: undoing of their souls; for hereupon they grow utterly careless to get what they think they have already who cares to eat, that is full crammed ? And by this means they live and die graceless; for had they ever tasted how sweet the Lord is in the graces of his Holy Spirit, they could never think they had enough; and while they do think so, they are utterly uncapable of either having or desiring more. As there is a sinful, so there is a holy covetousness, which the more it hath the more it affects. Lord, make me thus covetous, and I cannot choose but be rich. XLIII. What a marvellous familiarity was this which Moses had with God, that the Lord spake unto Moses, face to face, as a man speaketh unto his friend!'' and yet more, that Moses so spake to God! What a bold and high request was that which Moses made to God: 'I beseech thee show me thy glory;' that is, as it is there interpreted, thy face!' that face which no man might see and live. Lo; God hath immediately before spoken to Moses, even to his face, out of the cloudy pillar: that doth not satisfy his holily ambitious soul; but as he heard the voice, so he must see the face, of the Almighty. That cloudy pillar did sufficiently represent unto him the presence of the great God of Israel; yet still he sues for a sight of his glory. This is no pattern for flesh and blood-far be it from our thoughts to aspire so high. "Thy face, O God, will we seek but in thy blessed ordinances, not in thy glorious and incomprehensible essence. It is not for me as yet to presume so far as to desire 1 Exod. xxxiii. 11. to see that infinite light which thou art, or that light wherewith thou art clothed, or that light inaccessible wherein thou dwellest; only now show me the light of thy countenance in grace, and prepare my soul for that light of glory when I shall see as I am seen. XLIV. In the waters of life, the divine Scriptures, there are shallows and there are deeps; shallows where the lamb may wade, and deeps where the elephant may swim. If we be not wise to distinguish, we may easily miscarry he that can wade over the ford cannot swim through the deep, and if he mistake the passage he drowns. What infinite mischief hath arisen to the church of God from the presumption of ignorant and unlettered men, that have taken upon them to interpret the most obscure Scriptures, and pertinaciously defended their own sense! How contrary is this to all practice, in whatsoever vocation. In the tailor's trade, every man can stitch a seam, but every man cannot cut out a garment; in the sailor's art, every one may be able to pull at a cable, but every one cannot guide the helm; in the physician's profession, every gossip can give some ordinary receipts upon common experience, but to find the nature of the disease, and to prescribe proper remedies from the just grounds of art, is proper to the professors of that science, and we think it absurd and dangerous to allow every ignorant mountebank to practice: in matter of law, every plain countryman knows what belongs to distraining, impounding, replevying; but to give sound counsel to a client in a point of difficulty, to draw firm conveyances, to plead effec tually, and to give sound judgment in the hardest cases, is for none but barristers and benchers: and shall we think it safe that in divinity, which is the mistress of all sciences, and in matters which may concern the eternal safety of the soul, every man should take upon him to shape his own coat, to steer his own way, to give his own dose, to put and adjudge his own case? The old word was, That artists are worthy to be trusted in their own trade. Wherefore hath God given to men skill in arts and tongues? Wherefore do the aptest wits spend their times and studies from their infancy upon these sacred employments, if men altogether inexpert in all the grounds, both of art and language, can be able to pass as sound a judgment in the depths of theological truths as they? How happy were it if we could all learn according to that word of the apostle, to keep ourselves within our own line! As Christians the Scriptures are ours; but to use, to enjoy, to read, to hear, to learn, to meditate, to practise, not to interpret according to our private conceit; for this faculty we must look higher: The priest's lips are to preserve knowledge, and they shall seek the law at his mouth; for he is the messenger of the Lord of hosts.'1 XLV. When we see the year in his prime and pride, decked with beautiful blossoms and all goodly varieties of flowers, cheered with the music of birds, and stated in a sweet and moderate temper of heat and cold, how glad we are that we have made so good an exchange for a hard and chilling ' Mal. ii. 7. winter, and how ready we could be to wish that this pleasant and happy season might last all the year long! But herein, were our desires satisfied, we should wish to our own great disadvantage; for if the spring were not followed with an intention of summer's heat, those fruits, whose hopes we see in the bud and flower, could never come to any perfection; and even that succeeding fervour, if it should continue long, would be no less prejudicial to the health and life of all creatures; and if there were not a relaxation of that vigorous heat in autumn, so as the sap returns back into the root, we could never look to see but one year's fruit. And thus also it is spiritually; if our prosperity were not intermixed with vicissitudes of crosses, and if the lively beams of grace were not sometimes interchanged with cold desertions, we should never know what belongs to spiritual life. What should we do then, but be both patient of and thankful for our changes, and make no account of any constancy till we attain to the region of rest and blessedness? XLVI. What fools doth the devil make of those men, which would fain otherwise be accounted wise! Who would think that men could be so far forsaken of their reason, as to fall down before those stocks and stones which their own hands had carved? to guide their enterprises by the fond auguries of the flying, or posture, or noise of fowls, or the inspection of the entrails of beasts? to tie the confidence of their success to certain scrawls and characters, which themselves have devised? to read their own or others' fortunes in their hands or stars? to suffer themselves to be mocked with deceitful visions? 1 Neither are his spiritual delusions less gross and palpable. Wise Solomon speaks of 'the wickedness of folly ;'1 and we may no less truly invert it, The folly of wickedness. The fool, saith our Saviour, 'builds his house upon the sand,'' so as it may be washed away by the next waves: what other doth the foolish worldling, that builds all his hopes upon uncertain riches,' 'momentary pleasures,' ' deceitful favours.' 95 6 The fool,' saith Solomon, 'walketh in darkness;' the sinner walks in the darkness of ignorance, through the works of darkness, to the pit of darkness. The fool,' saith the preacher, 'knowns not the way into the city;' the worldling may perhaps hit the way through the golden gates of honour, or down to the mines of wealth, or to the flowery garden of pleasure; but the way of true peace he knows not; he no more knows the way to heaven than if there were none. The fool,' saith the psalmist, hath said in his heart, There is no God:' did not the wicked man say so, he durst not wilfully sin in the face of so mighty and dreadful an avenger. Lastly, the fool is apt to part with his patrimony for some gay toys; and how ready is the carnal heart to cast away the favour of God, the inheritance of heaven, the salvation of his soul, for these vain earthly trifles! Holy men are wont to pass with the world for God's fools: alas! how little do these censurers know to pass a true judgment of wisdom and folly! He that was rapt into the third heaven tells us, that 'the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God stronger than men ;' but this we 1 Eccl. vii. 25. 2 Matt. vii. 26. 31 Tim. vi. 17. 5 Prov. xxxi. 30. |