LI sermons preached by the Reverend Dr. Mark Frank ... being a course of sermons, beginning at Advent, and so continued through the festivals : to which is added a sermon preached at St. Pauls Cross, in the year forty-one, and then commanded to be printed by King Charles the First.

A SERMON ON THE Sixth Sunday in Lent.

DEUT. xxxii. 29.

O that they were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider their latter end!

ANd if we be They, who I am afraid we are, we are now in a good time to do it: Lent is a considering time. A Time set us by holy Church to consider what we have done all the year before, what we are to do all our years that are behind, and what we shall do, what will become of us if we do not, when all our years are at an end. It begins with a day of Ashes, and it goes out with a week we hear of nothing in but the preparations to a Grave and the Resurrection, so as it were to mind us of our latter end, make us more serious about it at this time than ordinary, from the first day of it to the last. So the Text is not unseasonable, nor the Wish in it unfit any way for the time.

And whether this Wish be Moses his, or Gods, this They his own peo∣ple, or their enemies, it is no matter. A good Wish it is from whomso∣ever to friend or enemy. Only it intimates, They are none of the wisest for whom it is.

For his own people it might well be. Them he had led out of the waste howling wilderness, ver. 10. Them he had kept there as the apple of his eye, as in the same verse; and when he brought them thence, fed them with the fat of Lambs, and the kidneys of wheat, ver. 14. And upon this, they grew fat and kickt, ver. 15. 'Tis a good Wish for them, that They were wiser.

For their Adversaries (2.) it might be as well. They had as little sense it seems, very ready to grow high at any time upon prosperities and successes, as if they, and not God, had done the business, ver. 27. 'Tis a good Wish for them, that they would understand a little better.

There's another people that we know (but I know not how to call

them, his or I know not whose, they carry themselves so strangely, (I pray God it be not we at last) whom the Wish may suit as well as any. A people, who, some of them, not long since, were, as it were, in wasts and desarts like Gods own People, (in a condition sad enough God knows) born thence no great while ago upon his wings, since that set high, and fed high with Corn, and Wine, and many good things else, who, for all that, have not well requited God that did it. Others of them, who because they came in no misfortune like other folk, nor were plagued like those other men, stand much, like Israels enemies, upon their terms; their righteousness, or power, or policy, or somewhat did the work. Both are become too much unmindful of the Rock of their Salvation, as we have it, ver. 15. and have quite forgot to consider the latter end of things, what may be yet; that however things stand now, the founda∣tions of the mountains may be set on fire again, as the Phrase is, ver. 22. if they be no wiser, either of them, than by continuance in sin to blow up the sparks; and then who can assure his house, or barns, or shop, or office at the next turn? 'Tis a good Wish for these too (both of them) that they would consider a little better on't together, in novissimo, now at last.

For all these it may be; and to be short and home, for all these it is; As in Moses's time for Israel and their enemies, so in Ours, for Us, late enemies, now friends together, that we would all be wiser once, that we men, at least at last, would understand the loving kindness of the Lord, and con∣sider the wonders that he hath done for the children of men. But above all, that men would think of this same latter end, think that all things end not here, there is somewhat to be lookt to after these days are done, which wise men would look to, and provide for. O Si, O that they would. God wishes it, and Moses wishes it, and you and I, all of us, I hope, may wish what they do without offence. But do it we must besides, else God will complain of Us, as he does of Them here in the Text. For a kind of Complaint it is, as well as a Wish; O Si, that they were, a plain Complaint that they were not.

But be it a Wish, or be it a Complaint, (and both it is) a Wish for some, that they were wise, or a Complaint of them, that they are not, for three Particulars it is,

• I. As a Wish; 'tis that the men here spoken of (1.) were wise. That (2.) they would understand this, somewhat or other that we shall see anon worth understanding. That (3.) they would especially consider their latter end.
• II. As a Complaint; it is for three things too that they vvere none of these, that they vvere neither Wise, nor Vnderstood, nor Consider'd vvhat they should. For O Si, is but a kind of a sigh that 'tis no other; a very trouble to God that men are no better.

