers: beholding on the one side sins accusing, on another side hellish fiends vexing; an anguish'd conscience burning within, heauen & earth without; aboue them the countenance of an angry Iudge, below them a lake of vnquenchable fire; round about howling and bitter lamentations: no maruell then if at the worlds end they be at their wittes end; and cry to the mountaines, Fall on vsus.
Let all this declare to men the vanitie of their worldly hopes. God is the Preseruer of men, not hils & rocks. The rich man is brought in vponupon a Premunire, can his gold acquit him in this Starre-chamber? The Epicure thinkes to drowne sorrow in lustie wines: the oppressor mistrusts not the power of his owne hand: the proud refugeth his troubled heart in his trunkes: the lustfull in his punkes: what is this but running to rockes and mountaines? Thus madly doe men commit two errors. Ier. 2. They forsake the creator which would neuer forsake them; and adhere to the creatures, which can Ier. 2. 13.neuer helpe them. O Lord; the hope of Israell; all that forsake thee shall be ashamed; and all that dep…t from thee shall Ier. 17. 13.be written in the earth. Nowe at this day perhaps they would seeke to the Lord: but they are answered; Go… to the gods whom ye hauehave serued. Loe then of these gods they shall be wearie; as in the 2. of Esay. where these Esa. 2. 20.very words of my Text are deliuerd. ver. 19. They shall goe into the holes of the rockes, &c. it is immediatly added; In that day a man shall cast his Idols of siluer, and his Idols of gold, which he made for himselfe to worship, … the moules and to the battes. Euen the spirituall Idolater, the Couetous, shall throw his Images, golden or siluer shrines for the Diana of his auarice; his damned coyne to combustion, with a vae, Woe vntounto it, it hath lost my soule. As the sicke stomacke lothes the meate, whereof it surfetted.
Well, let vsus leaue inuocation to these Rockes, worldly refuges: and remember that there is one to be called on, who is onelyonly able to defend vsus: a spirituall, holy and happy Rocke, Iesus Christ. Dauid often cals God his aPsal. 18. 2. and 28. 1.Rocke and his refuge. A rocke that beares vp the pillars of the world. bDeut. 32. 31.Their Rocke is not as our Rocke, euen our enemies themselues being iudges. He that builds his house of assurance on this cMath. 7. 24.rocke, shall stand immoueable to wind or weather: he needs not the shelter of mountaines; for he shall stand like dPsal. 125. 1.Mount Sion, that a hideth fast for euer. They that despise him, shall find him a Rocke also: eMath. 21. 44if they fall on it they shall be broken: if it fall on them, it will grind them to powder. He is a Stone, the Stone, the fPsal. 118. 22head-stone of the corner; cut out of the Quarrey of heauen gDan. 2. 45.without hands. Of whome we are made h1. Pet. 2. 5.liuing stones. He is strong without all things: all things weake without him: trust in him, and you shall hauehave no need to flie to rockes and mountaines.
