table, in my bed, when our holy parents found him in the midst of paradise! No sooner he is entered, but he tempteth: he can no more be idle, than harmless. I do not see him at any other tree; he knew there was no danger in the rest; I see him at the tree for bidden. How true a serpent is he in every point! in his insinuation to the place, in his choice of the tree, in his assault of the woman, in his plausibleness of speech to avoid terror, in his question to move doubt, in his reply to work distrust, in his protestation of safety, in his suggestion to envy and discontent, in his promise of gain!

And if he were so cunning at the first, what shall we think of him now, after so many thousand years' experience! Only thou, O God, and those angels that see thy face, are wiser than he. Í do not ask why, when he left his goodness, thou didst not bereave him of his skill. Still thou wouldst have him an angel, though an evil one: and thou knowest how to ordain his craft to thine own glory. I do not desire thee to abate of his subtlety, but to make me wise; let me beg it without presumption, make me wiser than Adam: even thine image, which he bore, made him not, through his own weakness, wise enough to obey thee; thou offeredst him all fruits, and restrainedst but one; Satan offered him but one, and restrained not the rest: when he chose rather to be at Satan's feeding than thine, it was just with thee to turn him out of thy gates with a curse: why shouldst thou feed a rebel at thine own board?

And yet we transgress daily, and thou shuttest not heaven against us: how is it that we find more mercy than our forefather? His strength is worthy of severity, our weakness finds pity. That God, from whose face he fled in the garden, now makes him with shame to fly out of the garden: those angels, that should have kept him, now keep the gates of paradise against him; it is not so easy to recover happiness, as to keep it, or lose it: yea, the same cause that drove man from paradise, hath also withdrawn paradise from the world.

That fiery sword did not defend it against those waters, wherewith the sins of men drowned the glory of that place: neither now do I care to seek where that paradise was, which we lost: I know where that paradise is, which we must care to seek and hope to find. As man was the image of God, so was that earthly paradise an image of heaven; both the images are defaced, both the first patterns are eternal: Adam was in the first, and staid not; in the second, is the second Adam which said, This day shalt thou be with me in paradise. There was that chosen vessel, and heard and saw what could not be expressed: by how much the third heaven exceeds the richest earth; so much doth that paradise, whereto we aspire, exceed that which we have lost. Gen. iii.

屬

OF CAIN AND ABEL.

Look now, O my soul, upon the two first brethren, perhaps twins; and wonder at their contrary dispositions and estates: if the pri vileges of nature had been worth any thing, the first-born child should not have been a reprobate. Now, that we may ascribe all to free grace, the elder is a murderer, the younger a saint; though goodness may be repaired in ourselves, yet it cannot be propagated to others. Now might Adam see the image of himself in Cain; for after his own image begot he him; Adam slew his posterity, Cain his brother: we are too like one another in that wherein we are unlike to God: even the clearest grain sends forth that chaff, from which it was fanned ere the sowing. Yet is this Cain a possession; the same Eve, that mistook the fruit of the garden, mistook also the fruit of her own body, her hope deceived her in both; so, many good names are ill bestowed, and our comfortable expectations in earthly things do not seldom disappoint us.

Doubtless, their education was holy; for Adam, though in paradise he could not be innocent, yet was a good man out of paradise; his sin and fall now made him circumspect, and since he saw that his act had bereaved them of that image of God, which he once had for them, he could not but labour by all holy endeavours to repair it in them, that so his care might make amends for his trespass. How plain is it, that even good breeding cannot alter destiny!

That which is crooked can none make straight; who would think that brethren, and but two brethren, should not love each other? Dispersed love grows weak, and fewness of objects useth to unite affections: if but two brothers be left alive of many, they think that the love of all the rest should survive in them; and now the beams of their affection are so much the hotter, because they reflect mutually in a right line upon each other: yet, behold, here are but two brothers in a world, and one is the butcher of the other. Who can wonder at dissensions amongst thousands of brethren, when he sees so deadly opposition betwixt two, the first roots of brotherhood? Who can hope to live plausibly, and securely, amongst so many Cains, when he sees one Cain the death of one Abel?

