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devil is a lion to ants, dasheth whole hills of them with his paw, that creep under him, but he is but an ant to birds; they prey upon him, that fly above him. If we fear the Lord, our concupiscences, our carnal affections, ourselves, may prove our best friends, because, as the fire in the furnace did not burn the men, but it burnt off those bands, that fettered and manacled them, (for they were loose, and walked in the furnace") so our concupiscences, if we resist them, shall burn off themselves, and file off their own rust, and our salvation shall be surer by occasion of temptations. We may prevent mortem mortificatione, everlasting death, by a disciplinary life. Mori, ne moriamur, is his rule too", to die to the fires of lust here, lest we die in unquenchable fires hereafter; to die daily, (as St. Paul speaks of himself) lest we die at the last day. To end this, this is the working of the fear of the Lord, it devours all other fears; God will have no half-affections, God will have no partners; he that fears God fears nothing else.

This then is the operation of the fear of the Lord, this is his working; remains only to consider what this fear of the Lord is: and, beloved in him, be not afraid of it; for, this fear of God, is the love of God. And, howsoever there may be some amongst us, whom the height of birth, or of place, or of spirit hath kept from fear, they never feared anything, yet, I think, there is none, that never loved anything. Obligations of matrimony, or of friendship, or of blood, or of alliance, or of conversation, hath given every one of us, no doubt, some sense in ourselves, what it is to love, and to enjoy that which we do love; and the fear of God, is the love of God. The love of the Lord passeth all things, saith the wise man": the love, what is that to fear? It follows, The fear of the Lord, is the beginning of his love. As they that build arches, place centres under the arch, to bear up the work, till it be dried, and settled, but, after, all is arch, and there is no more centre, no more support; so to lie at the Lord's feet awhile, delivers us into his arms, to accustom ourselves to his fear, establishes us in his love. Be content to stop a little, even at the lowest fear, the fear of hell. When Saul was upon an expedition,

44 Dan. iii.

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Augustine.

46 Ecclus. xxv. 11.

and did not find himself well followed, he took a yoke of oxen, and hewed them in pieces, and proclaimed, that whosoever came not to the supply, all his oxen should be so served; and upon this, (says the text there) The fear of the Lord fell upon all the people, and they came out, as one man, three hundred and thirty thousand. If Saul's threatening of their worldly goods, wrought so; let God's threatening of thyself, thine inwardest self, thy soul, with hell, make thee to stop even upon thy fear of the Lord, the fear of torment. Stop upon the second fear too, the fear of privation and loss of the sight of God in heaven; that when all we have disputed, with a modest boldness, and wondered with a holy wonder, what kind of sight of God we shall have in heaven, then when thou shouldest come to an end, and to an answer of all these doubts, in an experimental trial, how he shall be seen, (seen thus) thou shalt see then that thou shalt never see him. After thou hast used to hear, all thy life, blessedness summed up into that one act, we shalt see God, thou shalt never come nearer to that knowledge, thou shalt never see him; fear the Lord therefore in this second fear, fear of privation. And fear him in a third fear, the fear of the loss of his grace here in this world, though thou have it now. St. Chrysostom serves himself and us, with an ordinary comparison, a tiler is upon the top of the house, but he looks to his footing, he is afraid of falling. A righteous man is in a high place in God's favour, but he may lose that place. Who is higher than Adam, higher than the angels? and whither fell they? Make not thou then thy assurance of standing, out of their arguments, that say it is impossible for the righteous to fall, the sins of the righteous are no sins in the sight of God; but build thy assurance upon the testimony of a good conscience, that thou usest all diligence, and holy industry, that thou mayest continue in God's favour, and fearest to lose it; for, he that hath no fear of losing, hath no care of keeping. Accustom thyself to these fears, and these fears will flow into a love. As love, and jealousy may be the same thing, so the fear and love of God will be all one; for jealousy is but a fear of losing. Brevissima differentia Testamentorum, timor et amor; this dis

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tinguishes the two Testaments, the Old is a Testament of fear, the New of love; yet in this they grow all one, that we determine the Old Testament, in the New, and that we prove the New Testament by the Old; for, but by the Old, we should not know, that there was to be a New, nor, but for the New, that there was an Old; so the two Testaments grow one Bible; so in these two affections, if there were not a jealousy, a fear of losing God, we could not love him; nor can we fear to lose him, except we do love him. Place the affection, (by what name soever) upon the right object, God, and I have, in some measure, done that which this text directed, (Taught you the fear of the Lord) if I send you away in either disposition, timorous, or amorous, possessed with either, the fear, or the love of God; for, this fear is inchoative love, and this love is consummative fear; the love of God begins in fear, and the fear of God ends in love; and that love can never end, for God is love.