Of both, this is the sum; that They vvho in the midst of mercies, after the sharp sense of former judgments, and not yet out of the fear of nevv ones, forget God, and either by nevv sins, or retriving old ones, slight so both his judgments and his mercies, they are neither vvise nor understanding, nor considering men (vvhat ere they go for) but a sort that God vvill complain of (vvho ere they be) for somevvhat else, and vvishes to be vviser, to understand a little better, and consi∣der novv at last, lest the latter end be vvorse vvith them than the be∣ginning.

That it may not, but that the Wish may take effect, and God have no

more reason to complain. Let us now consider the Particulars; where I must first shew you for whom, before I shew you for what it is. And yet I know not how you'l take it.

I. Indeed that Israels enemies, the Heathen, should be a Nation void of counsel, that have not any understanding in them, ver. 28. that I be∣lieve may be taken well enough.

But (2.) that Israel, Gods own people, should be of the number, they a foolish people and unwise as it is, ver. 6.

And that not the meanest of them neither, but they that eat the fat, and drink the sweet, ver. 14. the best (as we would say) of the Parish, who are always wise because they are rich, that they should not under∣stand.

Those (3.) who ride upon the high places of the earth, ver. 13. the chiefest persons, that men in honour should have no understanding. 'Tis well Moses says it; I know not whether it be safe to say it after him.

But (4.) that wise men too, not the ignorant only, but they, whose wits God seems to be afraid of, ver. 27. and dares do nothing for them, for fear they should misapply it, who (let God do what he can, say what he will) will say and prove any thing good against him; who are always giving reason upon reason for every thing, but why they reason him out of all, that They should come into the tale; that we, or any body, or God himself should wish them wise (as if they were not as wise as we could wish them) what an affront does this simple Moses put upon them? Why, Lord, who does understand if they do not? Or who will believe us if we say it?

And yet all These are They the Wish is for. Gods enemies are fools, and Gods people not so wise says our blessed Saviour, St. Luke xvi 8. The gallantest, the richest, the wisest of them not so wise always as they should be; not so wise, I hope, at any time, but God may have leave to wish them wiser.

Yea, every one of them, every mothers child, if they have learnt no more than they here in the Chapter; learnt nothing by their afflictions, but to forget them; nothing by their deliverances, but to abuse them; nothing by what is past but to be discontent with the present, and yet daily powre out themselves into excesses, and never think of what may come. If this be all the wise parts they play, as they were theirs in the Text (be they who they will) they are they God means, God make them wiser. The Wish now is like I fear to fit the Persons as well as it does the Time. And three Points there are in it I told you to be learnt. Sa∣pere, Intelligere, & Novissima Providere. To call to mind the things that are past; To understand the things that are; And to provide for things to come. To remember where we were, To understand where we are, and to consider and provide for where we may be, the three main Points of Wisdom; So St. Augustine distinguishes the three words as the three main parts of wisdom, and so shall I. But (1.) consider them as our duty; and then (2.) as Gods desire.

Sapere, or to be wise, that's the first. And Sapientia est per quam repetit ani∣mus quae fuerunt: So that learned Father, To be wise is to call to mind the things that are already past, and the great Roman Orator I may tell you takes the words so too.

And truly Moses himself seems so to mean it; For no sooner had he called this people foolish and unwise, ver. 6. but in the next words

immediately he bids them remember the days of old, and consider the years of many Generations, as if that were the way to make them wise. Indeed, if we be but of yesterday, or look no further back, Iob will quickly tell us we know nothing, Iob viii. 9. State super vias antiquas, that's the Rule God gives us, Ier. vi. 16. On the old ways ther's the standing, no foundation to build on else. New opinions and devices are but a kind of standing upon our own heads; we cannot stand so long; a building upon a tottering and boggy ground, which vents it self ordinarily into vapours, that make a noise and blustering, darken and infect the air and nothing else. Every wind, too, carries them which way it will, this way, or that way, or any way; and, observe it when you will, once out of the old way, and they ne'r know where to fix.