The same devil, that set enmity betwixt man and God, sets enmity betwixt man and man; and yet God said, I will put enmity between thy seed and her seed. Our hatred of the serpent and his seed is from God: their hatred of the holy seed is from the ser

pent. Behold here at once in one person, the seed of the woman and of the serpent: Cain's natural parts are of the woman; his vicious qualities of the serpent: the woman gave him to be a brother, the serpent to be a man-slayer; all uncharitableness, all quarrels, are of one author: we cannot entertain wrath, and not give place to the devil. Certainly, so deadly an act must needs be deeply grounded.

What then was the occasion of this capital malice? Abel's sacrifice is accepted; what was this to Cain? Cain's is rejected; what

could Abel remedy this? O envy, the corrosive of all ill minds, and the root of all desperate actions: the same cause, that moved Satan to tempt the first man to destroy himself and his posterity, the same moves the second man to destroy the third.

It should have been Cain's joy, to see his brother accepted; it should have been his sorrow, to see that himself had deserved a rejection his brother's example should have excited and directed him. Could Abel have stayed God's fire from descending? Or should he, if he could, reject God's acceptation, and displease his Maker, to content a brother? Was Cain ever the farther from a blessing, because his brother obtained mercy? How proud and foolish is malice! which grows thus mad, for no other cause, but because God or Abel is not less good. It hath been an old and happy danger to be holy: indifferent actions must be careful to avoid offence; but I care not what devil or what Cain be angry, that I do good, or receive good.

There was never any nature without envy. Every man is born a Cain; hating that goodness in another, which he neglecteth in himself. There was never envy that was not bloody; for if it eat not another's heart, it will eat our own: but unless it be restrained, it will surely feed itself with the blood of others, oft-times in act, always in affection; and that God, which, in good, accepts the will for the deed, condemns the will for the deed in evil. If there be an evil heart, there will be an evil eye; and if both these, there will be an evil hand.

How early did martyrdom come into the world! The first man that died, died for religion; who dare measure God's love by outward events, when he sees wicked Cain standing over bleeding Abel; whose sacrifice was first accepted, and now himself is sacrificed? Death was denounced to man as a curse; yet, behold, it first lights upon a saint: how soon was it altered by the mercy of that just hand which inflicted it! If death had been evil, and life good, Cain had been slain, and Abel had survived; now that it begins with him that God loves, O death, where is thy sting?

Abel says nothing, his blood cries: every drop of innocent blood hath a tongue, and is not only vocal, but importunate: what a noise then did the blood of my Saviour make in heaven! who was himself the shepherd and the sacrifice; the man that was offered, and the God to whom it was offered. The Spirit, that heard both, says, It spake better things than the blood of Abel. Abel's blood called for revenge, his for mercy; Abel's pleaded his own innocency, his the satisfaction for all the believing world; Abel's procured Cain's punishment, his freed all repentant souls from punishment: better things, indeed, than the blood of Abel. Better, and therefore that which Abel's blood said, was good: it is good, that God should be avenged of sinners. Execution of justice upon fenders is no less good than rewards of goodness.

of

No sooner doth Abel's blood speak unto God, than God speaks to Cain. There is no wicked man to whom God speaks not, if not to his ear, yet to his heart. What speech was this? Not an accu

sation, but an inquiry; yet such an inquiry as would infer an accusation. God loves to have a sinner accuse himself, and therefore hath he set his deputy in the breast of man; neither doth God love this more than nature abhors it: Cain answers stubbornly: the very name of Abel wounds him no less, than his hand had wounded Abel. Consciences that are without remorse, are not without horror: wickedness makes men desperate; the murderer is angry with God, as of late for accepting his brother's oblation, so now for listening to his blood.