For What
The benefit that they would hauehave the Rockes and the Mountaines doe them, is to Fall on them, & hide them. Whence we deriue three obseruations. 1. Despaire is euer wishing for death: often impatiently snatching at it in this world; but when the last day comes, so greedily longing for it; that to be sure of it, they desire the mountaines to dispatch them. Death by the wicked is now most feared; death at the last shall be the thing most wished: They shall desire death, and shall not find it. They that sit in the warme nest of riches, hatching vp their brood of lusts, quake at the hearing of death. There are some feare to die, others not so much to die as to be dead. The former are cowardly, the other vnbeleeuing soules. Some feare both, to whom nothing in life then life is more desireable. But when th…s last extremitie comes, m…ricupiunt, they desire to die. And that death, like a merciles executioner, might not hauehave too many strokes at their liues, they begge helpe of the Mountaines: that they might be throughly dispatched at once, without need of a second blow. Cain at his arraignement for his brother would needs liue: God grants it; as if it were too much fauour for him to die. But hee yeelds it for a curse; as if he heard his prayers in anger. He liues, but banished from God, carrying his hell in his bosome, and the brand of vengeance in his forehead. God reiects him, the earth repines at him, and men abhorre him. Loe now Cain would die: himselfe now wisheth the death he feared, and no man dares pleasure him with a murther. As Nero in the like case; Nec amic…m, nec mimicum h…beo; I hauehave neyther friend nor enemie: or as Sau… found in his Armour-bearer, not 1. Sam. 31. 4.a will to kill him, though he had a will to be killed by him. Death these reprobates feared, and onelyonly death is now desired. They cry to the mountaines; Fall on vsus. 2 Obserue, that rockes and mountaines are farre lighter then sinne. Zachary compares it to a Talent of lead: Zach. 5. Esa. 21.Esay cals it a Burden. Such a waight bore our Sauiour, that he groned vnderunder it. I am pressed vnderunder you, as a cart Amo. 2. 13.is pressed that is full of sheaues. The wicked that like Babel-builders thinke to aspi…e to heauen by multiplying of earth, would bee glad if …umulitumuli; their bodies might be buried vnderunder their heapes of wealth, where their soules had beene buryed long before. But what is a load of earth, a mountaine huger then Aetna, vnderunder which Iupiter was sayd subter fulminare Gigantes; what is the whole massie bodie of the earth to the waight of sinne?
Thinke of it ye Theomachor, that striue in your rebellions imponere Pelio… Ossae: ye rapacious couetous, that load your selues with thicke clay: you lay heauie burdens on the poore, heauier on your owne consciences. Sin Hab. 2.may seeme light for a season; as a packe made vp, but not assayed with one of your fingers: when Sathan shall lay it on you, it will breake your backes. You beare it now like corke and feathers: at that day you shall iudge it heauier then rockes and mountaines.
Now in contempt of law and Gospell, honestie, and conscience, earth and heauen; they call to pride, ambition, blasphemie, ebrietie, luxurie, oppression, Fall on vsus and couer vsus; wearing pride as a chaine, and couering themselues with crueltie as with a garment. Si… lyes at the dore, Psal. 73. 6.and they hauehave no sense to take it vp. The deuill puts his shoulders vnderunder the waight, and thus supported they feele it not. But when Gods iustice shall reproue them, and set their sinnes in order before their …; yea impose Psal. 50. 21.them on their weake and yeelding consciences; howe different will their cry be▪ … f…ll …, …ockes couer vsus. The swearer saying to these heauie creatures, you are lighter then my oathes▪ the …uetous, you are not so ponderous as my oppressions, the adulterer, the whole earth is a gentle pressure …o the burden of my lustes.
Custome in sinne obstupefies a …sense: and still like that Romaine Milo, his strength e…creasing with his burden: he that first carried sinne a wanton Calfe, can at last beare it a goaring Oxe▪ Menlocke vp their iniquities, as the vsurer his money, in a Chest; where the light of reproofe may not finde them out. They packe all their iniquities vponupon H…, that will beare them for none but His. Or reserue them to an houres repentance; setting them a day of cancelling, but they breake it: as if their last breath could dispell and scatter them all into ayre. But alas, sinnes then are found heauiest of all: and here like malefactors pressing to death, they cry out for more waight, the accession of rockes and mountaines to dispatch them▪ Loath they are to come before the Iudge, therefore would be pressed to death by these ponderous and massy creatures.
The mountaines hauehave not beene more barren, then they of goodnes: the rockes not so hard as their hearts. The crosse of Christ hath beene held too heauy; repentance too troublesome a guest for their houses: faith and obedience hauehave beene cast off as poore friends: all godlynes too waightie; now rockes and hils are light. Christs yoke was not for their shoulders, Satans must: His law might not be borne it was so heauy; his wrath must be borne, and that is heauyer. Oh then thrice blessed they! whose sinnes God bindeth vp in a bundle, and sinkes them in the whirlepoole of forgetfulnes; that they may neuer be imposed; for they are too Gen. 4. 13.heauy to be borne.