Yet (2.) to be wise, has here a notion more practical, and sends us sadly and soberly to meditate now and then upon the late condition we were in. And surely, where God found us, and how he found us, how he led us about, and how he instructed us, how he kept us all the while as the apple of his eye, how he flutter'd over us with his wings, how he spread them abroad and bore us on them, (I keep the expressions of the Chapter, for Israels case was much our own) or to speak out, the desolations, and po∣verties, and distresses, and reproaches we were in; the prisons, the dangers, the necessities we escapt; the supplies, the reliefs, the protections we found (we know not how) are not things would be forgotten; they are such, as (one would think) would make one wise. They would be written upon our walls, and beams, and posts, and doors; written with a Pen of Iron, and with the point of a Diamond, graven upon the Tables of our hearts, and upon the horns of our Altars, or (as Iob speaks) upon the rock for ever. Our Churches, our Halls, our Chambers, all our Rooms hung round with the sad stories we have seen, to make them live in our memories, and in our childrens after us, to make them wise by their fathers sufferings.

And yet (3.) to be wise is more still: To make these things live in our lives as well as memories, to grow good upon it. To be wise, and to do good the Psalmist joyns, Psal. xxxvi. 3. Indeed, they cannot be asunder. He is not vvise vvho is not good. To keep my Lavvs and do them, this is your vvisdom, and your understanding; the vvay to make the Nations say, This is a wise and understanding people. So God determines it, Deut, iv. 6.

Indeed, I come not hither to preach other vvisdom, I should make my preaching foolishness then, indeed, in a truer sense than the Apostle meant it. The Wisdom of God (if vve can keep to it) that's our business. And he (1.) that hearkens to it, he is vvise says the vvisest Solomon, Prov. xii. 15. He (2.) vvho exalted from that lovv condition, vve vvere speaking of, to a high one, is lovvly still, he is vvise, says he again, Prov. xi. 2. He (3.) vvho upon the same accompt keeps himself under still, keeps under Discipline and Government as if he felt the former lashes still, he is vvise. Apprehendite disciplinam, is a Point of holy Davids Nunc ergo sapite, of the vvisdom he commends, Psal. ii. 11.

But if you vvill be vvise, indeed, and pardon me that I extend Wis∣dom a little further than I first propounded it, There are four things that are exceeding wise, Prov. xxx. 24. you may learn it of. The Ants, that pre∣pare their meat in the Summer. The Conies, that make their houses in the Rock. The Locusts, that go forth all of them by bands. And the Spider, that takes hold with her hands, and is in Kings Palaces. Were vve but as vvise as they,

as Ants, and Conies, and Locusts, and Spiders (and 'tis a shame we should not) we would by the experience of our former evils: Prepare (1.) in good days with the Ant, for bad ones. We would (2.) with the Conies build our dwellings in the Rock St. Paul says was Christ; having felt sufficiently already there is no sure building else. We would (3.) go forth, as the Locusts do, to gather all by bands, unite in the bond of peace and charity, not straggle into factions, and divide in parties, re∣membring what that lately came to, and may quickly come to again if we look not to it. We would (4.) with the Spider, catch hold with our hands, keep our selves employed in our own business, trades, or stu∣dies, and not meddle with things we either understand not, or belong not to us. We would learn of them besides to be in the palaces of the great King, the houses of God a little more constantly than we are. This would be to be exceeding wise.

And if to these we add the wisdom of the Serpent, as our blessed Sa∣viour commends it to us, St. Mark x. 16. make it our care above all (as they say the Serpent does) to save our heads, Caput Christum, and Caput Regem, Christ our head, and the King our Head, make it our business to keep our Religion and obedience safe. Be who will else thought never so wise, I am sure there is none wiser, as God counts wisdom, than they that do so.