And now he dares answer God with a question, Am I my brother's keeper? where he should have said, Am not I my brother's murderer? Behold, he scorneth to keep whom he feared not to kill: good duties are base and troublesome to wicked minds, whilst even violences of evil are pleasant. Yet this miscreant, which neither had grace to avoid his sin, nor to confess it, now that he is convinced of sin, and cursed for it, how he howleth, how he exclaimeth! He, that cares not for the act of his sin, shall care for the smart of his punishment. The damned are weary of their torments, but in vain. How great a madness is it to complain too late! He, that would not keep his brother, is cast out from the protection of God; he, that feared not to kill his brother, fears now, that whosoever meets him will kill him. The troubled conscience projecteth fearful things, and sin makes even cruel men cowardly.

God saw it was too much favour for him to die: he therefore wills that which Cain wills. Cain would live; it is yielded him, but for a curse: how often doth God hear sinners in anger! He shall live banished from God, carrying his hell in his bosom, and the brand of God's vengeance in his forehead: God rejects him, the earth repines at him, men abhor him; himself now wishes that death which he feared, and no man dare pleasure him with a murder; how bitter is the end of sin, yea, without end! still Cain finds that he killed himself more than his brother. We should never sin, if our foresight were but as good as our sense: the issue of sin would appear a thousand times more horrible than the act is pleasant. Gen. i.

OF THE DELUGE.

"THE world was grown so foul with sin, that God saw it was time to wash it with a flood. And so close did wickedness cleave to the authors of it, that when they were washed to nothing, yet it would not off: yea, so deep did it stick in the very grain of the earth, that God saw it meet to let it soak long under the waters. So, under the Law, the very vessels that had touched unclean water, must either be rinsed or broken. Mankind began but with one: and yet he, that saw the first man, lived to see the earth peopled with a world of men: yet men grew not so fast as wickedness. One man could soon and easily multiply a thousand sins, never man

VOL. I.

had so many children: so that, when there were men enough to store the earth, there were as many sins as would reach up to heaven; whereupon the waters came down from heaven, and swelled up to heaven again. If there had not been so deep a deluge of sin, there had been none of the waters. From whence then was this superfluity of iniquity? Whence, but from the unequal yoke with infidels? These marriages did not beget men, so much as wickedness; from hence religious husbands both lost their piety, and gained a rebellious and godless generation.

That, which was the first occasion of sin, was the occasion of the increase of sin: a woman seduced Adam, women betray these sons of God: the beauty of the apple betrayed the woman, the beauty of these women betrayed this holy seed: Eve saw, and lusted, so did they; this also was a forbidden fruit, they lusted, tasted, sinned, died; the most sins begin at the eyes, by them commonly Satan creeps into the heart: that soul can never be in safety, that hath not covenanted with his eyes.

God needed not have given these men any warning of his judg ment; they gave him no warning of their sins, no respite: yet, that God might approve his mercies to the very wicked, he gives them a hundred and twenty years respite of repenting how loth is God to strike, that threats so long! He, that delights in revenge, surprises his adversary; whereas he, that gives long warnings, desires to be prevented: if we were not wilful, we should never

smart.

Neither doth he give them time only, but a faithful teacher. It is a happy thing when he that teacheth others is righteous; Noah's hand taught them as much as his tongue. His business in building the ark, was a real sermon to the world; wherein at once were taught mercy and life to the believer, and to the rebellious de

struction.

Methinks I see those monstrous sons of Lamech coming to Noah, and asking him, what he means by that strange work; whether he means to sail upon the dry land. To whom when he reports God's purpose and his, they go away laughing at his idleness, and tell one another, in sport, that too much holiness hath made him mad: yet cannot they all flout Noah out of his faith; he preaches, and builds, and finishes. Doubtless more hands went to this work than his: many a one wrought upon the ark, which yet was not saved in the ark. Our outward works cannot save us, without our faith; we may help to save others, and perish ourselves: what a wonder of mercy is this that I here see! One poor family called out of a world, and as it were eight grains of corn fanned from a whole barnful of chaff: one hypocrite was saved with the rest for Noah's sake; not one righteous man was swept away for company. For these few was the earth preserved still under the waters, and all kinds of creatures upon the waters, which else had been all destroyed. Still the world stands, for their sakes, for whom it was preserved; else fire should consume that, which could not be cleansed by water.