and judgment. But when we do nothing but build Jericho, when we raise up sin, that we should ruin more and more, what will the end of this be, but despair here and destruction in the world to come?

You may shake off the menaces and threatenings of the ministers, as Hiel shook off Joshua's. He was an austere, singular man, and it is a long time since Jericho was cast down, and God hath forgotten. Hath he so? He found that God had not forgotten; so there are many that think that words are but wind of men, opposite to such and such things. But, though our words may be shooken off now, and the word of God now in the preaching may be shook off, yet it will not when it comes to execution. When we propound the curse of God against sinful courses, you may shake off that curse; but when Christ from heaven shall come to judge the quick and the dead, and say, 'Go, ye cursed,' that were born cursed, that have lived cursed, that have maintained a cursed opposition to blessed courses, that have not built up your own salvation, but your corruptions, you that loved cursing, Go, ye cursed, to hell-fire, with the devil and his angels for ever,' Mat. xxv. 41. Will you shake off that? No, no! Howsoever our ministerial entreaties may be shaken off, yet when God shall come to judge the quick and the dead, that eternal threatening shall not be shaken off. Therefore, I beseech you, consider not so much what we say now, but what God will make good then. 'What we bind on earth,' out of the warrant of God's book, 'shall be bound in heaven,' Mat. xvi. 19, and God will say Amen to that we say agreeable to his word.

Think not light of that we speak, for God will make good every word. He is Jehovah, he will give being to every word. He is not only mercy but justice. We make an idol of him else. And we must fear him in his justice. 'He loves to dwell with such as are of a contrite spirit, that tremble at his word,' Isa. lvii. 15.

6

It is said of David, that when Uzzah was stricken, he trembled,' 2 Sam. vi. 6. Hiel, and such kind of persons, regard not the threatenings of God, but go on and treasure up wrath. It is a sign of a wicked man to hear the menaces and threatenings, and not to tremble. To end all with two places of scripture: Saith Moses, He that hears these things, and blesseth himself, my wrath shall smoke against him,' Deut. xxix. 20. God's wrath shall smoke and burn to hell against such a one as blesseth himself, that knows he is cursed under the seal of God, that doth ill, and yet he blesseth himself in doing ill. Therefore, take heed of that, add not that to the rest. God's wrath will smoke against such a one. And you know what St Paul saith: Rom. ii. 5, 'If thou go on and treasure up wrath,' thou buildest Jericho, that thou hast vowed the destruction of. Every time thou takest the communion, thou treasurest up wrath against the day of wrath. For there will be a day of the manifestation of the just wrath of God, and then these things will be laid to thy charge. "

Let us every one labour to get out of the state of nature, to break off our wicked lives, and to get into Christ the blessed seed, and then we shall be blessed, we shall be made free, free from the curse of nature and of sin. Let us renew our covenants against all sin, and make conscience to be led by the Spirit of Christ, that we may gather sound evidence every day, that we are in Christ, and so out of the curse.

NOTES.

(a) P. 20.—' Luther, a man of great parts and grace, saith of himself, "That if, &c. The sentiment is found in his Table Talk,' on which cf. note uu, Vol. III. p. 533.

(b) P. 20.— The Jesuits themselves, amongst the rest one De Lapide, he saith.' 'One De Lapide' is somewhat contemptuous for a name so famous as Corneille de la Pierre, commonly called Cornelius à Lapide. His great Commentarii in Sacram Scripturam' (10 vols. folio) is an extraordinary chaos of wisdom and folly. The thing stated ante is a commonplace of popery.

(c) P. 20.-' As one of the ancients saith well, "the wrath of a man, &c. Probably Augustine, but I have failed to trace it.

(d) P. 20.—The primitive church pronounced a curse against Julian.' It needeth not to annotate so familiar a fact in the early conflicts of Christianity; but perhaps it is as well to notice that 'curse' is not used technically. There was angry denunciation, yet scarcely excommunication proper.