Yet lastly, if you had rather take the rule of your wisdom from above, take it from St. Iames, That wisdom (says he) is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, easie to be entreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, with∣out hypocrisie, St. James iii. 17. So to be wise, is to wash our hands of what is past, to live peaceably and orderly, friendly and kindly together for the time to come, heartily promoting one anothers good, without grudg∣ing or dissembling. For in returning and quietness, it seems, is the Apostle wisdom, as well as the Prophets strength, Isa. xxx. 15. wisdom it seems and strength both. I would some would understand it, that, or this, nay, that and this, we are to consider next. The condition we are in, that 'tis we are now to understand. For Intelligentia perspicit quae sunt, so St. Augustin defines it, and this hoc is most naturally the present. So to understand this, (which is the second particular in the wish) is, to be truly sensible how things now go with us. Where (1.) what it is we are to understand, and then what it is to understand it.

What this is we take in two particulars: Gods dealing with us, and our dealing with him again. These two, the this, the business we are wish'd to understand.

I. And how God deals with Vs, the high places of the earth we ride on, ver. 13. the places and offices we enjoy, the increase of the Fields we eat of, the plenty we abound with, the Honey we suck out of the rock, and the oil that issued to us out of the flinty rock, the same verse, those blessings which we could no more expect than those sweet dews out of stones and flints, the butter and milk, ver. 14. the smoothness and even∣ness of our conditions now, the fat of lambs, and rams, and goats in the next words; the full tables we well nigh groan at, and the pure blood of the grape, the mirth and jollity we live in tell us as plain, I say, how he deals with us as they did Israel how he dealt with them. One day tells an∣other, how the Almighty commands it to dart blessings on us, and one night certifies another, how he enjoyns it to shadow us with protections, both speak loud enough to have their voices heard among us.

But how (2.) we deal with him again. I would there were no voice

abroad, I would no body heard, I would Gath did not speak it, nor the streets of Askelon ring of it, that the day might be clouded with dark∣ness to cover it, and that the night were as the shadow of death to bu∣ry it for ever: that thou, O God however, wouldst not reckon the days of our ingratitude in the number of our months. We are surrounded with plenty, and we abuse it to excess. We are encompassed with peace, and we disturb it with petty quarrels. We are loaded with wealth and riches, and we lash them out in lusts and vanities. We are cloathed with honours, and we dishonour them with meannesses. Our friends are given into our bosoms, and we envy some of them, and slight the rest. Our Laws are restored us, and we live as if we had none. Our Religion is re∣turned, and we laugh it out of countenance. Good discipline reviving, and we are doing what we can to break the bonds in sunder. Our Churches now stand open to us, and we pass by them with neglect. Our King God has set upon his holy Hill, and the people still imagin vain things against him. In a word, we are filled with all good things, and we do all the evil we can with them. We fill up our days with iniquities, and our nights with transgressions. We neither consider Gods dealings, nor mind our own. We understand neither that nor this.

For to understand this (which is the second branch of this particular) is to understand both whence and whither these mercies are, whence they come, and whither they tend.

For the first we are too ready to say with the Heathen, ver. 27. Our hand is high, and God hath not done it. God hath not done it; why, tell me then (I pray) what were the counsels that brought things about? where were the Armies that forced our passage? whence the mony that smooth'd the way? who confounded the devices, who fettered the for∣ces? who divided the strengths that were against us? who turned the hearts of the Fathers to the Children, and the hearts of the Children to the Fathers? who softned our enemies? who strengthned our friends? who suppled strangers at last to pity us? who calm'd the Seas? who held the winds? who guided our happiness into our harbours, and even threw it into our bosoms? This Cloud, that arose like Eliah's out of the Sea, 1 Kings xviii. 44. out of the vast Sea of Gods endless mercy, and cover∣ed Heaven, and Earth with blessings (till we are grown black, I fear sadly black and sinful with them) it was not as his servant took it, like a mans hand at all, it was like Gods all the way, it was meerly Gods, Non nobis therefore Domine non nobis, must be our Psalm, Not unto us, O Lord, not unto us, but to thy name only be the glory. And this the first way to understand his mercies, to confess from him they come, and so give him thanks.

The second is, to learn also whether they tend. They are in St. Pauls understanding to lead us to repentance, Rom. ii. 4. (and the time is pro∣per for it.) In the Psalmists, to understand well is to do thereafter, Psal. cxi. 10. So to understand Gods blessings right well, is to use them right well. And when under blessings we live accordingly, take them thank∣fully, use them soberly, employ them charitably, then, and not till then we understand them.