SERMON CXXVIII.

AN ANNIVERSARY SERMON, PREACHED AT ST. DUNSTAN'S, UPON THE COMMEMORATION OF A PARISHIONER, a beneFACTOR TO THAT PARISH.

GENESIS iii. 24.

And dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.

THIS is God's malediction upon the serpent in paradise, there in the region, in the storehouse of all plenty, he must starve; this is the serpent's perpetual fast, his everlasting Lent, (Dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life.) There is a generation derived from this serpent, progenies viperarum, a generation of vipers, that will needs in a great, and unnecessary measure, keep this serpent's Lent, and bind themselves to perform his fast; for, the Carthusian will eat no flesh, (and yet, I never saw better bodied men, men of better habitudes and constitution, howsoever they recompense their abstinence from flesh) and the Fueillans will eat neither flesh nor fish, but roots, and salads, (and yet amongst

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them, amongst men so enfeebled by roots, was bred up that man, who had both malicious courage, and bodily strength, to kill the last king, who was killed amongst them*) they will be above others in their fasts, fish, and roots will they eat, all the days of their life, but their Master will be above them in his fast, (Dust must he eat all the days of his life.)

It is Luther's observation upon this place, that in all Moses his books, God never spoke so long, so much together, as here, upon this occasion. Indeed the occasion was great; it was the arrangement of all the world, and more; of mankind, and of angels too; of Adam, and Eve, (and there were no more of them) and then of the serpent, and of Satan in that, and of all the fallen angels in him. For the sentence which God, as judge gave upon them, upon all these malefactors, of that part which fell upon the woman, all our mothers are experimental witnesses, they brought forth us in sorrow and in travail. Of that part of the sentence which fell upon man, every one of us is an experimental witness, for in every calling, in the sweat of our face, we eat our bread. And of that part of the judgment, which was inflicted upon the serpent, and Satan in him, this dead brother of ours who lies in this consecrated earth, is an experimental witness, who being by death reduced to the state of dust, for so much of him, as is dust, that is, for his dead body, and then, for so long time, as he is to remain in that state of dust, is in the portion, and jurisdiction, and possession of the serpent, that is, in the state which the serpent hath induced upon man, and dust must he eat all the days of his life.

In passing through these words, we shall make but these two steps; first, what the serpent lost, by this judgment inflicted upon him; and secondly, what man gained by it; for these two considerations embrace much, involve much; first, that God's anger is so intensive, and so extensive, so spreading, and so vehement, as that in his justice, he would not spare the serpent, who had no voluntary, no innate, no natural ill disposition towards man, but was only made the instrument of Satan, in the overthrow of And then, that God's mercy is so large, so overflowing, so superabundant, as that even in his judgment upon the serpent, * I suppose this alludes to Ravaillac; Henry IV. was assasinated in 1610.—ED.

man.

he would provide mercy for man. For, as it is a great weight of judgment upon the serpent, that the serpent must eat dust, so is it a great degree of mercy to man, that the serpent must eat but dust, because man's best part is not subject to be served in at his table, the soul cannot become dust, (and dust must he eat all the days of his life.) O, in what little sin, though but a sin of omission, though but a sin of ignorance, in what circumstance of sin, may I hope to escape judgment, if God punished the serpent who was violently, and involuntarily transported in this action? And in what depth, in what height, in what heinousness, in what multiplicity of sin can I doubt of the mercy of my God, who makes judgment itself the instrument, the engine, the chariot of his mercy? What room is there left for presumption, if the serpent, the passive serpent were punished? What room for desperation, if in the punishment, there be a manifestation. of mercy? The serpent must eat dust, that is his condemnation, but he shall eat no better meat, he shall eat but dust, there is man's consolation.

First then, as it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God', so is it an impossible thing to escape it. God is not ashamed of being jealous; he does not only pronounce that he is a jealous God, but he desires to be known by none other name, (The Lord whose name is jealous, is a jealous God3) so jealous, as that he will not have his name uttered in vain; not only not blasphemed, not sworn by, but not used indifferently, transitorily, not proverbially, occasionally, not in vain. And if it be, what then? Even for this, he will visit to the third, and fourth generation; and three and four are seven, and seven is infinite. So jealous, as that in the case of the angels, not for looking upon any other creatures, or trusting in them, (for, when they fell, as it is ordinarily received there were no other creatures made) but for not looking immediately, directly upon God, but reflecting upon themselves, and trusting in their own natural parts, God threw those angels into so irrecoverable, and bottomless a depth, as that the merits of Christ Jesus, though of infinite, superinfinite value, do not buoy them up; so jealous a God, is God, so jealous, as that in Adam's case, for over-loving his own wife,

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