3. Obserue that before these wicked were Lords of nations and Countreys; (for they are said to be Princes, Captaines, Conquerors; rich men) now they would be glad of one to hide them. Of all their dominions they begge but the barrenest parcell, a rocke or mountaine: and that to doe them a poore office, to conceale them. How much doth mans auarice and ambition couet here; how little contents him hereafter! In death the wickedest Potentate must be content with a graue: after death he would be content with a graue still; yea glad, if in the bottome of a mountaine he might be hidden.
Heare this ye couetous, that ioyne house to house, and land to land; by disioyning the societies of men: as if you would leaue the whole earth to your babes. Excutit Sen.natura redeuntem, sicut intrantem. Nature shall as strictly examine your going out, as it did your cōming in. Nonne telluris tres tantum cubiti te expectant? doe Basil.not only three cubites of ground allotte themselues to receiue you? OnelyOnly a graue remaynes; and all you that boast of your great lands, shall at that day say, haec terr… mea, and terra tua: this is all my land, this is all thy land: euen so much roome as thy dusts will take vp; & all the remainder of mighty Hercules, will scarce fill a little pitcher. A litle quantitie of ground hath nature proportion'd thee, distst thou possesse as much as euer the Tempter shewed Christ. When certaine Philosophers intentiuely beheld the Tombe of Alexander; sayth one: Heri fecit ex auro thesaurum; bodie aurum ex Alphons.eo facit thesaurum. Yesterday he treasured vp gold, to day gold treasures vp him. Another; Yesterday the world did not content him; to day ten cubites containe him. Socrates carried Alcibiades bragging of his lands to a mappe of the world, and bad him demonstrate them: Alcibiades could not find them: for alas, Athens it selfe was but a small and scarce discernable point. A wiser man spake otherwise of his lands. O Ager, quàm multorum fuisti & eris! nunc meus, & postea mescio cuius. O Land, how many mens hast thou beene and shalt be! now mine, and herafter I know not whose. So litle ground contents vsus when we are dead.
But when the wicked shall rise againe, would it not serue them still with all their hearts? Had they not rather lie in rottennesse then combustion? Were not a cold graue more welcome, then a hote furnace? Yes; rather had they be dead without sense, then aliue in torment. Now they beg not a cittie, though a little one as Zoar: not a house, though poore and bleake as Codrus his: not an open ayre, though sharpe and irkesome; scorched with the Indian Sunne, or frossen with the Russian cold: there is no hope of these fauours. GiueGive them but a mountaine to fall on them, and a rocke to hide them, and they are highly pleased. Here is a strange alteration for the wicked; When they shall goe from a glorious mansion to a loathsome dungeon: from the table of surfet to the table of vengeance: from fawning obseruants to afflicting spirits: from a bed of downe to a bed of fire: from soft linnen and silken couerings, to wish a rocke for their pillow, and a mountaine for their couerlet. Nay, and yet they that commanded so farre on earth, cannot command this peece of earth, to doe them such a kindnesse. They could in the dayes of their pride speake imperiously enough; this land is mine, this towne is mine: as Naball sayd, Shall I take my meate and my drinke &c. but nowe they feele, it was none of theirs; not one hole must shelter them, not one hillocke doe them seruice.