Yet lastly, I must add, that till we think we have no understand∣ing, till we confess we are (what God says we are in the words just before) a Nation that has none, a Nation that when time was, undid it self with its own wisdom, whilst we would needs teach God to govern his Church, and rule the world, and in a manner force him either to make the world anew again out of nothing, or make the

Church into it; till we grow sensible how wisely we reformed all till we had reformed God out of all, and all into Atheism, and confusion; and that we are no wiser still then to tread in the same steps that will do it again, there will be little hope we understand Gods dealings or our own. Yet this understanding our not understanding God here particularly points them to; for having immediately before said, this people, they were a Nation that had not any understanding, he presently adds, O that they were wise and understood it; even this very thing in particular, that they do not understand, as wise as they seem, or think themselves. The next point may make them wiser if however now at last they will consider their latter end. What may be the end both of their follies, and their wisdoms here, and what is like to be the end of them hereafter; what in this world, and what in the other; for Novissima reaches both, the issues of this life and the issues of the next. Et novissima providerent.

III. Several latter ends there are of both sorts, to be considered; but how things may notwithstanding the fair face they carry, end yet here e're long, that consider first. And that I shall tell you without stirring out of the Chapter, for God tells us it there himself: (1.) He will set on fire the foundations of the mountains, verse 22. if we be no wiser than we have been yet. The highest mountains of our honours, the greatest mountains of our strengths, nay, the sirmest foundations we can build on shall fall all into ashes, and scatter into smoke and air.

Or (2.) burning heat, and bitter destruction shall devour us, ver. 24. even our zeal and bitterness against one another shall raise such flames as shall consume us all together, High and low, rich and poor, one with an∣other.

Or (3.) he will send the teeth of beasts upon us, with the poison of the Serpents of the dust, ver. 24. again; set the beasts of the people again to tear and worry us: nay, even the most contemptible persons, the ver∣mine of the dust, they shall devour us. They shall creep like Serpents in∣to our Families, poison them with errors, poison with sin, poison them with lusts, multiply too there like dust, and destroy us e're we dream on't.

Or, if we escape that, the sword (4.) without, and the terror within shall destroy the young man, and the Virgin, the suckling, and the man of gray hairs, ver. 25. nor young, nor old escape the second bout.

Or (5.) He will scatter us into corners, ver. 26. but they shall not hide and shelter us as before; our very remembrance he shall make to cease, we shall come no more out, ver. 26. Not so much as an ear, or leg, as the Prophet speaks, Amos iii. 12. taken out of the Lions mouth to remember us by. But a populus non populus, a people that we count as nothing, shall possess our room, ver. 21. any thing, every thing that will but serve to root us out.

Some of these, nay, all these lastly, and more shall come upon us, heaps of mischiefs, ver. 23. and all the arrows of the Almighty, till they be spent, as in the same verse, if we be no wiser than we have been hi∣therto, if we understand no better how to use either our bad days or our good ones. And if after not only so many fair warnings, but so many fair enjoyments, we carelesly throw away our selves into our former mi∣series, we shall also die like fools; and who can be such to pity us?

That all these have not befallen us before this time, that God has not torn up our foundations, nor given us over to our own wraths, nor to the peoples, that he has not scattered us, nor brought some ill end or other upon us long e're this; 'tis not for our righteousness, I am sure: but ne

hostes dicerent, ver. 27. lest some should justifie their own dealings, or ne populus diceret, lest some others condemn Gods, as if he had delivered them only to destroy them. But what e're they say, Ego retribuam eis in tempore, their foot shall slide in due time, says God, & juxta est dies perditionis, the day of their calamity is at hand, ver. 35.

But if we escape all these, there are four other latter ends that must be thought on; Death and Judgment, Hell and Heaven: the quatuor no∣vissima, that everybody can tell, but few consider, yet the two first of them we cannot avoid, and one of the other we must come to.