(e) P. 22.-' Children, according to the Hebrew word, are the building, the pillars of the house.' The allusion here is not, as at first sight would seem, to 'first-born' in the text, but to the general word for children, viz.,, and probably also to the Hebrew word for ' house,' (quasi a), both which words are derived from the verb, 'to build.' So we read the passage, Cursed be the man that riseth up and buildeth (2) Jericho;' as if he said, 'that riseth up and maketh Jericho to have children and house. That man shall suffer for it, inasmuch as his children shall die, and his house be left desolate.'

(ƒ) P. 23.—' As Zedekiah and Mauritius the emperor.' With respect to Zedekiah, cf. 2 Kings xxv. 7. 'Mauritius' is of course Mauricius Flavius Tiberius, one of the greatest of the emperors of Constantinople. Sibbes alludes to the well known fact, that his five sons were murdered in the church of St Antonomus, Chalcedon, while their father was compelled to look on.

(9) P. 24.—' As Augustine complains, they so pestered,' &c. Repeatedly in his De Civitate Dei, and in his Controversies.

(h) P. 24.-' Gerson saith.' To distinguish this from other Gersons, it may be stated that Sibbes no doubt refers to John Gerson of Gerson [Charlier], whose writings are numerous. Died 1429.

(¿) P. 26.—' We set out books of martyrology.' The great martyr-book is that of John Fox; but for others prior and subsequent to Sibbes, cf. Watt's Bib. Brit., sub

voce.

G.

(5) P. 28.—The reference is to the safe return of Prince Charles, afterwards Charles I., from the visit which he made in company with Buckingham into Spain, whence he returned on the 5th October 1623. His safe return is frequently referred to as a matter of thankfulness by the preachers of the period. There is already published in this Series a sermon preached on that occasion by Samuel Ward (Works, p. 134).

THE VANITY OF THE CREATURE.

NOTE.

The Vanity of the Creature' forms No. 18 of the Sermons in the Saint's Cordials of 1629. It is not contained in the editions of 1637, 1658. The separate title-page will be found below.*

* THE

VANITIE OF

THE CREATVRE.

In One SERMON.

WHEREIN IS SET FORTH,

The decaying condition of all naturall parts, and worldly
comforts.

Together with the meanes how to attaine an estate super-
naturall, to live with God in Christ.

Shewing who are the truly wise men in the world.

With sundry helps and directions to stirre up in Christi

ans a longing desire after their best home, &c.

G.

[The ornament here, described in Vol. IV. page 60. So in all the Sermons from the Saint's Cordials in this volume.-G.]

VPRIGHTNES HATH BOLDNES.

LONDON,

Printed in the yeare 1629.

་

THE VANITY OF THE CREATURE.

And Barzillai said to the king, How long have I to live, that I should go up with the king to Jerusalem? I am this day fourscore years old, &c.2 SAMUEL XIX. 34-38.

I HAVE read, beloved, a large text. In the handling of it, we will do as the traveller doth that is belated; we will cast how we may post the next way to an end. The oration, you see, is very plain. We shall not need to spend much time in explicating the terms.

The words are part of a conference, you see; a passage between king David and Barzillai of Rogelim, in the county of Gilead. This Barzillai had been wondrous kind to David in the time of his distress. David being now restored from danger, remembers the kindness of his old friend, and, in way of requital, tenders him this offer, that in case he would go with him to the court of Jerusalem, he should be very welcome thither, and he should have such entertainment as the court would afford. This invitement* of the king foregoes† our text.

The old man Barzillai is now upon his answer in the words read, who doth,

1. First, very modestly and mannerly put off the king's motion to him.

2. And then next he tenders and prefers a suit of his own. For the king's motion, that he should turn courtier, Barzillai puts off very finely, as you may see in the text. He gives sundry reasons for his so doing.

1. The first is, because that he was no fit man for the court.

First, He was smitten in age, and therefore, in case he should go up, he could but only salute it; for, saith he, 'how many are the days of my years?' My years are brought to days; my days may quickly be numbered. I should die by that time I were warm there, and therefore what should I do at the court? Secondly, put the case he did draw breath there a while, that was all; for, saith he, Am I able now to discern between good and evil?' There is nothing that offers itself to my eye, to my ear, to my taste, to any of my senses, that will give me any great content, and therefore there is no great reason why I should be drawn thither. This is his first reason, from the unfitness of the thing.

precedes, used as also 'fore-think,' and the like, by