Nothing helpes when God will smite: mountaines and rockes are no defence when God pursues. Doest thou thinke to raigne because thou cloathest thy selfe in Cedar? What, is Cedar against thunder? GOD hath a Ier. 22. 15.hand that can strike through Forts, Rockes, and Bulwarkes. The seuenfold wals of Babilon cannot defend the Tyrant within them. The heauens melt at the presence of the Lord: if he touch the mountaines, they smoake for it. The of-spring of the reuiued world offer to build a Tower, whose toppe might reach to Heauen. What securitie could be in it? Are not thinges nearer to heauen more subiect to the violences of Heauen; lightning, thunder, and those higher inflammations? Feriunt summos fulgura montes. In se magna ruunt, summis que negatum est stare diù. God soone made it a monument of their follie and his power. He giues confusion of their voyces and their worke at once. When God raigned from heauen that greatest showre, that euer the earth did or shall sustaine, you knowe their shifts. They thinke to ouer-climbe the iudgement; and being got vp to the highest mountaines, looke downe with some hope on the swimming valleys. When the water began to ascend vp to their refuged hils, and the place of their hope became an Iland, loe now they hitch vp higher to the toppes of the tallest trees; till at last the waters ouertake them halfe dead with hunger and horror. The mountaines could not saue them in that day of water, nor shall the mountaines in this day of fire. It is not then the defence of forts or ports, the secrecie of caues or graues, the bottome-burroughes of hils, or vaultie dens of rockes; not a league with all the elements of the world, beastes of the earth, stones of the street, that can secure them.
Be hidden they cannot, what should they then wish but death: they that once trembled to die, doe nowe more quake to liue: they would bee glad of a riddance, and kisse the instrument of their annihilation. They would prise and embrace it as the best happynes that euer saluted them, if like beasts they might perish to nothing. Here they enuie the storke, stagge, rauen, oake for long life, and chide nature for their owne shortnesse. But at this day they would change with any flower, though the continuance thereof were not so much as Ionah's Gourds: and thinke not to be, was to be happy. The pangs of the first death, are pleasures, in respect of the second.
But what hope is there of their securitie or refuge in mountaines; when ver. 14. The very heauen shall depart So Esa. 34. 4.a s…rowle that is rolled vp together, and euerie mountaine and Iland shall be moued out of their places. Heauen is expansum tanquam linteum, & diducta la…ina; but shall then be folded vp like a garment; whose beautie is not Hebr. 1. 12.seene: or rolled together like a volume, whose large contents are as it were abridged: not that the matter of the world shall be quite abolished. For as we say now of grace; Adolet non abolet naturam gratia: so we may say of glorie: Perficit non perdit mundum gloria. Corruption shalbe taken away, not all the matter that was corrupted. But if all things be thus narrowly searched, how shall the vngodly hope to lye hidden?
We hauehave now considered the horror of the Reprobates; let vsus looke to the Iudge, from whom they desire to be hidden. From the presence of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the lambe. In whom we find an omniscience, and an omnipotence. which circumstances the time allowes me but to mention. First for his all knowing Wisdome.
From the face.
It was euer the fashion of guiltines, to flie from the presence of God. Adam had no sooner sinned, but he thrusts his head in a bush. Sins ineuitable effect is Shame. Though impudence beare it our for a time. Ier. 6. They were not ashamed when they had committed abomination: yet they shall one day beare the reproch of Ier. 6. 15. Chap. 31. 19.their sinnes, and be ashamed, yea euen confounded. Shame must come; either first to repentance. Rom. 6. what Rom. 6. 21.fruit had you then in those things, wherof you are now ashamed: or at last in vengeance; let them be ashamed that transgresse Psal. 25. 3.without a cause. Let this teach vsus how to iudge rightly of sinne, that driues vsus from the face of God.
But doth not the glory of the Lord fill all the earth? Whither then shall they goe from his face: whither fly from Psal. 139. 7.his presence? we shall find the Prophet concluding in that Psalme; that there is neither heauen, nor hell, nor vttermost part of the sea; nor day nor night, light nor darknes, that can hide vsus from his face. Our sitting, lying downe, rising vp, the words of our tongues, wayes of our feete, thoughts of our hart, our reines, bones and mothers wombes, wherein we lay in our first informitie, are well knowne to him. Let vsus not flatter our selues, as if we would plucke out the eye of knowledge; God hideth his face, he will neuer see Psal. 10. 11.vsus. For there is neither couch in chamber, nor vault in the ground; neither bottomes of mountaines, nor holes of rockes; neither secret friend, nor more secret conscience; neither heauen nor hell that can conceale vsus.