And (1.) suppose our prosperity and splendor should go with us to the Grave (and we can carry them no further) yet after we have lived like Gods to come to die like men, to be shaken with Agues, or burnt with Fevers, or torn with Cholicks, or swoln with Gouts, or groan away in pain, or go out in stench, (every body glad when we are gone) and at our going to be stript of all our gallantry with a stulte cujus haec? Thou fool, whose are all these things thou must leave behind? to be sent away with so scornful a farewel, into rottenness and putrefaction, and so be blown into dust, and vanish into oblivion, like the meanest men, or per∣haps which is far more terrible to be pluckt away in the heat and vio∣lence of a sin, and none to deliver is, is but a sad end of all our jollities and glories.

Yet hence (2.) to be drawn to the last Tribunal (that's the next stage we come to) there to have our follies fully laid open to the eyes of all the world, not a night-folly hid, where we must give an account of eve∣ry hour and minute spent, every word and thought as well as work: af∣ter all our blustering here to be dragged thither to a reckoning for every farthing, even to the last mite, and receive accordingly, how bad so e're it be: This will set us to consider, sure, what we shall answer at that day, how to give up our accounts with joy, and come off with glory.

For we end not yet, there is still a latter end beyond both these; two for fail: and 'tis yet within your choice, which you will come to. Novissima coeli, or Novissima inferni. The highest Heaven, or the lowest Hell. This last we have, ver. 22. and that we will take first. 'Tis better ending with the t' other.

For this, 'tis a place whence joy is ever banish'd, and where no good is; where nothing but sorrow, and sadness, and horror dwells: where the wicked lie wrapt in flames, and Sulphur, covered with worms, and stench, and darkness. All the racks and tortures that the wit of cruelty ever found out here, are beds of Down and Roses to those horrid lodg∣ings. Here in the bitterest pains there is some part or other well, or some∣what or other always to be found to give us ease. The light will chear us, or the night refresh us, or sleep give us rest. Company will divert the anguish, or custom lighten it, or hope lessen it, or time wear it out. But in that place of torment (so Dives called and felt it) nor soul, nor body, nor faculty, nor member free. The conscience of former sins, that ter∣rifies them; the memories of former happiness, that distracts them, the understanding now what they have forfeited and might have had, that above all infinitely torments them. The tongue burns, and the teeth gnash, and the heart trembles, and the eyes weep, and the hands wail, and the ears are filled with continual screeches, and everlasting howlings, and every member is intolerably tortured with the punishment of its own sins: and yet not so much there as a drop of water to refresh 'um, not a gleam of light to comfort 'um, no rest day nor night. The company

of Devils, and damned spirits, (the only company there) and amongst them (perhaps) their dearest friends, or Wives, or Children, infinitely increase their hell; and all is augmented by continuance: for no such thing as hope to be heard of there. 'Tis the Kingdom of despairs and terrors, The worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched: all the miseries are everlasting, everlasting. This the latter end of all the people that forget God, says holy David, that forget him in their prosperities; into Hell they shall be turned, Psal. ix. 17.

Nor is this the melancholy mans dream, or the contrivance of the Politician, or the Priests cheat to keep men in awe. If a cheat it be, 'tis God has cheated you, and Christ has cheated you, and the Prophets have cheated you, and the Apostles have cheated you, for they all say the same thing: And would the rantingest of those brave fellows that scoff at it, sit down a little and consider, (which I am sure they never do) or should the tremblings of death begin to seize them, when their understandings are about them (which are not always) and open the windows into ano∣ther world, then these would be the words of truth and soberness, then, men and brethren, what shall we do (when commonly 'tis too late.) How shall we do with these everlasting burnings? we will do any thing, suffer any thing to avoid them.

Then Heaven too, the end we reserved for our last, that will begin to be thought on too, and how to get in there. There, where is joy with∣out any sad look to shadow it; pleasure without any tang to stain it; peace without disturbance, plenty without fatiety, continual health without infirmity, nor grief, nor fear, nor hazzard to impair our happi∣ness, or fully it. Glorious, all glorious things are spoken of thee, (Thou City of God.) Gold, and Pearls, and Diamonds, and all precious Stones; King∣doms, and Thrones, and Crovvns, and Scepters; torrents of Joy, ri∣vers of Pleasure, vvell-springs of Life, dvvellings of Glory, seats of blessedness, and blessed company, the Throne of God, all are said of thee, thou glorious place. And yet vvhen all is said, vve must conclude vvith the Apostle, that neither eye hath seen, nor ear heard, neither have en∣tred into the heart of man the things prepared there, or if they had, it seems it is not lavvful for a man to utter them, 2 Cor. xii. 4. So I must needs leave them to you to consider them.

And truly 'tis time novv to tell you vvhat considering is. (1.) 'Tis to sit dovvn and lay your ends together, and think upon them. Consider then seriously (1.) vvhether you vvould have your foundations once more unsetled, your houses plundered, your estates sequestred (they are scurvy vvords, pray pardon them) your glories once again trod to dirt: Whether 'tis good making ventures, trying Gods severities the second time. For let them smite you but once more, and as Abisha said to David, so say I to you, they vvill not smite you the second time.

Consider again, (2.) vvhether seeing hovvever you must leave all these enjoyments, within so short a span of time as death is off us, (and vve may be fetcht off the stage e're vve are avvare, ill provided for it) it be vvis∣dom to lay up all our treasure and provision here; either so hoard up here as if it vvere for ever, or so lavish here as if it vvere to accompt for never.

And seeing to that accompt vve must come at last, consider (3.) vvhe∣ther such Imprimis's and Items as the long impertinent Bills of sins and pleasures vvill bring in, vvill pass current at the last Audit; vvhether so much in purple and fine linen, so much in living sumptuously every day,

so little time in the assemblies of devotion, and so much in those of va∣nity: whether, Soul take thy ease, eat, drink, and be merry, the living in all liberty and licenciousness; the being hateful, and the hating one an∣other will pass for a rewarding the Almighty for his mercies, when, Come ye blessed, go ye cursed, come in to conclude the day.

And if they will not pass so (as no doubt they will not) consider (4.) what will be next the end you come to, and remember but half that I have told you of those eternal fires (and I have told you nothing in compari∣son) and then tell me again whether the strictest attendances of piety, the largest expences of charity, the trouble now and then of doing well, the beggarliness of honesty, the restraints of temperance, the nice∣ness of chastity, the very hardships of repentance, watching, fasting, weeping, even the greatest penances of Religion, as high as the ri∣gours and austerities of Hermits and Anchorets be not far easier to be endu∣red, and whether we can be thought wise any way, if we omit any way to prevent those flames.

Or if you had rather be led with hopes and glory (as all ingenuous and noble natures had) consider (5.) whether all the glories ye have liv'd in, all the satisfaction ye have met with, all the delights ye have ever here enjoyed, or ever can, be worth one minute of those eternal fulnesses in Gods presence in the Heavens; when even they that counted the Reli∣gious mans life, but madness, Wisdom v. 4. and laught piety and honesty out of doors, were so amaz'd at the glory and strangeness of the righ∣teous mans salvation, so far beyond all that they looked for, ver. 2. that they even groan'd for anguish of spirit, and cry'd out openly, We fools, we fools indeed, how have we cheated our selves of Hea∣ven, the glorious Kingdom, whilst the poor Lazarus's, these poor contemptible things crept in, and we with all our pride, and riches, and vaunting quite shut out, ver. 8.

And now I may read the Text another way, as an assertion, not a wish: and I find it read so. Thus, Si saperent & intelligerent & provi∣derent. If men were wise, they would both understand and consi∣der all these things without this ado. They would presently turn considerarent into providerent too, (and so the word is rendred by the vulgar) and provide now for their latter end. And the provision will not stand us in much, nor shall I stand long upon it. Three ways to do it, and you have all.

The Son of Syrach's (1.) Remember thy end, and let enmity cease, says he, Ecclus. xxviii. 6. Let us not spend our wits, our courage, our estates any longer in feuds and enmities, seeing God has now at length so strangely brought us all altogether.