Of him that sitteth.
Christ now sittes in glory. Whiles he was on earth duplicate page duplicate page how little rested he! He dearly earned that voice, before he heard it; Sitte thou at my right hand: now behold he sittes. Good rest is the reward of good labour: the weeke of our dayes spent, we shall hauehave an eternall Sabboth; enter into Gods rest; Apoc. 14. rest from our labours. Hast thou laboured, thou shalt hauehave ease: hast Heb. 3. 11. Reu. 14. 13.thou trauelled in the wayes of grace, thou shalt sitte on the seate of glory.
On the throne.
Christ at this day shall appeare in his true Maiestie: on earth he would not be crowned; the reason of his refusall was; my Kingdome is not of this world; now he sittes in his Throne. He hath a Kingdome here, but it is secret in the conscience: then it shall be conspicuous; sitting in his Throne. His maiestie hath beene despised; but now Bring those mine enemies that would not Luk. 19. 27.hauehave me raigne ouer them, and slay them before me.
Thus differs Christs first comming and his second. Then in humilitie, now in glory: then with poore shepheards, now with mightie Angells; then the contempt of nations, now the terror of the world: then crowned with thornes, now with maiestie: then iudged by one man, now iudging all men: then in a cratch, now in a Throne. You see his All-knowledge; now for his Almightines.
From the wrath.
The wrath of Christ is his Iustice: Attribuitur ira Deo per effectum. As man offended seekes reuenge: so when God executes iudgment, it is called his wrath. But passion in vsus, perfection in him. He hath long beene prouoked; giuegive him now leaue to stricke. You that made so light to trample his bloud vnderunder your sensuall feet, shall now find what his wrath is. Let vsus now thinke of this wrath, that we may escape it. The commination Chrise.of hell doth not lesse commend Gods prouidence, then the promise of heauen. Nisi in…ntata esset gehenna, o…es in gehennam C…beremur. Now or neuer is this wrath to be escaped: therefore, Kisse the Son least he be angry, and so ye perish from the way; if his wrath be kindled, Psal. 2. 12.yea but a little, Blessed are all they that put their trustin him.
Of the Lambe.
Christ was called a Lambe in his passion; so here in his comming to iudgment; not that he should suffer any more; but to shew that the same Lambe that was slaine shall giuegive sentence on his murderers. The Father iudgeth no man, but hath committed all iudgment vntounto the Ioh. 5. 22. 27. So act. 17. 31. & Reu. 1. 7.Sonne. And hath giuen him authoritie to execute iudgment, because he is the sonne of man. It shall aggrauat their vexation, that the Lambe who offred his bloud for their redemption, shall now censure them for despising. He that would hauehave beene their mediatour to pray for them, & their aduocate to plead for them, must nowe bee their Iudge to sentence them. The Lambe that saueth the sheepe on the right hande, shall cast off the goats on the left. The Lambe they hauehave contemned, by this Lambe they shall be condemned. Woefull men, whome the wrath of the Lambe lights on: for he shall giuegive them an Ite maledicti. What shall then become of them, but to knocke at the gates of heauen whiles those gates are standing, and crie for euer to God but to no purpose!
I hauehave no will to end with a terrour; yet no time to sweeten your thoughts with those comforts which fayth might sucke from this last word the Lambe. I say no more: the godly shall find him a Lambe indeede; as willing now to saue them, as before to suffer for them. He hath purchased, promised, and prepared a kingdome: & they shall Raigne mith him that sittes on the Throne, and with the Lambe for euermore. To whom be eternall glory.
Amen.