The (2.) way shall be his too, with a little alteration, Ecclus. vii. 36. Remember thy latter end, and that thou never henceforward do amiss. I know 'tis read, remember and thou shalt not, but 'tis as true if read, remember and thou wilt not: if you consider it as you should, you will also provide you sin no more.

To make all sure, make the provision our Blessed Saviour would have you for a third. Provide the bags that wax not old, St. Luke xii. 33. friends that will not fail you, make them to you out of the Mammon you have gotten, make the poor your friends with it, That when ye fail they may receive you into everlasting habitations, S. Luke xvi. 9.

And consider lastly for the close of this part of the Text (and I am almost at the close of all) that all this is Gods desire. He wishes it here,

he wishes it all the holy Text through, Oh that there were such an heart in them, Deut. v. 29. O that my people would hearken to it, Psal. lxxxi. 14. O that men would therefore, Psal. cvii. four times in it.

II. And yet the second general of the Text tells you, he does more; wishes it so heartily, that he complains again: complains they answer not his wishes. And wisht he has so often, that he may well complain. How often have I, says he, St. Luke xiii. 34. so often nor they nor we can tell it. Only so often Noluistis, as often as he would, so often they would not. All the day long he had stretched out his hand unto them, sent to them by his messengers, early and late, to desire them, visited them with judgments, courted them with mercies, and yet they would not, diso∣bedient and gain-saying people that they were. And therefore com∣plain he does, that do what he can, he must give them up, though with a Quomodo te tradam? Hos. xi. 8. with great regret and sorrow, give them up for fools, men of neither understanding, nor consideration; men that like fools throw away Gold for baubles, men that are so far from un∣derstanding or considering, that they live as if they car'd not whether they went to Heaven or Hell.

But I love not to lengthen out complaints,; in this case I should ne're have done: and 'tis time I should. And the Text only insinuating, not enlarging Gods complaints, gives me an item to do so too. Only give me leave in brief to sum up all.

Every wise man before at any time he begins a work, sits down and considers what he has to do, and to what end he does it. O that we would be so wise in ours; that we would retire our selves some mi∣nutes now and then to consider the ill courses at any time we are in (or entring on.) And when we are got into our Chambers, and be still thus commune with our selves.

What is this business I am about? to what purpose is this life I lead, this sin, this waste, this vanity, Am I grown so soon forgetful of my late sad condition, or so insensible of my late rebellions, and of the pardon God has given me, as thus impudently to sin again? Is this the reward I make him for all his mercies, thus one after another to abuse them still? or is it that I am weary of my happiness, and grown so wanton as to tempt destruction? Is it that I may go with more dishonour to my Grave, leave a blot upon my name, and stand upon record for a fool, or worse, to all posterity for ever? Is it that I have not already sins enough, but I must thus foolishly still burthen my accompts? Is it that I may go the more gloriously to Hell, and damn my self the deeper? Is it that I may purposely thwart God in all his ways of mercy and judg∣ment, cross his desires, scorn his entreaties, defie his threats, despise his complaints, anger him to the heart, that I may be rid of him, and quit my hands of all my interests in Heaven for ever. Why this is the English of my sins, my profaneness, and debaucheries, the courses I am in, or now going upon: and will I still continue them?

This would be considering indeed, and a few hours thus spent some∣times would make us truly wise. And let us but do so, we shall quickly see the effect of them, God shall have his wishes, and we shall be wise, and we shall have ours too, all we can wish or hope, and no complaining in our streets. All our former follies shall be forgotten, and all ill ends be far off from us; and when these days shall have an end, we shall then go to our Graves in peace, to our Accompts with joy, and passing by (some of us perhaps) even the gates of Hell, come happily to the end

of all our hopes, the salvation of our souls, have our end, glory, and honour, and immortality, and eternal life; where we, as Daniel tells us the wise do, shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament, and as the Stars for ever and ever.

Whether he bring us, who is the eternal Wisdom of his Father, Je∣sus Christ; to whom with the Father, and the Holy Spirit, three Per∣sons, and one Eternal, Immortal, Invisible, and only Wise God, be all Power, and Riches, and Wisdom, and Strength, and Honour, and Glory, and Blessing for ever and ever.